Wow! March Already

We were watching TV at lunch today. I can see out our front door too. I saw something coming i didn't quite expect. Here she is:

The second pic is the house right across the street from us. She has the thinnest tail i've ever seen. We've seen coyotes on the road in the mountains often enough, & of course we know they are around here. But i didn't expect to see one pacing down the middle of our street in early afternoon. The neighbor's house backs to a ravine where they spend time hunting.

This is why we don't let our cats out, tho Mac thinks he knows how to handle himself. I think most people who let small pets out here have lost some of them.

Our little white cat, Jazz, has been going nuts this morning. He raced from Duane's office, across the hall, & our bedroom, up the cat pole, bit & scratched it, jumped down, & reversed his course to the office. Then back again. He did this about 10 times. When you are downstairs & hear this, or hear Jazz chasing Mac & vice versa, it sounds like elephants stomping across the ceiling.

Jazz is so funny. He likes to sit on something high, the mantle, the shelf over Duane's desk, or the cat pole. He likes for us to toss one of his small toys up to him & he bats it back. Sometimes he flips it, sometimes he bats it, sometimes he catches it first & plays with it before he tosses it back. He can keep at it for a long time, often until we tire of it. Sometimes he decides he wants to play elsewhere, & jumps down with it. This loses a lot in the telling, but he is very funny.

I saw the squirrel of last week who'd had his nose bashed in (or severely bitten). It is pink - squirrels don't normally have pink noses. It appears to be healing ok.

It's a warm day here on the mountain, it feels like spring is coming - tho we could have snow for months yet. I always think of the "rainy season" in Southern CA as November & March, but we had plenty in February. And last year we had snow the end of May that killed all the fruit on our trees. (The neighbors tell us our apples are good. Since last year was our first year here & we had none, i have to take their word for it.)

I started spring cleaning yesterday. Didn't do a whole lot. But to me spring cleaning is really deep cleaning - the stuff you usually pass over the rest of the year. It means moving lots of furniture to vacuum areas you don't normally get to, etc. I also spot cleaned the area rug by my side of the bed.

Our carpet isn't bad, but it is not really good either. I'm afraid it is good enough to last 5 years or more, however. This house was built in '77, so it is 32 years old. There are things we would really like to do for it. Remodeling the upstairs bath for one. I'd like to update some things in the downstairs bath as well. Also take out the fire place & put in the stove as a freestanding unit. And we won't go into debt or borrow money to do it, especially in the current economic times.

The carpet isn't horrible, but i don't love it. It doesn't show a lot of wear, & is nondescript, so it can wait. Especially as we would like to replace it with wood flooring, & that will be expensive. The problem is that it is old enough that it is kind of like velcro. It is hard to clean, 'cause the vacuum doesn't pull it well. For my "deep cleaning" yesterday i took the wire cat brush & brushed the carpet to raise the nap so that the vacuum would pull better. That is a once a year job, & i only do a small section at a time, so spring cleaning may go on for a looooonnnnng time!

I'd not talked to Duane about the pending visit with a reproductive doctor, so we discussed it yesterday & he is supportive. I guess he thinks it is time. I'm thinking the doc may have options we haven't considered or overlooked somehow. I'm not very enthusiastic about doctors, don't trust them much. But the one i'm going to see has had a couple of good recommendations. I think i'll push the appointment back farther. I've not done any of the standard things - AM temps, etc. I figure if i start now i'll have about a month of data to take in.

It is so nice the days are a little longer now. I don't care for sunset at 4.30! And the end of this month will be the start of Daylight Savings Time. Will have to plan the garden soon, & start some things to go out later. And do some yard clean up. And . . .

Spring isn't far away!

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