It's raining on my side...

It's actually raining everywhere here today, it's washing all the dust off the leaves, and we really can use the rain.  Some areas east of me could do without it, they flooded with Irene, and now they are re-flooding with the remnants of Lee..  I wish we could send some of it to my friends in Texas.  I lived in Texas for a while.  I hated Texas, not the people, but the dirt,  the storms, the snakes, scorpions and centipedes....*shudder*  But Texans, they love being Texans and just about everything that goes with it.  Except drought and fire, and that is what vast areas of Texas are dealing with now.

I love rainy day, and snow storms, if I can indulge in them.  Rainy and snowy days call for cups of tea or cocoa, a fuzzy throw, a great book and a comfy spot. Throw in a soft dog ear to stroke and life doesn't get much better.  Well, ok, a glass of wine and a warm brownie...but really, that is perfection.  Unless Gerard Butler is curled up with his tea and book and is rubbing my feet...which is odd because I don't like my feet touched....that would be perfection.  Yeah, yeah, he's all "married", I know, but we are taking about fantasy here, right?  Because as we all know, rainy or snowy days are just like the rest of them.  Kids, dogs, work, it's all still there, staring us down.  But I do try to sneak in an hour (without Gerard of course) grab a cup of tea, my Kindle, the cozy throw and just enjoy.  


A more achievable way to make the most of those rainy/snowy days is to start a pot of soup, bake some yummy bread, and regardless of what chores you were planning, put them off another day and tackle all the laundry.  Folding clothes warm from the dryer while watching a favorite movie, with the yummy aromas of bread and soup in the air is a close second to the tea/book/Gerard combo and you don't have the "I didn't get anything done today" guilt either.

My favorite soups to make  are either an Italiany hearty one, with chicken, Italian sausage, tortellini, and spinach in a tomatoey chicken broth or a  navy bean with ham hocks, carrots and diced potatoes.  With a loaf of Farm House White from my favorite bread cookbook, they make the perfect dreary day dinner.  If I am lucky I can convince Middle Child Syndrome to bake a batch of One Bowl Brownies for dessert, yummy!!!

Enjoy your day like it's your last and treat everyone you meet like you will have to be locked in a tiny closet with them for a week. ;-)

Today my side of the fence is furry

Ok, so everyday on my side of the fence is furry, I have seven (yes, 7, I didn't misspell several) dogs here right now.  Four of these are ours, the other three are fosters.  One middle aged Harrier and two 9 week old Lab mix puppies. They all shed, some more than others, did I mention that all the dogs are either black, or have black on them? This makes all the fur both easy to spot when you are spot cleaning because someone is knocking on your door, and hard to ignore the clumps you missed.  The lab mix puppies could be mixed with Newfie...at 9 weeks these boys are quite the chunks, 12-14 lbs.  Puppies that big pee a LOT.  They also poop a LOT.   We are going thru newspapers at a rate that would make tree huggers weep. I hound all my friends for newspapers, and I hound them to hound their friends for newspapers. I buy white vinegar by the gallon, which makes the house smell slightly pickled, but that beats pet smell (I think).  I also sweep, vacuum (in that order if I don't want my vacuum to explode) and mop more than I ever thought possible.  Boy Wonder has become quite the expert mopper, but his sweeping/vacuuming skills leave a lot to be desired.  He fails to realize that dog fur chooses to hang out in the corners and along the walls, not in the 4 square feet in the middle of the floor.

 I am very grateful for his help, but fact that I have to either spend twenty minutes redoing what he just spent 9.2 seconds doing (while complaining that it is going to take forever to do whatever I have asked) OR  forty five minutes dealing with the meltdown of my borderline spectrum son because my way is too hard and doesn't 'make sense' and is unreasonable for a wee lad of 10.9 is difficult for me to swallow.  I don't want to have to make that choice every.single.time. I ask him to do something.  Why do wee lads of 10.9 have to be told every.single.morning. that the dogs will want to eat when they get up?  Why do they not realize that it takes 4.2 minutes to feed them but it takes 23.7 minutes to argue about why they shouldn't have to?  Plus mommy stays sketchy for about 47 minutes after that little discussion, upping the ante considerably.

Middle Child Syndrome was given sole custody of the puppies at night and her only other real job with them is chief cuddler. Thankfully they do sleep all night, since school is starting on Thursday and she needs her beauty sleep. As long as I bolt from my bed early enough to get them to their papers, they stay dry.  The very second their feet hit the papers they turn into furry fountains. Then they want to splash in the puddles.  So I stand there, watching them pee and as soon as the flow stops I try to slide fresh paper under them.  Before.I.have.coffee. Then Boy Wonder and I release the rest of the hounds.  After that comes feeding time at the zoo.  They all act like there last meal was last Wednesday and for most of them the food is gone before the bowl fully hits the floor.  All in all it takes about 30 minutes of constant activity before i can grab coffee, either actually make or simply point out breakfast for Boy Wonder and pop open my laptop.

This morning I left my glasses on my nightstand, so my screen is all trapezoidal,  I am simply too tired to go get them.  It creates a kind of happy bubble to not wear them once in a while,  I can see the screen just fine, but not the dust on the TV, and I can't track the constant forward movement of the fur army.  I have to get ready for work, and while I have managed to squeeze in some cleaning around the rest of the morning, I always run out of time.  Please don't point out that if I hadn't sat here blogging I could have folded another load of laundry...I type pretty slow and I probably could have folded two loads!

Let's all take a few minutes today to dance for rain in Texas and chant for sun along the East Coast.  Treat each other like it is your last encounter and do at least one nice thing for yourself.

Peace

I thought this fitting today

‎. . . . . . . . /¯/)
. . . . . . . ./¯ ./
. . . . . . . /. . / THIS IS FOR ALL THE PEOPLE
. . . . /¯`/'. .'/¯¯/ WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE IN LIFE
. . . /'/. /. . /. . /. /¯\ IS TO MAKE SOMEONE ELSE
. . .('(. . . . . .¯/'. . ')MISERABLE

What's up on my side of the fence?

I think it's a shame that people can't just live in a community, mind their own business on a day to day basis, keeping a general eye out for the unusual, but leaving the people living around them to live their lives in relative peace.  Why some people feel the need to leap from their comfy chair to peer out the window every time a door opens, or a car pulls into an adjoining driveway, I have no idea.  Personally I  have a lot more going on in my world than time allows already, let alone keeping track of every entrance, exit and visitor to my neighbors. Who has the time?  Don't they have cleaning to do or kids to watch?  

When these neighbors also create drama, actively vandalize other neighbors property, verbally abuse members of their household and fail to follow basic ordinances, it makes life near them ....interesting.  We have endured visitors from almost every agency in the phone book for a multitude of reasons, none of which were valid, if not made up entirely or staged by them.  Cars, property, children and pets have all been victim to some obviously incredibly bored and joyless individuals. Oil mysteriously appearing in the driveway, threats to children, false accusations to the law, damage to vehicles, the list some days seems endless. Some days we can laugh at how pathetic it is that adults would behave this way, and other days we want to sit around a campfire in the driveway and burn sage and chant to ward off the evil that drifts over the property line.  OK so we actually did the last one night lol, it resulted in the fire department showing up ( the neighbors seemed concerned that our chiminea, surrounded by adults with a bucket of water standing by, would burn down the block...)

A privacy fence erected by the neighbors to "ease neighbor relations" may have worked, if the neighbors did not parade back and forth on their remaining 22" of property on my side of the fence, or peer from their upstairs windows over the fence.  A privacy fence placed between 2 houses (conveniently labeled on my side as "Private", in case I didn't understand...) should afford BOTH parties privacy.  Ironically we never cared what they did over there anyway as long as we didn't hear them abusing anyone, or see them creating traffic hazards. It does seem unfair that while they achieved a level or privacy, we did not. We could erect our own fence, but it wouldn't keep them from looking over it, and I can find many better ways to spend my money.  Not to mention that it would truly be a 'spite fence' in every sense of the term, and again, we will not stoop to that level, I have a bad back and probably could not get up if I went that low.

It is hard to teach my kids that it is better to be the bigger person, to let this all roll off our backs and that eventually, they will either tire of being the neighborhood bullies and find a hobby to fill their days or the law will put a stop to their tax dollar wasting nonsense when it has continued as long as this has.  We have had numerous discussions that Karma is a bitch with a very busy schedule and she just can't be rushed.  We continue to be patient.  We have been blamed for the law gracing their doorstep on numerous occasions, in spite of the fact that only 1 time was a phone call made from here (which can be verified by 911 if anyone cared to check) and I was not even home at the time.  My son heard the father verbally abusing his teen daughter and became frightened.  I explained when he called me, crying, that since I was not home to hear what was going on, I could not call 911, but his older sister was home, he should alert her and she would have to make the decision to call or not.  The verbal abuse continued and 911 was called.  Ultimately we don't care what the outcome is, it is up to the law to determine the consequences if any. There was no intent of trying to 'hurt' them or to pay them back.  I guess my point is that when children recognize abuse happening to another child and want to help, or are frightened by it, someone should listen.  We knew if a call was made their would be consequences, and I am sure there will be, but my kids made the right choice anyway.  We will not sink to their level, and make nuisance calls to the authorities, we will not vandalize their property, we will not lie about their behavior, we will continue to do the right thing and wait for Karma to clear her schedule.  I only hope when she has an opening she has precise aim because we live very close and their should be a heap of consequence laid on them considering how miserable they have made all their surrounding neighbors over the years. 

Enough back story and onto today......

So I am out in my driveway sweeping all the gravel off the blacktop (and the catshit and catyak from the neighbors cats) so I can flush it with a mix of hot water and white vinegar and they feel it is necessary to not only watch, but to take pictures of the gravel on their "area". (exactly WHO is it that can't mind their own business??) btw I didn't sweep gravel thier direction, in fear of causing a problem...I swept it the long way across...I hope they enjoyed the show, it was raining and in spite of the fact that I did it today so it would be as cool as possible while cleaning out my laundry room and the driveway...I was a sweaty mess, and as belatedly realized...braless.  Let's hope those pics they took don't end up on youtube! It's bad enough they will end up in some poor unsuspecting public servants inbox.

I also had to flush out the mats on my back step since their damn cats come over here to pee on my doorstep.  It now smells like a pickle factory out there , that is however better than cat pee any day.  When these cats come over here and leave...deposits all over my steps, driveway and yard, I start to get creative...super soakers loaded with (harmless) food dye, a trail of something icky (still harmless) that would stick to their paws as they head home and track up their property, Hav-a-heart traps that could just be left on their doorstep over and over again (could get expensive) OR... solid "deposits" could be loaded on a flexible spatula and flung over the fence onto their owner's property.  I am fairly certain that last one could be considered as assault...and as previously stated, we will not break the law.  I also remind myself on a daily basis that it is not a case of bad cats.. it is bad owners.  I will not take out my frustration on something that can't decide on it's own to stay in it's own yard.  That doesn't mean I won't have pleasant dreams of skipping down my driveway in my nightie flinging cat shit over the "privacy" fence.....