Random Five for September 28

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Here is empty pond. You can the reflection of me taking the photo.

Here is empty pond. You can see the reflection of me taking the photo.

Hallelujah! It’s done, it’s done! — The pond project is complete. The water went back in the same day but I had to keep the fish in the holding tank overnight. My back isn’t speaking to me. Wait until it finds out that it’s participating in a fall clean-up project this week. It won’t be happy. Shhh!

Marathon man – The pond project was a lot of hard work, the kind we are not used to doing. The first day we finished the hard part around 4 p.m. so the beloved husband decided to mow the lawn. On the second day, he went biking. On the other hand, I tried to do work that didn’t require a lot of muscle movement like picking tomatoes and petting cats.

 Silly Chippies — We had to remove the top stones on the pond. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle but harder because there are no features to match up. The top is different. Not anything you or I would notice. I have some chipmunks that have a condo nearby. They often scamper around the pond edge chasing each other. As I stood and watched, one misjudged a stone and fell in the pond. In a nanosecond he was out of the pond and continued the chase. I didn’t know they could swim.

‘Puter update – I spent almost two hours with Dell and 20 minutes with Microsoft. I also had to call Clickfree, my backup drive manufacturer. One thing is for sure, all of these call centers were not in this country. They spoke better English than they used to but the representative for Dell must have been new or slow. I knew some things that he didn’t. (Seriously, that is a problem!) I watched what he did to correct the problem. First he did the same thing four times (isn’t doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome the definition of insanity?), then he did something that should take a few minutes. I don’t know if he was milking the job for time but here at the other end I was ready to retake control of the pointer and get it done. I still have to google a lot of things. Definitely not fond of W8.1. Microsoft you blew it!

Mollie in sun puddle

Mollie in sun puddle in upstairs bedroom window.

Sun puddles – No post is complete without a weather comment. The last few days have been perfect. Between projects, I watched each cat find a sun puddle to sleep in. They would move with the sun, sometimes sleeping here and sometimes sleeping there. What a life!

Morgan in sun puddle.

Morgan in sun puddle on the screened porch.

 

46 thoughts on “Random Five for September 28”

  2. I was going to comment on that hooded figure as well, Kate. It looked like a Halloween photo. Cool!

    Glad your chipmunk got out safely and the cats enjoyed their “sun puddles.” Has Indian summer hit your area yet? Miss those fall colors. 😉

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  3. Pingback: Tentative Ten | Invisible Shadow

  4. I’ve never heard the term “sun puddle” before and it’s just perfect! And I enjoyed seeing the progress with your pond cleaning. We know pond maintenance very well. I don’t have to winterize it at all, but come autumn it does seem to collect a lot of leaves and debris. Our fish made it through the summer with the lilies nice and full, but this is the time of year they die back and the poor fish will be vulnerable. I have a lot of work to do that keeps me a little stretched, but at least I’m not dealing with learning a new computer. I feel your pain! 🙂

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    • I haven’t pulled the floating plants and cut back the lilies yet. That is such a sorrowful day because, as you said, the fish have no proper shelter. I put in tunnels and there is a bridge to hide under. I haven’t lost too many in the five years.

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  6. It seems we all love your reference to sun puddles. The beloved husband sure is energetic. I hope he wasn’t sore after all that.
    We also had good weather this weekend here in W. Washington. That and the possibility that the weather might not last got me out doing some yard work. I always enjoy it once I get started (as long as it’s not raining).

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    • I thought I would start the fall yard cleanup yesterday but after the pond project I needed a recovery day. The temperatures, which have been in the 80s (very unseasonable) will be dropping to the low 70s. That’s much better to work outside anyway. Now if only I could get my motor running. As for sun puddles, I can’t take credit. The first time I heard it was on a cat blog by Katzenworld.

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  11. Windows computer woes never end it seems. Six years ago I installed a Linux distro and have not had many problems. If any, they are just me doing something wrong. I still have Vista on it too, but just go there to update etc and curse every time.

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  13. Kate, good work! I love the chipmunk story. The thing is that animals need a way to get out. We have a swimming pool. Of course we do. We live in Arizona. But it’s so dangerous for little animals. They fall in and then they can’t get out. Mainly it’s the new baby bunnies. Hubby has rescued a couple, but a couple over the years have not been so lucky. I keep trying to figure out a way for them to get out, but all my ideas have been shot down by said hubby.

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  14. Sun puddles! Now I am singing Cat Stevens’ “Moonshadow” in my head 🙂

    Glad you’ve had perfect weather for those fall projects — that’s 1/2 the battle, it seems. The other half is finding the determination to get anything done when it’s so beautiful outside!
    I cleaned up the deck and patio and just have to bring the pool equipment inside to the basement and we’re done … it’s warm enough to work up a sweat ~who knew?

    MJ

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  16. Did anyone else see a hooded figure with eyes cut out? That is what I saw before reading the description you wrote about that it was a shadow of you taking the the picture! Either I am ready for Halloween or becoming very phobic!

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    • There really isn’t a lot of work. It wouldn’t have been this much work if we had made sure the different levels were really level. As it were, they were sloped which made both me and the plants slide. This is the first complete water change in 5 years. I would do again. Maybe a 50% change once a year but I haven’t been doing that either. If you have a bio filter, oxygen plants and critters, it takes care of itself. It would be nice to be in San Francisco but I’m not complaining. It’s gorgeous here!

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