Saturday, 22 April, 2000 08:27
First things first... stuff that I've forgotten to mention the last coupla days...
The Cat Came Back... The Monster, who took a leap off of Matt's balcony a coupla weeks ago and was given up for dead, re-appeared Wednesday morning at 04:00. He was on the ground below the balcony deck, which is about seven feet high. And making lots of noise. Matt was glad to see him, and said that he appeared to be glad to be home, and very hungry. I'm glad that he returned... over there. I was afraid that he might show up over here.
The other thing is that I've got a contact dermatitis. I have no idea where I might have hit poison ivy, but that's definitely what it is. It started off in the crook of my left elbow on Friday morning, in the form of a cross, and last night I noticed some on the back of my right hand. As these things go, not really much... but it itches like hell, and I cannot figger out where it came from, unless Mom has some in her garden, which I really doubt.
The only other thing that I can think of is that when I was driving with my arm out the window a free-floating poison ivy leaf happened to hit me. That's about as unlikely as Mom growing poison ivy in her garden, though.
And now, on to today's news...
Elian is being reunited with his father as I'm writing this, and I'm pissed at the coverage that his Miami relatives are getting. They are making Castro look good. They have continued to break the law, but they certainly are playing for sympathy when the law is enforced. I think that their display is disgusting. I think that the federal authorities should have taken the lot of them to jail, lawyers and all... everyone who was in the house, aiding and abetting their criminal actions.
Imagine their surprise when the agents came in with their guns drawn! Well, gee whiz, they are criminals in Miami... is it unreasonable to think that there was a chance that they might be armed? And dangerous?
Big debate on diary-l about it, of course. One woman, who happens to be a lawyer, is furious at "This Administration" for letting this terrible thing happen. Her husband happens to be a Cuban refugee, but jeez... she made the statement that she was ashamed of her country, and wished that she lived somewhere else. There were quite a few people that agreed that we would all be better off if she lived somewhere else...
20:00... long day. Worked hard. Got the back lawn done... seeded and fertilized and leveled off very nicely. Waiting for the rain to move in, looks like it'll be here within a half-hour or so.
We spent quite a bit of time on the south side of the house, trying to get some away-from-the-house drainage established... we moved a lot of dirt, and we still aren't done. We need to spend about another four hours just on that project, which also included digging a hole and finding the west end of the french drain pipe that JD and Tyler put in last year... I'm gonna put an elbow on it and bring it up to ground level for the gutter water. We decided today that time was too short if we were gonna get any seeding done before it rained.
Tyler and I both have very sore backs and blisters all over our hands... we're not used to this type of work. And also very tard.
Karen had to work this morning, and then she went to Lawrence to pick up Brian, over my protests. So Brian and Patrick were here part of the afternoon, supposedly helping but mostly getting in the way. They still need a couple-three years before they'll be any good at following directions. And with both of them together, they're always up to some mischief.
More tomorrow...