Whooo Is Hoo-Hoooooting All Night?

  I'm dragging way behind today.  There's going to be lots of napping, I'm sure.  This is a barn owl, of which we have MANY in this neighborhood.   Lucky for me, they move around a bit, but seem to love the tall trees behind my house.  

It started at 2:02 am.  You can even tell the difference between the old guy and the new young stud by their voices.  Hoo Hoooo.    HOO HOOOOOOO.    Oh my gosh ... they went on for THREE HOURS.  Can't you just go catch a mouse or something?

I put in earplugs and covered my head with a pillow.  I could still hear them.  I love them to be sure, but boy they can be rowdy and NOISY!

It's okay though ... when you are greeted by this face every morning, it doesn't matter how much sleep you get!  Lucky for me, he's good at taking naps too!!

I'm sure I showed this short clip to you before, but this seventeen year old kid just makes my day!!

Kitters is still hanging out inside, though not near as much.  She really is an outside cat, I think only coming in for the food.  She gets plenty as evidenced by her fat little belly now, but has taken to eating Cooper's food too.  There's no lap sitting ... only scratches, whereupon she runs for the door to get out.  Thankfully she has not made any more leaps into Jonathan's space.

So far she just sleeps on the back patio table.  I purchased the kitty heating pad, but she refused to sit on it.  It's interesting she does not like soft surfaces.  I placed her on a plush blanket in a chair and she went ballistic trying to get down.  

I put the heating pad out for her and she refused to lay in her normal spot.  Take it away, and she's back to the hard table.  Weird.  

I spotted this Girl Scout/Brownie troop who made these kitty houses for local wild cats, and decided this might be better than a cardboard box.  I'll be getting a tub and insulating it.  We'll see if she uses it at all.  I have my doubts, but it's worth a try.

I then spent FIVE HOURS doing accounting.  Good grief ... I expected only two, three at the most, but I kind of got on a roll.  No company should have over two bank accounts.  This one has TWELVE I'm balancing from January.  So much for my day plans.

Back home, I was thrilled to find a box at my door.  I wasn't supposed to get those clamps for another four days.  I thought they were made just for my bike rack.  Come to find out, these are tool box clamps.  They are not quite as heavy duty as my previous ones, and the bolts they provided didn't work well at all.  This is how they attach to the truck bed rail with the bike rack bracket sitting on top.

I had to mess with it quite a bit to get the rack to extend 1/16th of an inch so it would line up with the clamp.  I had to use the bolts from the old one to get it done.  I measured my bike and I THINK it will fit without taking out the tool box.  It's going to be close.  I'll find out today when I go pick up my trail bike from the Bike Doctor.  

How does it work?  You open a clip on the forks, take off the front wheel and clamp the forks into those two bolts on the bar.  That way it stands upright and nothing gets bent or broken.  I'm thinking if I get back in bike riding shape, I may just get a rack for the back of the van.  We'll see when I feel better.

That was it for the day.  I'm feeling much better, but of course still coughing.  I'm thinking a nice hot bowl of homemade chicken soup would hit the spot.