Trivializing the Momentous and Complicating the Obvious

My cat died this morning. We'd been expecting it for some time, but I was still pretty shattered. Found her just before leaving for church---had a hard time not crying during Pastor Frank's sermon. My dad buried her after church.

I miss her already. She was my baby. I'd trained her to give me kisses. She annoyed me sometimes, but so does everybody. Most of the time I didn't mind being the only person who knew how to pet her exactly the way she liked, and I didn't even mind the occasional allergic reactions I'd get on my skin and my eyes, because she was always there, and always willing to be petted and loved on and hugged and squeezed and fed. And I hate that my family seems to have taken the position that I'm not allowed to lament her loss. I don't know if they're just trying to make me feel better by saying things like "She was a pest, anyway. Remember how she'd always scratch your leg when you sat at the computer?" or if they really are just that insensitive. I know we as a family get very uncomfortable when another member is upset or crying---but why is there this need to minimize the importance of the loss? To make the person who is upset feel like a complete loser for being upset? I don't get it. And I really wish people would just leave me alone if that is the best they can do for "comfort."

My Mommy is home and has rolled up her sleeves (metaphorically speaking) and gotten to work on scrubbing the soot out of our kitchen. *embarrassed*

My car has, pretty much officially, died.

As I was getting ready for work this morning, my dad suddenly shouted "Fire! Fire!"

He had lit a candle in the master bathroom, and it had caught on something overhead. I wasn't dressed yet (I wear sweats to bed most of the time; thankfully last night was one of those times) but I quickly roused my sisters and shouted to my dad to call 911, which he did, and we sprinted out the door. As we were going, Ariel ran past me. I tried to block her way, because she doesn't like to be held, but she ran past me into the bedroom. So I scooped her up from behind. Thankfully, she decided not to scratch me, but she wriggled out of my grasp as soon as we were on the lawn, and ran under the car. As we girls watched from outside the door, the smoke from the bathroom steadily billowed into the living room.

Our dad came outside with us, but quickly ran back inside. Adrenaline rush, I guess; he couldn't stay outside. After explaining to our bewildered neighbor what was going on, I followed him in; the house wasn't overly warm yet, so I figured the fire must still be rather small and/or isolated. I went into my parents' room and found my dad standing over the sink, running water, and dousing the fire, which was eating away the shower curtain and the shelves above the toilet, with it. He barked at me to bring him water, so I went into the kitchen (right next to the master bedroom), dodging our neighbor's husband, who had followed us to try to help, and shouted for Nicole to come and help me fill the pans. She and Christi joined me in a sort of assembly line, and we got the fire out, then went back outside, because the smoke was really thick.

As we waited for the fire trucks, Renae and Christi made jokes (Renae was glad she'd worn her bra to bed last night) and our next-door neighbor, Kelly, let me use her phone to call in to work and tell them I'd be late. Kelly's husband, still half-asleep, tried to get the hose out of his truck, but got it tangled somehow.

First a police car came, followed by four fire trucks, two more police cars, and an ambulance. The firemen started asking my dad questions, and he led them inside, to show them the way to the bathroom. Apparently the shower curtain had re-ignited, so the firemen took the fire extinguisher to it. They set up a fan outside the front door to blow the smoke out of the house, which took about 30-45 minutes, almost all of which time, our dad stayed inside, talking to the firemen.

We tried to get our dad to stay outside with us; after all, the firemen had masks, and he didn't. But he either didn't hear us, or he wouldn't listen. Probably a combination of the two; he has very selective hearing. The firemen told him he should have stayed outside, because 75% of all fire-related deaths are due to smoke inhalation, not flames. Still, I'm not sure it wasn't a good thing to have done, putting the fire out ourselves, because the flames were almost through the bathroom wall, and 30 seconds would have seen the fire in the attic --- much more extensive damage. Just a couple more inches, and it would have hit the hair products = highly flammable. A couple minutes (waiting for the fire trucks) would have destroyed the wall right through to the kitchen, and we'd be out of electricity and phone service. We'd be staying in a hotel tonight, rather than merely having to wash our linens and dust the furniture; who knows if we'd still be able to go to Detroit next week. We came very close to a major catastrophe. As it is, we'll only have to replace the bathroom, which needed to be done anyway. :)

Still, once the fire was out, he should have stayed outside. The rest of the day, he was feeling sick and woozy, with a splitting headache, and acting kind of high. Poor dear. He says he barely remembers any of it.

We were quite put out, once the smoke had cleared, to find our other cat, Cookie, sitting on the couch. We hadn't seen her before, because the smoke was too thick, but she'd been sitting there the whole time, while we'd been worrying because we hadn't seen her since the call of "Fire!" Stupid cat. I washed her down with a wet washcloth, because she was very sooty, and she just purred, but we're all still kind of miffed with her. She could at least have crawled under the counter. Pfft!

So I took that job at Kmart and am now extremely busy. Haven't had a day off in a week, but tomorrow's class is only two hours long, so that won't be so bad, and I don't work tomorrow, either. So that'll have to do until school ends in two weeks. I'm okay with that.

I just realized today that I only get one paycheck between now and Christmas, though. And that sucks. But I already made myself a Christmas budget that won't allow me to spend more than $30 per person, so I should be okay as long as I restrict myself to buying for Family Only.

*sigh* Sucks, though. Buying people presents is my favorite part of Christmas. But hey, I get paid the day after Christmas, so maybe we can do some Day After shopping while everybody else is returning everything. *g*

After the rat incident a few days ago, (my brother insists he saw the cats chase the rat out the back door. Significant that they did it together; my mom's not sure they weren't actually just chasing each other) my sisters have finally succeeded in convincing my parents to let them have a dog. So yesterday they went to both pounds and the pet store, looking for the perfect dog. They fell in love with a basset hound, but it had already been sold. So they're going to look for another basset hound.

Here's hoping the new dog doesn't kill me. I was okay with Lady most of the time, but I had to lock myself in my room when we had Sasha. Could never breathe with that dog in the house. My mother added a condition to getting a dog, and that was that Renae and Christi have to clean the carpet once a month, so that I don't get sick. They agreed, but you never know if they'll actually do it or not.

My mother set up an appointment with the lawyer for Tuesday, and I just realized I work that day. On one hand, I wouldn't mind calling off work to be able to keep up to date with what's going on with my surgery. But on the other hand, I don't have much confidence that we have a case, so what's the point of missing work?

Got our electricity back yesterday. Was riding home from school when my dad noticed the house lights on our block were on. Began to get excited, but not too excited, as is possible to hook house up to generator. Got nearer to our house and noticed the front doors to our house and the house next door were still open, so began to be disappointed. But our neighbor was out on his lawn and he saw us and smiled (I'd never seen him so happy) and said, "Hey, lights back!" And then Nicole appeared in the doorway, waving her arms and jumping around. And we giggled. And there was much rejoicing.

So now all that's left to do is replace my modem.

Spent $90 today on a puny little schoolbook. Am kind of depressed about that.

Well, no sooner did I log off after posting my last entry, but our phone line went out. Argh!

But it's back now. Yay!

Still don't have power, though.

Have been very bored the last few days, though this time the aftermath has been considerably better than other hurricanes I've been through. Mostly due to the cooler weather (the hurricane actually brought in a cold front this time; was very weird. I think it came in with the eye.) but also because of our brand spanking new generator. Which, btw, we are now sharing with both of our next door neighbors, since the family on the left of us have an autistic child who cannot live without TV. Or maybe it's his parents who need it to keep him busy. *shrug* Either way.

The only thing I had to keep myself occupied was my Netflix, which was the first three discs of the first season of 24. Which has been surprisingly good. Wasn't sure if I could deal with The Antichrist* as the lead character, but I've really been enjoying it. Was very tiresome to have to charge up the battery every two hours, though. On the other hand, it made it easier to make the discs last three or four days.

More details to come later, as we all have to make do with the laptop at the moment.

* "The Antichrist" in this case obviously refers to Kiefer Sutherland. We gave him this nickname because he was the bad guy in so many movies we've seen. Of course, this makes Donald Sutherland the Father of the Antichrist.

Hunkering down for Wilma.

Since it's expected to be only a cat. 3 by the time it gets to the east coast, we're not evacuating. Jeanne was a 3 and we stayed for that one with no problems. This one might be a little different, though, since this time we're on the messy side of the storm, and with Jeanne we were on the tail end. So I'm a little concerned. But we have a brand new roof and we're on relatively high ground (about as high as it gets in Florida, unless you count the landfills), so we'll probably be okay.

I'm very glad we sprung for a generator this year, though. We're going to share it with the next door neighbors, since they don't have one. It works out, 'cause we don't know how to hook it up (and I'd really rather not leave my dad in charge of that), but they do. I'm also glad it's October, and not August, so it's a little cooler these days. Still hot, but not stiflingly so.

We're also housing our friends, Dru and Kim, who did not want to stay in their trailer park during the storm. Naturally. It's a standing invitation, as I've mentioned before. So they'll be bringing their kids and pets (a dog and a gerbil) over, probably tomorrow night. We might also invite another family over who live in the same trailer park, if they can't find anybody else to take them in. But my mom said if we invite them over, my dad has to buy her some rope to tie the bratty kids down with. I think she might have been serious.

I'm worried about my little car. I hope it doesn't blow away. *sniffle*

I'm mostly upset about my classes, though. Was supposed to have a midterm on Friday, but it'll probably be cancelled, along with the gym session on Saturday that the whole class hinges on. If they reschedule those classes, I hope it's for a Sunday or something so it doesn't wreck the rest of my schedule.

Well, yesterday's party finally ended, but not before some weird guys that nobody knew showed up and pooped on the party. Guess they didn't mean to, but they didn't quite realize that a Renae party is different from the usual kind of party. Also, nobody told them about the No Cursing rule. (Renae and Christi made their friends sign a "contract" when they came that said anybody who cursed would have to eat a jalapeno.) Once they left, though, the party mood was quickly restored and the girls gabbed into the wee hours of the morning. And now we can't find the top to the jalapeno jar.

Today my father was "ordained" as an elder in the church. Today also happens to be Nicole's birthday. So we went out to eat after church, then came home and crashed in the usual Sunday fashion. This was made easier by the fact that my siblings had not yet removed the air mattress from the living room floor.

One thing Renae's birthday party accomplished: it finally got the TiVo moved to my room. This is because the DVD player we had been using in the living room usually craps out after, say, half a movie, and since Renae's party was centered around movies, she wanted the more reliable DVD player out there. Except that one doesn't have a way to watch channels or anything, and the living room TV only has one set of Inputs, so there's no way to hook up the TiVo with the DVD player that is best for watching DVDs. If that makes any kind of sense.

Anyway, the TiVo is now in my room. Also, we are having a satellite box installed in my room on Tuesday. I expect an influx of activity in my room surpassing that of the normal Internet Rush. I shall have to be strict. *narrows eyes*

shemmelle has sort of inadvertently reminded me that I haven't posted about this week's Lost yet.

Well, I only caught the last half hour thanks to a glitch in my TiVo that reacts badly to ABC television. But first, I must backtrack.

( Cut for possible spoilers, just in case )

We finally got our furniture. Yay! Unfortunately, sprained my finger lifting the TV, so is very difficult to type. Also botched my plans to finish my chapter last night, so I'm a little grumpy now.

Classes for today and tomorrow have been cancelled thanks to Katrina. I still have my doctor's appointment today, though, so at least there's still something to do for productivity's sake.

Today is my brother's birthday. He's 20.

ETA: Well, as Colonel Pickering would say, I'm dashed. My dad just called and told my mom to cancel my doctor's appointment: he didn't feel she was up to driving in the winds. So now this weekend that was supposed to be so productive is now down to nada. Harrumph.

Renae is now planning a Tropical Hurricane Party. We have friends who live in a mobile home, so we have a standing invitation for them to come over during any storm if they need to. So now Renae wants to buy a bunch of fruit and make it a day.