Rear-ended

This was a couple weeks ago... I left work just a little early because I was taking the kids camping with the cubscouts at Mammoth Cave. Well, I was on National Turnpike and the traffic was stopped so I stopped also. This woman of India descent slammed into the back of my car. The only thing I could understand from her was "why you stop?!" and "late for work!" She examined both vehicles and gave me her insurance info and left. Her name was Gambar Shampsah or something like that. Anyway I asked my insurance company what to do and they said to get a police report incident number and give it to her insurance company. Well, when I called the police, the officer did the report, but also gave ME a citation! He asked if my drivers license had the current address and I was like "...uh, no." He asked if this was my previous address. I could not look him in the face, "...uh, no." Well also, although I provided about 5 proof of insurance cards, none were the most current. *sigh*. So here I am, $12 poorer for getting a license, and wasting my time with these fine upstanding citizens...

Circuit Court Criminal Traffic Division

Man, in this place, you are with the dregs of society!

Cat vs. Serpentine Belt

This past Wednesday was pretty crazy for one reason only...

 

I was leaving from my apartment to go pick up the kids.  Usually my ex and I meet to do the exchange.  I live about as far south in Louisville as it gets.  So I start up my 2001 Oldsmobile Alero, and all of a sudden there's this wierd bumping vibration.  Not a little shimmy...I mean the car shakes some...and I feel complete loss of power on the steering.  If your power-steering car has ever died going around a corner, you know what I'm talking about.  It's like I'm back to driving Judy, my '64 Falcon---worse actually.  I look up, knowing something is bad wrong with the steering and that's when I see little gray clouds wafting out from under my car!  My thought quickly re-evaluated from smoke, to bird, to---uh, oh....something furry!

 

I jumped out of the car, barely getting it into park and popping the hood release.  I threw open the hood, and wide-eyed still staring is a CAT HEAD!!!  A split second, and I was like  "...where is the blood??"  Then the creature, eyes as big as quarters swivels its head toward me!  I couldn't hardly believe it was ALIVE!!!  This stupid cat had done something bad wrong to my car!!!  I yell for my girlfriend to come over.  I'm afraid to get closer to the cat to put up the hood stand, and I definately don't want to let the hood slam back down.  She comes and shuts off the engine.  I can see that there is gray fur ALL over the place.  I'm wondering how this cat can possibly have ANY fur left!  Two people come over to see what the commotion is about.  One, is an older lady.  The other is a little boy with a neon green plastic machine gun.  The lady says to me..."Oh, I know the owner.  He's a nice cat.  Try to grab him out..." and I'm thinking two thoughts simeotaneously.  The first is "You have fallen out of the dumbass tree and hit every single branch on the way down!"  and "If I do that, my hand and arm will come out looking like I put it down in a running garbage disposal."  I can see the friggin' cat is about as unhappy as cats get.  Even moreso than my sister's cat Scout who HATES me.

 

The little boy (who has been aiming his 15 inch long green M-16 at the cat the whole time) says "Want me to shoot him?"  I look at the kid and ask if I can see his gun for a minute.  I gingerly poke at the cat with the orange tip of his green gun.  Until now, the cat has not made a sound.  Not a mewl, meow, hiss or anything.  He's just staring around like "WTF?!?!!?!"  I mean this cat's eyes are so big...he doesn't even look like a real cat to me!  So anyway, holding the very end of the gun, it go in toward his head (the only thing showing) with the day-glo plastic tip of the weapon.  The cat completely in a flash changes gears from scared, to p*ssed-as-hell!  This cat turns into a feral demon of some sort!  It chomps down on the gun like a steel trap and starts clawing the hell out of it!  It snaps its mouth--biting down two or three times, all the time ripping at the plastic with its front claws---then it bounds up like a ball of lightning and out under a bush!

 

The two ladies (my girlfriend and the dumbass) both go running all "poor kitty" after the cat to check on it.  Meanwhile the kid left and I'm just staring at my serpentine belt thinking "poor car".  Stupid stupid cat!  It was not even cold that day!!  My girlfriend told me it didn't look badly hurt--only some fur missing.  Believe me!  I could have told you that without seeing the cat!  Anyway, I had to get this special tool from Autozone to get the belt back on.  Cat vs. Serpentine Belt.  Cat 1, Serpentine Belt 0.

Optimism Warning

The back states "Good, Hearty Family Favorites" Uh....no.

Hematite Bracelet

I found this hematite bracelet at the Jtown Gaslight Festival. Supposedly it will cure anything that could possibly be wrong with a human body. The iron is absorbed into the bloodstream and increases the oxygen level... Anyway, it looked cool. My girlfriend was gonna get it for me but after she accidentally broke a clay flute and had to buy it, I wouldn't let her. Besides, it was cheap...

My Little Bookworm...

This weekend, we had some down time and I was reading. I had to get Lexie a dictionary at Half Price Books, so to be fair, I spent about the same amount on Logan. He grabbed up his book of scary campfire stories and read while I was re-reading a Thieves World anthology.

Death at the Dumpster

When we left for school and work today, there was a dead deer laying next to the Dumpster! It stank so bad, but I couldnt believe it, so I took a picture.

Light!

Just when I was getting resigned to the idea of going without power for two whole weeks, I come home from work yesterday and the electric is back on! (Also, Splott was out of the kitchen somehow...) The kids and I were fairly relieved. We celebrated with a movie... Speed Racer, which was much better overall than the first 15 minutes (which almost made me want to shut it off...)

I have to scoot downtown and pick up Pure Tap water bottles. The water company gives them to Louisville Scooter Group to distribute to our members.

Louisville Blackouts

Louisville Kentucky continues to hobble along with no power. This is the 3rd day. My frozen items have thawed. You cannot find ice or batteries ( C or D cell) anywhere. Gas is getting hard to find..half the cities stations are without electricity and the other half are running out. The guard has been called in...they are manning the intersections with no signals working. Schools were closed yesterday, today--and possibly tomorrow. All this could last 2-3 weeks i'm told.

Dog and Housebreaking

I got a dog several months back. He's a cute little SOB (that cracks me up!) named Splott. Well, he's been a pretty good mutt--a cross between a beagle and a pug...they call it a puggle. Anyway, the kids love him to death (sometimes literally) and he's good to have around when I am alone, but....he can't totally get the hang of where to drop his waste products. I am getting a couple used kid gates, and going to make some modifications to the kitchen. Pads don't work 100% of the time (he misses), a crate doesnt work (he rolls in it), so this is my next deal. Wish me luck. *sigh*

Camping with Pack 77 - Saturday

We got up saturday and put up the tent. After we got it up, we found out that we'd set up in a different site from the other folks. Someone was asking about the mixup, but we never had to move. 9am we found out everyone was going on the "Violet Lantern Tour" at 915! We scrambled but they wouldn't sell us a ticket because it was after 915 when we got there. The tour ranger said we could go anyway...just to put our admission in the donation box when we got back. It was like 3 hours and about 3 or so miles. Turned out it was closer to 4 hours, and the last 1/2 mile was up 4000 steps! The troop leader said she felt like she was going to have a heart attack. I'm glad she said it first. Doesn't look too good when a fat guy says it...

We got back from this ordeal and I took a quick nap. We were invited on a 5 mile hike...there was no way.. I made lunch for the kids, then napped a little. I did dishes and cleaned up. Later, the kids played and there was a parents meeting. After that, dinner & playing in the fire. 10pm or so we went to bed. At 2am, I wake up with horrible back pain and realize I'm sleeping on something big, cold, and hard. My air mattress developed a slow leak, and deflated throuh he night. There was little to do besides blow it back up. I had to huff and puff...the electric pump sounds like a weed eater or something. I got another 2 hours of sleep and had to blow it up again. Finally itwas about 6am and I could get up. Man, I had no sleep for like two nights straight.

Camping with Pack 77 - Sunday

Got my instant coffee (and hot chocolate for the kids) and sat in a camp chair for about an hour trying to give my back time to recover from sleeping sans air. Packed up slow and steady. We stopped at the camp store and got showers. I took a scenic route home so there would be more stuff to look at and winding roads to help keep me awake. It worked until about Radcliff, Kentucky. We stopped at the treehouse McDonalds on Dixie Highway for lunch/supper. Weekend done.

Camping with Pack 77 -Friday

This past weekend the kids and I went camping with Logan's cubscout/boyscout pack. Here's a rundown...

Friday after work, some crazy Indian woman slammed into the back of my car. I was leaving early to go home and pack up. Funny how that didnt work out. We had some communication issues and the few words I understood were "why you stop?!" and "I am late to work!" I got her insurance info, she got mine. She looked at our cars, got in hers, and drove off. I called my insurance company who told me to call the police and get a report, then call her insurance to file a claim.

Needless to say, we left late. I decided to use the GPS in an attempt to shave off some time with a short cut. Apparently the people at Tom Tom have a fantastic sense of humor. Apparently I do not, at 845pm, at the dead end of a gravel road that has signs saying both "private property" and "beware of dog". We turned around, back down the road...let me set you straight. When I say road, in this case, what I'm REALLY referring to is a dirt path just inches wider than my car, covered in a light sprinkle of gravel, tennis-ball sized rocks, and downed tree branch parts about as thick as my wrist. So we get back up out of this hole, back onto pavement for a short bit. I had kindly requested an alternate route from the GPS. It took us down another gravel road which quickly degenerated into something not quite as bad as before. After about 10 miles, its 930, and we pop out of the forest (litterally) onto pavement again somewhere inside Mammoth Cave National Park. It says turn, I turn. The good news is we are almost to the exact campsite! The bad? Its pouring bucketfulls, and its now pitch black.

I found the other campers, and I was able to erect a tarp over the car so we could sleep with the windows down. Yes, I did NOT pitch the tent in pouring rain and pitch black. Did I mention the kids had taken out the flashlights and not put them back in our camping supply tub? At about 3am, these women pull up in a van. They are talking loudly and swearing like sailors. Sweet. Saturday is a different day.