Bones

Meet Bones.

I first saw bones asleep under our truck on the day before we were supposed to leave for vacation.  The temperatures were in the 100s that day, with a heatwave forecast for the entire time we were to be gone, so I gave the poor, starving cat some food and water.

Then I called animal control to come get him.  They take cats to a nearby no-kill shelter and I felt that was the cat's only chance to survive the heatwave.  By the time they got here, he had vanished.

When we returned six very hot days later, there was the cat!  He'd made it, somehow.  Now that we're back with no plans to leave for more than a couple of days at a time, we named him Bones and decided to see if we can restore his health.

He's so thin that I can hardly stand to pet him, except for on his head and his tail.  He's literally just skin and bones.  As far as we can tell, though, he is just malnourished. 

He's missing large clumps of fur and seems to have an injury in his mouth, but there are no other bruises, cuts, or lesions of any kind.  His eyes are bright and the fur he does still have is soft, shiny and not matted.  He is the most loving cat I've known in a long, long time, and not fearful of us in the least.  He was obviously a pet until just recently, as he has no front claws and has been neutered.  We suspect someone moved and left him behind, either because they couldn't find him or couldn't take him with them for some reason.

He stays in our front yard and sleeps in the storm drain when he's not eating or being petted by us.  We are careful to wash our hands thoroughly after we are done petting him.  We don't plan to bring him inside with our other cats, but will be glad to have him as another outside cat.  We will eventually have him checked out by a vet to assess his health.  We don't want to do so just yet,  because we are afraid the vet will want to put him down.  We don't think that's going to be necessary, though.

Stay tuned for more pics as Bones (hopefully) puts on some weight and becomes a healthy cat again.

I'm Down With That

I just don't know what "that" is.  At first I just thought it was post-vacation blahs, but no, it's something else.  Body aches and shooting pains in my back and legs, headache, sinus pressure, feeling hot then chilled, nausea, thick snot. 

What? That last bit was too" informative"?  Sorry.

The little shooting twinges are a dead giveaway that I have some kind of infection.  I suspect sinus.  Or maybe ear, since I heard some vacation river water rattling around in there a couple of times.

I didn't take all of my antibiotics from the last time I had sinus infection (bad), so I'm taking them now (bad).  Shane usually calls me at lunch, and as soon as that happens, I'm putting myself down for a nap (good).

I'll be back when I feel better.

Back to School???

Is summer vacation almost over? 

It would seem that way, judging from the ads in Sunday's paper and the back-to-school displays in the store.  As for us, we still have about a third left.  As of tomorrow, seven weeks behind us and five left to go.

Since Kat received a gift card for her birthday that was burning a hole in her pocket, we went shopping this morning.  And since we were there, and the school supply list for our school was there, and the school supplies where there, I went ahead and picked up what Kat needs to start 4th Grade in August.

Our district doesn't ask for much.  This year, they asked for a little more than in the past, but it's still not much compared to some other schools.  I got this pile of supplies for right at $10.

It's three spiral notebooks, 1 package of loose leaf paper, 2 packs of pencils, a package of ball point pens, a package of highlighters, a box each of crayons, colored pencils and markers and a couple of glue sticks. 

The list also called for scissors, a school supplies box and a backpack (things we already had at home), two boxes of tissues (that I still need to buy) and a bottle of hand sanitizer (which I'll opt out of buying because I think it's unnecessary and may not be safe).

It's a small list, really, and I didn't mind paying $10 for what we bought, but I can't help but wonder if Kat will use these things.  Every year, at least one or two items are sent home unused, usually around the winter break, and usually it's the spiral notebooks and/or the supplies box.  I wish, instead, the school would just ask for items as they are needed.  I guess I could opt out of buying all of these things, but I suppose I'd end up paying more for them later when they aren't on a back-to-school sale.


POP QUIZ:

1. Has anyone else purchased school supplies for this fall? 
2. Does your school ask for items that probably won't be used? 
3. Is your school's list long or short? 
4. If you are a homeschooling family, do you take advantage of the back-to-school sales to stock your at-home class rooms or do you wait to buy things as you need them? 
5. If you don't have kids at home, do you still take advantage of the sales?  (In addition to office supplies, it's a great time to buy new underwear and socks...)
6. Most importantly -- do you think summer really is almost over??? 

Explain your answers.

Livable Living Room

There's nothing like coming home from vacation to make me realize just how dirty and messy our house is.  It seems like time away makes it easier to see all those things I've been overlooking and ignoring.  One thing I wish I hadn't overlooked was the breakfast burrito and bowl of strawberries I made for Shane on the morning we left for vacation -- last Wednesday.  I stuck it in the microwave for safekeeping while he took care of a few last minute chores.  We were 30 miles down the road by the time we remembered it was still in the microwave. 

Ew.  Just, Ew.

But enough about my past.  Back to the present.  After catching up on a few things that had to be done today, like watering the garden, bringing in a small harvest, and starting some laundry, I decided to tackle a room of the house.  I let Kat choose for me, since choosing seemed beyond my capabilities today.  She picked the living room, and I tacked on our one hallway as well. 

It's not spotless, but I gave it a pretty good top-to-bottom cleaning:

• Cleared out any items that don't belong in this room
• Organized the hall (coat) closet
• Dusted the ceiling fan and attached light fixture
• Cleaned cobwebs from the ceiling and corners
• Dusted the blinds
• Cleaned the windows
• Removed cat hair from upholstered furniture
• Dusted the furniture, wall decor, etc.
• Cleaned all glass surfaces
• Swept and cleaned the laminate entryway
• Vacuumed
• Spot-treated the carpeting

Here's what I can think of that I didn't do:

• Clean the glass in the front storm door
• Wash the curtains (they'll surely fall apart if I do)
• Organize the photos in the cedar chest that we use as a side table.

That last one has been an item on my to do list since my mother-in-law gave me this chest in 2001.  The only time I open it is to quickly shove another photo inside.  Nope, it's not likely I'll be checking this off my list today.

So, at least one room is livable again.  I'm going to do my best to ignore the rest, at least until tomorrow.

Vacation Days 5 and 6 - More Fun in the Sun

Our last episode ended with a little rain.  That storm intensified a little to the east of us and dropped what is believed to be a small tornado in Cuba, just a little while after we left there.  But all that happened in the campground was some heavier rain for the rest of the evening and the loss of wi-fi in the campground.  Wi-fi in Missouri State Parks is a new amenity.  It's so new, in fact, that the maintenance guys didn't know what to do to get it back online, so we were without for the rest of our stay.  So what?  We were camping, after all.  It's not like we needed to be on the computer.

We woke up Sunday morning to bright sunny skies, so as soon as we could, we headed to the river.  We stayed a couple of hours, came "home" for lunch, and went back to the river for a few more hours.  By then, the skies were overcast again, but we didn't let that stop us a second day.  The temps dropped a little, but there weren't even any sprinkles until we were done playing and back at the camper.

Snorkling for sunfish.

Hey, she netted one!

Being a turtle.

Pretending to boogie board.  (It's touching bottom).

Since it was Sunday night, most folks had moved out.  There were just three other RVs in the whole park and a couple of tents.  None of them were near us, though, so it was almost like having the entire park to ourselves.  It was very peaceful.

Today was almost a repeat of last Wednesday.  We spent most of our day driving.  This time we did take the great advice of the Osage Bluff Quilter and ate at Steve's Family Restaurant in Lohman, MO.  It's about 5 or 6 miles off the main highway and worth the detour.  They don't have a website for me to link, but I can tell you they specialize in homemade fried chicken, catfish and ham, with sides like real mashed potatoes, country style green beans, pan gravy and local ice cream.  Served all-you-can-eat and family-style, of course.  It was absolutely the best food we had during our trip.

I was glad we ate there, but sorry that our change in camping plans also changed our plans to actually meet Patti and her husband.  I'm sure we'll catch up with them sooner or later, though.  Maybe we can use a return trip to Steve's Restaurant as an excuse to catch up with them...or use a visit with them as our excuse to go back to Steve's.  Sounds like a plan either way.

We pulled up in front of our house around 5:00 this evening, putting a wrap on this year's vacation.  But camping season isn't over yet.  I'm sure there will be a few more weekend trips in store before it is.

Vacation Day 4 - Wet

Today was cave day.   We went on a tour of Onondaga Cave, one of the show caves here in the park.  I was in this cave before, back in 1980 or 1981 on an impromptu camping trip with my sister and her family.  I can't remember much about it, but I did remember it's one of few caves that have "lily pad formation".  When we entered the cave this morning, it was a hot and humid 106° outside and a cool and clammy 57° under ground.  We came prepared, with jeans and jackets and were glad we did.

Later, we drove back in to Cuba to what might be the world's smallest Wal-Mart store.  Seriously.  It was about the size of a Dollar General, Alco, Pamida or whatever little department store you might have in your area.  It had just five checkout lines.  But they had what we needed, which was a small bottle of propane for our tabletop gas grill, a blow-up float ring for Kat, a pair of water shoes that won't rub blisters for me, and a pound of butter.  On a Saturday afternoon, we were in and out in 20 minutes.

We saw an unbelievable sight on our way home.  Rain!  Unless it clears soon, the lightning will knock us out of our swim today and possibly the fireworks display tonight (which was scheduled to make up for not having them on the 4th).  But it's all alright, because it just wouldn't be camping if it didn't rain on us at least a little.  And guess what?  Shane doesn't work until Tuesday, so we've decided to stay until Monday instead of leaving tomorrow.  We can't leave without one more day playing in the river!

Vacation Day 3 - Silly Roadside Attractions

We had a really low-key day today.  We slept in, ate all of our meals at camp, took some bike rides (despite the temps being as high as they were yesterday) and basically did a whole lot of nothing.

We did venture out in the afternoon to check out a couple of small towns in the area.  Their websites promised more than they actually delivered, unfortunately.  We did take just a few pictures, though.

The highlight of the day was that it clouded over and almost rained.  It was the talk of the town everywhere we went.

Canoe art in Steelville, MO, "The Floating Capital of the World".
Promising dark clouds in the background.

More canoe art.

And yet another.  The painted canoes are all over town.

"World's Largest Rocking Chair",  at Fanning 66 Outpost,
just outside of Cuba, MO.

A Route 66 mural, also at Fanning 66 Outpost.
Cuba is known as the "Route 66 Mural City".

Doin' a little front porch sittin' at the outpost.