SNOW, SUMMER GIRL UPDATE and OTHER STUFF

LET IT SNOW

Is the snow ever going to end? We can't believe how much it has snowed this year. We haven't seen the ground since December 8th, which was our first snow of the season. It snows, then it melts a little bit, then snows again. Linda is about to wear herself out shoveling the driveway (see picture below). It's only clear for a day or two, then it snows again. This year is one for the record books, at least as far as we are concerned.

The result of Linda's snow shoveling

As I am typing this (Wednesday morning), it has been snowing all morning and is supposed to continue through most of the day.  Here is a picture I took of our back yard looking from off the back porch, a couple of days ago. Our flamingos, Fanti & Mingo, are still freezing their butts off! In a few months, the area behind the little white picket fence will be alive with fresh vegetable plants and I, for one, cannot wait!

Back yard view

UPDATE ON SUMMER GIRL

Since a previous post introduced you to our kitty, Summer Girl, I thought I would post an update on how her transition into being a part-time indoor kitty is going. She comes into the house every morning when Linda gets up and has a bite to eat. Then she goes down the hall to the bedroom and wakes me up. So much for sleeping in now. She even jumps up on the bed and, after a bit of meowing, settles down and is quite for a while. However, I can't go back to sleep then, so I usually get up around 6:00 or 6:30. I guess that is long enough to sleep anyway, and there is always the option of a nap in the afternoon. She also likes to come in and sit on our laps at night while we are watching TV.

Summer Girl and an old lady who wandered in

One of her favorite things to do is to get under the footrest of my recliner where my throw is draped because it is a dark hiding place. I call this her "Bat Cave" since she is very much like the Dark Knight. She is so dark that when you look at her, all you see is a black blob. Sometimes you can see her eyes, but most of the time she is like a black hole that sucks in all the light. She pretty much stays in the den with us now and so far has behaved herself, although she still wants to go in and out a lot. Of course, when she does go out she doesn't go far because of all the snow. It isn't very easy for a cat to walk in 12" of snow, but she does it from time to time, and shows up on the back porch with snow all over her back!

SUPER BOWL LI

Speaking of record books, I was disappointed in the outcome of the Super Bowl. Although I didn't have a horse in that race (sadly, our Seahawks didn't make it this year), I really wanted the Atlanta Falcons to get their first ever Super Bowl win. But that was not to be. However, it was a good game and we both thoroughly enjoyed the half-time show by Lady Gaga. The commercials were definitely better than they were last year, as there were some pretty stupid ones then. At least some of the ones from this year made you stop and think for a minute.

COMPUTER PROBLEMS

There's nothing that can really stress you out quite like having computer problems. Yesterday, as I was trying to work on my blog, my computer just decided to freeze up, or so I thought. I tried everything I knew to fix the problem, googling this and googling that until I finally gave up and just left it alone for a while. Turns out it was installing Windows updates, but you would think they could have a screen pop up and say something like "sorry, but your computer isn't going to do what you want it to for a while so it can install updates." But no, nothing came up to tell me what was going on. So, today I turn it on and start working on my blog again and BOOM, my virus protection just disappears! I thought it was connected to what happened yesterday, so here I go, trying all the little tricks again. Finally I just let it be, and later I came back in to see a screen up telling me my virus protection program had installed all of it's updates. Thanks for the forewarning (not)! From now on when this infernal machine decides to stop working, I'm going to just walk away and let it fix itself.

I'm glad I got to finally finish my blog and get it posted so all of you know what is happening in the big city of Yakima. Or, at least what is happening around our house, because we can't go anywhere for all the snow. I promise when the weather gets better that I will post some pictures from around Yakima and not just our yard. That's all for now, hope you enjoyed this week's blog and be sure to tune in next week.