July 8, 2007
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The Reunion and other events of interest…..
It’s been an interesting few days here in NE Alabama. First we are suffering from a drought. The weatherman did not predict any certainty of rain other than *20 percent chance* of isolated showers on Saturday. Well, guess what we have had for two days? You got it….rain. Oh, not a heavy rain but a steady drizzle with intermediate showers of some volume. There were flash flood warnings yesterday in two counties just north of us that are at a little higher elevation. I know we are not out of the drought but it has helped make my weeding in the garden a lot easier. I still have a day of weeding to do since it’s slow going with all the wandering cantaloupe and watermelon vines. Since we have melons on both, we have to be careful what we are pulling and make sure it isn’t going to tear up something we want to keep intact. Next year, I swear…..a bigger garden and there will be some changes made to keep the vines under control.
Back to the Chicago trip. I won’t call it a family reunion although all of us siblings did get together and enjoyed ourselves and the food immensely. A girlfriend of mine from high school (yes, I do remember those days still) came and spent the afternoon with us and had a good time too. Assorted friends of my sister-in-law came over, too, to add to the variety. The kids had erected some borrowed canopies and we had an assortment of chairs and tables borrowed from friends and neighbors so we could relax and enjoy the very beautiful weather we were blessed with for both days of events. The next day was a double graduation party since one nephew had graduated from grammer school and the other one from high school. The leftover food from Saturday did not go to waste.
By 11 P.M., we were pretty much exhausted from cleaning up and the fact that we hadn’t gotten much sleep during the previous week didn’t help matters. We find so much to talk about after a year of not seeing each other (and yet we talk on the telephone and the internet a lot during that time). I am always amazed at how much we find to talk about and laugh over.
On Saturday night, my sister-in-law’s pregnant cat started acting strangely. We had been told the litter was not due until late July or early August but….she kept howling and running back and forth to the door of the bedroom the sister from Indiana was using (my nephew graciously gave it up for her). I watched her and said *I think she wants us to follow her*. So we did.
Sure enough, when the sister from Indiana and I went into the bedroom and sat on the bed, she curled up in the closet and proceeded to go into labor. The darn cat wanted company ! I got a towel to place under her (I’ve been through this before) and sister stayed while I finished straightening up the house. She gave me progress reports and soon we had the cutest little kitten. It was a silvery gray and, while still wet, look a bit like a mouse.
We waited but there was only one kitten. Mother and baby settled down for the night after she had finished cleaning up and we finally went to bed. The kitten was born at 11:30 pm and I think the sister didn’t get a solid hours sleep all night because of the newborn kitten mewling. Since I was in another room, I wasn’t bothered at all but felt bad for her the next day and tried to help out a bit since the cat had adopted her as nursemaid. There was a bit of a problem because the kitten didn’t seem to want to nurse even if you placed her right on the nipple. My daughter started *milking* the mother since she was filling up with milk and was miserable and the kitten would lick up the milk expressed. It at least put the kitten to sleep for a while so her mother could rest too.
We found out that my sister-in-law called the vet and he gave her a formula to make up and they have been feeding the kitten every two hours with an eyedropper. Mother and kitten are doing well and we are very glad she has three boys at home to help with feeding duties.
The graduation party was a roaring success. I swear there had to be 100 people that came and went all day. All the food with the exception of a tiny bit of a seafood pasta salad and some fresh fruit salad was totally gone. No leftovers to worry about fitting in the fridge.
I cleaned up as best as I was able before I finally faded for the night. The beast was over bright and early and we packed up the car for the trip home for everyone. I think we were all glad to return home for another year. I will be back up in Chicago later this year just because we can now that we live in Alabama. It’s a much easier trip than from Florida. We can actually make the trip in one day if we pack a lunch and keep bathroom breaks to a minimum. However, I refuse to do that any more. We stop for the night and make the trip in easy stages. We can also stop and see points of interest along the way if we want. I find it a lot more fun that way. We will probably go up in December since the Beast’s mother is not in good health and is become senile. It’s also nice to remind ourselves why we left the north in the first place by experiencing some numbing cold.
Well, time to get my butt into bed. Another day, another adventure coming up. The Beast has started making our cigarettes and is having a difficult time learning how to pack it. He finally got his size down pat but we found out the machine he bought doesn’t have an adjustment for making 100′s so tomorrow we go in search of a new machine. I will send this one off to the Indiana sister who is having difficult times right now. She is anxious to try it out.
Have a wonderful day everyone. Be happy.
