Post Independence Update

Hope you had a great 4th of July. We had a lonesome one. This is the first time in our life that we have not been with Chloe and Morgan for the fireworks. They went to San Antonio with their Mom and Dad for a vacation. They had fun, but they did call and send pix all the time. Here's a few of my favorite.

Here's Chloe riding a bull called Fu Man Shu

Here's Morgan riding a bull called Fu Man Shu

The above pictures were taken at the San Antonio Mercado. The videos below were taken at the Blue Hole, in Wimberly. The girls had a ball here.

Here's the NEWS from my house. Angie and her clan all came over last night for dinner. I grilled burgers and dawgs on Weber. Due to the chaos that is always evident when we're all her together, I left the cooking utensils out on the grill, instead of bringing them in to wash. Both girls spent the night. Chloe sleeps in my bed with me when she stays, and Morgan and Gary sleep on the couches. Stella slept with Chloe and me.

At 4:00 am this morning, we heard a commotion on the deck. My bedroom windows overlook part of the deck, so Chloe and I, and a barking Stella got up and turned on the outside lights. Chloe starts to raise a blind, and she pulls it off the door. It falls on Stella who is now yelping loudly. I pick up Stella, and we peer into the deck area outside the windows. There are two baby raccoons out there. They have each chosen a cooking utensil (a spatula and a pair of tongs)to lick.

Then, one of them disappears, only to reappear on top of the gazebo that a paid quite a bit of money for just a couple of months ago. He is jumping from the roof to the roof of the gazebo. All of a sudden, the other one joins the first one. They have decided to climb from the top of the gazebo to the Weber grill. I have visions of the mosquito netting being ripped to shreds so I intervene. I start beating on the window. They're so young, they get back on top of the gazebo and crawl to the windows. I tried taking pictures, but it was too dark.

Here is a picture from by bedroom door that has a view of the deck. As you can see, the gazebo is very close to the door and the roof.

Here is the same door with a view of the Weber. I posted these so you could see how close we were to the action.

I decided it was time to get rid of them. I go to the kitchen (I didn't want to open my bedroom doors, cause we'd be right on top of them) and try and get them to leave by saying "shoo". They just looked at me, jumped down, and started licking the utensils again. I then decided to get them something to eat before they tore everything up. While I'm securing a package of marshmallows, they get inside the gazebo, which is zipped closed. They decide to leave, and can't figure it out right away, so again they're crawling up the mosquito netting. Finally, they're loose. I'm tossing marshmallows away from the gazebo, and only one of them decided to eat marshmallows. I go outside to toss them closer to the remaining one, and get a whiff of skunk.

Evidently, the skunk was below the deck and didn't like all the commotion. Chloe and I decided there was nothing more we could do. Got up this morning, the skunk smell was faint, and all the marshmallows are gone. I have got to quit posting now, and get all the food stuff in from the patio. Hope you all have fun. I've also got to get ready for golf. Sheila, Gary T and I are playing at Tennyson this evening.

Here's your paraprosdokian The NEWS is where they begin with 'Good Evening, Morning' etc, and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.