Yellow House in the North Country: Heat

/ rachelgoes262 / 2 Comments

It’s the middle of July. We are currently in a heat dome and are drenched in wildfire smoke from Canada. Naturally, you would think this post would be about summer heat. It’s not. 

This post is about winter heat.

Before the furniture even moved into the new house back in September, I had someone out to service the furnace for winter. It was already getting down to freezing at night, and I turned the heat on low so that the pipes would not freeze. Our previous house had natural gas. The new house has oil.

To my surprise, the annual maintenance for an oil furnace not only took much longer than the annual maintenance for my natural gas furnace, but it was also a lot more expensive. I chalked it all up to a learning experience. When I purchased this house, I was told that the furnace was new within the past 5 years.

When touring the house, the furnace looked older than 5 years to me. However, I am unfamiliar with oil heat. From what I heard, oil runs “dirty.” I attributed the fact that the furnace looked older than 5 years to be due to the fact that it was an oil furnace running dirty that had not been serviced in a while.

 The furnace has issues. After that initial service call for annual maintenance in September, I then had a total of three emergency calls this winter for various issues. By chance, one of the techs who came out for pne of the emergency calls told me he had worked on this furnace for years. “Years?” I asked. “They told me this furnace was new within 5 years. The tech laughed. “It’s at least 25 years old.” He said.

Given that the furnace was having so many issues this past winter, I was thinking I need a new one. The last thing I needed was for that furnace to quit when we were buried under 6 feet of snow. No one would be able to get to it to take it out and replace it. Not to mention, we would be without heat.

If I was going to put in a new furnace, I decided I needed to convert from oil to propane. It is very, very hard to get house insurance with oil heat. It’s easier to get house insurance with propane heat. Natural gas is not available in the Adirondacks. We are “off grid.” 

I got an estimate for the conversion. I decided to move ahead with it. The HVAC company doing the conversion told me to run my oil tank out of oil prior to the conversion to make the oil tank easier to remove. It made sense to me. 

The oil furnace was really struggling even more so starting in March. Every day I wondered if it was going to die. It persisted.

Sometime in May, the furnace stopped working. Either I ran the tank out of oil, or the furnace died. I scheduled my conversion for July. The float on the oik tank said I still have ¼ tank of oil left. I’m pretty sure that float is not accurate. It had been on ¼ of a tank for several weeks. 

Once the furnace stopped, we did have some chilly nights. It was still getting down in the 40s at night. There was nothing that could be done. We just piled on extra blankets and waited for summer to come. 

The handyman who helps me said that he thought I should wait until the oil furnace “shit the bed” to convert to get as much use out of it as possible. While it made sense to me, I also did not want to be stuck without heat in winter when no one can get to it to repair or replace. 

I found out from the neighbor next door that the people who sold the house KNEW the furnace had issues. They had rigged a lamp to it. When the furnace quit, the lamp would glow red and the neighbor knew to call the kids for repair. The woman who owned this house died and her kids inherited it, so it sat empty for a year. They had it priced way too high. 

When they sold this house, they said that furnace was 5 years old. It was 25 years old and had issues. They knew it had issues because they had that lamp rigged to it so that the neighbor could call for service when it quit.

The conversion from oil to propane is currently on day two of a three-day process.

They took my oil furnace out on day one. I did not, in fact, run the oil tank out of oil. The oil furnace died. It legitimately “Shit the bed,” as the handyman suggested I wait for. Thankfully, it shit the bed in May instead of in January when we got 6 feet of snow over 5 days. 

What was wrong with the furnace? Well, it had a cracked converter. If you know anything about furnaces, you know that a cracked converter is a HUGE issue. First, a cracked converter is not something that can be fixed. It is the death punch to a furnace. Second, a cracked converter is not only a huge fire exposure but also a huge carbon monoxide hazard. We are SO, SO lucky we did not have either the smoke alarms, the carbon monoxide alarms, or both going off at any point this winter up until that thing died.

I truly think Angel Jude has been watching over us. The neighbors at the old house attempted to burn down our house in July 2025 and then pounded on the door every single night screaming “Fire!” I have major PTSD over anything fire related. If either the smoke alarms or the carbon monoxide alarms go off in this new house, I would have major meltdown. First, I would need to get all the cats out of the house. But I would have major meltdown.

I would not feel safe in our new house if one of those alarms had gone off because the furnace was dying. I am still trying to overcome the trauma of attempted arson from our old house last year. 

I am really glad I decided to move forward and schedule the conversion when I did.

The conversion Is challenging due to the layout of the house. The technicians are excellent. 

As I said, we are on day two of conversion right now. They are currently working.

On day three of conversion, our propane tanks will be delivered. The gas company will hook everything up, check all the lines for leaks, fire up the new furnace, and be sure we have heat. They will do al their safety inspections. Then the HVAC company will come back and do all their safety inspections once it has the propane to run. 

I have all brand-new carbon monoxide and smoke alarms installed in this new house too. 

Say a little prayer that all goes well. This is the largest home project I have ever done.

When we were in the old house, I had plans to do upgrades and projects there too. I did do some of the upgrades. I upgraded all the plumbing in that house. It had galvanized steel piping that was over 100 years old that I replaced. Other than that, I ended up spending almost $17,000 to repair intentional damage that the neighbors caused to that house. 

I didn’t get to do any more upgrades to the house I sold because I was constantly repairing damage that they had caused. No, I did not put in claims on my home insurance. I know better. If I had, I never would have been able to sell that house because there would have been an open lawsuit for intentional damage. Not to mention, anytime I made a report, their behavior escalated. If I had put claims on my house insurance for the damage they caused, we would not have been able to sell. We would not have been able to leave.

Paying $17,000 to repair the intentional damages they caused is part of the reason why I was only able to break even on that house. 

In our new home here in the North County, we are safe. No one is causing intentional damage to this house. That means that when I fix something, I am either taking care of maintenance or doing an upgrade. I can actually plan and dream in this house.

One thing I wanted to do in the old house and never got to do was to paint rooms. I have never painted a room in my life. I never got the chance in that house. I was constantly scrambling with harassment, damages, and injuries inflicted upon me by those neighbors.

In this new house, I want to paint a room. I have never done it before. 

The first room I paint will be one of the upstairs rooms. I don’t go upstairs much. That way if I don’t do a good job of it, I won’t have to see it every day. I want to have the experience of being able to do some things myself without having to try to hire and pay people.

If painting an upstairs room goes well, then I really want to paint one wall (an “accent” wall) in my bathroom. I am thinking either mint green or sage green.

Both rooms upstairs are dark colors. One is a dark brown! I want to paint it something light and brighten it up. That way it looks bigger too. 

I won’t do any painting projects until next year. I already have my hands full this year with the oil to propane conversion and plumbing and electric work I had to have done when we first moved in. 

Once our new furnace is up and going, I am done with house projects for 2026. I need to rest and save money. I will save the painting for 2027. 

That’s not entirely true. I think I may need to try to stain my deck this fall. We will see. 

For now, we are on day two of three for our oil to propane conversion. Please hold us in your thoughts that it all goes well and that we have heat with no problems this winter. 

I will say that this house is the warmest house I have ever lived in during the winter. I’m hoping we have good luck when we are on propane this year instead of on oil. I don’t want to have any service calls. I definitely don’t want any alarms going off. 

In the middle of a heat dome, we are making sure we will have heat for our second Noth Country winter. 

Furniture and Settling

/ rachelgoes262 / Leave a comment

Everyone rearranges their home differently. Furniture placement often depends on how the room is laid out. The placement of windows, doors and electrical outlets can dictate how you set up a room. For me specifically, I set mine up in a way that maximizes cat comfort. That means access to all windows and plenty of play space.

When we were in the apartment and later in the old house, I have always had my window AC unit in my bedroom. I need it to be able to sleep at night in the summer. The bedroom is also typically a smaller room that is easier to cool than the living room or other large rooms in the house. 

In the new house, room layout has made it so that my window AC unit cannot be in the bedroom (for multiple reasons). It must be in some other room. I narrowed down the options to one of two windows. One window in the sunroom and one window in the living room. The AC unit is in the living room.

A few weeks ago, when we were under the first heat dome of the summer, I was struggling to sleep because the AC unit is not in the bedroom. I have a fan in the bedroom, but it is not enough. I decided that I wanted to pull the bed out of the couch and sleep in the living room near the AC unit for a few nights.

The way my living room is currently set up for everyday use does not leave enough space to pull the bed out of the couch. I had to rearrange the furniture to be able to do that.

It sounds simple enough. Somehow, when I went to do it, rearranging furniture was not simple. It was simple to physically do, but not emotionally. 

You see, in the old house. My furniture placement was dictated by the neighbors. Yes, I know. It sounds crazy. But when the people across the street drive their truck into the front of your house, you seriously reconsider furniture placement.

When they drove the truck into the front of the old house, they drove up over the curb, over the sidewalk, into the bushes in front of the house, and into the front porch before stopping. I was woken up in the night by the crash. Luckily, I was sleeping in my bed in my bedroom. It was not a night when I had fallen asleep on the couch watching a movie. If that truck had come into the house any farther, it would have been in my living room. 

The sheriff officer who responded even mentioned that I might want to be careful using my living room because it would probably happen again. I emptied the entire living room. I rearranged all the furniture in my house in way that if they drove into the house again and came in further, we would be safe. I started actively discouraging the cats from being in that room. 

Anyone who came into my house thought the furniture was set up weird. That’s because the neighbors drove into the front of my house. The Sheriff told me to expect it to happen again. 

There was half a house I could not use at the old house due to neighbor issues. It wasn’t safe. In addition to the vehicles driving into the house, there was the gunfire and the deliberate aiming of fireworks at the house that all happened on the side of the house facing those bad neighbors. 

When I went back to the old house at the end of August 2025 with the moving truck to take everything out before the sale, the one neighbor across the street threatened the two men I had hired to load the truck for me. It was a nerve-wracking move. It was so nerve wracking that I completely forgot all the items in the garage and one item in the basement that I had wanted to take with me. Things were left behind (like all my snow shovels).

I was fortunate in that kind people helped with our Amazon wish list once we were in the new house and replaced some of the items that got left behind like the snow shovels. I did not intend to leave items behind. It’s just that we were trying to get everything out of that house as fast as possible before that neighbor escalated and there was gunfire or police involvement (not that they would have responded).

The men who loaded the truck held their ground with the threatening neighbor. They made sure I left first and they followed me. They did tell me after that they were close to calling the troopers due to his behavior but wanted to just get the truck loaded and out of there as quickly as possible.

In the new house, it has been hard to overcome that programming from the old house that I have to keep everything as contained as possible and cannot spread out in my own house for safety reasons. 

When I rearranged the furniture so I could pull the bed out of the couch, that was hard emotionally. In fact, I only slept on the couch one night. I did not sleep well. I was scared. I know we are safe here and that no one here will drive into the front of the house, but I was still scared.

The other challenge in all this is that I have not really used the garage or the basement in the new house due to the experience we had with moving. 

I do have some items in the garage. Part of the issue with the garage is that when I bought this house, there was a lot of stuff left in it from the previous owner. I have all that stuff piled in the garage. I am working with someone (a “junk” truck) to come and take all that stuff from the prior owner out of my garage. So, I do have things, like the lawnmower and the roof rake, that I want to put in the garage and are currently in my sunroom due to the fact there is no room in the garage to put them. 

Once all the stuff from the prior owner is gone, I have things I want to put in the garage. I will put them there.

The basement is a harder location for me to handle. So many times, when the neighbors at the old house were being abusive, the basement is where we had to hide. It was the safest place from the booming and from the bullets. 

Now that we are safe in the new house, I don’t want to go to the basement. I go down every morning to check the live mouse traps and that is it. 

Right before the heat dome started this summer, I did put a few things in the basement that needed to be kept cooler. I put the WD-40 and a few other items down there. So, I am finally using the basement in this house. There is one tote bin of items in the basement.

Obviously, it’s going to take time to settle into this house. I have a lot of traumas with the daily neighbor harassment, boom cars, and attempted arson that we lived through. We are grateful to finally live someplace safe where we are not being harassed daily. I can finally sleep through the night without someone pounding on my door at all hours of the night. 

Rearranging furniture is an issue I need to work though. I can arrange my furniture in any way I want. We can safely use this entire house. We no longer must live in fear of people driving their truck into the front of the house or of fireworks being deliberately shot at the house from directly in front of it. 

We are so grateful to now live in a house we can safely use. I just need to get used to the idea that I am safe to sleep in my living room if I want. 

June is Pet Preparedness Month

/ rachelgoes262 / Leave a comment

June is Pet Emergency Preparedness Month. If you have pets, you need to be sure that they are included in your emergency plan. Do not leave them behind. Be sure you have supplies for your pets for an emergency. Everyone should be carrier trained. 

As you may know if you follow my cats on social media, Simon was the most difficult to carrier train. When we were at the old house and a tornado stopped a mile and a half from the house, he was the only cat I could not get to the basement in time. He hid in the cupboard under the kitchen sink. He was right above the basement, but I was very worried. 

Since that tornado, I focused specifically on carrier training Simon. 

When Jude was alive, he was carrier trained. He was the first one to be carrier trained. With Jude, it was easy. He was very food motivated. I started carrier training Jude when Kitty was alive. Kitty was a senior (he passed from cancer at age 19) and ate slowly. Jude would try to steal Kitty’s food. So, I started putting Jude’s food dish in his carrier at mealtimes. He went right inside. I closed the door. I let him out once Kitty was done eating so he could not steal Kitty’s food. When Jude, wanted food, he went in his carrier. 

Jude also enjoyed touring the basement at the old house. If I opened the basement door, he would go down with me. So it was easy to get Jude in the basement for a tornado. It was easy to get Jude in a carrier if we needed to leave the house. 

Jolene was also easy. Jolene is glued to me. She follows me everywhere. She has separation anxiety when I am out of the house. That’s a story for another day. But Jolene would follow me to the basement. If I walk to her carrier, she follows me. I just pick her up and put her right in. 

Simon was the most difficult to train. When I trapped Flower, I made sure that I carrier trained her also. Flower was trained in a different way than Simon. Flower was easier to train. 

Many people have asked me how I managed to train Simon and Flower, so I will share that here. Keep in mind, that while this worked for Simon and Flower, it may not work with your cat. This is just my experience. 

Starting with Simon, let me first say that consistency is key. You literally need to practice every single day. It can take months. Since we have been in the new house, I have not been practicing with Simon, and you can tell. I have not been practicing with them because I have been trying to give them all time to decompress from the trauma we experienced with the repeated neighbor attacks and physical injuries. We lived the emergency. Now we are trying to recover from it. 

The one thing I do with all my cats is that I leave all the carriers out all of the time. This way the carriers are familiar objects in their environment. They are not scary. They do not associate them solely with vet visits. There is a comfortable blanket inside the carrier and one on top. They can go in and out of them at will. They can sit on top. They think of the carriers as part of their play space. 

If you have multiple cats, you may not have space to leave all the carriers out all the time especially if you have children and a family. In this case, leave out just one. We are fortunate that we have the space, so each cat’s carrier is out all the time. 

The cat carriers are always in the same space. They are in their feeding area. They eat in front of their carrier. This helps them become familiar with the carrier and associate it with something positive (food).

Simon is timid and shy. For him, the carrier is a scary place, even if it is a permanent fixture in his environment. For Simon, I started with the lid and door off the carrier. The only part of his carrier that was out was the bottom part. 

For a few weeks, Simon would eat his food in front of the carrier with the lid off. He was comfortable. I gradually started putting the dish closer to the carrier. Eventually, I put his food dish inside the carrier (all of this is with lid off). I went at Simon’s pace. Sometimes it was one step forward and two steps back. If I put the food dish inside the carrier and he acted scared, would not approach his food dish or enter the carrier bottom, then I took the food dish back out and put it just outside the carrier again.

This was all at Simon’s pace. Of course, it took weeks and months. You need to be consistent. It takes a lot of patience. 

Going at Simon’s pace, he finally got to the point where he was comfortable with having at least half of his body inside the bottom part of the cat carrier eating his food. I just kept putting the dish a little closer to the back part to get him to go inside. Again, this is all with the lid off.

When he finally got to the point where eating inside the bottom part of the carrier with the lid off was routine, I put the lid back on. I left the door off. Lid on, door off. This was again one step forward, two steps back.

With the lid on and the door off, I started at the beginning. I had to. Putting the lid on was scary for him. We started with eating right in front of the carrier. Slowly putting the dish closer to the carrier. Putting the dish just inside the carrier. Exact same process until he finally got to the point where his body was at least halfway in the carrier to eat. 

Once he was comfortable eating in the carrier with the lid on, I put the door back on. Repeat process. Putting the door back on was the most challenging part, but we got there. 

Once he became comfortable eating inside the carrier fully assembled, then I started closing the door behind him. Just for a little bit. Then opened to let him out. It was only for very small periods of time so he did not get stressed.

You gradually increase the time until you get to a point where he is comfortable enough in there that you can pick up the carrier with him inside and set it back down a few feet away. Let him out of the carrier. This helps him to learn that it is ok to be inside with the door closed, it is ok for someone to pick it up and move you. The door will open again, and he came right back out. We went on small “trips” from one end of the room to the other. 

Months of training paid off. The last tornado warning we had at the old house, I was able to get Simon into his carrier and take him to the basement. 

I went to the food cupboard for treats. Put the treats inside the carrier. He went inside for the treats. I shut the door and carried him to the basement. It worked.

In the new house, we have not been practicing since we are all decompressing from the abusive neighbors at the old house. However, he does still eat every meal in front of his carrier, so it is not a scary place. Sometimes he does go in there voluntarily and lays down and takes a nap. 

Carrier training them was very helpful when we had to leave the old house for the Drive to Freedom and then spent several weeks in temporary safe housing. Simon knew that his carrier was an ok place. He was not scared. 

Training Flower was different than training Simon. With Flower, I had been using treats as rewards for socialization. I would make a trail of treats to try to get her out of her safe area to come to me to interact. If she appeared for pets, she got treats. I also started using the treats to train Flower in baby sign language to give her something to do to stimulate her brain. Flower has physical disabilities so she cannot play a lot. She needed something to keep her active and interested. 

Using baby sign language and treats, Flower learned the sign for in. She learned if she went inside the carrier when I made the sign, she got treats. 

As Flower progressed in her socialization and comfort level in her home, I was trying to get her to go downstairs to be with the rest of the family in our living space instead of being by herself upstairs. 

In the mornings, I would sign in for Flower to go in her carrier. I carried her in her carrier downstairs, and she had breakfast inside her carrier with the rest of the family. Then I took her back upstairs to her safe place. Flower eventually learned that if she went into her carrier, the “magic box” would take her downstairs (or upstairs if she was already down). She learned if she went inside, she would get food. 

Flower learned to associate the carrier with positive things. As Flower has progressed with handling, I can now just pick her up and put her right in the carrier. She does not struggle or protest. It’s honestly easier to just pick her up and put her in there in the new house. She is now fine with all handling.

Even though she is carrier trained, Flower no longer goes near her carrier in the new house. In the new house, the entire first floor of this house is her territory. Her world is a lot bigger here than it was in the old house when she pretty much did a little loop between her cat bed, carrier and cat pan. 

A few times when Flower is out and about and near her carrier, I have done the sign for in. Flower sees the sign, has gone in the carrier, and get treats for remembering what to do. 

However you do it, carrier training your pets is important in case there is an emergency. Include your pets in your emergency plans. Do not leave them behind. They will not survive without you. They rely on you for so much. 

One Bear

/ rachelgoes262 / 1 Comment

When the neighbors at the old house started with their daily harassment and attacks that resulted in physical injuries to myself and the cats, I was scared. As we all know, the police did nothing. Everything was my fault because I “don’t know how to take a joke.”

Due to my fear, I sought solace in false security. I felt trapped. I was not safe in my own home. Often, I could not even leave my home because I was physically prevented from leaving by the neighbors. 

The false security I found was in stuffies. Specifically, squishmallows. To be honest, I am not quite sure how many squishmallows I had. I did get rid of a bunch as part of downsizing for the move. 

For the Ride to Freedom when we left the old house for temporary safe housing, I took one squishmallow with me for comfort. It was one of only two sentimental items I took on that initial trip that was not an essential item. 

The squishmallow I chose to take to the temporary safe housing was my pineapple. When I first bought that house in the Village of Evil, I had decorated the house with a pineapple theme because pineapples have the meaning of welcome. When I moved to the Village of Evil, I was an active participant in the community. I started the book club at the library. I had submitted a business plan to start a small business on Main St. Of course, that all stopped when the neighbor harassment started.  

Now that we are very safe in our new home, I see that I moved a total of 5 squishmallows with me. This house is very small. It is half the size of our old house. There is not any room for clutter. Five stuffed animals for one person is ridiculous. I am only counting stuffed animals solely for me. I am not counting the little lamb chops that the cats have and like to snuggle with. I’m not counting the beanie babies the girls have (they each have one) or the giant stuffed mouse that Jolene takes all over the house. 

As much as I like the squishmallows, I decided they need to leave. They are clutter I don’t need in a small house. They have bad memories attached to them. I was using them for false security when I was terrified in my own house because the neighbors at the old house threatened my life and attempted to burn the house down. 

I will be donating all five squishmallows I have in this house. May they bring some child joy and happy memories. They served their purpose. That pineapple was a comfort when we were in temporary safe housing. It was something that helped life feel normal in the chaos. 

Now that we are living in a very safe place, I don’t need false security. We have real security and it is priceless. 

However, I did decide that I want a comfort item. I thought about keeping just one of the squishmallows and getting rid of the other four so that would reduce the clutter and the bad memories. However, I realized that whichever one I kept would still have those memories and that I wanted something new. I wanted a teddy bear. 

I was just going to try to find a teddy bear for $5 or $10 at the store. However, many teddy bears today either have ribbons or bows or wear clothes. I am very particular about teddy bears. I like them to be naked. That is probably why I was so drawn to squishmallows. They are soft stuffies who do not have bows or clothes attached to them. 

Somehow, on the internet, I happened to see a Bartholomew bear and started doing some research on it. They are very popular. They are naked. They are soft. 

I hesitated for a long time due to the expense. Those bears are very expensive. But the more I looked … it is very hard to find a naked teddy bear that was soft. People on the internet rave about the Bartholomew bears. They have some sort of following. 

So I decided to spring for the medium size bear. 

I do not like the name Bartholomew, maybe because of the association with Bart Simpson. I don’t know. I just don’t like the name. 

My bear’s name is Mabel.

Here are my thoughts on this one bear that now graces my life as my sole stuffie for a comfort item.

First, it took forever to arrive. I thought it would take 3-5 days like most things I ordered. No. It took almost 3 weeks to get here. Honestly, by the time it arrived, I felt like I was over it. I wasn’t excited any more. I’m like, oh, the bear is here. 

Upon opening the package, I see the damn thing came from London. No wonder it took so long to get here! It came from another country! I thought when I was on the web site, it said USA. I had no idea. I guess I need to be more careful when I am shopping online. Luckily, this item is a legitimate purchase from a reputable company. 

Second, when I opened the package, the bear was much smaller than I thought it would be for the price. I guess I didn’t understand the measurements and the sizing very well. I purchased medium size because it seemed affordable for what they were selling. 

Now that Mabel has been here a few days, I can tell you I am delighted with my bear. My thoughts were unfounded. Yes, the bear is smaller than I expected, but it is the perfect size for my needs. In fact, I am impressed with its size. It meets my needs and is small enough that it would be very easy to pack in a backpack if I decided to take it someplace with me. This bear is much easier to transport than moving with 5 squishmallows that took up a large trash bag. 

When I slept with Mabel, I found she is the perfect size to cuddle. She is not too small. She is very soft. I am also impressed that when I hug the bear, her arm drapes over mine like she is hugging me back. She stays put in bed with me. She is not big and rolly like a squishmallow that would either roll out of bed or not leave enough room for the cats.  She does not take up a lot of space like a squishmallow. Last night I had all 3 cats and the bear in bed with me, and everyone was comfortable. 

I am very pleased with the choice to have Mabel the Bear as my one comfort item moving forward. If I do travel in the future, she will be much easier to take with me than a squishmallow. 

In the new house, we have real security. We are safe here. It is a relief. I am so happy. The cats are happy. But occasionally, you want a comfort item. Whether it’s’ bad news or a bad day, sometimes you just want something soft. Yes, I have the cats. But they are all living beings with minds of their own. Sometimes they don’t want to cuddle when I want to cuddle. 

I am very happy with Mabel as my one bear, sole stuffie and comfort item. 

Do you have a comfort item? How many comfort items? Any other Bartholomew Bear fans out there want to share their thoughts on the medium bear? 

Happy 10th Birthday, Simon!

/ rachelgoes262 / 3 Comments

Today, May 16, the baby turns 10! Even though he is now in double digits, Simon will always be the baby. He is the definition of innocence.

Simon may be the youngest cat in this house, but he is the one who has been with me the longest. Simon was only age 1.5 when he was adopted. I had said I could not handle kittens again and wanted an older cat. But Simon’s disposition is so sweet, I adopted him even though he was younger than what I was looking for. His personality has been a perfect fit. 

Simon was with Jude for a very long time until Jude passed away last year. They were very strongly bonded. For 5 years, I had a bonded trio of Jude, Simon and Jolene. With Jude gone, Simon is most closely bonded with Jolene. 

Simon tries to interact with Flower, but Flower only tolerates him. Simon is our Chief Cuddler. Everyone who meets Simon falls in love. He is the sweetest, most loving cat. He is perfectly behaved at the vet office.

Every night, Simon sleeps in the bed with me next to my pillow. If I need to get up in the night to go to the bathroom, he follows me there and back to bed to be sure I am ok. 

With Jude’s passing, Simon is now the only boy in the house with the two girls. For me, it’s so strange to just have one boy. I had four boys before Jolene, who was my first girl. Of the six cats that have chosen me to be their person, I have had four boys and two girls. 

In the new house, Simon is very alert to mice and will meow if there is a mouse in the live trap in the basement. His favorite toys are the toy mice. He likes to pick them up by the tail and fling them around. I’m glad he has not had the chance to try that with a real mouse! 

His confidence has grown in the new house now that we are safe away from the neighbors that were harassing us daily. Simon likes to patrol the house and be sure everything is safe. He enjoys his Hedgewatch out the windows looking at birds and bunnies. 

He enjoys hanging out in cat tents and running up and down the stairs. Simon frequently plays with Jolene. They are both strongly bonded and groom each other often. 

No matter how old he gets, Simon will always be my baby. He has been with me longer than both girls. He was so young when he was adopted. His personality has a perfect fit with Jude and then with Jolene. Simon is not discouraged in trying to win over Flower. He still tries to engage her. 

A frequent phrase in our home is “Simon is a good baby.” It is very true. Simon is the picture of pure innocence. 

Happy Birthday, Simon! We love you! 

Happy Sweet 16, Flower!

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Today Flower turns 16! (We think.) Her age is based off what the vet thinks based on her health and physical condition. From what I know of Flower’s background, I knew when I trapped her that she was at least 10 years old. The vet used the condition of her teeth and eyes to estimate her age.

As you all know, Flower was with me last year for her 15th birthday. The fact that she has made it another year to have another birthday is a pleasant surprise. Based on what her physical condition was like when she was trapped in November 2024, I have been treating her as a hospice case (rightfully so, based on her medical).

I did not think Flower would make it to the end of 2025. The time we have now is miracle bonus time. Little did I know that Jude would be the one we would lose in 2025.

Flower has good days and bad days. Right now, she still has more good days than bad. I know that at some point that dynamic will change. For now, I am honored that she has chosen me as “her human” to care for her in her retirement. 

In addition to the multiple broken bones Flower experienced from the dog fighting ring, she has arthritis, kidney disease, and is going blind. Every day is a struggle to get her to eat. I have to offer food almost every hour. 

Despite her physical challenges, I know that Flower is happy and it is not yet her time to go. Flower embarks on her “Tour de Agua” every morning. It’s kind of like the Tour de France, except Flower does a circuit around the house stopping at all four water stations. This cat does not pass a water bowl without having a drink. 

Flower is extremely intelligent and still engages in baby sign language and story time. She chirps and looks for me at certain times of day.

Since moving into the new house, safely away from the daily harassment and physical injuries we experienced from the neighbors at the old house, Flower has started to play. 

Flower started to play once we were in temporary safe housing. I didn’t think with her disabilities that she would play, but she does. Flower likes to rub herself on toys. Her favorite toy is the catnip banana. She also likes the rainbows and the fish made by the same company as the catnip banana. Flower will lay down and rub all over the toys. 

On her medication, she can do two pet steps to look out the window. Flower enjoys looking at birds, squirrels and bunnies. Flower now has a ramp at the new house that she can use to access my bed. My bed is now her “home base.” It is where she spends most of her time. She moves throughout the day to be in a sun puddle.

Flower still uses her warming mats and heat disc for extra heat for her arthritis. She wears a cape that was specially made for her with her arthritis to keep her warmer on her morning Tour de Aqua. It is like a small sweater without sleeves, so I do not have to manipulate her arthritic arms. 

In the new house, Flower has slowly become more tolerant of Simon and Jolene. She does not hiss at them much anymore. She does not engage with them, but she no longer hisses and growls at them. If she thinks they are in her path where she wants to go, she does the “Flower stomp,” an aggressive stomping motion to intimidate them to get them to move.

Simon still tries to play with Flower. Flower just runs away.

One significant point of progress, for those of you familiar with human development, is that Flower now engages in parallel play with Simon. This puts her at about toddler stage of development. She is comfortable being on the rug playing with a toy, while Simon is a few feet away on the same rug playing with his own toy. 

While Flower may not interact with Simon and Jolene, parallel play is a significant breakthrough. 

Flower is also more tolerant of Jolene now. When Jolene gets scared, she hides in the bed, which is now Flower’s territory. Flower does not seem to mind, if Jolene does not get too close to her. 

Last week, for the first time, I had all three cats in the bed with me. Flower was on one side and Jolene and Simon were on the other side. Flower was okay with this. She even walked around and kind of over Simon and Jolene to get to her ramp so she could get water and use the cat pan. Flower was also okay with returning to the bed with Simon and Jolene already in it. This is significant progress.

It seems to be more that Flower accepts Simon and Jolene are here and kind of ignores them. The one who had really won Flower over was Jude. I think if anyone stood a chance to get Flower to interact more with another cat, it would have been Jude. 

April 9 is Flower Day in Honor of Flower’s Birthday. To celebrate Flower Day, the ask is that you do an Act of Kindness. Flower experienced so much evil in her life. We want to combat that evil with good. If you would like to celebrate Flower’s birthday and honor this extraordinary cat, please consider doing an Act of Kindness.

Flower has been on this blog intermittently over the past 8 years for you to follow her story and everything she has been through.

Despite her rough life, Flower is very loving with me. She purrs. She licks me. She loves to be pet. She lives chin scritches. She is very calm at the vet office and allows all handling. I always tell Flower she is “grace under pressure.” Her demeanor is so calm. 

I don’t know if Flower will make it to 17 with her medical issues. I try to treat every day with Flower as a gift. I don’t know when she will take a turn for the worse or when her bad days will start to outnumber the good. I’m just trying to give her the best, most comfortable life I can until then.

Happy sweet 16, Flower! We love you! 

This little cat has been through so much. Please consider doing an Act of Kindness for Flower Day on April 9. 

Greatest Hits: Act 2

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At some point in my minimalist journey, I got to the point of minimizing photos. I would not recommend such a sentimental category for a novice minimalist. This is a group to save for towards the end of your decluttering journey. 

I decided to carefully curate an album of 200 photographs that I call my “Greatest Hits” album. These are my best and happiest memories from my life. At the time, my thinking was that if I am in a nursing home or some sort of care facility at the end of my life, I would enjoy having this one photo album of all my precious memories.

My Greatest Hits album has so far been an excellent idea. Sometimes it’s nice to look at when I am feeling down. I no longer worry about printing photos or deleting photos. I know I have the very best of my collection in my Greatest Hits album. 

Now, with the Act 2 in this title, I am in no way about to go all maximalist and start a second Greatest Hits photo album. I do not need an additional 200 photos (for a total of 400) to tell my life story. That is not what Act 2 means. 

When I curated the Greatest Hits album, I had bought my first house. After a history of childhood (and adult) homelessness, I never thought I would be a homeowner. Purchasing my first home was such a relief. I remember saying, “we will never be homeless again.” I felt settled. I had all this in mind when I curated my Greatest Hits album. I had thought that the best of my life was behind me. I was biding time.

I had no way of knowing what was in store for me with the daily neighbor harassment and abuse that caused us to flee that house and relocate to the opposite side of the state for safety. 

However, that is what happened. We sold the house in the Village of Horrors, and I bought a different house. Never in my life would I have ever thought I would be able to sell and house and purchase a new one. It’s honestly not an experience I ever want to go through again. Although, the entire move was exacerbated by our physical injuries and the threats from the neighbors. 

This is where my Act 2 comes in. I feel like we have a new lease on life. It’s a kind of awakening being in a brand-new place trying to find your footing. 

Sitting in our new house now that we are safe from neighbor abuse, I was looking at the Greatest Hits album and realized three things:

  1. Flower was not in the Greatest Hits album. Flower is a family member. There are five cats that I rescued from the dog fighting ring who were not in there. They needed to be remembered too.
  2. I did not want anything in the Greatest Hits album from the House of Horrors that I had to sell to get away from the abusive neighbors. That chapter of life was so traumatizing and evil. I don’t want any reminders.
  3. Life isn’t over. We still have Greatest Hits happening and things to come. I’m not stagnant anymore because I am no longer paralyzed by abuse. I’m no longer physically blocked from leaving my home and prevented from living my life. We still have another decade ahead of us.

Put together, all of this means I needed to curate my Greatest Hits album to include my Act 2. What this looks like:

  1. Previously, each cat (Kitty, Kip, Jude, Simon, and Jolene) had 20 photos each. Now, each cat has 16 photos each, and Flower is included. For the cats I rescued from the dog fighting ring, they have a little folder with photos of each of them. They are not in the Greatest Hits album, but their small folder is beside the Greatest Hits album. So yes, I guess I did expand beyond the 200 photos a little. 
  2. When I curated the photos, I looked for any photos taken in the House of Horrors and tried to replace it with a photo from somewhere else. I could not do that with all of them. Jude never made it to the new house. But I tried to make sure that there are only the very best photos of Jude, and the focus is obviously on him and not the fact he was in the House of Horrors (the same for Simon and Jolene).  I do have photos of Jude and Simon in the apartment before we moved into the House of Horrors that helped too.
  3. I had to add photos of Radar and the new house. We still have a lot of new things to see, so it’s possible the Greatest Hits album will need to be curated again sometime.

While I did not go all maximalist and add an entire second album of 200 photos, there is a small envelope of about 10 photos of the 5 cats I saved from the dog fighting ring that can be tucked into the Greatest Hits album. Four of the five were adopted into loving homes. One had to be euthanized from their injuries. They all need to be remembered. 

All this made me realize that the Greatest Hits album is not some stagnant thing. It’s a living documentary of the best times of our lives, and we are still adding to it. We may only have another decade together, but I am hoping for the sweetest decade to come. 

If you are interested, the photo on the cover of our Greatest Hits album is Fenway Park. Fenway Park is one of my two most favorite places in the entire country. I’ve always said that “Heaven looks like Fenway Park.” This is especially true when Fenway is at sunset. The view is downright stunning.

Of my six cats deceased and living, the first cat who passed away was Kip. Kip used to love to cuddle me when watching baseball. The last baseball we watched together before he passed was the 2013 World Series. It was the first time in 95 years that the Red Sox won a World Series at home. The prior World Series wins were done on the road. 

It was a magical time, and Kip was starting to go downhill when we watched it. I remember telling him that “Heaven looks like Fenway Park,” and I truly believe that it does for him. 

So, the cover photo of our Greatest Hits album is Fenway Park. When we are all done and our stories are over, that’s where we will be. 

It’s not over yet. We are still living and getting new photos for our Greatest Hits album. This is Act 2. 

Riding Around the Sun

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It’s that time. I have made another trip around the sun. Birthdays are my favorite holiday. Every time I get one, it’s like a giant middle finger to the world that I was able to survive another year of what life threw at me. I don’t understand why people dislike birthdays. When you stop having them, that’s the problem. It’s not the dates on the stone. It’s that dash in between the dates that matters.

This past year was the worst of my life. I feel lucky to have another birthday. At the old house, I survived the crazed neighbors trying to burn the house down while we were in it, the gunfire that started in June 2025, and the daily harassment. We were able to escape and move several hours away to a safe place. 

It’s hard to sell a house in a neighborhood that bad. Several potential buyers put in complaints to the real estate agents without putting in offers. I had people who offered to buy the house and backed out when they witnessed some of the criminal behavior the neighbors were engaging in when they did their drive-byes of the home. 

What makes my heart ache the most is Jude passing away. He didn’t make it to the new house. He died in that house of horror neighbors. 

Recovery from an abuse situation that horrific is long and challenging. I still have physical injuries from which I am recovering. There is the mental recovery too. After being held at gunpoint, having gunfire right outside my house, and the constant pounding of boom cars, I’m very jumpy now. 

I love being able to sleep through the night now that I do not have people pounding on my door at all hours of the night screaming “Fire!” when there is no fire. When I was growing up, it was illegal to do something like that in a movie theatre. However, if you do that to someone’s house in the middle of the night daily for almost two months, it’s perfectly legal. 

But to get back to the positives of my trip around the sun. All that abuse with those horrible neighbors is behind me. What is ahead of me?

Well, we moved close to one of my two favorite places in the USA. I’m looking forward to spring and summer. Winter has been long and hard. 

As ever, my goal is to outlive the cats so I can keep them together. Jolene and Simon are very closely bonded. Flower seems to have chosen me as her human. My biggest goal and my greatest gift in life is in taking care of them until it’s time for them to naturally pass. 

Simon is the youngest. He will be turning 10 in May. So being optimistic, I figure I need to ty to stay alive for another decade to be able to outlive them. Then, I can do my patriotic duty and go to the euthanasia clinic that I was continuously being pressured to do where we used to live. 

I’m going to just try to enjoy the next decade with the cats and learn our new area. Other than the cats, my goals for live are to live peacefully and try to spread kindness where I can. 

In 2026, I have been trying to do one act of kindness per month. This is something I used to do but completely stopped when the neighbor abuse started because I was so overwhelmed with the daily harassment. So far, I purchased a new book from the library wish list, put $20 towards someone’s grocery bill behind me in line, and have some donations ready for our local animal shelter.

The world really sucks right now. We are all suffering. I figure we might as well try to help in small ways that we can. 

We had a lot of help in getting out of that old house and away from those horrid neighbors. I will be forever grateful for the help we had. It’s the least I can do to try to pay it forward with kindness. 

I’m hoping my next ride around the sun is much more peaceful that the last. If 2025 was the worst year of my life, hopefully 2026 will be better. 

The cats and I are together and that is all that matters. We are finally safe. We are no longer being physically attacked, injured, and harassed daily. 

I’m still here. I’m riding around the sun. I’m grateful to be alive. 

Yellow House in the North Country: Sand and Snow

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We had about two months in our new house before the snow started. Moving was a whirlwind. This is the biggest move I have made since the 90s. It was made under extreme duress. I was trying to walk after work in the evening to get my bearings learning our new neighborhood and area. On these walks, I noticed a lot of sand.

I didn’t think anything about the sand. I have lived in various places throughout the country. Different parts of this country have different kinds of dirt. When I was in Virigina, the dirt was red clay. On Cape Cod, we had sand. When we were on the New York – Pennsylvania border, the dirt down there was brown – traditional dirt you think of like mud.

Seeing sand, I just figured that was the type of dirt up here. The sand here is different than the sand on the Cape. The sand on the Cape is lighter in color – more tan. The sand here is darker in color – more brown. I just figured that the lighter sand was beach sand and the darker sand was mountain sand. 

No matter what color of sand, it still tracks in the house. I was constantly sweeping the floors before the snow came. 

Now that we are four months into our first North Country winter, I know the sand is not the natural dirt up here. Sand is used on the roads in the winter. 

Our snow total thus far is 22 feet. Our biggest storm dumped 4 feet, followed by another 2 feet two days later. Who knows how much sand has been used on the roads. But there is enough of it being used every winter that it makes it seem like the dirt up here is sand, no matter the time of year. The sand doesn’t ever leave. It just sits as another layer on roads, yards and driveways. 

The snow will melt (eventually), but the sand remains. 

We have a brief warm up this week. We will be reaching the 30s for the first time since November. This is also the first time we have gone more than 48 hours without a winter storm warning for 6-7 inches (or more). 

It is now February. I will admit, I am getting some cabin fever. It has been a long, stressful winter. There were medical appointments that had been scheduled for December that I have had to push to spring due to the weather. 

For the past three months, it has been a challenge to get around. I have struggled to even get my mail from the post office. 

Two weeks ago, I was finally able to get to my preferred grocery store for supplies. It was the first time since late October / early November due to the weather. The location of my preferred store gets hit worse with snow. 

Now that we are more acclimated up here, I have three grocery stores I use depending on the weather. 

The first is my preferred store. My preferred store offers pickup and has all my allergy friendly specialty items for my multiple food allergies. Unfortunately, this store is in an area that tends to be the hardest hit with snow and is the furthest drive for me. 

My secondary store is closer.  The challenge is that I must go in person. While they have some allergy friendly items, they do not have a lot of them. It’s just hard on me physically to do all the shopping in person, especially when I shop for several weeks and the cart is completely full when I go to check out.

My third store is my Hail Mary. It’s the local market, which is close. It’s near the post office and the library. The local market does not have any of my specialty items. It does have basics. For the local market, it works best for me to get about two bags of groceries. I went in an emergency when the roads were too bad for me to get anywhere else. 

A priority I had when we first moved into the house was restocking our emergency supplies, since we used our emergency supplies for the move. Not only did I restock the emergency supplies, but I increased our normal emergency supply by about 50% to try to take in account how much more severe the winters are up here compared to what I am used to. It was a good estimate. 

Many times this winter, I have just done what I call the post office loop because the car needs to be driven. I can’t let the car sit too long. I must get it out and drive it. I drive to the post office because I need to check my mail. The library and local market are nearby. If I can make it to the post office, I do a little loop between the post office and home. I repeat it a few times because the car needs to be driven. That way the car gets out even though either the visibility or the roads (or both) are too poor to really go anywhere. 

Winter is not over. We are only halfway through February and still have all of March to get through. We are doing ok though. 

We are surrounded by snow. Once the snow is gone, we will be left with the sand. Let’s hope for a slow thaw so that melting snow does not flood. 

Streaking 2026

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Get your mind out of the gutter. Admit it. You saw this title and you immediately thought “naked.” This post doesn’t have anything to do with being naked. Streaking is a running term.

For over 20 years now, I have kept track of my annual mileage running. As a semi-professional athlete who made it once to the Olympic Trials, training logs are important. They offer insights into what worked and what didn’t. You notice patterns. They help you to tweak your training in the future to be able to improve. 

Over the years, my mileage has ebbed and flowed. It all depends on what is going on in my life and for what I am training. For a long time, my lowest mileage year was 2016. That was the year I ended up in the hospital with what looked like stroke symptoms. It took a long time to recover from the physical challenges I had that year. 

That said, 2025 is now my lowest mileage year. In fact, 2025 was so low mileage, it makes 2016 look like a marathon year (which it most definitely was not). Why was my 2025 mileage so low?

The neighbor abuse. I was repeatedly injured by the neighbors on purpose. I was harassed daily. Any time I left the house, I was chased by people on bicycles, had rocks thrown at me, and even had vehicles attempt to run me over a few times. It was not safe for me to go outside. That is not counting the active gunfire that started in the neighborhood in June of 2025 or the attempted arson that started in July. 

Trying to walk inside in 2025 while we were living at the old house was not an option either. My activities were frequently interrupted by their behavior and harassment. There were many times we had to hide in the basement for safety, and even then, the house visibly shook around us. 

In 2025, my health took a huge hit. In addition to not being allowed to run or live my life, I was attacked and physically injured by the neighbor’s multiple times. From July until when we left in August, they pounded on the door every single night at random times screaming “fire!” to interrupt our sleep and torment us. This was after their very real attempt to burn down the house in July that resulted in leaves on the tree in front smoking. 

On top of all this, I am battling health issues not related to the abuse we experienced. The doctor last spring told me he thought I had cancer. Everything is exacerbated by the abuse we were experiencing. It didn’t help that I was being physically prevented from leaving the house to seek medical care.

We were forced to move to a different part of the state for our safety. Now that we are in a safe place where I can leave when I need, I am getting the medical care I need. I am improving very, very slowly. There are still some major issues as the result of the physical injuries the old neighbors inflicted on me. But things are moving in a positive direction.

So where does streaking come into play? 

The fact that I was physically prevented from running and leaving the old house had a negative impact on my health. As part of my journey to get my health back, I have decided to start streaking for 2026. 

Streaking is a running term that means continuous days of running. Some runners are just streakers. They will do a mile a day, 3 miles a day, whatever is in their personal wheelhouse.

I have never been able to be a streaker due to overuse injuries. I have always needed at least a day off between runs. I can run every other day, but not every single day.

So, how am I streaking now?

I’m walking. I’m not running. 

Walking is not as strenuous, so I have been ok to streak with walking but not with running.

The doctor is very concerned about me being able to run as a direct result of the physical injuries I have from the old neighbors. However, they are ok with me running and are also encouraging it, for multiple health reasons. 

Of course, my goal is to be able to run again. I was only doing 3 miles a few times a week in my retirement. I don’t need to go far anymore. I just need to go.

Those neighbors at the old house took many things from me, including my ability to run. It is going to be a long road to get things back they took from me. There are things they took from me that I will never get back. Some injuries are permanent. 

So, I am streaking though 2026 with walking. How does it work?

I am walking for 30 minutes a day. I am typically walking about a mile in those 30 minutes. Due to the several feet of snow we have, I am walking inside my house right now. I spend 15 minutes walking upstairs and then 15 minutes walking downstairs. I even found a special “walking” radio station to listen to while I walk. 

I am protecting this 30 minute walk each day as “me” time for both my physical health as well as my mental health. After what we lived through, I deserve 30 minutes a day just for me.

The 30-minute walk is helping a lot with my mood. I’m a lot happier when I’m walking. Of course, I would love to run, but I am not physically able to do that yet. It will come. It’s 30 minutes a day I get to have fun. I have some of my best ideas when I am running/walking. I am able to work through a lot mentally. 

Physically, the walking is helping me to get stronger. There are many physical health benefits of walking from blood flow to musculoskeletal. After all, if you don’t use it, you lose it. 

Some days I don’t feel like walking. I am still forcing myself to do the 30 minutes. I always feel better afterwards. You just have to start. Don’t let things get you down. I am not going to improve if I do not put in the work. 

On the days I don’t feel like walking, I tell myself to just do the first 15-minute segment. After that first 15-minute segment, I always feel so good that I do the second 15-minute segment to complete the 30 minute walk. 

We are only halfway through January. If I cannot streak through 2026, I won’t beat myself up over it. I am fully aware that life happens and I may miss days this year. 

For now, I am protecting that 30 minutes a day as time that I need to recover from the abuse we experienced. I am doing my best to streak through 2026. As soon as the snow and ice are gone, I will be spending my 30 minutes outside. 

For now, I am spending my 30 minutes walking inside my house. I am not bored. I look forward to my walk time each day. 

Have you tried streaking? You don’t need to streak for a year like I am attempting. Some people will try for one week or for 30 days. You can customize your streak to you. I am doing 30 minutes, but you may do 15 minutes for a week. Try it out and see how you feel. 

Here’s to streaking 2026. No nakedness involved.