Raining in the Desert

A storm is afoot

It’s dreary and cold today.  We don’t get much rain in the desert.  The cats are curled up in warm places, no sun spots streaming through the windows to lie out in today.  It is 50 degrees, so not terrible compared to other parts of the country, but I’m cold and have on thermals again today.  As you can see by some of these pictures, everything is misty out and shrouded in fog.  The bright side is we’re saving on the water bill.  There always has to be a bright side to everything if you look around enough to find it.

Tootie and Raven huddled in a chair

Koki on top of the modem - her favorite place when it's cold

I should be writing on my novel today, but instead I’ve been reading the news pages on the internet.  Slap my hands!  I’ll never get this mystery finished at this rate.  It’s one of those days to grab a good book, curl up in a chair with a blanket and a cat in your lap.

Mountains behind the house shrouded in fog and mists

My intention was to go to a good-bye party for our newspaper editor this afternoon, but I didn’t want to get out in this rain with all the slick roads and the nuts out there.  Our editor has been with the paper here for twelve years.  He writes a weekly column about life that’s interesting.  I hate to see him leave because now we’ll probably get a Mormon replacement, which is the dominate faith here.  I’m really surprised that he was able to secure the job for that long.  It’s a wonderful thing he did and he’ll be missed.  As far as I can see there is no upside to this story, but I shouldn’t be so quick to make a judgment until I see what’s coming next.  To be continued…

Raindrops on the window

I’m leaving the state anyway, as soon as my house sells, so what do I really care?  And the editor is leaving the state to pursue other interests in Nebraska of all places.  I could have picked a better destination than that, but I know he has his reasons and I wish him well.

 The red mountain Ivins is famous for

 

I don’t know many people in the minority that can stay here very long.  I talked to a girl last fall that was leaving before her first year was up.  Life is different in Utah.  No bars, no dancing, discrimination against people in the minority religion, and animal neglect are the first things that come to mind.  There are many others.  Maybe someday I’ll write more about my experiences living here.

On a high note, Raven’s one-year anniversary of living with me is coming up in a week.  He’s such a good boy and so happy.  Look for stories and more pictures.

Signing off from the soggy desert…

Greetings from the desert

Desert sunrise at my house

Look at this gorgeous sunrise we had this morning.  I’m not up this early very often.  My husband was stranded in the airport overnight because his plane was two hours late.  He was catching the first shuttle this morning, hence me being up way early when I didn’t go to bed until after 3 AM.  Better that though than stranded in an airport for several hours.

I cleaned like a mad woman yesterday and wore myself up.  I could hardly move once I crawled into bed.  The cats piled on me and I didn’t even care they were pinning me to the mattress.  I probably could have slept on a bed of nails at that point anyway.  I knew that would be a fast two or three hours of rest.  And it was.

 Koki and Raven playing in one of the best toys I ever got for them

Today was leisurely compared to yesterday, but I got no writing done at all.

A roadrunner sunning itself in the backyard.

The cats did their usual routine, bird watching in the morning after breakfast.  We have lots of roadrunners and raptors coming by along with the usual varied array of birds.  Once the birds fly on, it’s onto chasing each other through the house before finding a sunny spot for nap time.

 Koki

Poor Koki started sneezing yesterday and I think she may be catching a cold.  She always crawls on top of the modem soaking up the heat coming from it when I’m on the computer.  I pulled out a kitty blanket for her.

 Raven

Tootie

It was about 68 here today, which was a delight.  I always feel hopeful that spring is right around the corner.  I can hardly wait, even though it will mean lots of hard work in the garage and yard.

I feel for the poor people living in the northeast.  A blizzard is headed their way with hurricane force winds.  I can’t imagine living in that cold.  I guess there’s no choice but to hunker down and hope the power stays on.

Here are a few recent pics of my darlings.

Raven "It's time for a nap."

Raven "I know I can squish my body into his box."

Raven "Maybe I'll take a nap with Tootie instead."

Growing Old and Staying Alive with Joyfulness

A close friend sent me a slide show of gorgeous photos with a nice message about age from childhood to senior citizen.  I know many of us have heard some of this before, but as we go through our busy lives, it never hurts to have a reminder.

Life has its moments of joy, disappointment, sorrow and trials.  We’ve all been through enduring the bad moments and celebrating the good ones.  There is no way to avoid all the unpleasant stuff because everything coming our way is a learning experience in one way or another.  A positive attitude will get you so much further in life than dwelling on the unavoidable negative things and being a grumpy person making everyone in your life miserable.

I want to share this well-done slide show with all of you.  Please watch to the end for a nice message on how to stay young all your life, no matter how long or short it may be.

You probably won’t believe this – or maybe you would

There’s something about reading weird news that is more interesting than the normal stuff you get daily about random shootings, traffic accidents, and the like.

We all know smoking is bad for your health.  It causes cancer, wrinkles and other problems.  But I bet you didn’t know it makes your boobs sag.  I had to ask myself, is this for real?  Seriously?  And no, I’m not a smoker.  I’ve never heard this claim linked to smoking ever before.  I guess one never knows what will pop up on the news pages of the internet.  Comments anyone?

Watch this video for five weird reasons to stop smoking.  This stuff is usually never included in discussions about why people shouldn’t smoke.

Silence is Golden

How true that is.  I love the peace and silence so I can think.  When my husband is here he always has to have noise, whether it’s the radio, TV or internet videos.  He’s in Oregon right now with his family and the house is so quiet and still.  I’m enjoying all the time I have to write on my book, read, eat and sleep when I want to.  This kind of situation doesn’t happen often.

When my husband’s father ended up in the hospital with pneumonia, he had no choice but to go there for support and to help out if he can.  His dad is better now, but weak and can’t get around well by himself.  But he’s done pretty well for being 96.

This whole circumstance makes me think about getting old and how to deal with the situation when I can’t care for myself.  Naturally, seniors want to stay in their own home and would rather not go to assisted living.  Who can blame them for that?  I know I will be the same way if things ever get to that point for me.  People are always more comfortable in familiar surroundings.

I think right now they at least need a live-in housekeeper who can help with meals and cleaning.  I’m not sure how well this idea will go over, but time will tell.  They have to make the decision that seems right for them.  My husband thinks they should downsize, but a move at their age would be a killer.  The house is big enough that a housekeeper could use one of the bedrooms downstairs and everyone would still have their privacy.

My husband always wants to downsize.  I enjoy all my space, but I’m sure we’ll be downsizing when we sell the house.  I think the reason why I like so much room is that we had such little space growing up.

This trip couldn’t have come at a better time for me because I’m working on my book (or books) I should say.  So this is giving me a lot of time that I wouldn’t ordinarily have to spend in this area.  I’ve been burning the midnight oil writing and rewriting.  I can’t seem to satisfy myself so far.  This book is constantly on my mind.  I’m always trying to work out the issues in my head all day, and at night or early morning when I finally get to bed.

Something is going to come together soon, I hope.

The cats can sense I’m busy, so they haven’t wanted a lot of my attention lately.  I’m glad they have each other to play with because when I’m exhausted, I’m not ready to chase them through the house for thirty minutes.  They love that game.

The post about nothing

That reminds of an old Jerry Seinfeld episode when they were writing the pitch to a TV producer.  They finally got a sit-down meeting and told the guy it would be a show about nothing.  That popped into my head just now.  Oh well…guess I’m tired when funny things pop up out of the blue.  I haven’t thought about that in years.

The only thing going on in my house is me constantly sitting at the keyboard writing on my book.  I bet I’ve written about 12,000 words since Jan first.  It’s coming along, but not ready yet.  I’ve taxed my brain with several scenarios.

Then once in bed, I dream about how to write some of the scenes once in a while, between Tootie’s constant meowing that wakes me up all the time.

 My Office and Library

So I get up in the morning, check my email, get dressed, have breakfast, clean up the kitchen and head upstairs to write.  I love my office in the back corner of the house upstairs – quiet and mostly soundproof from downstairs.  I usually stay up here most of the day, skipping lunch, or sometimes going down for crackers and peanut butter before coming back to my desk to write until five when it’s time to cook dinner.

 Koki on top of linen cabinet

Raven watching her

Koki walking on the shower

The cats usually eat first thing, nap, play, eat again, climb on me a while, and then repeat the process over again.  Koki is still teaching Raven her moves and he’s all eyes and follows her around the house spellbound over her escapades.  They chase each other until they’re worn out with Tootie watching from the couch, probably thinking, “Oh to be young again…those were the days.”  The furniture is taking a beating of little cat feet pouncing and jumping.  It isn’t fun for them unless they can make noise.

 Tootie

Around eight o’clock in the evening, I’m back in my office to write some more until about 11:30 or so, except today because we ran around and stayed outside enjoying the 63 degree weather.  We deserve it after last winter, which was the worst one on record around here for a while.

We’ve enjoyed several gorgeous winter sunsets too.  Check this out.  The high desert does have some nice ones.

Desert Sunset

The Newspaper Bulldozer

Raven into mischief

I’m talking about my little fur boy and his new entertainment.  I don’t dare leave a stack of papers or magazines in the house because he takes great joy in pushing them onto the floor and plowing right through them.  The bigger the stack, the better, but he isn’t really picky.

 Raven into mischief

It does no good to fuss at him, so I just let him play until he gets bored and then I pick everything up.  It doesn’t take all that long until he’s onto something else he can get into.

 The tunnel - one of their favorite toys

 

Koki loves him now and they play all the time.  We have a kid’s play tunnel that we got years ago and that’s a favorite toy to chase through.  That tunnel has seen a lot of cats in it’s day, but now that Raven’s here it’s about ready for the trash bin, or some major repairs.  Raven’s latest adventure is to get down on the floor where he uses his head to push on this nylon channel causing it to roll across the tile so it ends up on the opposite side of the room.  It’s even better if he’s placed a noisy toy inside first.

 Koki and Raven on the cat tree - sorry this is so dark

 

This behavior reminds me of how we used to play on the old rusted out wrecked cars beside our house when we were kids.  With our heads down, we would crawl up and over the cars pretending we were driving down the highway.  There was an imaginary line right down the middle of these old cars so we had to stay in our lane and not cause a wreck.  We must have been entertained easily back then – just like a cat, able to entertain ourselves with anything we came across.

But I’m glad Koki has taken up with him and they play chase.  They sound like bowling balls running back and forth across the floor upstairs.  And downstairs they get so caught up in playing that they really disturb the place by racing through the tunnel so quickly that it makes the nylon rustle loudly.  From there it’s swiftly scaling the cat tree, which makes it rock, and then jumping three foot to the chair that jolts from the sudden impact.  Then it’s racing through the tunnel again and across the tile, spinning their feet for traction, before heading up the stairs.  If they can make a racket and make something wobble its more fun.

 Tootie staying out of the melee

 

Tootie doesn’t get into all this, preferring to watch from her cushy place on the couch.  I try to keep waking her up, if I’m not upstairs writing, so she’ll sleep at night.  The last couple of months she’s kept us awake meowing all night for no reason.  I read on the net that older cats do that if they’re losing their hearing or going senile.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with her hearing, so I guess she’s on her way to Alzheimer’s.  Can cats get that?  I guess it’s time to get back on Google.