Monday. Monday! MONDAY!
Today is much like yesterday. I imagine most days are when you're living like a pioneer. We were very hot most of the day, spending much of our time outside to stay cool, but ending up being really hot regardless. Most of us took another cold shower this evening, and we ate really well, thanks to mom's cokking, and leftovers from yesterday's feast. We've got clean laundry, thanks to mom washing, dad wringing (mom's got nerve issues that make her hands and wrists hurt if taxed too much), and Ms. G hanging stuff out to dry.
Today, while Darrin took his morning nap, I followed Ms. G to her house, to see the damage, and to meet all her kitties. I have been wanting to visit her pad ever since I found out about all her kitties, but since I was pregnant at the time, I thought it unwise. Kitties can spread toxoplasmosis, which, if the mommy hasn't already been exposed and developed an immunity, can cause all sorts of problems for her unborn child. This is why pregnant women are encouraged not to have cats in the house, or, at the very least, to have someone else handle the litterbox duties. Anyway, FINALLY, I get to go see all the kitties! A pity it had to be under such circumstances, but I'm still psyched to be going.
Ms. G must have at least 30 cats, some indoor, some outdoor, some friendly, and some feral but willing to lounge on a porch and munch kitty food if you don't try to pet them. I've never seen so many kitties at once in my life! Eeeeeee! :::squeals like little girl::: There are entire families here, brothers and sisters, and mommies and babies and grandparents too! Ohhhh, the kittens are too much cuteness. Nothing should be this cute. One kitten is a ball of thick long fur, in tortoiseshell coloring, and she (all tortoiseshell kitties are female) bounces and pounces and prances around like she owns everything and the other kittens are there for her amusement. There is a simply stunning outdoor (mostly feral) kitty, who is lounging next to a fallen tree, enjoying the shade, and she/he is mostly cream colored with a hint of seal point coloring (ears, nose, paws--think Siamese or Birman), and an occasional faint stripe or patch of spots (like a Bengal). It's possibly the most beautiful cat I've ever seen.
ALL the kitties have names. Some of the names reflect the kitty's appearance, like "Tippytoes," who is all black except the toes on her back paws, which are white. Also, there's "Stripy Girl," who has a an orange stripe down the center of her black face, and is the daughter of "Two-Facey," whose face is half-orange, half-black. Other kitties are named for their personalities or relationships, i.e. a pair of twin orange tabby boys are "Amos" and "Andy," and one little rascal is "Hoss." I get rather attached to a little black kitten with a hurt shoulder, whose given name is completely foreign to me. I have no idea how to spell it, I just know it's "pick-something," so I decide "Pickles" is close enough. I tote little "Pickles-Kitty" around, holding her close to my chest. She purrs loudly, her entire body vibrating. I showed a great deal of restraint by putting her down before I left to trek back to mom and dad's. I very nearly decided that she had to come back to Pearland and be my kitty. (Aren't you PROUD of me, sweetie? I resisted. Barely.) :-) Needless to say, if you know anyone who would like to adopt a kitty, there's a veritable kitty-farm out on "Frame Hill" just outside of Jasper, TX, and Ms. G probably wouldn't put up a fight if you fell in love with a kitten and just HAD to take it home with you.
I've timed my kitty visit perfectly, as Darrin is just waking up when I arrive back at mom and dad's. I've been fighting him lately, trying to get him to nurse enough, but he's not interested in much milk. I imagine it has something to do with the heat. That's alright, of course, since the other babies in the house will need milk too. I've been adding to my mom's refrigerated stash of squirrel provisions, and the squirrels are obviously doing well on the formula we've mixed up for them. One has even started to open one eye! (Once I return to Pearland, an Internet search reveals that at this time, the squirrels are most likely 4-5 weeks old, when the eyes and ears open. At 18 weeks or so, a squirrel is usually weaned and ready to live on its own.)
Like I've said before, by this point, our daily activities tend to all run together, since most of our time is spent just trying to keep cool. Darrin, of course, has his tub of cool water to play in, and we make use of it a few times today. The big adventure today has to do with the generator. It's been sputtering and emitting great clouds of smoke randomly. Dad has checked everything out and found that it is, indeed, the generator itself that has the problem, and not the compressor or anything else we've hooked up to it. Dang. Generators are a HOT commodity right now. Our only hope is that my brother can help. He works at a tractor place in town, so we give him a call.
Thank goodness, Jasper County Tractor is getting a truck full of generators late tonight, to go on sale early tomorrow morning! They're expensive, but we need one. It may be two months or more before electricity is restored here. TWO MONTHS! My brother pulls through for us, and dad is able to head down and bring one back tonight. Thanks a bundle, B.
It is now the next morning, Tuesday. Darrin wakes Mommy up, as has been the usual, long before Mommy would really like to wake up. Oh well, waking up means coffee (decaf, of course, since I'm nursing... but I'm only psychologically addicted, so that's fine). :-) This morning, I did an incredibly ignorant thing. We were running the new generator, so instead of using a pot on the propane stove, we were able to heat water in the electric kettle, for instant coffee. I, being ever so groggy, reached above the kettle for something, and managed to get a nasty burn on my forearm, from the steam. Go Brandi, really smart! I've been paying for my ignorance ever since, as a few hours later I a had a little blister or two, and by evening, the entire area was a huge ugly red blister. So that's what a second degree burn looks and feels like. Yikes. Well, I won't be doing that again!
This evening, my sweetie will be coming to pick us up. Yay! Today, Darrin surprises Mommy with an unexpected show of his intellectual abilities. It's really hot (what's new?) and we're rather bored, so I decide to let Darrin play in the cool water tub for awhile. Though he does love to play in the water, I do have an ulterior motive--I put my bare feet in the cool water too. :-) Well, Darrin's only in the tub, playing with squirty toys for maybe five or ten minutes when he starts trying to stand up and pull up into my lap. Surely, you're not done playing, I think, so I set him back down and splash water on him a bit. A couple more minutes in the water, and Darrin does something that I think is just amazing. First, he stands up, holding on to the edge of the tub. Then, with one hand holding himself upright, he uses the other hand to fish out one toy and promptly drops it over the edge of the tub. He takes the other toy out of the water, and out it goes as well. Then, holding on to the tub with both hands, he started to raise his leg, like "I'm getting out now!" It may not sound like much, but you have to remember he's only nine months old. Plus, what he's just done is doubly impressive. Not only does he know how one goes about getting out of a tub (one leg over the edge first, while holding on), but that he comprehends chronological order too. The toys are put away first, THEN you can get out of the tub. You are awesome, little boy, just awesome. I'm so proud of you! BIG hugs and kisses from Mommy! Go Darrin, go Darrin, go Darrin!
Other than our little tub session, today feels much like the past couple of days, only now, washing clothes outside in tubs and cooking on the grill and propane stove are starting to feel like "normal." Life is pretty good here, even without amenities like hot water and air conditioning. Oh, one more thing to note is that we're noticing just how much fuel it takes to run a generator, and we haven't nearly enough to last anywhere near two months. So, my sweetie will be bringing whatever he can when he comes tonight. Luckily, I think to call our buddy, Craig, at BOAT U.S., and find that his store has just received a shipment of 5-gallon gas cans. A few moments later, we've used mom and dad's credit card, and four cans are waiting to be picked up, so mom and dad will have 20 gallons of fuel. All my sweetie has to do is pick them up on his way out of town, and fill them when he fills the car for the trip.
My sweetie arrives just after dark (and just after we had fried chicken that was oh-so-yummy--great dinner, mom!), and we pile in the car to head for home. Mom and dad are sending the baby walker home with us, since Darrin loves it so much. He'll probably be walking soon, and we don't visit but maybe once a month anyway, so he'll get more use out of it if we have it at home. Thanks mom and dad! We arrive at home, and head off to bed as soon as we can, Darrin after nursing, and Mommy after a nice HOT shower. Ahhhh. In the morning, I kinda miss having coffee on the porch and watching the squirrels be fed, and of course, I miss being with my family. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for taking such great care of me and Darrin, and the neighbors too. You are the BEST! WE LOVE YOU!!
Darrin gets all comfy in his "hidey-hole" in the hall closet.
Grammy (my mom) and Darrin sit and watch the trees sway (if a little too much), and feel the wind. Although Darrin looks as though he's giving the storm "the finger," he really was just trying to catch the wind in his hands! Really!
My mom feeds one of the baby squirrels, who seems to be loving every drop.
Our kitties, brothers Bixby (black) and Ripley (grey) , watch the stormy weather with great interest. The front porch was covered with branches, etc.
Mommy joins Darrin in our safe place. I tried to look at the camera, but blinked. That's why I have that goofy grin. :-)