KyWoods,
For what it's worth, and as you know I'm no Dr, your Mother's behavior does not sound symptomatic of Alzheimer's. The earliest signs of Alz are usually memory related, but not the kind of "where did I put my keys?" problem we all face from time to time. With Alz a person might be driving a well known route in a town they've lived in all their life and suddenly not know where they are or how to get home. The effects come and go, so later everything will be fine again - and everyone will usually want to sweep the occurrence under the rug. Or maybe the person will go out the back door of their house and then while outside, walk around front to pick up the mail. When they get back to the house they will try to go in the front door and find it locked. This could happen to any of us, but whereas the normal person would say, "oh, silly me" remembering that they had exited via the back door, the person in the early stages of Alz will become agitated upon finding the front door locked and will sit down and cry instead of thinking the situation through logically and taking logical steps to get back inside. Another symptom is asking a question, getting an answer, and then asking the same question again 5min later - over and over and over.
The behavior you described for your mother doesn't sound like anything I encountered (either with my mom or others I've known) or read about with Alzheimer's. However, if you have reason to believe a person may have Alzheimer's it's important to get them checked ASAP because, while there is no cure at this time, their are meds that can halt or slow the progression of the disease. These meds did not exist in my Mom's day, but I know people for whom they do seem to be working such that the person no longer seems to be getting worse.
Heidi Chronicles: Kits On Board
Thanks, Cheryl, I do appreciate your input. She's been mentally ill for as long as I remember, and in denial about it, so she never would submit to counseling or meds. She insists that everyone and everything around her causes all her problems. She's a control freak and is OCD. Nobody is allowed to disagree with her--she'll ask for your opinion on something and then attack you if it's not the same as hers.
I escape into the woods alot for peace. Wish I could live out there with the critters!
Hi Cheryl,
How is the back yard gang doing. And how are you doing with that yucky cleanup situation.
You and your diner guests remain in my thoughts and prayers.
Sheri ^_^
I just put out more kibble for our gang. Seems they come earlier and earlier! The tiny kits are so adorable, I just wish I could go out there and scoop them up and cuddle them, lol.
This message was edited Jul 24, 2010 10:41 PM
KyWoods,
I know just what you mean! Sometimes it is all I can do to keep from scooping one of the little fellas up. I mean, my brain knows all too well that that would be a huge mistake, but it has a hard time policing my hand which just wants to hold one. I'm not going to, of course, but it sure is tempting sometimes.
I haven't seen the raccoons much this past week. I ran out of food, just have a little I saved back for the cats. I meant to go get some more yesterday and then today, but I didn't. I was feeling kind of depressed, and I just didn't want to go.
I missed feeding them several days earlier in the week due to T-storms. We've been having this endless heat wave with daily temps 105 and up. The overnight lows are in the upper 80's to 90. All that heat and humidity makes for some terrific thunderstorms daily. Some days we seem to have them all day long. Other days they start late in the afternoon and run through feeding time. I missed several days due to storms.
I hurried out there one night to give them some food even though I'm afraid to be out there at night due to the snake. I felt sorry for the raccoons. It had been 2 days since I had fed them, so I found a weak flashlight and went out there. I didn't stay very long. Dennis was there along with a couple of the yearlings, no sign of Heidi or Cissy. I had some cat food and some of those cheap animal cookies. As usual Dennis was standing up at my thigh begging for and eating animal cookies. Then one of her kits came down from the pear tree and came right up beside me looking for food. I guess seeing her Mom touching me that way, the kit wasn't afraid of me. The kit walked right up to me. I gave her a little handful of kibble, and she sat there right by me eating it. Later I gave her a few cookies. It was just so nice to be so close to the sweet little kit.
When I got up to come inside, the kit didn't run away. She just stayed there eating. I looked back when I got closer to the house, and the kit was still there as was Dennis. Kits usually run away when I reach toward them to give them food and when I stand up. I'm sure it was Dennis' reaction that made her feel safe with me and with these things.
Other than that one night, I didn't see the raccoons all week. I went out to feed them the next day at the regular time, but they weren't around. I figured they would be arriving late because I had fed them late the night before. I put the food out and left it. I can't recall now if that was Thurs or Fri, but it was the day I gave them the very last of the food - except the cats' stash. Tonight, having no food, I was avoiding them, until...
!?UNTIL!?..............
We're holding our collective breaths....
I went to the kitchen to get the cat food - to feed the cats. I don't know what possessed me. I was supposed to stay away from the patio. I didn't want to encourage them to hang around when I had no food for them. So I don't know why I did it, but something led me to the patio door. I had seen the whole wheat bread in the fridge when I was putting the cat food back and, feeling sorry for the raccoons, had thought maybe some of them might eat a slice of bread, maybe that would be better than nothing.
Bread in hand, standing at the patio door, I turned on the outside light. On the mat below (just outside the door), I saw an odd 'ball' of raccoons. Through the dusty glass (someone needs to clean) I had difficulty making out this tangle of body parts like something out of Greek mythology with arms and legs everywhere.
Then, OMG! I realized...it was a female raccoon lying down right there on my door mat nursing her 4 kits. NOW I had surely seen everything. It was late at night, 10-10:30PM, and there she was lying there prostrate on the rug, her back right up against the door facing, 4 small, fluffy kits nestled against her body all nursing calmly. The 5 of them, mother and kits, all seemed so serene, so comfortable there on the rug just outside my patio door. It was touching to see. I had always wanted to create an atmosphere in which wild animals would feel safe, comfortable, and 'at home', and now here was the mother nursing her young right at my door. It brought tears to my eyes.
And yet I had nothing to offer her. I cracked the door a bit to offer her bread. The mother got to her feet. She and the kits crowded round the 6in or so opening. They were not at all afraid. Even as I stuck my hand out to offer them a slice of bread, two kits walked up onto the threshold to see what was inside. I had to literally hold them back to keep the little guys from coming into the kitchen.
The Mom took the bread. I put another slice on the mat and closed the door. Thinking. Fast. What to do? I had to give them something more. The cats' food. I had already fed the cats for the evening. I would give them the remaining cat food, keeping just enough for breakfast. I would have to force myself to go out in the morning to pick up more.
Quickly, I filled a plastic dish with cat food, added a handful of animal cookies, and 2 more slices of whole wheat bread. I walked out onto the patio to put the dish down for the mother and her kits. It was then that I saw for the very 1st time that it was Bast. From the moment I saw the 4 kits, I had wondered who this might be. To date I had only seen Heidi and Dennis with 3 each, Jerry with 2, and Cissy with 1. I had no idea who might be the bearer of 4. Now I could see clearly the scars on her back. It was Bast. She and the kits came up to eat the food there on the patio. I came back inside and turned off the lights hoping they would get to finish it all before any contenders showed up. It was an 'odd' hour when I don't normally feed them (lately), so I was hopeful that would help. I didn't hear any fighting out there, so it seems like they did ok.
So Bast had 4 kits. Nature sure didn't cut her any slack in the aftermath of her injuries, but perhaps this was a good sign, a sign that Mother Nature felt she was well enough to handle 4. The kits all seemed perfectly healthy, BTW.
And it was (no, is) so touching to think that she was waiting there against the door, virtually camping out there even though I've not seen her or fed her in weeks, but she was waiting there in hopes that I might come to the door and see her and bring her food.
Sweet♥ Bast sure feels safe in your yard! To think that she would bring her tiny babies right up to your door tells a lot. She must be stronger than I would have thought since she has 4! kits. It must be due to your care and feeding that she was strong enough for it.
Sheri,
Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. All is well. As I mentioned above, I've not seen the raccoons a lot this week, even though I did put out food for them about 1/2 of the time. Mostly the constant daily T-storms kept me from going out there.
I did manage to get the cleanup done on one of the few dry days. I had a large bag of lime in the garage and applied it liberally. Grass may never grow there again. The pool is still upside down. I'm not ready to put the pool back in service yet. In the days following the initial incident, a raccoon defecated again in the area around the pool. Before I was able to get that up, there was yet another such pile. On the 3rd day, frustrated, I put their food beside the poop which was a few feet back from where they normally eat. I was trying the psychology you use with dogs to say, "this is not the potty. this is where you are going to eat." That seemed to work as there hasn't been a any more pooh left in the area since - and I got it all cleaned up. It occurred to me that whoever was leaving the pooh on the ground around the upturned pool may have been trying to show their dissatisfaction with having the pool closed down - but I showed my dissatisfaction with that method of communication.
All is going well. It was good to see Bast out there tonight. I will make myself go for supplies 1st thing in the AM. I can't risk having another mother and children camping out on the doorstep and me with nothing to offer them.
June,
I didn't dwell on it a lot, but I noticed a huge difference in Bast this year (when she was here earlier). Before her injury, Bast had been comfortable around me, but like the others, comfortable but cautious and always keeping an escape route open. She would take food from my hand, but always looked a bit on edge as do most of the raccoons when they come that close - except for Dennis, of course.
During her injury, I didn't get all that close to Bast most of the time, and I was careful never to touch her. Still, when she returned this spring, she was noticeably more trusting and comfortable around me. In terms of trust, she was very much like Dennis when she returned. She would come right up beside me like a pet, looking very calm. I could touch her, rest my hand firmly on her back, and she wouldn't even flinch. She had changed such that she was right up there with Dennis in terms of being comfortable with me.
When Bast was injured, she really was in very bad shape, near death. I honestly didn't believe she would make it through. She worked very hard to survive, crawling here on her stomach at 1st and later walking on her hands. She had to get food to keep up her strength; otherwise, she didn't stand a chance. I didn't just feed her. If you recall, I fended for her, fought to keep the others away so that she could eat.
There was a very large crowd out there that year, a dozen or more ravenously hungry, nursing females. Bast did not appear to have any kits that year. I guess, by 'law' the mothers were supposed to eat 1st. They were hungry and they tried very hard to get her food. Many nights I wore my hand out working that pump bottle to hold them back.
In the beginning, she was in so much pain that she would only eat a bite or two and quit. I would beg her and encourage her to eat a little more. Sometimes it worked. She would sit by the water for a little while to gather her strength and then with enough cajoling would come back to eat a little more before leaving.
In the beginning, she would give up her food and leave as soon as the others came at her. She was in enough pain. She didn't want them hurting her more in a fight over the food, so she would just go. It took a while for me to show her that I could hold them back with the vinegar water, and that she could safely stay and eat even with them circling like vultures trying to get to her food.
Anyhow, it was so wonderful to see her survive that incident. Then when she returned in spring, I was surprised to find that in the process she had become very trusting and comfortable around me. That tells me that she understood that I was trying to help her.
What a sweet blessing to have witnessed that! You are surely one of an elite few that have been privileged to see a mother raccoon nursing her young.
I'm so happy to hear that Bast has done so well, too. Wonderful news, indeed!
Oh that's just awesome to have shared a moment like that with Bast and her family. Her level of comfort and trust with you is certainly not surprising. I have no doubt that your food, and your defense of her right to eat, made the difference in her ability to recover from those horrendous injuries; and I also have no doubt that Bast knows this as well.
Thank you, Ruth
I hope she knows that I cared and was there for her. In some strange way, I thought at the time that she knew that and that she even responded to it, coming back to try to eat a little more on those very worst days because someone cared - but I may just be a hopeless romantic at heart.
Sometimes there are little things that I plan to tell you guys but then forget before I get back to the laptop. Something bigger and more compelling happens, and those little cute things are soon forgotten. What I'm going to tell you now is something cute I observed more than once some time back, and although totally unrelated to today's events, I'm eager to tell you now while I'm thinking of it.
It seems a bit anti-climactic now in view of recent events, but like I said, something more compelling always seems to happen, so here goes...
As you know, the raccoons enjoy vanilla s/w cookies. We haven't had those in a while, but when we did, several of the raccoons, Dennis included, had learned to take them apart. You know, like in that commercial about "How do you eat an Oreo?" These weren't Oreo's, of course, but after eating the cookies 'whole' in past years, this year they learned to pull them apart, eat the filling off the one side, then eat that cookie.
I'm guessing that one raccoon discovered this new way of eating the cookies, and the others learned it by example. I just thought it was cute that they were doing this. It was also rather cute that after eating the cookie w/frosting attached, most of them let the other cookie, the one w/o frosting sit in a pile on the ground. They would then come back to request another cookie. Then, when I closed the bag and said, "No more" they would all go back to eat those left over cookies. That's when I 1st became aware of this behavior, when one of the raccoons who had just requested another cookie went back to eat cookie halves from her stash when I said, "All gone." I was like, "you little scammer!" Then as I watched I noticed that several of them were actually doing this. I guess they wanted to get as many of the 'good' sides (w/frosting) as they could before the cookie bar was closed, but they kept the 'less good' sides for when they ran out as those were better than no cookie.
Just wanted to pass along that imagine of raccoons sitting around twisting their cookies apart. Maybe someday I'll get it captured in a picture or video.
ROFL What a great cookie commercial that would make, huh?
ROTF, KyWoods,
Think I should call Oreo?
Just came back from picking up cat/raccoon food. I got 3 bags. That's about 3 wks at the current rate. I'm going to try to cut back a bit and see if I can stretch that to a month. I'll aim to give each one some but let them supplement it with food from the forest instead of feeding them all they want. I went early to beat the crowds. I did not want to risk being caught with another raccoon Mom nursing kits at my door and me with no food to offer my guests. How unSouthern would that be. Anyhow, glad to have that problem resolved.
Bast surely remembers you as her protector and chef. that she relaxed on your back stoop to nurse her kits, I believe, was a gift to you to cheer you up and let you know how very special you are. I dare say that they have probably no other diner with a loving human hostess!
Hugs & prayers ^_^,
Sheri
Leaving a nursing mother hungry at your door really would be a blow to southern hospitality, wouldn't it? Love the cookie story, and there might be real income potential in a commercial like that. Maybe you could pass off the cookies as Golden Oreos (?). Too cute, and shows just how good they are with their hands.
Did y'all melt in this heat? I almost did....
The monsoon here is not what I had expected. It has a lot less rain that the US deep south and a lot less frequently. It only rains twice a week, not every afternoon like I grew up with and Cheryl is living with. We do have fog that takes half a day to burn off, but it seems to be more midwestern-type weather than sub-tropical. A DG member saw that my address was the same as his was decades ago and said that this was both the hottest and the coldest place that he had ever lived. I agree; though the summer heat is just like the deep south's, not a lot of folks have experienced that. Hope that you are all doing well. Stay cool!
That's fascinating, Juney; the concept of monsoons to me has always suggested days and days of nonstop rain. Glad to hear they're not so bad, though I don't envy you the heat.
I had figured that it was months of rain! We have had it rain for a couple of days at a time, but that is going to happen anywhere...
Fascinating: I'd assumed it would be months of rain also.
Rain....whats that? I have almost forgotten what it is. When a front comes this way we can see the lightening north and south. When it heads this way it splits in two and misses us completely. My poor garden and yard!
Cheryl....oh Cheryl.....where are you? We miss you and hope you are OK. Could you pop in just to let us know you are OK,please. I know that Widget, Cocoa & Kitty are watching you and loving on you, so am guessing you are just not in a writing mood these days.
You've had a lot just plopped onto your plate lately and may just be on overload.
I hope that you have been given a few heart warming moments like that evening when you found Bast nursing her kits against your back door.
Please know that you are often thought of.
Sheri
Judy, I agree, it's been a really dry summer here, too. We've had a couple thunderstorms in the past few days, but they're of the brief torrential variety; come too fast and too hard to soak in and do the garden much good. Meanwhile, other areas are no doubt getting much more rain than they want; so it goes!
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'm fine, just not in the writing mood, and nothing special happening right now. I still feed the raccoons daily. No more Moms nursing kits on the door mat, although I did get to the door one evening just in time to see one Mom getting to her feet with kits still attached. She was under the camellia shrub beside the patio, just maybe 2 ft from the door. By the time I saw her she had the front end up, back end still on the ground, sort of a temporary sitting position on the way up, kits still attached but 'plopping' off as I watched and she continued to rise.
I didn't see Bast again the next day or night. I even dbl checked the door mat at the same time, but she was not out there. It was as though the incident with her and the kits had been a mirage. Then the following afternoon, she was out there with the other Moms for dinner, no kits with her - or visible.
Most evenings now its some combination of Heidi, Dennis, the yearlings, and sometimes Bast. I haven't seen Cissy since the last reported episode with her kit, nor have I seen or heard the kit. I usually see kits in the pear tree and also in the Heidi tree. The ones in the Heidi tree, 3 of them, usually come down to eat after everything settles down. I don't know for sure whose they are. The yearlings indicate these are not their kits, plus it's too many for a yearling. Suspect they either belong to Heidi or Dennis as both of them have been seen with litters of 3.
The kits are adorable, of course. Two seem to be very close and get along well. They sort of team up on the 3rd, not too bad though. He/she still gets to eat. I just have to toss her food a little to one side so they don't rough her up when she tries to eat from their stash, even though they are clearly siblings. The ones in the pear tree started to come down one day, got to w/in a few feet of the ground when Widget started barking from the kitchen door and scared them back up the tree again.
Other than that things are pretty much the same every day. I haven't been in the writing mood lately, but don't worry, I'll be back again. It's a normal routine with me. I love to write, and I love to write this saga for you, love to interact with you, share the story with you, and hear your responses. I will be back for sure. Even though I love to write, I don't love to do it all of the time. I don't love to do anything all of the time.
I suspect that many may not understand the time and energy writing takes for me. For most, a post is a sentence or two, a paragraph at most. Even that takes time but not too terribly much. As you can surely see, I'm incapable of writing a quick paragraph, and a sentence is out of the question. I started this PAGE with intention of writing a few quick sentences to let you know I'm ok and will be back soon. I can't do a few sentences. When I sit down to write, it all just comes gushing out like a giant waterfall. Often, I greatly enjoy the process. Other time, however, I don't feel like doing all that typing or the thinking, composing, mental editing, etc to get that raging river compressed into some kind of nearly coherent, linear, stream of consciousness that can be typed one sentence at a time.
I firmly believe the days of not writing are an important part of the process. They breath life into the days of writing. Writing is a creative process, and as with any creative process, down time is as important as the time spent actively creating. Without it, my writing gets strained, overly methodical, boring even to me. With it, the words, when they come, gush forth with true emotion, feelings which I hope are transferred to the reader.
So there it is. I'm fine. Times are tough right now, but then I've been through tough times before, not the same kind of tough, but each tough in their own way, and I've survived. I will survive this, too. Money is tight, very tight. And sometimes I have pain, mostly in the wee hours like now. I take my 24hr pain med at 4:30AM (to give it a few hours to get in my blood stream before I need to be up and around). When I'm lucky I sleep right through until time to take it, but some nights I awake around 2 or 3AM when the medicine in wearing off and the pain is starting to break through. Then I TRY to watch TV (to divert my attention from the pain) while I wait for 4:30. These nights are rough. To demonstrate how rough: I used to take the med at 5AM. Over time, while waiting impatiently and in pain, I took it a smidgen earlier and earlier, as I could wait no longer. So now I'm up to 4:30 and starting to push toward 4AM. I know that's a loosing game, however, since it's not the hour that matters but the elapsed time since I took the last pill. It just doesn't seem to make the full 24hrs. But, I hanging in there.
Gotta go. With your help, I've made it past 4:30! So there's my quick paragraph to say, "Hi".
So glad to hear from you, I understand about needing a break once in a while to recharge. You have such a fanbase here that we worry and miss you when we don't hear from you in a few days.Sorry to hear about the pain, I know night pain seems to be more intense to me than day pain can be, good luck with TV being a distraction. I don't have any suggestions about it that haven't been mentioned at least a couple times.
Sending gentle hugs.
Hey, Cheryl; we all need down time and time to lick our wounds/bear the pain/whatever. Just sorry to hear that the pain continues to be such an issue for you. Take good care of you, and we'll all be here when you're ready to share more stories from the diner. You've become a friend, so we worry when you're MIA for a while; but knowing you're mostly okay, we'll wait very patiently.
June,
Thanks for the info on monsoons. For some reason in school I was never interested in reading the dry information about various places. I just could not relate to the collections of information about places so distant to me. But I LOVE to hear about other places from real people who have lived there. The latter just makes it all come alive for me. Plus, as in this case, you can explain what the terms really mean. From what I had read and been told, I would have expected monsoons to mean more or less endless rain, low to med strength showers that just go on and on for days, but clearly that's not the case at all. Thanks for letting us know what it's really like.
I've often joked about us having monsoons here because we do have periods of almost non-stop rain days at a time, but I was kidding. Now, from what you describe, it seems we have more severe monsoons than countries that actually have monsoons. It doesn't just rain here daily. For the past few weeks, maybe a month or more, we've had multiple T-storms virtually every day, several times a day and night and all with torrential rain. It's so soggy here, that I had to wait about 3 days to catch a moment between showers when it dried out enough to allow me to blow the grass cuttings off the walkway. Wet debris doesn't blow well, it seems. It didn't rain overnight, and so, while the ground is still squishy, the grass clippings sunning on the walkway dried out enough to blow. I had to hurry, though, to get them taken care of as I could see that even at 9AM it was already starting to cloud up a bit and I have little doubt that there's a T-storm coming sometime today, at least 1.
Some days we have a T-storm in the mid morning. Then the sun comes out for midday only to cloud up again for an afternoon T-storm followed a few hours later by an early evening T-storm which in turn will be followed by yet another T-storm in the overnight and very early AM hours. I am so not kidding. Every few hours the thunder starts rumbling all over again, the sky darkens, and the rain pours, hard.
I'm staying mostly indoors now. Sometimes I try to do a little yard work between 8-9:30AM on days when it's not raining and isn't to unbearably hot. The rest of the day, I'm soaking up the AC and praying it doesn't die. You stay cool, too!
It's the dreadful heat, no doubt, that is causing all this electrical activity - the multiple, daily Tstorms. Turns out we are actually in an unprecedented, historical heat wave. For weeks now we have been under daily warnings for excess heat, heat indexed temps above 105F. The warnings start as early as 9AM and continue until 8PM, this being the period during which temps exceeding 105F are expected. With warnings to stay indoors from 9AM to 8PM (if possible), that doesn't leave much time to go outside.
Since we can't run noisy yard equipment before 9AM and sundown is at 8:30PM, it's pretty much impossible to get any yard work done. The HOA seems to even be cutting us slack on the yards. I assume this is because they realize that between the constant showers, which just make grass grow faster, and the dangerous heat, many people simply can't get the yard work done right now. It's almost impossible to even pay someone to do it. The constant rain makes it impossible for area landscapers to find time to keep the yards of their regular customers cut, and that's not even considering whether they can work in the heat wave.
This past week we hit 120F (heat indexed temp). People, that's HOT! Even the young, healthy, athletic types are starting to complain now. A friend who is very active and rarely indoors except to sleep responded the other day to, "What have you been up to?" with, "I haven't been able to do much of anything lately for the heat." Local news channels now indicate the heat may be adversely effecting tourism. I hate to say it, but I've often wondered why people want to spend their vacation in a giant, outdoor sauna - but I know I shouldn't be shouting into the internet void, bad advertising, I know. And the other day a local radio station finally said what I've been thinking for a while, that our summers are analogous to northern winters in that we are just as stuck indoors in summer as they are in winter.
My electric bill for this month was the highest EVER, winter or summer, in the almost 10yrs I've been here, $50 higher, even though my new heat pumps (installed 2yrs ago) are rated some 50% higher in energy saving than the old ones were, AND I've kept the thermostats set a good 4 degrees higher all summer than I normally do. That's just how HOT it is here right now, even that much hotter than our normal heat.
But, I shouldn't complain. Except for the fact that I can't do any yard work or otherwise enjoy my garden, most of which is in a dormant state right now due to heat anyhow, I'm not having it all that bad. I would like to be able to do things outside, but at least I have AC to keep me cool, so I count myself lucky.
Also, as bad as it sounds here, we actually have the lowest temps for the entire SE quadrant of the state right now. Being on the coast seems to be keeping us a good 10 degrees cooler than adjacent areas. There are areas just 50 to 100 miles inland of here that are recording actual temps of 112F. Our actual temps are running around 100 to 101F (which ends up feeling like 120F when humidity is factored in. I don't even want to think about what their heat indexed temps must be.)
So that's the weather update. The weather is bad, bad, bad here. But I'm inside where it's a cool and dehumidified 74F (I moved it up another degree after seeing the electric bill.lol). Also, I'm greatly encouraged to realize that we only have a month of this horrible heat to go. September here is still hot, but not like this. Things start to cool down in September. It's not cool then, mind you, just not like this. September here is more like June and May. It's hot, but not so hot that you can't get outside in the mornings and early evenings to do some gardening.
I forgot to mention that next week we are expecting a 'cooling' effect. Paraphrasing the weather guy, 'cooling' means we get to drop below the cut-off for excessive heat warnings, we drop from 100F to 95F, that's our idea of 'cooling' - but I will gladly take it.
I hadn't thought of it before now, but the terrible heat out there combined with the muggy humidity and the wet, squishy ground may have something to do with my current lack of enthusiasm regarding the buffet. I go out there between 6:30 and 8:30PM. The excessive heat warnings don't even expire until 8PM. Surprisingly, it's actually hotter here at 8PM than at 10 or 11AM. It's like once the heat builds up, it's stays at the highest temp until sundown. Consequently, it's not all that pleasant out there at the buffet these days.
Hopefully, as the temps start to drop a little, my enthusiasm will pick up. As I mentioned, this is a historical heat wave. It's hotter and more unpleasant out there than normal. That's probably effecting me (and the raccoons) more than I had realized.
We are having the same record High temperatures and humidity. Uugghhh!! I finally broke down and suffered the atmosphere long enough to ride my mower around and get my acre or so of yard done. Had to take 2 breaks for A/C and water. I also wear one of those scarf things that has hydro crystals in it around my neck or as a headband. I would be happy with a life of Spring and Fall with Winter and Summer within a few hours drive. LOL That would require a cross country move back to San Diego, though and moving takes hard work (I'm allergic!!
Thanks for the update, Cheryl. We just love you and your "critter family". Down time is definitely a requirement for good health.
Hugs,
Sheri
Wow, lousy timing: dramatically higher bills are just not helpful when you're not working. Sure hope it cools off at least a bit very soon, Cheryl; I honestly can't imagine that level of heat, and have no desire to try. Like you, I can't imagine why tourists choose summer as the time to see Charleston; winter or early spring sounds like a much better plan.
Yesterday I went out twice to feed raccoons and still only managed to see one, a particularly hungry yearling. I had gone out around 6:30 even though there were no raccoons on the patio. It seemed to be getting dark prematurely, so I went out hoping to 'wish' the raccoons there with my very presence. It didn't work. I sat out there in the muggy heat for maybe 20min - felt like 30 - before coming back inside. Later, around 7:30 or so, the yearling appeared on the patio while I was in the kitchen cleaning.
I went out a 2nd time to feed the yearling hoping others would soon follow her. I watched as she ate like she'd just been rescued from a deserted island. Another 30min or so went by and no one else showed up. I could hear the distant rumble of thunder. Soon after the sky grew darker still and a large rain drop plopped onto my thigh. I gave up and came inside once more.
A short while later still, from inside I could hear the water rushing down the gutters - and the raccoons arguing with each other outside the window. It was roughly 8:30PM, the time I had (accidentally) fed them the past few evenings. They do keep amazingly perfect time. Timex, even Rolex, has nothing on them. I was surprised though to hear them out there in the rain and approaching storm. Even then storm warnings were rolling across the bottom of the TV screen.
As I've said many times, Heidi will come out to eat in driving rain, but in all the years I've known her she has never shown up for dinner with a t-storm on the horizon much less in the midst of one. I don't know who was out there, but I suspect it was likely yearlings and maybe Dennis. I hated to not feed them, but I wasn't about to go out there in the storm. They would just have to set their alarm clocks to get up earlier tomorrow.
Catbird,
Thank you very much for thinking of me and for caring. I do apologize for going MIA now and then. I wish I were capable of dropping a quick line, a few words to say, "I'm ok and will return soon." It seems such a simple thing, but I've never once managed to do it. If I open the laptop and sit down to write that, a flood of words tumbles out of me in an unstoppable torrent - because it's never that I lack things to say or don't want to talk to you guys but rather that sometimes I just don't want to struggle to mentally control, organize, and edit all that stuff into something marginally coherent much less type it. Next thing I know, I've written another complete manuscript.
Next time, I'll try again to write that simple sentence. Maybe one day I'll succeed at the seemingly simple task of just writing a line and then stopping. (lol)
Sheri,
Thank you for caring and for worrying about me. I'm going to try to drop a quick line the next time I go on 'vacation'.