Music Monday: What In The Natural Hell

He won't be blowing any horns today...

Hello, all. Did you have good weekends? I certainly hope so, because I need to share a small story with you.

Yes, I took a blog break last week. That is not foremost in my mind right now. What is? The crazy morning I had in the first hour and 15 minutes of my day.

I woke up at 8:45. The first thing I noticed upon opening the bedroom door was that one of our cats had expelled a bit of furball. Not unusual for this lot. I commenced to checking all the carpet and pillows and furniture for more traces (Tux tends to start in one spot and then proceed to carry on all over the house), then headed to the bathroom for more inspection.

I parted the blinds to do my daily check of the garden, since I was near a garden-facing window. Wow, what did I see, you ask? A FREAKING DEAD ANIMAL LAYING RIGHT IN MY GARDEN. NEAR MY FUCKING VEGETABLES!

Now, in the past year I've seen two dead mice in the yard. One was even headless. That, however did not prepare me for what appeared to be a poor dead rabbit in the garden. Not. At. All.

I was honestly quite shaken and feeling a bit sick to my stomach. What happened? Why didn't whatever killed the poor thing carry it off and finish it? What if it was eating from my garden and something in there killed it?

More likely, there was a life and death struggle in my back yard sometime overnight. And we didn't hear it.

Actually, now that I think about it, hearing it wouldn't have done any good. If I'd heard a struggle in our back yard (which was pitch black last night), I wouldn't have gone out there. Who does that? Only big-boobed, blond horror movie women.

HUBS and I went out to get it up. Then, as soon as we open the back door, what do I see? TWO BIG-ASS FUCKING SNAKES RIGHT BY THE DECK! One had part of it's body in our basement window.

JESUS, NATURE! LEAVE ME ALONE, ALREADY! I GET IT, YOU RUN THIS BITCH!!

I was primed to stay on the deck, but HUBS couldn't get the rabbit on the shovel, so I had to go help him. Which, of course, meant that as soon as I stepped into our snake infested yard and got near him, he got the damn rabbit on the shovel (the poor thing died with it's eyes open).

We got it into a black trash bag I'd lined with grocery bags and poured vinegar over it to try to make sure nothing would mess with it before we could get the sanitation department out here to pick it up.

The only lucky moment? It waited to rain until after we got back inside. Well, that, and I suppose it was lucky that we didn't actually see the bunny I'm gong to call Bernard get attacked. Because, crap, what would we have done about that?

Wow, thanks for letting me vent. Music, now?

Totally Uncalled For

Remember that garden I planted a couple of weeks ago? Well, nothing's grown yet. I know it hasn't been that long, but I'm worried that our recent cold snap has screwed up the garden's potential.

I'd really hate for this first garden outing to be a bust. Especially since I was getting used to doing things outside in the yard. Yes, that sounds odd. But when you despise hot weather, insects and reptiles it's not difficult to be afraid of a snake and wolf spider infested yard (Why did I have to look that up? Now I'm all creeped out and itchy). It took about a year for me to realize that wandering through our yard could bring some rather unexpected results.

Also? It would be awesome if the garden could produce veggies because Mother Nature has decided to be a complete bitch. On Saturday? I found a tick dug deep into my left side.

I know! When I first saw it that morning I thought it was a skin tag. It was basically the color of my skin, and who among us has not discovered a scar/mole/pimple/stretch mark that wasn't there the day before? Later I was looking at it and kind of flicking it around when I noticed...the legs. Sweet Lord Almighty!

The resulting hour was filled with me asking HUBS to confirm the tickness, having him pull it out with tweezers, watching him set it on fire and then me taking a shower and washing all the clothes I'd worn that week while crying and trying not to have a full blown panic attack as I contemplated Lyme disease. Does that sound extreme? Sorry, I didn't grow up in a Yellowstone National Forest. I'm a city girl who has never been feasted on by a tick and never thought such a country-life type of thing would happen to me. I was in shock, OK?

So, really, garden. I'm going through a lot for you, including being turned into food. You'd better damn well grow and grow good. Hear me?

Cicada Crazy

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Ok, nature. I know these things are only around for about six weeks every seven or thirteen or seventeen years, but, oh my! I am fucking tired of the noise and getting attacked every time I leave the house.

Monday seemed to be their peak day in our yard. They literally covered the trunk of our small tree and had infested all the branches and leaves. I got too close and ended up getting pelted with cicadas! (Alright, maybe it was just one. But having that thing hit me in the back was terrifying! Really!) I would have taken a picture of it for you, but I'm afraid to leave my damn house, you guys.



In other, cat related, news, Luanne had to have a bit of what I'm calling spa time over the Memorial Day weekend. And by spa time I mean time in the hospital from Friday night through Monday afternoon.

I had taken her to the vet specialist for some tests Friday morning. He took blood and did x-rays to make sure nothing else appeared to be wrong, since she's been lethargic and still isn't eating on her own. Then, he called me around 4 p.m. to tell me all her levels looked fine, except for her being anemic. Before I had a chance to ask where to get cat iron pills, he told me she'd need a blood transfusion. SAAAAAAAAAAAAY WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!

So, since they're closed on weekends, HUBS and I had to head off to yet another vet specialist hospital so Luanne could get her some spankin' new kitty blood. The doc thinks the anemia was caused by some blood borne bacteria or parasite that can lay dormant for quite a while. She got sick, her immune system was compromised and the bastard kicked in.

I take her back to our usual specialist tomorrow so they can recheck her levels, because she's still not eating on her own or moving around much. And now? Now she's also peed without going to the litter box twice. I'm afraid to let the chick sit down anywhere without a towel under her. Dammit...

I SURRENDER LUANNE'S HEALTH TO THE DIVINE!
I SURRENDER LUANNE'S HEALTH TO THE DIVINE!
I SURRENDER LUANNE'S HEALTH TO THE DIVINE!

Music Monday: Can We Please Be Done With Tornadoes Now?

Holy Nature Fuck! I cannot remember a worse tornado season than this one, seeing as how we started back on New Year's Eve with devastating storms and have barely had a breather since. HUBS and I and our folks have been incredibly blessed to have had every major storm in Missouri miss us. If you want to donate to help out any of the Missouri tornado victims from this year, you can do so here.

We also seem to be having a lot of earthquakes and other natural disasters around the world, don't we? It feels like every couple of weeks something major is happening somewhere that we can't control. The world may not have ended on Saturday, but doesn't seem like we're slowly falling apart?

Also falling apart? Our computers here at Citygirl Headquarters. My beloved laptop, Jezebel (I told you I love naming things), has been largely unreliable for months now. Sunday brought us a shocker, though, when HUBS turned his computer on, heard a pop and then saw smoke. The video card in his computer literally blew up! Never in a million years would I have guessed that his computer would explode before Jezebel! Never!

How's about we watch some music videos to take our minds off the terrible, Mmmkay?

Today Is The Kind Of Day...

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...Where I get up in the morning, cover my nethers and under-boob in cucumber scented baby powder and sit under as many fans as possible. It's only 10:11 a.m., but it's already 80 degrees. Whaaaaaat?? With 69% humidity. Dammit!

I, of course, realize it's not as hot as it could be, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about this.

Music Monday! Dreary Day Cure

Man alive! It's been raining almost non-stop since Friday. Friday, people. When we had some pretty serious tornadoes rip through St. Louis and surrounding areas, including the airport. Amazingly, no one was killed or very badly hurt. I guess it really was a Good Friday in some ways.

I've had quite the productive day. I finally hooked my scanner back up after getting a new power cord from Canon, and was more than pleased to find it working again. I cannot tell you how glad I am to not have to shell out for a new scanner, especially since it's obvious that my laptop is on its last legs.

Also, I got some legwork done so I can start my interviews back up this week, cleared some contest stuff off my desk, did some preliminary homework on a possible vacation, took a long-ass nap, figured out something quick to make for dinner and even exercised for 20 minutes. Yay, getting shit done!

Hope you all had a gloriously restful, family filled Easter.

Someone Needs To Reset Her Watch: Mother Nature, I'm Looking At You

We just sprang forward yesterday, and I realize that this is St. Louis and the weather is often fucked up and unpredictable, but damn! It was 65 degrees on Saturday and now it's snowing? It's March 14, for Christ's Sake!



I don't believe I've ever gone to bed with rain and woke up to snow like I did this morning. Even though I find this baffling, I do find snow better than a continuation of the sixth day of unrelenting rain in less than three full weeks.



That's right, I didn't go to bed until 4:35 am. I was working on a story and right when I was about to start on the edit, I thought taking a nap for a few hours would probably be best.



Why? Because, as is usually the case when I've had a lot of coffee to try to keep myself awake, I was feeling like I could throw up.



And, also? When I saw that bat fly out of my lamp, it seemed like sleep of any duration was likely the best thing for me.