Cats, Fall Decorations, and Workers

Well, I'm glad you all seemed to enjoy my post about my volunteer job - I'm enjoying it, and that is really the most important thing.  Yesterday there was only one kitty, a 4-month-old calico, called Gabby.

Unfortunately, Gabby had a pretty bad kitty cold, so in the afternoon she returned to the main clinic to get some medicine and TLC. She was so cuddly and sweet while I was with her. She *loved* all the stupid songs I made up to sing to her. ❤

Over this past weekend, when the weather was still lovely, I was folding some laundry and saw something I had never witnessed before:

Will you look at that! Miss Esme enjoying sitting in the sunshine in the guest bedroom window! Maybe she does it a lot when I don't see her, but this was the first time I'd ever seen it happen. Of course, the Koodle chased her out of the window and downstairs within about 10 minutes, because he is a brat. But she seemed to enjoy it while it lasted ... 

Even though she is still pretty much scared of everything and everyone, she has made a LOT of progress compared to the kitty who came home with us originally. I'm hoping the progress will continue as she sees that we have not yet beat up or killed any of the other cats who live here (and trust me, the Koodle challenges us 24/7 on that front).

For specific reasons that currently escape me, last week I decided that we needed some nice and new fall and Halloween decorations. So I was poking around and found some at Target online, and even better they were on sale. So I ordered two Halloween decorations and a fall wreath. Since Target is good about returning things, I figured if they didn't live up to their online appearance, I would return them.

When I opened the box, I was happily surprised! All three things were exactly what I was hoping they would be, especially the fall wreath - as a matter of fact, it might even be nicer than I was expecting! Here it is still in the box, since it's not time to display it yet. But isn't it pretty?

The Halloween things are tucked away, but I'll try to remember to show them to you when I get them out to decorate.

As I am writing this, there is a work crew in front of our house, demolishing the brick planter that partially collapsed about a month ago. Two different people gave me estimates, and both agreed that rather than fix it, it would make more sense to remove it and cement over where it had been. Apparently when it was first added, it was not connected to the house - so it would only fall apart again down the road. I liked it well enough, but it had started looking sad over the past couple of years, and then the collapse was just the end. We're just planning to buy some nice planters to fill with flowers, etc. next spring. Quite a few people around here do that, and it looks really lovely, and still gives some outside the house pretties to see.

The guy who is heading the crew doing the work looks like he would be the son of "The Sopranos" character called Paulie Walnuts. 

So I've been calling him Paulie Walnuts, Jr. (obviously not to his face, his actual name is Joe). He's really nice, but he embodies the whole Italian-American stereotype, and it cracks me up. Also, from the get-go he called me "Bridge," and it amuses me so much when people I either don't know at all, or barely know, call me that. No one in my family or among my close friends has ever called me that, but so many random people go there automatically! 😂

But you know what? God bless them for doing the work on a day like today, when the temperatures are supposed to be 97 degrees Fahrenheit with the ever-popular "feels like" temperature being 107 degrees. I would already be passed out, so I am thankful for anyone who does outside physical hard work when it feels like you've entered the gates of hell when you step outside.

And that's it for today. I'm off to work on a few projects inside, so I can get them finished and check them off the to-do list. I hope your day is a good one!