Frog and Goat

There was once a dam here back in the 70s and our property was waterfront. Then the dam broke and now there’s just a creek. Sometimes the creek gets really angry.

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The bridge at the bottom of our hill is gone in a spectacular fashion. The digital camera’s batteries are dead so after that charges I’ll post some photos.

Last I heard we got 11.6 inches of water yesterday. As a point of reference, it was partly sunny at lunch yesterday. It didn’t start raining until around 1:30pm. It finally stopped around 11:30.

I think we have as much or close to the damage as where Gaston made landfall. We joked last night that Virginia is being punished for being overly Republican, enacting laws that limit civil rights and for flying the Confederate fly a little too much. Plague and pestilence are sure to follow.

We really did have a fabulous time while at the beach last week. We did a great big pile of nothing the entire week. It is completely possible to do nothing but eat, read, play games, sleep and swim in the ocean. One night at dinner we heard about the 300 cars that were destroyed during Hurricane Alex and even heard one of them blew up and burned down a rental property. Did we get on our bikes and ride like the wind to see this spectacle? No. We did not. It was too much effort. We did not go into any of the shops to buy knickknacks. If it wasn’t at the “variety” store then we didn’t see it.

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Normally when we return from a week of vacation it is as if a vomit bomb went off in our house. Today, we got home and carefully opened the door to the house and we were met by Leon who was overjoyed at having us home. There was one hair ball (on the crappy basement floor so it hardly counts) and a litter box to change. That’s it. We did not spend 30 minutes or more cleaning up vomit, broken pottery or other awful things. Leon is not upset with us but very much thrilled to see us. He can’t get enough of either one of us. Can I tell you how happy I am?

Can I also explain that the only reason our house is not a foul crypt is because our other cat is no longer on this mortal plain? Cruel you say? Perhaps, but I got to take a shower and start some laundry instead of cleaning up something we used to call hot frosties…you don’t want to know what those were.

We’ve had a brilliant three days on vacation. The weather has been phenomenal. Warm enough but not hot. The breeze on the beach has kept flies at bay and provided us with some great body surfing opportunities. The only downer is the Thai place is closed for a few days. I had been looking forward to getting take-out from there but we’ve already decided we’ll stop by a Thai place in town when we get home. Not the same, but it will have to do.

We’ve eaten well: shrimp, hush puppies, bluefish with Vietnamese veggies for me (my mom is probably going to flip when she reads that I ordered bluefish), grouper with tomatoes and capers for the better-half, tuna and steak for the better-half and baked parmesan flounder for me. We’ve indulged in several Black Forest Strudels from the bakery as well as some muffins. The food, as always, has been outstanding.

The cats that normally infest this cottage are significantly less in numbers than in previous years. I don’t know if they’ve found a better crop of suckers or what. We feed them from the huge bag of food someone left in the cottage. Perhaps they are sick of the same old feed.

Early this evening there was a brilliant thunderstorm. We couldn’t really see the lightening but the thunder was HUGE. We were sitting on the porch watching the rain and the better-half went into the house. At one point, the clap of thunder was so huge that I opened the door and yelled “holy shit” to him. The cat was wigged.

We’re headed to the beach bright and early in the morning and the forecast seems like we may have at least several days of decent weather. We’re taking the laptop so I may update while we’re gone (at least to report on the fine food).

Before the better-half and I got married, I let my cats sleep with me at night. I could almost always count on one of them wanting to be on the bed with me for all or part of the night. Leon would often bother me for a petting or he’d want to get under the blanket with me. Of course, if he was under the blanket I was supposed to hold the blanket off of him so he could enjoy some warm cave action. As you can imagine, there were times when I just didn’t sleep well. Add to that mix my cat hair allergy and you understand why I finally said the bedroom door needed to be shut at night.

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I saw this today in the NYTimes:

“I’ve been getting on this plane, you know, for 42 years. Why can’t I get on the plane?”
SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY, telling how he was barred from a Boston-Washington flight because his name resembled an alias used by a suspected terrorist.

Ok, his name may match an alias, but take a good look–he’s freakin’ Ted Kennedy. Come on out from the cave you’ve been living in since the 1950s…the Kennedy clan, Camelot? Hello?

On Sunday we leave for a week of vacation. I’m not sure how much posting will occur while we’re gone. After all, I have tons of books to read and I have to ride my bike and get all comatose on the sand and whip the better-half’s butt in Yahtzee and, in general, eat, drink and be merry.

On the road today, I saw a big ol’ white Buick with the license plate “1 Pequod”. I started laughing. I’m not sure if the old man driving the big ol’ Buick saw me laughing, but I hope he did and knew I appreciated his sense of humor.

Don’t get it? Check it.