Dec. 15-21, 2019

Weather | 12/15, 4" snow or 0.44" moisture, 15°, 20° | 12/16, 15°, 29° | 12/17,  11°, 23° | 12/18, 8°, 27° | 12/19, 25°, 38° | 12/20, 27°, 45° | 12/21, 29°, 49° |

• Sunday, 12/15: It started snowing at 10 am and snowed until midnight, giving us 4" on the ground. No firewood cutting, splitting, or stacking today. My sore muscles are thankful. Fed only 1 kitten in the machine shed. We think the fluffy orange kitten got too bold and was nailed by a wild animal overnight. Mary baked an apple pie. As darkness was coming on, we tried to get the remaining kitten to eat in the machine shed. It just meowed, but wouldn't eat. It was very cold and lonely, without its litter mate. Decided we needed to help it. I put a package of soft food, tuna-salmon flavor, in a bowl and grabbed a pet carrier. Unfortunately, it was our small carrier, so I gave the bowl of food to Mary and ran back to get the larger pet carrier. When I returned to the machine shed, I asked Mary if she saw the kitten and she said, "I have the kitten." It ran up to the food immediately. She tried to grab it and failed. It came back. She petted it and then grabbed it. The kitten struggled a little, but was too weak to put up much of a fight. We put it in the carrier with the bowl of food. It freaked out and dumped wet cat food all over the inside of the carrier as I hauled it inside. We took it to the upstairs north bedroom, set up a litter box, water, and food, and let it loose with the door to the bedroom shut. It ran for under the stuffed chair. Turned on a lamp and let it be. Returned a few more times and it always hid behind a blanket under the bookshelves. We wrapped Christmas presents. I asked my former Petco workers for good, yet inexpensive, veterinarians. Molly had the best advice, the General Veterinary Clinic in Hannibal. I looked them up online. They look good. Once this little guy or girl is tame, we'll go get it neutered and get it a set of shots. Yes, we now have 6 cats. Sleeping arrangements might be altered for Christmastime visitors. Someone is getting the room with the kitten, we just don't know who, yet.
• Monday, 12/16: Mary cooked up a midday meal of cod and sweet potatoes. I was a bum. Don't see much of the kitten when we enter the upstairs north bedroom. It did use the litter box and ate and drank. We suspect it was once inside a home and was dumped near our place. Got a message at 8 pm from FedEx that the delivery of our package wasn't attempted, due to weather...4" of snow didn't stop the mailman from delivering. We researched and decided on some loose leaf teas, which we'll buy after Christmas using a $50 gift card reward from our bank. We figure an after-holidays purchase might avert shipping issues. Plus, Stash Tea doesn't ship with FedEx.
• Tuesday, 12/17: We've got deer tracks in the snow all through our yards and by all of the out buildings. Spent an hour in the morning and an hour at night with our new kitten. It came to within a couple inches of both of us in the morning session. It knows to use the litter box instantly...no training necessary. In the evening, it ate an adult portion of wet cat food, producing a huge belly. There's no problem with its appetite. Haven't been able to determine its sex. Decided to call it Mocha if it's a girl, and Binx if it's a boy. A package Katie sent is now back to supposedly being delivered by FedEx. I texted her, advising her to change its destination to the Quincy Walgreens store. I found a 2x8 board, cleaned it up, and installed the nutcracker on it. Tried cracking a black walnut. It worked great. I cleaned the 30:30 rifle I used for deer season. Boxed up 35 empty wine bottles that I'll clean, remove labels, in the future. Didn't want to be trying to dig them out of the downstairs west bedroom when a kid will be in there during holidays. Removed anything important out of the old Lenovo laptop, removed the hard drive, purposefully damaged it, then reinstalled it. Will drop it off at Staples for recycling in the near future.
• Wednesday, 12/18: Plato and Amber always roar out the house door when we walk them, running north to woof at squirrels or bunnies. This morning, Plato came back with a big bunch of fluff in his mouth. Mary asked him to drop it, which he did, and it was a dead squirrel. He nailed it. He was very proud of himself. This explains the mystery of the dead squirrel a couple weeks ago. Mary tossed it into the north woods and while doing so, saw a beaten-down path into there by coyotes. It was an amazing, sparkling spectacle of frost-laden grass, tree branches, and cedar boughs this morning as the sun rose. I took down 1 of the 2 ceiling light fixtures in the kitchen and hung a new 7-bulb chandelier fixture in its place. The old 2-bulb fixture had cloth-covered wires on the backside of it. Good to be done with that! The new light is 1000% brighter. I cleaned the bathroom sink drain. Rust in the device that opens and closes the drain will require a replacement. I smashed several hickory nuts with the new nutcracker. It works well, but it takes time. After 1.5 hours, I had a little bit of nutmeats in a sandwich bag. I cleaned up and stacked at the back door several old electronic items to recycle at Staples, including a Gateway desktop computer, its monitor, its speakers, a Lenovo laptop, and a VCR/DVD player. Mary figured her monthly menu and drew up a shopping list. A FedEx email announced that our package is finally at the Quincy Walgreens store.
• Thursday, 12/19: We shopped in Quincy. Had to charge the Cadillac's battery, first. It was dead. Lower price for aluminum can recycling. Uploaded iPhone operating system 13 for my phone while on the Quincy Library's wifi. Also downloaded an audio book. Ate at Chinese restaurant where we swore 2 years ago we wouldn't eat there, again. We won't eat there, again. Picked up FedEx package at Walgreens. Dropped off electronic stuff for recycling at Staples. They won't take VCR/DVD player. Bought pet food at Farm & Home. Got bathroom sink drain ball rod assembly at Menards. Grocery shopped at Sam's Club, Walmart, County Market, and Aldi. Got home at 4:30, did chores, unloaded car, ate an Aldi pizza, and watched the Trading Places movie. Bill texted, asking about Saturday's schedule and I responded. Checked Gateway Arch info online. Sent texts to Katie and Bill related to visiting the arch.
• Friday, 12/20: I cleaned up the 2 tube-type TVs and moved them to behind our entrance door. Cleaned our rug shampooer (it had Merlin's pee on it & took a great deal of scrubbing to get it clean) and put it away in our upstairs bedroom closet. Cleaned up and put away several other items in the downstairs west bedroom, then swept its floor. Mary and I then scrubbed that room's floor with Lysol and a couple rags. We also clipped all dog nails.
• Saturday, 12/21: Mary cleaned house and baked bread. I left home by 7:15 am. Picked up Bill at his place in St. Charles, MO, then drove to Lambert Field in St. Louis and waited for Katie, who flew in on a Southwest flight from New Orleans, arriving in St. Louis at 10:30 am. That is the worst airport in the world for vehicle traffic congestion. After getting Katie, we went to a Best Buy and recycled the TVs...cost $25 each to get rid of them. Then, we went to a Schnucks grocery store and bought lunch...salad for Katie and I and Bill got a sub. Drove to downtown, found a parking garage, and walked to the Gateway Arch. Spent over an hour in the museum, then took the tram to the top of the arch and back. Then, drove to the Sameem Afghan Restaurant in the Grove neighborhood of Forest Park. The food is excellent. Bought some cat food and a syringe at the St. Charles Petco store. Couldn't find cat deworming medication, so called a couple places. Dropped Bill off at his place and picked up his air bed. On the way home, bought some dewormer at Tractor Supply in Troy, MO. Ran into a dog while slowing down to the first stop light coming into Hannibal. Pulled off the road. Katie walked through the woods down the hill where I hit it, but couldn't find it. Got the Hannibal Police's phone number and called them. Two squad cars showed up. While one was getting info from us, the other officer found the dog. It was okay. That took us about an hour. Got home around midnight. Bill's air bed had a 4-5 inch slice in it, so Katie slept on the couch.