Back around the first week of June, I was on my way back to my parents place with lunch. I was stopped in the road behind a semi that was waiting to turn. Before I knew it, the semi was moving in reverse and I was about to get hit. I started honking the horn to no avail. A deafening “crunch” coupled with the semi on my front end happened before I was able to get my own vehicle out of the way in time. Boy was I pissed.

The damage to my car was not as bad as it sounded from inside the car, but it’s still annoying to have been run over. The man driving the semi had not seen or heard me. But he also never said why he thought it would be a good idea to back up in the middle of a busy street. The reason I had not reversed my car instead of first honking the horn is because I saw a vehicle approaching behind me in the mirrors. I didn’t want to be a squishy filling in a Chrysler sandwich.

My poor car suffered a broken grille and scuffed up fender. The scuffing isn’t as noticeable due to the color of the car, but if you know where to look it stands out like a sore thumb. Fixing the damage should only cost about $300, but I’m going to let it slide for a while. It’s just cosmetic and the function of the car does not suffer. I’m going to take the “please don’t hate us” settlement check and use the small difference(the total minus $300 to fix my car later) to splurge on something fun like a bike rack or going to the theater to see a movie or two.

First a semi backs over my car, then flood waters destroy my other one. The car  I actually liked. I enjoyed them both really, but the Aurora was my favorite. A gem if you will. It was an amazing car and I’m grieving over the loss as if it were a beloved pet or family member.

My Aurora was car purchase number two, but it was the first car I actually owned outright. Paid in full before I drove it off the lot. Such a steal too! incredibly low mileage, one owner-lease, less than half price and covered by extended warranty. I drove the hell out of that car but it never complained. Then engine ran great even after 8 years of heavy use. And when it came to comfort, the car seats were better than any furniture I’ve owned. So soft and cushy, with a roomy interior to boot. I never had to, but I could have slept in that car with no problems. It was my favorite for long road trips, short trips, trips to the market or the zoo.

I was quite spoiled with the Aurora. It had some features that my 300m was lacking, but it lacked some features that my 300 had.  All features aside, it was nowhere near as problematic as the 300m is/has been, and actually had to go to the mechanic maybe twice in the eight years I owned it.

My 300 will never be able to live up to the standards that the Aurora has put in place. But I’d rather drive my car than ride a bike or walk. Not that I’m against exercise, but it’s nice to keep warm/cool/dry while going from point A to point B. It’s also faster. So since I’m stuck with the Chrysler, I might as well start trying to love it for what it’s worth. One day it will be gone too, but hopefully not before I can afford to replace the other one.

Last month I was graced with the task of taking Chewy for his last car ride to the vet. It was not fun at all. In fact, I’m pretty sure his last moments were filled with discontent for someone who had loved him so much.

Chewy had an interesting beginning. His momma, a black lab,  was one of three dogs that my father took in from one of his acquaintances. I’m not sure if if was a known fact that Puppy-doo was in-tact, but it became apparent a few weeks after the neighbors German Shepard had paid her a visit. When Chewy was about six weeks old he was kicked out of the doghouse. Maybe he was a biter. Maybe he was the runt. I can not recall. But us kids somehow convinced our mom to let us keep him because someone had to love him.

Chewy, or Chewbacca, was the most well-behaved, well trained  dog we ever had. He wanted nothing more than to play - all the damn time. He’d chase balls, rocks, sticks, a frisbee or anything else he could fit into his mouth. Even when he was having trouble seeing and walking, he’d get excited whenever I rolled a tennis ball his way - immediately trying to get up and run for the door. And pats on the head. He loved being pet and hugged and just being talked to. The slightest bit of attention made him so happy, and there was never a shortage of attention for the Chewbug.

He loved car rides, and never took issue with the four-hour rides to Iowa or the cabin up north. Even though he was too fat to climb into the truck himself in later years, whenever any vehicle door was opened, he’d run over and put those two big paws on the running board and look back as if to say “lets go!” I was baffled at his love for car rides since he has such bad luck with cars as a little guy. He was in a terrible accident with myself and my brothers, and also got hit by a car not long after recovering.

He loved unconditionally and never failed to make me feel better if I was having a bad day. I’m really glad that I was able to spend nearly every day with him for the last two years. I think he was too.  No dog will ever take his place or be as special. Losing him was extremely tough because of the special bond we all had with him.  He was our special little guy.

Rest well my friend. I hope you know I was just doing what was best for you.

Cleo is retarded. It’s the only answer to my current problem involving two very stupid, yet loving cats.

Last week Link had to go into the vet because he was feeling quite ill and not acting like himself. While I welcomed the lack of constant meowing and head-butting, I was a bit concerned for my fat lump of a cat who used to wake me up in the morning by stepping on my face meowing in a “FEED ME” kind of tone.  His check-up did not go particularly well, however his issues seem to be worthy of improvement. Not certain yet if the odds are greatly increased by pocket depth or miracle pills. That will be decided after a few follow up visits.

For now, the problem plaguing the apartment is that Cleo has not been kind to Link since he returned home on Wednesday. She has appeared to flip out completely and hisses and/or growls when he comes within 10 feet. Mind you, the two are litter-mates. They have lived together for over 9 years. They have always gotten along in that time. Link has been to the vet in the past and returned home with Cleo none the wiser. Not this time. She has retreated to the upper level and won’t come down.

I must say that despite the initial irritation of having to transfer food, water and litter accessories to the upstairs for Cleo, I quite enjoy having one cat per floor. I actually get to sleep on my pillow at night and I don’t have to trip over hungry cats as I walk downstairs in the mornings.

There was a piece on the news tonight about an early outbreak of mosquitoes in the area this year. I laughed when they were speaking to a “mosquito victim”, as if she had been assaulted by the tiny insects. It’s no surprise that mosquitoes are annoyingly plentiful in Wisconsin all summer long. But for some reason there are people who are confused as to why we’re seeing the pests so early on in the year. Well, it really isn’t all that early.

Winter has lasted into the first week of April for the past two years now. The spring has been cut short to the point where winter is here on Friday, and by Monday the weather is sunny and 70 degrees. From one extreme to another in a matter of just a few days. For this reason, people are in the mindset that insects and pesky biting bugs are arriving ahead of schedule when in fact, they are arriving right on time. Wisconsin has been drenched in water since the snow began to melt. So not only do we have water accumulating from miles of snowdrifts, but weekly visits by rain clouds compound the problems of standing water everywhere. Standing water, as we all know, leads to millions and millions of mosquitoes. And mosquitoes lead to months of miserable pesticide smelling clothing and itchy welts on the skin.

Though I am armed to the hilt with my various lotions and repellents, I too will be one of the mosquito victims this summer.  It could be worse. So far the news hasn’t reported any tick victims. Nothing is more irritating than a wood tick burrowing its’ head into my thigh for a midnight snack.

I love the Earth so much that I will go so far as to hug a tree or roll down a grassy hill when the mood strikes. Generally I will commit to a task or event to celebrate the most awesome event since my birth. This year is going to be slightly different. I’m going to celebrate Earth day by organizing a healthier, nature friendly patio garden. That doesn’t sound right… All gardens are nature friendly. This year I’m going native! Instead of purchasing buckets of dollars in fancy lilies, roses and other such showy flowers, I will be investing a small amount of time and money in growing flowers found naturally in Southeastern Wisconsin.

The area I live in has become quite developed in the past few years. And while there are parks and patches of untouched land, I miss seeing the gold and blue hues of wildflowers along the side of the road that used to lead to a park nearby. Now that new stores have been built and roads were paved through, all the land is a lush manicured carpet of grass. Nice, sure. But it’s too uniform and plain.

I also miss the bees and butterfly’s. I’m hoping that planting more natural wildflowers will help to encourage a variety of insects to return to my little area, and thus a larger variety of birds. I’m quite sick of the same old blackbirds hanging around.

I have been busy, and thus slacking as usual. This whole writing thing takes a bit of work, especially since I have been busy practicing putting pen to paper - a skill lost to most people under the age of fifty these days. There was once a time when writing letters to people via the postal system and scribbling out short stories in the back of an old notebook were fun hobbies.

Since my old desktop pc is soon to be retired to the closet of unwanted ancient electronics, I’ve been going trough all the files to find what needs to be kept and what can be deleted forever. I came across about two years worth of old posts that were never updated to the archives. I’ve been busy copying them over so that they may entertain those who are bored at work and need something to read. One of my favorite stories about The Whale are among those recently copied over. You’ll find it somewhere in April of 2005.

With Spring upon us and the snow finally coming to an end, new annoying problems arise. Flooding. Not just flooding however, but the constant freezing and thawing of snow and ice. Southeastern Wisconsin has seen over eighty inches of snow this season, so far. Most of that snow that had been pushed up into tall piles is now slowly thawing out and running for the lowest ground. The problem is those warm days I mentioned - they are generally bookended by a few days of freezing temperatures. Therefore a lot of the low lying areas where water should run off into are still blocks of ice. Or rather, layers of ice. Like ice on ice action, only less of the action and more of the ice.

As we all know by now, one of my favorite hobbies is complaining. I complain a lot actually. As much I consciously try to avoid doing so, it just happens. Like when I go bowling; I focus my concentration on keeping my wrist straight, only to twist it anyway and launch my ball begrudgingly into the gutter. This year, instead of the ever soaring gas prices, I have chosen to focus 90% of my complaints on my parking lot and the idiot management who often times refuse to do anything until you are millimeters away from death threats. Why? Because after four full weeks, the lot is still covered in ice.

Back in February we received roughly thirty inches of snow. It was horrible, just awful in terms of snowplowing. There was so much snow to move around and out of the way after one storm dropped over ten inches of snow. About four days later, on a Saturday, the weather warmed a bit and the snow began to melt. This made everyone happy, including myself. I had been sick all that week so it was awesome to get out of the house and enjoy some sunshine. The following day it was supposed to snow again but instead chose to rain. It rained a fair bit more than it should have, and caused some more snow to melt. Water built up fairly quickly as the ground was already super-saturated by this point. Monday it ceased to be warm, and all that water that had built up started to freeze over. This is where all the problems started.

Let me break here to explain a little bit. The lot that I have to park in slopes to the east towards a sad attempt at a drainage ditch. It is not nearly as deep as it should be and actually just looks like a low spot in the ground where the parking lot meets an adjoining field. Said field slopes to the west, toward the lot for those not paying attention. As if it weren’t bad enough that both bits of land slope toward each other, there is a spectacular mound of dirt from recent construction that is in the field, which is also covered in the 50 inches of snow that had been collecting all winter. As all the snow in the field and on the mound melts, it runs down toward the parking lot. As all the snow around the perimeter of the lot melts, it joins the melt-water from the field and collects, essentially flooding the parking lot just something awful. This year has been worse than any of the past eight winters, as I’ve never seen flooding quite as bad as to force residents to park in the street overnight rather than the lot.

Instead of removing the ice straight away, the snowplowers just pushed snow up over the top and to the edge of the lot by the field. Every week thereafter just made the problem worse.

1. Snow falls
2. Plowers pile  it up per usual
3. Warm weather melts snow and some ice
4. Cold weather moves in overnight freezing everything again
5. Snow falls

By the third week of this nonsense warm weather had once again paid us a visit. Four days of low thirty degree weather days, one almost hit forty for a high. The ice and snow melted with a vengeance, and the parking lot became a lake. People had to park so far out from their assigned spots that it was becoming impossible to get my other car into and out of the garage. Even the sidewalk to the parking lot which is a good six inches higher than the lot itself, was in threat of drowning. Water couldn’t even flow into the “ditch” because of the snowbanks. I waited all weekend for someone to come out and take care of the mess, but help never came. By Monday I was taking matters into my own hands and chipping away any ice from my assigned spot that I could break up. But at over four inches thick, I didn’t remove much. And Tuesday brought freezing temperatures again.

I took some photos last week, and I think they will do the story a little justice as far as explainations go. Here is a shot of the parking lot from the walkway. Notice how the ice meets flush with the sidewalk. The blue car on the left is parked about six feet in front of my garage door. That little silver car is nearly frozen into the ice, and is parked roughly five or six feet back from where the end of the lot is(off to the right, where snow is piled up). All the way in the back, you can sort of make out the ice extending out beyond the trash bins. Apparently that area is quite low-lying as well.

I’m now inside my garage looking out. The red line indicates poorly where the rear of vehicles normally would extend to, which is no further back than that sidewalk to the right. The green line is where the ice was as of last week Monday, and the green block is where the little blue car is usually parked. The blue line is where water was just a few days prior.

Recall above where I mentioned that the parking lot slopes toward the field…this car’s front tires are sitting on four or so inches of ice, and still managed to be engulfed by two or three more inches or water.

If that doesn’t give an indication of depth well enough, let me show you my boots. When the man and I were out chopping up the glacier in our parking spot, the water rose to half an inch below the top of my boots(about the hemline up top there). I was so close to having soaked toesies!

On Wednesday of last week, the apartment manager finally, although a bit reluctantly, had someone come out and pump water from the parking lot. Not all of it was removed, but a good amount is gone now, leaving only sheets of ice that easily break apart on the warmer days. I can not wait for spring to get here. I want some warm weather (but not too warm!) and sunny days, and green grass.

I’m constantly finding patterns for useful items that I want to make. Toys, clothing, blankets, even supplies for the cats. It all starts with a visit to the craft store for some yarn. The material is very important because I want the yarn to be sturdy and soft while still pleasing to the eye. Sometimes a yarn that is beautiful just isn’t practical. However, beautiful and soft yarn also costs a lot of money. Thankfully me local craft shop always has 40% off coupons in the paper!

I had a pattern saved for a sweet scarf that I wanted to make, only I hadn’t found the time to sit and start my hookin’. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of my grandmother passing, I decided that the best way to occupy my time on the four hour drive to the funeral would be to crochet me up a nifty new scarf, and so I did.

The pattern for this “Tea Scarf” was extremely simple, consisting of approximately one million double-crochets back and forth until the shape of a scarf emerged. It was created by pixeldiva and I found it while browsing ravelry. The entire scarf took about five hours to complete, give or take. The finished product is absolutely wonderful. I was quite impressed with the yarn, Patons Rumor in hibiscus heather, as it is not a heavy weight despite the thickness of the yarn. The yarn is a blend of Acrylic, Alpaca and Polyester . Despite looking itchy as hell, it’s cottony soft, plush and as warm as a wool or wool blend yarn. I had considered using wool until I noticed how uncomfortable it as to the touch, and the wallet - just a little on the high side of what I’m willing to pay.

Now that tv shows are ending seasons or doomed to a schedule of repeats, I have found that there is a lot of extra time on my hands. I’ve started reading a book, nearly finished Phantom Hourglass, bought and read the Sunday paper and even started my “spring cleaning” early. In an effort to kill even more free time I’ve struck up an ancient hobby of mine, crochet. I used to crochet a bit when I was younger, but I was a one-trick pony making bookwoorm bookmarks for friends and random strangers. The google eyed worms were cute, but lost out to cross-stitching and sewing.

I decided on a whim to pick up some yarn and crochet hooks at the craft store last week with no real plans for making anything in particular. My goal was to learn some fancy maneuvers with my little blue hook in the hopes that I can become awesome enough in my newfound craft to make some hip little toys for my new niece/nephew-to-be. Since I only have five months, I need to be on a speed course for awesomeness. I looked online for a simple pattern and found something slightly useful, wrist warmers.

These were incredibly easy to make once I figured out what the hell a half-double crochet and a double crochet were. After fifteen minutes of studying diagrams and looking up some youtube instructionals I was all set to start. The total time for making my two squares was probably around three and a half hours. I spent some time watching Dexter repeats while working so the total time for someone paying attention is probably closer to two hours. I’m quite pleased with the way they both turned out and fit. I’m also pleased that I was able to pick a project and actually follow through to the finish so quickly. Plus these will be so much better when trying to use my camera outside. Mittens suck when it comes to adjusting the focus or trying to hit the little buttons for ISO and shutter speeds.

For anyone who is interested, the pattern came from poster CMFoster on craftster and is as follows:

1. chain[c] 32 (30 for length - 2 for turning)
2. half double chain[hdc] across length (start in 3rd ch from hook)
3. ch 3
4. double chain[dc] across length
5. ch 2
6. repeat steps 2 - 5, until you have 7 rows of 1/2 dc and 7 rows of dc
7. fold your rectangle in half
8. whip stitch from top for 3/4 inch
9. leave approx 1 1/2 inch for thumb hole
10. whip stitch rest of length
11. Turn right side out
12. place on your super cool - uber hip little wrist

I modified it slightly in length as well as the number of rows completed in order for it to fit my hand better. I also chose a slip stitch vs a whip stitch.