Hodgepodge

Got back to the farm last night after driving through some heavy rain in the St. Louis area. As soon as we got out of the van we could hear the creek rushing and the rill beside the house was burbling pretty good.

jgaleckas Checked the rain gauge and it had 2 inches of rain in it. I talked to Mom and she said it probably all came since Sunday night.

The kitties were happy to have us back - all four were in the bed within 10 minutes of lights out.

Today we take our four cats down to the house in Missouri. The oldest cat has been there once just to see how she traveled (8 hours in the van). It went well so we are optimistic.

We only have two cat carriers so the the twins will have to ride in a large cardboard box. Once we get on the road we will let them roam the van for self preservation – 8 hours of mewling tends to fray one’s nerves. That means of course making sure when we stop at rest areas we have to prevent an escape. I am thinking of Steve McQueen on a motorcycle…

It will be interesting to see who catches the first mouse at the farmhouse since we have recently seen signs of an incursion – my money is on the boy cat Sammy.

Moving the cats means we are for all intents moved to the farm even though we still will be coming back to Chicago to attend to the house until something is finalized but the trips up here will be shorter and less frequent.

In the next day or so I will share what I will miss and not miss about life in the big city.

After 19 days, 4908 miles, 105 plus hours of driving, 1500 pictures, and way too much money - we arrived home Tuesday night.

The trip was most awesome and jgaleckas and I had a terrific time. We attended a good Worldcon, spend three days of Vegas madness (I even managed to take some of the casino's money with me), saw some of the most amazing natural wonders and saw a fair bit of historic Route 66.

It is good to be home and needed decompress time, not to mentioned giving the cats lots of lovin'.

We met lots of interesting people along the way and memories that I will always cherish. Once we get the photos sorted out Janice will post the best on the website and I will review the notes I took and put together a travelogue for the website as well. I will let you know when those are complete but don't stand on one leg waiting as it will be a bit. I have a novel that is crying for some work, the house here still has a room or two to finish and then of course a move. In between will be Archon in October and life in general.

I am certainly glad I retired to this boring life - :-)

If you have been following jgaleckas posts, you know we have been doing a lot of patching and painting as we wind up getting the house here in suburban Chicago ready for the market which then means we can leave this urban jungle for the farm in the Ozarks.

The last few days we have been moving furniture and stuff around and this has caused much consternation for our two cats. They are noticeably upset about things likes hidey holes, soft places to sleep and even the food bowls being moved around. Their displeasure is vocal when they walk by so we reassure them that in a couple of days all will done downstairs and life will return to normal (for them at least).

Of course if they think this is bad, wait until we move them later this summer to the farm - that will be a F5 on the trauma scale for sure.