Weather Watch

This year I've survived record snow fall, record high temperatures, tornados and an earthquake.  What does that leave then?  How about a hurricane?  Oooops don't speak too soon...

Hopefully it will veer out to sea and won't affect me but I am keeping a close eye on the forecast and don't think I'll be booking a beach side hotel for the holiday weekend!

Wash Day

Life has been pretty boring for the last couple of weeks.  No storms, tornados or record high temperatures, in fact the weather has been really nice; not too hot and nice and sunny.  I can finally go for a decent walk without nearly fainting through heat exhaustion.

I came over all domestic today and gave my toys a wash because they were a bit stinky.

Before the trip to the 'whirlie washer' at the theme park.

Enjoying the ride.

Checking for predators while the toys enjoy the view and dry off

Time to bring them in after their adverture

All sparkly clean

 

Lively Start

I had a nice early start this morning.  It took a while for me to persuade my human to get up, but some pathetic whining and a quick lick of the nose soon woke her from her snoring slumber.  She mumbled something about it being too early as it was still dark.  There was a reason for that, my super-senses had detected an approaching storm, and I really needed a pee before it arrived.  Talk about good timing... I'd just finished at the first fire hydrant when the thunder started.  Two hydrants, a lamppost, a tree and two bushes later and the rain started.  It was amazing, in a scary, hide in the closet, cover your ears, close your eyes and kiss your arse goodbye kinda way.  I thought last week's storm was a biggie, this was the mother of the biggie.  Some local folks across town had a lucky escape when a tree crashed through their apartment building.  Luckily it fell through the stairwell so there were no serious injuries.  A house was also crushed by a tree and God clearly has a sense of humour as a church roof collapsed and, just to balance things up, the roof of a pub was ripped off.  Amazingly there were no serious injuries but plenty of cleaning up to be done.

I was brave enough to take a bit of video from behind closed doors.  Turn the sound up and wait...

"Bing, bong.  Clean up crew to the patio doors please, clean up crew to the doors."

Boy am I looking forward to getting back to the benign British weather, two tornado warnings in one day is two too many in my book.  

Wildlife update

Another first for at the weekend... I saw a humming bird.  Being geriatric (see previous post) I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of it but my beady little eyes spotted the little fella.  They are so cool.  I've lived here for over a year now and didn't realise they lived this far north.  Not as cool as a hummingbird but I did get a shot of a hummingbird clearwing moth.

 

Reflections

Out and about over the weekend I came across a memorial to the victims of the Beltway sniper.  I vaguely remember it on English TV when I was puppy but he was known as the DC sniper - I never realised it happened so near where I am or that so many people lost their lives.  It's a sad reflection of the times we live in and a reminder that we never know what is around the corner; personally I'm hoping it will be a massive lottery win!

Vets

I've taken an instant dislike to my new vet.  Why? I hear you ask... because she called me geriatric!  So I've got a few grey hairs, and maybe a touch of arthritis and my hearing isn't as good as it used to be and my eyesight is going a bit but geriatric - I'm insulted.  What's wrong with mature, or distinguished, or middle aged, getting on a bit or even elderly?  I got my revenge though.  I looked at her with my big brown puppy dog eyes, head slightly tilted to the right, ears slightly pricked in curiosity.... then peed on her floor!  Geriatric indeed.  Oh and if you were wondering, my physical confirmed I'm as fit as five year old.

Itchy and scratchy sitting on the sofa is driving me nuts.  All I can hear is scratch, scratch, scratch.  If it was me scratching like that she'd have me in the bath then covered in flea powder.  If she doesn't stop soon I'm going to duct tape oven gloves to her hands when she's asleep.

DC Nights

I saw a whole new side to Washington DC at the weekend... DC at night, it's rather nice.  All the monuments are illuminated and look a bit different to in daylight.  It was a bit cooler as well which was nice.  I didn't get to see all the monuments this time but I did stop by the Korean War memorial for the first time.  I couldn't help but smile when I overheard an American woman asking 'why did we fight the Korean war?"  Even I know it was so they could make the TV series M.A.S.H!

My human has been moaning ever since we got back.  She got bitten by something and both her arms have swollen up, are bright red and are giving off more heat than the centre of the sun.  She looks like Popeye with sunburn but the way she's been going on you'd think she'd been bitten by a shark or something.  She spent all last night scratching like a cat with fleas... she's driving me nuts.  I've tried my best to administer the healing lick of Ben but gave up after becoming dehydrated due to loss of slobber.  She's currently sat on the sofa with ice cold towels wrapped around her arms... very fetching indeed.