Saturday, April 4, 2015

ALMOST EASTER




I didn't go out on Good Friday as I had planned. Thunderstorms and heavy rain expunged my enthusiasm - - as well as a backache and an injured knee. I'm not getting old. Living on this damn mountain is what's crippling me. Muddy slopes and 95 degree angles......

(or is it muddy angles and 95 degree slopes??)

By sunset the rain subsided. Everything looked so fresh and beautiful that I grabbed my digital camera and crawled outside. A rainbow greeted me in the rays of the waning sun. It was a glorious ending for the stormy day.

The evening sky was incredibly dramatic. Against my better judgement, I dragged myself up the sopping slopes in my back yard and took some pictures. My paltry photos do little justice to the sprawling panorama.




Despite all of my chronic complaints I'm still glad that I live here. Absolute peace, no annoying neighbors, and an inspiring environment. Living in a shack and having to drive five hundred miles to get to town (slight exaggeration) is a small price to pay for the gift of solitude. I think.

 One more pic of the rainbow

I was forced to drive to town today. I desperately needed groceries and cat litter. I had been completely out of kitty litter for several days and it wasn't pretty.

I've said this before and I'll say it again:
(sensitive people, please hold your ears)

Those cats shit more than I do.

The litter boxes are always a complete mess. I have to clean them fifty times a day (slight exaggeration). Last night at 2:00 in the morning I ventured outside with a shovel, trying to find some suitable dirt to use in the absence of kitty litter. It was so dark that I couldn't see anything (clouds covered the full moon), and a few nearby howls scared me into the middle of next week.

Well, thanks to my trip to town today I now have litter and food. And beer.

The scenery en route to town is gorgeous. Beautiful mountains, velvety meadows, trees blossoming pink, white, and purple. I would have loved to take photos, but it's a complete impossibility while navigating dangerously narrow mountain roads. I'm gripping the steering wheel with two hands and sweating blood. You'd either have to be crazy or drunk to drive here. I'm both.

I've decided to give everybody something to be thankful for on this Easter weekend. I've decided NOT to post my Easter Bunny in Texas poem (the poem that I've been traditionally posting on Easter for the past five years)

All right - - stop applauding, you wise guys.

If anyone wants to read it, here's the link to the poem on my old blog:
The Easter Bunny in Texas 

I hope this link is correct. If it takes you to a sleazy porno site, please don't sue me. 

Apparently Old Man Winter is trying to give Tennessee one last kick. I just checked the weather and it's going to drop below freezing tonight. Again. There go the blossoms and lilies...... 

I have no plans at all for Easter this year. Too lazy to prepare a feast or dye eggs. I did buy a cream cheese cake, which looks good.

Here are some photos from last year - my final Easter in Texas.





Have an incredibly intriguing Easter!


 


13 comments:

  1. Cream cheese cake sounds fine for Easter, Jon. Your photos are magnificent and you're crazy and drunk enough to drive --sounds like you've reclaimed your health and fitness. I wish you a happy and peaceful Sunday. I'll be relaxing whenever opportunity arises.

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    1. Relaxing and cream cheese cakes are among the great pleasures of life.

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  2. Sounds beautiful there except I would be chicken of the mountain roads. I remember those litter boxes. While I miss having a cat I don't miss the litter box.

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    1. I'll never get used to dangerous mountain roads.....or litter boxes.

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  3. Despite my fondness for Texas, I had to LOL at your bunny poem!!!
    These post-storm photos are all great, Jon ... but #2 is magnificent! Witnessing that panorama in real life must have been amazing.

    PS - I like that green floral pitcher. A lot!

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    Replies
    1. Glad to know an ex-Texan can appreciate my bunny poem. I like that floral pitcher, too, and fortunately it didn't break when I moved.

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  4. Love the Easter header with the bunny. You can't put a price on solitude and peace of mind. That sky was indeed glorious and so was the double rainbow. Such a view. BREATHTAKING. You need to put some cleats on those Tennessee cowboy boots. Give yourself some traction to handle those slopes. Cats are all about their sh!t. No doubt about it. The cake you bought sounds scrumptious. ENJOY every bite. HAPPY EASTER.

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    1. I'm glad you noticed that it s a double rainbow. It hardly shows up in the photo. I definitely have to do something about those slippery cowboy boots. Tennis shoes??

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  5. Jon,
    Our home in Pennsylvania was on the side of a hill. Probably one of those 95 degree angles. I got so tired of always walking on a slope, one leg higher than the other. And the number of times I slipped and fell on the ice, I lost count. If there was a snowfall in November or December it would stay on those slopes until spring, sometimes as late as April. Down here, in the flat plane of coastal Delaware, I miss the beautiful of the far hills but not the winding roads and walking lopsided. I like the flat. But as you know I still fell on the ice but that's another story.
    Your sunset pictures are beautiful! I am so glad you now have the peace and solitude that you sought. And yes, I know cats fill up that little box fast, just ask my friend Larry. It's a daily chore for him and his family.
    Ron

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    1. I never realized how laborious it is to live on the side of a mountain. Everything is on a slope or an angle - - it's like being in a dangerous Fun House. I get winded when I bring groceries from the car to the house. I'm always breathless. And I slip constantly when wearing my cowboy boots. Someday they will be my downfall (no pun intended).

      He died with his boots on.

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  6. (Here it is - my first contrib to your blog, Jon)

    Re: cat litter tray and how it should be used.
    Only one of my two 'residents', Noodles, employs the tray - Blackso sensibly, for me at least, does all his out-of-doors - but Noodles won't get right in. He squats on the rim so that it plops onto the newspapers I place under the tray, giving rise to the most unwelcome stink if I'm not quick in clearing it up. Even his wee soddens the papers. But I accept it all in reminding myself what little I have to do in return for the pleasure he gives me in just being here - even though, unlike Blackso, Noodles isn't at all demonstrative with affection (if he's got any), whereas Blackso is all over me day and night. Now THAT is priceless!

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  7. I wrote a reply to your comment awhile ago and for some strange reason it disappeared, so here I am trying again.

    I have two different litter boxes for my three cats - - one for my old cat Scratch (who is always tidy and neat) and one for the two younger ones, Scruffy and Bosco (who are messy). All of my cats are very affectionate, but I noticed that Bosco (the male) is much more mellow and passive. The two females are temperamental.

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    1. As you know, Jon, regarding personalities, cats (and, indeed, all animals) are as diverse as humans. Those who've never owned an animal often don't see that.
      Btw: Your Bosco is the spitting image of my Blackso, only when he was many years younger. But it just illustrates the old saying that "All black cats look the same" - even though they can act VERY differently.

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