You Know You've Done Something Right When ...

You know you have done something right when your 28 year-old daughter returns from an exciting trip to her political party's historic convention, and she says "I missed my mom and dad." Then in the next breath she tells you how her kitties snubbed her when she returned from her week long trip.

Yes, we spoiled her cats, making sure they didn't miss her much, by playing "mousie" with them when we went to care for them. To be fair, working full time and attending TTU full time doesn't leave much time for cat games.

I'm sure this is how most grandparents feel when their grandchildren are returned to the parents properly spoiled! I think I will just bask in the glow of my gloat!

Here's a Scary Thing

Road construction continues on Fairground street, the only access and egress route from our house. At any given hour of the day, you will see someone zip down our street, realize it is a dead end and do a u-turn in the abbreviated cul-de-sac.

Today, I saw an ambulance, lights flashing, siren screaming, do the same thing.

1. How could they not know about this construction since you both ends of Fairground are on major emergency routes and the construction has been going on for close to a year.

2. I would think Emergency Vehicle drivers would have to know how to get in and out of all the different subdivisions.

3. Hope the person inside the ambulance made it to the hospital!

That leads me to wonder about the fire department, which is basically volunteer. I am not sure how that works, but since we see tons of vehicles around town with "firefighter" on the license plates, do they need to drive themselves to the fire? Hope they have a better sense of direction than the ambulance drivers.

Grandkitty Sitting

While Obama supporter-alternate-delegate daughter is in Denver attending the Democratic National Convention, DH and I have been sitting for our grandkitties.

Their names, Luna and Tonks (of Harry Potter origin) suit them to a T. Luna, is a white cat with orange and black markings and Tonks is an orange and black cat. Both have orange and black raccoon-like tales.

Luna is rather shy until she gets to know you. By now, the critters know that when we come over we're going to feed them, clean up after them and play "mousie" with them. They love the little mousie game. Grams or Gramps will tug that little furry mouse for them and drag it all over until one or both cats makes their move. We've decided that there shouldbe a cat Olympics and that Luna would certainly qualify for a high jump.

Tonks is the adventurous and friendlier one. Neither cat really likes to snuggle with anyone but mom, but they do like to curl up right under your feet, making getting up from a couch a bit difficult at times.

The New Olympics

Nah, I'm not referring to the previous two weeks of athletic competition, but the next two weeks of political Olympics. Apparently, it has been 52 years since there have been back to back conventions. It sure is making for some interesting viewing.

Day 1. Ted Kennedy wins a gold medal for the Lazarus jump. Many people have written him off due to his brain tumor. But being Ted, he was at the convention and stood and made a speech. Pretty Amazing.

Michelle Obama gets silver medal for her pulling foot out of mouth speech. She almost, but not quite, made up for her "This is the first time I have been proud to be an American" remark made during the primaries. The woman is a lawyer. She knows how to measure words. You will never convince me that remark was not made on purpose.

Larry King Live won the bronze medal for the most entertaining rehash of that days happenings. The nightly program has Republican critics this week and next week has Democrat critics.

Day 2. The Gold definitely goes to Hillary Clinton. One may not agree with what she said, but she sure put her message across. The message was vote for Barack, but nothing about him being qualified. Kind of interesting that. We know Hillary will make that run again. I'm sure she'll start campaigning again after the November election.

The silver went to Chelsea Clinton for calling her mom her hero. Would anyone believe her if she called her dad her hero?

And the bronze today went to whats-his-name, the governor of Montana. I found what he had to say pretty interesting and happen to agree with him about finding other sources of energy. But that should be a common thread among ALL the speeches.

I don't know how the medals will work out, but am sure that Obama will get one Thursday night. If he can't get a gold at Invesco Field, maybe the Dems should rethink their choice.

Thoughts on a Rainy Tuesday

We are at long last getting some serious rain here in the south. We've been under severe drought conditions for the last year. Unfortunately, there is some wind and lots of leaves are down. And it looks like I am growing a lake on my front lawn.

A friend tells me that Mars is supposed to be as close to the earth as it will be until the year 2227 tonight, 11:30 CDT. I think it is probable that we won't be able to see it through all the clouds and rain.

Watched the convention last night. Forgot how boring it is. I am continuously astounded how people state that they look up to Ted Kennedy. He sets such a shining example! Hello? The man is the responsible for the death of a young woman. Money still buys a lot! I want term limits. Gotta get some of these old farts out of power.

I've been doing some laptop research, searching for that perfect replacement for my old Gateway. I used to know what they were talking about, but now the OS's are so complicated. You have to choose between Basic, Premium, Business and Ultimate. Yeesh. Remember DOS? Oh well, the search continues for that.

Time to go feed and play with the grand-kitties while older daughter is at the Democratic National Convention.

Watchin' the Convention

As I sit here and listen to Michelle Obama talk about almost everyone but Barak, and looking for an alternate delegate from Tennessee, I am struck by stupid things. I swear there is a woman in the audience that looks like she's expecting the second coming. It's like a cult! The alternate delegate from Tennessee has some experience with cults. I'm wondering if she is catching from the nosebleed section what I am.

I find it interesting that the only person not present at the DNC is Obama himself. I wonder why? Maybe he doesn't want to confront the Hillary supporters?

Downside of a Large Lot

One of the things we really like about our little town is the average lot size. As a general rule they are 100 x 200. Ours is slightly smaller than that due to the subdivision by the Original Owners. See, they built a garage on the east side of their lot that straddled the original lot line. Since they owned both lots, it wasn't a big deal for them.

Since Mr. Original Owner died a few years back, and Mrs. Original Owner no longer wanted to deal with the extra lot, she had it re-subdivided narrowing it down a bit to an area that is just under the usual half-acre.

This was fine with us. We ended up with the lot we wanted anyway, that had at least 50 trees on it. Turns out, there were more than that, because we ended up pulling down half that for a total of about 28 trees. While we are still left with about 28 trees, we can see 3 that need to come down. In December, when all this was taking place, we made wild guesses about which ones should go. What really hurt was bringing down the four 50-foot trees. DH thought the lot was devastated when we saw the aftermath, but now with the new house, there, he knows we did the right thing.

I know it is August, but we have a yard that is rapidly accumulating fallen leaves. Part of that is due to the severe drought we had last year, and the still drought-like conditions we are experiencing this year. The tulip poplar does drop leaves early, regardless, and the dogwoods are changing color and some dropping leaves too. All that is missing is the cooler weather. And the people with the rakes!