Day Three Hundred Thirteen

Ground Control To Major Tom ...

This is Neil in his "man cave". It used to be a workshop for woodworking projects back in the day. Don't let this picture fool you. He's building something to hang another RC airplane on. He was making so much racket with his drill, it scared him half to death when the flash went off on the camera.

Some of the planes are gas powered. Others are electric.

He's built a lot of them over the last few years. Some from scratch--cutting out the wood pieces and gluing them all together until it looks like an airplane.

Some have crashed and burned over the years. Some get rebuilt over and over. Others end up in the trash heap. Sometimes I think he likes to build and repair them more than he likes to fly them. Well, not really. The flying is a lot more fun, I'm sure.

Day Three Hundred Twelve

November Means ... Raking Leaves


The Day - totally gorgeous and strangely warm

The Rake - big and sturdy, gave me blisters 'cause I did not wear gloves

The Pile - grew into small mountains along the way

The Blower - a great tool ... actually, the leaf blower was Neil

The Future - ah, the next door neighbor's beautiful Maple is always the last to turn and ...

... that's why they call it "Fall"

Three Hundred Eleven

The Never Ending Dining Room Repair

Having to repair our dining room wall has turned into a time consuming overhaul of trim work, not only around the ceiling, but also around every door in the room. This tiny room has six doors. It's crazy but true. We realized the other day that none of them had any trim like the rest of the doors and windows in the house. Neil has worked hard on the project the past few weeks. We've been busy painting it all yesterday and today. And probably tomorrow. It's getting there. (And we used to think this home remodeling stuff was fun--when we were about twenty years younger.)

Day Three Hundred Ten

Oh, The Raking And The Piling And The Jumping And The Throwing Of Autumn Leaves

It's just the best fun on the planet on a November day.

Day Three Hundred Nine

Chill Factor

Our Buddy Cat is stressed out it seems. Ever since the new cat, Eddie Kitty, arrived this past July, Buddy has been losing weight, hissing, snarling, and clawing at his human family, and, in general, royally ticked off--behavior that is totally unlike our usually laid back pet. Here he is at the vet this morning, being tested for thyroid malfunction and the dreaded heart worm.

Both tests came back negative, which was happy news. Then the doc said, "It's Prozac time." I thought he was joking. He said I'd be amazed at how many cats and dogs are being treated with Prozac. It was always my uneducated diagnosis that Buddy is miserable with the new cat in the family now and that this stress is having an adverse effect on his health. So our Buddy Cat needs an attitude adjustment. We're going to try the meds for a month and see what happens. The doc says it should help. The bad news is that if Buddy hasn't accepted Eddie by now, he never will. Oh well. It's always fun squirting medicine down a cat's throat. I may need a chill pill after it's all said and done.