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Thursday, December 26, 2013

Fire in the Tub: Throwback Thursday Edition!

Happy Thursday and Day After Christmas!  I hope everyone has had a very merry holiday season including celebrations free of worry, stress, or loved ones slapped with a ham from across the dinner table--even if they really did deserve it.



The Lowery-Combs bunch had a great Christmas...despite our squirrel infestation--thanks to all of you who have sent in tips on dealing with that rascally bunch, btw--the loss of our beloved house cat Strawberry (I think the squirrels may have done it), and the hubs hospitalization until 2 p.m. Christmas Eve.  We are a look-on-the-bright-side crew if nothing else!  This year the bright side just happened to be that Momma got an iPad for Christmas!  The perfect gadget for drowning out electrifying squirrel, a six-year-old's pleas for a new kitten, and a full grown man's swearing to have a heart attack--for real his time!--unless I rub his back, let him hold the television remote control, cook a pot roast without celery, hang his t-shirts from inside and not by stretching out the collar, etc, etc, etc.

In honor of the ebook and app Spending Spree Extravaganza I've undertaken today in celebration of my new toy...and hubby's not dropping dead just yet, I'm rerunning a post from last Christmas about my very 1st e-reader, the KindleFire HD:  a devise I still highly recommend even though I'm now the owner of an iPad or what my friend Danny Self calls  "a Kindle Killer".

This particular post wasn't one of my most viewed this past year, but I think it's some of my best work.  Maybe visions of all that is me in my bathtub are too much for some people?  Come to think of it, maybe this is what made the cat run away.

Enjoy!



Through the Wormhole: Confessions of a Bookworm: Fire in the Tub!: I believe the Book to be a sacred object—the heft of one held tightly in my hands or lying open in my lap is a tangible reminder of how a p...

Friday, December 20, 2013

Attack of the Christmas Squirrel!

Sweet baby Jesus, there are squirrels in my attic!  I’m not speaking figuratively--this isn’t a confession about my sketchy mental health.  You can count on one of those shortly, though, if someone isn’t able to get a herd of scampering, scurrying rodents out of my house toot-sweet.  It's all that I want for Christmas!


These squirrels are making me nuts!  I hear them in the ceiling, fascia and eaves of my new home morning and evening, tumbling about and seeming to multiply like a pack of wet gremlins with a bucket of KFC after midnight!  So far we’ve tried live trap cages, repellents, and clearing them out and repairing the holes they’ve gnawed in the house’s apparently scrumptious cedar siding.  Within days, however, new holes appear and the nightmares-of-electrical-fire-inducing vermin are back!


{photo copyright:  Cafepress.com}


We’ve decided that the majestic oak trees in the yard will have to go.  I’ll miss the shade next summer.  In the meantime, I’ve been humming this little ditty and it’s helping to ease my regret.

On the first day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
A nest in my Xmas tree.

On the second day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
2 half-eaten acorns and a nest in my Xmas tree!

On the third day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas
tree!

On the fourth day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
4 shredded insulators, 3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas tree!

On the fifth day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
5 babies born!  4 shredded insulators, 3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas tree!

On the sixth day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
6 live relocations, 5 babies born, 4 shredded insulators, 3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas tree!

On the seventh day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
7 packs of repellant, 6 live relocations, 5 babies born, 4 shredded insulators, 3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas tree!

On the eighth day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
8 frightened party guests, 7 packs of repellant, 6 live relocations, 5 babies born, 4 shredded insulators, 3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas tree!

On the ninth day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
9 nightmares of house fires, 8 frightened party guests, 7 packs of repellant, 6 live relocations, 5 babies born, 4 shredded insulators, 3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas tree!

On the tenth day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
10 cedar siding holes!  9 nightmares of house fires, 8 frightened party guests, 7 packs of repellant, 6 live relocations, 5 babies born, 4 shredded insulators, 3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas tree!

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:
11 yards of mesh wire, 10 cedar siding holes, 9 nightmares of house fires, 8 frightened party guests, 7 packs of repellant, 6 live relocations, 5 babies born, 4 shredded insulators, 3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas tree!

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my attic squirrels gave to me:

12 tree branches trimmed, 11 yards of mesh wire, 10 cedar siding holes, 9 nightmares of house fires, 8 frightened party guests, 7 packs of repellant, 6 live relocations, 5 babies born, 4 shredded insulators, 3 empty traps, 2 half-eaten acorns, and a nest in my Xmas tree!