Posted on 5 Comments

Not happy with the outside cat

Five years ago I put a bat house on the side of our house. It remains empty. A single bat can eat 500-600 mosquitoes an hour and up to 6000 per day. (if I am accurately remembering my information from the Knoxville Zoo tour) I periodically see 2 bats flying above our house and enjoy watching their swoops and zings in the dusk.

Our outside cat, Gray, treats us with gifts on the porch step. She particularly enjoys moles and skinks but has also gifted us with mice, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, birds, and a gerbil. I have seen her try to catch a woodpecker. This morning her gift was a bat. I now believe that the super huntress can catch anything. I warn the hawks! This cat can fly. Meanwhile, our inside cat catches zz’s as anyone that watches the camera is surely aware. The inside cat no longer catches mice. Ignores the tarantulas. Distastes The Beetles as much as my daughter. Converses with the squirrels. And only kills crickets by accident leaving their carcasses in the path of my wife‘s bare feet.

Of course my real concern here is that with the delay the child support check game being played at a bad cash flow time, along with start of school expenses, that a trip to the vet to check for rabies will cause unbearable hardship at this time. Of course, we will do what we must.

Update: I forgot to mention the bat lives in the freezer now.

Posted on Leave a comment

August Challenge – Cable TV

Eek! I missed yesterday so this post is for yesterday’s challenge. Yesterday I was happy that Tuesday night I took some time to fish a coax cable up through Noah’s wall, across the attic, and down into the girls’ wall so that the television which has been in their room since Christmas now has basic cable as promised. Additionally, our fried cable box (blown during a power outage two weeks ago) has been replaced and our digital guide is back! Did not realize how important that guide has become to our television viewing. Did not realize the quantity and quality of educational television that comes on the upper digital channels and is lacking from the lower channels. Evan is dancing again. Amy is learning her spelling again.Thank you Noggin! Btw, television and physical activity with children still needs to be monitored but after observing how television has helped the children with vocabulary, words, math, and concepts, I will never again call it a simple babysitter for today’s television is truly an educational aid. I still like to see it turned off periodically.

Oh, Tommy and Noah are learning to blow things up (thank you Mythbusters and I don’t care what Adam and Jamie say I still don’t want forks in the microwave). And Sarah is watching some anime crap that comes on the lower channels anyway. Yeah yeah. I know. I watched it too when I was her age.

Can you meet The August Challenge?

ps. The Mythbusters cast have the coolest job in the world!

Posted on 2 Comments

From the mouths of babes

peg game medium

The other day we went to Cracker Barrel with Cathy, Noah, Amy, Evan and myself. If you have never been to a cracker barrel, you should know ever table has that triangular game with the golf tees. (which ironically, is how they describe it in their product description! I wrote mine first!) I have accidentally solved it once in my life.

Amy is playing the peg game and drops a golf tee on the floor. We ask Noah to pick it up. Now Noah could be holding something and still be unable to find the object he is holding. The rest of this plays like it was scripted for a movie.

Noah begins looking for the golf tee on the dark tile floor and Amy watches Noah intently from her booster seat with this pleasant, relaxed look on her face. The guests around us take no notice as they continue to eat their pancakes, grits, and chicken and dumplings. The checkers board sits on a barrel just waiting for two players. We are near the kitchen and the wait staff enter and leave at haste and Noah stays out of their way. Noah is bent over staring at the floor. A waitress quickly sweeps the floor in front of her on the way back to the kitchen. It almost looks Monkish as if she does not want to step on a dirty floor. Amy continues to watch Noah as he stares at the floor moving his head back and forth as he scans for the golf tee. Knives and forks clink on plates. Conversations hum.

Dad: "Amy can you see it?"
Amy, non-chalantly and continuing to watch Noah: "She sweepered it."

Posted on 1 Comment

Tommy brought home 3 blue ribbons!

Dad reports:

Two Wednesday’s ago I dropped Tommy of at STAR and ran off to do an errand. Upon my return I am stunned, and unfortunately cameraless, seeing Tommy riding off lead! Tommy rode with confidence!For the past 5 years (maybe 6) that Tommy has participated in the STAR program he has ridden on lead. That means one, sometimes two, people walk beside the horse holding a tether and they have equal, if not more, control of the horse as the rider. On that Wednesday, Tommy’s sidewalker was near by Tommy was in complete control of the horse.

Last Wednesday I stayed the whole class. Tommy mounted his horse and rode into the ring before anyone else. I mean before anyone else! He took his horse into the ring and brought it to a complete stop. The next student came out with two volunteers helping him. One of the volunteers asked Tommy to start around the ring and he confidently made his horse walk. He rode the entire class without a volunteer or staff member anywhere near! It was incredible. I had goosebumps!

This past Saturday, Tommy rode at the annual Star horse show at Roane State Community College in Rockwood, TN (Harmond). In the Intermediate Futures he rode against 2 other rides and took first place. See his performance below.

Tommy was thrilled. This was the first time he had ever ridden in a show without an assistant. The horse he rode, Dandy, was skiddish and would have reacted badly to applause. Tommy rode with confidence and poise.

He tied for first place against 4 other riders in the Intermediate Obstacle English/Western. See his performance below.

Tommy also rode Intermediate Western Equitation against 2 other riders and received first place!

The folks at Shangri-la Therapuetic Academy of Riding have seen Tommy grow from an out of control child, who spoke harshly with insults to the volunteers Tommy received 3 blue ribbons for his riding at the STAR horse show!and who was almost removed from the program when his actions and increasing weight threatened harm to the animals, grow into a calm, controlled young adult with a sense of humor and the ability to chat correctly and politely with the staff and volunteers. He has gained their confidence enough to earn the privilege of solo riding. Lynn Petr, founder of STAR, prior to the show, but in ring, gave Tommy a pep talk and asked him if he was up to this. She reminded him that not only was he in charge of his safety and the safety of the horse but for all others that were in the ring. Tommy responded non-chalantly, "No problem." After the show multiple staff members, volunteers, and parents remarked at Tommy’s achievement! Thank you Star! Tommy did great!

Tommy has his own blog. Cathy and I blog about Asperger Syndrome from a parent’s point of view at Aspergerteen.com.

Posted on 1 Comment

Another reason to love Firefox

So I described a day in our lives. A highlight of Friday’s funnies was a sudden and dramatic power outage. I would say we had lightning very near the house. We lost the upstairs cable box (try living without your digital guide a couple of days! How 90s! How did we ever live before?) and my Linux server was scrambled (after reseting the cmos and some integrity checks, it lives again).

What does this have to do with Firefox? I had been on BusyMom’s site typing a long comment and was moving my mouse to press the post button when the power went out. When I restored all the machines my window came up with all my typing still in the form field. I believe I have SessionSaver .2 to thank for this!

I can’t wait to start making this house more self-sufficient regarding power.