Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. As in “Look! It’s ME!” and not literally what my cats have been dragging in, which lately, has been mice. Thankfully not dead ones. We’ve been re-stacking firewood and weed-eating and generally disrupting the entire yard and the little creatures that have been habitating there. The mice, in terror, have been fleeing the tall grass and setting up camp…indoors. Never a good decision. And my two high-maintenance, never-been-outside, “oh look, something to play with!” cats have been thoroughly entertained with the little toys running around for their enjoyment. I’m pretty sure they think we put them there on purpose and bless their little hearts, neither one of them have a clue what to do with them. Butters bats it around like one of the battery-operated animals we set out for her, waiting for it to get stuck in a corner and unable to turn around like her toy chicken does. It’s short-lived fun for her, but minutes of hilarity for us. Tigger just very succinctly lifts a giant paw and holds the nuisance in place with a great sigh and an elaborate eye roll. Then very gently picks it up in his mouth by the scruff of it’s neck and brings it to us, without so much as tweaking a small little mouse whisker. He’s pretty sure he’s done a great and noble deed by saving the life of some unknown abandoned baby and fully expects to be rewarded for it. Imagine his disgust when he’s greeted with shrieks and assorted four-letter oaths. Although, I’d never tell him this, but he does look pretty adorable sitting there with a teeny tiny (albeit flailing) mouse grasped in his teeth, thinking he’s the hero for the day. I wish I had pictures to share, but as I am usually the one standing on a chair or huddling in a heap on the kitchen counter, this circus goes unphotographed.
But I digress…
If you’re still reading my blog, I thank you. From the bottom of my tourist-stricken heart. I knew going into this blogging endeavor that I would be an absent blogger for the better part of the summer, and yet I chose to do it anyway. I won’t even lie and tell you I had good intentions of trying to blog mid-summer, amidst the chaos of chugging trains and thousands of visitors from all over the world. Straight up, I dismiss all ideas of quilting and blogging during the busy tourist season. And now, as September comes to a close, I find myself not only itching to dig out my sewing machine, but also to dust off the blog header and dig in. I love this time of year, when the changing of the guard brings all the excitement of fondling fabric, ripping out errant seams and flipping lazily through quilt magazines.
But before I let loose in the sewing room, let me recap my summer and catch you up on what’s kept me from the computer for the past few months. Trust me, it's fun and exciting!
June brought us the usual chaos that comes with a big move. We signed on our house and got the keys June 1st...one month into the tourist season. Moving was quick and practical. Load it in a box, move said boxes to new house, pile boxes in corner of living room. Repeat. We had about fifteen people helping us that morning and it went fast. Two moving van loads later, we now reside about sixteen blocks further North than we did before. Skagway is twenty-two blocks long and four blocks wide, so we basically relocated to the other end of town. It's nice up here. We're closer to the train shops, which means we wake bright and early to the mournful tune of vintage locomotives starting up for the day. We're closer to the base of the mountains, which means we also see a lot more bear action. Immediately after moving in, a big black bear helped himself to my bird feeder on the back deck, standing up on his hind legs to tip it over and dump seed all over the deck, and then settling in to lick it up. At least he cleaned up after himself. Since then, almost nightly, we have bears sniffing about, helping themselves to our pesky neighbors' unprotected garbage cans, snacking on my nasturtiums, or riling up the trio of weenie dogs who live in the house behind us. Life is noisy.
I was curious how the cats would react to a new place. I thought for sure Butters would be prowling about, in and out of every nook and cranny, while Tigger cowered in the corner with his food bowl. No sirree. Butters wanted nothing to do with the new place. She hid out in her litter box for the first week we were here. Seriously, she burrowed herself in there and wouldn't budge. Not even when Tigger needed to...do his thing. He would dance around the entrance with this frantic look on his face. "Mom! She's in there and won't come out and I need to go!" Until he just plowed on in there, shoving Butters in the corner and did his deed beside her. I'm not gonna lie. This whole process was hilarious and I stood there watching and laughing, not offering up any condolances to either one of them.
We knew when we bought the house that we had a lot of remodeling in mind. Pulling up carpets, installing wood flooring, painting, refinishing cabinets. The list was long and varied. The problem occurred when I thought I could actually start on these projects mid-season. Hah! It took a meltdown rivaling a two-year old’s temper tantrum to force me into defeat. I called uncle, threw in the towel and stacked the cabinet doors in the corner of the dining room until this fall. So what I’m really getting to is that we haven’t unpacked the majority of our belongings. I can’t see unpacking and settling in, only to repack it all up and move it to the other room while we remodel in October. At first, this really stressed me out. I’m totally Type-A and this is the kind of thing that sends us Reds into panic. But once I accepted the fact that my house was going to be a mess for the summer, I got over my bad self and started breathing again. It’s a new beginning. Temporarily.
To be continued...
