Sunday - Catching up again

     There's nothing going on here worth Blathering about today.  It's chilly, the sun is neurotic as hell hiding behind clouds and such, and the neighborhood is soggy.  Even the birds are roosting outside the window.
     Bird TV sucks today.  Well, so does the regular TV.  I'm so glad we packratted the years and years of tapes, records, and CDs we accumulated here and there, and even the MIDIs on the computer.  At least we can choose what we want to bore us.
     Haven't had my pills today, not hungry, not interested in junk food (even if we had any), out of juices, can't drink booze, buttermilk or even soda, so I walk around with a 32oz mug of lumpy water (read here water with ice cubes added, OK?) in my hand.

Of course Rowdy and Tegar drink most of it.  

Every time I sit down somewhere 

one or the other of those little trouble makers 

are there patting the top of the mug wanting 

me to take it off so they can guzzle my water.  

Whatever.  

Cats run the house anyway.  

     What's the word?  Bored!  Yeah, I'm that arrite.  Just plain and simple.  I haven't thought of going for a stroll around the SouthWoods yet, but that just might happen.  Must needs get some sleeves on though.  Naaah!  That's too much trouble getting dressed to go out and work up a sweat plodding up and down the road, getting barked at, being followed by little kitties with cuddle in mind, and being glared at through cracks in the curtains of this and that Mobile Home as if I am a Terrorist with Mayhem in mind.
     Which hits on a subject I tend to concentrate on a good bit lately: Mental breakdown in the neighborhood just below the Manor house.  All the newbies moving in (and they move in and out almost daily) all think they are being put upon by this and that neighbor and tend to hang the family shotgun by the front door.  I'm thinking it's inherited actually.  Well, yes, definitely to the shotguns, but I was talking about this mental breakdown bit.  I've been walking the same route up and down these roads for close to 20 years, sometimes twice a day, and have not stolen the trash cans nor dog-napped any of the rangy mutts roaming the yards to selling to this and that lab for experimental purposes.  Still, I am suspect.  Well, I did my time in Nam, so I'm used to eyes glaring at me from the bushes and deep inside the dingy looking hovel they call home.  Another subject is needed her toot sweet!
     Just on the side here, have you ever noticed, those of you who regularly read my ramblings, that I very seldom have anything nice to say about my neighborhood, nor few, if any, of the people living in it?  Well, I guess that's mainly because I have discovered, over the years, that in talking up the nice in the neighbors, the good things they do and such, I wind up having to feed a whole slew of strange 'friend' types that come over just to get a free handout and watch my big TV, all operating on the 'friendly neighbor' principle that 'the Owl is a soft touch, and they (Owl and Lady Owl), are all alone and lonely and need some company, and we could get some good eats there and borrow some tools and forget to bring them back.'
     As to the TV, they all wanna watch the same thing: a bunch of idiot men in funny looking uniforms run up and down a big cow pasture ploughing into each other, stomping on each other, and trying to throw a warped, out of shape ball away, while others in different colored but identical uniforms keep grabbing it and running around like they wanna play keep-away.  And when one program is cancelled, there's always another on another channel with two different bunches of idiots doing the same thing, just wearing different gaudy looking uniforms.
     Summertime viewing is just as nertzy as winter.  In the summer it's two bunches of idiots, same thing with the uniforms, this time with a fist sized little ball they keep throwing at each other, like they are trying to knock the other guy's teeth out ..... and this is men on their own side.  Then this one guy walks up to a spot on the field and dodges that ball as a dude in the middle of the field tries to get them teeth.  (bet they have hellacious dental bills at the end of the year).  What seems to be the aim of the game is for the guy getting thrown at to hit that ball with a stick of wood and drive it into the crowd out there.  Guess they wanna either get rid of the ball, or get revenge on some of the loudmouthed drunks badmouthing them and then ignoring them when they do something that's supposed to be good.
     And the ladies that visit and spend the weekend while the men stink up the fun room.  Cackling, hens with some of the weirdest looking hairdos and skimpy clothes I think I've ever seen.  Never could understand why women would pile on the clothes around the house but when they go out to visit and socialize they always take most all the clothes off.  Just backwards of when I was used to as a young lad.  Now I wanna tell you something about these females.  They AIN'T all that young most of them.
     Just sayin .....
     Actually, most all of the young women would NOT stoop to our level ..... they gotta be out and cruisin the roads, listening to some Ahole yabbering about sex, bad dope, and cheap women.  And they all LOVE it.  (The yabbering I'm talking about.  Not sure about the rest, but lately I'm wondering .)
     And we raised these young people?
     Just askin!
     Maybe I should stop this and get off the keyboard.  I HAVE had a couple three threatening EMails of late talking about my badmouthing the younger generation and the neighborhood in general.  No biggie.  I know where they all live so their threat of "Remember, we know where you live!" don't hold no water.  I have Google Earth and Maps too.
     Anyway, I will shut up, edit this, pick a picture for the day, and go on to other things.  Perchance my Muse is awake and can take over and keep me out of trouble with the neighborhood.  Actually that is no problem there.  They all have wireless computers and leach off my account signal, at least until I set the modem to stand by, just, if for nothing else than to piss them off.  (I do that a lot lately!)  I mean, I gotta have SOME fun don't I.
     Y'all come when you can.  And bring/send your neighbours and friends.  Newbies/Characters are welcome too!  I'll be here, if not right quick like, then shortly thereafter ..... maybe.

     Everyone take care, be safe, be happy, and most of all, smile.  Confuses the hell out of the enemy.

       

     

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Way back in the younger days

That's my little friend and Owner, Terry Lee 

trying to keep me awake.

I think I remember putting him to sleep that time.

It was fun whatever happened.

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Friday - Late Pondering and Musing - Bitching Again, actually!

   
     I am Baaack!  Not really sure what the subject of the evening's discussion will be, but we will just wing it.  Works for the Birds and the Bees don't it?  Heh!  Lets not go there, not at MY age.  No, No!
     Now, I am just in, washed up, and cooling down after doing a 'controlled burn' on the acre.   Report was turned in to the Deputy on the desk at the County Sheriff's office just as I lit the first piece of old newsprint to start the conflagration in the back corner of the acre.  The call was definitely necessary tonight, since, not more than 4 or 5 hours before I started mine, the neighbor had a nasty oil/gas/auto tire fire get out of hand just behind their house.  Local Volunteers came roaring out with the little 1 ton emergency truck, head volunteer came whizzing out in his slick shiny bright red pickumup, and things were swiftly 'under control'.  Not sure what about that.  By the time I saw the problem the little red trucks were roaring in, along with a half dozen other pickumups with sturdy volunteers ready to 'git er did!'  Well, they did and I didn't play nosey neighbor.
     Thus the call for a 'controlled burn'.
     Me, my trusty 100 water hose, the long handled yard rake, a little hand cultivator/claw/hook&pull type thingie, along with a pair of antiquated back issues of the local version of a newspaper, and an equally antiquated disposable lighter that still, after 20 something years, works quite well.  (found it in the bottom of a ready to be discarded home made tool chest, along with $300 or so worth of hand carving and wood lathe working tools I thought I had sold at auction) [ Story on that one later.], went stumbling out to the corner trash pile vintage 5 - 6 years old (some of the wood and limbs have been piled here and there even longer) ...... whatever.
     Tonight was the night I was to rid Five Oaks of the eyesore in my back yard.  I just knew the old wood would burn well even thought I had not loaded the stack with leaves and pine needles, cones, and limbs.  
     Anyway, the fire started easily, it spread through the pile very well, and surprisingly the old Ash and Oak saplings that were cut and pushed over the fence into my acre some years ago, caught and begun burning first thing.  "Now we gots it goin" I though as I shuffled and shifted the small stuff around the outer edges toward the heart of the blaze.  "This should be fun tonight!"
      I soon found my self caught up in the 'fun' of the moment, and begun running back and forth from the double row of young pines we planted some 18 or more years ago as a wind break along the east side of the acre, raking, picking up, and trotting the armful over to the fire.  Things were burning right along, no wind what so ever, and no one screeching at me to "watch the other side, it's burning the grass" or "you need some over here quick!"  The evening was pleasant, the two little Girlkitties were out and observing the proceedings, the one little cat, Miss Princess, again, was seated on  her predecessors' stone grave cover, directing the proceedings, just as the original little Black Fluffball Granny Kitty, Princess Ebony did years back.
     I still get a jolt to the heart rhythms sometimes when I look up and see that little cat perched there watching me.  Deja Vu I'm thinking.  Princess Ebony used to sit there when it was the site of the stepping stone storage pile.  She'd be up there in the air about 10 flat stones in the air, and talking her little head off to anyone who would answer and talk with her.
     Now, on to what I was going to tell you.  (you should know by now I am very long winded when I get the urge to join my Muse and prattle on.  So settle back, relax, open a cold one, and read on my Friend.
      I dislike grass, especially that grass that is brazen enough to breed and reproduce in MY yard.  And I double dislike it when I don't gots no lawn mower to cut it with.  A neighbor waked up, while I was having fun talking to the kits, burning the 'burn pile' and generally sprucing up my back corner of the yard, and had  asked me first thing "when are you  going to get cutting on this yard.  It's a disgrace to the neighborhood."
     I looked at this old fuzzy headed, scanky looking dude, to see if there was any hint of humor on his leathery, weather worn old face.  Not a hint.  When I asked what he meant, he went into it with both hands flying.  "The whole neighborhood is looking so good, all the yards are cut, the borders trimmed, the dead grass raked and removed, (more like thrown in the drainage ditch down the way, the one that has to be dredged every year or so to get the stuff and trash that people keep throwing in there out so we won't be flooded like we almost were this year) and you are not keeping with the program man.  Have you no pride?"
     We live 8 miles out in the damn country and this dip stick has a pair big enough to tell me that my yard makes the neighborhood look bad?  What with the abandoned and falling-apart trailer homes just down the hill, the devastated quarter acre next door with the residue of the dismantling and burning of an old trailer home (the junk and residue is still piled there) and weeds, saplings, and wild hedge is growing in wild profusion.
     And I am supposed to live like I am in the middle of the city, following ordnances and laws set up by prudish, well to do matrons and their 'do it or sleep in the other room' husbands, shelling out big bucks to have what little trash I do have of my own picked up once a week if the people doing the picking up think about our area, or feel up to doing anything for their bloated weekly checks.  (if this last hurts some feelings here, live with it.  I single out no individual.  You all know what I'm talking about.  Remember, this missive is of my writing, and the opinions are MINE, Mine, mine.  Take em or leave em.
     Well, after a few short words, that can NOT be repeated here since I write this Blog with the 'Child Safe' flag waving over the keyboard at all times, the old meddlesome Dofunny waddled back to his pickumup, cranked up, and burned rubber roaring off down the road to spew some more 'tales of the dangerous old man up the hill, the one that 'burns trash in his yard, and on Sunday, no less', and chases the preachers off when they come looking for donations.
     Charity begins at home my friends, especially when you are one step shy of needing food stamps and welfare assistance to pay the damn bloated hospital, clinic, and over-priced med bills.
     So, the evening that began quite pleasantly, with make do type work mixed in with a long time needed task of ridding the acre of it's share of Mother Nature's cast offs, sort of ended with a bad taste in my mouth.  Thus I am spewing forth here, hopefully to get it off my chest and forgotten, and mayhap, to give someone a good chuckle.  If I step on toes then damn well and good.  I do that very well with out thinking a good many days of the week as it is.
     I might mention here, the health of the Lady of the House, although not the worst in the world, is not all that good.  She's getting along well, we are both, in fact, and she is giving me a mite of a headache what with the wanting to cut out this med and that med cause "it costs too much and I can do without it" even though the Dr. was firm in his admonitions to "take your meds or I'll visit you in the hospital, or worse".  Must be that Sicilian blood flowing through those little veins that brings that on, ya think?
     I am doing well, making my quarterly appointments on time, having the procedure quietly, and going on my way.  I've picked up on the exercise, walking a good bit more lately, now that the weather is agreeable, and I'm thinking I can plan on another couple three decades of harassment, devilment, and mischief in the neighborhood.
     Well, someone has to do it, yaknow.
     I will now commence to begin to leave this one to the Blog browsers, and Family and Friends, and take to the hallway, or I should say 'the cat track' since the boys are having their crazy 15 minutes out there ..... they sound like a THoE (thundering herd of Elephants, for those who do NOT serve and wait table for Cats.)
     I'm gone for my Earl Gray, some quality time with the Small One and her kitties, the 6 Mouskateers of Five Oaks Manor.  See the latest updates of the Mouskateers escapades on Buddy Bear's Cats' World Blog.  And check there for the soon to be added guest spot MikiCato will be hosting on another of the fine  Cat Blogs that we have here on Blogspot.com.  If I can remember, I will make a note of it here as well, in a post and also in a separate link in the side bar.
     Everyone take care, be safe, be happy, and most of all, smile.  Confuses the hell out of the enemy.
     Y'all come.  And bring/send your neighbours and friends.

     Newbies/Characters are welcome too!

___________________________________  

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I'm Baaack! Late again, as usual.

     Geez!  The guys ruled the day on the forums we have on AbleMinds.com.  The chatty wimmenfolk done took to one of our best friend's Place (one of the ladies, of course) and made a day of it I suppose.  Made it quiet in there.
     That's arrite today, as I have nothing really to say.  Need to do a blather for the Blog and help MikiCato do one for the Cat's Blog too.  Need make one for Miki to post on the blog, 'House Panthers', since he is now a guest poster there.
     While I was on the forums I felt I might as well do the Blather of the week or whatever it's called now that I'm not reliable enough to do a daily even on the BBCW Blog much less on my own blog here.
     Not sure when I'll get something of interest to write about.  I think of something and before I can get to the damn keyboard I have totally forgotten what it was I had planned to write about.  I was used to that back years ago when I was into the bottle most of the time, but now?  Just ain't right.  Gets me a mite upset I tell ya.
     Lets see, of late, I wrote the final post for KnightOwl's Place Community on Yuku.com (that one is actually in limbo ..... reserve, as it were), and still have to do some work on Buddy's Forum located on the Web Site.  Have a mess of pictures to put either on the Web site or on the PhotoBucket account cause they are supposed to be shared on Buddy's Blog spot.  Still have to crop/tweak and resize them before that.  I won't trust the Bucket to do the resizing ..... just too iffy.
     The days are getting harder to handle as each new one comes along All I want to do, or at least all I seem to be able to do is walk a couple miles in the morning, drink a tea and have my pills, then go right back to bed.  I'm as sleep logged as are the cats.  It's said the cats sleep 18 to 20 hrs in 24.  I must be an honorary Cat ..... something.  At least I'm eating well enough to suit the Lady of the House or she would probably be wanting to take me to the Vet to see what's wrong with me.
     Old gears are hard to get shifted I'm tellin ya.  And Yea, I know!  There are those of you out there that are my senior by a couple three or more years and are going strong.  Bully!  I can't do it no more.
     Old Owl will play look-out and hold down the fort for you young sprouts to go out and conquer the world.  I'm conquered out.
     Still, life is good.  I gots my Ladylove, my kitty 'children' who seem to love me ..... at least they love my warm spot in the bed and don't mind sharing, they love when I talk to them, the 'children' love when I scritch and hug them, even pull their tails and play with them.  Miki and Tegar will not go to sleep next to me unless they have bodily contact, a paw on my arm at least.  Guess they have me trained.  Now if I could just train them ......
     Have a good weekend one and all.  For those who celebrate the Holiday this weekend, have a good one, be safe and enjoy.  For those of a different mind, be safe, be happy, and everyone come when you can.
     Where's the pictures?  Geez!  I did forget the pictures didn't I.  NOT!

Miki in one of his short rest stops during a recent romp through

a big pile of plastic shopping bags we sorted out.

The rest were a mite 'fuzzy', but they will

be posted anyway.

Just not here, and not this evening. 

     With that I'm thinking I best needs leave this alone, take myself out of the Blog site and tend to the family.  It's a mite noisy right now.  That means the HoWE (herd of wild elephants) are having their crazy 15 minutes through the house, up the walls, down the halls, up to the top of the cat tree and back again.  Just hope the Lady of the House is staying out of the way.

     Later .....

     Y'all come.  And bring/send your neighbours and friends.

     Newbies/Characters are welcome too!

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Thursday Night Late - A romp with my little House Panther, MikiCato

     Last night I had a large pile of plastic shopping bags all fluffed up and just dumped on the floor in a 'bunch'. There was a little house panther head sticking out of the side of the pile, and the little guy was sound asleep. We had fun dumping the big bag full of bags and fluffing them up. It was kinda like the finale for MikiCato's crazy 15 minutes of romp and run.
     Here's the story: Tegar and Rowdy, the two youngest of the inside ManCats, were asleep and unaware of what was going on, (thankfully), and I was replacing the computer room's empty crunchy dinner bowls with clean full ones, had just washed the water bowl and headed back down the hall from the fun room when a little black bolt of furry lightening flashed by my legs and disappeared to the right into the computer room. Almost instantly he was back, having circled the centered computer console, and loaded on the coal for a full throttle drive back down the hall.
     I replaced the water dish/bowl, sat down in the computer chair to sort the standard shopping bags from the handle-less produce bags. (Why a collection of bags? Well, just to satisfy the inquisitive mind, the standards are used for small trash can liners and for the daily cleaning of the litter boxes.) Ok? Ok! On with the tale here ......
     As I dumped the bags out on the floor, the pile exploded all over the small space we have between the chairs and the counter. Miki had snuck in and attacked.  He was raging happily under the pile.
     The little bomb was there, and then he wasn't. After raking all my bags back into a reachable pile, I sat back down and continued with my sorting, had the pile suddenly explode in my face once more, and finally heard a scritching and scratching, and mewling overhead.
     "Ahha! The lil hellion has gone 'up there'. Now maybe I can get the task of sorting these bags finished and get on with what ever it was I was planning on doing next", thought I.
     Not to be ignored, the little house panther came scrabbling and hopping down, and landed in the middle of the pile like a small bomb. He immediately dove into and under the pile. I quickly fluffed up the bags as fast as I could, covering my little guy completely. This was getting to be fun. I grabbed the camera, and began to await the chances.
     It soon became quiet, the pile of bags ceased the frantic movement, and I was able to continue sorting out the unwanted bags. I did get some rather good shots though. Maybe later we can look at them.
     As I wrote along, I occasionally glanced down beside my chair, just to keep up with what was happening and too, hoping to catch another good shot.   I saw a pair of big, happy, eyes glowing at me as if saying, "I love you Large One, but you are supposed to be playing with me, NOT that klacky sounding board thingie!"
     Oh, and with the last paragraph up there I gots me a tender tap on the arm as I turned my head back to the pile and the puddytat. He quickly laid back down, curled and looked at me with a look that just has to mean, "Hey, I'm begging here! Don't make me get hostile!"
     I did get those pictures ..... well I think I did.
     So, I lined this one off and got on with the love and play time I had going on with my little lap robe, my house panther, MikiCato. More on this one another day.
     As I hoped, we didn't get interrupted, and we played till the little one was worn out tired and I could stuff him in the feathers for a long nap. And Bastet forbid the little furrball gots me curled in with him. He put ME to sleep too.  The chores never were finished that night.
     Later .....

     Y'all come.  And bring/send your neighbours and friends.

     Newbies/Characters are welcome too!

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April - First Monday thereof. I'm back!

     Stormy day in SouthWoodsUSA™.  Way bad wind and rain and possible (they said) Tornadoes.
     Just as I started to post the latest on Buddy Bear's Cats' World's Blather Blog, we had a power surge, the warning we seem to always have for upcoming nasty weather,  the computer restarted and I had one big ole Redneck hissy fit.  I just knew that I had lost my post.  But, I forgot that Blogspot saves almost immediately after you stop typing for just a few seconds.  And since I have my browser set to reopen previously view pages the next time it opens, all I had to do was spend a half hour trying to get the damn ISP and their quirky modem to reboot together.  In the end, I left the thing burbling along talking to itself, took my weary butt to the feathers, curled the Bear (that's Buddy Bear, our little soon to be 10yr old Ragamuffin) in my arms and went to sleep.  Rebooting was a matter of unplug and replug power cords to the Modem and the wireless router.  Buddy helped!
     I'm told I slept through two more nasty/noisy/soggy storms.  Woke up after the evening news (which I'm sure I wouldn't have been interested in anyway), had a few sips of by then warm lumpy water, refilled my mug, fought off the Heathen's (that's the baby, almost 7yr old Tuxedo, Rowdy by name) attempts to drink said water down to the lumps, and went outside to take out the trash.  It was COLD out there.  Way cold.  At least, thought, the rain had stopped.
    While out there I noticed the two outsider girlkitties, Smokey and Miss Princess were at outs with each other and were sulking one in each end of the Cat Porch, their one outside crunchy bowl was finally free of those tiny little nuisance sugar ants, and the porch was half afloat with the back-wash from the drip-drip from the eave of the roof.  Doin my Kitty Daddy duties, I loved the girls, swept the porch, refilled the bowl, freshened up the girls room (read here 'converted, heated, laundry room') adding fresh dry food and water, and walked off without taking the dirty stinky goodness bowls in.  (I just now thought of that last item).
     All seems well outside now, nothing blown away, no trees blown down, yet there are Willow and Oak limbs and branches all over the acre.  Thankfully most of the remaining leaves were blown off and away, to where I do NOT know and certainly do NOT give a bit rats patootie, just am thankful they are gone.
     I did notice several of the surrounding neighbours' trash cans (tomorrow is Garbage Guy day here) had been flung about, lids missing, and contents strewn all over ..... this time, thankfully, nothing deposited in my part of the neighborhood.  Most all the loose debris is tactfully deposited down the road immediately in front of MY acre.  So be it.
     I do NOT do road pickup.  Not anymore!  Not with all these young whippersnappers ripping up and down the roadway on their two, three and four wheelers at all hours of the day and night, all living within 2 - 3 miles of said strewn garbage.  If the garbage gets in their way, THEY can pick it up.  County maintenance certainly does NOT pick up anything.  I've done my more than a few decades of picking up after someone else.  Now the task falls on other shoulders.  They wanna live in a dump they can.  My acre, other than having Mother Nature's droppings, is clean.  Thankyouverrymuch.
     Ok, bitch, whine and whimper time over.  (Did I tell anyone here that I do this quite often?  And that the thoughts, opinions, and foul language used here is/are/am MINE and all MINE.  I quote no one here but me!)  Enough of that.
     What did we do today?  Not diddly s#!(.  Went out on the Cat Porch when the first blowing storm came though with my hackles standing on end.  I'm sure most of you have heard or read descriptions of oncoming tornadoes 'sounding like a freight train coming at you.'  Well Bubala, I HEARD one today, and it passed just over my head ..... didn't touch down near or on us, but it was up there.  Winds were laying pines almost flat on the ground.  Several of the really small, young saplings DID lay down ..... they're not back up yet, so I imagine they were uprooted, or at least the taproot snapped.  Vertical rain, moving so fast it was like someone throwing rocks at you.  I thought for a minute or two that it was hailstones, but not.  Just hefty, fast moving rain drops.  Proof of rainfall is out there.  All kinds of little lakes and puddle all over the acre.
     We'll need the pontoon boat to get to the car tomorrow should M'Lady decide to make the trip to civilization for the 'forgotten' and 'just thought of' goodies we didn't pick up on the 2nd of the month.  But that's another tale for another day.
     I saw something out there today that I did not like, and I had to sit back in the corner and ask myself "Why are we being spared again?"
     Then, I asked myself "Why am I looking a gift horse in the mouth?"
     No answer for either question.  So I'll stop with this.

     I know it's not what most folks would consider read-worthy, and for those of you who DO think such, I will refrain from dropping my opinion of your opinion in here.  Read between the lines. :^)
     Just meanderings from the aged mind of theWizard they call Sergeant Pop, aka KnightOwl, the one the teachers called 'Tommy' even after me Da lit their fuses with the information that his only (he swore he couldn't stand another) son was NOT a 'Tommy' but a 'Roy'.
     Whatever!  Y'all come see us when you can, check out Buddy Bear's Blog, visit, if you will, our Cats' World's Forums, and if by chance you are on AbleMinds.com, check us out at SouthWoodsUSA™, our collection of forums there.  Of course our home is the website called Buddy Bear's Cats' World, and is open to everyone, cat lover or not.  The links to all our sites are located on the start page of the Web Site.
     Now I'll get off this keyboard so little Tegar, the creme coloured kitty can get back on to finish his nap.
     Y'all come.  And bring/send your neighbours and friends.
     Newbies/Characters are welcome too!

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Monday - Just taking up the slack in here

            I'm back with a whole mess of gripes, complaints, and other assorted and sundry whines, whimpers, and boo hoos.  But before we get into those here's a hearty and supposedly happy  Good Morning one and all.  Here's hoping the day looks, and feels way better in your neck of the woods than it does in mine.  
     Another dreary looking, chilly, day here in the SouthWoods.  Supposedly a great day to start the week.  I have my doubts, but that's just my opinion.  And you know what 'they' say about opinions.  NO?  Well, 'they' say "Opinions are like a$$holes.  Everybody's got one."  Mine just stinks more so than most.  (happy now.  Learn something new every day!)
     Not to get into a favored debate this morning, but I'm thinking the grass is too green out there, and is a mite too tall for my taste.  That means, when this mess of storms has past and gone and all is dry outside, I'm supposed to get out and ride the little red engine around the acre like I can afford to spend near $5 a gallon for gas to cut the weeds and other foliage growing there.  And at that, do it most of the day, refill the gas tank, and do it all over next week again.  That ain't my way to grow old and weary in peace.  NOT!
     But that's just one man's complaint.
     As to other assorted and sundry gripes I might have this morning, I feel well supplied for a lengthy and quite boring blather here.  Mayhap we can find some photos to go with it ..... mayhap not.  We'll see.  
     Shortly after disposing of this edition of the Blather Blog, I'm gone to table ...... my pills are waiting, my tummy is rumbling, and I haven't had my morning dose of Earl Gray.  The puddytats are waiting too.  My escort service is purring and prancing at the door as I type.  'Little Yellow Fellow' (Tegar, the Cream Puff) and 'Big Spot' (Rowdy, the Tux) are antsy for a freshup and refill of the crunchy bowls and the water.  'Bubba' (Buddy Bear, the walking dust mop) and 'Ninji Kitty' (MikiCato, the house panther) are waiting in front of a cold heater (that they want turned on immediately, if not sooner!)  Must do my duties as 'they' see them.  The outside ladies, Miss Princess (aka Spooky, the hairy black basketball) and her  sissyfurr, Smokey, (the little grey tiger) have not been spotted out the window to the Cat Porch (read here, car port) yet.  Well, hopefully they are still abed in their boudoir (the laundry room at the back of the CP.)
     Well, your tough luck.  I had a whole diatribe of whine and rant laid out to dump on you, but, having mistakenly mentioned 'the table', which brought up the location of said table (the fun room, aka dining/living/kitchen type room), which contains the pantry, the fridge, and all the glorious goodies and stuff that makes this old Owl function, has caused a meltdown in the area of the belt buckle (damn noisy area that), and so, I shall make you wait until the next edition to know what has my dander up.
     On the brighter side, here's something I once heard someone call 'Eye Candy', what we 'normal' folk would call a picture ..... our picture of the day.

This, of course is the house panther, MikiCato astride his most favoured of all toys

the Small One found at the local flea market one summer day.

That cat guarded, and rode, that thing until it was in shreds.

I tried to re-cover it but it just wasn't to be.

It disappeared late one night while he slept in bed. He still searches for the thing.

Buddy never rode it but loved to try to get underneath it.

I guess he was just pulling maintenance on it ..... oil change and such.

     I'd like to add a happy Hi and Hello to an old friend that has been silent on the blogs for way too long, at least up until he dropped a comment and greeting on our last Blather here.  Eric Valentine!  Welcome back my Friend.  Hoping to see you back on the Blog and writing.  You have been missed.

     I'm gone!

     Later .....

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Wednesday - Just Rambling On

     Not very punctual with my postings of late, am I?  Well, I never was dependable.  At least I was told that many times back when I could barely see over the edge of the dining room table.  Well, I couldn't help it.  No one told me the proper places for all the forks and spoons and glasses and plates.  Besides, my arms weren't long enough ..... then.
     Later, I was always busy with something else, a guitar, a harmonica, the old upright piano setting out on the back porch, then a bit later, the girls, the band, my drums, the girls, my new tenor sax, the majorettes, the dance band, the old Chevy Woodie Station wagon my Aunt let us have to haul the instruments and the girls in ......  well, we all know how it ended.  Off to college and the girls, the music, the dances, the stage shows, the girls ...... That ended in 1961.  That was  when I gave it all up and went off to war, made it to Germany, and fought a major battle, loosing the battle to a tiny Sicilian Lady. Got  myself hooked, I did.
     I put on my full dress blues, spit shined my low quarters, invited my platoon to the wedding, and couldn't believe it when they all showed up forming an 'Honor Guard' for the wedding.  That wedding was 47 years ago.  Hell, I still don't know where all that silverware and crystal and china goes.  I definitely know how to use it, though .....
     What does all this have to do with what I'm supposed to talk about this morning?  Nothing, actually, just thought of it and figured it would be a good lead in to the main subject.  Now, if I can just find my notes I'll see what the main subject was supposed to be and get on with the posting.  Like everything else I have gotten myself into this chilly spring day, this may be a loooong session.  Got your snacks and the cool one by your side?  How 'bout the lap robe (kitty to those who are NOT in the know).  Geez ..... wise up people.  Don't you know reading Blather Blogs is lots more fun when you have a cat on your lap?  Try it.  I'm thinking you will get a different outlook on life in general.  If nothing else you will definitely get a lap full of kitty hair.  This time of year it's flying everywhere.  You know, thinking about the cat hair all over the house and on the clothes and furniture, I am SO GLAD all the so-called friends I don't like are allergic to cats.  Saves me the trouble of having to be nice to the stuffed shirts and priss-misses.
     Don't worry, I'm not all that bad.  My 6 cats like me.  I can live with that.
     As I said before, this has been a long day, and the Spring cleanup and fix up tasks have taken much  longer than they did last year and the year before and ..... NO, it is NOT the age, just the mileage.  I'm thinking I need to take myself to the body shop for a overhaul.  If it wasn't for the fact I'm allergic to some paints, I would go for the full re-do.  Probably better I not have any changes made.  Wife and Cats are used to my looks now.  I'd hate to scare them with a new face.  It was hard enough them gettin used to the one I have.
     I have to admit here, that I don't remember what I was going to talk about, so I'm going to hunt up a couple pictures of the place, maybe a sunrise or sunset shot taken from the yard here at Five Oaks.
     I'm still trying to pull up the storage site I have my stuff and things on.  Seems the Web, and more than likely, my ISP has gone on a walkabout and forgot to take me with them.  I suspect I have to re-boot my modem.  Lots of that going on this Spring, especially with all the rain we're having of late.

     It took every bit of 5 minutes to reboot and refresh everything.  I'm liking the fact Blogspot.com saves as we type.  I would have had a major case of the mads if I had lost all these fantabulously intelligent thoughts and bits of wise and wondrous wisdom I've offered everyone here.  Not having lost anything, I think we can call this one 'Fini', and take a look see at what I found on the secret most private locked away photo storage site.  Mine, all mine, so there!

A SouthWoodsUSA sunrise back in January of 2005

That was a colorful morning

and again that evening as well. 

I only wish ..... well I did get some great looking shots

but what if ......

just a year, to the date later, I caught this sunset

Mother Nature does a good job of painting the sky

but she can pick some COLD days to do it.

     I have had a good day.  Hope you all have had the same, and will continue to enjoy the re-birth of Mother Nature's finest.  Have a happy rest of the week.  Get out and walk, and don't forget to take the camera with you.  You don't have to be a professional photographer to get some good pictures.  The memory of the shot is the thing.  

     I'm gone .....

     Later .....

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Just one of our many Grandcats!  

This is one humongonous big guy

a very loving cuddlefluff

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