BBs Blog

I’m glad to report that after trapping another mouse in one of the more lethal V Traps, I am no longer being plagued by messy noisy mice. There may still be some up in the attic, but as long they stay up there, and remain quiet, I am willing to live and let live. And for the time being, after dropping another smoke bomb down a hole I found, both the front and backyard appear to be mole free. I hope the yard remains mole free, but if not, I did happen to pick up some more smoke bombs when I went to Ace last week for more mouse traps. As long as the moles stay out in the mesquite patch, I’m taking the same live and let live attitude with them as well. However, moles who insist on trying to move into the yard and make unsightly mounds and holes are going to find themselves ruthlessly smoked out.

When I haven’t been screwing up the best laid plans of mice and moles, I’ve been ruthlessly trying to rid the rosemary and crown of thorns bush of the swarms of tiny little bee like insects that are hanging out in them. I’ve tried every kind of bug spray I can find. And I damn near did myself in when I thoroughly dusted both of the bushes down with a good coating of Sevin Dust, and forgot to wear my protective filter mask. What really irks the hell out of me about that incident is although I was sick as hell for a couple of days after dusting the bushes sans protective filter mask, the damn little bee like insects seem to be totally unaffected by the white coating of Sevin Dust I liberally sprinkled over both bushes.

The only thing more annoying for me right now than the moles and insects plaguing my yard are the blasted spammers who keep leaving their ads in the comment section of my blog. I am just as ruthless about clicking the “Spam” filter on my blog and ridding it of their silly ads as I am with the mice and moles in and around my house. And speaking of BB’s Blog, I finally worked up enough courage to do the recommended upgrade. I downloaded a nifty plug-in that promised to automatically upgrade my blog to the latest version. After uploading it to the proper directory and clicking on the start button I was pleasantly amazed when the automatic upgrade plug-in worked as promised. Kudos to the inventor of that handy plug-in! I am so impressed with how well the upgrade went, I may even make a donation to the site that plug in came from. I feel much better now that the blog is updated and that annoying messages telling me my blog is outdated is gone. It so sucks to be told your are outdated, especially, at my age.

And if you are reading this Week’s Fix from the blog itself, I hope you enjoy the cheerful new Tulip Time theme it is now sporting.

I was awakened the other morning at 5:30 a.m. by a strange knocking noise that sounded as if it was coming from night stand next to my bed. After I reached over and gave the table a gentle shake the strange knocking stopped. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep. When I got up at what is a more reasonable hour for me I noticed that the statue of a panther I have on the top shelf of that night stand was closer to the edge than usual. As I moved the statue back I noticed the bottom of it was not perfectly flat, nor was it lined with felt like the bottom of some figurines are. Since we had recently had the roof replaced, and the whole house had shuddered at times from the impact of the roofing shingles being tossed on it. I assumed the statue had moved when that was going on, and somehow got to vibrating.

That night I slept soundly and was not awakened by any strange noises. However, the next night, or rather early morning, I was once more awakened from my blissful slumber by a strange rattling noise. I was convinced the noise was coming from the table. Larry said we should check outside and see if something outside was causing it. After finding the grill near the bedroom window loose we assumed the wind had been catching it just right, and that was the source of the strange noise. Larry screwed the vent grill down tight. I went to bed that night convinced my slumber would not be interrupted anymore.

Imagine my surprise, and frustration, when once more I was awakened at 5:30 a.m. by a strange rattling noise. This time there was no doubt in my mind it was coming not only from the night stand, but from the top drawer of said night stand. After shaking the table to get it to quiet down I rolled over and went back to sleep. When I got up later that morning I took the drawer out and discovered evidence that clearly pointed to a mouse being the cause of the noise. I set some traps under and on the table that I hoped would would solve my noisy mouse problem. Though I didn’t really think any mouse would be dumb enough to go into it, I baited the one plastic rectangular cube type trap I had hanging around the house with a cinnamon Triscuit cracker that I smeared a dab of peanut butter on. When I went to bed that night I hoped that if I was going to be awakened by the sound of that mouse, it would be the sound of his little neck snapping in one of the more lethal V traps.

At 1:24 a.m. I awoke to the sound of frantic scratching and mild thumping. Seems at least one mouse was dump enough to go into the cube trap. I turned the overhead light on, looked at the little mouse whose eyes were staring at me in total terror, and thought, “Well, now what?” No way could I leave the trapped mouse on the table with the racket it was making. But, I had no intention of going outside in the middle of the night and possibly getting snake bit while trying to get rid of the mouse. In my infinite blonde wisdom I put the cubed mouse out on the porch room, and decided to let Larry deal with it when he got up.

In his infinite male wisdom Larry first decided to put the trap in the middle of the road, then run over it with the 4 Wheeler. I told him I didn’t care what the hell he did with it as long I never saw that mouse, or stupid trap again. After thinking about it, Larry reconsidered his original plan, and opted for simply throwing the cubed mouse across the road. If the mouse escaped fine. If it didn’t, that was fine too. He lobbed the cubed mouse towards the road, and watched as it bounced several times. The little one way swinging trap door fell off on the last bounce. The mouse, badly addled from all the bouncing did not immediately take advantage of the situation. However, after a few minutes it collected its wits, and scurried from the trap. It was at that point an 18 wheeler came rumbling by. That mouse was leading a charmed life because the 18 wheeler missed flattening the mouse by a couple of inches. The mouse was last seen running hell bent for leather towards the mesquite patch on the other side of the road. I seriously doubt that little mouse will ever want to step foot inside a house again after the experience he had in, and out of mine.

It’s Friday the 13th! A supposedly bad day that can result in all kinds of horrible things happening to you if you aren’t really careful. This is the day that those who believe Friday the 13th to be a bad day should be especially careful of doing things like crossing paths with black cats, and walking under ladders.

Fridays in general have a rather bad reputation in Christian lore. Adam and Eve were said to have eaten the forbidden fruit on a Friday. The builders of the Tower of Babel were also supposedly tongue tied on a Friday, and the great flood is rumored to have started on a Friday. The Temple of Solomon was also said to have been destroyed on a Friday.

If you are Paraskevidekatriaphobic, one who has an irrational and morbid fear of Friday the 13th, you were probably nodding your head and rubbing your lucky rabbit foot as you read the above the above paragraph. However, you might want to stop fondling that rabbit’s foot for a moment because not all cultures and religions consider Friday an unlucky or bad day of the week.

The word Friday is actually derived from the ancient Norse Goddess Frigg, or Friia, who was worshipped on the sixth day of the week. Frigg was the wife of Odin, and mother of Balder. Sometimes she is depicted as a weeping mother, and other times as having very loose morals. In early Norse culture Fridays were associated with love. Friday was considered a good day for a white wedding back then. Unfortunately, Christianity has tried to transform Frigg into a wicked witch and make Fridays an unholy day.

Because I am a technically a “witch” who some might consider wicked because of my salacious nature, I am choosing to celebrate this Friday by making this entry in my blog so that those who read it will understand that not all of us consider Fridays, or Friday the 13th a bad or unholy day.

Of course there is also another more modern connotation to Fridays that the working class people of the world has given us. And even a Restaurant and frozen food line from that restaurant. Yes, I’m talking about the TGIF connotation and restaurants. To millions of working class folks Friday represents the last day of the work week. That wonderful day of the week that if you can just get though it, will allow you to begin your weekend with trip to your local TGIF to enjoy a good meal and fun times with friends and/or family. Later you can party, or if it be that time of the year, enjoy a Friday night football game.

Whatever you do this Friday, please remember that although there are many bad things supposedly associated with this day, if one looks hard enough, and studies some of the truly ancient lore associated with Fridays and the number 13, one will discover that some considered this day of the week, and the number 13 to be lucky. And some of us supposedly “wicked witches” still do consider Fridays and the number 13 to be lucky.

Bright blessings and a happy Friday the 13th to all who read this.

After being reduced to tears of frustration by drop down java menus, I discovered a program called Rapid Weaver that automatically creates menus and links to each new page you build in it.  At first I was a little reluctant to turn over the creation of my website to a program that used templates.  Then after thinking about what a nightmare the drop down java menus are, especially when content changes, I decided there was nothing wrong with using templates.  When I discovered I could add a personal touch to the template I had chosen by dropping in a graphic, and create some of my own links in the sidebar, I became even more enamored with the idea of using templates.

Once I started serious work revamping the web site with the new template I was using, it didn’t take that long to get things neatly reorganized.   Hitting that Publish button for the first time was a scary thing though.  Sure, everything looked great on my computer.  But what if something went wrong during the publishing?  What if I couldn’t get Rapid Weaver to connect to my ftp server at all?  A slew of potential problems were dancing through my head as my cursor hovered over that button.   Then I took a deep breath, and as I clicked the Publish button, closed my eyes  and said a quick prayer to the Great Horned Cyber God.

After I opened my eyes I saw everything seemed to be going along great.  Then the ftp program hit a snag, and suddenly no more files were being uploaded.  I took a couple more deep breaths, told myself NOT to panic, then once more hit the Publish button.  This time the ftp server and my server managed to stay firmly connected, and within a few moments the files that make up the newly revamped website were all uploaded.  I clicked on the bookmark for my index page, closed my eyes for a second, and once more said a quick prayer to the Great Horned Cyber God as it began to load.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I opened my eyes and  saw that everything looked exactly as it did on my computer.

Going through all the content I had on the old page and deciding what to keep, and what to get rid of is a rather tedious chore that may take me a few weeks to completely finish.  When I am completely finished with adding what I want of the old content, then the muse and I are going to buckle down and hopefully be adding some new content to the site as well.  In between doing that, as well as the multitude of other chores I have to do to keep my house and yard clean and uncluttered, the muse and I will be doing our best to at least bring our faithful readers a Weekly Fix that is as entertaining as possible.

And speaking of clean uncluttered yards, is it just me?  Or did the person who invented weed whackers vent his sadistic nature by making sure that no matter how lightweight your weed whacker is, the damn thing is going send the muscles in your arms into a tizzy fit after you’ve used it?  I have spent the last couple of mornings diligently trimming the front and back yard with my new lightweight weed whacker, and the afternoons letting my arms recover from all that trimming.