Ready for Christmas

When the holidays get here, the cats get excited over all the hustle and bustle.  There’s so much activity in the house that it’s beyond the normal state of affairs in their worlds. 

The baby, Raven, especially likes all the happenings.  He likes to be right in the middle of all that goes on, lending a helping paw.

This cat is so tolerant of everything I want to involve him in.  He just loves attention, no matter what he has to do to get it, so he lets me dress him up and puts up with my silly notions.  How many cats do you know that would pose in a hat of any kind?

Raven

I’ve been dressing him up in hats all his life though so he expects such stuff from me.  He is such a dear and if I can put up with him chewing on my head at night I guess he can pose in the hats I make for him.

Here are Koki and Tootie also in the holiday spirit.

Koki

Tootie

Merry Christmas to all of you, dear readers.  Enjoy your loved ones as you get together with family and friends.  Have a happy and safe holiday.

A ray of sunshine in the dark clouds

I’m still plagued by car problems and now hubby also has to have a windshield replaced in his vehicle.  It had a pit in it from his trip to Oregon in October and a few days ago it split all the way across due to the cold weather. We had to scrape a quarter inch of ice off the windshield before we could get on the road.

I just got my car back out of the shop again, this time for an electrical problem that the mechanic thinks is in the front door panel.  This could be up to a $700 repair but he replaced a fuse and so far it’s working.  I’m crossing my fingers it continues to do so for the long term.  The tech told me he didn’t know how long it would last, a week, a month or a year or longer.  There was no way to know since everything showed up fine when he scoped the car on the machine they use.

The ray of sunshine in all this is that the guy came to my house to get my car and take it to the shop about ten miles away.  That evening he gave me a loaner car that he delivered to my house at 8:30 PM.  I would like to know what other mechanic does this?  He made sure the car was an automatic too and had gas so I could get to work and back while he had my car in the shop. 

 This is the loaner car, which reminded me of a demolition derby car

 

Now I have to say this loaner car was like driving a tank and not the prettiest thing in the world but it was wheels and got me where I needed to go.  Beggars can’t be choosy, right?  Also the car was definitely a smoker’s vehicle.  It about knocked me over to stick my head in there so I emptied half a bottle of Fabreeze in the car and let it sit overnight so I could breathe driving to work and back. But again, beggars can’t be choosy.  I was extremely grateful he loaned me the car because he didn’t have to do that.

 This thing had dings everywhere and you could view the trunk from inside the car

 

Be thankful for all your blessings, big or small.  There’s always something to be grateful for, even when a dark cloud hovers over your head.

Mopping the floors

Industrial mop bucket

Seriously, does anyone still do this regularly today?  I forgot how strenuous this is.  I vacuumed and then mopped my whole house today.  Tonight I’m worn out and have a sneaky suspicion that I’m going to hurt in places tomorrow that I haven’t thought about in some time. 

I live in a 3300 sq ft house and about half of it is tile.  I wish the whole thing was tile but, of course, that would have meant more work for me today.

I don’t think my neighbor has ever mopped her house and she’s been there about nine years I would guess.  My other girlfriend never mops her house either.  I don’t do it as often as I would like because it wears me out, but at least the place does get mopped about four or five times a year.  It’s nice to have the place clean and get rid of all the red sand and dust.

Now tomorrow it’s back to work.  I hate spending my entire day off doing chores but sometimes that’s how it is.  I did catch a beautiful sunset through the front windows, so propped the mop in the corner and stretched over to grab my camera and not touch the wet floors so I could snap a pic.  I can’t let a good sunset go by.

 Sunset from my courtyard

 

My cats follow me about and roll on the wet floor.  I have an industrial mop bucket.  I use hot water and add a bit of Clorox and lavender Fabulosa to it.  That smell drives them crazy I guess.  Someday I’ll Google it as I do everything else I have a question about.