I’m in Orlando for a vacation. All the times I have been coming to Florida I have never made it to Disney. This trips going to remedy that and fast. Today I went to Animal Kingdom. Rode a couple rides, saw a few things. This was the Safari tour I did. I saw

More to come later

My oh my what a week so far for mother nature. Virginia had a 5.8 earthquake but we feel those things all up and down the east coast because we have solid rock on this end of the country. I actually live about a mile from a major fault line. The big one hit here back in 1896 on August 31st. It demolished Charleston.

Now at the beginning of the week we were thinking that Hurricane Irene was going to nail us right smack dab on the temple but the track keeps pushing further and further away which is okay by me either way. I’ve lived through Hugo. I know what to expect. My immediate concerns right now are that the compact fridge I bought for my office went out yesterday. I have no where to put my lunch. To pay for food here is waaayyyy expensive. I expect normal operating hours for the rest of the week and next. Might have a couple hours without power if we get strong enough winds but that is it.

So let’s recap in washing machine terms. We’ve already been through the shake and rattle. We are now heading towards the rinse cycle. One of my good friends via Twitter made that post and it was so right on. Check him out at @lowcountrywolf

Check it peoples, we gots us a hurricane coming and we already got the hurricane party set up lol There’s dedication for you

Maybe that black water chestnut tree will take a dive away from my place because the bottom half is hollow from the termites eating it all.

Sometimes technology sucks donkey balls. I had this entire post typed out on my phone using WordPress for Blackberry, saved it and it never showed up anywhere.

I have a black water chestnut tree in my backyard. I’m not that big a fan of chestnuts to say the least and black water chestnuts are hard to crack open. The dogs have fun playing with them when they fall off the tree and the squirrels try to open them up to get the nuts. The squirrels manage to the get the outer layer off and that’s it. I think that is the easier part because I’ve tried cracking one open one day.

Anywhoo, as you can see the bottom hole has been there ever since I’ve moved into this place over 10 years ago. Many large tree limbs have come down be it from dying or the severe weather we get. This other one I’m worried about. I’ve been hearing a woodpecker out back and I think this is his damage. It actually looks almost rotted at some points and it is very deep. I’m wondering if the entire tree could die from this at this point and because of how tall it is, it could potentially fall and nail my upstairs if it falls that way. There already is a pretty big limb hanging down right now that I can’t get down yet. I keep pulling and twisting the limb so it will let loose but some of it is still alive. Of course the limb is just out of my reach to cut it down too. I just don’t want it to crash down in a fit of wind with one of the dogs underneath it. I wonder if homeowners insurance would cover the removal of it since it could be potentially harmful to the home itself.

So the weatherman this morning said we’d get thunderstorms this afternoon. Sure okay, no problem. What he didn’t mention was all the havoc that came with these ones.

I get in the car and hope I get to hear a traffic report because I know it is going to be bad, the sky was already turning black. What luck, I get a traffic report until I heard it. Apparently all hell broke loose in Summerville with pouring rain and flying debris. Lightening struck some of our marshes and that was on fire. Then at the end they said this just in the water at the beach was on fire too!! Tons of accidents and now we have a tornado watch going on with hail here and there.

So I make it home through all of this to have to clean up the kitchen floor because one of the dogs had gotten sick :/ Nasty smell. I have the backdoor open right now to vent the place. Thank goodness for a covered back porch lol

You know I get tired of this state and all its inhabitants sometimes. I was reading a story on our local newspaper online when they had a picture of a brown widow spider as shown here, saying they are becoming more prominent in the area. For the love of all that is holy, why the hail do we have the unfortunate luck of having black and brown widow spiders? Can’t one species kill off the other and we just need to deal with one of them? I’m not sure what more mother nature can throw at me that I have to drum up courage to kill. These ones don’t have a poison as deadly as the black widow but still I don’t want to get bit by one. Do you? At least they aren’t as big as those banana spiders I had to kill in the back yard *shivers*

Just this morning I found mouse/rat turd on the kitchen floor again but that wasn’t the only place I found one on my couch too! That rat bastard has been migrating into the living room. This ones a brave sucker but soon to be dead sucker if I have my way. I put out some more rat poison just or him in the usual spot in between the cabinets and the fridge where the dogs cannot reach it. I’m hoping by tomorrow morning that green blob of poison will be moved into whatever area he seems to be hiding out in which is most likely underneath the cabinets like all the others and dies a fast death. I don’t care how much it stinks up the place so long as it dies. This will entail me having to remember to baby gate the kitchen for the night to make sure that if he pulls the poison blob out that it goes with him and he does not leave it in the middle of the floor so the dogs can eat it. That would be bad to say the least.