Cindy takes care of the compound in my absence

Cindy and Teri were with me at the compound last Saturday before Teri and I went to Hood River for a few days, and the three of us took a walk around the neighborhood. I had told the girls about the homeless man I occasionally see on my walks and to whom I once brought cookies, so we had to take cookies on our walk. Along the way we did see him and gave him the cookies – the girls thought I should bring him home, but I didn’t think it was a very good idea. We also saw a skittish black and white cat the girls thought I should bring home, but that was a really bad idea – a cat would need a litter box. So we didn’t bring anything home, and Teri and I left in the morning. Cindy stayed at the condo Sunday as she had business in town on Monday. Her main duty here was to take care of my tomato plant growing in my computer room. It’s never going to have any tomatoes as I never got the hang of the artificial insemination process – I tried my best, but to no avail. But it’s turning into the “Little Shop of Horrors” with an actual “Audrey II” plant that will eventually take over the entire room. I don’t feed it human blood as they did in the movie - just plain water. Maybe that’s why the lack of tomatoes? It couldn’t be my inept attempt at AI, could it?

Cindy called us Sunday evening and told us her activities for that day. She brought the homeless man home and let him sit on my white couch without the cover I use for it. He got it dirty as he hadn’t showered for who knows how long. Then she found the feral cat and brought it home. She didn’t get a litter box as she felt it should get used to the place and mark its territory in the nasty way cats do. She wanted a fireplace fire, and decided if one Duraflame log was good, wouldn’t five be better? However, they all rolled out onto the carpet, but she put out the fire with one of my throw rugs – she threw it on the fire. Then the homeless man took a nap on my bed and started a “smoking in bed mattress fire!” I had written about an article in the Parade magazine in an earlier blog posting concerning mattress fires. They managed to put the fire out successfully. I had given her instructions to always jiggle the handle on the toilet after flushing as sometimes it runs. One time she forgot to jiggle, and it ran over. So as the toilet water was cascading all over the floor, she grabbed another throw rug and put it in front of the door. Seems like she threw my throw rugs around quite a bit! Oh, I almost forgot . . . she put the condo up for sale and so far had had two bids. She accomplished all that in one day! After hearing that, Teri and I went down to the hotel bar and shared a bottle of wine, trying to wash away the thought of all that was going on back at the compound!

The picture is of Cindy, standing guard over the barren tomato plant. I don’t know why the Hooters T-shirt – maybe she’s changing jobs. Everything looked fine when I returned, so she either did a fantastic job of cleaning up, or nothing ever happened. I think the latter.

Cindy, you are such a funny girl and can always make me laugh. I love you so much – you make my life brighter. I consider myself very lucky to have two daughters whom I enjoy so much.