Lions and deer and bears, oh no!

I have posted a photo of our wild turkey, you heard about my bear encounter on the highway, now see our deer. We have so many deer up here that no one really likes them or notices them, except when they crash through your windshield or run by with their little spotted fawns, like in this photo:

They were a lot closer to me, enjoying a nibble in my garden, but they ran off when I came out to take this photo.

I was talking to the floor guy today (yes, we have new floors!!! yah!) and he said he heard the coyotes are moving into this area again, and somewhere I had read that mountain lions were back. I've seen a coyote or two sometimes at night, but never a mountain lion ... although stay tuned, I'll probably run into one.

What's that you say? You don't want to ever visit us again?

Today I hit a bear

Today I hit a bear. Really.

I was in Don's car heading south on 23, talking to Don on my cell, using ear bud, and all of a sudden a bear hops over the guard rail and runs across the 2 lanes. I put on my brakes, stayed in my lane and ... hit the bear. All the time I'm saying, "Oh my god, there's a bear ... oh my god, I hit a bear!" And Don is thinking "my car! my car!"

Before I could even react, the bear rolled on the pavement in front of my car, got back on his/her legs and ran across the rest of the road and into the woods.

I was stunned. And, I realized, stopped in a lane on a busy road on a bend. Fortunately no one was behind or around me so I drove off. Now Don is saying, "stop the car, check my car!" I pulled over and there was no sign of the bear ... not even a hair or two. And no blood.

It was like a non-event. Except that it wasn't! I have seen many deer run across the road and many dead at the side of the road, but I have never seen a bear on the road, until now ... and I had to hit it!!!

(Sorry that the bear didn't wait for me to take a photo for my blog, rather inconsiderate.)

Man risks life to touch-up siding & save a few bucks

Here's my brave husband staining the new boards on our house. Many of the boards could be reused but a few new ones were needed, and then they needed stain. And because these boards are not within 8 feet of the ground there was NO WAY on earth that yours truly could do the job. The 3rd rung on a ladder is my limit.

He is way up there. My hero. My accountant.

Man spray painted beyond recognition by minor

... a college kid with documented mental illness can buy a gun and bullets in Virginia, but a 17-year-old cannot buy a can of spray paint in New Jersey???

Bryan called me from Home Depot yesterday where I'd asked him to buy 1 can of gray spray paint.

"Mom, they wouldn't let me buy spray paint because I'm not 18."

"What?!"

"I'm going to go to Lowes and say I'm 18."

Later,
"The kid at Lowes was about my age and asked me my age. I said 18 and he rang it up."

Is this CRAZY or what!?!?! Maybe the state is afraid Bryan would use spray paint as a deadly weapon? I guess we never read about this in the newspapers because we have this law to protect us. Thank god.

We're safe in New Jersey.

P.S. Happy Birthday John!

Blog reading - we've come a long way

The interesting thing about this event - reading my blog on Don's laptop on our deck with Linda & Craig - is that we were remembering the night we were together at a friend's home in Thornhill and he was demonstrating the powers of the internet to us, for the first time for many of us. This was a rare thing at the time to have internet at home, and most offices didn't have it available to all employees. Of course his connection was dial-up and it was slower than molasses.

We input a known address, wait, get bored, walk away and do something else, then someone would look over and see that the screen had changed! We'd all go back to the computer - ooh and aah a bit, partly for our host's benefit - then click somewhere on the page and go back to our seats until the new page appeared. It seemed like way too much waiting for so little reward.

It is hilarious to think of this now.

And as Craig said, "I didn't think internet would ever amount to much of anything! It'd never catch on." We all agreed. But then, I remember when Craig balked at voicemail. "Whats the big deal? You're phone rings, you answer it!"

Now, here we are, not that many years later, on a laptop with wireless connection on the deck with instanteous response times, reading a blog where photos can be uploaded with a click, shared with whomever. Craig even uses voicemail now AND internet.

From reading this blog, the guys went immediately to saved email jokes ... the real beauty of the internet!

I'm ready for my close-up

Its hard being cool when you're wearing a black fur coat!

Day 31 - Pulls & Trim

Today, with all the cabinets in place, the handles were installed and trim work began. The island is not permanently attached yet as it will be removed when the flooring is done. I think I'm really liking it. Phew.

I am still speaking to the kitchen designer and the contractor so all is going well! I'm even still talking to Don!

Day 29 - Starting to see a Kitchen

We are starting to see the emergence of a real kitchen. Yesterday the installation of cabinets began. More noise and more dust, but more visually rewarding than previous stages!

Wild Turkey Invasion

We have a gaggle of wild turkeys that have been cruising around our house lately. I think this is a little family racing into the woods after I tried to quietly take a photo. As you can see they blend in nicely with their surroundings. The adults are huge. I'll try to get a better shot in the future.

I also have photos somewhere of the bear that has visited our yard (haven't seen him yet this year). We are way over our interest in the deer that overrun this area since they insatiably feast on our gardens throughout the year. They too have their little ones with them now with beautiful red coats.

Day 28 - Hasty Painting

The spackle guy's son came by late yesterday to do the final sanding on the walls and ceiling, thus wasting another 1 -1/2 days. (They wasted 2 full days last week by not showing up!) Don had taken the day off work yesterday to paint, and couldn't get started until 6pm. He did the cleaning and first coat of primer everywhere, then had to leave for hockey (story of my life), so I did second coats and first coat of final ceiling and wall paints. It was easy since there was no worry about drop cloths or spattering paint.

You can see that the wall paint is a tad bright!!! I am thinking that with cabinets, furniture and art, this sunny color will peak through nicely. Plus the granite has a golden look to it. Some of you may be shocked to see I've chosen a yellow ... not.

As I type this, the workers are banging away installing the cabinets. Exciting! Geez I hope we like this! And so it goes ...

Long Beach Island weekend

We spent last weekend at the Jersey shore and it was wonderful. We were guests of our good friends the Milici's. They have a beautiful home on LBI and were great hosts, showing us around the island both by land and by sea.

Don is pining to own a boat again, thanks to our spin around Barnegat Bay. Mark's passion is not so much boating as it is a means to catch more fish. Mark fishes from the beach, from the boat in the bay and the ocean, and from the end of their street in the bay. The evening is the best time to catch shark off the end of their street which Don proved (above). It was fun for all of us to experience LBI through a fisherman's eyes, aka, "Fishman".

We also bumped into another Kinnelonian while in Beach Haven on Saturday night and went into one of the fun bars together. Just when were feeling slightly hip around the relatively young crowd, a woman having her bachelorette party came to our table to say that she was on some bachelorette scavenger hunt to get a phone number from the oldest guy in the bar! I'm sure she had been to many other tables before ours (ahem) but it seems we had the winner at our table!

It was a fun get-away, and a great break from our non-kitchen.

Day 25 - Spackle Guy

Today the spackle guys arrived. While they worked they sang in harmony and whistled. With the acoustics just right in the empty kitchen, it was beautiful! One spackle guy worked on stilts. Here he is doing a little repair job to the living room ceiling where we had speaker wire pulled. He let me take this photo. Smile spackle guy.

Day 21 - Drywall!

Bring on the drywall ... yesterday the drywall was carried in and nailed up in half a day. Our kitchen now looks like a room - a dusty empty room.

Day 20 - Inspection Stage

For the past week we've been in 'inspection mode' for the kitchen reno. Both the electrical and plumbing inspectors came by last week, and tomo we expect the framing and insulation inspection. (Note the lovely insulation in the first photo!)

Since my last post on the kitchen, the action has been mostly with the plumbing and heating. All the electrical is done. The outside is looking more like the rest of the outside of our house, and things are generally a lot neater. We're throwing some speaker wire in there tomorrow too if the sound guy ever shows up!!!

As we understand it, the drywallers will be here this week, then next week the cabinets will be installed ... then flooring, countertop templating, appliances delivered (not necessarily in that order). My photos should start to get a lot more interesting.