Dee's Blogs: AZ Day 12-13

Day 12 – Visiting with Shirley and George

There isn’t much to say about today as I didn’t do much except hang around with Shirley shooting the bull. Because Shirley has six cats, it was best to leave Hope in the van for the day, so I took her for a walk around the neighborhood every couple of hours. The day was cold and windy, but at least it was clear with no rain.

This is George and their largest cat, Boss. He is 31 lbs.

I woke up late, we had breakfast around 10:00, chatted and caught up with each other all day, went out to dinner during the Super Bowl, chatted a bit more after dinner while I caught up with some of my e-mail, then went to bed.

I slept out in the van because Shirley and George’s house was under mass re-construction due to being hit by Hurricane Ike last summer. Although they rolled in a cot from their son’s place which is right across the street and also where I parked the van, they didn’t know where their sheets and blankets were. I told them not to worry because the van was all set up plus I had Hopey and Olly and the furnace to keep me warm.

During the evening before going to sleep, I got involved in watching PBS’s Colonial House on a DVD that Frann lent to me.

This is a picture of a house in Shirley and George's neighborhood. I took the picture because of the POSTED sign. I don't get it. Posted for what? No Solicitors? Watch Out For Dog? No Trespassing? Nothing -- just POSTED

Day 13 – Cleaning, Lunch with Leslie, Traveling

I had plans to meet Leslie for lunch at 1:00. Due to a late rising, I didn’t really have much time to pack up, clean up, and finish visiting up. Clean up – oh, boy! I’ve been using Feline Pine kitty litter. It is a new clumping type that is basically sawdust with guar gum added to make it clump. Well, for some reason, Hopey jumped up onto one of the front seats. When I opened the van door, she jumped down right into the litter pan which I put between the two front seats while I’m parked. Litter went EVERYWHERE! It took me an hour to sweep and vacuum out the van.

It was my first gorgeous, gorgeous day – at least for the morning. I’ll get into the afternoon later. The sky was clear; the weather was 60-degrees and there was only a slight breeze. It was a wonderful day to keep both Olly and Hope tied up outside while I cleaned the inside of the van. After the clean-up was done, I brought Olly back into the house one more time to play with Tyler, Sir Charles, and Red – Shirley’s LaPerms. Spot didn’t want to join them; he’s a bit more shy. One thing about LaPerms is they are, for the most part, very laid back cats. They meet each other without spitting hissy fits.

One thing that Shirley told me is that LaPerms tend to stay put. When she brings them to shows, her cats will stay in their crates with the door open. They’ll peak out at the world to see what is going on, but they won’t jump out. Although I don’t show Olly, I have noticed that he does the exact same thing with the van. I can open up the back door and he will remain seated on the bed. I used to be terrified of him jumping out and having to run after him. I am a bit more at ease now. Opening the entry door is another story altogether, though. I do have to watch that he doesn’t walk out ahead of me.

I was going to call Leslie to make sure which Chili’s in Houston we were going to meet at. Do you have any idea how many Chili’s are in the Houston area? More than I can count. As it turned out, I got out of Shirley’s almost too late and what happened? I ended up at the wrong Chili’s. By the time Leslie figured out a better place to meet that was somewhere between the two of us, we were only half an hour later than we originally planned to meet.

Leslie is a co-worker that I used to work with at AT&T. She is the database administrator for a system I was the local support DBA for in Connecticut. Three years ago, when I came out to Houston to spend Christmas with Shirley and George, I was surprised to find out that Leslie lived and worked in the same town that Shirley and George lived in. This world is so small!

By the time we finished lunch, it was later than I wanted to leave the Houston area. I figured I would be in San Antonio way after dark. Damn! Another day of driving and setting up after dark. A storm front came through while traveling the 3 ½ hours from Houston to San Antonio. I had to pull off the highway twice because the rain came down so hard. It was bad enough that the wind was brutal the whole trip, but the driving in torrential rains forced me to stop for close to an hour.

The sunset at about 6:30 was beautiful. Because the storm front was on the horizon, the setting sun lit the sky in a horizontal ribbon of red and orange. I pulled into the KOA in San Antonio at 7:30. Sandy was already here. She, also, was forced to pull off the road for over an hour to wait out the storm.