Last week was our big amusement-park trip for the year (we figure). It was also a week of heavy storms rolling through the midwest, which would shape each of our days except the first and last. I will tell of this in time.
But the storms rolled through mid-Michigan, too, and hit our home. I saw on the Motor City Furry Con Telegram group folks sharing weather updates as we sat hundreds of miles away from it. (At one point someone posted a radar map with zones marked 'you can go to bed' as the possible tornado weather had gone by, and 'stay up' for those still facing possible evacuations.)
The housesitter --- for the first time we had someone coming regularly to check on the goldfish pond, the plants, and any mail delivered against a mail hold I'd filled out both online and in person (they did hold the mail, but delivered it all to the house instead of letting me pick it up the way I specified) --- took a big branch off the pond, after one of these storms. But we got home to find that our chimney cover had fallen off, or been blown off, or in any case wasn't where it should be. A neighbor (we assume) set it on our front porch, incidentally advertising how much we weren't home, and strangely the housesitter didn't mention this or move it somewhere else.
So our return home got to be less a day of sleeping in and resting up and doing laundry --- more on that anon --- and more figuring out someone who could come out and inspect the chimney and put the cap back on. A bit of digging around and we got someone who could come out today, that is, Tuesday, while I was in the office but ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger would be home.
I can't say it was but the work of a moment to put the cap back on, as I don't know. But it was back. If I understand the verdict the reason it blew off because it was a kind of a junky cap and we can't be sure it won't blow off again. We could make more certain by getting a better-quality cap, one with screws that go in at a more secure angle. (I'm not sure how that works but I'm busy with other things so won't be looking it up.) For now, though, our chimney's in good shape, just in time for a severe thunderstorm that rolled through and so far as we can tell did no damage, this time.
Next up in pictures? Well, we just had Halloweekends so what follows would of course by Halloween. We carved pumpkins at home, as there wasn't a good time to get together with bunnyhugger's parents for it, so there's fewer jack-o-lanterns than usual this year. Sorry.
My concept for this year was to try doing something kind of dragony, with the extra detail of ridged nose. It ... looks better by candlelight, I promise.
While bunnyhugger went with a classic growly face jack-o-lantern.
bunnyhugger hung Halloween lights this (last) year. I put up the pumpkin flag, although it long predates my ever being here.
Here's our carved pumpkins on the porch step, lit by candles inside.
And that third pumpkin? That's an owl bunnyhugger carved because she hadn't done enough.
Here's a different view of the owl making it look like it's looking over its shoulder.
Trivia: Singer sewing ordered Otis elevator machines for its headquarters in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which opened in a 1904 ceremony blessed by priests. Source: Otis: Giving Rise to the Modern City, Jason Goodwin.
Currently Reading: Natural History Magazine, May 2026, Editor Erin Espelie.
