Two Blonde Problem

Maine Coon Cat and I

We have a Maine Coon Cat named Newman. Newman was my sister’s cat and we adopted him after my sister died. The cat and I have never really hit it off, we do not dislike each other, but we definitely do not go out of our way to be together.

I decided that it must be our hair color. Our hair color is almost the same and It must be that it is a blonde thing. 8-)

Newman likes to be petted, but when he has had enough he bites you. I just want to smack him when he does that. He will also park himself in a walk way so you have to walk around him or step on him.  If you step on him he screams like he is being cut up and being killed or is being pulled apart. If you go near the cupboard where the cat food is stored he loudly demands to be fed. His latest thing is that he lays on what he thinks is his rug that is right in front of the toilet in the one bath room. He will not let you get to the toilet. If you try to shoo him  away he bites and swipes his claws at you. When you have to go, it is not the time I want to deal with the cat.

My sister let him come and go via a cat door at her home. We have too many stray cats with cat aids in our area so he became an inside cat. Newman is determined to get out and explore so we have had to Newman proof the windows and doors and watch that he does not escape when we go in and out.

I guess it is not all that bad…he does make life more challenging and he is a handsome cat. After all, he is blonde.

No Grass in part of back yard=Waste Land

Grass will not grow in part of our back yard.

There is a section of our back yard where we cannot get grass to grow. It is a shaded area and the dog uses it as a run so it gets trampled well. But grass will grow between the flag stones of the walk around the house. Why or how grass can grow between the stones that get so hot you cannot walk on them and get no water I will never know, but it does just fine.

I have tried transplanting the between stone grass in the shaded moist dirt in the back yard but it dies. I tried sodding it once but the sod did not take. Maybe I watered it too much, and the dog liked to drag the pieces around. At least he had fun. Weeds do not like this area either. At least they would be green and would keep some of the dust down. Gravel could be an option but getting it back there and spreading it would be more work than I would want to do.

I guess it will just be my waste land and I should put a mock grave on it with a sign T.S. Elliot.  8-)

Big Money Any Day Now!

Big Money Any Day Now!

My sister knew she was going to get a big payoff from Publishers Clearinghouse. She was always sharp minded up to the last 9 months before she died. She, I think, was having mini strokes for about 2 years and lost much of her common sense, but the last 6 months were the most obvious to her friends. I lived more than 1200 miles away and did not know she was going downhill. My sister and I did not get along all that great.

After she died and I was working on her estate I learned from her best friend that she had been swindled out of much of her savings by a money manager that was buying and selling stocks for her. He got his fee each time he sold a stock and another fee when he bought another. The only one making money was him.

He talked her in to taking out a mortgage on her house that was already paid off so she could get a tax deduction and so she could have money for him to invest for her. Again, he was the only one that came out ahead on that deal. When her best friend discovered what was going on he had him fired, but she was out her savings.

She knew she was going to get a big payout from PCH because she kept getting letters from them telling her she was a winner and had been selected for the next stage in the giveaways. She always believed that you do not get anything free, so she would order something each time she got a new letter. I was dumbfounded by the PCH bills she had. She had magazine subscriptions of all types, and had ordered junk gifts that she would never use, still in the manufacture’s packaging. And of course the bills for these things were still coming in 6 months after she had died. She was on a auto send program where they would send her an idem each month and if she kept it, would be billed about two months later. Getting off PCH was a 9 month process and sending “She’s Dead” letters became normal.

It became a joke that “The big Check would come any day”. I started to put in the dead letter: “If the Estate gets a PCH winning check in the mail the Estate will pay the bill”.  That actually seemed to work in getting PCH stuff from coming and bills from coming.

My wife was working on a PCH mailing the other day and said that she had to go through the stuff two or three times to find the stickers and codes so she could send it back in. All I could think of was: THE BIG CHECK WILL SOON BE COMING TO OUR DOOR!

She said It could happen. My thoughts on that were: And the dog will not get fleas! But I did not say that out loud. I guess it could happen and I could possibly win at lotto if I played.

Sailed to Fort Meyers Beach

We just came back from a short sailboat trip to Fort Meyers Beach. It is only 32 miles from Alva down the river, but if you are actually sailing down the river and not motoring it takes the better part of two days. If the wind and tides are not in your favor you can do a lot of tacking and not get too far.

We had gotten a post card from the Pink Shell Resort and Marina offering a 2^nd day for ½ price promotion: You could stay at the marina and use the resort amenities. We called and reserved a space for our little 21 foot day sailor.

The first day sailing down was not too bad, light 6 to 10 knot winds from the north east. It was slow and it was basically a following wind. The 2^nd day there was 10 to 17 knot winds and I sailed like a shot down the river wing on wing. I had to reef the sails, and then had to motor the last part because the wind and tide made it unsafe to sail.

We pulled into the Marina and found the marina almost empty that night. The next day though, there were a number of 50’+ yachts that pulled in and docked. Our boat looked like a dingy and a well-used dingy at that.

One of the reasons we went there was that there is free internet service. The service was not working right and coupled with our boat being so low we could not connect.  That was a big disappointment. We had to go up to the resort to get network service.

We had the dog with us and he enjoyed himself immensely at the marina and almost everyone liked him. They had a dog walk area just as you got off the dock and that was convenient. He was not allowed on the resort side and most of the beaches in the area were "no dogs allowed." That was inconvenient. All in all, it was a nice trip and we got to use the resort pool, beach, fish a little and use the spa showers and steam room. The bathrooms for the marina were not done yet. We were not impressed with the resort eating places so we ate out or cooked our own. The big yacht owners were not impressed with the eating places either and went out to eat to other places also.

Would we go back? I would say an iffy maybe. They only charged by the foot of the boat. Many marinas in the area charge by the foot with a minimum charge for a boat of 30’ so the rate was fair. The marina and hotel staff were very nice and accommodating.  And it was nice to tie up next to Million dollar yachts. 8-)