My Kitter

2000-2015

It's been a journey. Kit came to live with us on October 10, 2000. He was a stray, but well mannered. We don't know exactly what his life was like for those first four or five months, but the last fifteen years have been awesome.

On August 10, I took him to the vet to have a small bump on his chest looked at. Our wonderful vet was concerned, so she did a needle aspiration and came back to tell me the cells looked suspicious and she was sending them to the lab for analysis. Kit and I went home to wait out the weekend. On Monday, she called to tell me the lump was a cancer tumor. On Tuesday we were back at the vet for a chest x-ray and blood work. If the cancer was localized to the tumor, we could do surgery and remove it. Luck was not our ally that day.

Kit's lungs should have been a solid, black mass on the radiograph. Instead, they appeared grey and fluffy. Kit was terminal, so we came home to enjoy the end of our last summer together. Prednesone was prescribed to aid with lung function and we went on with our lives.

I was determined to make the best of the time we had. Days were spent indulging him in his favorite foods until he was no longer interested in eating. Daily walks in the yard as I watered the garden, until it was too tiring to walk down the stairs. One last camping trip over Labor Day weekend. Lots of lounging in the sun on the deck.

This went on for almost three months. On Wednesday I came home from work. He had nibbled at his breakfast, but hadn't moved from the spot I left him in that morning. I took care of some chores and he dragged himself into the kitchen before easing down onto the floor, exhausted and breathing heavily. The look he gave me said simply, "It's time". So I bundled him into his crate, made a couple calls and made one last trip to the vet.

Saying goodbye isn't easy. Our vet office is staffed with wonderful people. We were escorted to the "grief room". I don't know what else to call it, but we were given privacy and time to reminisce and love on my most amazing cat. Time to rub his ears and listen to him purr. Kit's actual passing was very quick once the drugs were administered. He was gone just before 7 pm.
And I cried buckets.

Turkeys

I've seen this flock of eight turkeys in the neighborhoot several times. They've been doing a great job of cleaning up the bugs and they like to check out the neighbor's water fountain. Tonight, when I got home from work they were in the neighbor's yard. A few minutes later they had crossed the street and were busy cleaning up the seed on the ground under the bird feeder. Kit wondered what they were doing in his yard.

 Unfortunately, they spook easily and so my only pictures are of them walking away.

Football Saturdays

Look who's playing football!

So stinkin' cute!

Southern Oregon Weekend

Labor Day weekend in Southern Oregon. We spent the weekend at Valley of the Rogue State Park so we could just relax. Of course, we found ways to entertain ourselves as well.

On Saturday, we spent the day in Jacksonville. It's such a great little town. The weather was beautiful, so we spent a few hours wandering through the shops. We even ran into some friends. And we had a wonderful lunch on the patio of the Jacksonville Inn.

Sunday, we headed into Grants Pass. We had a specific goal. Once upon a time, I lived in Brookings, Oregon and frequently enjoyed eating at Wild River Pizza. There are actually four locations, so we opted for lunch at the Grants Pass location. The pizza was excellent. And so was the beer. They were out of my usual favorite, the Kolsch, so I went with the Honey Wheat Ale. It was a good choice.

Music Festival

We made our 5th trip to the Bimart Willamette County Music Festival this year. As always we had a great time. The music was good, the weather cooled of and we got to take some much needed down time with friends and family.

Th music was pretty good too.

Jackson Mickelson

Scotty McCreery

Rascal Flatts

Dustin Lynch

Luke Bryan

Tracy Lawrence

Chris Young

The Band Perry

Heading Home

Flying east we always leave early. Flying west is another story. Our flight was schedued to leave at 3:00 pm, so we had some time to fill before leaving Birmingham. We decided to check out the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Wow. It was an excellent museum with so much history and emotion. It's located right across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church, which was bombed in 1963, killing four young girls. We didn't go into the church, or fullly explore the park across the street, but it was definitely worth the visit.

Exclusion Diorama

Separate was not equal

Rosa Parks Diorama

16th Street Baptist Church

The flight home was uneventful. It's good to be home.

Back to Alabama

We left Chattanooga after breakfast and headed south into Georgia. We drove back through the Chickamauga battlefied and then drifted southwest toward Alabama. We stopped for gas at Mentone, Alabama. It's a small town that is reputed to have some great little artisan shops. Unfortunately, they open at 11:00 am, and we were there at 10:00 am. With nothing to do, we kept driving and made a brief stop at DeSoto State Park where we got some information about Little River Canyon.

Our next stop was the Little River Canyon Center where we picked up a park map and had a nice visit with the park ranger on duty.  She said Little River Falls overlook was a good place for a picnic, so that's where we went. The falls are pretty, and accessible for swiming. However, I wouldn't want to be there when the water was running fast.

One of the sign board at the overlook shows a photo of the falls in December and the water covers the entire rock face. 

We drove through part of the Canyon. We had to stop for a photo at Mushroom Rock. When the road was built, they left this really cool rock formation and built the road around it. 

We left the canyon and drove into Fort Payne. It's the hometown of one of my favorite bands - Alabama. We stopped at the city park so I could take a photo.

And we visited the Alabama Fan Club and Museum. They have a new album coming out next month and I am really excited.

From Fort Payne, we drove to Birmingham, had dinner at O'Charley's and it was time to crash. We go home tomorrow.

Tennessee & Georgia - Day 2

We spent most of today in Georgia. The morning was spent at the Chicamauga Battlefield, another part of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We started at the Visitors Center where we watched a short video and went through the museum. Then we drove the seven mile loop and stopped several times to get out and walk around the monuments.

Wilder Monument

View from the top of the Wilder Monument

I climbed the 136 steps to the top of the Wilder  Brigade Monumment. And we found a picnic table and ate the lunch we had packed. 

We left the battlefield and heade into Rossville, Georgia. We had seen a sign for the home of Chief John Ross of the Cherokees. I make the kids read his letter of protest written in 1836, so I was curious. Unfortunately the house is not open on Mondays. 

Our next stop was Rock City Gardens. Some of the cousins had recommended it, but I wasn't sure if we should do it. We finally decided to bite the bullet and I am so glad we did. It was awesome. The Gardens started as a private estate in the 1920's and winds though these massive rock formations.There is an awesome waterfall, and the view from the top is impressive. You can see seven states on a clear day. 

Walking into "Fatman's Squeeze"

Lover's Leap

We spent about 3 1/2 hours walking through Rock City. By the end of the day we were tired. We wanted a meal and decided on Italien. A quick internet search and we found Provino's in Chattanooga. Good choice. The place was packed and the food was excellent. 

After dinner we headed toward the river and ended up driving out to Lake Chickamauga before heading back to the hotel. 

Alabama - Day 6 / Tennessee & Georgia - Day 1

One final meal with the cousins and we said our farewells with everyone scattering back to the winds. We headed north and made our first stop of the day at Russell Cave National Monument. This location has been used by humans for 10,000 years. The actual cave is off limits, but the boardwalk from the visitors center does enter the cave overhang and has dioramas of prehistoric peoples.

It was an interesting contrast to Cathedral Caverns. Russell Cave has a large bat colony, while Cathedral Caverns doesn not. Both caves are huge, and have water running through them. 

Our next stop was Chattanooga, but to get there we had to enter Tennessee, enter Georgia, and then reenter Tennessee. Oh, and we changed time zones. We deviated from our normal chain hotel routine and checked into The Chattanoogan. It is very nice. 

None of us were very hungry, so we headed out to Point Park. It's part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Point Park is located overlooking the Lookout Mountain Battlefield. The park was nice and cool in the evening. 

The view from Point Park

On our way down the mountain, we stopped and rode the Incline Railway. At the bottom we had some ice cream at Clumpies and then rode back up the mountain. The Incline Railway has a grade maximum of 72 degrees at one point. It was cool.

Alabama - Day 5

This morning was similar to yesterday, but for lunch we headed into town to The Rock House Eatery. It was recommended by our hosts, and I had an excellent hamburger. Some of the cousins went for the pimento cheese sandwich, but I just couldn't do it. I love cheese, but I don't love pimentos.

This afternoon we hung out at the lake. The cousins live on the lake, so we spent some time on their pontoon boat and visiting at their boathouse. 

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A view of the Lodge from the lake

Lake Guntersville is on the Tennessee River. It's a very long lake and has about 900 miles of shoreline. As a student of history, I knew about the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the 1930's, but I didn't think about how massive that river must have been. The dams on the river that created lakes have lock systems and navigable by barges. 

This evening we had a reunion banquet and business meeting. Our 2016 reunion will be in North Carolina. 

Alabama - Day 4

Following breakfast at the Lodge, many of us hung out and caught up on the past year until lunch time. Our group was scheduled for a 1:15 tour of Cathedral Caverns State Park, so we caravaned over there. This was not my first limestone cavern experience, but these caverns were huge and incredible. It's a little more than a half mile into the caves, and then you walk back out.

Our Alabama cousins hosted an informal gathering in their home in the evening. It was nice to hang our and eat some pulled pork.

Alabama - Day 3

This morning we had time to visit the Alabama Constitution Village. It's a reconstructed village in downtown Huntsville that has costumed docents who explain how Alabama went about drafting their constitution and became a state in 1819. We arrived just as they were opening, and had the place to ourselves for a little while. The docents were wonderful. We enjoyed our visit.

Dad spinning the lathe wheel.

Our family reunion was scheduled to begin the next day, so we drove to Guntersville, and had lunch at Cafe 336, located inside Bakers on Main. It's a very small restaurant, and a wonderful woman and her granddaugher offered to let us share their table. We had a little visit about things to see and do in the area. They were very kind, and the sandwiches were yummy, too.

After lunch we continued on to Lake Guntersville State Park and checked into the Lodge. It is beautiful! The view of the lake is amazing. We settled in and then took a little drive around the park. State parks in Alabama are not like state parks in Oregon. This state park has a campground, the Lodge with a full restaurant and lounge, cabins, chalets and a golf course.

We met up with some of the cousins and had dinner at Top of the River, where we dined on catfish, hush puppies, steak and shrimp. Catfish is not something I normally eat, but when in the South.... :)

Alabama - Day 2

We spent most of the day ath te US Rocket and Space Center in Huntsville. It was the big thing we wanted to do during our short time and it was worth it.

There is so much more to the US Space Program history than I knew. And I think it's true of many people. In the 1950's and 1960's, the interest from the general public was so much greater than it is now. 

The center runs Space Camp, so there were tons of kids running around. They have a really cool hand on robotics exhibit. I loved the robots. They were very cool. 

The Saturn V Rocket Hall was amazing. According to one of the volunteers, there were 15 Saturn V rockets built. Thirteen were launched, and the one in the hall would have been if the program had not run out of money. 

We also saw an Apollo 12 moon rock and lots of other cool stuff. 

After leaving the Rocket Center, we headed into downtown Huntsville. We checked out the Harrison Brothers Hardware Store. It's been in business since 1897, and is now run by the Huntsville Historical Association. It's a cool old building, and they still use the 108 year old cash register.

For dinner we found a local pub, Below the Radar. The Cobb salad was really good. And the Back Forty Beer Company in Gadsden makes and awesome Truck Stop Honey Brown Ale.

Alabama - Day 1

We left Portland this morning at 6, which means we were up at 2:30 to catch the 4 am airport shuttle. Our flight to Houston was on time, and the hopper to Birmingham was running a bit behind. That all being said, we caught a tailwind and made really good time.

From Birmingham we drove the rental car north to Huntsville. It was cheaper to fly into Birmingham, and the drive was a nice transition from flying to hotel. With the two hour time difference, our body clocks are so off. We weren't really hungry for dinner until around 7, and we probably will head for bed around 10. Of course, we ate way too much, but the food at Rosie's Mexican Cantina was good! And we're pretty picky about our Mexican food.

The next few days will be busy, but I'm looking forward to seeing the cousins and exploring a new state.

Birthday Girl

We celebrated this one's birthday with a trip to the county fair and a family dinner the next day. We were a few days late.

In honor of her birthday, the family has acquired two new members of the menagerie: Johnny and JohnJohn.

Have marionberries.....

make marionberry crumble. I thought about a pie, but I wasn't in the mood to make pie crust, so I pulled out the old apple crumble recipe, cut the cinnimon and substituted the berries. It was pretty yummy, if I do say so myself.

Hot Summer - pt 2

The heat wave continues. Today this is what I read on the thermometer. I am really, really tired of this heat.

Splish Splash!

Today we checked out a local park and splash pad. We had a few sprinkles. Somehthing we have seen precious little of this summer, so the kids tried to catch the raindrops on their tongues. Once the fountains were turned on, the water flew everywhere and the kids loved it. We finished our day with a late lunch and the golden arches and then headed to see Grammie and Papa for a couple hours. loved it!

Hot Summer - pt 1

It's been horribly hot lately. Today the thermometer on the back deck read 104.5 degrees! I'm tired of this. It's not fun and I don't have the energy to get anything done.