Man’s Work

It is still raining. You’ve probably seen on the news about Colorado, this is one of those times that I’m happy that “the other square state” isn’t getting national attention. We’re getting all the rain and much less flooding. So we’re free to send our focus, our support and our troops and firemen to our friends to the south.

But we’re sick of the rain.

While we are expecting warmer weather to return, nine days without sun has gotten us thinking about winter. A second blanket has come out so we can keep the window open at night. Kitten Thunder is back to sleeping with us all night – Obi sleeps elsewhere all summer.

And The Boy decided to take some measures to see if my office can be slightly warmer than the North Pole this winter. Kitten Thunder had been catching up on television shows we missed this week, but then they heard noises in the basement.

Man stuff.

Both kittens went down to supervise The Boy. He came up briefly for something or another and verified that is where they were. He told me he was taking the humidifier off our furnace. This could be leaking a lot of warm air that should be going upstairs.

There was clunking and banging and the sound of sawing.

Man noises.

Then I heard The Boy’s voice from directly below the couch – traveling through the ductwork. “Obi!”

I grabbed the camera in case there was something that needed to be blogged going on. Oliver met me at the bottom of the stairs to tattle. He had a big story to tell. As I turned the corner from the stairs, The Boy turned the corner from the train room.

“Obi,” he said. “Is in the furnace ducts.” The Boy was gesturing at the ceiling. “I don’t know if he can’t get out or if he just doesn’t want to.”

I strolled into the utility room. Camera forgotten. There was my brown kitten, staring at me from the furnace. “How did you get up there?” I asked Obi, he was well above eye level.

Climbed. Obviously.

I reached for him and couldn’t find anything to grab before he backed away. He came back to the opening and I reached again. He backed away. I stuck my head in, looking straight down into the dark cavern of furnace. He came back to the opening to look with me.

Maybe he did need help. He let me grab him.

The Boy needed things from Home Depot and headed off on his second trip to the store. He closed the utility door behind us as I carried the brown kitten upstairs.

Obi decided to help me with my afternoon project – knitting a scarf with pockets at the end, just in case the temperatures are still polar in my office.

Mom stuff.

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Bestest. Day. EVAH.

It is raining in Cheyenne. It has been raining since Monday. They now say it will continue to rain through Saturday. In my opinion, this is far better than the ridiculous high temperatures we’ve been having. My only concern is that the people of Cheyenne are solar powered; they can not maintain their high level of friendliness when we go this long without sun.

But my solar powered ness helped lead to yesterday: the bestest. Day. Evah.

First, the blanket is back on the bed and Oliver was still tucked in under my chin, purring away, when the breakfast bell went off. He stretched and waited almost patiently while The Boy and I whined about getting up when we were oh so cozy.

While feeding the kittehs, I realized I had a migraine. I found the couch, and a fuzzy blanket. I opened the window to let the cool air in. Oliver joined me a few minutes later.

And there we stayed.

And stayed.

And stayed.

And stayed.

Obi aura snuggled for a little while, but he was also having a good day. Because there was OutTV with Smell-o-Vision. And whatever was going on outside the dining room window?

The bestest program EVAH.

Exhaust-o-vision

Hello world! Greetings from glorious wet and overcast Wyoming. We have had big rain and cool temperature since Friday afternoon. It is a welcome change.

After a very eventful week, Obi is finally resting.

It started with the 4th of July. At the last minute The Boy and I decided to walk up the street to see the City firework display. We came back to the house to no cats. After a few minutes they appeared from the general direction of the basement. Oliver, surprisingly, was fine. Obi was freaked. FUH-reaked.

For two days he jumped at every sudden sound. He started at anything loud. It’s hard to nap when you’re jumpy.

It’s even harder to nap when you are jumpy and it is way too hot.

At last, it is not too hot. This brings on a whole new level of trouble for a brown kitten. Smell-o-vision is on! Every window is open. The birds are singing with new energy. There are bunnies everywhere.

Obi has been channel surfing at the speed of light. He ran from window to window to window all the way through nap time. It’s caught up to him.

Brown kitten is passed out on the loveseat.

Grey kitten, by the way, has a miller. He did NOT miss our nap.

Real Thunder. And Kitten Thunder.

I’ve been planning a blog post all day in my head. Then this happened.

It took me twice as long as usual to drive home. For one thing, I could barely see. For another, people were making questionable shelter choices. Like the idiot who decided to wait out the storm in an underpass – next to an already flooded drainage – because he didn’t want hail to hit his precious Hummer. And a whole bunch of people parking under our 100 year old cottonwood trees that drop branches on a sunny day. Um, no. I kept going.

The result of the storm was about 100 dimples (Divots? Dents? Horrific canyons?) in my hood and on the roof of my car. And three places where pieces of my car are actually missing. Sigh. But it makes a good story.

After arriving home and sitting in the driveway waiting for the hail to at least get smaller than ping pong balls, I finally made it into the house. Kitten Thunder met me at the door. Oliver was fuh-reaking out. He wanted to be held. Obi wanted to show me what was happening on OutTV.

The storm passed and The Boy got home so we ventured out to see the damage. There’s a lot, but other than our cars there’s nothing valuable that is lost. I was a week away from peas and tomatoes…not so much any more. Oliver was NOT happy that we were in the Out. To calm him, I went inside and turned on the TV.

That’s when the TV flashed a tornado warning. I tried to get The Boy, but he was down the block. I sent him a text. Not too worried – the funnel clouds were to the east – I turned and looked at Kitten Thunder. “You want to go downstairs, boys?”

Yes. They did.

Faster, please.

Once I was settled in a chair and watching, coincidentally, a program on the Weather Channel about storm chasers in Wyoming, Oliver paced between me and the bottom of the stairs. The Boy arrived. Oli was content.

For the next 20 minutes, Kitten Thunder tried to convince us they needed to be airbrushed. Of course my camera was upstairs so I don’t have the very cute picture of them sitting together in the paint station. I’m pretty sure that’s why they did it.

The TV continued to beep in with warnings of flash flooding, tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. The watches and warnings are pretty common here on the high plains and most people I know were probably outside looking at the weather. But Oli doesn’t know that. So he did what the TV said and went to take shelter in his windowless box in an interior room. I also don’t have a picture of that.

Things are calm now. We have occasional big rain. Obi caught a miller moth. The Boy is reading in the living room. And Oliver is passed out from the effort of being a nervous grey kitten who is in charge of keeping the household safe.

Good job, grey kitten. Sleep well.