The Hole in the Wall Gang

It all started when Lowe's decided to build a new home store in our neighboring community. The spot they picked was a ravine that needed to be filled in. It was. But there was a small community just to one side of the new Lowe's site. Lowe's had a huge wall of compacted dirt facing the community. They covered the wall with stone facing.

But then . . . the wall began to collapse.

One home sits facing the wall, only feet away from a huge grey wall. Previously, the homeowner had a view of a small creek and trees on a hillside. After considerable complaining, Lowe's bought the house from him.

A security car now sits in the driveway of that house. The guy in it told me there had been some movement at the edge of both of the holes even today.

The folks from Lowe's and the city have been talking, and talking, and talking about repairing the wall for months now. They say the problem was caused by some kind of moisture build up behind the facing. It appears the entire wall will now have to be torn down and rebuilt.

There was a lot of angry talk and letters to the editor in the local newspaper calling for a boycott of the Lowe's store. While some people are honoring that and shopping elsewhere, the parking lot at the store is never empty

Meantime, the scars in the wall get uglier, day by day. And the homeowners in the nearby development lose sleep at night, wondering if the entire wall will let loose and come down on their homes.

A couple tips of the hat

It's supposed to be close to 75 here today. Spring has sprung. Right? Well, maybe, maybe not. By Sunday, the National Weather Service is predicting a possibility of snow showers and a high temperature 25 degrees lower. We have often remembered that our heaviest snowfalls occasionally come in March.

But SWMBO is already planning a plant-buying trip and the last couple of days saw her pruning the mimosa tree out front, with some help from yours truly. But for a real sign of spring in the high country, check out Granny J's blog today. She's getting her pots ready.

And, if your weather is bleak or you just need some laughs, my man Tombo has some hilarious videos on his blog today. I had tears running down my face from laughter.

Wow! (Prrrrrrr)

Aw gee. I've been given an award. Miss Kitty has found me worthy of it for having blogged about my owners . . . er, my cats. On behalf of Muggles, Jazz and Smoke, as well as myself, we thank you.

Translation

O.K. For those of you who are Spanish impaired, here's the same video with both Spanish and English lyrics.

This is fantastico!

Green Eyes

I may not be writing much . . .

. . . but I'm keeping my eyes on you.

Smoke, are you confused?

O.K. You've all met Smoke, right. He's the one in the middle here.

He's our "half-cat". We call him that because the other two . . . Muggles and Jazz . . . are "inside" cats and Smoke is an "outside" cat.

So, he comes in to visit part of the day.

(And...key to this story...he's a male and the other two are females)

Now I need to tell you that all of our cats are "fixed". Neutered. De-cojoned.

But Smoke. Smoke. What the hell happened with Smoke?

Recently, he has begun to feel the impulses of Springtime in Arizona.

SWMBO noticed it first because it happened as she was lying on the bed with Smoke and Muggles.

Suddenly, Smoke gave a couple or three little chirps and then leaped, without any further warning, on Muggles. He wrapped his front paws around her and began nibbling on the back of her neck.

Well!

I think you cat people know what comes next.

But it didn't.

Because SWMBO yelled, threw something and chased Smoke out of the room and soon out of the house.

This has now happened several times in the past week and SWMBO is getting a bit more than a little tired of it.

The other day, Smoke was lying on the bed next to SWMBO when the tell-tale chirps began.

Considering that SWMBO is NOT a female cat, she promptly threw Smoke out of the house.

1. He's an animal.

2. It's springtime.

3. He feels urges.

4. He apparently doesn't know he can't do anything about it.

5. But . . . what's a guy to do???