Death stinks.
No, no – I mean it. Death really stinks. Last weekend, as we were congratulating ourselves over our near miss with Hurricane Rita, our sweet pooch found a playmate under the house. Unfortunately, Blaze doesn’t play well with others.
Monday afternoon we came home from our first day of work post-Rita, and noticed an odd smell in the house. I thought it was a dead mouse in the wall. We had a dead raccoon in the yard a while pack, and the smell was reminiscent of that poor thing. Another one of Blaze’s playmates.
We didn’t think too much of it, and went to bed. The next morning the smell didn’t seem so bad, so I thought it was going away.
That night when we got home, however, it was worse. We sniffed and searched, trying to find out the source of the stench. No avail, so we burned some candles.
The next morning, again, the smell was almost gone. Hmm. Seems like we need a problem solver on this case. Doreen crawled under the house to try and find the problem, but she could smell nothing there. (Doreen is the small one in the family, you see, so she is the one who goes under the house. I am the one who puts things on shelves and carries things around)
That night (Wednesday) again, the smell was back. Now Doreen had a theory – it was coming from the Air Conditioner. Yipes! We turned it off, and let it sit a while. We then turned it back on, and yes indeed! Death from the Air Conditioner vents! It was too late to go under the house, so we skedaddled upstairs to get away from the smell.
The next morning the smell was gone until the AC kicked in again. Then it was worse than ever. Doreen crawls under the house again to see if there was a break in the duct work. Yes, she said, from under the house, a break in the duct work indeed. She was looking to see if a small animal had crawled into the duct, when she spotted the four day dead opossum, looking like four day dead mammal would look. And she didn’t vomit! I was really proud of her.
So I volunteered to go to the hardware store and buy some lime to cover up the carcass. I got to Southland Hardware, and they told me that they had run out of 10 lb bags of lime. So I opted for a 50 lb bag. (it was only $8.00)
I got home with the lime, and Doreen (bless her soul!) when under the house AGAIN! She is too good for words. She covered the thing with lime, and we called the AC folks to come and fix their error. By the time we got home that evening, the stench was completely gone!
That lime is something.
September 30, 2005
September 28, 2005
September 27, 2005
Words with no English equivalent
I want to have a Tingo at our friends Charles and Eddie's House!
BBC NEWS | Magazine | Tingo, nakkele and other wonders
BBC NEWS | Magazine | Tingo, nakkele and other wonders
September 26, 2005
September 25, 2005
September 24, 2005
Back to normal
She’s gone.
For us in Houston, she was a flirtation. The bat of an eye, a smile, maybe one close slow dance. But then she ran off with that Beautiful Hill, Beaumont.
No hard feelings, of course. No hearts here were broken. We knew that she would leave us at some point anyway.
We now have sunny skies, and almost no wind. We took a nice bike ride this afternoon, and saw a lot of leaves blown down. A few big branches down, mostly from the brittle trees – Pecan, Chinese Tallow, maybe a Water Oak or two. Everyone is in a very talkative mood. It reminds me of that Churchill quote “There is nothing so exhilarating as being shot without result” We have been shot at, and missed.
Many folks boarded up windows and did other serious hurricane preparation. They were all taking their plywood down today. One couple asked us why we didn’t do anything, as “You live in a glass house!” Just playing the odds, I guess.
Now I just hope that our local NPR station gets back to their regular programming in time for Garrison Keilor.
We lost our cable modem for about five hours. That I can live with. A couple of plants got beaten down. And now we get back to our normal lives.
For us in Houston, she was a flirtation. The bat of an eye, a smile, maybe one close slow dance. But then she ran off with that Beautiful Hill, Beaumont.
No hard feelings, of course. No hearts here were broken. We knew that she would leave us at some point anyway.
We now have sunny skies, and almost no wind. We took a nice bike ride this afternoon, and saw a lot of leaves blown down. A few big branches down, mostly from the brittle trees – Pecan, Chinese Tallow, maybe a Water Oak or two. Everyone is in a very talkative mood. It reminds me of that Churchill quote “There is nothing so exhilarating as being shot without result” We have been shot at, and missed.
Many folks boarded up windows and did other serious hurricane preparation. They were all taking their plywood down today. One couple asked us why we didn’t do anything, as “You live in a glass house!” Just playing the odds, I guess.
Now I just hope that our local NPR station gets back to their regular programming in time for Garrison Keilor.
We lost our cable modem for about five hours. That I can live with. A couple of plants got beaten down. And now we get back to our normal lives.
Now it's raining hard
We are just now starting to see winds and rain. From the radar it looks like the bands will continue hitting us for a while. As I mention below, I hope she moves fast and gets out of the area. That would mean less rain, and less wind. We still have a lot of trees around, and I don’t want them breaking power lines or windows.
We are not out of the woods yet, but it looks better now than it did twelve hours ago.
More later.
We are not out of the woods yet, but it looks better now than it did twelve hours ago.
More later.
Rita Hits
She’s on shore near Beaumont.
We are getting some strong gusts of wind, but not much rain.
I hope it moves fast and doesn’t drop much rain.
September 23, 2005
She keeps moving east
First Signs of Rita in Houston
Waiting for Rita
Now we are just waiting. We have moved everything inside, we have stocked up on provisions, we have assembled our disaster kit. The weather is still fine, but it feels ominous. (That is probably projection) The storm is still coming into the east of us, for which we are thankful.
We have a small pond with fish in it, and we are debating whether or not to put them into a bucket. I think not, Doreen thinks so. We’ll see how the rain comes.
The radar shows the rain starting to come in from the coast. You can see it here, and I will post a snapshot as well.
The strange thing about hurricanes qua natural disasters is that you KNOW they are coming. You may not know exactly where, and you certainly don’t know exactly what trouble they will cause, but you KNOW they are coming and you have a lot of time to think about it. Some take that time to prepare (putting up plywood, buying provisions) others take the time to just wait and watch. We still don’t know what exactly will happen as the storm moves. She could still swing west and nail us, she could keep heading west and threaten Louisiana.
My best to all my relatives in Louisiana. I hope that the storm splits the difference between us.
More later.
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