Rudha-an – Page 5 – jellybeansofdoom.com

August 27, 2016

Caturday: Happy cats, a goofy mutt, and funny birds

The cats are happy because the air conditioner has been off for a few days. The weather is cooler than average. From 109 a few weeks ago to 70s and low 80s now. Go figure. I don’t mind at all. Anyhow, the cats are glued to the windows and the floor by the screen door. We’re all happy with the change.

Speaking of the pointy-eared people…

The goofy mutt? We were off at the arboretum when she suddenly went nuts snarling and growling.

What was she snarling at? Why, the enemy of course.

Yeah, seriously. This is what she was growling and snarling at.

After that, we took her home because we wanted to go to the shoreline and pooches aren’t permitted. Once we got to the shoreline, we saw plenty of birds putting on a funny performance.

There were three beautiful white pelicans that landed on the water to feed.

They provided plenty of entertainment. I’ve put the pelicans and other birds in a slideshow that includes a lovely white swan butt.

[Show picture list]

As a parting note, I’m sure you remember us describing how Titanescu bangs and scratches on the wood paneling or tv box. Well, here’s the raccoon version.

August 13, 2016

Caturday: Titanescu was a jerk

Rest assured, I love Titanescu, but he’s a jerk. When he’s not giving me the stinkeye or slapping the wall, he’s a bitey, grouchy jerk. Today he decided to start getting my attention to feed him…three hours before his dinnertime. It went like this:

Titanescu: I’m going to walk on your laptop
Me: No you are not going to walk my laptop
Titanescu: Yes, I’m going to walk your laptop
Me: No you are not going to walk my laptop
Repeat a dozen more times

Me: Puts arm in front of him to keep him off the laptop
Titanescu: I’m going to bite your arm
Me: Go ahead
Titanescu: CHOMP!
Me: That didn’t hurt. You only pushed with your teeth
Titanescu: Ok. I’m going to walk your laptop
Me: You’re a jerk
Titanescu: Yes, I’m a jerk and I’m going to walk on your laptop after I bite your arm again
Me: You’re still being a jerk and NO! I’m not going to feed you.
Titanescu: I’ll bite your arm, hiss my foul breath into your face and then I’ll walk on your laptop
Me: sigh

I had to deal with three hours of his highness being a jerk.

Here's Tito. Tito wasn't a jerk. He was a sweetie. — Here’s Tito. Tito wasn’t a jerk. He was a sweetie.

Titanescu giving me the stinkeye from his sunbeam

Pepi decided that she didn't like the air conditioner and covered herself with a blanket. — Pepi decided that she didn’t like the air conditioner and covered herself with a blanket.

I saw this video and laughed, trying to imagine Titanescu being that patient.

Those who know me know I complain about phone zombies. Trust Ikea to come up with a wonderful commercial.

August 6, 2016

Caturday: Pepi was a pirate

Pepi decided that today was pirate day. Every time Lastech would move, she would say aarrrrrr and leap at him. Then after he went to work and I grabbed up the evil monster known as the vacuum, she yelled “aarrrrrr” every few seconds and tried to attack it. The only thing missing from her pirate imitation was the eyepatch. Otherwise, she had it nailed. Miss Jenny and Tito said %$#& this noise and hid under the sofa. Titan watched with disdain. He does not fear the evil vacuum.

Here are the pointy eared people.

This pic is a rerun as Tito just didn't cooperate this week. — This pic is a rerun as Tito just didn’t cooperate this week.

Titanescu owning is sunbeam — Titanescu owning his sunbeam

I haven’t forgotten Pepita the pirate

I finally gathered a few nature photos from recent journeys. Lastech managed to get two lovely pics of Karl the Fog over the bay.

He also got a cool pic of a rock.

When the heatwave broke and the weather improved, we went to Martinez, which is a few miles North of us on the Carquinez Strait. The strait is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the bay. We wandered around the trails where Alhambra Creek runs to the strait. The tide was up and it was beautiful out.

[Show picture list]

To cap it off, he got this nice wide angle shot of some noisy geese

July 16, 2016

Caturday: Mad world

The world has gone mad and the tragedies continue. I’m getting to the point I don’t even want to turn on the computer. We have no cable, so the computer is how I get the news. Nice is where Lastech was born. He grew up in Antibes, which is only 15 miles away. He spent a lot of time where the truck driver ended the lives of so many. I’m trying to maintain my sense of humor as it’s a survival skill, but it’s getting tough. The world gets more mad by the day.

Thankfully, we have the furkids.

Happy Pepi running. Zoom zoom. The world has gone mad, but she still loves to run.

And because we really really really need to watch these hungry kittens.

July 10, 2016July 10, 2016

Caturday delayed: Diversion needed

Yes, a diversion is needed. The news has gone from bad to worse and we’re bombarded on all sides. Through all of this, we need momentary diversion and time to recharge the brain. I know that’s true for me, at any rate. This is our wee bit of diversion before doing whatever we can to affect change in our world.

Friday, Lastech made it to work even though traffic was snarled a bit. A semi truck caught fire and closed a freeway connector in an area he had to traverse to get to the bridge. It wasn’t too awful, but it was a tad messy. A few years ago, a truck fire weakened the steel and concrete structure enough that it collapsed. This past Friday the connector was closed from 1:30 pm until 11:30 pm. Fate smiled upon him. Yesterday, he left for work just in time. If he had left just a few minutes later, he would have hit a protest that shut down his off-ramp. This is the Bay Area, after all and stuff happens. Fate smiled upon him again. Not sure if three times will be a go or not. 🙂

No mattress yet. I knew there would be a delay as I ordered it on the Fourth of July weekend, so I’ll be patient. I do look forward to the email notifying me that it shipped though. I won’t worry until at least Tuesday. This company is not a fly-by-night type and came recommended by a friend, so I’m not worried on that score.

Lastech worked on the Fourth of July as the crowds were expected to be huge. There were no problems, thought Karl the Fog made every attempt to eat the fireworks. This year, the company providing the display arranged for it to be much closer to the ground. It was good. In previous years, people turned out to watch pretty colored clouds instead of the fireworks. It’s the season of fog, after all.

Even with Karl the Fog present, the display was still nice

And then there was a bee

Now it’s time for the pointy-eared and droopy-eared ones to shine.

Tito lounging in the corner of the dinette

Miss Jenny gets cold when the A/C is on. She burrows under the blankets

Forgive me please. I couldn’t resist.

July 2, 2016

Caturday: A sad day

It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to a man who gave voice to the Holocaust. I’ve read his books and “Night” was required reading in many schools. He will be greatly missed.

Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented ~ from Night by Elie Weisel (1928 – 2016)

Things are moving along over here in sunny Concord. It feels like summer, though the temps aren’t too bad this week. I’m able to turn off the A/C at night, which is nice. Our lovely stereo suddenly quit working. I don’t think it will be hard to fix, but I have to go pick up a tool in order to do the job. I’ll do that on Tuesday, when we have time. We’re also waiting on our latest, much needed item. We ordered a new mattress. The ones that come with most RVs are really crappy. We’re replacing it with a much better gel foam mattress. Hooray for comfort.

As for the beasties, they are snoozing all over the trailer today. It’s warm inside as I didn’t feel like turning on the A/C. It’s not too warm though, so they’re enjoying it.

Tito looking sweet and innocent. He had just finished his daily dinette shredding.

Here’s a delightful kitty watching a scary movie

June 25, 2016

Caturday: It’s fire season

It’s certainly fire season and it’s probably going to be a really bad one. The drought and bark beetles have killed millions of trees and the rains promoted a lot of grass growth. The grasses are now dry and highly flammable. There have been multiple fires in CA and the rest of the Southwest, but the fire at Lake Isabella has already taken lives and burned an area bigger than the city of San Francisco. Some of the photos at that link are as beautiful as they are horrifying. As I type, I’m listening to Con Fire battling a grass fire over by Hwy 4. While the pointy eared people and the floppy eared one are in no danger, the fires are worrisome.

Speaking of the furry ones…

Theo Jansen and his travelling exhibition is at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. I hope we can go see it before it goes away.

June 18, 2016

Caturday: Neighborhood watch

We’re back. I had postponed Caturday and meant to post on Sunday, but the news that day was just too awful and and I didn’t have the heart. That kind of hatred is something I just can’t understand. Places like Pulse have been safe havens where those who are or aren’t fully out of the closet can go and just be themselves. Now they have to fear that as well. My heart goes out to the survivors and the victims’ families. My heart also goes out to all of my LGBT brothers and sisters. The grief and fear are yours as well.

The pointy eared people are official neighborhood watch cats. They like to watch the neighbors and Miss Jenny loves to snarl at them.

Pepita wants to be in on the neighborhood watch too.

We’re going to have a not so delightful heatwave this week. My parents will have to cope with temps of 120f (48c) or more. YUCK! Thank goodness they have A/C. It won’t be that hot here. High 90s most likely. Sadly, we’ll be running the air conditioner most of the time now as summer is here. I love it, but I really don’t like the noise. I like to hear the birds. I shouldn’t complain. The rest of the year is pretty darned nice.

And now, here’s a drunk squirrel for you.

May 29, 2016

OMG! It’s been a whole year already

Yes, a whole year! On this day in 2015 We moved about 30 miles from San Francisco to Concord, CA and took up residence in our little trailer. What an interesting year it has been.

The pointy eared people not only adapted well, they have thrived. Of course, I suspect that they take great joy in carefully shredding our once lovely interior. Oh well, it’s what kitties do. They’re little furry little Klingons.

Miss Jenny followed this pose by turning to look out the window and snarling at the neighbor. She's weird that way. — Miss Jenny followed this pose by turning to look out the window and snarling at the neighbor. She’s weird that way.

Tito paused in his couch shredding long enough to pose for me

Then, on Labor day weekend, someone found a dog in a dumpster just before the arrival of the trash truck. The dog came home with Lastech and has been here ever since.

As the year progressed, we watched the hills turn from brown to green and back again.

We’ve managed to discover lizards, all manners of ducks, geese, hawks, strange flowers and plants.

We even came across a big rattler on one of our hikes.

To top it off, we’ve managed to look out from on top of the world, or at least our teeny little corner of it.

While we had to deal with a few emergencies, like ER visits for Lastech and Pepi, life has been good. Our lives are much better here than in San Francisco. All in all, it has been a very good year.

May 21, 2016

Caturday: Titanescu packs a punch

Yes, Titanescu packs a serious punch. His punch may not utilize the claws, but it’s a very loud WHAP! Poor Pepi gets punched often. Tito makes Titanescu angry? He runs over to punch Pepi. He wants food and we’re not fast enough? He runs over to punch Pepi. Sometimes he starts to walk past her, but stops to look at her. Then he runs to punch her. Poor dog. In the wee hours when we’re trying to sleep and Pepi is safely tucked away in her crate, Titanescu punches the wall instead. To be specific, it’s the wall panel right next to my head. If that doesn’t wake me up to feed him, he’ll go over and start punching the mini blinds. Punching is his version of knocking crap off of shelves.

Ah, but we love our little black curmudgeon from he!!

And now it’s time for all of our pointy-eared people and the floppy eared one.

Titanescu thinking about punching something

As for Lastech and I? We’re fine. It was in the 90s a couple of days ago. Today it’s only 65. The hills have gone from emerald green to their summer tan. Here are a couple of flower pics we caught before they vanished in the heat.

In spite of being Titanescu’s punching bag, Pepi is a happy dog. Here she is having a good run.