ramblings from within . . .

yesterday the 9TS and I ran errands in the afternoon.   First stop: the vet's.  Totally out of salmon dinners in a can. The pop top music of their lives . . .  their meal of choice . . . like a trip to McDonald's for felines, minus the overload in carbs and calories.  Ninj meanwhile has also been noshing on kibble.  Hers.  His.  Pip's.  She is a non-denominational nosher.  And she has blown up.  HUGE.  Fat cat.  She ain't cool.  As of this morning, there is a new regimen in the cave compliments of our vet.  The beasties get fed three times a day, a third of a can each.  Pip gets kibble too since she is still growing which is good . . .  Ninja growing is not.   I think there might be some grumbling rumble echoing around the depths of the cave . . .

On to Lowe's for a storm door/screen door.  A storm door in Florida you ask?  Why yes she replied.  But let's regress.  Growing up, our kitchen door, which led to a wooden flight of stairs down the back of the house, had a fabulous screen door.  You know, the type . . .  an old coil spring that made it slam shut with a resounding bang . . . a hook and eye latch . . . wood frame.  We would grab whatever treats were present in the kitchen, head for the door, listen to it clatter shut behind us, sit on the bottom step and devour the goodness we had absconded with.  No wonder I love the sound of a screen door snapping closed.  Also no wonder that years ago, I asked the 9TS for a similar screen door on the entrance to the cave.  He obliged.  I loved our screen door but alas, it has not aged well.  It is warped and does not close unless manhandled, the screen sections are no longer able to withstand the occasional inadvertent push of a hand or foot and finally, the 9TS noticed a tear at the bottom.  One that could be enlarged enough for the escape of one very industrious kitten. 

Now there are screen doors and there are screen doors.  Whoda' thunk there'd be so many choices.  But we settled on one . . . a storm door really.  One that will eliminate the cold whiffs of snappy air that weasel there way under and around our front door come winter.  Yep, we are wimps.  Anything under 70 degree's is COLD.  This particular model has a top glass and a bottom glass.  The top glass slides down to match the bottom while revealing a previously hidden screen on the top half.  Nifty!  So in the fall and spring, we will get a wonderful nice cross ventilation  . . .  once we replace the screen door on the slider in the kitchen, which is arriving at the same time . . . and the beasties will get a panoramic bottom view of the world outside.  Beautiful.  I will, however, still have my memories of slamming screen doors and oven baked goodies on the bottom step. 

And while I am rambling, a funny thing happened last night.  We were sitting in the driveway chattering back and forth, me imbibing, the 9TS abstaining and were presently joined by our neighbors Nancy and Jim.  Nancy being a third of our lunch bunch, Jim being a retired contractor.  Conversation led here and there and finally to a house in Tomoka Oaks, a nearby subdivision.  Jim had built a house there.  And so it seems, the very same house we tried to buy before moving to the cave.  It was a wonderful house.  Great bones, pool, river frontage.  Unfortunately, the previous owners had divorced and the wife, who had won the house, was losing it to foreclosure.  The unhappy woman and her son consequently motored on the assumption that if they could not have it, neither could anyone else and proceeded to wreck havoc all around.  Huge holes were punched in walls, spray paint was everywhere, tiles smashed, chair rails defaced.  The pool was full of black slimy water, cage screens ripped.  It was awful.  They even started a fire on the back wall of the home.  The good news was that it was mostly superficial and could be restored by the mighty 9TS.  It was up for bid.  We figured that if we could offer a low bid and win, the savings would pay for the restoration and we would still be on budget.  But alas, we were bidding against a local rental company with more resources and lost.  Sigh.  But on the upside, we love the cave and have the builder of that wonderful house as neighbors.  Funny how things turn out.