There are only thirteen more shopping days until Christmas! Here are three more tidbits from The Nest that you’ll find in the clearance bin along with the Chia Pets and singing fish…
Ah, Decemeber…. otherwise known as severe weather season!
I’m sure there were tornadoes in the Dickensian version of Christmas, right?
And so this came through on Friday evening. The red boxes are TORNADO WARNINGS, and that blue X roughly represents where I am. So I had to listen to the city’s annoying voiced warning system go off for about a half hour while it didn’t really do much of anything since all that nasty red and yellow colored stuff scooted just north of me. Of course, I wouldn’t even be mentioning this if it weren’t the second week of December. I can recall only one other time (The really nasty, flood inducing weather we had just before and after Christmas in 2015) when I even heard thunder in the twelfth month.
Rainy’s version of perfect Christmas weather.
These are the kind of systems that normally lead to our biggest snowstorms when the temperature’s a bit cooler. “Thundersnow” is a popular meteorological term around these parts, snowstorms that are big enough to produce lightning, but I wonder if icenadoes are possible?
Back when I started at Mecca in the ancient days of the 20th Century, we were issued real box cutters that actually…. you know, cut things. The company has changed the standard issue cutter twice since then, including the contraption they give out now which wouldn’t slice hot butter let alone break the tape on a box. As a rebel, I’ve continued to use what works… but that means I also have to buy my own blades for it.
Also, the standard issue box cutter for Shelf Critter Theatre. Guaranteed to slice through a possum the first time…
Since I can use my credit card cash back there, I decided to give Amazon a whirl for my replacement blades this time. Since they have a warehouse literally the next town over from me, one of their drivers delivered threw them on my porch the next day! What a quality company!!!!
Errrrrr…. who packed this, a gorilla?
The box the blades came in was opened from THREE ends, and the packages of blades all spilled out everywhere. Nice. Good thing I didn’t order fine china or a live squirrel…
Ody’s annual shot appointment was this past Monday. The heifer now weighs 23 pounds…
And my arm is being crushed…
Someone is going to have their food rationed just a bit more and is already not very happy about that…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
If Amazon delivered live animals you’d be upset.
Yes, I heard about the tornado warnings up your way – glad they kept going away from you. We’ve had thunder snow here from time to time, with lightning! It’s really pretty when it flashes on the snow. 🙂
I’ve never actually seen the lightning when it snows, but I’ve heard the thunder before. It usually means we’re getting buried…
Omg. And I thought we had fat cats! That’s one well fed feline…
😉
And one that apparently needs a treadmill….. well, I need a treadmill too.
I have a treadmill. Dudley gives it a wide berth.
That is crazy with the package! Once, I was driving by as a FedEx worker was loading a truck. and they were actually picking up the boxes (stacked on the street) and throwing them (like an American football) all the way to the back of the truck, until they slammed into the rear wall and toppled down in a big box avalanche. If you forget what damage is happening to the packages, can you imagine the damage they are doing to their back? Ook!
Scenes like that don’t surprise me. I’ve heard of delivery drivers literally just throwing packages out of trucks and into yards like newspapers before. My box of blades sure seems to have met one of those fates!
Gosh – Ody and Teddy weigh about the same……heifer? I’d say baby elephant. I do think Teddy is HUGE but adorable and the only time it’s a problem is when I have to pick him up……I asked Santa for a small forklift so that should help.
Pam
I hear your local railroad plans on installing a crane to remove impediments from the tracks!
Alexa translated your 23lb into kg for me – holy cat!
They’d be pretty shit blades if they didn’t try to cut their way out of the packaging…
Well, I just hope those blades don’t make their way onto the Shelf’s black market. Things could end up a bloody mess…
On the plus side, your package actually arrived. UPS likes to play the game, “we tried but no cigar” and then send back what you’ve been waiting, for what seems like forever. 😬
Oh Ody…dude you gotta lay off the nip.
It arrived two days early! Which I guess is a good thing since that warehouse got taken out by the tornado, in a really weird bit of irony…
There’s something amiss with pets and their weight recently. Ziggy (who ought to be about 7 lbs) has ballooned up to 12 or more, and yep, he looks fat. My vet is not going to be pleased. I’m not either because this means I have to toughen up and ignore the adorable “Look at me! I did my trick for you. Now where’s my treat?” (he sits up, and waves his paws at me, whining very softly so I pay attention). Oh the horror of trying to ignore that sort of thing. He’s just so damned cute. But Ody is beautiful (handsome), and looks very very contented. You’re right. He’s not gonna like that..
Ody’s always been around 20 pounds, but 23’s a bit ridiculous. That extra weight’s come in handy, though, because both times he developed that acute kidney issue, he didn’t eat for a good week plus and went through most of his reserves…