Tuesday Trials

 Well it has been an interesting few weeks...all will be well eventually!  We are still blessed.

The grasshoppers got a new mesh tank to live in...they are messy fellas and poop like mad!

Charles is doing well, and living his best life :)

Pumpkin is loving this season, and went outside for a quick photo shoot last weekend.  Here she is dressed as a cricket.  It should be a grasshopper because you are what you eat!

Just sitting on the wreath for the door...she looks so festive.

I had to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy last Thursday.  It was not bad at all.  Propofol is my friend :)  The worst part was the taste of the liquid you had to drink.  I wasn't sure I could get it down, but a pep talk to myself in the mirror worked.  The following day, I had an ultrasound where they determined I have a hernia with some bowel loops protruding.  I guess another surgery will be in my future.  I hope it is this year while I have met my out-of-pocket spending limit on insurance already!!

On Tuesday of that week, we had a sewage backup on the first floor!  This is the resulting damage and those fans were there for three days.  It was loud and windy downstairs and the cats did not appreciate that!

Sewer clean out closest to the house.  The problem was between this cleanout and the connection to the city line...

You can see that our pipe (the horizontal one) is cracked and not fully connected to the city pipe any longer.  The plumber came out Tuesday and got our situation fixed so we could use the toilets and such until the permanent pipe was installed.  He thought it would be Friday, but they called on Wednesday and came over!  Wednesday night was when I started my prep, so I was happy to have the toilets working :)  

The plumbers fixed the pipe and we should be good to go now...

Harrison was not sure about all the noise downstairs...he did not venture down, so we brought food upstairs for everyone.

We kept our nightly treat routine...here is Flynn

Charles, Rusty and Harrison on the stair ledge...

Before the plumbing fiasco, we had decided to finish replacing the floors upstairs.  We had our quote and placed our order, so we started ripping out the carpet in my room where the cats had been peeing, so we could paint those areas with Kilz.

Flynn

Flynn on the kitchen island on the new halloween scratcher.  The scratcher needed to be taped along the bottom so it would stay together when you picked it up to move it when you vacuumed.  Flynn thought this was a great vantage point.

Charles loved having the condos on the porch turned over.  We did this to make sure nothing fell when Hurricane Ian passed over.  Thankfully, he did not cause any damage.  We lost power for an hour and a half, but that was all.  Definitely could have been worse.

While the power was out, we ripped the carpet up in the guest room.  We only did the areas where inappropriateness had occurred.  We will let the flooring guys do the rest!

Pumpkin is not happy at the moment because she has been moved out of my room and into the craft room.  

We found out yesterday that the new floors upstairs will be installed on Thursday.  So by the end of the weekend, the upstairs should be put back together!

The floor company came this morning and measured the downstairs for new floors because everything has to be replaced from the sewage leak.

So there you have it...a crazy few weeks, but we are all healthy and making the best of life as it continues to throw lemons our way!

Mancat Monday - Hurricane Edition

Hurricane Florence is still trying to make her way out of the state.  Thankfully, her path shifted, prior to landfall, and did not make a direct hit on our city.  She basically went around us, but still brought many bands of rain and wind.

This was Rusty's first hurricane and you can see that he isn't too concerned.  We had a pretty steady, but slow rain Thursday-Sunday.  The winds came in gusts, so they weren't constant.  We had removed most things from the yard.  The trash can blew over a couple of times, I guess there wasn't enough litter in it!  The birds were still coming to the feeders, so we left them out. 

The panthers (back to front Flynn, Harrison and Oliver) had plenty of food in the house, as did the humans.  We never lost power, although it flickered a few times.  The cable went out a couple of times, but would come back on after it reset itself.  We did not eat all of our snacks!

After having me home since Thursday, and Auntie since Friday, Oliver was done!  

Last night and this morning, we had the worst storms so far.  We were already over 5 inches of rain at our house, so this deluge didn't help.  We had lots of heavy rain, thunder, lightning and now flooding around the town.  It took me over an hour to get to work, a normally 25 minute commute.  There were many detours and closed roads to navigate around.

I plan to leave early today to make sure I am home before it gets dark.  Down East the flooding continues, and those parts of the State could use your prayers and dry thoughts!