From the lily pad...

Above and Beyond...

For those of you who have worked with the man in the picture you might wonder if he bleeds purple. He is one to go above and beyond. This picture might be set up, but I don't think it is too much of an exaggeration. I know because I have been with him personally on many a mission to deliver. Weekends, holidays, pitch black nights on scary back roads(his parents can attest to this one) and whatever mother nature throws at him. He will tell you "it is all part of the job".

Now for a little back ground on the picture. The reason he ended up hiking Sinks Canyon in his uniform is the "job" never ends. He had to meet a shuttle of freight at his station at 2am on Dec. 25th. Since his station is 30 minutes from our home and he had to be into work anyway that day he stayed there. It wasn't until after noon that he headed back home, but not before he delivered a few packages on the way. He stopped in to pick me up and do one last delivery before we went for our hike.
So you might conclude, "yes, he must bleed purple". Unfortunately, he is spread so thin it probably just looks crimson.

From the lily pad...

Hello all. It has been a bit crazy this month. I felt bad that I haven't updated the blog in a while. While I try to come up with something news worthy to post, I thought I would leave you with a little something from the archives. I apologize to those who have already read this. It is like a re-run. What else would you expect this time of year.

A Cat Tale

There is this Tom that has been paying me visits over the past couple years. He has started to come by more often recently. I am rather confused about my feelings toward him. Since my kitty making organs were taken from me against my will so many years ago, my lack of hormones have left me without a gage to measure my attraction to this Tom. Although, I have been around long enough to know they keep coming back. I figure I can play hard to get until I am sure how to proceed. So far I have found I can really let him have it through the window. We have had some pretty intense conversations this way. He really pushes my buttons and I just can’t stop myself from trying to go through that window at him.
A few times when I have been allowed outside unattended he has come by. This has left me feeling a little defenseless (especially since my best weapons were ripped from my front toes also against my will. Don’t worry, Erika thinks that I just slip when I am walking across her head at night, but I have hewn those back claws into razors for this particular form of revenge). Anyway, back to this Tom. He plays it all sweet like “hey, how you doin’, I would love to lay here and stare into your beautiful green eyes.” I have to say after 12 years, a little flattery goes a long way. We have spent some time staring into one another’s eyes. It never fails that when we are enjoying this time together Erika shows up. She gets all paranoid about letting us alone together. With her there I have a reputation to uphold. I have been top cat for 12 years and that isn’t going to change for some Don Juan. So, the tension rises and we get into a hissing match. At this point Erika insists on throwing a blanket over one of us. I figure this is a good time to head to the door. I wouldn’t want to say something I would regret. Like I said, I don’t know how I feel about him, but I don’t want him to stop coming around.
I am concerned I may have played it a little too hard to get the last time he came around. I was outside with Mike and Erika and he came for a visit. He played it very cool scaling the top of the fence, showing off his skills. I thought this was a bit much and didn’t pay him any attention. He tried for awhile and got bored and left. I looked for him, but he didn’t come back. I heard Mike telling Erika they should keep him and he would name him Scotch. Mike thinks he is so clever with that name since we live on Dewars Cv. Thankfully, I don’t think Erika went for it.
Last night Erika did tell me she saw him with another cat outside. She is concerned he has left me for someone else. She kept warning me I needed to be nicer to him or he would find someone who would be. The thing is she doesn’t know if that other cat is a kitty making tramp or just another cat robbed of their identity by the vet at a mere 6 months old. I have a felling he will be back. I’m named Jezebel for a reason.

From the lily pad...

Snow Days

Ever feel like a rain cloud follows you around? I am not talking about being depressed. In my case it is a snow cloud that follows me. Now, I know it is still a rain cloud that turns into snow as it hits the cooler temps. Just work with me on this one will ya?

Everyone should remember the post about the snow that dumped on us in October, right. That was the beginning of my battle with the snow. I was thankful that it all melted and the weather turned really nice. It has been a great extended fall.

However, an opportunity came up for me to be able to go home to WI for an extended visit. It wasn't long before I was facing my nemesis the snow. It came down in a soft blanket of white. From the window I actually thought it was pretty. How deceivingly innocent it appears. I know not to let my guard down. Twenty plus years of living in WI has left me cautious and jaded.

I pulled out the snow boots and bundled up for the task at hand. Out in the garage I found an assortment of ergonomically designed snow shovels. I was thinking, "wow, this should be a piece of cake with one of these shovels". Half way through I realized they look great, but they still don't pick up the wet heavy snow for you. Boy was my back going to feel this the next day.

A few days later the snows true colors came out. No more pretty blankets of white. Now we had cold, blowing snow. The kind that is like grains of sands, except it is icy snow. This stuff likes to drift into mounds of snow. Even though it doesn't cover all the surfaces, it still requires shoveling.

Once again we receive another blanket of snow. It is suppose to stop coming down around 2 pm so I will wait. Our neighbor decided to snow blow his and ours around 9 in the morning. Which is really nice of him, but still had a bunch to clear when I started at 3 in the afternoon. My mom kept telling me to wait and maybe he would clear it again. I didn't want to be shoveling in the dark so I decided to dig in. I finished around 4 pm and I heard him start up his snow blower at 4:30. My mom was right, I could have waited.

On a side note, I think you need to be slightly evil inside to drive a snow plow. Pushing all the hard, heavy, dirty snow into an impenetrable wall at the end of a newly cleared driveway. How else could they keep doing it over and over again?

Now remember in the beginning of this post I mentioned how nice of an extended fall we were having in WY. I stopped checking the temps here in WY while I was in WI because they were a good 20 degrees colder in WI. So when we arrived in WY yesterday and it was 56 degrees I was pretty happy to be here.

Today we are expected to get at least 5 inches of snow. Yeah, it is coming down in a nice pretty white blanket, but I am not going to be fooled.