What a Night-Did Some Shopping-Never Left Home

Dreams are really wonderful things. I have noticed that in my dreams I often know the people involved; or at least they are vaguely familiar to me. Also, in dreams I can do things that I know that I can't do in reality. I remember having dreams in which I could run faster than a speeding bullet, leap tall buildings; you know, the whole Superman thing. In dreams you can do things you have always wanted to do but were unable to. You can do the impossible. You can...... well, follow your dreams!

Last night I had a dream. In this dream I was shopping. I was shopping in a Goodwill store. I was shopping in a Goodwill store for a toothbrush; an electric toothbrush. Now tell me, who goes to Goodwill looking for an electric toothbrush? I found one that I apparently thought would fill the bill. It was red. Not only was it red, but it had a Kool-Ade logo on the side. Now that is what I really want, an electric toothbrush that advertises for Kool-Ade. When I went to the counter to ask the sales lady about the toothbrush she informed that there was a small hole in the side, but that it still works. I looked and sure enough, there was a hole. I remember thinking to myself in the dream, "How did she know there was hole in it? How did she know that it worked? Did she use it?" Yuck! I put the toothbrush down. I didn't really want a Kool-Ade Electric Toothbrush anyway.

I don't think I will be following that dream anytime soon. Oh, and the lady. It seems that she is the mother of one of my students from several years ago. Just think, one night you might be working at a Goodwill Store or looking for used electric toothbrushes. Yeah, in your dreams; in your wildest dreams.

Before I go, I must tell you that Boo-Boo is sitting here with me this morning. He would like some attention and is trying to get it by rubbing his head on me while I type. This makes for a lot of re-typing. He also takes his paw and will touch my arm as if he is saying, "Play with me, PLEASE!"

"Yes I will play with you and rub on you Boo as soon as I finish this!"


© 2007 Barry T Horst



This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Morning Surprise!!!

I went to shave this morning.

Look what I found in the sink.





© 2007 Barry T Horst



This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Alarm Clocks and Cats

Not wanting to be a slugabed, I have an alarm clock on my bedside end table. (Geez Rory. You make a better door than you do a window!) Rory just jumped on the desk and has decided to play with the cursor on the monitor. (Get out of the way! I can't see!) Anyway, as I was saying...Chris also has an alarm clock on her side. They are fairly normal and straightforward as alarm clocks go. I was looking in the latest Sharper Image catalogue yesterday and they had a few different alarm clocks. One was very interesting. After pushing the snooze button a second time it will roll off the end table, search for a place to hide, and them sound the alarm. This way you must get out of bed to turn it off. {Here it is: Clocky Run-Away Alarm Clock } I have seen others that have lights that simulate the sun rising in order to wake you slowly.

You may be wondering why I am writing about alarm clocks. You may be wondering why I am writing about alarm clocks at 5:15 in the morning. This is why. I have my alarm clock set for 5:30 AM so I can get up and get ready for work each week day. I don't set it on week-ends. I don't have to get up that early. The cats have yet to figure this out. If I don't get up at 5:30 they see it as their mission to wake me up. I suppose they are afraid that if I don't go to work I will not be able to buy them cat food and kitty litter. Either that or they are truly concerned for me and would hate for me to be late for work. I suppose the reason for the early morning wake-up could even be because they are bored and simply want to be entertained. I am not sure why they do it. All I know is that they do it. This morning was no different except that Mr. Puss started around 4:45 AM. He came to my side of the bed and started to meow. In my face. After he woke me up I began to pet and talk to him. Yes, I talk to my cats. Whats wrong with that? Having awakened me and feeling good about himself he retreated to the top of the desk and laid down. He is there now supervising the Blog once again.

Mr. Puss likes to go to Chris' side of the bed and take his paw and lightly touch her on the face. When Chris pushes his paw away the game has begun. He will proceed to touch her face again. If Chris ignores him, he will pursue the game until she complies and pushes his hand away or pets him. Boo-Boo and Mr. Puss will also play with your hands. If you are asleep and your hand moves they will attack it. If you want them to stop you will have to take your hands and bury them under the covers. Tabby and Boo-Boo will also visit Chris if any portion of the bottom of their food dish is showing. I suppose they believe they are out of food and will starve if the bowl is not filled at that moment in time.

I have to relate a funny story that happened shortly after Chris and I got married. Chris' parents came to visit us one weekend. We lived in Arlington at the time and her parents spent the night. The next morning Chris' dad, Hank, came to breakfast and started to tell us about the strangest thing that happened while he was sleeping. Apparently sleeping with his feet out from under the covers, one of our cats from the early days came along and decided to take a nibble on his toes. I remember him saying he didn't know what it was and kicked it across the room.

Aren't cats wonderful? We really could save a little money and not have to buy alarm clocks.


© 2007 Barry T Horst



This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Which is Better...a Window or a Door?

I can remember when I was younger I would often hear, "Barry!!! You make a better door than you do a window!" Well, for those of you that do not know me I want to assure that I was not a carpenter in my younger days. At the time I did not know what the speakers meant. After all, I was just a kid. As I grew older and wiser, I came to learn just what they meant.

However, the meaning of the phrase was driven home quite well recently. I was in my favorite recliner and watching TV. When along comes Mr. Puss and plants himself right in front of the TV. And just in front of the TV, but right in front of the remote control sensor. One of the wonders of the 21st century brought to it's heels by a cat. I begin to politely request that Mr. Puss should remove himself from his desired location of rest. This doesn't work. I then begin to loudly proclaim, "Move cat! You make a better door than you do a window!" That didn't work either. All I got from Mr. Puss was a, "Are you talking to me?' look.

Now, I know exactly what is meant by "You make a better door than you do a window!" And I am sure that Mr. Puss will be around for sometime to make sure I do not forget any time soon.

PS...Peanut likes to remind me of the same concept while she lounges on the cable box. You see, she has the unique ability to place her tail at the precise spot on the cable box that is capable of blocking the remote signal to the box, thus bringing the entire concept of modern society to it's knees. Or at least the ability to use the remote for the cable.

In this picture you see Mr. Puss directly in front of the remote sensor. And look under the TV. That is Peanut placing her tail in the precise location to throw the cable box into the Dark Ages. Tabby is in the foreground. INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: The movie on the TV at the time is "Talk About A Stranger" (1952). The young boy on screen is Billy Gray a couple of years before "Father Knows Best" premiered. Also his character's name is Bud; just as it was in "Father Knows Best".



More Blog later....


© 2007 Barry T Horst

Friday Evening, The Weekend Begins

It is Friday evening and the weekend begins. What better way to start a weekend than to have the weather in the upper 40's, wet, and miserable. And the prospect for the weekend gets even better. It is likely to get colder and freeze Saturday and Sunday night. Oh yeah, the weatherman (aka "That Noble Prognosticator of all Things Climatic") reminds all of us that Saturday will be rather windy; wind gusts up to 40 MPH and that sort of thing. So let me get this next bit taken care of straightaway-----"Go fly a kite!" There! I said it and I feel better.

Whenever the weather gets cold and wet like it is today, soup just sounds good for supper. Sooo, this evening I proceeded to make some soup. I headed to the kitchen and gathered the various and sundry items required to prepare a meal fit for....well, an ordinary sort of guy like me. First, I took the pan and added a goodly amount of water; and while I was at it, I added some diced tomatoes. Having completed this task, I needed to wait for this to heat up before I could move to the next stage of preparation. I waited. And I waited. And then I waited some more. After several minutes time and having noticed that the water was not heated and why it was not heated, I asked Chris, "Do you think this will heat faster if I turn the burner on?" She said that she thought it might and then assured me that she didn't think I should count on solar heat to work today. "Thanks!" I turned on the burner. It is really amazing how much better things like that work when you turn them on. Having accomplished the highly technical aspect of turning the burner on, I was able to finish preparing the soup. It was great and I will have plenty for leftovers tomorrow.

Making plans for the weather tomorrow....Since it is supposed to freeze tomorrow night I have to figure out what to do with the flowers in the garden. I imagine it will come down to moving, covering, and bringing inside. I have several flowers that have survived from last fall. Among these flowers are chrysanthemums, gazanias, dianthus, geraniums, and others. This will have to be done during the "big blow" tomorrow. I can hardly wait. It is so much fun covering the plants with old bedsheets in a gale force wind. It is almost like trying to put the sheets on the bed and having the cats think you are playing a new game with them (Shameless reference to yesterdays post).

Later, and obviously before I posted, I worked on my flower seeds. I saved seeds from many of the flowers in my garden. I harvested the seed heads and then let them dry out. Afterwards, I got the seeds and stored them in envelopes to keep until next season. The other day I had a "brainstorm". Well maybe just a little "brain hiccup"! I said to myself, "Self, wouldn't it be great if you could re-use the little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in?" After all, every one keeps the little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in because there will certainly be a need for little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in in the near or far distant future. So, I cleaned some little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in and proceeded to transfer seeds from envelopes to the little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in. I had French marigold, regular marigold, zinnia, dianthus, snapdragon, and broom corn. I still have several types of sunflower seeds to store.

Posting through the weekend.

KEEP IN TOUCH


© 2007 Barry T Horst



This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

How Many Are Too Many?

For those that don't know it, I like cats. Maybe I should say, "We like cats."

Let me tell you a few things about our cats. First, we have too many. How many are too many and why do I say that we have too many?

Let me answer the last half of that question. Or better yet, let me tell you HOW you know that you have too many cats. When your wife (Chris in this case.) puts the electric blanket on the bed because it is getting cold and she turns it on and there is no room on the king size bed for you because the cats are there keeping warm, you have too many cats. Also, when your wife changes the sheets and can't get finished because the cats think she is playing the greatest game on earth with them, you have too many cats. That being said, I will let you do some work and figure out how many cats we have.

There is Peanut. When we got her, the kids wanted to name her Skippy. I didn't like Skippy. For some reason the name reminded me of a peanut butter brand. I called her Peanut until the name stuck. Then there is Tabby. What can I say? Tabby is a tabby. We got these two after a festival in East Texas. They were in a petting zoo and we heard that when the festival was over the fellow running the petting zoo was going to "dispose" of them. What can I say. They came home with us. We also have Callie. Yep, she is a calico. My son, Scott found her behind an air conditioner at his high school. These are the oldest of our cats. Some time later we acquired Boo-Boo. I stopped at a convenience store to get Chris a Dr Pepper and heard a kitten meowing and saw this little fluff ball. After some effort we were able to rescue him. Once in the van, we noticed a funny smell. He smelled of paint thinner or something of that nature. On the way home we began to notice another smell, but I won't go there. Needless to say, he got a good scrubbing when we got home, as did the van. Now our little fluff ball is the largest of all of our beloved critters. These four have been in the family at least 10 years now.

Believe it or not, I am not through with the cats. Approximately four years ago I was blessed with Mr. Puss. He was a birthday gift from my daughter, Julie. As with most of our pets, the name changed a few times. He started out as Mr. Kitty. Then our grandson, Jace started calling him Puss-Puss. I later refined the name to Mr. Puss. Wow! Five cats! Now that is a lot.

This is Mr. Puss supervising the latest blog posting.

Nope, still not through. Last summer, Julie just absolutely had to have a kitten of her own. After all, five is not enough. She researched the subject extensively on the Internet. She settled on a kitten from a kennel(?) that was 80 some odd miles away (Guess who had to drive her there?) and required real cash to get the little bugger. We got the kitten and went home and the little thing got sick and had to be nursed back to health. Julie did a great job with her on that note. Her name is Rory (short for Aurora).

If you counted correctly you should have counted six cats. (Even if you didn't count it is still six cats!) That is quite a few, but we love them all. In later postings I will tell you about their antics and let you see them all.

UPDATE......

Guess who just had to have a kitten all their own? Yep, as of yesterday Julie is the proud Momma of Bristow, a gray Tabby kitten.

You're right. That is seven. Oh yes, Julie has assured me that she will take care of Bristow and all expenses that she incurs.

TOMORROW: Preparations for the holidays; lights, decorations, and such.

© 2007 Barry T Horst

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.