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Critter Escapades

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:06:13 GMT

I've written a few times about our kids' antics, but something I NEVER thought I'd do on a blog is write about a cat, at least a housecat. It's one of those cliches of the internet, right up there with recounting what you had for breakfast or griping in all caps about your parents! Indeed, I was safe until about a year and a half ago, when we adopted a cat left behind by some neighbors who moved.

The problem is, cats are so semi-brilliant and then semi-insane that they just end up doing something amusing sooner or later. Anyway, I'll probably write a whole blog post about our feline another time. Today I'm just going to recount a couple of interesting incidents around here, starting with her.

The last few weeks we've been having a lot of work done around our house, actually literally around the house. That would be, of course, siding, painting, doors, etc. Sweetie is an outside/kitchen/garage cat, so of course she wasn't too happy when some guy showed up one day and started taking apart the door of our garage, where she usually sleeps.

After that was replaced, things quieted down again for a couple weeks. We've had so much rain this summer that it took a long time to get started on the rest of the work. Finally the siding folks came and once again Sweetie thought we'd been invaded. It was actually kind of interesting to see how she's taken "ownership" of our home, after wondering for quite a while if we were going to kick her out, I guess (yes ... the lingering guilt of busting up all those garbage bags for a late night snack).

For over a week there was banging and sawing and a general invasion, she seemed to think. Presuming one can pull the veil back on cat psychology is a slippery intellectual slope, I suppose, but I can't help wondering if Sweetie thought we were all stupid, not noticing a thing all week! Our kids were like that on occasion when they were real little, just old enough to start having an idea what was going on (but misunderstanding most of it).

Anyway, eventually they left, nearly finished with the job and apparently busy starting the next. I've noticed that with contractors before, how they'll get 95% done and move on to the next project, and then send just part of the crew to finish up the last bit. That's one reason you should definitely NOT pay contractors the last chunk of what's owed until the job's completely done, because otherwise it might be a looonnggg time till they get back to you and finish!

After nearly a week, I'm sure our cat was finally starting to relax when yes ... THEY'RE BACK!!! As I suspected, she was none too happy, even growling at them a bit. It's comforting to think a cat would try to defend your home, though I wonder if any cat has actually been a successful "guard cat"! Anyway, Sweetie is amusing to watch at times, and since I have sort of a love/hate mindset about cats (love the playfulness/hate the "royal" attitude), I guess I don't worry too much that she'll be over-stressed by it all, seeing how much sleep she manages to get every afternoon.

Obviously, on the dog/cat question I (and Susan) fall squarely on the dog side. Cats have their good, though fickle, qualities, but there are times when you really need the constant loyalty of a dog (e.g. if you need a friend in D.C., as they say). Of course, there are countless stories of dogs saving people's lives, so many I've gotten tired of printing them out for the kids to read, but this one was maybe unique: Dog Performs "Heimlich" on Choking Owner. "I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest", said Debbie Parkhurst, who credited Toby, her golden retriever, with probably saving her life.

While I've written before about the curious variety of animals that have invaded our yard, I never did mention what came of our air conditioner problems last spring. Back from vacation, our repairman finally got to take a look at the big A/C box out back (the condenser). I was not too happy with the thought of possibly having to replace it, but soon had good news - it turns out the controls had been shorted out by a garter snake! He was about 18" I guess, coiled up several times in a circle around a large capacitor.

Now I wish I had a photo of the snake, but our repairman just tossed it right away. I'd noticed garter snakes (pretty much harmless) under the concrete pad for the a/c, but guess it moved closer toward the nice warm electronics, just like bugs that get too close to a light. Well, now I know there are both real computer bugs and air conditioner snakes!

Repairs ...

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 04:38:13 GMT

This morning Susan and I both had early appointments. She had to be way over on the north side of Houston for a class, but when coming to say goodbye about 7:15, she had that look that tells me "uh-oh", something's wrong. It turns out the dishwasher had flooded the kitchen. While there's some things I don't like, one of the really good things is that our kitchen and dining room are configured so that when there's a flood in the kitchen or from the washing machine, it drains out without damaging the carpet. I've heard of other people having thousands of dollars of damage from flooding by their appliances, which isn't such an unlikely occurrence. We've experienced it several times.

Anyway, Susan turned on the dishwasher this morning, and after a while a bunch of water started pouring out. Usually we run it on a timer in the middle of the night, which makes morning showers nicer, but for some reason our son didn't set it last night, which was really fortunate because it might have poured a lot of gallons of hot water out by morning.

I didn't have time to mess with it much, because I had to be at the dentist at 8. I got my first crown, which is pretty good I guess for nearly 44, at least considering that some of our kids already have one. Actually, the permanent one's supposed to be ready in a couple of weeks, on my birthday, though I'm not sure I want to spend it going to the dentist! Well, at least one of our kids was impressed that I had a "crown", which when I was little referred to your whole head, not just one tooth.

Stuck in the dentist chair for about an hour and a half, I really didn't know much about how crowns worked, so I tried to figure out what he was doing as he seemed to drill forever. Wondering what I was going to do about our dishwasher, after a while I recalled that there was a float that acted as a cutoff valve. When I got home, I checked it, and sure enough it was stuck. My son and I cleaned out that and the vent, which will also cause it to flood the kitchen, though not so dramatically.

All seems to be working again, thankfully, so hopefully that's all it is. I think I'll wait another night before running the timer while we're asleep, though. It's funny how with appliances they often seem so aggravating when they break, but then it turns out to be some very simple little thing. When we do have to call a repairman, if I'm home I try to watch everything he's doing since about half the time it's something so simple you could easily do it yourself. Sometimes they're done in five or ten minutes, and you realize why it is they can make so much money.

I guess in a way, as awkward as this morning looked like it would be, it actually worked out pretty well. I could have easily spent a while messing with the dishwasher, but instead the solution for the dishwasher repair came to me while I was busy getting repaired myself! Besides that, I didn't really feel like eating most of the day, so I decided just to fast instead, something I try to do once every quarter anyway.

I've always liked electrical and mechanical work, but really don't like messing with plumbing repairs. After a while, though, you learn how to do most of the basic stuff, because after the first few times, you just don't call out a plumber for every little thing. Actually, to psych myself up, I like to remind myself how plumbing is a lot like a rocket engine (which is loaded with tubes, fittings and those oh-so-naughty valves and seals). Of course, I had an even better way today. After having someone drill in your mouth for an hour or so, even a potential plumbing repair looks pretty appealing!

Early February? Weather

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 23:39:23 GMT

Though we've been getting a nice, dry front blowing in this afternoon, yesterday was quite warm. More than that, I don't remember the sun ever being so bright in early February. I guess it was sunny enough in New Hampshire for Phil the groundhog to see his shadow, but if he'd been down here he would have gone back in his hole for a whole three months (which doesn't make any sense at all, as if the rest of that quaint ritual did).

Despite the warm weather (most of my plants are still alive) this winter has been the pits for gardening, I've been so busy. I could have planted for early spring anytime, it would seem (we'll see if a hard freeze is still to come). Usually I would start planting about a week from now, when the weather would often start to warm up, but never so sunny. Yesterday was more like late April. The NWS weather history says it only peaked at 77F, but it seemed a lot warmer with the bright sun and very high humidity.

I went to the pool last night and someone commented, it looked like summer. I go year-round, but a lot of folks only swim when it's warm outside, even though the pool's indoors. With the unusual weather recently, it's easy to suspect global warming is behind it, though in yesterday's case, the warmth was mainly from the bright sun, which wouldn't have much to do with greenhouse gases.

Waiting ... Still Waiting ... Any Day Now ... !!

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 19:35:56 GMT

This is the time of year where I'm anxiously awaiting the end of yet another long hot summer. After living 16 years in the same place, I pretty much know what to expect, temperature-wise. Actually, I grew up in Houston proper, inside the loop, but the weather there, at least back then, was quite a bit wetter, year-round, and colder in the winter.

One of the reasons I wanted to move to the southwest suburbs was because it seemed to be considerably drier, which I preferred, but when we first moved here the winters were colder than they usually are now. Of course, the summer is hot, I mean HOT, everywhere around here. Susan read geographer John Gunther's Inside Africa some years back and said he claimed (I think this is right) the only place as hot as Africa he'd been was Houston, Texas! I wish she'd marked the reference to that in the book, I'd love to have the full quote.

Anyway, by now we usually have had at least a mild cool front, but the weather has been very warm the past three weeks, which as I noted earlier really helped calm down hurricane Rita. Nevertheless, it certainly would be nice to get a break from the heat.

The Weather Channel daily email, which seems about as accurate as other forecasters, tells me we'll see changes starting tomorrow afternoon. So ... one more day! On the other hand, that's just a very mild front they're forecasting.

I don't know whether global warming is a sure thing or not, because long-term weather patterns do change a lot. In the 1800s, the Gulf Stream was shifted somewhat and they could grow sugar cane here, so it was even warmer back then. Nevertheless, it's definitely gotten warmer here than it was when we moved in 1989. That first winter it snowed, i.e. snow on the ground, which we didn't see again until Christmas eve last year (the first white Christmas ever here).

I also vividly remember the next fall, because I had to go up to northwest Louisiana for my grandmother's funeral, in early October. On the way back, a very strong front started blowing through; it was wonderful driving back through east Texas (full of pine trees) in that cool, crisp air. By that night back home it was cold. Some years now, we don't see a front like that until much later, and two years it hasn't even frozen all winter. Oh well, even 65F would seem wonderful right now!

4-Legged (and more) Creatures

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 05:12:23 GMT

We live in the Houston suburbs but there's a funny phenomenon that I'm not sure can be explained by being a little bit out of town. Every year or two we'll discover an unusual (or at least unlikely) animal in our backyard. Last night our boys were complaining of ants in their room so this morning I went out with some granules looking for them. Though I found nary a 6-legged creature, when I looked up I was surprised to see a rather large lizard relaxing on some concrete.

The lizard didn't seem to mind me, but he got a little nervous after my daughter came out to take some pictures (with a disposable, not digital camera, unfortunately). He was over a foot, total length, and looked pretty familiar, but Google hasn't helped me much on this, so he remains unidentified, though I did read that lizards in your backyard can eat a lot of spiders, which was reassuring. He moved off after the sun warmed him up (not that it gets even a little cool this time of year). Of course, if he comes back he runs a risk - the younger kids are likely to name him lizzy, or fluffy, or worse.

With a drainage ditch nearby, I'm not surprised that an animal ends up in our yard from time to time. We've had a number of turtles, several of which have turned into pets. My daughter had two for a while, but now we're down to one. They're actually pretty cute, but my wife wasn't too happy when they ate her neons (apparently neon tetras are as tasty as they are pretty, since the turtles usually leave the guppies alone).

What does surprise me is the kind of animals we've found in our yard. The strangest was a kid goat. I have no idea where he came from, or where he went after his short stay. He was actually pretty cute, though I doubt goats would make good pets, at least not without their own space! Another time we saw a hawk(?) suddenly swoop down into our yard. It was trying to catch another bird, that wouldn't move for quite a while after that.

A few years ago we got a colony of nutrias living in the drainage culverts. Nutrias are like giant rats, even bigger than opossums. They ended up being a considerable nuisance. Other animals that have ventured in from time to time, but not so strange, include rabbits, opossums, snakes and a large bird, probably an owl.

The other strangest creature was years ago. Actually, it was a kind of insect (I think) but it looked really weird. It showed up in our kitchen one evening, dying, but must have come from outside. I probably should have saved it for "scientific research", but it looked really strange and heavy and large, maybe six inches in length. Reflecting on it later, I suspect that it was a tropical insect carried here from overseas somehow (we have lots of Asians in our neighborhood), that had grown big but couldn't handle the weather anymore. That was one of two winters we've had here where we never got a freeze. We found him in late winter, on a nice day. I think he must have just kept growing but finally succumbed to the cooler temperatures. He really did look weird, like a crawfish-dragonfly-???.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for an alligator. They seem to be gradually making a comeback, as are many other animals. In the 16 years we've lived in this home, I've noticed a slow but clear increase in wildlife, despite relentless construction. I even saw an eagle once, way up high (they're getting a little more common out of town, now). Buzzards are the creatures I'm wondering about next becoming a nuisance. I saw a TV program once about such a problem, in Florida, I think. They're definitely coming closer to our homes than they used to. There's one in particular who's a curious chap, swooping down to the roofline at times.

It's interesting to see how resilient animals are now that some are getting protection. Considering how geometric growth works, we might have to make it a bit harder on some of them eventually, if they have few natural predators. For now it's still fun.