It was a Monday morning a couple wks ago. Lewis was leaving the house at 4:45 a.m., as usual. Yes, he leaves that early every day. He got as far as the garage, opened the garage door, then came back in the house, woke me to tell me there was a HUGE rattle snake in the driveway next to Alex’s car. Probably about 5-6 ft . long & very thick. Tail was up & it was hissing at Lewis, facing him. Lewis saw it & put the garage door down & came in the house to tell me, but in putting the double garage door down, he accidentally hit the button for the single garage door, so that 1 door went up. That is the third of the garage where we have too many boxes, where Alex’s car doesn’t fit yet until I take all of those boxes of stuff to the animal shelter thrift store. Then his car will fit in there with ours. Lewis went out to look at it again, but it was gone. He thought it may have crawled up under Alex’s car & was concerned. I said I would take Alex to school & that he should call the animal control people to come look for it & take it back out to the desert.
So Lewis called animal control, they told him to call the fire dept. The fire dept. came out within minutes. They looked around & didn’t find the snake. They checked under Alex’s car & up in the motor. No snake. But they also noticed the single garage door was open & wondered whether said snake had made its way into that area. I am thinking & hoping NO. Once Lewis put the double garage door down, the motor would have scared it away, not towards the single opened door. Hopefully. Lewis gave me the report & went to work. I was not happy that the snake might be in the garage. But what could I do then?
Still in bed and trying to get back to sleep, I kept hearing a beeping coming from the living room. What in the heck was that? Everything in our house beeps. The washer beeps when it’s finished, the drier beeps, the microwaves beep, the oven beeps, the refrigerator beeps if the doors are open too long, all doors to the house beep when they are opened or closed because of the security system. But this was a weird beep. It beeped just once. I ignored it & looked at the clock. Then I heard it again. I looked at the clock. It had been a few seconds since the last beep. I ignored it again hoping it would go away without me having to get out of bed & disturb Sparky who was soundly sleeping on the pillow next to my head. Then it beeped again. I looked at the clock. Almost a minute had passed. Okay, I was mildly curious. I got up, walked out to the hallway towards the living room only to see - - WHAT? The living room door was wide open! Not just unlocked, but OPEN. I ran to it & shut it & locked it. Then the alarm went off. The security company called to make sure we hadn’t been broken into. I told her it was fine, the door just blew open. But why wasn’t it locked? And why wasn’t it latched?
Then more beeping, this time from the kitchen. It seems Lewis must have set the timer on the stove in case he fell asleep while waiting for the fire dept. He left without shutting it off. I had to run back in the bedroom to get my glasses so I could figure out how to turn off that timer beep. Since our stove is only a few months old, I am not familiar with all of the buttons without my glasses on. I finally figured it out & shut off those beeps. Then I started hunting through the house with my baseball bat for a rattlesnake. The door was wide open – with a snake on the loose in my driveway! This morning was just getting worse. After I had combed through the entire house, backs of closets & under everything, with my baseball bat in one hand, carrying Sparky in my other arm, I finally went into the computer room, sat on the recliner section of the couch with Sparky next to me & a blanket on us. I was not going back to bed. And I certainly didn’t go back to sleep. I waited for Alex’s alarm to go off. When he came out I told him I would take him to school if he didn’t feel comfortable getting in his car, but since the fire dept guys looked all over he felt safe, so he drove himself.
Did I ever mention I hate living in the desert?
It was 108 degrees on Sept 30. That is the hottest recorded Sept temp. I remember 1 year when it was 122 in June. But 108 in Sept ? Absurd. I've come to the conclusion that summer is never going to end - - never again.
Sorry, no pictures this time. I've been taking more videos of Sparky though. I'll try to include them next time.
I read something weird a few days ago. It was regarding the situation with Somali pirates hijacking ships off the coast of East Africa.
The first few words are all you need to understand the oddity of the phrase. You will see why this is something you have probably never read or heard in your life.
“The attorney for the pirates….”
Attorney for the pirates? Whhatttt? Please tell me if that phrase doesn’t strike anyone as odd.
See, you have lived this long & never heard that phrase uttered in your entire life. (I’m guessing). Just shows - - you’re never too old to learn (or hear) new things.
Speaking of weird phrases, yesterday I head on the news that there was an accident on the 101. Something about a 4-car pile up (please use an alternate route). And I thought, What a great name for a band! 4-Car Pile Up. Tell me that’s not a good name for a rock group. Is it worse than Stone Temple Pilots? Or Def Leppard or Lynard Skynyrd or Nickelback or Red Hot Chili Peppers? Personally, I love Red Hot Chili Peppers - - the band & the band name. It’s got some color to it.
Right now I am sitting here with my iPod playing my 2,000 favorite songs. Earbuds in. I am also eating popcorn. I have to keep turning up the iPod because chomping on the popcorn is too loud inside my head. I don’t want to turn it up too much & ruin my rock-concert eardrums any further. Sometimes I put a handful of popcorn in my mouth as soon as a song ends, hoping to finish chewing it before the next song starts. That hasn’t happened. There is not much time between songs. Maybe I should just put the popcorn away. Nahhh.
My niece, Adriane is pregnant with a little boy. She & our nephew, Chad live in Texas so we probably won’t get to see the little one too often. It would be great if they lived here & we could all be together. As it is, my family gets together once a month to celebrate the birthdays of that month, & my 2 sisters & I get together once a month for dinner. Adriane & Chad are the only ones missing. I wish Dennis & Cath could convince them to move here. But I know Chad LOVES Texas. And Adriane’s twin sister is there too.
Sorry, ears, but this is a great Pet Shop Boys song (West End Girls). Have to turn it up. I will stop eating popcorn for this song. I may even sing, but I am not alone right now, so I might have to reconsider that.
Next song is “Bang your Head” by Quiet Riot. I will definitely have to turn it down, now that the Pet Shop Boys song is over. “Bang your head. Wake the dead...” Remember that song? There were sure some good songs in the 80's. When I look back on music, I think the 80s was probably my favorite music decade. The 70's had me out at the disco every night. But I was in my 20's so I was able to do that. But the music just got better in the 80's.
“Ridin’ the Storm Out” by REO Speedwagon just came on. What a great song! I never understood why so many people made fun of REO. They had some incredible songs. A little trivia for you . . . REO actually got their name from Ransom Eli Olds who was a pioneer of the American auto industry. Oldsmobile was named for him (natch). Why they chose that particular industry to name themselves after is still a mystery.
Okay, don’t make fun of me, but the Rob Thomas song “Streetcorner Symphany” is such an up, bouncy, fun song. I’m listening to it right now. It’s what I call a spring song. There are certain songs that remind me of the wonders of spring, the smell of spring. Before I got married I had a Welcome Spring party every year around the first or second wk of spring. Think of spring – of orange blossoms, of star jasmine blossoms. Yummm. I have been trying to find orange blossom candles for years. Every time I think I’ve found one, I buy it, & it turns out to be that fake orange smell. Real orange blossom, not just orange, is incredible. Finally, I found a company online that has orange blossom candles. I thought I’d order a few to see if they got it right. They did. I keep all of my scented candles in one of the kitchen cabinets above the phone. Not with any food or dishes. Every time I walk by that area of the kitchen I smell orange blossoms. Now that is ideal! And when we cook something that does not smell very nice, I just open that cabinet for a while. Don’t even have to light the candles. When Alex was younger & he drank out of plastic glasses, I kept those plastic glasses in the candle cabinet until he told me the glasses tasted funny. So I smelled them & they smelled like my candles. Even after I put them in the dishwasher, that smell stayed. Those candles can certainly permeate things.
Spring also reminds me Legend City, the old amusement park that used to be down near the zoo in Scottsdale. Legend City was such a fun place to go in the spring & summer, & it always smelled good there. This was in 1969 & the early 70's. As you wandered around Legend City you could smell everything from orange blossoms to incense from the gift shop. They also sold 45 RPM records in that store. I remember getting “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show” by Neil Diamond & “Crystal Blue Persuasion” by Tommy James & the Shondells.
More unnecessary trivia - - One of Tommy James & the Shondells’ album covers was the first professional photo shoot for then-photographer Linda Eastman McCartney. By now you’re probably asking yourself, “Just what the heck is a shondell?” I know you won’t be able to sleep tonight unless you know that. Well, Tommy James named his group after Troy Shondell, a one-hit-wonder vocalist in the early 60's. Supposedly, Troy Shondell was his idol. A one-hit-wonder as an idol? This guy needs to raise the bar a little.
This is just me boring you with my wealth of worthless trivia. Gotta love that worthless trivia. Speaking of trivia, tomorrow night is trivia game night at Peggy & Al’s house. They are our across-the-street neighbors. That means we can drink to our heart’s content since no one has to drive home.
Sometimes Lewis & I read music trivia cards to each other before we go to sleep. These are the music trivia cards that no one in our game groups seems to care for. So we have decided not to take this particular set to any of the game nights & keep them for ourselves.
Anyone catch the season premier of “The Good Wife” ? What a great season opener. That is a very good show.
I found a new lipstick that I love. It is one of those all-day lasting ones. And the color is very nice & soft. The color is called 709. 709? Isn’t that a nice name for a lipstick? Nothing like Moonlight Romance or anything like that. Just 709. Kind of like having a hair color called “dirty blond.” I think I will go back & see what other lipstick colors I should have. I may stock up on the entire 700 series.
Lewis went to poker last night so Alex & I watched “Halloween 2” – the Rob Zombie version. I have seen 1 & 2 of the original ones with Jamie Leigh Curtis, but not the Rob Zombie ones. So we want to get the Rob Zombie first one. I thought we could watch 3 of them this wk-end. Kind of a gross-out marathon. It IS October, & Halloween is my favorite holiday. Alex is excited. Lewis probably won’t be. I’ll have to stop at Blockbuster to pick up those 3 (Alex owns the 1 we watched last night. He has quite a collection now – over 200 DVDs).
I will pull all of my Halloween decorations out of the garage this wk-end & do my decorating on Sun. I have tons of ghosts to put in the front tree. I need to use the really tall ladder & the shorter one too. It’s quite a project. I’ve got tons of new decorations I bought last yr, the day after Halloween. Lots of pumpkin lights this time. And a really cool giant black spider. Be afraid. Be very afraid. The sad thing is, we are the last house in the cul-de-sac & our house is kind of pushed back off the street, so if you’re just walking down the street at the end of the cul-de-sac, you may not see our house. But once the kids are in the cul-de-sac, they see it. I love it when the little ones come to the door. They are so cute.
Oct 2 (Sat) Just picked up a chocolate cake for game night.
Lewis took one of the cars in for an oil change, & Alex is still at work. At least he's working inside now & not at the pool any longer. He loves working there.
Alex will be 17 in a couple wks. I can't believe how fast this 17 yrs have gone. And I don't like it.
Just noticed I didn't say much about Sparky in this entry. Well, you know she's just as cute as ever. I'll make sure to add pictures of her next time.
Okay, that's about it for now. I'll put some pictures in next time. I really don't have anything new yet.
Hugs,
Candace
