This and That

It was very nice to have an extra day this past weekend. I took Monday off since Richard had to take a mandatory day off...it was a good weekend to get mostly caught up on yard work. I got new lawn seed spread in the patches where the grass was thin. We replaced the air filter, changed the oil, and sharpened the blade of the lawn mower. I also mowed the lawn and spread fertilizer on the lawn. It was good to get those chores out of the way.

We finally were able to give our cat Puff a proper burial in the backyard. I put a rock on her grave to mark the site...and speaking of cats. I took Tabby to the vet for his annual exam and vaccinations. He was rather upset, but forgave me rather quickly after we got home. At least he doesn't fight quite so bad as he used to, but the vet still couldn't examine is face/mouth even with the assistant holding him (with elbow length Kevlar gloves).

Work continues to present its share of headaches. The offload of work to China has stalled for now, and I'm back to helping cover some of the work that was already offloaded. Between that and other changes in the way we do things, it's quite frustrating...I could use a vacation but that's not going to happen for a while.

Raccoons

I wish I would have had a video camera last night...when I went to walk Weezer right before bedtime, there were a bunch of raccoons in the trees behind the neighbors house. They were chasing each other and making quite a racket. Weezer didn't seem to care. He was too interested in sniffing around the mail box post and the fire hydrant.

Soon the raccoons came out of the trees and one large one started to run down the hill towards us. It saw Weezer and me, stopped, looked us over, and ran the other way. In the meantime, the neighbor lady came out in her backyard to see what all the racket was about. The group of at least 4 raccoons started running her direction. She screamed, swore, and ran into her house. It was absolutely hilarious!

The raccoons of course were not after her. They were too interested in their frolicking. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time...no, actually the right place at the right time as far as I was concerned. LOL!

Gardening

It's great to have spring here and to be able to start my gardening projects. A friend of mine brought me several dozen tomato, pepper, and herb plants. I decided to try growing them in containers, and my friend also brought me several types of planters to try them in. It's an experiment, but it will be fun to see how it all turns out.

Over the weekend, I bought the additional containers and potting soil that I needed. I'm certainly not going to save any money on the veggies this year with the amount that I ended up spending to get everything set up. If it works well, then I'll do the same thing next year and hopefully get a good return on my investment.

My friend also brought me a cold hearty magnolia (Leonard Messell). It had a few blossoms on it, so I thought I'd share a picture of it. Enjoy!