Progress!

The cat was outside wanting in.

The dog was inside wanting out.

I held the dog still, and opened the door.  The cat came in, looked at the dog, sniffed a bit, then walked on into the house and lay down.  No hissing.  No fluffing of fur.  No arching of back.

I call that progress.  

They may eventually get along yet. 

And now for a bit of bad news.  I've lost two more of my marigolds to the snails.  Even with the egg shells, they're still getting to them.  Maybe when I get back from Texas, I'll see if I can put some in a planter or something.  I've got some pots and planters I haven't used in ages.  We'll see what I can come up with.  

I was going to tell you something else, but right now, I can't remember what it was, so I'll just leave you with this.  

My life in a nutshell. 

It Didn't Work Out

 I had lots of plans for this weekend.  I was going to do this...I was going to do that...I was going to do a whole bunch of stuff and be productive.

It didn't quite work out that way.

Despite the best of intentions, I pretty much didn't do anything but watch TV all weekend.  I wasn't completely unproductive, though.  I got this sock past the gusset decreases, which thrilled me, as those are my least favorite parts of sock knitting.  

I didn't do much else.  I didn't even mow.  I tried to get out and grub up some of the creeping charlie that's taking over my yard, but there's so much of it, and it's pretty slow going.  I don't feel like I made much progress.  But, while I was getting my weeding tool out of the shed, I snapped an update on the baby birds.

I'm staying away from them for the most part, because I don't want to disturb them too much.  I thought they might be cardinals, because there's been a male cardinal hanging around my shed.  I googled baby cardinal pictures, but I'm still not completely sure.  Like I said, I don't want to disturb them, so I'm not really able to get a good look at them. 

The cat had another one of her spells last night.  You know, those spells where she's yowling all night.  I wish I knew what was setting her off so I could fix whatever her problem is.  Mama needs her sleep!

 I'll tell you one thing, next time she brings me a vole, that thing had better be dead!  Yep, you guessed it.  She brought one into the house yesterday, and it was still alive. She batted it around a bit before it ran behind my entertainment center.  I put out some traps, hoping it would catch itself, but no go. 

Several hours later, it waddled out into the middle of the living room, when I promptly ran over and stomped on it.  I grabbed the broom and swept it out of the back door, then shot it with the pellet gun, just to be sure it was dead. 

I'm getting too old for all this excitement.  

On the other hand, I kind of felt like my new pin was appropriate:

OK, moving right along...

Look!  New yarn:

These are from my friend Leann's shop.  I've been buying her mini skein sets for the blankets. 

One of these years, I'm going to get them finished.  

I'm pretty sure this won't be that year, though...

Lots Of Things Going On

There's lots of things going on.  Unfortunately, blogging mojo isn't one of them. I just haven't had any energy -- blogging energy, I mean -- for a while now.  When I'm standing there at work, I can mentally compose wonderful, lengthy, interesting posts...but when I get home, I'm all, "Wut r werds?"  

So, where are things going on instead?  In my wildflower bed!

Out of all of those sprouts, surely I'll have something blooming.  I've taken the precaution of lightly misting them with diluted -- very diluted-- dishwashing liquid to ward off bugs looking for a salad dinner, so hopefully, they'll get established before the weeds take over.

What's not looking so good is my marigold bed.

I've already lost one completely, and a couple more appear to be on their last legs.  I've started spritzing them with the dishwashing liquid as well.  At this point, I couldn't hurt.  Sigh...I know I've got slugs around here, but I keep on trying to grow Marigolds.  You know what they say about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?  Yeah, I'm there. 

My Moss Rose are looking good, though.

I'd gotten a mix of pink and yellow, but right now, it looks like only one color is blooming at a time. 

Right now, the pink ones are blooming.  In a couple of days, it'll be the yellow ones.  The pink ones seem to be growing faster, too.  Hopefully, the yellow ones will catch up before the summer is over. 

Just for good measure, here is my Petunia, 

and my calibrachoa.  Or however it's spelled.  

I think I'll just go back to calling them chupacabras.  I know how to spell that. 

Sometime over the weekend, something out there decided to snack on me.  I'm not sure what it was, but man, does it itch!  Which is neither here nor there, but I'm trying to segue into the fact that I've killed four ticks in my house over the last week or so.  It's not really working, so let's just jump right into it...I've killed four, yes four, count 'em four ticks in my house over the last week or so.  

I put some Top Spot on the dog after the first one, but didn't have any sort of flea stuff for cats left.  Yesterday after work, I ran out to the vet and got her some.  Well, I'd gone by Friday when I was in town paying some bills, but there were wall-to-wall people in there.  I decided to just come back another time, and that time was yesterday.  Aaaand I'm rambling...the whole point is, they didn't have a vet record for Cutie.

I called Mr. Clark's DIL, and she said she thought he was taking her to the vet in the next town down the road -- about 30 miles away.  I'd intended to call them this afternoon, but got to piddling and lost track of time.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to it. 

She's not too happy with me right now.  She's used to coming and going as she pleases, but not so any more.  It's gotten warm enough that the air conditioner is running, so I can't leave the French doors open all the time any more.  I've asked around for contractor recommendations, and when I get back from going to Texas, I'm going to have my doors re-done.  They need to be re-framed anyway, due to some rotting wood, and I want to get them painted a nice brown instead of that hideous green.   And finally, get him to replace the broken pane of glass, and cut a little cat door into it.  Then she can come and go -- day or night.  

I don't want to do it until after my trip, though.  I'm kind of worried that if she comes home to an empty house for three days, she might decide she's been abandoned and not come back. 

And lastly, I broke my phone.  I had a screen protector on it, but when I dropped it, it hit just right on that corner, and shattered the screen under the protector.  Now, I'm debating whether to just get the screen and battery replaced, or go for a whole new phone.  Right now, I'm leaning towards new phone.  

I mean, all this overtime has to be good for something, right?  

Another Weekend Off

Despite only planting them Friday evening, I have, yes, run out exactly 3957 times to check my flower seeds.  Nothing yet...by the way...

Yesterday, I got out and tried to dig up that old fire pit to try to make a flower bed out of it.  I only got this far.

before I realized it was too full of junk.  I know you can't see the whole thing, but that's only about 1/3 of the fire pit.  But you know me.  I said, "What the heck.  Let's see what happens," and I planted one of the packets of wildflower mix seeds there.  If the birds don't get them all, I might have some wildflowers come up.  We shall see.

By the way, I think my marigolds might be toast.  I did some research and found that I shouldn't have put mulch around them, because that's where the slugs and snails live.  I have that skinny bed in front of my porch that is still empty, so I may go get some more and plant them there.  Or I may not.  We'll have to see.

The good news is, my roses have absolutely exploded.  It's been a long time since they've been this abundant. I think the cold did them some good. 

I'd been meaning to do it for a while, but I finally my pressure washer out and cleaned off my bricks. 

Your PSA for today, the pressure washer will generate a lot more pressure if you turn the breaker on.  Ummm...happened to a friend...Yeah...OK, moving right along....

After I got the majority of the moss off, I sprayed them down really well with diluted bleach to try to keep it from growing back.  I hope it works, because that spot gets very little bright sun, and moss loves shady and damp surfaces.  But, at least I won't be slipping on it for a while. 

While I had the ol' pressure washer out, I decided to clean the landscape timbers as well.  It was then that I discovered just how rotted one of them was. 

No big deal.  I'm pretty sure I've got some extras back in my shed I can replace it with. 

Before I put the pressure washer away, I got a bit more of the English Ivy roots off of my house, as well, until my hand started cramping up.    

It was about this point, I realized I was doing more work trying to avoid mowing than I would if I'd just mowed.  So I mowed. But only the front yard.  I wasn't that gung ho...

After all that, I spend the rest of the day knitting on a sock. 

And that's about it for my weekend.  How was yours?

Hallelujer!

 As Madea would say, "Hallelujer!  Praise Da Lort!"

They fixed the parking lot at work, and it didn't take two years to do it!  

It's been messed up since the ice storm back in February.  Before they opened the plant back up, they brought in a bulldozer or some other such machinery to try to scrape all the ice up out of the parking lot.  What I speculate happened was when they scraped the ice up, all the gravel they'd filled the potholes in with came up, too.  Over the weekend, they brought in a new load of gravel, and filled those potholes back in.  I'm just amazed that it only took three months.  

And even better, the governor announced Monday that he will be ending the supplemental unemployment next month.  It's about time!  There are too many companies out there begging people to come work to have so many still sponging off the taxpayer.  Of course, the spongers are upset with him, because they're losing their free ride, but that's to be expected.  The downside is, I've been enjoying these Saturdays off.  The upside is, I might be getting some more of those overtime checks again!    

Well, it's been 2 1/2 weeks, and still no sign of my bluebonnets.  I had to run into town after work, and since I am stubborn, I bought two more packets of seeds. 

I'm going to get out and plant them maybe this weekend, and this time, I'll make sure I don't get the seeds too deep into the soil.  I think that may be what I did wrong last time. On a whim, I also picked up some wildflower mixes.  

Surely, out of all of these seeds, something ought to germinate. I'm still thinking I might dig up that old fire pit and plant some of these in there.  If we have Saturday off this week, I just might do that.  

In other news, I've gotten my 15 minutes of fame!

I've been watching a YouTube channel called Lost In The Pond for a couple of years now.  It's a British guy who married an American woman, and they moved to the U.S. a while back.  He does videos comparing how England and the U.S. are different.  Check out his channel.  They're really cool.  Last December, he did a video on how American Christmas traditions differ from British Christmas traditions.  I left a comment on that video.

Fast forward a few months.  Reaction videos are all the rage now, and this guy is one of my favorites.  Just a word of caution, though, he can be pretty foul mouthed, especially when watching weather videos.  

Anyway, he reacted to this video a couple of days ago...and skip to the end if you want...he read my comment! 

I feel famous now!  

And finally, as if everything else going on hasn't been enough, the Mississippi River Bridge up in Memphis has cracked.

Yeah...I think I'm  going go get under the covers now...just as soon as I practice my piano. 

Hat Progress

I've made a bit of progress on the hat I'd cast on, but now that I look at it, I don't really like it.  When I surreptitiously stared at the one being worn by the lady at work, it seemed so cute, but this just isn't working.  It doesn't seem like the pattern is that well defined.  

Of course, it could be the Red Heart I grabbed out of the cabinet...or it could be that I forgot to switch to my larger needles after I'd finished the ribbing, but no matter.  It'll go into the gift drawer anyway, and I'll try again. I used a reverse stockinette stitch, but I think next time, I might try a garter stitch for the rows between the seed stitch.  It might make the rows better defined.  And I might see if I have some worsted weight wool somewhere in my yarn stash.  That ought to make a big difference, as well. 

On the other hand, the inside looks really good. 

I may just turn it inside out when I get done and wear it that way.  Or, whoever gets it can, I mean. 

Oh, and I cast on my second sock.  Yay, me!

That's about it for tonight.  Maybe something exciting will happen...wait, I'd better not say that.  Last time I did, one of the brazers' fan caught on fire!

How about a nice, boring blog?  Yeah, that's the ticket!

Random Thoughts Of A Thursday Evening

1.  The cat had another one of those yowling-all-night nights last night.  Sigh...I wish I knew what was bothering her when that happens.  I think she wants to go outside, but I'm still a bit leery of leaving her out all night long, with no way for her to get back inside.  I had to shut her in Cody's room again, just so I could get some sleep.  I hate doing that to her, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I'm going to look into seeing what it would take to install a cat door somewhere.  

2.  It looks like we might get another Saturday off this week.  The lines are off, but they'll let the component areas know tomorrow.  Oh, we've got plenty of work.  Plenty of orders to fill. What we don't have are some Vitally Important Parts that we absolutely have to have to manufacture our units.  The reason we don't have these Vitally Important Parts is because the Vitally Important Part factory can't find anyone to come work there.  And why should people work there when they're getting paid a whole lot more by the government to sit at home with their feet propped up streaming Netflix?

3.  The memes around FB are saying this is because businesses paying their employees starvation wages.  But are they? I did some figuring.  Here in MS, your unemployment is a percentage of your regular salary, with a maximum payout of $235 per week.  So, let's say you're drawing $200 in regular unemployment.  With the COVID relief bill, you'll also get $400 per week in supplemental unemployment, for a total of $600.  (I'm pretty sure it's in addition to your regular unemployment payments, but if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me.)  That makes a weekly unemployment collection of $600 per week.  Now, based on an estimate of what gets taken out of my own paycheck in taxes and deductions, to clear $600 per week, I'd have to gross approximately $800 per week.  Working a 40 hour week, that works out to $20 an hour.  Those are hardly "starvation wages".  

4. No wonder no one wants to work.  My company has a minimum starting wage of $13.50 per hour.  That'd be like taking a $6.50 per hour pay cut, and you actually have to get off the couch to get it. 

5.  Look at this!  I thought the freeze had killed my gardenia, but it's got new growth coming out!

6.  They can do COVID tests at the plant now.  Another one of my coworkers came down with it, and they were able to test those who worked around her right there in the first aid room.  

7.  I think the cold was good for my roses, too.  It's been a while since they've bloomed this much. 

8.  Why do I always draw a blank when I get to #8?

9.  I got a new book.

Can you believe, I've never read this one?  Somehow, I thought it would be thicker.  Right now, I'm reading one called Ahab's Wife.  That sucker is 1000 pages long!  Well, the Kindle version is.  The print version is only 700 pages.  It's pretty good, if it does drag a bit in some spots.  

10.  I'm also re-reading The Borrowers Series, by Mary Norton.  They were some of my childhood favorites, but do you know, I had no idea there was a fifth one.  Not that it matters, though.  It's been so long, I don't really remember much about them anyway. 

11.  I'm off to read a bit -- after I've practiced my piano, that is.  

Oh The Weather

 outside is...gorgeous today.   Yesterday, not so much.   It got rough in some parts of the state, with at least 4 confirmed tornadoes so far.  We actually got a warning in Grenada county, which hasn't happened in a while.  You know how they say to have multiple ways to get warnings?  Well, apparently I do.  When the NOAA radio siren went off, Jesse started barking.  I guess he thought I didn't hear that siren, even though it's loud enough to wake the dead. He didn't stop barking until I yelled at him to hush, because I couldn't hear what the robot voice was saying. But anyway, it rained pretty much all day long, even though most of it was just a light drizzle. Since the cat did so well outside Saturday, I left the door open and let her come and go as she pleased.    

Once the tornado watch was issued for my county, I figured I'd better get her back inside, so I stepped out on the back stoop and called and called.  When she didn't come, I went back inside in frustration, only to find her on her step watching me through the window.  

Ummm, it's a bit too late to say it happened to a friend, isn't it?  All righty, then...  

The stray cat has moved her kittens again, and I don't know where she put them.  I only hope she found a place that is warm and dry.  I saw her a bit yesterday, prowling along the edge of the woods, so I'm going to keep putting food out for her as long as needs be.  

The good news is, the mother bird has returned to her nest. 

I'm still not sure what kind of bird she is.   All I could see was a little brown blob of feathers. I'm guessing a sparrow or wren, but I didn't want to disturb her any more than I had to.

Between tornadoes, I did a bit of knitting as well. I finally finished sock #1, but haven't cast on sock #2 yet. 

What I cast on instead is....another hat!

I'd seen a lady at work wearing the cutest little hat, so I surreptitiously stared at it until I think I've memorized the pattern.  I'm going to reverse engineer it and see if I can knit it.  It didn't look too difficult, and I'll be sure to keep you updated. 

And finally, I saw something I'd wanted for my bug-out bag on a daily deal, so I snapped it up:

Collapsible water bottles.  Yes, I have a couple of Life Straws, but it's a good idea to have a way to tote water with you.  There may not always be a stream around.  It's got a filter thing that attaches to it, but that sucker is $30.  I'm going to have to ponder that purchase a bit more. 

2020 -- A Year In Memes: April

 

As It Happens

 As it happens, we had today off after all.  And the way it happened is thus:

You know they'd told us Wednesday right before quitting time that component areas would be working today, only it wasn't on the work schedule they'd posted, and they hadn't told anyone but the group leaders.  So, why hadn't the group leaders told us?  That was the million dollar question. 

Thursday, someone asked Group Leader Shark if we were working or not, and her response was, "They haven't decided yet."  All day Friday, 

Are we working?

They haven't decided yet.

I soon got word that someone had seen The Big Man Up Front and asked him, "Have y'all decided if we're working Saturday or not?"  

He replied, "What are you talking about?  Everybody is off Saturday."  Then, just before quitting time, Supervisor was in the vicinity, and a coworker yelled to him, "Hey!  Are we working tomorrow or not?"

He said, "From home!"  And that is how I ended up being off today.

So, what did I do on my day off?  Exactly what I'd said I was going to do.  I slept later than 3:30, which I sorely needed, because the cat had another one of those nights, yowling all night long.  I thought maybe she was lonely, so I let her in the room with me, but no.  That wasn't it.  I finally had to shut her into Cody's room, where I couldn't hear her, just so I could get some sleep.  

When I finally woke up, I enjoyed a leisurely coffee, then went into town to get what I needed to finish my front flower bed.  Which basically consisted of 8 French Marigolds, and the hope that the slugs won't find them.  

I finished the bed off by spreading mulch over that weed barrier cloth, which makes it look a whole lot better. 

And hopefully, between that and the mulch, it won't get over run with weeds and grass this year.  Alas, still no sign of my little bluebonnets, though. 

To round out the front ensemble, I got a petunia and a calibrachoa for my hanging baskets. 

In other news, I've started letting Cutie out for a few minutes at a time.  

So far, she's shown no inclination to run back to her old house, so today, I left the French doors open and let her come and go as she pleased. She took a good long walk out in the woods behind the house, and after I hadn't seen her for a couple of hours, I became a bit concerned, but she finally found her way home.  She freaked out a bit when she couldn't get back inside the fence, but once she'd found a hole large enough to squeeze through, she was fine.  She hasn't wandered that far off since, so I think she may be OK. 

By the way, I got her a collar with a bell on it.  I don't want her to be able to sneak up on my birds.  Of course, she won't be able to kill chipmunks, either, but maybe her presence will scare them off. 

And finally, the mother cat has moved her kittens to another spot, and I was finally able to get a decent picture of them.  

They're so cute when they're little!