noxcat | Entries tagged with weather

And we haven't lost power! (yet.)

The last time it was above freezing was Sunday at 3am. Supposedly it will break the freezing mark sometime today by a whopping degree, but I'm not holding my breath. And that's still pretty cold for a state so close to Hell.

And then there's the wind. Texas is windy. A lot of times people think Oklahoma when they think of wind, but the cold north winds just blow right on through OK and into TX with nothing to stop or slow them down. And a gust of wind can just rip one's body heat awy in nothing flat.

Yes, I was out briefly on Sunday afternoon, in 2 layers of clothing and a cost, but it still didn't take long before I was shivering!

This apartment does seem to be warmer than the old one. Probably because it's not on the corner of the building, so only has one truly exterior wall. But being in TX means it's not well insulated on that exterior side, so there are colder areas in here. Fortunately, the bedroom is not one of them. (The cats are spenging most of their time in and on the bed like the heat seekers they are. Even to the point of puking IN the bed on Sunday - fortunately we were stripping the bedding to be washed when we found that.

And I've been doing so much laundry for the heat generation! I've washed everything thatmight need it, even to the point of prewashing fabric lengths I haven't decided what to make up. Now I've run out of potential loads.

I'm going to try a couple of small things to weatherize more. Still looking for ideasm though.

We had a cold front blow in yesterday morning. It only put us down into the low 50s, but the wind - omg that damn North wind! - clocked in at a sustained 12-29 mph, so it actually feels almost 20 degrees colder.

But the first 2 days of winter are predicted to be back up in the 70s. *sigh&

Staying in the 50s would really be nice, as long as someone turns off that damned wind machine.

+++

The past several months have seen me doing a bit more downsizing than usual. Along with the deep fabric stash dive I did during NoNEWSew, I've made a noticeable dent in my books. This is a bigger deal than it looks simply typed out on a screen. For me, anyway. I have books I've never read, but bought when the opportunity presented itself in hopes of one day reading them, and seeing them again reminds me of that. So I stop and go looking to see if there's an ebook version on Kindle or Overdrive (the library's ebook service), and if there is, it goes on a wislist and the print version goes. Bit a few aren't currently available, or maybe I haven't dug deep enough yet, so they stay.

Himself does NOT "get it". He does not see the appeal of books. To him, they're boring and should all just Go Away.

But he doesn't bring it up - probably because there are interests he has that I could bring up in "retaliation" that I feel the exact same way abou - guns and ammo being top of the list. Yeah, I just don't see the appeal there.

+++

I finally upgraded my Holiday wreath! Years ago, back in the dark days of marriage, my then husband and I bought an undecorated wreath at spme craft store in the hopes we'd decorate it together. Well, we put one thing on it, and then he was traveling so much for work that he never had time, and I didn't want to do it myself. Mainly because I knew he's whine about how I did it without him, and that was "mean".

He didn't take it with him when he left, and for a few years I would come across it, remember the "story" that went with it, and toss it asid. But then, at some point, the topic came up with Himself. I was thinking of getting rid of it and getting a completely different one, but he encouraged me to keep it and do what *I* wanted with it.

This past weekend, I finally took some gold tinsel garland and wrapped it several times around it. Still thinking it could use something more, but I no longer look at it and think "that's a pathetic excuse for a wreath". So YAY MW!

We actually got a taste of the arctic chill this far south. There were a coyple of nights that actually got below freezing, and then barely warmed up during the day. Add rain/drizzle and that damn north wind so stong we had wind chills, and it was actually cold the past couple days.

But it's getting warmer every day. The cold snaps almost never survive a week in South Central Texas. It's the heat that overstays it's welcome.

+++

We had to take Harry to the Vet last night - he hasn't been acting right for days. It's just not normal for him to refuse food, and he would do that at times. Monday morning he was laying sprawled on the floor looking like he'd spent way too much time with the cat version of The Porcelin Goddess the night before, and while he seemed to improve as the day went on, Tursday he was back to acting unwell during the day and perked up again during the evening, but didn't want any of his bedtime treat ritual he and I go through. Wednesday he spent the whole day under the bed. I had no idea if he was even alive until Himself came home and moved the bed.

So off to the Vet Clinic we went. His blood sugar was up, and he was mildly dehydrated, but his bladder was dull, and all his other blood work was fine - although he's down three pounds since last visit. They gave him fluids, and an appetite stimulant and sent us home. We're hoping he'll get over whatever it is on his own. We really don't want to pay for more tests if we don't have to, since that would double what we've already spent, and then there'd be the added cost of treatment. Yay. All I want for Giftmas is MO' MONAY! to pay the vet bills. *sigh*

+++

NoNewSewMo so far has seen a deep destash of my fabric stash. I literally went through all. of. it. and suprisingly found very little black velveteen. I found green velveteen, and red, and purple, two different shades of blue, and even some pale grey. But almost no black. Odd. But the two pieces of khaki went right out. As did the dark red corduroy. Buh-bye.

One of things that's always annoyed me is when someone tries to tell me (usually a third party) that the reason I didn't laugh at a joke is because I "didn't get it. when in actua;oty I actually did get it. I just didn't find it funny. Or tells me "I need to work on my punchlines!" when what I was doing was playing the "straight man" to give someone else a chance to be a part of the joke.

*sigh* not everyone has the same sense of humor, idiots. Learn some shit.

+++

Met up with an old friend on Sunday. We both agreed we needed to get together more often than once every decade or so. :) Her 40th birthday was last week, so the velvettten she assumed I was selling her was a birthday gift. Approximately 7 yards od it, and it's not anywhere close to making a dent in my Stash. But the IRL time reconnecting with a friend was wonderful - she's active in the local theater community, which means she's more adept at drawing and maintaining people's focus on her, and putting herself forward for things, and dammit I need to have more people in my life who are that way so maybe it'll rub off! LOL

+++

A cold snap has come through - they've issued a freeze warning for a couple of counties west of here, so yeah, that qualifies as "cold" to me. :) But it'll be back up to the 60 by this weekend, so it's only cold for a couple of days.

Livia is, of course, spending the majority of her day burrowed under the covers, but Harry isn't acting any different. Livy's such a Texas Cat. :)

OMG there's 'cold front' coming through later today that might actually make it COLD for central Texas!!! (Yeah, I am well aware that 40s to 50s aren't truly cold, but what can you do - move north? Hoping to One Day.)

To that end, I have veeb going through yet another small portion of my massive amount of fabric, trying to fill a box with various lengths to get rid of. I actually offered up a kength of black cotton velveteen on my FB friends' list, and had someone speak up in minutes - and since today is her birthday, she's getting it for free. Another friend responded within 24 hours, and since I have a LOT of the stuff, I'll dig out another length for her. Both SCA, so I know it's going to good homes. :)

But YAY! 2 less items to haul on the next move!

(nearing 50 and I'm still not able to settle somewhere. *sigh*So tired of not having some control over who comes into my home or when they can come in.)

We finally got rid of the catnip plant that would not die, but did get incredibly leggy with tiny leaves. Turns out it was the ONLY plant Livia would NOT try to eat! (except for the cactus, but she did investigate the agave several times.) WTF" She loves the spider plant -it's the one she does straight to every time we let her on the patio. She loved the parlor palm too when it was sitting low enough to nibble on - the mexican petunia too. But I'm planning to pot some cat grass seed, and see if she'll give my poor spider plant a break - maybe this weekend

It blew in very early Monday morning, and it dropped the daily high temps down about 20 degrees. For 2 whole days. Today and tomorrow we're predicted to be back up to the lower 90s.

But the next front is predicted to come in Friday morning, and they're promising "jacket weather" - which means it might be as low as the 60s in the mornings.

Jacket weather?? Perhaps if I wear a sleeveless shirt. (which I never do.)

Stupid Maxi Skirt trend. I bought a skirt that was admittedly labelled a "maxi skirt". But when it arrived, and I actually tried it on, it literally PUDDLED on the floor. But I liked the fabric - the way it draped and felt, so I decided to shorten it. I just finished cutting *6* inches off the hem, and it STILL touches the tops of my feet! This thing was made for someone my sister's height - she admitted to being 5'12". Yes, I AM short, but all my height is in my legs - I have a 29.5" inseam. I do like long skirts, but I still need to take at least 4" off before I can get it to a length I like, and that's IF I make a deep hem. Rar.

The first week of fall has gone by, and we're still experiencing summertime heat. That's not too unusual for this part of Texas, but the local meteorologist is saying things like "hottest September on record", and this "this September is shaping up to be hotter than July was". Don't let ANYONE tell you this is "Texas normal" - the data proves them wrong.

And then there was Tropical Storm Imelda - we didn't even get an inch of rain from it, but over by Beaumont and Houston, people died from the flooding caused by the record rainfall.

Climate change in action, ya'll.

Today would have been my father's birthday. Never mind the fact that he'd be almost 100 at this point - my life would have been a lot different if he had been able to hold on for another year or two. Maybe better, maybe worse, but definitely different. I might never have come to Texas, which means I might never have met Himself, which would be a negative. But on the other hand, I would have had a loving parent for a few more years, and who knows how that would have benefited me?

It's not something I think about every day anymore, but it does sneak into my thoughts on noteworthy days like this.

Been feeling like I wanna Art and Craft lately, but workspace is scarce. Like it always is. So I've been turning my attention to decluttering, putting things away, and getting rid of stuff. Went through my boxes of books and found more books to get rid of than container to lug them off in. What a horrible problem to have! LOL But I almost have enough space cleared on my sewing table to do something, if not actually sew.

I did actually sit down at the machine and figure out it WILL sew a straight line, but the tension is seriously off. The scrap I was using was a very lightweight linen, so I need to try with a more sturdy cotton before I start hunting for the owner's manual again.

And it almost sounds like there' water falling from the sky! That's neem incredibly rare lately, so I'm going out to witness it!

The sutures in my scalp came out yesterday morning. And it was such a relief afterwards - after a couple days, they make my whole scalp itchy. Like a dog with fleas itchy.

That evening I felt the urge to start trying to catch up on the house maintenance that I had been slacking on in the name of taking it easy - but it didn't take long for my ribs to start hurting. Yeah - pretty sure they're bruised. Damn. Nothing to do for that except more taking it easy.

But I'm bored with that.

We finally got some rain! It's not much, but considering August was pretty much completely hot and dry, even the pop up thunder showers that only drop a quarter of an inch are pretty exciting. It's been another hotter than normal summer in TX, and it's not over yet. It's got worse since I first came here, and I simply cannot believe the people who still insist this is "Texas Normal". Uhm, my experience and the weather records say the exact opposite - but you go on believing it's not happening. You're just as ignernt as 45 is. Idjits. But then, how can you expect better in a Red State?

We're in the middle of a very stormy week down here. As I type, I'm hearing rumbles of thunder, plus the weather app on my iPad just notified me of a severe thunderstorm warning being issued just now. It's not like we need the rain - it's been a very rainy Spring and there's no sign it's stopping any time soon. There have been lives lost because of people driving over low water crossings and getting varried away by the water flowing over the roadway. The rivers aren't currently flooded, but with all the rain coming, it may still happen.

Water is one of the main reasons why I don't ever want to live in a ground floor apartment.

I had to move my cactus further in under the roof on the balcony. It's actually started blooming, but it's probably now in danger of death by drowning.

Last Sunday we went downtown to the POP Cats event. There were panels related to cats, and vendors with cat toys and cat themed items. And yes, there were a few 'cats to pet'. I only managed to pet one, and he was at the Williamson County shelter booth. But he looked so much like one of my first kittens, and his brother looked just like the other one! I still miss my Beasties, but I know Death comes for all of us. :(

There was also a booth for a Pet Sitting Service, and their sign mentioned Behaviot Modification, so I spent while talking to them, hoping to get a new insight into WHY Hairy occasionally shits on the bed. RAR. They went through a list of possibilities, but they were already things I'd thought of, so no real help from them. But it was worth a try. *sigh*

I was so pleased with myself - I managed to get out after only spending $5 on only one single cat toy instead of trying to buy All The Things. :)

I've been idly thinking about doing a SNA test to learn more about my father's side of the family. Mom's side is VERY well documented - thanks to her Uncle (my great-Uncle) Willard, who was a Tenured History Professor at Georgia Tech back before the Information Age. Her side goes back to the founding of some of the original 13 colonies, including the Mayflower. But my dad's side is pretty much a total mystery, despite Uncle Willard trying to trace it. So I was pondering the idea of having her do a DNA test, then doing one on me, and seeing where they don't match. That would have to be Daddy's ancestry. And with it being so close to Mother's Day, most DNA companies are having sales right now...

There are so many things I missed out on after my father died when I was so young. I never got a chance to get to know him as a person, and my mother's view of him is so heavily biased against him that I don't trust almost everything she has to say about who he was. She's rarely missed a chance to badmouth him in some way, and she's even got her current husband blindly parroting her views, even though he never had any first hand experience. Isownright do have some good memories of him - he was the one who read to me before bed and would come in and lay down next to me when I was afraid of the dark - they tell me he couldn't possibly be as bad as my mother tries to tell me he was.

I'm getting tired of Apartment Management sending out so many emails about when they're coming into my space when it's convenient. Maybe it wouldn't bother me so much if it they didn't send me daily emails about it. It just seems like lately it's been downright SPAMMY. Now it's the anuual Fire Department Inspection - which was supposed to happen today, but the latest SPAM says it'll be tomorrow. O yay.

Friday night was the first time I had difficulty getting to sleep before 1am in a loong time. Noy sure if it was due to me not sticking to my Caffeine Cut Off time of 7pm, sleepin in that morning, or a combination of the 2. But I also slept in on Saturday too. *sigh* I really want to be getting up BEFORE noon now since we need to go to bed at midnight so Himself gets enough sleep to be at work at 7am.

But I did get my ass out of bed at 11:30am today, so I'm taking that as a win. For now.

Friday was grey and drizzly with it progressing into outright rain after nightfall. But Saturday was a lovely Spring day - not a cloud in the sky, lower 60s and breezy.Wish Texas had more days like that, and not in early January.

Speaking of January - I Know er're only 2 weeks into t year, but I'm already feeling impatient and frustrated that I haven't yet accomplished more of my goals for 2019. WTF?? Seriously - some are long term, or require more disposable finances than I have at the moment, so there is absolutely no way I could have them cone by now. Yet here I am - no patience. lol

I mean - how can I pay off the bills for my biopsy if I haven't received them yet??

The Boil Water Requirement was lifter late this afternoon - and it's about time!!And since the water never failed a bacteria test, we're not required to flush our pipes.

But I am hearing some comments questioning the timing of he notice, since it was issued less than 12 hours after the Formula One Grand Prix race was over and the visitors who came into town for that had time to leave.The rivers were already starting to flood before Race weekend, yet they waited until after the weekend was over to issue the notice. Questions are being asked - who knew what and when?

Not that 'things' are back to normal just yet - people are still cleaning up after the floods, and some of the lakes on the Higland Lakes chain are still closed due to the increased amount of dirt and debris, plus the higher water levels - but it should be back to 'business as usual' soon.

Only one day for projected rain on the forecast for the rest of this week, so we can continue to dry out!

Any place in Central Texas that gets it's water supply from the City of Austin is now being advised to stop drinking the tap water and use bottled water for drinking and cooking. (And to be on the safe side, use boiled water for washing dishes.) Bo lawn watering or car washing either until further notice.

We've even been asked to reduce our shower times.

All because of the historic flooding upstream and the debris and silt it's put into the water supply that becomes our drinking water. The water processing plant is still working, but it's taking longer to process the water and the equipment needs to taken offline more often for cleaning and maintenance.

We've been lucky the past 2 days because it hasn't rained, but the forecast shows an increasing chance of rain for the next 3 days, and it wouldn't tale ,uch to cause even more flooding. Here's hoping Hurricane Willa will go much further S than it currently looks.

Been pondering the NONEWSEWMO challenge the past couple of days. I certainly have enough UFOs to join in! U could even put the pieces that need repair work at the top of the list and reduce the appearance of clutter around here too! It might even fet me back into a creative headspace again - I've been missing that a lot lately.

Hmm...I've got a week to think/ponder...

(I always get a little thrill when I learn how to do something new, so thanks Danabren!)

We actually got a few, blessed inches of rain this past weekend, so it hasn't been as hot as it could be. Not enough to increase the water levels on nearby reservoir lakes, but enough to take us out of drought conditions and decrease the wildfire risk somewhat.

I've managed to lose a whopping *3* pounds in the last 6 months, and while I am pleased the scale is going in the right direction, I wish it would go FASTER. All I had to do was start exercising consistently again, and switch from Gatorade in the mornings to water, and stop eating those little free corn muffins they offer at Jason's Deli.Great lifestyle changes, but not enough to drop the weight my doctor and I agree should not be there. Time to STOP binging on the stupid corn chips, increase the intensity of my workout again, and temporarily eat less. Damned corn chips - there is a reason farmers feed them to cattle right before the animal is sold. It's gets the animal up to 'market weight' FAST. I don't WANT to go up to 'market weight'! UGH.

The rose died. This is the 3rd rose we've managed to kill pretty quickly. Gonna need to do some research to find out what we're doing wrong, because they DO grow here - quite well.

The catnip is doing well, but neither cat is overly impressed. Livia doesn't car one little bit about catnip and would rather nibble on the other plants, thank you, and Hairy will eat a leaf if you pinch it off and offer it to him. But not a second one. Stupid cats. On to trying cat grass...