It's the eve of Easter Sunday and I can't believe the weekend flew by again. As is usually the case when I visit my parents, I had a very nice weekend but, again, as is usually the case, I wish it were longer.
Still, I shouldn't look ahead to Monday while Sunday is still all around so I'm not going to do so. Instead, I'm going to relish the waning hours of the weekend. It's the perfect night to curl up and relax since it's raining outside and from the look of the giant lake that used to be my lawn, has been for quite some time.
It wasn't raining at my parents. While I would have had a wet Saturday had I stayed home, instead I enjoyed a lovely, windy, warm spring day in Indiana. My parents and I took advantage of it by going out and about, stopping at Menards, the home improvement store and browsing the garden centre. It was the perfect day to be outside, planning the spring garden.
Afterwards, we decided to go see "Water for Elephants" at the cinema. Both my mum and I had read the book and enjoyed it and we were curious to see how it did as a film. My quick review was that...it was ok. It's redundant to say the book was better because nine times out of ten, that's usually the case. The movie version seemed to just lack...something. Perhaps it was dirt and the other signs of a depression era circus. Having been a big fan of HBO's cancelled series, "Carnivale," I was expecting "Water for Elephants" to be more like that which was also set around a travelling carnival. It wasn't a bad movie per se. It was just a little lifeless. I've been trying hard to keep an open mind about Robert Pattinson. Given my intense dislike of "Twilight", I've still tried hard to not judge him solely on that. I liked him as Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", after all. Then I recently watched "Remember Me," another movie in which Pattinson stars. I wasn't impressed. Still, I thought perhaps he'd win me over in "Water for Elephants."
Sadly, he didn't. I think it's official: He's just not a very good actor. It's not that he doesn't try. It's just that he lacks charisma and is rather stiff. He seems to work very hard at his acting but it shows that he's working hard. He's a brooder without many interesting qualities. It also didn't help that Christoph Waltz played August, the villain of the movie and was fantastic.
Overall, it was an ok movie but just didn't make me say, "Wow, they did a great job with that." However, given the sad lack of good movies being made, it was definitely one of the better ones I've seen in a while.
The rest of the weekend went by fast. Today, being Easter, was nice and Easter-y and full of family. I got play with my niece who has very strict rules to the games she makes up. We played "Princesses" in which I got to be a fairy godmother to my nieces' princess- I got to make up wishes to give to my niece. It was all rather fun. I love playing with my niece because she's so uninhibited. She loves to dance and sing and she likes me to join in her dancing. Dancing with a four-year-old is fabulous because flailing is encouraged and this happens to be my specialty in dancing.
It was sad to come back home after such a nice day but that's part of being a grownp. The pups and I returned to a deluge of rain, loud thunder and a washed-out back garden. Also, I have a horrible feeling my freezer is broken because all my food was defrosted in there. I'm hoping it's because I was silly enough to leave the door open a crack before I left for the weekend. I've done it before. It's annoying but at least it doesn't require a new freezer. I'm hoping that it starts freezing again but given the rather eerie silence that's usually filled with its buzzing, I'm not holding out much hope. April has not been the best month for me as a homeowner with termites and lawnmowers and perhaps a need for a new freezer.
Still, I'm not worrying about it. I'm fortunate enough to have a little deep freezer where I keep my meat so at least I didn't lose a lot of valuable food- mostly just junk food and such. I'm trying to look on the bright side. After all, there's no point in worrying about it because there's nothing I can do...annoying things happen. It's how we deal with them that matters.
I'm choosing to deal with my freezer by saving the food that I can and throwing the rest away and hoping it's an easy fix. If not, like Scarlett O'Hara, I'll worry about it tomorrow. There's no point in wasting the last of the weekend with worry!
Happy Monday and I hope you had a great Easter!
Showing posts with label flooding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flooding. Show all posts
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Wet Days and Offended Dachshunds
Today has been a very wet sort of day. We started having thunderstorms around 2 a.m. I know this because I have a little dog who is not fond of thunderstorms and I awoke to find her struggling to find her way under the covers (She tends to get tangled between the sheet and the comforter and can’t figure out how to get under the sheet) while simultaneously trying to sit on my chest. Soon afterwards, I saw a flash of lightning, heard the crash of thunder and discovered that Rory had, in fact, found her way under the covers where she proceeded to burrow down by my knees which is her place of safety.
Sookie, meanwhile, leisurely wriggled herself under the covers where she spooned up against me in her favourite position. Sookie has an amazing ability to wriggle into a comfy position with very little movement. Rory, on the other hand, tends to live up to her middlename of Wrigglebottom and thrashes, wiggles and squirms her way to where she wants to go.
For the rest of the night, the storms rumbled. I woke up sporadically, as did the dogs. By the time my alarm went off, the thunderstorms had subsided but the rain continued to pour down.
It finally stopped for a while around 1 p.m. We’re supposed to have more storms tonight through tomorrow. I like a good thunderstorm and I love heavy rain. My only problem is that I’m having a wee bit of a problem with flooding in my back garden.
My area of Cincinnati is built on a spring. This means that the water table is high to begin with which is why we can’t have basements or anything. This also means it can get quite wet when it rains because, eventually, there’s nowhere to where the water can drain.
I’m a little sad about my Soggy Lake of Wetness that has taken over the back garden. I planted asparagus last year. It requires a trench to allow the ferns to grow and drop seeds. Unfortunately, this provides a nice place for water to gather, sit and then flood outwards. Since we’ve had a ton of rain already this spring, I’m pretty certain my asparagus is no more.
Also, it means I have little Ponds of Wetness all across my lawn. I watch the dogs try to dodge the Ponds as they do their business. For two dogs that enjoy getting down and dirty when they dig in the mud and who can tear through a giant puddle without thought if a squirrel appears, my two girls are decidedly finicky about rain. They don’t really like it. They do not like to get their feet wet. Being dachshunds, their tummies are quite close to the ground so, chances are, if their feet are getting wet, so are their tummies. Thus, as soon as they tear out the back door and discover the grass is soaked, they stop dead in their tracks, stare disdainfully around and then stare at me reproachfully as if the rain is my fault.
I’d expect nothing less, honestly. Dachshunds tend to take things personally. They sulk if you offend them and you must bribe them to forgive you with either lots of cuddling or with a treat. Usually, it takes both a cuddle and a treat. The problem is that you don’t always know what it is you’ve actually done. Some nights, I’m sitting on the couch with Sookie sleeping draped over the back of the couch and Rory sleeping beside me when, without prompting, Rory will sit up, give me a filthy look and then go sit in her crate in a huff.
The thing is I know I should just ignore her and let her sulk. After all, I haven’t done anything.
It’s not that easy, of course. She usually stays in her snit until I end up laying on the floor with my head in the crate whispering sweet nothings in her ear while petting her. Yes, I am embarrassed to admit this but there you have it. Captain Monkeypants often sticks her head in a dog crate. At least I’m honest.
Anyway, going back to the rain and our soggy back yard. At present, the water has drained a little since it’s not raining. This means that there are still puddles all over the place but the Soggy Lake of Wetness has drained. If I do walk across the grass, there will be squelching and splashing.
Naturally, it doesn’t help that my grass is also a little jungle like at present due to the exploded lawnmower situation. I was hoping to remedy the lawnmower situation soon but, unfortunately, silly Captain Monkeypants trusted that when UPS says a package is "out for delivery", it means it might be delivered. As I write this blog at almost 8:30 p.m., my package is to be delivered by "The End of the Day". I'm not sure how that translates in UPS time but, well, let's just say I figured it'd be here by now and it's not. If it does get here tonight, it's going to be too late to do anything but attempt to get the 100 lb box into my living room. Which is likely to be an adventure unto itself. One that is reliant on UPS. Which is to say...it might not happen. Anyway...moving on...
The sad fact is that even though I have a nice unexploded mower due to be delivered any moment now (or tomorrow, depending on how long UPS "Day" actually is), I can’t use it. I’m afraid if I subjected it to the Soggy Lake of Wetness, I might accidentally explode this mower too. I don’t want to blow up another mower especially a new one.
Thus, my poor dogs have a small reason to give me dirty looks when they have to go outside during wet times at the moment. The grass is about as tall as they are and rather than just get wet tummies, they also just get…wet.
On the plus side, it does deter them from escape attempts and from barking too much at the squirrels and bunnies that taunt the girls by showing themselves and then staying out of reach. It also means I don’t have to keep checking on them to make sure they aren’t Up to No Good because most likely, they’re in the house.
Of course, when they are in the house, they’re generally sulking because the rain means they don’t get a walk and they’re bored.
Have I mentioned that dachshunds take things personally?
Happy Wednesday!
Sookie, meanwhile, leisurely wriggled herself under the covers where she spooned up against me in her favourite position. Sookie has an amazing ability to wriggle into a comfy position with very little movement. Rory, on the other hand, tends to live up to her middlename of Wrigglebottom and thrashes, wiggles and squirms her way to where she wants to go.
For the rest of the night, the storms rumbled. I woke up sporadically, as did the dogs. By the time my alarm went off, the thunderstorms had subsided but the rain continued to pour down.
It finally stopped for a while around 1 p.m. We’re supposed to have more storms tonight through tomorrow. I like a good thunderstorm and I love heavy rain. My only problem is that I’m having a wee bit of a problem with flooding in my back garden.
My area of Cincinnati is built on a spring. This means that the water table is high to begin with which is why we can’t have basements or anything. This also means it can get quite wet when it rains because, eventually, there’s nowhere to where the water can drain.
I’m a little sad about my Soggy Lake of Wetness that has taken over the back garden. I planted asparagus last year. It requires a trench to allow the ferns to grow and drop seeds. Unfortunately, this provides a nice place for water to gather, sit and then flood outwards. Since we’ve had a ton of rain already this spring, I’m pretty certain my asparagus is no more.
Also, it means I have little Ponds of Wetness all across my lawn. I watch the dogs try to dodge the Ponds as they do their business. For two dogs that enjoy getting down and dirty when they dig in the mud and who can tear through a giant puddle without thought if a squirrel appears, my two girls are decidedly finicky about rain. They don’t really like it. They do not like to get their feet wet. Being dachshunds, their tummies are quite close to the ground so, chances are, if their feet are getting wet, so are their tummies. Thus, as soon as they tear out the back door and discover the grass is soaked, they stop dead in their tracks, stare disdainfully around and then stare at me reproachfully as if the rain is my fault.
I’d expect nothing less, honestly. Dachshunds tend to take things personally. They sulk if you offend them and you must bribe them to forgive you with either lots of cuddling or with a treat. Usually, it takes both a cuddle and a treat. The problem is that you don’t always know what it is you’ve actually done. Some nights, I’m sitting on the couch with Sookie sleeping draped over the back of the couch and Rory sleeping beside me when, without prompting, Rory will sit up, give me a filthy look and then go sit in her crate in a huff.
The thing is I know I should just ignore her and let her sulk. After all, I haven’t done anything.
It’s not that easy, of course. She usually stays in her snit until I end up laying on the floor with my head in the crate whispering sweet nothings in her ear while petting her. Yes, I am embarrassed to admit this but there you have it. Captain Monkeypants often sticks her head in a dog crate. At least I’m honest.
Anyway, going back to the rain and our soggy back yard. At present, the water has drained a little since it’s not raining. This means that there are still puddles all over the place but the Soggy Lake of Wetness has drained. If I do walk across the grass, there will be squelching and splashing.
Naturally, it doesn’t help that my grass is also a little jungle like at present due to the exploded lawnmower situation. I was hoping to remedy the lawnmower situation soon but, unfortunately, silly Captain Monkeypants trusted that when UPS says a package is "out for delivery", it means it might be delivered. As I write this blog at almost 8:30 p.m., my package is to be delivered by "The End of the Day". I'm not sure how that translates in UPS time but, well, let's just say I figured it'd be here by now and it's not. If it does get here tonight, it's going to be too late to do anything but attempt to get the 100 lb box into my living room. Which is likely to be an adventure unto itself. One that is reliant on UPS. Which is to say...it might not happen. Anyway...moving on...
The sad fact is that even though I have a nice unexploded mower due to be delivered any moment now (or tomorrow, depending on how long UPS "Day" actually is), I can’t use it. I’m afraid if I subjected it to the Soggy Lake of Wetness, I might accidentally explode this mower too. I don’t want to blow up another mower especially a new one.
Thus, my poor dogs have a small reason to give me dirty looks when they have to go outside during wet times at the moment. The grass is about as tall as they are and rather than just get wet tummies, they also just get…wet.
On the plus side, it does deter them from escape attempts and from barking too much at the squirrels and bunnies that taunt the girls by showing themselves and then staying out of reach. It also means I don’t have to keep checking on them to make sure they aren’t Up to No Good because most likely, they’re in the house.
Of course, when they are in the house, they’re generally sulking because the rain means they don’t get a walk and they’re bored.
Have I mentioned that dachshunds take things personally?
Happy Wednesday!
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