the other day my neighbor, patsy, was over visiting. we were discussing her boyfriend ~she’s in her 60’s and he’s got to be 75, so it seems weird to think of him as a boyfriend, but I don’t know what else to call him~ and she was telling me about his daughter. she just left her husband for a woman. apparently patsy knew all along that she was g-a-y because of her appearance.

she went on to say that the daughter always wore jeans, t-shirts and tennis shoes…oh, and she kept her hair in a pony tail all the time. after a brief spell, I looked at rich and he was looking at me. he asked me if I was gonna leave him for a woman. patsy looked a little confused, until rich rich pointed out to her that she had just described me. because, my default setting is jeans and t-shirt. now, I do wear flip flops, not tennis shoes ~unless I’m feeling masochistic and am going for a walk~ but I always have my hair up. it’s just too hot to leave it down.

when I looked at patsy, she just shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘well…’

to make me ‘the crazy cat lady’ ? because, inexplicably, we now have 11! if chewey were to come home, which at this point (it’s been 6 weeks today) I don’t think is gonna happen, we’d be up to 12.

only 7 of them are indoor cats…right, only 7. until a week ago this very day, we had 5, satan and her babies. then poor little laura, the minister, told me that she had to relocate her calico sisters. they’re only 9 months old and sweet as could be, she says. the problem is that they still have claws, and they’re tearing up the parsonage. on the little bit of salary our tiny church pays her, she can’t afford to get them declawed, so she knew she had to give them up.

enter my husband, sucker for a child in need. since laura is our surrogate daughter, he felt sorry for her dilemma, so we offered to help. I mean, heck, when you’ve already got 5 house cats, what’s 2 more, right?

well, they didn’t turn out to be very sociable. the babies wanted to get to know the sisters, but the sisters weren’t so keen on the idea. one camped out in the laundry room, near the litter box, which intimidated the babies. the other hung out under the couch. we finally decided to put them into the back bedroom temporarily, to give them time to adjust and to give us time to get to know them.

getting them into that back room was quite the adventure. without going into a long story, I’ll tell you that it involved nervous laughter, extreme hissing, a few bites, some hollering, even some bellowing (from rich, mostly).

since it was sunday evening when the exodus to the bedroom occurred, rich had to go to the emergency room for his swelling cat bite. miraculously, he didn’t have to wait long at all; he was back in time to enjoy cheese and wine on the front porch with my daddy before bedtime.

long story short, they’re now ensconced in the back room, where just this morning one of them finally came out to let me pet her just a tiny bit. the other one still cowers in the corner, hissing occasionally. I visit them 3 or 4 times a day, just to try to get them used to me. I really think they’re just scared, not unfriendly. I feel so bad for them. maybe one day I’ll be able to get a picture of them and post for y’all.

so, am I the crazy cat lady yet? if not, how many more cats do I need?

field day, tony running the sack race. the little girl in the blue shirt to the right, is taylor, his ‘girlfriend’. they’ve been in the same class for the 5 years they’ve been in school, and jessica teases them that they’ll get married someday.

for some reason, this pic came out kind of fuzzy and grainy…

this is exactly what I meant by overrun

I’ve been sewing quite a bit, and my little workroom quickly gets overrun, by scraps, flotsam and jetsum, cats….

so I bought a couple of these great fabric totes, I needed one immediately, but they only had 2 left at the store, so I grabbed an extra, because really, in my experience, you just don’t know when you’re gonna need a tote. however, it was commandeered soon after it arrived, and I fear that it has left my ownership. I tried to put a few papers in it, but that didn’t seem to deter mr. fatsack. I wonder why it is that they think they need to make my things theirs….

today I finally watched shadowlands, the story of c.s. lewis that I bought at walmart about 5 years ago.  it was a really good movie, a tear jerker.  before emma came along, I watched a couple of movies a week, while the younguns were in school.  when she started requiring more attention, that ceased.  now that she’s a little older, I just gate her into the living room with me and pop a movie in once in awhile.  now that school is out, I have to be a little more careful about what I watch.  no more ron jeremy

today, however, casa de hockett was crawling with the elementary set.  tony’s friend alex and his brother spent the day yesterday and today, while their mama was finishing the year at school.

so, with alex on the computer, tony playing psp, maddie and greg playing ds, and, of course, miss emma screaming her little babyisms, the only way to watch a movie was to use subtitles.  I looked around at the chaos, and thought to myself, ’self, if you were any kind of normal, this would make you scream’, but I think I’m just enough off balance that I was able to tolerate it.  it only lasted for an hour or so, before they all got bored and went somewhere else.

on an unrelated note, the coastal fires have lent us some haze and smell.  the kids were unhappy that I wouldn’t let them play outside, but it’s pretty strong up here in these parts.  this may be why they tried to torture me with their video games…

we went up to the mountains last week. it was the annual conference of the western north carolina united methodists. I was the delegate from our church, so rich, tony and I went. laura, our preacher went, as well as her family - her daddy is a minister in the same conference. we all stayed in maggie valley, which is about 10 minutes from the united methodist assembly at lake junaluska. it’s so beautiful there, a cozy little community of methodists built around the lake.

we stayed from wednesday through saturday, in a great little lodge. we ate too much food, country cookin’ being popular in those parts. one restaurant has family style dining, which is like a buffet that comes to your table. I had the best country fried steak there, it was so crisp and crunch, but not dried out. yummo!

we went up to the touristy cherokee one day and let tony mine for gold. he found some rubies, sapphires and topaz. they all look alike to me, just rocks. the people there identified them for us, and would have happily cut them, especially the 10 carat ruby, for only $99.

I didn’t take many pictures, I just didn’t think of it. I was busy relaxing and enjoying my guys. I did, however, think to snap a pic of tony and the big chief.

I also went to some meetings, although they were boring and sweltering. meetings are held in stuart auditorium, which doesn’t have air conditioning, so it got really really hot with close to a thousand people in there. I did get to see some of our former ministers, so that was cool. of the 4 that have been there previously to laura in my time, only 2 of them are still in the pulpit.

I think it’s a pretty tough job, without much pay. since our church is a teaching church, we get a new student every 4 years. and we pay them $12,000 a year. of course they get a house to live in, but they pay some utilities, and laura has to commute to duke several times a week. gas alone puts a big dent in her pocket.

it was pretty warm in the mountains these last few days, although not quite as hot as here, mama says. I guess raleigh got up to 101* one day. I even packed a sweater and some warm shirts, but I never had to use them. everyone I talked to up there said that it was unseasonably warm. atleast it cooled down in the evenings, when we sat in the pavillion drinking our wine.

I just hope it’s cooler next year.

’nuff said

I’ve been in a pissy mood for the last week, since dropping my kitty into oblivion 11 days ago. still no word or sighting, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to bitch and moan for a bit…

I ‘borrowed’ this idea from meno, who got it from gina. I sincerely hope neither of them mind…
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dear citgo station at the corner of church street and 150,

fill up you damn receipt printer!! what’s the point of paying at the pump if I still have to come into your ratty-ass store and get my receipt? you’ll only fool me once, as the other lazy neighborhood purveyors of fuel have no doubt learned. I don’t need a car wash, I don’t want your stupid little bobble-head pens, I just want a receipt that says I did indeed pay $200 for 3 gallons of gas…well, maybe $25 for 6 gallons.
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dear children of my flesh,

I love y’all dearly, with all my heart, but I fail to understand the difficulty in refilling the ice trays that I have so lovingly filled so that you will have the ice you need at your command. lucky for me I hide ice in bags in the bottom of the chest freezer. one of these days you’ll realize that I still have ice when you don’t. Just fill the trays!
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dear asswipe in the lexus at the top of the 87 ramp on freeway drive,

I don’t know how you were raised ~nor do I give a rat’s ass~ but around here, a yield sign means that I have the right of way and you need to wait until I’ve passed before you pull out. it does NOT mean that you run me off the road and blow you stupid little horn at me when I fail to submit to your superior will. clue: if that inverted triangle thing is on your side of the road, it’s yours not mine.
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dear old man in the ford pick-up on oregon hill rd & the old man in the chevy silverado on old 29 old men in pick-ups in general,

I have not yet guessed the reason that you feel the need to pull out in front of me, then drive 35 miles an hour in a 55 zone. the fact that there was not one car behind me as far as the eye could see, confuses me even more. I hope you get a flat tire and all the people behind you just pass you and laugh. no, I don’t, not really. but I am angry. can you tell?

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dear mail lady,

I’m sorry. the day you pulled out in front of me on the rainy road, when you forced me to almost ditch my car to avoid hitting you…you didn’t even notice me. I was so upset I called your supervisor. as soon as I hung up, I felt bad. and then, AND THEN, you offered to keep your eyes out for my chewey, then even called to check in with me a few days ago. I misjudged you, and for that, I am very, very sorry. thank you for you kindness, even when I didn’t deserve it.
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dear husband,

thank you. I love you. I know that you are really struggling to keep your head above water right now. between your crappy job, finances, and your stupid wife losing your cat, every day is a battle. and yet you still find the kindness to just hold me and rock me when I’ve been upset about your cat, and to brush my hair to help me calm down and sleep. I love you and I don’t know what I’d do without you.
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I’m sorry that y’all had to see me like this, but I just had to get it off my chest. thanks for listenin’

chewey is missing. my big, lovable, snuggly handsome boy is lost. my heart is breaking.

chewey joined our family on father’s day weekend 12 years ago. our 3 other cats were grown, no longer playful, and we wanted a baby. he fit the bill, he was so sweet, came right to me when I followed my heart to the house with the ‘free kittens’ sign. I knew right away that he needed a daddy as much as rich needed a kitty. I took him home and he was promptly nicknamed chewey, short for chulalongkorn after the prince in ‘the king & I’ ~although most people think he’s named after the wookie on star wars.

over the last few years, he’s been venturing outside, just around the house, and mostly in the garage. he spends hours in the garage daily. and that’s how this whole mess came about.

on friday afternoon I was headed to school to pick up the babies, when just a mile from the house, I heard a soft thud. I looked in the mirror, and chewey was sitting in the road! apparently, he was on the roof of my jeep when I pulled out of the garage, and he hung on as long as he could. how could I not have seen him? I’ve asked myself this hundreds of times over the past 4 days.

I immediately pulled over and turned around, but when I got back to the spot where I had seen him, he was gone. I called and cried and pleaded for him to come to me, but I couldn’t find him.

we searched, from that point, all the way back home…over and over on friday, then again on saturday. finally, I went door to door on sunday, down the dirt road that crosses the track, which is where I lost him. 2 of the people I talked to had seen him friday afternoon; in fact one man described him as not having missed many meals. yep, that’s my handsome boy.

we’ve gone back down that road a couple of times since then, and driven and walked the area loads more. I’m comforted by the fact that we haven’t seen him in or beside the road. the animal shelter hasn’t seen him, either, so that’s hopeful.

and people keep telling me that cats can find their homes, but how long does it take a cat to walk a mile? he’s never had to find his own food, it’s always been handed to him. he doesn’t have claws. he’s a teddy bear. and we’ve had a couple of good storms. what if he’s scared somewhere?

ugh, I just want my handsome boy to come home.