Friday, January 08, 2021

What a nice, normal day

Yesterday was awful: I watched more news than I normally would watch in a month.  Today is a normal, no-news day for me.  It looks like the sun might come out, but it's pretty chilly, which is alright; it's January, so it's supposed to be cold.  We are low on moisture around here and can't seem to get much of it; they do forecast rain, but we're only getting small amounts.

I don't have to slave over the stove today (ha, as if I ever "slaved" at a stove), because the grandson next door went out to eat barbecue somewhere in Kansas City and gave us the leftovers!  I have quite a few potatoes on hand, so I made potato salad to go with it.  Yesterday I made two loaves of banana bread: one with walnuts for me and Cliff, and the other without, for the grandson.  He really doesn't mind walnuts much, but he'd just as soon not have them, and nuts are expensive when I am staying away from Costco.  We might make a trip there next week though.  They say Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days to go.  I read that the best time of day to go is 3:30 PM, but that doesn't work for us because we'd be going home in rush-hour traffic; Cliff avoids rush hour like the plague.

I just finished a letter to my sister in Oklahoma and took it to the mailbox.  Lately when I go outside and take Gabe, I put the shock collar on him, so if he starts running off somewhere I can zap him as I holler "no".  He knows before I even put it on him that it's capable of hurting him, and at first would try to hide when he saw it in my hand.  Now he stays put, because he likes to go outside with me and has decided he'll take the risk.  I had to zap him once today, when he went running to the trash barrel first thing out the door and wouldn't stop.  After that, he obeyed any command I gave him, including "heel".  That one surprised me, because I didn't figure he would remember that command; I had decided it was hopeless for him to learn that particular command, and gave up trying.  But with the shock collar on, his memory works very well.  All I really want to do is get him so he will always listen to "no".  That could save his life sometime.  

I woke up at midnight last night and thought to myself, "Did I put the cat out before I went to bed?"  I went to all the places he likes to sleep, but didn't find him.  Then I remembered one of his favorite places to rest:  Gabe's big ole cage!  However, Gabe was in there with the door closed.  Surely they weren't in it together.

Oh yes they were!  The cat was at the back of the cage and Gabe was toward the front, laying on his heat pad.  I crawled halfway in the cage, reached over Gabe, grabbed the cat, and went and tossed him out the door.  I told Gabe, "What happens in the cage stays in the cage."

Cliff is retrofitting some three-point forks that will fit on the loader when he doesn't have the bucket on the tractor, so he's been spending lots of time in his shop. 


 



7 comments:

  1. Northern AB gal1:04 PM

    Good morning Donna (it's still morning here, lol) Aren't you glad that you stayed away from the news today - I would rather not watch it but hubby seems fixated by it and watches CNN ad nauseum. I hate that station! Even though what happens in the US should stay in the US our news media seems to think we are a 51st state and feeds us US news non stop. I know for a fact that the reverse never happens, lol. In fact most Americans don't even know who our leader is.
    Your Blue is one sneaky cat, lol. Does your shock collar have a vibration mode or just shock?
    Trust Cliff to find a project to keep him busy. Hubby is working on another saddle but not sure he will be able finish it :(
    We are having warmer than normal temps for our area so am enjoying the sunshine on our walks. Have a super day.

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    1. Gabe doesn't even flinch with the vibrate or the whistle; it doesn't faze him. He doesn't feel the shock unless I put it up to 3 or 4 (it goes up to 8). But if Gabe has been shocked, for the most part, all I have to do is put the shock collar on him. He knows what it can do, so he bahaves.

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  2. I love potato salad and would like to make some! I'm staying away from the store but could always get the ingredients for pick up. (although I do tend to always forget an ingredient when I'm ordering on-line) Glad you had a normal day. We all need those right now!

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  3. I will be so glad when "normal" is back. There is some concern this pandemic might last three years.

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  4. We are having our first sunny day in what seems like weeks and weeks and it's beautiful out but still cold. I;d love to go for a walk but I seem to stiffen up with the cold so will probably stay in, but it is nice to look out and see the sunshine. Sure makes the world a brighter and happier place.

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  5. Wait a minute - -
    The cat gets thrown outside at midnight, but the dog stays in with a heating pad??? That's outrageous!!!
    (sorry, I couldn't resist...) *SMILE*

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    1. Honestly, I have never allowed any cat in our house at all. I hate litter boxes, and when I married Cliff, he hated cats, although he has since changed his opinion. I am not a great housekeeper, and I don't want anything in the house that sheds. 12-year-old Mama Kitty is 12 years old and has never been inside. Blue was just impossible to resist. He spends a lot of time inside during the day. Cold weather seems not to bother him at all; he goes to the pasture behind our house and kills moles. Once I saw him kill two moles in 15 minutes. Even Cliff allows him on his lap from time to time, but the doesn't happen often. Blue is not a touchy-feely boy.

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