Jerry shared this CJ-5 Boat combo. It has what appears to be a Florida registration, though Jerry notes it should on the hull.  Anyone know more about it?

Here is a rare moment of harmony. Left to Right: Lizzie, Tom Cruze, Betty Page

John asked how Tom Cruze was doing, so here’s an update.

Once Tom got rehydrated and got some food in him he was most definitely energized! He’s been climbing and exploring the house. The vet said it best, “He’s a feisty one!”

He doesn’t seem to mind that the dogs out weigh him about 10lbs to 1lb; he gives as much as he gets. Lizzy in particular loves to wrestle with him. She is as gentle as she can be (she’s sort of a lunkhead, so she isn’t all that gentle). Still, the two of them seem to enjoy playing.

The dogs are not fans when Tom tries to nurse. That’s about the only time they will growl at him.

They don’t mind napping together (why do we have such monochromatic animals?):

The girls hovering over Tom is the usual state of affairs:

Wrestling is another favorite, though mostly it is Tom and Lizzie wrestling (Betty Page mostly just wants to lick him):

The month of July was going to be work-on-jeep month. Instead, after Ann launched her painting of the guest house, it became work-on-the guest-house-exterior month. Oh well, such is life.

One project on the house, led to another, rippling farther and farther …. First, I jumped into painting the exterior so that could get finished (Ann had to halt painting, as she began to have migraines and auras). But, that led to pulling up the deck to replace the plywood decking, which led to the realization that the whole deck needed rebuilding, which led to the opportunity to regrade around the east and north side of the place, which led to adding a French drain for the deck’s gutter.

Though redoing all this had been the plan, I hadn’t planned on doing this right now. My hope is to finish up the deck today, as we have 110 degree+ temps arriving in a couple days for a few days.

This pic shows the deck frame on temporary supports as I get everything squared up.

Emerged from the engine bay.

Yesterday, Ann’s quick trip to Walmart to pick up some baking supplies went awry.

As she walked by some cars on her way into Walmart, she began hearing the cries of what sounded like a small kitten. Perplexed. she followed the sound to a Chevy Cruz. She looked inside the car, but then realized the sound was coming from under the hood. A woman with five kids wandered by about that time and also heard the cat.

Ann and the woman with the kids did their best to coax the cat from the engine bay, but it seemed the kitten was stuck. Though the car was unlocked, they were unsure how to proceed, so Ann went inside of Walmart to have the car’s owner paged. The owner didn’t hear the page.

Then, Ann called the local police’s non-emergency number; in turn they requested the animal control people assist. Unfortunately, the one animal control person on duty was in another town. Then, Ann contacted the local animal shelter, only to find out that they and other shelters are over-capacity. If the shelter got the cat, it would likely be euthanized.

That left Ann with a choice. Given the cat seemed to be stuck in the engine, leave the kitten to die OR try to rescue the kitten. Of course, you already know the decision she made ….

Forty-five minutes after initially first hearing the kitten, and with the kitten’s meow getting weaker and weaker, an elderly man approached and asked what the Hell are they were doing laying on the hot asphalt wedged under his car.

They explained a kitten was trapped in his engine compartment. A grumpy old man, he stated he didn’t have no ‘damn’ cats and neither did his neighbors.

According to Ann, he was a gem, lol.

Ann and the woman finally got him to open the hood. It was only then they they were able to free the poor little guy. By then, his mews were very very faint and far apart and he was just limp. Now, what to do with the kitten?

Ann’s co-rescuer refused the pleas of her 5 children to take the kitten home, so, despite her cat allergies (she is allergic to most, but not all cats), she decided to bring the cat home.

A quick call to the local vet, resulted in a quick triage to make sure it didn’t need immediate care. After checking the kitten, the vet put “it” as a “he” who is roughly six weeks old and just under a pound. While under-nourished, he isn’t starved and didn’t appear to be in any immediate danger. So, the vet set us up with some food and recommended her lot of water.

Given the kitten is a he (aka Tom cat) and given it was stuck in the engine bay of a Chevy Cruz, what else could we call this tiny kitten other than Tom Cruze??

Finally eating some food…

Our girls are beside themselves with curiosity an way overwhelming love for the kitten. Mr. Tom Cruz has endured more saliva and licks than any kitten should have to endure. Once the kitten-as-curiosity subsides, everyone *should* get along just fine.

Mike shared a newspaper ad related to his job as a newspaper carrier. He purchased and drove a Jeep Fleetvan to deliver the newspapers.

He writes, “I drove this Jeep Fleetvan for many years, working for Suburban Newsdealers, Clifton NJ. Back then, (late 70’s early 80’s) there was “loose talk” about newspapers being delivered to your home by computer, nobody believed it.

This was a company I worked for in the late 60’s, in NJ common practice to have motor routes home delivering close to 1000 copies a day. The guy I worked for had 2 fleetvans, one for parts. Both eventually ended up in the junk yard up the street from where I worked. I wanted to drag it home but no place to store it, besides, my dad would of had a S__T fit.”