Who Needs Cable?

The weather yesterday was a' moving and a' shaking.

Shortly after the boys and I came home from school the sky began to darken considerably and the wind died completely down. When we checked the weather report on TV we saw that not only was there a severe thunderstorm on its way, but that a tornado had been sighted nearby as well. We sprang into action; the boys brought our nine head of cat into the house, while I battened down the windows.

It was actually rather anticlimactic. After hunkering in the hallway for about ten minutes, I went out to see where the storm was. Evidently it skirted our area and we only had a smattering of hail. But Bea wasn't as lucky. she pulled up in my driveway at that moment, exclaiming, "Jaysus H. Key-rist! I've never been so happy to be home!" Driving home from work, she had been right in the middle of the golf ball sized hail. She heard on the radio that we had a tornado in town, but she couldn't see anything other than torrential rain and the incessant ponging of hail on her seemingly frail little Toyota. It was at that point she was forcibly reminded of the movie "Twister" we had just watched last week - the part where they know the tornado is upon them but they can't see it. Oh yeah, she was having one of those never-ending high blood pressure moments.

She headed home and shortly afterwards, the Hubinator rolled in. He had come from the other side of the storm and driven through pretty much the same cats, dogs, and hail thing as Bea. He was surprised to see it hadn't done much here at the abode, although we did find evidence of some hail in the yard, and Bea had said the ground was covered in hail just three blocks north of us.

Whew! Did I mention how grateful I am it passed us by? Back in September we had a tornado come right down the street. It passed withing 30 feet of our house, ripping up almost a dozen trees in our immediate vicinity. That was too damn close. The kids and I hunkered in the hall, and the poor Bohemian, who I had pulled out of the shower, was only wearing a hand towel as we huddled together. Afterwards, I went out to try and assess the damage and clear the driveway for the man. As I was clearing the debris, something brushed the back of my head. Not thinking, I reached, and grabbed a power line of some kind. I looked at it in my hand and screamed like one of those stupid girls in a horror film, never letting go of the line. Kids - don't try this at home. Luckily for my Doofoid self, it was just a TV cable line, but what a classic scary movie scene it was - me out there screaming. I tell you - I'm dull bulb at times.
So we only got a nice soaking and a bit of drama, which is just dandy with this girl.

And the sunset was amazing.

*** NEWS UPDATE ***

Bea's bed broke badly, But...
...it was the necessary impetus to get her room rearranged.
We had a lot of fun doing it,
...and it looks really cool (needs painting)!

Sunday Denial/What Are We Drinking?
will go on as scheduled, although in a different yard.
It could be ugly...

Film at 11...*

(* There's not really any film, I just like saying that. There will be pictures though.)

Things to Do On Black Friday

We took a drive out to Raven Rock State Park on Friday to go for a hike; maybe walk a few turkey-pounds off. We've never been there before, and thought it might be fun to check it out.

We passed many old farms, and I was compelled to commit a few drive-by shots. Looks like the cotten is done in this field.
I loved the colors of the trees behind this old barn. My mother, who is from up north, would say this isn't a "proper" barn, but you see this kind a lot around here, and I love how they hug the ground.Wonderful old house with a tin roof, rusted...could this be the B-52s' "Love Shack"???
Beautiful old house in "downtown" Lillington. Its still such a small town - I'm kind of jealous.
Mom knocks a few heads...nah, not really. But you can't see my butt when its tucked up in this crevice!
A pensive moment for "Lord Monkey" by the riverside.

(Don't ask, I have NO idea why he calls himself that)
The Hamasaurus in his natural habitat. The cave wall was so enormous that I had to shoot from underneath to give it any scale. Who knew there were such humongous rock formations this close to the coastal plain?
Raven Rock was a great place for nature compostitions. This was a symphony of yellow.
We all loved the roots of these two trees, juxtaposed near the cliff wall. They squiggle down from the trees like a mass of serpents. Very creepy, but very cool.
The view from the overlook. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it might, given the state of our current drought, but you can still see the large expanse of exposed shore. This is far creepier than the snake roots - seeing our river dry up.

All in all, a great way to spend "Black Friday", in my opinion. We loved Raven Rock - it was so beautiful and woodsy, and far more rest-for-the-soul than fighting the crowds at the malls. Fuhget abowt it - I'm shopping on the internet and staying away from the dens of insanity. If you live nearby and would like to visit Raven Rock, here is a map:

What's New, Pussycat? Whoa!

Yes, it would appear that I took a three day hiatus from writing (and what's wrong with that?). In actuality, I discovered Friday morning that one of my cats (don't ask me how many I have - if I tell you, then I have to kill you, to feed them) had some kind of issue going on with his mouth. Half of his muzzle was swollen, his lower lip was hanging slightly, and he was drooling. I probably should have taken immediately to the vet, but the phone people were finally going to come and get the phone line out of my driveway, that had been lying there for nigh onto three weeks, since the tornado ran down our street at that time (another chapter in the Who Needs Cable series, don't cha know?). So I was a bad mother, I admit it, all for the sake of a stinkin' phone line.

OK. It was after I got home with the kids from school, and we were commencing to commit a neatness on the house, in anticipation of the Weekend, when I realized that my poor cat was still looking pretty punk, and was hovering near the food dish without eating. If you don't own pets, or even if you do, this is A Bad Sign. I rang up the local vet (because the best vet is three hours away, go figure, in spite of the fact we live outside of a large city, that actually has a vet school, but don't get me started on THAT) and begged them to see him on Friday afternoon, seeing as how having to take him to a vet on a Saturday is generally VERY expensive, and (in my humble opinion) often half-assed service. The vet's wanted to blow me off, but there was no way I was sitting on this situation until Monday, so off we went, to hang out at the vet's until they could squeeze us in, which is loads of fidgeting fun, with two little boys who have been sitting still all day in school. The vet determined that our poor cat had a fractured section of his lower jaw, and had sustained some kind of blow to his head, causing him to crack a fang and making his face swell, all of which I basically told her ahead of time, except for the fracture, though I had wondered why his lower lip was hanging so strangely. (And this is why I went to this vet with this issue - I could see the problem, so I was hoping they might be able to see it too and be able to handle it. These people are not so good with terminal illness or unusual diseases, where tests have to be run, and decisions have to be made. This is the kind of vet that my regular vet has taught me how to handle - you tell them what to do. If this sounds like I'm some know-it-all pet owner, let me just say that with almost 25 years of taking care of my own animals, and a few of them were doozies, I know a few things; like maybe a cat with a fractured jaw and the smell of rot in his mouth should get a shot of antibiotics right off, something I had to insist on, as they weren't going to do it.)

So in summation, its been a Florence Nightingale kind of weekend, although I did get away for a lovely anniversary party at my sister's house, where I got to mingle and actually have an intelligent conversation (along with a few not-so-intelligent, but highly entertaining ones!)without juvenile interruptions - oh the luxury of it all! I am happy to report that our poor wounded boy, Mr. Rikki, is feeling better already, and is ready to go out and do it all over again, only his mean old mother (that would be me) won't let him out of the house.

It isn't exactly like ruling the world, but it'll suffice...for now.