Black Friday

Here’s the crowds that I braved on Black Friday.  I didn’t get any good deals on merchandise, but I did get relaxed.

And the cat had the right idea too…

Trailer, cats, rainbow and a sunset.

About a year ago I got a trailer from a friend’s father.  He moved into a condo and didn’t have room to store it so he just gave it to me.  It was a rusted old International truck bed, with ratty old tires, made into a trailer.

Well, yesterday I got it two brand new tires and $30 of paint.

Looks a little better, eh?

And today I hooked it up to the Jeep and put it back on the side of the house.

Then I went back into the house and joined the cats in a strenuous workout of napping.

Finally ended the day with a trip to the park to get shots of the sunset.  But first I caught this one of a rainbow.

Sounds from the basement.

About 2 weeks ago I heard this banging around in the basement.  Freaked me out a little bit, since I didn’t expect anyone or anything to be down there.  After some sleuthing I found one of my cats down there, which really baffled me since I had no idea how he could have gotten down there.

It didn’t even occur to me there was a hole in the wall behind the dryer, where the vent used to go.

So I rescued him and figured he’d know better and that would be the end of it.  Yeah, I’ve had cats all my life, I should have known better.

Today I heard noises in the basement again.  It freaked me out once more, but I quickly realized Alan must have gotten down there again.  I rescued him again, but this time I fixed it so he can’t (?) get down there again.

Nice, eh?

Thematic Photographic: Muted Colors

Utah has a huge range of geography, from the brilliant red rock canyons in the south of the state, to the beautiful green pines on the Uintah Mountains in the north.

Out west, in the area we call the “West Desert”, there aren’t many brilliant colors.  Salt, sand, sage brush and other low-water plants stretch out as far as the eye can see.  The only bright color to see is the deep blue sky.

Unless it’s cloudy like it was this day.

But if you ask me, it’s still beautiful, even with the muted colors.

A grey and black cat laying in the dirt.  Good camouflage there Denny.

And a lone duck on the pond.

Cat on a hot [tin] roof.

So Friday I rented a kick-ass tiller so that I could finish the ramp in the back yard so I could park two of my old Fords back there. 

A friend of mine and I had plans to get together that evening and when she called I told her “I just need to rearrange the cars and clean up.  then I’ll head right over.”

She just started to laugh.  “I’ve never heard that before: rearranging the cars.”

Anyhow, they’re all rearranged.  Now the area between the house and the garage is obstruction free, and I can get any one of the cars out with moving at most one other vehicle.  And that block is just the Jeep, which is easy to get out of the way.

Tonight, when I was up on the roof getting that last picture, first I noticed the sunset.

And then I had a visitor.  Here’s Denny, right at the peak of my house’s roof, just looking like he wanted to ask “Whatcha doin’”

Yeah, the crazy cat climbed up on the roof just to see what I was doing.  And he’s running around on the roof like it’s solid ground.  Cats.  Go figure.

But, at least I got one project done this summer.  And with only 24 days left until teachers are back at school, my next project had better go quickly.

The Gods of the Vegetative State.

That’s what cats are.  They can go from running around the house chasing each other to motionless on the couch in nanoseconds.

written inc.’s theme for this week is “Vegetative”, and here’s my interpretation.

Vegetative in the dish rack.

Vegetative together on the couch.

Vegetative on their chair. – “theirs” because it takes 20 minutes to vacuum all their hair off, so I just leave it for them.

Vegetative alone on the couch.

Vegetative on my backpack, on the dining room table.

Vegetative in a box they broke to get to the
flannel rags Lisa gave me.

Vegetative on my bed.

Vegetative in another box.

Vegetative in a box that’s just a little too small.

“Hey, leave me alone, I was vegetative.”

Stupid, stupid bird.

We haven’t seen temperatures above freezing for almost two weeks now. For the most part, our afternoon highs have been around 20°F (-10°C).  The air is gross, the ground is frozen and the sun is hidden.  Every self-respecting, sane bird flew south a long time ago.

And yet my cats were able to find the one, psychologically unstable, bird left in my neighborhood.  And capture it. and spread it’s feathers all over my livingroom for me to clean up.

Thanks guys.

---

And kudos for these guys for an awesome snowplowing job.  Let’s have someone who is handicapped park their 4-wheel drive on a snowbank and climb out onto the ice, rather than blocking a regular parking spot.