May showers bring..... well..... flooding!

Okay I'm back. You have been deprived my twisted outlook on the world long enough. Lots of stuff has happened since my last adventure into the land of silly. OH! Nothing of note has happened to advance the current state of construction on the house. (I didn't want to scare anyone with potential progress) None the less things have happened that need to be made known.

I suspect the most significant thing has been the addition of a new kitty. (much to the consternation of the resident kitty, Sara) During the heavy rains of two weeks ago Becky heard an odd sound outside. Upon investigation she discovered a very tiny (barely weened) kitten about to drown in the yard next door. She rescued it and after a few days we named it "Lucky" because that seemed appropriate. Well.... after a couple of weeks now the kitten has been renamed "Rampage" as that is much more in keeping with it's nature. It seems the little, mostly black, varmint is nuclear powered with an attention span of about two seconds. It races from one item of fascination to the next at that two second interval at top speed until exhausted or in need of more fuel. It is hysterical to watch. She attacks everything and anything. Feet are particularly prone to attack. Unfortunately she tries that while you're walking. So far she's not suffered any broken paw parts from that folly but she has succeeded in nearly killing us as we hop and jump about in an attempt to avoid causing her damage.

There is also that rain thing mentioned in the title and the tale of the new kitty. I'm not sure exactly how much rain we've had but it's been somewhere between 8 and 12 inches easily. The ground became saturated after the first couple of rain events and after that things just went down hill. We have no storm drains in this old part of town. Here we have drainage ditches and culverts. Unfortunately these were not all that well engineered. For example, all of the culverts down the block are standard 12 inch diameter. These all drain towards a common drainage ditch which is supposed to then move the total volume of water safely away from the housing area. The culvert running under our street should be at least 16 inches minimum with 24 being ideal. Instead it is exactly the same size as all the feeders even though it is supposed to carry the combined flow of four blocks worth of run off. Needless to say it is overwhelmed when the ground is saturated and there is a high degree of run off. We woke up one morning to discover water flowing under our bedroom door. This is not what I consider to be the most ideal way of starting my day. (I'd tell you what my ideal way of starting my day is...... but this blog has a "G" rating for the most part..... so I'll skip that) Anyway, the old wet/dry vacuum got a good workout sucking 50 plus gallons of water out of the carpet. A dehumidifier further helped and after a couple of weeks things are pretty much back to normal. I suppose one good point is that none of the previous owners wonderful electrical handiwork resulted in sparks or flames. (Yes..... I was most surprised by that too!)

Diet wise Becky is still doing just wonderfully on the NutriSystems program. Unfortunately my body was too smart to fall for that reduced calorie stuff. It simply adjusted to the lower caloric input after the first week and that was that. I'm back on the Adkins style low carb program because that did seem to work well for me the first time we tried it. I dropped 4 pounds the first week and hope to continue with some progress each week. Meanwhile Becky has dropped about 50 pounds with the NutriSystems program and it's been painless and automatic for her. She's looking really good too! I also seem to do better on the low carb program because I don't seem to feel hungry on it and I have fewer internal problems such as gas and heartburn.

I was finally able to deliver the wedding present to my niece yesterday. Never mind that she got married a couple of months ago..... okay. I tend not to rush into things like gift giving. So.... once I was sure the marriage was going to last longer than the typical Hollywood arrangement we checked to see what it was that they still wanted and got them the desired deep fat fryer. (Yes... I still promote anything that results in one being able to feel their arteries clogging up as they eat) While out at my mom's house my brother was kind enough to ask if I'd like to go out riding. (We're talking motorcycles here!) Since he's now got two bikes and only one ass to park on them that's a problem that requires assistance. Naturally I was only too happy to help out. We enjoyed a very pleasant ride of about 50 miles which I considered to be most therapeutic. As the tee shirt clearly states..... "You'll never see a motorcycle parked outside a psychiatrist's office."

My brother has two motorcycles now. One is a huge 1800cc monster with more power than most of these glorified little two passenger lawn mowers with doors that pass as economy cars. In fact it has a bigger engine than the last car I had!!! (A Nissan Sentra) The other is a Suzuki M50 that was his daughters. She didn't keep up payments so Jerry bought it outright. It's sweet to ride but lacks a windshield and one always wants to shift to another gear because the engine seems to be turning too fast. I guess it's not really but when you hear his big bike just loping along at barely above an idle while your scooter is buzzing with frenzied activity it's the difference between the two that makes you think you need to shift gears.

Anyway the ride in the fresh air and sunshine was a most welcome adventure and it sure did feel good to carve through the twisting back roads again. The little M50 just seems to change direction in corners with only a thought. Look where you want to go through the corners and it just seems to automatically go there. The bigger bike takes more active input. At low speeds it's a handful as it's quite heavy and doesn't want to change directions easily. At higher speeds it handles better and lends itself wonderfully to the odd practice of counter steering. Counter steering is somewhat counter intuitive..... but works amazingly well once you are used to it. When a corner approaches you push the handlebar in the opposite direction. (Yeah... that sounds like a recipe for road rash doesn't it?) The result, however, is that the bike heels over predictably in the direction opposite of the push and carves through the corner in a very stable manner. Push harder and it drops in harder and corners much more sharply. Push hard enough and things hanging out low on the bike start to make contact with the pavement.... which is not something one wants to do unless you happen to own both a bike repair shop and a hospital.

Well..... I have a few things to do around here yet. Avoiding stepping on the rampaging kitten is one. Clothes still need to be folded and there is something wrong with the washer too. I'm thinking it's the timer. It seems that the washer doesn't want to go through the final spin cycle anymore. (It's always something) Not sure how much a new timer will cost yet either. Oh well..... at least I'm handy enough to change it out myself rather than having to call a repair person.