Valentine's Day

Yes, it is once again V-day, or as I learned to call it in high school- S.A.D. (Single's awareness day.)
Fruit bat got me some valentine's day chocolate, so I got her some at the last minute last night... >.<;
Getting up this morning, I had one real goal. Pancakes. Every year on valentines day we have pancakes in my family- pancakes cut in the shape of hearts. I got to the cafeteria just in time, and grabbed a couple of plain pancakes. It took some doing with a fork- but I managed to cut them into the shapes of hearts before actually working on eating them.
Since I'd gotten up for breakfast I had a lot of time to kill before I had to leave for church- so I went online to my home church's page and got started on one of my pastor's sermons. It felt like a slice of home to hear a familiar voice.
Church itself was pretty good- the pastor told us the story of Saint Valentine- which I had never heard.
Apparently, Valentine was a priest in the Roman empire, particularly noted for encouraging young people to get married and serve Christ together in a partnership. At this period of time though, Rome was getting ready for a war, and hadn't been having much luck in recruiting new soldiers- older men didn't want to leave their wives, and younger men wanted to get married. So the emperor made a decree that there were to be no new marriages. Valentine opposed this, and continued to marry people in secret- eventually he was discovered and imprisoned. The emperor went to meet with him, and was so impressed by Valentine that he offered to pardon the man and absolve him of his crimes, if he would only renounce his Christian faith and become a pagan minister of the Roman deities. Valentine refused, and was executed some few days after.
Before the execution however, his guard had discerned that Valentine was a wise man, and had been bringing his daughter, Julia, to learn from him. The day of his execution, Valentine gave a letter to Julia, thanking her for having been such a good student, and signed, "Your Valentine."
I thought it was interesting anyway.

It wasn't a cat

Really, it wasn't. I'm sort of just throwing this out here, since I haven't posted in forever, so expect this to be fairly rambling in nature. (As if any of my other posts AREN'T rambling.)
I'm sure you know this, but Fruit Bat catches cats on campus (alliteration for the win!) and gets them spayed/neutered before re-releasing them. Well, last night, she set out her trap once again, and we managed to convince ourselves to leave it out all night.
She often worries that someone will find and steal the trap- as she's had it happen before. I haven't had it happen before, and can't imagine what someone would want with it, so I don't worry so much. The result of leaving overnight though, was that we needed to check on it this morning and put it away.
In the trap, was not a cat, as rarely happens. It was not even empty, as OFTEN happens. It was full, of the only marsupial native to North America.
Yeah. We caught a possum.
There are two which hang around this area that we've seen for sure, a big one and a little one. (Thus we automatically assume that the large one is the mother and the smaller one the infant.) Fortunately for us, we'd caught the smaller of the two. The tricky part was letting it out- opossums have a heck of a lot of teeth, and are carriers of rabies.
Needless to say, neither of us wanted to get bit. Unfortunately, once Fruit Bat got the trap door open, the kooky critter didn't want to leave. Oh, it was definitely scared and upset- it kept growling and hissing at Fruit Bat, but leaving the cage seemed like a bad idea.
So, we made it a non-option. We weren't going to be late for class. It WAS going to get out. We found a stick and wedged it so that the trap door wouldn't close, then Fruit Bat upended the cage. It took some shaking- the darn thing had wound it's tail through the bars to avoid being forced out, but she finally got it out of the cage. Shortly after, it disappeared into the bushes.
Such fun times- at 7:30 in the morning.
On other notes of this already out of tune post, Fruit Bat's fallen prey to the same inclination I got around this time last year, and has purchased some dirt and a pot- though it's a hanging pot, as the fate of my pot last year was to be tipped over off of the paltry windowsill (none of the seeds I planted so much as sprouted after that.) It's a decent sized pot, and its distance from the window lets me hope that any sprouts we acquire will be unable to plaster themselves against the glass- and therefore die at the first hint of cold weather. Yes, that's what happened to my sprouts last year.
We have quite a few things planted in this pot though, and I can only imagine the battle that will ensue in this soil. First off, FB's reason for getting the pot is that she's had a horseradish-bulb for a while now and was starting to worry that it was going to die if she didn't plant it. Secondly, there's my ill-fated balsam of yesteryear. I'm trying not to hope, but I so want to see flowers that I helped grow.
My family is a little strange- both of my grandmothers had wonderful green thumbs, but my mother is lucky to manage to keep her plants alive. I'm afraid that this will be the case with me as well... I must do research on hardy plants!
The third thing in the pot (besides the dirt) is Lavender, which Fruit Bat grows from time to time. We only planted it last night, so it'll be about a week before I can expect anything to happen.
*frets*

Cold Shower

Yes, the two words that dictate an awful experience in the hygiene department. I’ve been annoyed all day by the simple fact that the water has been cold. Thus, I have not been able to take a shower, until just now. While I was typing up the first two sentences I had the shower running just to see if the water would warm up. I wasn’t very hopeful since earlier today I ran the water for 45mins to see if it would EVER warm up for me. It never did but randomly, just now, the water was hot. It’s still hot too. I don’t understand it. I complained once and they sent a plumber to our dorm. I really hadn’t expected them to follow through with my complaint since last time it took about a week before anyone came.

Vul avoided the plumber and left me to talk to him. I’m like my mom in the respect that if I’m paying an absurd amount for something and it’s not in tip-top shape I’ll make them fix it. I’m a tad nicer though and not nearly as scary. That only occurs if it involves family, friend, or animal safety.

Anyways, the plumber explained that when there isn’t water running thorugh the pipes that the water gets cold. Duh, something we all know but here’s the stupid part. Whatever genious built the plumbing made it so that the water comes into each dorm from separate pipes and are all heated in certain places throughout the building. So, when a lot of people are gone, say on Christmas break, and there’s not a lot of water flowing through all the pipes, the water is cold.

I still don’t quite understand it but regardless, since there aren’t enough people taking showers, flushing the toilet, or washing their hands or faces, etc. the water to my dorm and any other poor unfortunate person who had to stay here is cold. At random times though the water will be warm/scalding hot which makes me wonder if the plumber was wrong and if there isn’t some hidden switch somewhere that merely needs to be flipped. Oh well, I shall take note of the time and see if the water it hot again tomorrow night at the same time. I’m going with the theory that it’s on a timer now. I’ll soon discover if I’m correct and I really hope I am.

Earlier during my third attempt at running the water for half an hour:

Talking aloud to myself: “Nope, the sink is cold. Now let’s go see what the shower says...cuz’ the shower can talk...”

I think I need some people time. LOL

The Rogue

I’m very disappointed in Momma kitty. I woke up late, dressed, and moseyed down the hall and stairwell, out to my truck to feed her and Zant like I do every morning. After giving them food I was permitted to pet Zant. He didn’t mind either! Momma even let me pet her and leaned into my hand until she realized that I was touching her. She leapt away from me and gave me her best offended look. It was amusing though. She liked being petted.

The disappointment came later when I pulled into the parking lot after my trip to the store to get some Kleenex. A rogue male cat was hanging out with her, and Zant was acting very skittish. I hopped out of my truck glanced at Momma who was crying for more cat food and then back at the male cat. “I don’t approve.” I told her pulling some food from the back of my truck. I expected the male to run off, and wanted him too, but he didn’t. Instead, he watched me give her and Zant food. I wouldn’t mind if he hung around IF Momma kitty was spayed but she’s not.

Unfortunately, I have not seen Momma kitty since he showed up today. Zant is acting cautious and freaked out now that he’s on his own. I’m not pleased and I have no idea when I’ll see Momma kitty but I know that when I do she’ll be pregnant, again. I plan on using this to my advantage though. I still have a few more tricks up my sleeve and I will trap her and get her fixed 0ne way or another.

A Cold New Year

First off, Happy New Year!!! I’d like to say that I spent my New Year hanging out with family or friends but it was quite the opposite. Two days before I had to leave home and head back to the college I got sick. Sadly I spent my entire New Years Eve (after I got off work) in my dorm curled up in bed watching movies. I attempted to sleep but I merely dozed. Coughing and not being able to breathe properly does that to a person. All I want to do is go home. I can’t though. I have work Saturday and even though we’re closed tomorrow I see no point in driving all the way back.

Even though I'm sick I couldn't stay in bed for long. After two movies and a book later I ended up gutting my desk and some of the closets. I even rearranged some things and cleaned. I can't help it, really. I shouldn't have done any of that because now I feel even worse. It's in my nature though. Dirty things will be attacked and purged of any and all germs and dust. I'm the type that can't live in filth, no matter how little. Call me OCD or a clean freak but regardless everything will be cleaned. MWAHAHA!!!

On the bright side my dear feral cats were very happy to see me last night. When I pulled into the college parking lot they came sprinting to me. I only shook my truck keys once too. Amazing! They apparently missed me more than I thought they would. They even tagged along when I went to throw the trash out. I ended up feeding them twice that night. Momma has a worrisome pudge to her belly. I pray to God that she’s not pregnant. I really can’t deal with that right now. I’m not Mother Nature though so in the words of Shigure “Que, sera sera.”

My brother has already called my twice today. Once to tell me that he went to his friend’s ranch and shot off fireworks of which I’m so jealous of. Fireworks were banned five or six years ago in my subdivision so I haven’t shot off a firework in a long time. I’m happy he got to though. The second time was to ask me what exactly an aardvark was. To be honest I didn’t really know. So I did a little research and discovered that they look like anteaters, are commonly called anteaters, but belong to their own family and resemble pigs. Their closest living relative is apparently an elephant shrew. I personally think they look more like a possum and an anteater decided to have offspring but whatever. I ended up sending him a picture of an aardvark.

I think I’ll go put in another movie now and hopefully get some sleep. I don’t appreciate feeling like I’m underwater but then most people don’t. I think I’ll go get some Kleenexes in the morning.

Candy Cane Poem

A significant symbol of Christmas
Is the Simple Candy Cane.
It's shape is the crook of the Shepherd
One of the first who came.
The lively peppermint flavor is
The regal gift of spice.
The White is Jesus' purity.
The Red is sacrifice.
The narrow stripes are friendship
And the nearness of his love.
Eternal, Sweet Compassion
A gift from God above.
The Candy Cane reminds us all
Of how much God cared.
And like His Christmas gift to use
It's meant to be broken and shared.

~Anonymous

Bringing Home the Bacon

............
Well, I went home for Sunday, driving through the night on Saturday... between Brady and Llano I did something I have never done before.
I hit something.
I've been driving for three years now, and have never hit anything. However, in the hill country of Texas, I came up a hill to see a gray shape in the road. There were a few thoughts running through my head- surprise at hearing my own startled yelp, noticing that the animal-shape did not have the long neck distinctive to deer- and was therefore probably a pig of some kind. (Because we do have wild pigs in Texas.) The rest was instinct. Push on the brakes, turn the wheel to try and avoid hitting the creature.
I did manage to avoid a head-on collision, I only caught it with the corner of my car. I pulled over to try and see the damage... I couldn't find my flashlight, so all that I could see in the glare of my still-operational headlights was that the section of car under my right headlight- I don't know that you would call it a bumper- was gone. Snapped away as if it never was.
I was- and am- fine. However at church the next day, my parents and friends proceeded to tell me how bad it COULD have been. Apparently, wild pigs are one of the worst things that you can hit. Low center of gravity+ High density= High probability of flipping cars.
I was also lucky that my car made it the hour remaining to my house- apparently the impact shoved an important tube up against something that spins, and a hole was being bored into it the whole time I was driving.
I just really didn't need this right now. Ah well, stella vi, right?
I did get to see my church's candlelight communion on Sunday- which I try my hardest not to miss every year- its my favorite service. I didn't even know that they were having it this Sunday!
It just doesn't feel quite like Christmas to me until I've stood in that Sanctuary, candle lit, seeing the whole room aglow just from the candles we hold, and sung Christmas songs with my church family.
Soon I get to go back home, and hopefully, get some rest and relaxation. I'm driving my mother's truck, and the last thing any of us need is for something to happen to THAT.