Irene Prep

Short trip to the store this morning. Four gallons of water. A loaf of bread. Frozen yogurt – Cherry Garcia (only because I needed more).

Yesterday I purchased some AA batteries because every flashlight in the house takes AA batteries.

Radio is charging, cell phone will be charged over night, iPad and MacBook too. If I have electricity, I’ll have enough toys to play with. If there’s no power – I can still play with toys until the batteries are done.

Hurricane food – water, bread and peanut butter. I also have some granola bars and chips and other stuff…

I’ve battened down the hatches outside. All flying objects are in the shed or house. Chairs are stacked, maybe I’ll lay them down tomorrow if the wind forecast changes.

I have candles and matches.

I’m all set here. Bring it! and now they are saying it’ll be sunny on Sunday afternoon. That works too!

All y’alls be safe. Maybe I’ll post some pictures if there’s anything of note.

5.8 … 5.9

You say po-tA-toe, I say po-ta-toe… My house shook back and forth. My house should not shake back and forth (or in any direction for that matter!). The cats scattered and stayed under the bed for a couple of hours (I was going to join them if it happened again).

Many California types scoffed at the reaction in this region, but we don’t have earthquakes like this here! That’s why we live here! Also, this was much different from the 5.8-ish I experienced about 10 years ago in the San Francisco area. I was there for business and the hotel was on land fill so there was a gentle swaying. What I experienced yesterday was not gentle and certainly was not swaying – it was a rather violent shaking back and forth (probably enhanced by the fact that I’m in one of eight connected townhouses – so back and forth is the only option).

So, a couple of photos from the news last night:

I didn’t feel any (I don’t think) but there’s always today and tomorrow and the future… ick.

Wide area felt “the earth move under my feet” – interesting how it was felt so far north but not equally far south.

May have felt the one at 8:04, I was eating with friends and at one point the table moved but not sure if this was the time it happened.

and, oh yeah, by the way, there’s a hurricane headed our way over the weekend! Geez are ya kidding me?!?

Let’s all be safe out there!

Intruder

Over the past couple of weeks there’s been an intruder in the backyard. An orange cat with white markings on his face. He’s visited a few times and each time has upset Basil greatly. Basil sits at the back door and tries to go through the glass to rid our property of this intruder.

One day I came home and the house alarm has tripped on the back door. They must have been banging around a lot to trip the alarm. The last straw was when that thing came over around 4AM and Basil felt it necessary to defend his property. Loudly.

I certainly don’t blame Basil, as a matter of fact I commended him but something has got to stop this thing… Meet “Scarecrow” (bottom right of the picture):

Motion detector sprinkler!!! I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!!! I have it set with a small arc that allows the birds to feed at the feeder – and as long as they don’t stray too close to the house – they won’t get wet. It is sensitive though and I saw the birds get sprayed at the foot of the steps. They flew away but came back to the feeder, so all is good. This’ll keep them away from the steps, which isn’t a bad thing.

Now I just have to remember to turn it off before I go down the stairs – so now there’s a note on the back door…

I hope this keeps the intruder away so Basil doesn’t have to defend is house anymore.

Shoe Storage

I have a “toy box” that is probably about 55+ years old – it was my cousin’s when she was little, then my brother used it and then me. Since I was the last to use it, I asked my Dad to paint it (to cover up the kooky clowns) – so he painted and air-brushed a rainbow across it – vintage 1977-ish (if you couldn’t guess). Well, it has weathered pretty well, but it stores sweaters that I never wear – so maybe it was time to let it go.

C and I talked about it and we figured a way to repurpose it. So, last weekend I emptied it and now have a large bag for Goodwill.

A trip to Ikea to procure shoe storage boxes and a pile (and I mean a pile!) or shoes that have been thrown in the closet over time…