#hmmm... there is an animal shelter nearby...

[1989nihil]

hmmmm... would very much like to be burried under a mountain of cats right now...

[lavender-bundle-blithe]

BSD but Atsushi really IS the agency cat. ( . . . ) Basically he's an actual cat-

When Dazai drifted down the river, he startled a stray cat who looked oddly comfortable in the water compared to most cats, swimming right past him, doing a double take, and instantly swam away from a presumably drifting dead body. Poor thing got the ever loving daylights out of when Dazai, indeed, was alive, and scurried away just before either he or Kunikida could catch it.

After almost running around the entire neighborhood and into the night, they managed to cat the cat in a warehouse, not with cat food or treats, but... tea on rice. The two stare at the cat who was being currently held up by Kunikida.

"Maybe we should call him Chazuke, hm~?" "We aren't naming the cat, we aren't going to get attached to the cat, they're just gonna be "the cat-"" "Hmmm, or would something moon-related work?" "DAZAI-!"

No one had cat allergies, more on the fact that they are major cat lovers, but having such a lovable animal in their office felt like a risk they weren't going to take; with all the various strangers walking in and out their door, sudden attacks from the Port Mafia, the reasons could go on!

So, they held off on taking care of the cat. The only ones that seemed to like him were Kenji who offered the cat vegetables from his arm...

"Here you go, little guy! Is this milk suitable?" "Oh! How about Milk!" "WE ARE STILL NOT NAMING THE CAT-!"

The Tanizaki siblings...

"Huh, seems quite the timid one..." "Awww, such a cute thing!" "Have we figured out what kind of cat it is?" "Well, Kunikida-san said to not get attached, so we haven't really figured out anything about this cat."

Haruno especially...

"Hello there, little one. Hmm, you seem to be younger than Mii-chan... At least more than a year old." "You can really tell, Haruno?" "Several signs, yes. And... they seem to be an Egyptian Mau. A majestic thing you would grow up to be, huh? " "TIGE—" "WE. ARE. NOT. NAMING. IT. TIGER!"

And secretly but unsurprisingly, the President.

"..." "Meorw?" *Takes out a sardine-*

They continued to hold off on taking the cat, calling all sorts of nearby shelters if they have enough room for it. But hearing how they're already filled to brim, if not are being overcrowded, their soft hearts didn't want this cat to be in such an overcrowded area, as timid as it is.

But slowly but surely, they figured out all their little quirks and each having a nickname for him.

Dazai would use the cat as an excuse to hold off on work, having bought cat toys despite Kunikida's arguments, calling them "Chazuke." Kenji would continue to bring a small bottle of fresh milk from his cows and an array of vegetables to see which ones they like the most, calling them "Milk" as one of Dazai's previous name suggestions. The Tanizaki siblings were the ones that made a small temporary area in the office for the cat, buying it it's necessary items and called them "Tiger." Haruno, on the other hand, would bring the cat back to her apartment for nights, seeing as none of the agents and detectives had the room for them. There, she introduces the cat whom she oddly named "Byakko" to Mii-chan, and all but took several photos on her phone of the older calico cat grooming the smaller.

Unfortunately, that domestic feeling all but vanished when the cat wandered too far into dangerous territory; their work.

The cat had unknowingly followed the Tanizaki siblings who ran into Akutagawa, the Port Mafia's Rabid Dog, after the woman that came to their office was revealed to be Higuchi, Akutagawa's subordinate and also a part of the mafia. The cat, clueless, hissed and yowled while standing in front of the siblings, yellow eyes glaring at the two mafiosi. The sight rendered Higuchi stiffling back a coo while Akutagawa just... stared in utter confusion. (And it didn't help that he was also a cat person at heart).

In the end, they were saved by Dazai regardless, but the cat seemed to glare daggers at anyone that wore black. And Dazai all but laughs at that, remarking...

"For such a timid and small cat, you were a pretty brave one , hmm? Going right up to those two and showing your mighty fangs!"

They were, of course, worried about their agents, but more to the cat who seemed to have gone quiet, not at all looking up at the sound of them shaking their toys or the clink of their refilled bowl of food. They just sat, curled up in their cat bed, back turned towards them.

Then suddenly, they vanished.

The agency, of course, went out looking for the cat, but nothing came up. For some, a relief. Maybe they had wandered off and found a better place to live. A safer place to live. But at the same time, the absence made itself loudly known, even though it was silent. The absence on the cat bed, the absence on their desks, the window sills, everywhere in the office.

"Alright, admit it." "Admit what?" "That you guys actually like that cat."

Until, all of a sudden, as Yosano dealt with Kajii on the train, she catches sight of the familiar girl in a red kimono down they walked past in the shopping district sitting at the banks of the water, a small wet ball of fur curled up tightly in her arms.

"Chazuke!" "Milk!" "Tiger!" "Byakko!" "...Did you—" "Yeah, we need to figure out a name for him now-"

Unfortunately that has to wait because even more chaos rolls into Yokohama. But besides the back-to-back fiascos between the Guild and the mysterious fog incident, were they able to breath easily, giving them ample time to have their feline friend comfortable.

Although, it was odd. The cat was seemingly the subject the Guild were after, and they had also vanished during the fog incident but was apparently there in the end fight.

"No cat should be that close to the battle. Where was he before all that happened?" "Who knows. And besides the point, no one was there in the fog besides us. Is it possible for a cat to be stuck in the fog with us?" "Are you saying the cat has an Ability???"

It was a stretch, for sure. A cat to have an Ability? If that were to be true, their knowledge of Abilities have either been wrong or how they appear has changed. Innocently but could be heard as jokingly, Kenji was the one that said something along the lines about the cat actually being human and has an entirely different Ability but got stuck as a cut. It's happened before, people having transformative Abilities.

It was supposed to be a joke, they all knew, but all of a sudden Ranpo shoots up, eyes wide.

"That's why!" "The cat stumped you?!" "Dazai, touch it!" "If you say so-"

The moment Dazai put his hand on the cat's head, a bright flash appeared and everyone stared in shock to see a young man that looked to either be in his late teens or early adulthood sitting on the ground, wearing ragged clothes, asymmetrically cut platinum blonde hair with a single stripe of white, and sheepish ametrine yellow-purple eyes.

They stared at the individual all until Dazai pulled his hand back, reverting them back to being a cat. It goes back and forth until the person, seemingly tired of the sudden shifting, grabbed Dazai's wrist when he placed it back on their head again, face entirely red to his ears.

"P-Please stop doing that." "Not unless you tell us your name~" "...Nakajima Atsushi..."

(A/N: cat cat cat cat- but besides the point, this went a completely random direction than it was supposed to be. It was just something of Atsushi being the office cat, whether or not they knew he was human or not. But then I thought about Dead Apple, blah blah blah, this has been in my drafts for a while- ANYWAYS HOPED YOU LIKED THIS RANDOM BIT-)

[negative-speedforce]

1, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13 for the injury prompts <3333

“Okay. Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do—fuck.”

From this prompt list

For: Siv

CW: Animal injury and discussion of animal death

"Oh. Oh my god." Siv stopped running, seeing something in the middle of the road. A black hairless cat lay there, whimpering in pain, her back legs and torso having been crushed by a car. Siv pulled off their jacket, flipping it inside-out so that no blood would stain the inner lining, and wrapped it around the cat, cradling it in her arms.

Siv took a deep breath, holding the squirming bundle close to their chest, when she noticed six tiny kittens running towards her. They all looked like their mama, black and wrinkly. "Okay. Okay, here's what we're gonna do-" Siv hoisted the injured cat over one shoulder, causing it to yowl in pain. "-fuck."

Siv started scooping the kittens into their pockets, thankful for her choice earlier to wear cargo pants. They sincerely hoped that the kittens wouldn't get into her weapons stash, but she was fairly certain that the leather case that the throwing knives in her left hip pocket were in was kitten-proof.

Then she saw it. Mewling and limping, struggling to get to its mama. The runt of the litter, Siv assumed by its tiny figure, had been born different, with legs that didn't quite work.

"Oh, you poor baby." Siv kneeled down, careful not to drop the injured cat on their shoulder, and reached down to grab the kitten. Immediately, it hissed and lashed out, slashing tiny claws across Siv's skin. "Ouch. Spicy baby. But I'm still faster."

Quicker than the feisty kitten could react, Siv grabbed it by the nape of its neck and stuffed it into her pocket. They reached for their phone, struggling to find it under the two kittens that were in that pocket, but successfully retrieved it, going into her maps app and searching up "Veterinary Hospitals". There was one only a few blocks away.

Siv made sure all their pockets were buckled and that the cat was secure against her shoulder, then dashed off in the direction of the vet clinic, screeching to a halt in their driveway.

"I have an injured cat." Siv walked up to the front desk. "I think she got hit by a car."

"We'll have someone to look at her as soon as possible. Is she yours?"

"No. I found her in the road. I don't know if she has a family or if she's a stray."

"Go ahead and take a seat. We'll have someone out in just a moment."

Siv sat on one of the plastic chairs next to a kennel with a very familiar golden retriever.

"Stella?" Siv whispered, putting their hand down for the dog to sniff. Stella immediately began licking her hand, tail thumping against the bottom of her crate.

"She likes you." A tall woman with long purple locs said. "I don't."

"You." Siv narrowed her eyes. "I assure you, the feeling's mutual."

"I'm not going to fight you here." Cassandra sat down next to Siv, pulling Stella's crate closer to her protectively. "Jay's dog hasn't been eating. We need to make sure it isn't anything serious."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Siv adjusted the cat on their shoulder. "Stella's a sweetheart. We used to play with her in Jay's backyard back in high school."

"Hmmm." Cassandra turned up her nose at Siv, turning the other way.

A few moments later, a vet tech walked up to Siv. "Hi. Are you the one who found the cat?"

Siv nodded. "I am."

"Follow me."

Siv followed the tech back, giving one last withering glare at Cassandra before going through the doors into the veterinary hospital. When they reached the exam room, Siv lay the cat on the bed, folding up their jacket and placing it on one of the nearby chairs.

"This is really bad." The vet tech said, examining the shaking cat's crushed lower body. "We might need to euthanize her."

"What about the kittens?"

"What kittens?"

Siv opened her pockets, pulling out three kittens. "These kittens. There's six of them."

"Keep them, or bring them to a shelter." The tech replied. "Though if you intend to keep them, I'd recommend this one. The runt. It'll be the hardest for her to get adopted, especially with her legs like that. Just tape them upright and leave them like that for a couple weeks, and she'll be walking normally in no time."

Siv looked down at the feisty kitten, who was currently attacking the vet tech's shoelaces. "Will she need to be bottle-fed?"

"No. I think they're all old enough to eat soft food. Either canned food or dry, soaked in warm water." The vet tech replied. "Oh. There's the vet."

A man with glasses and dark brown hair in a bun walked in, dressed in rainbow scrubs. "Hey, I'm Zach, I'm the vet." He leaned over, giving the injured cat a scratch on the head. "Yeah, we're gonna need to euthanize her. She's dying, it's the kindest thing we can do. I'm gonna scan her for a microchip, see if she has a family who would want to say goodbye before we put her down."

"What about the kittens?"

"We'll keep them here, if you'd like, to see if her family wants to keep them. If not, do you want to keep in contact?"

"Yeah, sure." Siv grabbed a sticky note off the desk, scratching down their number. They passed the sticky note to the vet, then emptied her pockets of the rest of the kittens. "I hate to be that person, but how much is this going to cost me?"

"Well, we currently have a partnership with a local nonprofit for homeless animals that people take in, so for now, nothing."

Siv breathed a sigh of relief. "Let me know if you need someone to take the kittens, okay?"

"Will do." The vet replied. "You can go now, if you'd like."

Siv nodded, giving the cat a scratch on the head. "Stay strong, mama."

[victorluvsalice]

Sims Challenge Wednesday: Fallout 4

And for my second challenge -- one themed around the settlement-building mechanics of Fallout 4! Because that felt like a better fit than trying to do the main plot. . . here we go!

Fallout 4 Sims 4 Challenge

Premise: It was all going – fine, you suppose. Sure, you were living in an embarrassing imperialistic and xenophobic nation, which was fighting a terrible war with the other superpower over the last of the oil reserves in the world, but you yourself were doing good. You had a nice home in a little suburb, you could take advantage of personal domestic robots, you were getting enough to eat despite the food shortages – all in all, your life was pretty okay!

And then some asshole had to go and drop the bombs. By sheer luck, you’d been admitted to nearby Vault 111 mere minutes before the alarm sounded, and you made it there just in time. The staff there was very friendly too, telling you that your new life underground could start just as soon as you were decontaminated in these weirdly-cold pods. . .

210 years later, you wake to discover that:

a) you were totally lied to and you’ve been frozen for the past two centuries as part of some mad experiment

b) you are the only survivor of that experiment – everyone else’s pod failed, and a revolt by the security staff six months into your freezing means they all either died or skedaddled long before you woke up

c) oh, and the revolt was over dwindling food supplies, so you can’t even stay in the vault, you’ll starve

So out you venture into the world, to find – hmmm. People seem to be surviving, but they could probably use some help. Good thing you’ve got nothing but time on your hands. Time and the desire to make proper homes for the new friends you’re finding. Time to build a settlement and make it something this post-War world can be proud of!

Now if only you could shake the feeling you ought to be looking for someone. . .

This is a challenge loosely based around being the Sole Survivor of Fallout 4, specifically being the General of the Minutemen and building settlements. The goals are to build up the world of Brindleton bay from some ramshackle farms into a bunch of thriving settlements, create and manage a club for helping others and improving the world, and defeat the nasties that are making life harder for everyone else.

Packs required: Get Together, Get To Work, Cats & Dogs, City Living, Eco Lifestyle, Cottage Living, Island Living, Discover University, StrangerVille

Your Sim: Create your “Sole Survivor” in CAS. They can be a Young Adult or Adult, and have any traits. However, they are only allowed to have two outfits – a set of everyday wear (for everyday, formal, athletic, party, hot weather, and cold weather), and a set of underwear (for sleeping and swimwear). They will get more clothing as they survive out in the world.

Optional: Rather than start right out of the vault, you may play a brief one-week “pre-War” period with your Sole Survivor to gain some skills and whatnot. The Military or Law career is recommended if you want to follow the actual given backstories of the Fallout 4 Sole Survivors (Nate and Nora respectively), but you’re welcome to give them whatever pre-War occupation you like.

Their World: Set up the rest of the save file as per these guidelines:

Go to Brindleton Bay and wipe out all the existing architecture – you can keep the pre-made families, but not their houses. The apocalypse has happened, and the world has got to look the part! (If you really want, you can keep the lighthouse on Deadgrass Isle, but give a makeover to look wrecked.)

Pick one lot in either Sable Square, Whiskerman’s Wharf, or Cavalier’s Cove to serve as your “Diamond City” marketplace. This should include a small bar, a small clothing store, a grocery stall, a food stall, and whatever other stalls and vending machines you think your Sole Survivor could use to survive out in the wasteland.

In a different neighborhood to “Diamond City,” pick another lot to serve as your “Goodneighbor.” Build a lounge there (The Third Rail) with a bar, microphone for a singer, and plenty of seating. If you want, you can double up and have your lounge in the basement and put a little spa-type building (The Memory Den) up top. Feel free to throw in a goodies stall too.

All remaining mainland lots should be residential, and need to have the “Off The Grid” and “Simple Living” lot challenges enabled. You may enable other lot challenges or traits at your discretion (“Filthy” is recommended, given the state of post-nuke Boston in Fallout 4).

Pick two residential lots on the mainland (in different neighborhoods) to serve as “raider outposts.” Build up these lots to have three or four beds under minimal shelter, and off-the-grid compatible appliances. Each of these lots should have three or four Sims on it, all with either the “Mean,” “Hot-Headed,” “Kleptomaniac,” and/or “Slob” traits. Put all these Sims into a “Raider” club (you may choose your own gang name) and set their club activities to encourage them to “Be Mean,” “Fight,” “Swipe Items,” and “Sabotage Items.”

Set up the remaining residential lots with the bare minimum for survival: If the lot has Sims living on it, make a small hut for them to sleep in, with just enough beds for everyone, and one outhouse with a toilet and sink. No working lights, and they must have only a small fridge or cooler. If the lot doesn’t have Sims living on it, you can only have two beds maximum, and no food source at all. You can build whatever structure you wish there. Regardless of whether or not it is occupied, each residential lot must have a woodworking table, and an outdoor cooking station of some description. Other crafting items (candle-making, juice-fizzing, fabrication machine, robotics station, etc) may be placed at your discretion.

Choose an uninhabited lot for your Sole Survivor to start on – once they are moved in, set their money to zero.

Goals: Your Sole Survivor is looking to complete the following:

Build up every empty residential lot in the world so it can support at least five Sims, one pet, and one robot helper

Improve the occupied residential lots so everyone has adequate food, water, and shelter

Complete the Master Maker aspiration

Complete the Leader of the Pack aspiration as the “General of the Minutemen” and build up the club to full strength by befriending the other “settlers” in the world

Defeat all of the raiders in fights and force their club to disband

Rules:

Your Sole Survivor cannot have a normal job, as those just plain don’t exist anymore. They must earn their “caps” via selling things they have found or made (or, with the right traits, swiped) to other Sims, or via doing Odd Jobs for the people already living in the post-War society.

Your Sole Survivor is only allowed to purchase basic build mode items (e.g., walls and wallpaper, floors and flooring, roofs, doors, windows, columns), animal sheds, chicken coops, and basic pet supplies (food bowls and beds) directly from the catalog. Everything else must either be obtained by scavenging (dumpster diving for items or harvesting wild plants), building it themselves (making furniture at the woodworking table or using the fabricator), or “purchasing” it at the DC marketplace (either by genuinely buying it from a stall or visiting the lot and spending money on SOMETHING to represent a shopping trip). This includes clothing – you may either visit the marketplace once every three days to buy a new outfit for any category, or “scavenge” one by finding something that could reasonably contain clothing from a dumpster.

In order to increase the variety of their scavenging, your Sole Survivor may visit the Bramblewood of Henford-on-Bagley, or go on brief vacations to Granite Falls. Other locations depend on if you can make them look suitably post-apocalyptic (for example, creating a post-apocalypse Newcrest or Forgotten Hollow shouldn’t be too hard, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to justify San Myshuno!).

Your Sole Survivor must build up every lot in their world to the standards of a good settlement – enough food, water, and sheltered beds for all residents, along with power for items that may need it: Food is produced by farming crops and owning livestock. A small crop counts as 0.5 units of food; a tree or over-sized crop counts as one unit of food; a chicken coop with at least four chickens, a cow, or a llama counts as two units of food. (Yes, you are strongly encouraged to regularly trade animals for meat – or, if you feel bad, ingredients and produce.) You must have enough units of food to cover all residents (so a minimum of six). Water is produced by setting up dew collectors or water generators. Each dew collector or water generator counts as one unit of water. You must have enough units of water to cover all residents (again, a minimum of six). Sheltered beds are beds in an enclosed area with a roof. There must be one bed per Sim – you may use double beds, but they only count as one bed for one Sim! (Think of it as making sure there’s “spare beds” for anyone passing through who may stay overnight – Fallout 4 has traveling traders, after all!) Power is generated by generators, solar panels, and wind turbines – each provides one unit of power. You don’t technically need any power on your lots, but it will make your settlements happier if you can actually power things like salvaged TVs and computers.

Once a settlement is set up with all the basics, if it is empty, your Sole Survivor should go out and find homeless Sims to populate it. You may move the Sims in normally, or ask them to be roommates – though given your Sole Survivor will be moving to each settlement in turn to “renovate” it, it’s recommended you move in at least one Sim normally to look after everyone. Once you have all the human Sims, your Sole Survivor should adopt a stray cat or dog, then build a helpful robot to help with gardening, repairs, or generally just keeping people happy. Optional: If you have the Dream Home Decorator game pack, you may, at your discretion, allow your Sole Survivor to join THAT career and make use of it to renovate the lots of settlers who already live in the world. Given how buggy the pack is reputed to be, though, I’m not sure how much I recommend this! (Though I guess if you’re just willing to go room by room, since those gigs seem to work relatively well. . .)

Your Sole Survivor needs to form the “Minutemen” club to help out others in the wastes, by befriending other Sims living in the world and inviting them to join. The club’s required activities should include any of the activities from the following list: Be Friendly Tend Animals Tend Garden Fish Woodwork Work Out Build Robots Fabricate Objects Fight (Raiders)

Related, your Sole Survivor needs to get rid of the Raiders making life harder for the people just trying to survive in this world! Have regular fights between your Sole Survivor and their Minutemen versus the Raiders and keep track of the winners and losers – once each Raider has been bested in at least one battle, disband the club. Your Sole Survivor will then take over their outposts to turn them into functioning settlements. The Raiders themselves can either be moved out or rehabilitated and allowed to live in the new world so long as they don’t start too many fights.

Optional Hard Mode – Expand The Map: More space, more problems – rather than setting up in Brindleton Bay, set up in WINDENBURG. You are allowed two community lots to build up “Diamond City” and “Goodneighbor” in this instance, and a third of your choosing.

Optional Hard Mode – Join The Clubs: Your Minutemen are not the only faction out there in the Wasteland – there’s three others, and oh look, they all seem to hate each other. Set up three other clubs, one each for each of the mainland neighborhoods:

The Railroad – required activities “Debate,” “Hack,” “Be Mean (Institute),” “Be Mean (Brotherhood of Steel).”

The Brotherhood of Steel – required activities “Swipe Objects,” “Work Out,” “Be Mean (Railroad),” “Fight (Institute)”

The Institute – required activities “Build Robots,” “Use Science Objects,” “Fight (Railroad),” “Fight (Brotherhood of Steel)”

All members of these clubs should live and hangout on the same lot (The Old North Church and its basement for the Railroad; the Boston Airport for the Brotherhood (though if you think you can make the Prydwen, go for it); the CIT Ruins and the labs beneath it for the Institute). Make sure they all dislike each other, and make them all “invitation only” clubs. Your Sole Survivor needs to join all of these clubs, work toward becoming the leader of each other, then decide who stays and who goes based on your “ending:”

Railroad Ending – Disband the Institute and the Brotherhood of Steel once you’re the leader. Exile the members of each from the world.

Brotherhood of Steel Ending – Disband the Institute and the Railroad once you’re the leader. Exile the members of each from the world.

Institute Ending – Disband the Railroad and the Brotherhood of Steel once you’re the leader. Exile the members of each from the world.

Minuteman Ending – Disband the Institute once you’re the leader – at your discretion, the members may keep their lot, though they have to give up their basement labs and live in the ruins up top. The other two clubs may remain depending on how friendly their members are with your own Minutemen club. Check everyone’s relationships with each other – if the majority of either club hates the majority of the Minutemen, that club must be disbanded.

Given the size of this hard mode, I would recommend running it in tandem with “Expand the Map” above so you have more room to breathe with each club!

Optional Hard Mode – Automatron DLC: Create a placeholder Sim, get their Robotics up to ten, have them make a Servo, then kill the Sim and either let the Servo live on the lot alone or have them wander as a homeless NPC. In order to get access to the Robotics station, your Sole Survivor must find and befriend this Servo.

Optional Hard Mode – Vault-Tec DLC: One of your lots is not a traditional settlement, but an unfinished Vault-Tec vault! This settlement must be built entirely underground, and does not have any beds, water, or food when your Sole Survivor arrives. However, it does have at least three generators for power! Also, the first Sim you recruit to live there must have either the “Good” or the “Goofball” trait.

[addisonacres]

Buck Down Under

* New Ask game. Send me one of my fic titles and I’ll tell which was THAT SCENE for that fic.

Hmmm, this one is interesting since this was a prompt so I didn't exactly have a scene in mind that I built the fic around. However, there is a scene I came up with very early on that I can't wait to write!

Before Buck is recruited to help with the fires, he stays with Mel to defend their property while a bushfire rages nearby and Shane is off with the brigade. The fire front is fast approaching and they need to shelter inside and wait for it to pass before they can then put out spot fires etc. Most of their animals, including the rescues have been evacuated but just as they head inside, a small mob of roos bound up to the front door.

The buck is an old rescue of Mel's and he and his mob still live around their property. He knows that Mel can keep them safe so she and Buck usher them inside and wait out the worst of the fire with a group of wild kangaroos.

[razorcat26]

Chat Noir Weight Gain Story: Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Professor Animate    

Ladybug and Chat Noir have to fight a new villain. How will Chat Noir manage to fight evil and fight off his desire to eat more.

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Relationship: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug                                                            

Characters:Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)  

Tags: Weight Gain Force-Feeding Belly Rubs Stuffing 

All characters at 18+.

All characters are owned by their respective owners.

AO3

Their trip back to the city centre of Paris was fairly uneventful. Ladybug was just surprised at how agile Chat Noir was. He still managed to keep up with her, although every time he would land on top of a building, he would cause it to shake.

As the sun was beginning to rise, many Parisians were heading to work. Chat Noir would get the occasional glance from people on the street as they tried to figure out what that large black blob was, that was bouncing across the skyline. 

Moving past the Eiffel Tower they both landed of one of the cobblestone streets, which was surrounded by small corner stores and terrace homes. They started to hear screams coming from one of the boulevards. They both turn towards where the noise was coming from. In the distance they spot a large wall of people running towards them. They both jump out of the way of the crowd and land back on their feet. The heroes then saw in the distance what looked like normally inanimate objects roaming around, causing chaos. Cars without people, lamp posts, post boxes and buses without drivers were walking, hoping, and driving by themselves. They were bashing and crashing into everything they saw. They were all glowing green like they were under some kind of spell, thought Ladybug. While all Chat Noir was thinking of was how hungry he was starting to feel after his labour-intensive journey.  

Suddenly the objects start hurtling towards them but luckily both Ladybug and Chat Noir move out of the way from the out of control objects. The heroes then hop onto various signs and posts which were not affected by the mysterious green glow. The sign which Chat Noir landed started to bow from his weight. Ladybug then see a civilian trapped underneath a collapsed bus shelter. Using her quick thinking, she grabs out her yo-yo and lifts off the bus shelter to rescue a middle-aged woman who was trapped. The women then thanks the much skinnier hero and runs to safety.  

Just then a tall, thin man appears from around the side of a building.  He was wearing sharp pointed green glasses and was in a black and white striped suit. He had a long face with a clearly defined jaw line. He had a curly moustache and a sly grin on his face. “Well well well if it isn’t Ladybug and Chat Noir. I’m glad you’ve decided to show up to my lecture,” said the mysterious man. He did a double take when he glanced at the much larger Chat Noir, pointed, and said, “Wow… well it looks like this kitty has been having way too much milk,” laughs the man.

The heroes land back on the street pavement, ready to attack as Chat Noir growls, “I may have gained a little weight, but I can still move just as fast.”

Ladybug yells, “Who are you?”

“My name is Professor Animate and I’m here to teach you a lesson in physics,” he says as he pulls out a black fine tip pen from his dress shirt pocket. He then uses it as a wand, as a green beam of energy emerges from his pen and zaps one of the stationary cars. It begins glowing with a green aura as its engine begins to start up. It then races towards the two heroes.  Ladybug uses her yo-yo to lift her up to safety. While Chat Noir dives out of the way. His gut freely jiggling as he places his hand on his belly to try and steady it.

Ladybug then uses her yo-yo to strike the akumatised villain, but he manages to dodge her attack. Ladybug then helps Chat Noir to his feet as he places his hand on his gut and says, “Still trying to get used to this.”

Ladybug, blushes bright red as she says to herself, “C’mon, stay focused.”

The Professor observes the increased tension between the two and then turns towards a now quiet bakery. He then uses his pen and zaps the pastries and cakes which were on the display shelves. They begin glowing with a green aura and miraculously start to roll out of the bakery. Ladybug charges towards the Professor and goes in for another attack.

While this was happening, the pastries roll towards Chat Noir. He uses his staff to push them away. However, he accidently trips and lands on his large rear. He drops his staff, and it rolls away from him. The pastries begin to overwhelm the large hero as they force themselves into his mouth. All Chat Noir could do was munch down on the sweets as they continued to enter his mouth. He begins to feel full of the pastries as he was still stuffed from his trip to the factory. While chowing down on a cinnamon roll he thinks to himself that he should come here on his next bakery raid.  

“Enjoying your meal, fat Chat?”, laughs the Professor.

Ladybug, who was caught up with battling the akmatised villain, turns around to find her partner being force fed. “Don’t worry M’lady I got this. I’ve trained for thi…. mmmmffffh”, Chat Noir muffles a danish enters his mouth. Chat Noir lets out a burp after devouring the sweet. He then grabs the next danish and stuffs it in his mouth. Sweet after sweet and pastry after pastry he devours them all. He begins to feel uncomfortably stuffed from the mountain of food he demolished. His belly pushing further out, which causes his suit to rip even more. Chat Noir then rolls onto his side to reach his staff. He then uses it as a support to stand up.

“Hufff… Well that’s what you call fast food,” Chat Noir says patting his large belly.

“Hmmm, well you finished your meal earlier than expected you greedy cat. How about round two?”, Professor Animate replies.

“Not so fast mister. Lucky Charm!”, Ladybug yells as she swings her yo-yo into the air. A red and black spotted old school rotary phone appears above her head.

She then catches it and says, “Hmm… I think my grandmother has one of these, but how is this going to help me?”

She then looks around to see what she can use to defeat the villain. She turns around and sees a streetlight down the road, Chat Noir, and manhole cover light up. Ladybug then says, “I’ve got it,” as she summersaults over towards the stuffed and groggy Chat Noir and whispers her plan to him.  

Whilst still holding the rotary phone, Ladybug dashes over to pick up the manhole cover. She then equips it as if it were a shield. The Professor uses his pen to zap more sweets from the bakery. She then uses the manhole cover to deflect the Professors green beams. “Yes, I’m right… his attacks only work for objects he is mentally aiming for,” Ladybug says whilst the Professor growls.    

She then charges towards Professor Animate and yells, “Get into position Chat!”

Chat Noir then runs or more accurately wobbles, panting heavily with each step he takes. Ladybug then continued to push back the Professor, who appears to have a look of concern on his face. Ladybug’s eyes slightly peer above the manhole cover as she then swings the rotary phone like a boomerang. The handset cord catches the Professor’s arm while the handset swings around the nearby streetlight. His arm is then pulled back as the phone tightly wraps around the streetlight. Trying to free himself, Chat Noir who was still running, changes direction towards the villain. He then jumps and lands on the Professor, belly first. This then knocks him down as he is smothered by Chat Noir’s hefty bulk.

“Looks like this kitty has caught you. Also, I want to thank you for my breakfast. Too be honest I’m still pretty hungry, but unfortunately for you, you won’t be getting your just desserts,” Chat Noir says as he smiles and burps in the Professor’s face.  

Chat Noir then yells, “Cataclysm!” as his hand begins emitting black energy bubbles. The Professor tightens his grip on his pen as Chat Noir grabs it from him and it begins to disintegrate. The akuma flies out from the pen. Chat Noir then rolls off the Professor and he transforms back into the science professor from the nearby university.

“No more evil doing for you little akuma, time to de-evilise” says Ladybug as she captures the butterfly. “Bye bye little butterfly. Miraculous Ladybug!” yells Ladybug as she releases the butterfly and throws her yoyo into the air. With a woosh of magic, everything returns to normal.

She then helps up Chat Noir whose belly was still on full display for her to ogle at. “Well I must say your extra weight definitely helped take down that villain. Maybe Master Fu could train you in sumo wrestling,” Ladybug giggles.

“Yeah I’ve come to really enjoy being big,” Chat Noir replies, giving his belly a shake. “Maybe next time I won’t eat too much that I burst out of my suit,” he blushes.

“Not if I can help it,” Ladybug mumbles.

“What was that M’lady?”, Chat Noir asks.

“Ummm… not... It’s not a bad look,” Ladybug says as she blushes bright red.

Chat Noir smiles cheekily and says, “Well since you turned everything back to normal. I might make a trip to a bakery on my way home. Who knows maybe I’ll eat everything they have in store.”

Ladybug bites her lip and thinks to herself; she couldn’t believe she was attracted to Chat Noir.   

[inquisitor-julia]

I mentioned that I had talked A LOT about Wren in a Discord I’m part of so I’m making a masterpost of everything so far! This includes information about Wren, her sister, her alternate LI, and her relationship with Solas as well as aesthetics, playlists, etc. Under the cut because it’s a lot of Wrenformation

I’m hilarious

Special thanks to @noire-pandora​ @kita-lavellan​ @eluvilavellan​ @inquisitor-veowyn​ @mik-arts​ @jespers​ for asking me so much about my girl Wren and for keeping me sane through this whole quarantine thing! Love you all so much!! <3

Part 1: About Wren Wren Development in da:i

Wren is....very sheltered so there's just A LOT that she has to come to terms with in da:i, things she's heard about but never really seen until inquisition and that's on purpose on the part of her clan, they always think she's too weak to handle the worst parts of the world, that her frail shoulders couldn't take the weight. Maybe under different circumstances they'd have been right but her time with the inquisition FORCES her to grow....she's still the little sheltered healer from the dalish for the most part but by the end she can also make the hard decisions and such 

In the Fade at Adamant, what does her gravestone say?

Abandonment; Wren has always felt like a burden to her clan because of her frailty and when she was a child she was almost sent away to another clan because she was a mage, if not for the intervention of her older sister Lyre she would not have been able to stay with clan Lavellan. She's been afraid of people deserting her because she's not strong ever since. 

Tea soon? (Does she like tea/ Her reaction to receiving the birthday card?)

Wren loves tea! Her mom was the clan's herbalist so Wren knows a lot about which herbs can be used for which ailments and which teas to make using some of those herbs, and she can make an amazing cup of tea. Solas still isn't fond of it but it's the only tea you're likely to see him suffer through drinking. Her reaction to the card is covered in my fic i'm writing for her and is (tn spoilers) that she has a panic attack thinking that charter is in danger but then goes to save charter. Wren is also determined to make a cup of tea that even solas enjoys one day.

How do the fearlings appear to her in the fade? 

hmmm her deepest fear is abandonment or that she's a burden because she's weak so her fears would probably be faceless elves with the voices of her loved ones calling her useless or telling her that if she didn't have her sister to hide behind she'd be nothing.

"Your family tried to get rid of you, they knew you were weak." "Scared little girl, what makes you think someone so frail can change anything." "Kindness to cover weakness, you are nothing but a facade to hide your fear." "He will abandon you, little bird, a burden discarded, unneeded, unwanted."

Has she encountered any racism/sexism during her time in the Inquisiton?

Wren has encountered racism during her time in the Inquisition, especially during the ball at the winter palace. It's quite a shock for her because she's been so sheltered and never had to deal with such things before. Sexism is a less prominent issue because most people are more offended by her ears and vallaslin than anything else.

How would your OC want to be remembered?

I don't know that it matters to Wren that she's remembered at all, just that she helped even if no one remembers who she was. At one point Cole says "It doesn't matter that they don't remember, what matters is we helped." or something like that and that's pretty much how I think Wren views things. She's a healer by nature and by trade, if she can make someone's life easier even for the briefest moment that's enough of an impact for her. How she doesn't want to be remembered though, is a different story entirely. Being Inquisitor brings her so much worry that she's using her people, that in their last breaths they'll curse her or worse praise her. She would rather not be remembered than be known as someone who hid behind a war table and sent legions to die for her cause. As far as her reputation she fears nothing more than the blood that her position forced onto her hands being what stains her name in the tales of history

If your OC was a spirit, what kind of spirit would they be? 

Wren would be some kind of spirit akin to "the matchmaker" that Solas talks about. A subtle and shy spirit that would steer people gently toward things that would bring them happiness, but not necessarily compassion like Cole. something closer to contentment than compassion.

What kind of (spirit)/demon would they turn into? 

hmm ok well I still think something like a spirit of contentment would be Wren but as for demon....if her spirit form is her guiding people to happiness i think her demon form would be something like...obsession with the happiness of others? like care-taking but smothering, don't leave me behind, clinging, cloying, suffocating. I think that's a kind of fear demon. It reflects her fear of abandonment and twists her good heart into something that could bring harm. Or at least that's my current thought. 

Do they drink/smoke? Are they a party animal or tend to stay in their quarters? 

she doesn't usually drink or at least not much, and not anything strong, she doesn't really love the feeling of being drunk, it dulls her senses and she's a person who needs to be connected to the little sensations and events around her at all times to be happy. The world is a little tapestry to her and if a drink blocks out some of that she doesn't want it. The only time she drinks is in cold places like Emprise du Lion, when she's got a lot of anxiety and drinks a small amount to calm down, or that one time she drank with bull and ended up sloshed and Solas had to take care of her that night and the next day and she never speaks of it because it's embarrassing. On the whole though she doesn't like alcohol because it's bitter, if she drinks it's going to be something sweet other than that time with bull that we DO NOT talk about. Wren doesn't smoke and she's not a party animal BUT she also doesn't spend too much time in her quarters. She wants to take care of people and usually she's off doing that and exhausting herself and has to be dragged back to her quarters and made to sleep by Solas or Lyre. She spends most of her alone time in whatever the highest possible location is nearby, she loves heights and she'll climb up to ridiculous heights just to find a quiet spot to read

Why did they choose their vallaslin?(colour?) If they romanced Solas, did they choose to remove it? Why (not)? 

She chose her vallaslin because she wanted to give herself something to aspire to, a protector instead of the one protected. She was to become the Keeper and she wanted to be someone who could keep her clan safe. Her vallaslin are red because no ink could be placed under her extremely sensitive skin, only her own blood, magically enhanced to stay bright red. The color fades as the magic does though and after the first application her vallaslin have to be reapplied using a dye (like henna but stronger). They appear white like a scar if this is not done. She does have Solas remove them because of what they mean, and because she's already a protector, her aspiration has been achieved (if only she knew how much more she would have to protect in the future) and she was never fond of her vallaslin anyway. She always felt guilty about having herself marked as an adult while her older sister would never be.

Do they have any pets? If not, would they want one? 

Wren does not have any pets besides her horse in da:i because animals and Wren traditionally do not get along. Not that she doesn't try to get along with them just that they tend to shy away from her. Getting the token of the packmaster and having wolves follow her around and let her pet them? Highlight of Wren's life. She would love to have a pet but finding a horse willing to carry her around thedas was hard enough, finding a pet that would actually be affectionate would be next to impossible....but maybe someday..

Do they gossip? If yes, with who about whom? 

She tries not to call it gossip but she confides in her sister about most everything, that includes any trouble she might be having with her friends or solas. She trusts Lyre above anyone else in Thedas and if she needs to discuss anything or laugh about something that happened it's always her sister that she seeks out.

Do they have any musical or artistic talent? How did they learn it? 

Wren....can sing off-key but can usually hum fairly on key. And that's about the extent of her musical talents. Artistically, she's grown up in a very practical culture: sewing is learned to patch clothing, woodworking arts are practiced by the craftsmaster, there is no real need for a Keeper's apprentice to learn any artistry. In the inquisition she watched solas paint anytime she could, in awe of the way what he saw in his mind just unfolded onto canvas or stone. She learned a bit through observation and subtle guidance from solas but never really pursued it as a hobby, more something she did to feel included in a moment and feel connection to her vhenan. After he leaves the inquisition she spends hours pouring over the sketches he left behind (some of her, some of locations they'd visited, some of their companions, and some of his plans for his murals) and when she left skyhold and the murals behind she took those sketches with her, the only thing she had left of who solas was beyond the Dread Wolf. When the murals were reported destroyed, she dedicated herself to recreating them on canvas so that they would not be completely lost.

What kind of god/goddess would your OC be?

goddess of the night sky, of the moon, of wishes (bc stars), and of navigation (bc stars)

Part 2: Wren ficlets

Wren and Solas and their daughters by @jespers​

the moon and the wolf, twice reflected in the starlit lake, meandered up to a clearing in the nearby forest. the sky was empty, save for the quiet thrumming of thousands of stars. two sets of twin souls settled into a bed of blankets, one set nested between the other. moon, part one, began to whisper tales of valiant knights, of dragons and queens, of a wolf who falls for the moon. da'evune and da'fen giggled as moon, part one, told them of the wolf's dislike of tea - how he'd turn his muzzle up at honey splashed with tea. she told them of how he betrayed the moon once, how he'd turned to the sky to hide him. and yet, the moon loved him still. their love was so great it overcame it all. when the veil came crashing down, it was their love that shielded thedas from the worst of it. it was their love that created thedas' second moon and her sister, the wolf. this pair would the guiding lights - the howl that guides you home, the moon that brightens the night. and when the first pair finally faded, thedas would have a twin souls that would, above all, endure. the wolf, part one, pressed the moon's hand to his lips, and began to tell the tale of the dragon who gave herself so that they all might live.

Wren and Solas by @inquisitor-veowyn​

Solas stood on the battlements, Wren’s proximity to him radiating warmth. He turned his head, admiring her beauty for a moment before reaching out to her. He grabbed her hand, weaving his fingers through hers. Her skin was so soft against his calloused hands, and it felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. He turned to her, weaving his fingers into her other hand. “You mean so much to me, Wren.” 

Solas + Wren + Tea by me

I picture the cup of tea he enjoys being the first one she makes him in the peace after the chaos of the veil coming down or w/e da4 brings. He can rest and be with his love and she still loves him and they can be happy and she hands him a cup of tea in the morning like she used to in skyhold and it's the first cup of tea he's ever really enjoyed. She's so warm with her head resting on his shoulder, the morning light giving her hair a slight golden tint as she sips her own tea happily. Maybe it's his own happiness that makes this cup of tea different.Whatever the case the drink is quickly forgotten as he trades the taste of the tea in his cup for the subtle taste of it on her lips.

Wren dies in the red lyrium future in an AU where she isn’t Inquisitor by me

Hot. Metallic. Seeping between her teeth and splattering against the demon's face when her lungs forced a cough and the terror's claws dug in deeper. The taste and warmth brought to her sluggish mind a memory of someone she'd loved trying to make her tea, metallic because it had been stale, but she'd said it was delicious. Bare face beaming, flaxen hair, it's terrible isn't it sister. Sister. Lyre. She'd forgotten; the red taking her mind from her more each day. The terror ripped its hand cruelly from her stomach, taking so much of her with it, her pooling blood already turning to crystal as she fell to the ground. She wondered which would kill her first, the blood loss or the encroaching crystallization, before her mind wandered back to her sister in her fading moments. Lyre; bright, radiant, the sun to her moon. She'd tried so hard to keep Wren safe and what had happened to her....Wren couldn't remember now as the red tinged shadows pulled at the edge of her vision and her last word fell softly from her lips: asa'ma'lin I'm sorry sister.

Wren + Solas + fluff + dancing (i had to write to make up for the wren death)

The bittersweet flavor of raspberries danced across Wren's tongue as she bit into one of the tarts the cook had made for her. She'd told the woman on many occasions that making her sweets on top of feeding the entire Inquisition wasn't necessary but the only response she'd ever gotten was "You save us all from that blighted Corypheus arsehole and we'll call it even." Yet she sensed a kindred spirit in the woman, a caretaker if a rather grouchy one. She closed her eyes and hummed happily as she took another bite of the pastry, the thin, crisp layers of the tart crunching as she bit down into the raspberry preserve center. With her clan she'd never eaten anything quite so sweet as the desserts she'd tasted since becoming inquisitor, one of the few perks the job offered really. As the sugar coated her mouth she felt like dancing. Sweetness was such a happy flavor, making her heart light and her feet lighter in turn. And suddenly she was spinning, bouncing happily in small, unplanned movements, moving to the feeling of the joy bubbling in her chest. Was it silly to dance because of a simple raspberry tart? Maybe, but she couldn't find it in her heart to care. That is until she very nearly careened into Solas who was suddenly there, the soft expression he reserved only for her lighting his face as he helped her regain the balance her surprise had stolen from her. She wasn't sure how he'd entered her room without her hearing, had she truly been so wrapped up in delighting over her treat? She felt her face redden as she thought of how her gluttonous happiness must look. He offered her his hand and she looked up at him quizzically. "May I have this dance, vhenan?" Her heart floated happily into her throat, buoyant on the warmth his voice always held (for her, only for her). She curtsied dramatically trying not to laugh as she gave him her answer. "Of course ma lath." She took his hand and he pulled her close, letting her lead him in the steps of her spontaneous dancing. The tarts were quite forgotten then, some moments were sweeter than anything the cook could bake after all.

Part 3: Wren and her alternate LI, Haleir

What's the first "date" Haleir takes Wren on, and does Wren realise that's what it is? 

Haven't actually thought about their first date before now but here goes! Before their first kiss, Haleir was content to just follow Wren wherever she wanted to go or to simply be in her presence at her home in kirkwall. After their first kiss (an achingly soft press of her lips to his, her heart was shattered, begging not to be broken again. He did not take more from her than this moment. Just held her close and pressed his forehead to hers, basking in the warmth of her fragile happiness. He would never abandon her.) he lets himself want to show Wren the wonders he knows how to reach through the eluvians. Nothing that would compromise the plans of the Dread Wolf, Haleir is not a complete fool, he knows he may be able to use the eluvians in this way once without Solas finding out. He takes Wren to the ruins of an elven observatory, not so much for the devices that once watched the heavens but for the books that map the stars. The world cut off from the fade can only see so many of the stars, the night sky now a dull comparison to the skies of arlathan. As they look over the star charts together Wren becomes the closest to herself that she's been in years, some of the ache in her chest is replaced by light happiness and the excitement of discovering that there are more stars to spin tales about. She spends hours pouring over the books with Haleir content to watch and listen. When they've spent enough time there that someone might take note of his absence, he notices wren's hesitation to put one of the books back on the shelf. Gently he covers her uncertain hand with his own, telling her to keep the book. Wren presses the precious gift to her chest, holding it as though it might disappear as they travel back through the eluvians. This time, Haleir kisses her.

A Wren and Hal scene I wrote

Can be found HERE

Some Wren and Hal AU smut in progress

Can be found HERE

Wren and Hal by @eluvilavellan​

Hal by @mik-arts​

Playlist for Wren and Hal

found HERE

Haleir in da:i

Haleir in sims3

A very dumb Hal video i made

Can be found HERE

Part 4: Wren Aesthetics, picrews, sims, etc.

Wren sims4

Wren sims3

Wren’s older sister Lyris (Lyre) Lavellan in sims3

Wren playlist

Can be found HERE

Wren flower symbolism

Muscari: Caring Love Mullein: Good Nature Tea: Harmony/Peace/Spiritual Connection/Rejuvenation/Change/Contentment Moonflower: Dreaming of Love/The Moon Blueberry Flower: Eternal Optimism Meadowsweet: Happiness/Peace/Protection

Wren and Solas flower symbolism

Mistletoe: Kisses/Peace/Safety/Poison Columbine: The emblem of deceived lovers Rain Flower: I love you back/I Must Atone For My Sins/I Will Never Forget You Snowdrop: Hope Eremurus: Endure Forget-Me-Not: Don’t forget me, Remember me forever Honeysuckle: Bonds of Love/Lover's Embrace/Clinging

Wren aesthetic by @mik-arts​

Wren aesthetic by @eluvilavellan​

annnnnnd I think that’s everything for now!

If you read this far then bless your soul because this was so much

if you want to know more about Wren her tag is #Wren Lavellan and you can shoot me an ask about her anytime! <3

[travelingtheusa]

ALABAMA

1 Jun 2020 (Mon) – We ran a bunch of errands today.  Shopped at CVS, WalMart, Publix, the liquor store, and the post office.  We also did laundry and stopped at McDonalds for breakfast while waiting for the clothes to finish.   We had lunch at an Irish pub, too.  They have a patio and we were able to eat outside.  I guess that’s the new criteria for picking a place to eat.  Our mail was forwarded from Texas and we received it with no problem.  We went into the lodge and settled up our bar tab back from the day we were in there for the tornado.  I called Memorial Sloan Kettering to have my medication shipped to me but the pharmacist said I had no refills.  She would have to call the doctor to get authorization.  She never called back so I’ll have to have it sent to me when we get to Indiana.

     I finished my 2018 Travels slideshow but now I can’t seem to burn it to a CD.  This is so frustrating!  I will have to see if Best Buy can help.

     We leave tomorrow.  We will try to avoid big cities so we don’t run into the rioters that are out there protesting the murder of George Floyd.  The country seems to be coming apart at the seams.

 31 May 2020 (Sun) – We stayed around the campsite today.  A gray dog is now in the yard next door along with one German shepherd.   I sat down and wrote letters to the Human Society, the police department, the County Animal Control Division, and the local animal shelter.  I hope they can save this dog.

 30 May 2020 (Sat) – Paul discovered one of the tires on the RV was low.  He filled it yesterday and it lost 10 pounds overnight.  He took it off and brought it to a tire repair store.  The mechanic said it was a bad valve and replaced it. Hope that does it.

     We got to Zoom with Caiden and Miranda today.  It was the first time using Zoom and turned out to be pretty easy to use.  Travis has been facetiming or calling almost every day to check on us.  I enjoy the contacts.

 29 May 2020 (Fri) – I asked to have our mail forwarded.  It should be Monday or Tuesday.  We will leave as soon as we get the mail.  We have to be up in Goshen, Indiana by June 8th.  Paul wants to stop by Vanleigh Vilano in Tishamingo, Mississippi first so they can take a quick look at the slide out and confirm our problem is a warranty issue.  Then it will be a fairly straight up to Indiana.

     I picked up garbage along the back and side of the property line. We have spent over two months looking at the stuff and I couldn’t take it any more.  I got two garbage bags full.  I probably could have gotten three bags of garbage if I wanted to dig into the leaves.

     Paul washed the truck and camper today.  We are getting ready to move on.

28 May 2020 (Thu) – We took a ride to Sokol Park, the same one we went to with Bonnie a few days ago.  But instead of going into the dog area, we hiked a trail through the woods. It was a short one but nice in the trees.  It was after 11 a.m. and the sun was hot.  Bonnie was soon panting heavily.  We didn’t do much more than a mile.

     After the park, we stopped at King’s Kitchen for lunch.  It was a café with tables on a patio.  We sat outside with Bonnie and ordered our meals. Bonnie enjoyed her burger very much. It was a very pleasant change of pace and the food was very southern.  Unfortunately, we noticed that they were not wiping down the tables after use. A couple sitting at a table nearby got up and left but the table sat with no cleanup.  When we finished, we wiped down our table and hands.  Then used sanitizer when we got in the truck.

 27 May 2020 (Wed) – We stayed around the camper today. Thunderstorms pummeled us most of the day, sending Sheba deep into the closet.

26 May 2020 (Tue) – Didn’t do much today.  It rained most of the day.  Paul worked on maps for the New York caravan.  I worked on the slideshow for our 2018 travels.  This is a very enjoyable project.

25 May 2020 (Mon – Memorial Day) – We had to go shopping today for pet food. Since we were out, we also went to the supermarket and picked up a few things.  We also stopped at McDonalds for breakfast.  I’ll bet the drive in places did especially well during this pandemic. People who don’t normally eat McDonalds or Wendys or Chick-Fil-A have gone there because delis and cafes have been closed.

     Noah called to facetime with us.  He’s so funny.  I love talking to him.  Travis had his in-laws over for a barbecue.  His brother-in-law was supposed to come over but didn’t.  We just hung around the camper for the rest of the day.  The sun is so damn hot!  It blazes bright, too.  Anything light colored seems to reflect and magnify the sunlight. Walking outside during the day absolutely requires sunglasses.  Walking the dog will be reduced to early morning and evening.  I imagine the roadway/parking lot gets very hot for her paws.  At the height of the day, it feels like standing in front of an oven.  The sun is certainly more intense down here in the south.  I rarely remember the sun feeling like this back up in New York.

 24 May 2020 (Sun) – The day started out overcast and oppressive but cleared up later.  I worked on creating a slideshow of our 2018 travels.  Paul is still trying to get the 2017 slideshow he did to burn on a disc and make a copy of our 2016 adventures.  The technology is very challenging.  

23 May 2020 (Sat) – We stayed around the campground today. In the afternoon, thunderstorms rolled in and my phone was dinging with weather advisories.  At 8:30 pm, I got another notice.  Thinking it was another weather advisory, I half glanced at the notice then sat bolt upright.  It was a Public Safety Alert that said “Escaped inmate seen in your area.”  It then went on to describe the man.  I went to the door and locked it.  Paul as quite amused by my reaction.

 22 May 2020 (Fri) - We slipped out early this morning and did laundry.  There was one woman with a small child and a repairman in the laundromat.  After the clothes went into the washer, we drove to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast and brought it back to eat in the truck.  There was a lot of traffic on the road.  Seems like the whole state has opened up.

 21 May 2020 (Thu) – We went to Home Depot today to pick up material for Paul to use in revising Sheba’s perch in the truck.  The shelf he has for her now is just a little too small. The new one will accommodate her better. With her spinal issues, she can’t curl into a ball like most cats so we have to make the form fit her straighter posture when she lies down.

     The parking lot was pretty full.  When we entered, a worker with a cell phone said she had us.  She was counting people as they entered the store and entering it into a program.  When we exited, another worker counted us.  One adds the number of people going in and the other subtracts the people going out.  I guess they are keeping the number of people in the store at any one time to a maximum number.  Most of the customers were not wearing masks.  We wore ours and all the employees had masks on.

     Governor Ivey held a press conference today.  She announced the openings of businesses and the restrictions that will stay in place.  She also said that people have to take personal responsibility for their own safety. I liked that.  There are many people who are not at risk for the coronavirus and shouldn’t have to remain at home.  Others, like us, are vulnerable and should take precautions to protect ourselves.  That is just a fact of life.

     There are two German shepherds in the yard of the house below us. Are these the original dogs that were there when we first arrived or two different dogs?  Where have they been if they’re the same dogs?  Does the guy have a business where he keeps his dogs for guard duty?  Hmmm.

20 May 2020 (Wed) – We took a ride around the corner this morning and got the address of the house below us where the man was abusing the dog yesterday.  If I see him doing anything like that again, I will call the police.

     We took Bonnie and drove to Capitol Park.  It contained the ruins of the capitol building that burned down in the late 1800s.  I don’t know how you can make ruins attractive but the town somehow managed to do it.  There were plaques all around telling the story of the buildings that used to be there. The park was small but neatly kept.

      Then we drove to a dog park.  It was almost 8 miles away (the UA Arboretum is still closed).  It was a very nice park – large, grassy area with a concrete walkway around the perimeter of the park.  It lets the owners walk while the dogs play.  Unfortunately, there was dog crap all over the place.  Apparently, people walk and talk on their cell phones and don’t pay attention to what their dog is doing.  No one picks up after their dogs.

     There was no sign of either of the dogs in the house below today. They were not out in the yard at all. I am distressed and at a loss at what to do.  I think he killed the two dogs.  When we first got here back in mid-March, there were 3 dogs in the yard (2 German Shepherds and a poodle) but I haven’t seen them in a while.  The 2 that were in the yard yesterday looked like border collies (black and white).  I don’t know if I am looking into the yard of a serial killer.  I want to call someone but I don’t know who.  To make it worse, Paul does not agree that there’s anything wrong and nixed my call.  He thinks I have watched too many TV shows about killers.

 19 May 2020 (Tue) – A new critter showed up next to our camper today! I was looking out the window when I caught sight of a small creature walking by.  I thought it was one of the cats that walk through the area from time to time.  There’s Blondie (a yellow tom), Tabby (a gray, striped tabby), and a black and white cat that we haven’t given a particular name to.  Anyway, when I looked closer at the gray ball of fur I discovered it was a groundhog.  It calmly walked along the edge of the grass, stopping to munch on the greens from time to time.  After a while, it went into the bushes and disappeared.

      I was very disturbed by an event that took place next door this afternoon. I was outside watching Sheba when I heard a dog screaming.  Looking down into the yard of the house below us, I saw a dog running back and forth in terror.  Thinking its friend (there were two dogs) was caught in something or facing off with a rattle snake, I strained to see what was going on.  The trees and bushes have grown in pretty thick.  What I witnessed horrified me!  A man was wrestling with a dog who was screaming.  Then the dog stopped screaming.  The man was kneeling on the dog and smacking it.  But the sound it made was not like anything I have ever heard before.  It was a kind of popping sound.  I yelled out, “Hey! That’s no way to treat an animal!”  He stopped hitting the dog but remained kneeling on it.  So I suggested that I was going to call the cops.  He got up and went into the house but I never saw the dog get up.  Later, the man walked back and forth to his shed a couple of times.  Neither dog was seen again.

18 May 2020 (Mon) – We went food shopping at Publix this morning. I really liked the assortment of choices.  Maybe we’ll make this our regular store.  We were both surprised with the amount of food we bought.  We didn’t think we needed that much.  The cost was over $300!  At least they had steaks.

     After shopping, we stopped at Another Broken Egg for breakfast. Sitting by the river, eating a scrumptious meal, was so delightful!

     This afternoon, we saw a few cars parked over at the lodge.  A guy in a pickup drove over and started talking with me while I was outside watching Sheba.  He said they opened up today but he wasn’t going in.  They never let us know what was going on.  They put up signs on the door the last time they were here describing the circumstances of their reopening.  One of them says “If you’re sick, don’t come in here!”  I thought that was pretty funny.  The other signs are just print outs from online that describe recommendations from the CDC and requirements from the Alabama Department of Health.  It basically called for a reservation or call ahead system.  Sounds restrictive to me.

15 May 2020 (Fri) – We drove to Moundville today and walked around the Archaeological Park.  It is an historical area with 29 mounds built between 1200 and 1600 AD.  The tallest mound was about 60’ high and had a great view of all the other mounds in the area.  It was quite a climb up!  Then we walked around the area.  It was almost 1.5 miles.  Good exercise.

     Afterward, we drove around Moundville looking at the area.  It is kind of depressed with a lot of run down, poor parts to the town.  We bought lunch at McDonald’s then stopped in the ABC store and picked up a couple of bottles of liquor.  It was good to get out again.

      When we got back, there were several cars parked at the lodge. We thought it had opened but it was probably the officers who were meeting to discuss the best way to open the lodge, given the restrictions the state is putting on businesses.  They were gone by 5 p.m.

 14 May 2020 (Thu) – We bought breakfast at Chick-fil-A, then went to the laundromat, put the clothes in the washers, and sat in the truck to eat our meal.  Clothes transferred from washer to dryer, we remained seated in the truck until it was done. One of the machines did not fully dry all the clothes and we put them back in for another 12 minutes.  They still came out damp but we just took them home and spread them out to air dry.

     When we pulled into the lodge parking lot, the neighbor’s dog was running loose (again).  It had managed to slip out of its harness and was exploring our campsite. I chased it back to their RV.  The lady didn’t even know the dog had escaped.

13 May 2020 (Wed) – We drove back to the Riverwalk this morning and had breakfast at Another Broken Egg Café.  We were the only people on the deck when we arrived but were joined by other couples as they arrived and chose to eat outside, too.  The meal was excellent and Bonnie especially enjoyed her scrambled egg.  When we were done, we walked the Riverwalk to the end and back.  There was a visitor’s center on the route and Paul stopped in to get some brochures on the area.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have much and the clerk wound up telling Paul to go online.

    We ran out of propane two nights ago.  He went out today and got a refill.

 12 May 2020 (Tue) – We put Bonnie in the truck and drove to the Riverwalk.  It was a very nice walk and the park was very nicely maintained and there were many people walking/running/biking on the trail.  We came across Another Broken Egg (a breakfast place) along the trail.  We will have to go there for breakfast. Parking is limited to just one hour so we���ll have to take a shorter walk if we stop to eat.  They are pet friendly so we could bring Bonnie and let her have breakfast out, too.  She’ll love that!

     When we arrived back at the lodge, a red SUV turned into the parking lot in front of us, drove to the back where our RV is parked, then left.  It looked like the same inspector who was here yesterday.  He had another man in the car.  Was this his boss on a field trip?  We’ll find out.

 11 May 2020 (Mon) – Another very warm day.  Summer is around the corner!  Someone was working around the lodge in the morning.  We went food shopping this morning.  We also stopped in two CVS stores to pick up hand sanitizer. We still can’t find Wet Ones (hand wipes).  At least, everyone seems to have worked out the toilet paper issue as everyone has it in stock.

     A man came onto our site today claiming to be an inspector with the County.  Someone complained about us being here.  He says there is no camping authorized here.  We pointed out that the hookups are not new; that they’ve been here for many years.  He dismissed our argument.  We had a very pleasant conversation.  He is originally from Elmira, New York and was sympathetic to our situation.  When I asked if he was going to evict us, he said no. He also recommended that we take a walk along the Riverwalk on the Alabama University Campus down the road. We’ll try it tomorrow.

 10 May 2020 (Sun-Mother’s Day) – The weather is getting hot. It starts out cool in the morning in the high 40s/low 50s but then the sun comes up and it burns hot.  It must be because we are closer to the equator that the sun feels so intense.  

    Folks have been working in the Elks Lodge all day.  Maybe it means the place is getting ready to open.  At 5 p.m. Paul went out to Olive Garden and picked up a meal for us to share. It was delicious!

9 May 2020 (Sat) – We ran out of milk today.  We walked next door to the Dollar General and picked up a quart of milk.  All the stores in the strip mall were open.  When we drove into town the other day, Paul noted that the mall was open. JC Penny’s was not open but the rest of the mall was.  Guess the state is starting to open up.  People are demonstrating in other states and a woman was arrested for opening her hair salon in spite of state directed orders to remain closed.  It’s starting to get hairy out there!

     We have been going back and forth with Jon Katin of the SMART Travel Committee.  They want us to put a cost to the NY caravan.  Most of the campgrounds don’t open until Memorial Day and many websites just say they are closed due to the pandemic.  They offer no information on prices.  We will have to wait until we can physically get up to New York to get the costs.  In the meantime, we have developed a caravan for 8 days in Reading, PA for the WWII Reenactment.  I sent that to Jon.  He is afraid that there are not enough travelers to fill all the caravans that being offered (5 of them).  How funny is that?  They were concerned about getting enough caravans and wagon masters to offer caravans. Now, they’re afraid they can’t fill them all.

 8 May 2020 (Fri) – It rained most of the day.  Paul picked up dinner from the Olive Garden tonight.  It was a pleasant change.  The food was good.  I finished the slideshow.  Once Paul has had a look at it, I’ll start one for 2017.

 7 May 2020 (Thu) – I think I am living Groundhog Day.  The past three mornings I have gotten up, the clock has read the exact same time: 6:54 a.m.  Weird, huh?  I have just about finished the slideshow for our 2016 travels.  

 6 May 2020 (Wed) – We went out early this morning to do laundry. There were already a couple of people in the laundromat.  After putting the wash in the machines, we sat in the car and ate our Chick-Fil-A breakfasts.  Then we went in to put the clothes in the dryer, then sat in the car playing with our iPad and iPhone.  When the laundry was done, we stopped at CVS on the way home to pick up hand sanitizers. We both went in and got one bottle each.

     Two dogs from the neighbor came into our campsite this afternoon and left deposits.  I had had enough!

I walked over and asked the lady to please keep their dogs on a leash.  I was pleasant; said “Please” and “Thank You” but was firm.  She said they run out when she opens the door.  I asked that she not let them do that.  Let’s see if my request holds.

5 May 2020 (Tue) – Since I have to sign for my medicine and UPS would be delivering it to the lodge, I sat outside all morning waiting for the truck to arrive.  At noon, two jets screamed overhead twice.  They were part of the Thunderbirds/Blue Angel Thank You tour they are doing around the country to show support for all the medical people who have worked so hard during this coronavirus pandemic.  I don’t know why we only got two planes when they usually fly in a group of five.

     Finally, at 1:00 pm, Paul drove to the local Mexican restaurant and picked up lunch for us.  Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we celebrated with margaritas and burritos.  While Paul was out, the UPS truck arrived.  I got my medicine, Paul returned with the food, and everything was fine.

     Our neighbor, whom we thought was leaving, is still here with his wife.  I guess they just went through spring cleaning around his rig.  They remain aloof and unfriendly.

 4 May 2020 (Mon) – We went food shopping at Winn Dixie this morning. Besides the cashier, there were very few people wearing masks.  Boy.  I don’t know how people can work in those things all day long.  It gets so hot and mine keeps sliding up into my eyes.  I think my mask is too big for my face.

     I called Memorial Sloan Kettering this afternoon and ordered a refill for my medication.  They said they would overnight the refill to me.

3 May 2020 (Sun) – We tried walking a new route this afternoon. We crossed the road onto a small country road that parallels the main road as well as the train tracks.  It has less traffic.  We came to an intersection and turned right, intending to go to a park just up the road.  Unfortunately, it is still closed.  The entire walk was about half an hour.  As long as our usual walk but not as intense.  The hill had a more gentle slope that the hills into either the apartment complex or the Elks lodge.

 2 May 2020 (Sat) – Our neighbor is still here.  We thought sure that he would leave today but he hasn’t. His wife is still here with their 3 dogs.  One dog keeps getting loose and running over to our area.  It wants to play with Bonnie so badly.  I feel sorry for it.  I also feel angry at the couple that can’t seem to get their dog under control. This lodge is on a very busy road and if their dog chooses to run to the road instead of over to us, it will not survive the experience.

 1 May 2020 (Fri) – We see that our camper’s wife is here. Maybe she came to help him pack up. He had a motorcycle which he took away in his work truck and did not bring back.  We never saw him ride it so maybe it was borrowed from someone at work or he was just holding it for someone.  

30 Apr 2020 (Thu) – We drove into town today to get pet food. While out, we stopped for lunch at McDonald’s then picked up bourbon and “43” at the liquor store.

     The other camper parked here in the parking lot of the Elks Lodge is packing up.  We’re guessing his work assignment is up and he is leaving tomorrow.

      I paid bills this afternoon.  I also have been working on gathering input for the Nomads chapter newsletter as well as still collecting pictures for a slideshow of our 2016 travels.

29 Apr 2020 (Wed) – Took two walks along our usual route.  Got in 2 miles plus whatever else we put in while watching the cat play outside.

28 Apr 2020 (Tue) – The Exalted Ruler of the Lodge stopped by today.  I was outside watching Sheba when a van pulled up to the dumpster and the guy got out to put garbage in the dumpster.  I waved so that the man would know I was watching him.  He got back in the van and drove over.  It turned out he was the ER.  He introduced himself and said he appreciated our offer to paint the lines in the parking lot but they already were working on having somebody do that.  He did give Paul permission to take down some piping they had put up a couple of years ago for a fair.  It took Paul all of a half hour to do that project.

     I started my next video project by putting all our pictures from 2016 into a slide show.  We have been to many places!

 27 Apr 2020 (Mon) – Our big adventure to Piggly Wiggly was a disappointment.  The store appears to be big but there selections were small and they carried a lot of unknown brands.  We had to finish off our shopping list at Winn Dixie.  

     After dropping off the foodstuff at the RV, we went to the laundromat and got our clothes washed.  And such was our big day in town.

 26 Apr 2020 (Sun) – The lodge secretary was helping a member today. She saw me sitting outside in the camp chair and drove over to introduce herself.  Her 90-year old mother was visiting from upstate New York when the virus hit so she is still here in a very extended visit.

     Sheba certainly is enjoying all the time she gets outside.  With us home all the time now, Bonnie and Sheba get lots of outdoor time.

 25 Apr 2020 (Sat) – Still hunkered down.  Noah called this morning to say thanks for his books.  I bought him 3 books because Travis said he would like them.  Apparently he had one of that type and just tore through it.  He does love to read!  The books are called “Everything You Want to Know About . . .” then there was “Math,” “English,” and “History.”  I also bought books for Hudson and Lincoln.  I also bought their parents ink and paper in order to be able to continue entertaining/home schooling the kids.

     I am surprised by how cool the weather remains.  I thought that Alabama was one of those hot southern states. It’s been in the high 40s, low 50s every morning.  Doesn’t get up past the 70s.  Although the sun burns hot on your skin.  I guess it has to do with being closer to the equator.

 24 Apr 2020 (Fri) – Nothing much going on.  Noah, our grandson, has learned how to call us on FaceTime.  He calls between 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. to talk about whatever he’s doing.  He’s such a happy, upbeat personality.  I love talking to him.  He makes me laugh so much.

23 Apr 2020 (Thu) – Thunderstorms came in last night.  There is so much rain here.  There are flash flood warnings everywhere.  Luckily, we are on high ground with no water bodies nearby so we don’t have to worry about that.  I am surprised that with all the rain, there aren’t more puddles.  They have an incredible drainage system in the area.

22 Apr 2020 (Wed) – We had rain a good part of the day. Hunkering down for rain tonight. Thunderstorms are on the way again. These storms seem to roll through about every 3 or 4 days.  

 21 Apr 2020 (Tue) – Nothing happening here. Took our daily walk. Talked with our son and his family. Noah has learned how to dial us up on FaceTime and calls when the urge grabs him.  He is so funny.  I thoroughly enjoy his calls.

 20 Apr 2020 (Mon) – Another storm system came through yesterday. It rained for 20 hours.  I usually enjoy thunderstorms.  I like to watch the lightning flash in the sky and feel the rumbling of thunder in my bones.  But these storms come with warnings of tornados and that scares me.  Of all the weather systems that can happen, tornados scare me the most.  I tried calling Malissa from the lodge but her phone kept saying the person “is not accepting calls at this time.”  That was very unsettling.  She is proving to be a very unreliable person.  She said she would come down on Tuesday to cook a dinner but never showed. That was the second time she did that. And then not being available when a potential emergency was looming?  Hmmmm.  Fortunately, no tornados came our way.

     We went into town today to get pet food at Pet Smart.  Then we drove around looking for a Piggly Wiggly but wound up shopping at a Publix.  They have traffic signs on the floor directing one way movement in the aisles. There was also a thick Plexiglas sheet between the cashier and customers.  This is a new world.  Next time we’ll shop at a Piggly Wiggly.  The excitement of new adventures!  We stopped at a Taco Casa for lunch.  The food wasn’t bad but I think I like Taco Bell better.

     The man from Wyoming left.  I guess that when I told him someone from the lodge would be down to open up the building in the event of a tornado watch, he was scared off – either because he realized his free stay was over or he just didn’t want to endure a tornado.

     There is a residential area behind us on the other side of bushes and fences.  One of the neighbors had a party Saturday night.  They barbecued food, played games, listened to music, and just plain had a great time with family and friends.  People are really starting to defy stay-in-place orders.  There were lots of cars on the road when we drove around today.  Paul thought it was because it was later in the day (we usually go out first thing in the morning).  Maybe.

 19 Apr 2020 (Sun) – We watched the church service back home in Islip this morning.  A very talented young man, Christian, played the trumpet.  It was mesmerizing!  I am glad they have been able to set up these digital services.

     We were able to FaceTime with our son, Travis, and his family. Noah is just the happiest and most lively child.  He always makes me giggle.  Hudson wants to talk but gets embarrassed and doesn’t know what to say. He has to be drawn out and given prompting.  What a difference between the two boy’s personalities.  I am looking forward to  discovering Lincoln.

  ��  Miranda sent a picture of Caiden with a missing tooth.  He lost his first tooth.  Unfortunately, he swallowed it while eating a PBJ sandwich.  I remember swallowing a tooth while eating watermelon.

18 Apr 2020 (Sat) – I got a message from CVS in Valrico, Florida, yesterday saying that Paul’s prescription was ready for pickup.  I called and arranged to transfer it to the CVS right by us here in Alabama.  We got a text message an hour later saying his prescription was all set.  We drove to the store and got his medications, then had lunch at Bojangles.  Picked up our order at the drive thru and brought it home.

     We haven’t seen anything of our new neighbor.  He has a motorcycle rather than a car in tow and it’s been gone every day, all day.  With everything closed, I wonder where he goes.  His RV is in really bad condition.  It is clear that he does not have a lot of money.  We think he pulled in here and stayed longer than he said he was going to because it’s free (he was just looking for a place to pull over for the night).  There is no one here to collect any money.  

     Paul’s sister, Joan, called today.  We did Facetime with them.  Joan & Peter are in the RV boondocking with her son’s family; Adam, Diane, and Devin (and the dogs).  Adam gave us a 360 degree shot of the surrounding area.  There are a few RVs parked out there in the desert.  It is the epitome of social isolation.

     Another weather system is headed this way tomorrow.  It will start in the morning but the worst part won’t hit until the late afternoon/early evening.  I hope Malissa is around to let us in the lodge.  She has proven to be a less than reliable person.

17 Apr 2020 (Fri) – We went out early this morning to do laundry. Nobody in the laundromat was wearing a mask except us.  I can’t figure this out.  The folks in the post office were mad at me for not wearing a mask.  The people in the grocery story were a mixed group – some wearing masks and some not.  Nobody in the laundromat was wearing a mask.  It is very confusing.

 16 Apr 2020 (Thu) – We ran out of propane during the night so we went out to buy some.  While we were out, we stopped at Wendy’s for lunch.  Then we drove around the nearby town of Cottondale looking at homes around Canyon Lake.  It really was in a small canyon with a very small lake.  The homes were all very nice; built of light colored brick.

     Another camper pulled in tonight.  His license plates are from Wyoming but he says he is a full-timer who does work kamping around the country.  He pulled a motorcycle out of his RV, which he uses to get around.  I didn’t spot anybody else with him but he put two camp chairs out.  Maybe it’s an invitation for someone to join him?

 15 Apr 2020 (Wed) – CVS gets their shipments on Wednesday so we went out to get some hand sanitizer today.  The first CVS had none so we drove down the road to a 24-hour store and they had some.  I wanted to buy two bottles but everyone is limited to one bottle per person.  So I bought one and then had Paul go in to buy one. So I got my two bottles.

     We also went food shopping at Winn Dixie.  About half the people in the store wore masks.  We wore our masks for the first time.  It is very uncomfortable and keeps pushing up into my eyes.  Accordingly, I kept pulling my mask down.  Isn’t the drawback to wearing masks that you touch it?

 13 & 14 Apr 2020 (Mon & Tue) – Just hanging out around the campground.

 12 Apr 2020 (Sun – EASTER) – There was no rain when we woke this morning. We left the bedroom slide pulled in but opened up the living room and kitchen.  The animals – Sheba in particular – are distressed with the rooms are pulled in.  I guess they don’t like change.  We took a walk in the morning then hunkered down waiting for the storms hit in the afternoon.

     At about 5:30 pm, the possibility of tornados was being reported on the weather channel.  We called Malissa from the Elks Lodge and she came down to open up the building.  She and her boyfriend, David, Paul and I along with Bonnie and Sheba all sat inside watching the weather channel for an hour. Finally, the weatherman indicated that tornadic activity was calming down as far as what was headed in our direction.  We returned to the camper and Malissa and David went home.  An hour later, Malissa called to say they were on the way back to the lodge because a tornado was on the ground.  The news said nothing about it.  We grabbed the animals and our go bag and ran to the lodge amid fire sirens going off and my phone beeping in with warnings to find shelter immediately. The sky opened up and it rained so hard, you couldn’t see the camper from the deck of the lodge.  A tornado touched down about 13 miles north of us in a mobile home park (they always go for the trailers!).  After two hours, the news (again) said there were no more tornados headed in our direction.  With that, we said good night and returned to the trailer.  It was an exciting night.

 11 Apr 2020 (Sat) – We took our walk around the usual route twice today.  For dinner, Paul ran out and picked up KFC.  We are preparing for severe thunderstorms and a possible tornado tomorrow. Paul will pull in the slides tonight and park the truck under some trees to minimize hail damage.

 10 Apr 2020 (Fri) – We drove to the post office first thing this morning.  We arrived at 8:15 a.m. only to discover that they didn’t open until 9:00 a.m.  We then took a quick trip to a nearby bank to get some money at the ATM.  It is amazing how little we think of all the things we touch in a day.  Now that we are  so much more aware of infection, every little thing seems like a threat – doorknobs, countertops, desks, keypads, shopping bags, money, etc.  It’s become a very scary world!

9 Apr 2020 (Thu) - It was another trip to the outside world today. We needed to send off an Easter package to the grandkids so it was a stop at the post office.  That was an adventure in itself.  There was a long line of people waiting to get in.  It looked longer than it actually was because people were leaving 6 to 8 feet between them and the person in front of them. There were 9 people in front of us. The line moved very slowly and it was a half hour before we got to the desk.  There was only one clerk working.  She explained that one of the employees caught the virus so they shut the place down.  All the meters and registers were off.  She was working with something like a smart phone.  Nothing could be metered.  She could only accept flat rate items and she could not accept cash; payment by card only. I got to send off the two packages but was not able to mail off our taxes.  

     We stopped at CVS and Walgreens to see if they had any hand sanitizer.  Neither did. There were some food trucks out so we stopped for lunch at a Mexican Taco truck.  The food was terrible and they used the wrong kind of cheese.  We won’t do that again!  While out, we also stopped at an ABC Store – a state run liquor store.  Actually, two stores.  The first store only had one bottle of Red Stag and no 43.  The owner called over to another store and found they had what we wanted so we drove there and bought another bottle of Red Stag and a bottle of 43.

     At 6 p.m., we fired up the iPad and tuned into the Islip Methodist Church Maundy Thursday service.  There was only the pastor, the organist, and our cousins – Lee and Donna – performing the service.  It was communion so we poured some wine and broke off some bread and followed along with the service.  It seemed weird to be reading the response while sitting in our living room.

 8 Apr 2020 (Wed)

– We stayed in today.  I counted the cars on one of the freight trains that go by every day. There were a hundred cars on it. It’s amazing that so many of those very heavy cars can be moved at one time.

7 Apr 2020 (Tue) – We ventured out today.  First stop was at the laundromat to put the laundry in the wash. Next stop was at Winn Dixie where we picked up groceries.  We went back to the trailer to put away the food.  Then it was back to the laundromat to move the wash to the dryers.  We then went to Chick-Fil-A for a late breakfast. Then it was back to the laundromat to collect our clothes.  Paul brought in a wipe and wiped down the table we folded the clothes on.  We put on gloves everywhere we went but we did not wear face coverings.  Last night, President Trump asked the nation to voluntarily wear face masks to continue fighting the coronavirus.  The number of infections are falling, thanks to the people who are complying with the CDC guidance to self-isolate (most states have imposed lockdowns and curfews), practice social distancing, and wash your hands.  Over a million people have been infected worldwide with thousands of deaths.  It is amazing how infectious this virus is.  It is in 184 countries now.  The world truly is a mobile place.

 6 Apr 2020 (Mon) – UPS delivered my medicine from New York today. I put a sign on the mailbox telling the UPS driver to bring the package to us in the RV.  Paul happened to be up on the roof when the driver pulled in and waved the guy over.  He spent several minutes arguing with me about why he shouldn’t give me the package. It was addressed to the Elks, but my name was also on the envelope.  He told me he was supposed to give it to the lodge, not us in back.  If we need to have mail sent to us here, we should ask the lodge to assign us a lot number.  After going back and forth, he finally gave me the package.   When I said I was supposed to sign for it, he said they are not allowing anyone to touch the pad.  He signed for me.

     As I was sitting outside waiting for the UPS driver to arrive, someone from the lodge drove over to check on us.  She said they were going to have wings and beer tomorrow.  I told her we would have some, too.  Weird.  Aren’t they supposed to remain closed with the 24-hour curfew in place?  

 5 Apr 2020 (Sun) – We tuned in on Facebook and watched the church service back home in Islip.  The picture was dark like they didn’t turn the lights on.  Maybe they’re trying to save money.

 3 Apr 2020 (Fri) – We opened the package my sister sent.  It included mostly supplements I had ordered and sent to her because UPS won’t deliver to us here.  She repacked my orders and sent them in one big box.  

     Paul took the fifth-wheel hitch off and worked on sanding it. He’ll repaint it and make it look all nice again.  I worked on getting our taxes done.

 2 Apr 2020 (Thu) – We drove to the UPS store to pick up a package my sister mailed to us.  We placed it in the bed of the pick up to sit overnight.  We will open it tomorrow.

     Since we were out already, we stopped at Freddy’s for lunch.  It was ok.  After we got our food at the drive-up window, we parked and walked over to their outside tables to eat our meal.  There was a sign on the table saying that their outside dining area was closed.  We walked back and sat in the truck to eat.

     After lunch, we drove to three different liquor stores looking for our favorite liquor.  They were all small and had none of our choices in their selection.  The bigger stores are the ABC Liquor Stores but they are all closed.  We think they are state run.  We will have to make do with the wine we can pick up in the supermarket until things open up again.

     At 6 p.m. I called a nearby Mexican restaurant to order a meal for pick up. The website said that due to the volume of calls they get, they added a second number.  They failed to say that second number was at another location. When Paul drove to the restaurant, they did not have our order.  After he left, apparently that restaurant called their other site and found our call had gone there.  We worked out the misunderstanding, replaced our order, and was able to pick it up. Besides the food, we got a half gallon of margaritas.  A bottle of Jose Cuervo and a container of margarita mix were included in the order. It looks like we could probably get 8 glasses out of it!

 1 Apr 2020 (Wed) – Just hung out today.  Took two walks along our now familiar circle of across the parking lot of the lodge, across the parking lot of the strip mall next door, up the hill around the apartment complex, and back to the camper.

 31 Mar 2020 (Tue) – We ventured out today wearing plastic gloves. Didn’t see many people with face masks. Went food shopping at Winn Dixie. They have designated 7 to 8 a.m. for seniors and 8 to 9 a.m. for first responders.  There was no one at the door checking IDs so I guess anyone could go in if they want to.  Then we drove to Pet Smart for pet food.  Next door was The Fresh Market.  We went in to get some fresh produce.  On the way back, we stopped at a CVS.  Everywhere we go, I look for hand sanitizer but we can’t find any – all sold out.  I wound up buying a nasal saline wash.  Each time we go out, we will use the nasal wash and gargle with salt water.

 30 Mar 2020 (Mon) – It rained most of the day.  We finally finished scanning all the photo albums into the computer.  The trains riding by blow their whistles and fill me with longing to move on.  We have been here now for 14 days.  The governor of Alabama instituted a 24 hour curfew. Apparently, the 10 p.m. curfew didn’t work.  Teenagers were hanging out at gas stations since the bars are closed.  Someone got shot so now everyone is in lockdown. Crazy!

29 Mar 2020 (Sun) – Adventure abounds!  I have just returned from two days in the hospital.  What happened, you ask?  Well, let me tell you.  

     We were hiking in the woods at Harris Lake in Tuscaloosa.  We were about a mile in on the trail, stopped at a dam and sitting by the stream.  I suddenly got very shaky, my vision dimmed, and I complained of a severe headache. Paul tells that I then lost my memory. I had no idea where we were, where we have been, or even that there is a virus ravaging the country.  

     We hiked back out of the woods (I don’t remember any of it), got in the truck, and drove to the nearest hospital.  I “came to” during the ride in the truck where Paul was telling me I had an episode.  He thought I had a stroke.  First stop was at a VA hospital but they didn’t have an emergency room so we were directed to a civilian hospital down the road.  

      There was a person sitting at a desk outside the entrance to the emergency room dressed in a gown, cap, gloves, and mask.  She put me in a wheelchair and brought me inside.  Paul was not allowed to enter the hospital. After being checked in at the desk, I was wheeled into the emergency room.  Almost all of the staff was gowned and wearing face masks.   They drew blood and sent me for a chest x-ray and found nothing.  The doctor wanted an MRI but they couldn’t get me scheduled until the next day so I agreed to be admitted for the night.  Paul was still not allowed in the hospital so the staff advised him of what was happening.

     The experience in the hospital was unsettling.  First, I was placed in a room all by myself.  The doors to all rooms on the floor were kept closed at all times.  Only one staff person at a time was allowed in patient rooms and contact was kept to a minimum.  I spent hours behind closed doors feeling like I had been forgotten about.  I got an MRI of the brain and they took more blood. A doctor came by to say everything was normal and left to see when the neurologist was going to come by.  Next thing I knew, a nurse came in and said I was being sent for an ultrasound of the carotid arteries.  The nurse said I was also scheduled for an echo cardiogram but she didn’t know when it would happen.  It turned out later that it would be the next day so I had to stay another night in the hospital.

     At 6:00 a.m. this morning, they took me down for the cardiogram.  A neurologist and his P.A. showed up later to say all the tests returned normal.  There was nothing on the brain MRI, the EKG, the cardiogram, the x-ray, or the bloodwork to explain what happened.  The good news was that there is nothing big that is wrong with me.  It’s possible I suffered a TIA, which, as he explained it, is a kind of catch all diagnosis when they don’t really know what happened.  He recommended that I follow up with a neurologist and a cardiologist after I get out of the hospital.

     I was finally given the all clear and discharged at 2 p.m.  Paul had to pull up to the entrance (all entrances were closed except one), check in with the security guard, call up to the room to tell me he was there, then wait for me to be brought out.  I then had to call the nurse’s desk and ask for a transporter to take me downstairs.  It took more than half an hour for someone to show up.  Paul was entertained while he waited for me.  A guy came out of the hospital to get some food from a truck parked outside.  When he tried to go back into the hospital, the security guard refused to let him in. Yelling and shouting ensued.  People showed up and the crowd grew as the guy tried to get back into the hospital.  Apparently, he was a patient and kept yelling he was not going to stay. Finally, a supervisor came out and allowed the man in.  A few minutes later, he exited the hospital with his belongings.  They don’t fool around down here!

     When I was wheeled out, I told Paul not to touch me.  I had instructed him to spray the seat with Lysol before I sat down.  When we got back to the trailer, I stripped naked standing outside in front of the stairs then went directly into the shower.  While I scrubbed down, Paul washed my clothes and sprayed down my purse and shoes.  I hope we got all the spores I might have brought back with me.  Only time will tell.  It is good to be home.

 26 Mar 2020 (Thu) – There are some railroad tracks across the road from the lodge.  Several freight trains roll by every day.  I saw an Amtrak passenger train barrel through one day.  I don’t know if they go by on a regular basis.  I guess they do.  I just don’t see them.  I hear the train whistles and rumbles often.

     There is a small strip mall with six shops next door.  The only shop open is Subway.  Next to that is a small child care center.  It was closed when we first arrived but there were children in there today.  I don’t know if they have reopened or if they are only watching children of health care workers.  They were all little tykes, somewhere between 2 and 5.

     Next to the child care center and up a small hill is an apartment complex.  At least once a day, we walk past the shops and child care center, up the hill, and around the parking lot of the complex.  I don’t think it amounts to more than a total of one mile but at least it’s a little bit of exercise.  

     The name of the child care center is Little Roll Tide Academy. There are a lot of businesses around here with the word “Tide” in them.  Apparently, the U of Alabama has a team called Crimson Tide and the team chant is Roll Tide.  I don’t get it but then again, I don’t live here or go to the games.  I guess the locals find it reassuring.

 25 Mar 2020 (Wed) – Paul read that Winn Dixie is restricting the first hour to shopping by senior citizens.  He thought the time was 7 to 8 a.m. but when we got there, it turned out to be 8 to 9 a.m.  So we drove down to a laundromat and threw the laundry in the machines.  What a rip off!  The machines were $4.50 each, but another $0.50 for hot water for the whites. Then the dryers were $0.25 for six minutes.  I think it was the smallest load we’ve ever washed for the most money.  One washer wound up sucking our money and we had to spend another $5.00.  The attendant couldn’t do anything about it.  She is not authorized to give refunds.  

     Between washing and drying, we went to Winn Dixie for groceries. There were a few seniors there when we went in - most of them wearing face masks.  The shelves were, for the most part, well stocked.  The cleaning aisle was half empty and the cashier was limiting purchases to either Lysol spray or Clorox wipes but not both.  They had no hand sanitizer.

      We also stopped in to Walgreens so I could get batteries for my hearing aid.  They had no hand sanitizer either.

 24 Mar 2020 (Tue) – It turns out the lilac tree is wisteria and it is growing all over the place.  Looks so nice.  It is tough to just sit here day in and day out.  There is no sidewalk on the highway so we can’t take long walks.  Even Bonnie is getting bored with walking circles around the parking lot.  Paul looked up a nearby park but when we drove there, we found it closed.  I went to Trip Advisor and found a county park then I called to be sure they were open and dogs were allowed.  The answer was YES to both.  We drove a half hour to Lake Lurleen State Park.  It has 1,625 acres of hiking trails, camping, and water activities (but no boat rentals for now).  We walked a trail.  Bonnie lasted about 25 minutes then got too tired to go on (we were on a 4-mile loop trail).   It was nice to get out in the woods and smell the pine and hear the birds.

      On the way back, we stopped for lunch at Bojangles (a chicken place).  We both had fried chicken and fries.  The times, they are a-getting’ desperate!

23 Mar 2020 (Mon) – There is a beautiful lilac tree in the back of the parking lot next door.  The trees are starting to bud.  Spring is not affected by the virus.  Luckily, neither are we.  The statistics say that Alabama is the third lowest state to have the virus, so it is a good place to be.  I pray for our friends and family every day.  It is maddening not to be there to watch over them.  

 22 Mar 2020 (Sun) – Well, we finished up the Longmire series. Now we will start watching the videos we have been carrying around with us.  Some are good; some not so good.

 21 Mar 2020 (Sat) – We are binge watching the Longmire series. We bought the entire six seasons a few weeks ago and will now finish it off.  Other than that, it’s watching the daily news briefings about the coronavirus on TV, walking the dog, and hanging out.  Cabin fever is already starting to set in.

20 Mar 2020 (Fri) – We ventured out to shop today.  First, we went to Vowells Fresh Market.  The produce seemed old.  Many of the shelves were empty, especially the cleaning supplies aisle.  We both wore plastic gloves.  The cashier did not have any gloves on.  I thanked her for working during this crisis.  She admitted she is very scared.

     We then drove to the nearby grocery, The Fresh Market.  It was more like the health food stores back home. It had a fresher, better stocked look to it.  The produce was fresh and most of the shelves were full.  There was a delightful deli section with salads.  That cashier wasn’t wearing any gloves either.  I guess they’re not as concerned here.

     After shopping, we drove around the area to see what stores are around. There are quite a few.  This is a built up area and it doesn’t look like we will have any problems shopping for what we need.  I stopped in a GNC shop looking for zinc sulfate and nasal saline but they had neither.  We also stopped at a CVS but they didn’t have any either.  One of the clerks was wearing a mask and gloves.  Made me feel a little more justified for our caution. Silly, isn’t it?

      We have been watching the daily news briefings by the Coronavirus Task Force.  Each day, more action is being taken to try to counter the spread of the virus.  It is amazing how far and wide this thing has spread around the world.  It will have to run its course.  I initially thought it would go away when the warm weather arrived but it’s starting to look like that won’t happen.  They’re predicting it will take 18 months to clear up.  They also revealed that men have twice the mortality rate as women for those who have died.  How depressing!  

 19 Mar 2020 (Thu) – It was a quiet day.  I would have preferred to stay in the Army Corps of Engineers campground in Montgomery among the moss covered trees and the lazy river.  It would have been more in commune with nature. Instead, we are camped in a parking lot at a closed lodge on a busy highway.  At least there are several stores close by.  On one side is a small strip mall with a Subway, an insurance company, a nail salon, and a child care center.  On the other side is a larger mall with a grocery store called Vowells Fresh Market.   Next to that is another supermarket called The Fresh Market.  On the corner at the traffic light is a Walgreens and across the street is a Winn Dixie and a CVS.  There are some eateries and other small businesses.  Many of the small businesses have signs on the door that say they are closed until March 31.  The news said Governor Cuomo in New York has directed ALL nonessential businesses to close for two weeks.  That means Travis & Sam and Miranda & Kenny are out of work.  Well, maybe not Kenny.  He works at a beer distributor that also sells food.  Maybe they will stay open.  What a mess!

18 Mar 2020 (Wed) – We called the campground to see if we could extend our stay for two weeks only to be told the campground is closed. Everyone is being allowed to stay when they paid through to, but then must leave.  No extensions.  Since today was our check out date, we were literally kicked out.

     We packed up and left Montgomery at 9:45 a.m.  The drive was pleasant and uneventful.  We arrived at the Elks Lodge in Tuscaloosa at 12:15 p.m.  There are 9 campsites along the site of the lodge on the grass with full hookups.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you look at it), there was a sign on the door that says the lodge is closed until further notice.  This is in line with all the other notices that have been flooding my phone for days.  Schools are closed, restaurants are only serving take out, colleges have switched to online classes, all federal and most state campgrounds are closed, and some states have called out the National Guard to help with the crisis.  Today, the president invoked the Defense Production Act, an act of wartime activity.  It authorizes him to have manufacturing ramp up to make required products to combat an enemy.  In this case, the corona virus.  It’s crazy!

 17 Mar 2020 (Tue) – Took a quick foray out to get fuel in the truck.  On the way back, we stopped at a fruit and vegetable stand to pick up a few things. The man staffing the small booth was very old with just a few teeth.  He had a heavy southern accent and was hard to understand.  I bought 2 oranges, 2 sweet potatoes, and a watermelon.

      At the entrance to the road leading to the campground stands a Dollar General store. We stopped in there and found toilet paper on the shelf.  We picked up a pack as well as a few other items then returned to the campground. Later, we cooked burgers and corn on the cob for dinner and sat by a delightful fire as the sun set.  What a great campground this is!  The lazy river drifts by, the trees are covered in Spanish moss, and there are lots of trees and few campers.  We could spend the next month here.

 16 Mar 2020 (Mon) – Johnny & Linda packed up and left this morning.  It seems empty now.  We are just sitting around listening to the birds and watching the lazy river drift by. I know we are safe from the craziness of the coronavirus panic going on elsewhere in the world, but it kind of feels surreal.  Kind of like we are the survivors of an apocalyptic event.  We are the only survivors and we have run away to a safe place to hide from the zombies.  That’s what we get for watching all those science fiction movies for years.

 15 Mar 2020 (Sun) – Linda made pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Then we went into Prattville for lunch at Hooters.  Johnny has a hood of a race car (it’s really a plastic replica) where he has gone around to different Hooters and gotten the girls to sign it.  So he brought the hood in and had the girls all sign it.  They started out hesitant to do it but by the end of lunch, they were all enthusiastic and amused by his project. I didn’t care much for their food but the margarita was good.

     Back at the campground, Linda again cooked the meal of the day. She prepared wild rice with chicken and corn on the cob.  Our visit with them has been a lot of fun and we look forward to seeing them in New York this summer.  

14 Mar 2020 (Sat) – Linda made tacos for lunch.  I made steak, baked potatoes, and grilled asparagus for dinner.  We are enjoying each other’s company so much. We just hung out around the campground today and delighted in God’s country.

 13 Mar 2020 (Fri) – Linda made Cady Lake Hash for breakfast.  It’s like our frittatas.  You take whatever left-overs you have in the fridge and cook them up with eggs.  It is very good.

    After much discussion, we all decided to go to Alabama to camp out.  It is one of the few states that has not reported a coronavirus infection.  Johnny & Linda fell in behind us and we headed out to Gunter Hill Campground, an Army Corps of Engineers park.  I don’t know if it is related to the virus hysteria or they were doing repairs, but the three rest areas we wanted to stop at were all closed.  We finally pulled into a travel plaza to stretch out legs and walk the dogs.

    We arrived at the campground around 1:30 p.m.  We are both parked in the same site but it has two hookups.  We have water and electric, with a dump station somewhere on the grounds.  We are right on a river front.  With the moss covered trees, the meandering waterway, and lots of room between campers, it feels like we are in another world.  It is peaceful and remote.

    At 3 p.m., Paul and I drove to the Maxwell-Gunter AFB nearby to get some groceries at the commissary.  It was a surreal experience.  All the shelves were half empty.  There was no toilet paper, no tissues, no Vitamin C, and no hand sanitizer (I still don’t get the run on toilet paper).  The line went across the front of the store, up the side aisle, and down the back side.  We were on line for 45 minutes.  And this was the commissary on a base with only military folks!  I hate to imagine what WalMart or Publix looks like.

    We enjoyed wine at our campsite last night, all talking and solving the problems of the world.  Johnny & Linda will be here with us for three nights before heading back home.  We wanted to stay a week but they only had five days available.  It is a very nice campground.

[bloodelves88]

Trip to Taipei/Hualien/Taichung/Puli, Taiwan (Part 3)

Part 1 here (Hualien). Part 2 here (Taipei). Part 4 here (Taichung/Puli). Part 5 here (Puli). Part 6 here (Puli/Taichung/Taipei).

Day 4

Woke up around 9:30am today. One of my friends wanted to go somewhere to buy tea leaves and left earlier to buy it while we waited in the hotel room. That friend came back around 10:15am, and we left to find breakfast. We went to a bread shop and I bought a baguette sandwich and some other thing I don’t remember. 

We ate while walking, and we headed off to Pingxi/Shifen. It takes a little less than two hours to get there, so it’s a pretty long journey.

Anyway, Shifen is known for two things. Its street food and releasing sky lanterns. You’re supposed to write your wishes on the lantern, then a fire is lit under it and you release it. It floats off into the sky... never to be seen again.

We didn’t release any lanterns. 

I only bought one street food item, and it was some ice cream with peanuts wrapped in a pancake. It’s pretty nice. The ice cream isn’t really ice cream though, it’s more like some sort of sorbet. I have no idea. 

We managed to see someone’s lantern (and wishes) burn to ashes. All these lanterns are being released in between two rows of two storey buildings (photo below), so there’s always a risk of the lanterns hitting the buildings. The typhoon was also due to hit today, so it’s particularly windy. 

Anyway, for some reason we decided to go to the Pingxi waterfall first instead of having lunch. It’s 2pm now. For this whole trip, our meal times are all messed up 😅

My friend’s cap got blown away and off the bridge that goes across this lake, never to be seen again 😩. Ah well.

Another suspension bridge. This one swayed from side to side rather much. 

A small waterfall on the way to the main one.

The swing on the left oh the above photo works, so we sat on it. It’s been a while since I sat on a swing. This one isn’t as nice though. I think the single person ones are nicer.

There’s a mini street food area just before the waterfall here. 

I bought a frozen dragon fruit. I thought it was ice cream but it just turned out to literally be a frozen dragon fruit.

Papaya on the tree. People actually wrapped it up already. Lol.

Doggies! Animals are very prevalent in Taiwan. They roam around freely, and owners bring them around freely. It’s great. It’s particularly cute when their owners put their pets in their bags and carry them around. They also sit in the bags while on motorbikes. 

First glimpse of the Pingxi Waterfall. It’s really wide and majestic.

And then the typhoon hit(?) I’m not really sure if it’s the typhoon, but the rain was going sideways and the winds were really strong. Fortunately there was shelter nearby and it only lasted 10 minutes or so. 

The above waterfall photo is from above Waterfall Obeservation Area 4. We decided to go to the Natural Experience Area to see what it’s about.

It turned out to be a hut, and a pathway with named plants.

Anyway, down to the Observation Area 1.

And then Observation Area 2.

Then Observation Area 4.

You can get really close here. I love the first drop of the waterfall. It’s so neat and calm and pretty. 

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for the waterfall. It’s now 4pm and we still haven’t had lunch 😅

We went through the mini street food area and my friend suggested to eat there. I didn’t really want to, since the street food didn’t look to my liking. It was mainly fried stuff.

We continued back to Shifen. We saw a cafe and just decided to enter.

We decided to sit all the way inside the cafe... and what’s this?

A cat corner!

I was pretty amused by this cat. He kept trying to stick his paw out to grab food. I think he somehow threw some food out of his cage. Later he sticks his paw out to touch the corner of the walls. Really cute and amusing.

We ordered waffles to share, and a rice dish to eat. 

The waffles are not bad. Could have been crispier though.

A fat cat suddenly walked in o.o. I think he followed the shopkeeper in. He came out and chased the cat out.

I ordered braised pork with rice. It’s pretty good, but really filling because there’s a lot of rice.

Random cats hiding under an umbrella on our way back. There were also people releasing fireworks nearby. Didn’t manage to get a picture or video of that though.

Anyway, back to the train station, back to Taipei. We decided to change our tickets to Taichung today, since the tickets we bought weren’t actually fixed yet. It’s paid for, but you still need to go to the counter and decide on a time for the tickets you want. We decided to get the tickets for 12:31pm. And since we were back at Taipei Main Station again, we decided to walk down Taipei City Mall again. This time, the other side of it (it has 2 lanes).

Sumikko Gurashi is really popular in Taiwan. They’re everywhere. Stickers, bags, plushies, gachapon, claw machines, motorbike helmets... Understandable, since they’re so cute.

Custom skinned consoles are always a joy to look at. And look at that copper controller, it’s really sexy.

Then we came across someone dancing. He was playing Just Dance using the Kinect. The Kinect is really a wonderful piece of equipment, too bad it kind fizzed out and died. There were people behind him following the dance as well. He danced really well, he’s not some amateur.

Then we came across a retro shop. Oh boy I’ve never seen most of these before.

Ancient Relics, these things.

They also sell the games to go along with the consoles. So if you want to access some of the past, I don’t think you’ll have any issues here (I’m assuming the consoles work).

I also bought a White Blood Cell. Not an actual one, but the guy from Hataraku Saibou. 

Then, we came across an Indonesian section. I was kind of perplexed by this. Hmmm.

Interesting.

Then I saw some people carry really huge ice creams, and I tried to look for the shop. NT$35 for a double scoop at that size?! A must buy. There were three shops side by side, and one of them had a queue of over ten people, so nope.

 I forgot to take a picture before eating it, so here’s a smaller half licked one. It’s matcha on top and chocolate at the bottom.

Dinner time! We walked back to Ximending and went into one random shop.

I ate the chicken noodles, and my friends ate the other two. 

I also ordered some milk tea with pearls. I mean it’s Taiwan, the origin of milk tea. How could you not order it?

It was much later than we thought, as we spent too much time walking around in Taipei City Mall. We planned to go to the arcade at night and it closes at 11pm. It’s now 9:30pm. Yup, a messed up meal time again.

My friend left an umbrella in the shop we had dinner at, so we had to go back to find it. Fortunately, the umbrella was still there. 

Anyway, arcade time!

The unique thing about this arcade is that it has a batting cage, and a BB gun shooting range. 

My friend who’s interested in baseball went to play in the batting cages, and I went with my other friend to explore the arcade. The arcade wasn’t really interesting, the games aren’t that fun. We played the taiko drums, which wasn’t fun because it was too easy. Then my friend decided to play this game where you guide a ball through a course and try not to let the ball fall off. It’s a scam! It falls off at totally unexpected places. There’s already obvious places it could fall off from, and they aren’t easy to avoid. But they just had to make it harder with unexpected traps.

After that, we wanted to try the guns, but it was too close to 11pm and they weren’t accepting anymore players. We went down to the arcade just one level below, which wasn’t very interesting either. The doors closed to leave a small gap by then. Getting chased out.

Anyway, back to the hotel, and the end of day 4.

Part 1 here (Hualien). Part 2 here (Taipei). Part 4 here (Taichung/Puli). Part 5 here (Puli). Part 6 here (Puli/Taichung/Taipei).

[scotianostra]

January 14th 1872 saw the death of the world's most famous wee dug, Greyfriars Bobby.

It’s a well-known tale - how a faithful little dog would not leave his master’s grave. It caught the imagination of the sentimental Victorians almost as soon as Bobby had taken up residence in Greyfriars Kirkyard. The story became the basis of a popular novel by a well-educated American lady called Eleanor Atkinson, in 1912. So let's see how much Eleanor Atkinson got right.

In her best-seller, she describes Bobby: “He was only a little country dog — the very youngest and smallest and shaggiest of Skye terriers — bred on a heathery slope of the Pentland hills, where the loudest sound was the bark of a collie or the tinkle of a sheep-bell.”

As she relates the tale, Bobby’s master, Auld Jock, was a ‘farm laborer’ at Cauldbraes Farm in the Pentland Hills. (Atkinson invented the name.) He came to the Wednesday agricultural markets in the city and took his mid-day meal at a restaurant in Greyfriars Place.

The proprietor’s name was John Traill. ( Auld Jock aka John Gray is also described as a shepherd.)

Unlike some hostelries today, this establishment was obviously dog-friendly and Bobby always got something to eat as well.

Anyway, in her narrative, Jock and Bobby turn up unexpectedly at Traill’s place on a winter night. The wee dog’s master is very ill.

Traill tries to get a doctor. Jock slips away to his lodgings, which is in a poor part of town - actually, a slum off the Cowgate - a short walk from Greyfriars. He is found dead there the next day.

Longish story short, legend has it that dog maintains vigil at graveside but when he hears the One o’ Clock Gun he slips round the corner to Traill’s eatery, where he has a meal.

The faithful Bobby does this for 14 years, and even has the local Lord Provost (Eng: ‘mayor’) paying for his dog licence, which was required after introduction of the 1867 Dog Duty Act.

In her book, Atkinson reveals an ear for creating her own Scots dialogue, or at least how her readership imagined Scots spoke. (When Jock becomes feverish and ill, however, she has Mr Traill saying that ‘He’s aff his heid’ - which has a slightly different meaning today.)

On to the facts.

Edinburgh’s archives revealed that Bobby’s owner was definitely one John Gray, who died in 1858. Indeed, he had been a farm labourer but joined the police force later. His occupation is recorded as such in the Greyfriars Burial Register. This also gives his address - sure enough, just off the Cowgate.

According to records, policemen patrolling the city market beat were obliged to have watchdogs with them - so we can say that it is likely Bobby was a policemen’s dog.

The dogs helped the policemen guard the animal pens overnight ahead of the weekly sales of stock in the Grassmarket, below Edinburgh Castle.

John Traill, the restaurant owner with the apparent close connection to the dog. Turns out he didn’t start to run the restaurant till four years after John Gray died.

The restaurant or coffee-house associated with Bobby had had a series of owners before that. However, it seems that after his night duty down in the Grassmarket, Gray used to have a meal there, and Bobby was fed as well. The Traills did indeed befriend Bobby and there are pics to prove it!

Incidentally, it’s now a phone and computer repair shop.

As for the One o’ Clock Gun ‘tradition’ - the firing of a time-check gun didn’t get under way till 1861 - three years after Bobby lost his master and took up residence by his burial plot.

Apparently, it was a certain Sergeant Scott, based at Edinburgh Castle who heard about Bobby in 1861, befriended him and taught him to turn up at the restaurant after he heard the gun go off.

So, we have a core of provable facts, that over the years became a little embellished.

Also the wee terrier’s loyalty did not necessarily involve sleeping out in all weathers. By sheer luck one researcher found in the city archives, found a kind of witness statement to the effect that the occupants of two houses in Candlemaker Row, adjacent to Greyfriars, habitually looked out for Bobby and gave the wee dog food and shelter.

For sure, Bobby frequented the kirkyard, it seems, but was not averse to offers of a warm bed sometimes. Yup, certainly sounds like a dug…

This pattern continued right up to 1872 - so Bobby was a very long-lived wee dug, likely to have been born around 1856. Hmmm.

In short, the dug took residence in and around Greyfriars kirkyard, where his master had been laid to rest - but did not necessarily stay each night below a table gravestone adjacent to his master’s grave. The locals kept an eye on him and he was associated with a number of nearby households even as his fame spread.

Now there are some that view the photographic evidence with suspicion, they reckon that it isn't the same dug in the pics that is described in the stories and that Traill, who took over ‘Bobby’s’ eatery, realised, like the proprietors before him, that they were on to a good thing.

Basically, here was a well-publicised celebrity dog that everyone wanted to see, who turned up every day as soon as the One o’ Clock Gun goes off? Hey, that would have been good for business…would he have gone and found another pooch and told folk it was oor Bobby? I personally don't think so.

Bobby's fame was such that when local stays were being rounded up and put to sleep, the City's Lord Provost, the name for a Mayor in Scotland, William Chambers, paid for a license to save the dog, would Chambers be complicit in the deception with John Traill? No I don't buy it.

Bobby’s inscribed collar survives and it’s in the Museum of Edinburgh in the Canongate (Royal Mile). There you can read its inscription ‘Greyfriars Bobby from the Lord Provost, 1867, licenced’. Bobby’s bowl, some pictures and also a plaster cast made ‘from life’ as the basis of today’s statue are also there.

The famous dog statue that was erected soon afterwards is, or was, strictly speaking, a memorial drinking fountain with water on two levels - for horses and for, presumably, dogs. Its water supply was cut off in 1975 after a health scare. It's quite a pull for the tourists, probably more so than the Kirkyard itself, in 2013 the statue of Bobby had to have what the media called a nose job. Apparently, one of these wicked and untrustworthy folk known as tour guides had put out the story that it was a ‘tradition’ to rub Bobby’s nose for luck. It's nonsense, stop it, the council could end up putting the statue out of reach altogether.

So there you have it, whatever the story Bobby showed the loyalty to his master that is renowned in the canine world. You can't blame him for taking some shelter on some nights in Edinburgh, we all know what the weather can get like at times!

The first pic is the Traill family with Bobby, the second is the Traill children with him, the third his collar and fourth an old pic from 1914 of the statue.

[opaleyedprince]

How about maroon, spice, daffodil, seafoam, sky, lilac, pastel, coconut, sepia, leather, fog, and spider for Poppy!

Maroon - What are you most passionate about?

if you were to ask him, he’d probably give some quippy response about how he’s passionate about whacking bad guys with a sword and/or hammer, but take it from me - he’s passionate about pestering/spending time with the people he cares for, and he also loves animals and bad/cheesy romance novels, but he’d sooner die than tell anyone that last thing.

Spice - Do you like to cook? Do you cook often?

he’s a better cook than his brother at any rate, but he doesn’t cook often unless it’s bc he’s making food for someone he cares about.

Daffodil -Do you like trying new things? What is something new you’d like to try?

sure, he’s pretty spontaneous, he likes wandering around and taking fresh paths or starting to hammer down his own.

Seafoam -Are there bodies of water in your setting? Describe them if you can.

from the moment poppy spotted his own reflection in the shallow waters just outside the grove, he made a habit of finding all the rivers and lakes he can wherever he goes. not just bc he likes to look at himself in the water, but also bc swimming helps him calm down when he’s feeling overwhelmed. when he visits his brother, this usually ends with him being chased around by a drake or two.

Sky -What is your favorite time of the day?

poppy emerged from his pod at dusk, so he likes the twilight part of the day best, mostly bc the colors in the sky are the prettiest then, in his opinion.

Lilac -How would someone win you over?

in general? it takes awhile for someone to break through his walls. with cyg it was purely accidental, as he didn’t have his brother to confide in at the time. in a romantic sense? honestly depends on the situation, poppy can be pretty unpredictable.

Pastel - Do you prefer pastel, bright, neon, or dark colors?

poppy prefers bright/neon colors, but he’ll go for pastels if he’s in the mood.

Coconut -What would be your ideal vacation?

hmmm probably a beach? but near some trees and with some hiking trails nearby. and plenty of time to relax.

Sepia -Do you have any hobbies? If so, what are they?

he’s not the best at cooking, but sometimes poppy will come across herbs/wild growing veggies/etc and gather them bc he has friends who cook, namely cyg. for hobbies, he likes exploring and making his own maps, though they’re not always legible to others. he likes climbing up to places that are obviously dangerous for the view. and he tries to write really really bad poetry sometimes, but he’s only ever shared it with one person.

Leather -How “badass” would you say you are?

w ell poppy himself would say he’s extremely badass, but it’s more subjective. his brother, who has the image of poppy smashing his way through a nmc camp to rescue him, would be inclined to agree. until poppy ends up facedown in a muddy ditch somewhere bc he can’t be bothered to find shelter, then he’s no longer a badass

Fog - Was there ever a period in your life when you were confused and lost? how did you get out of it?

when he first came out of the pod, he was confused and lost - he’d seen his brother in his dream, and yet he was nowhere to be found. poppy was actually in the process of mourning for him, as he was assumed dead, before he found out he’d been taken prisoner instead. and he fixed that how he fixes everything else, by hacking and slashing through a camp to get his brother back. once that was done, he promptly took all his emotions relating to that time and buried them along with any plans to attend therapy. he’s fine. he’s f

Spider -What irrational fears do you have?

abandonment, dogs suddenly not liking him, and being decked by a gigantic anthropomorphic mushroom.

Send me a shade of color for my OC(s) to answer.

[dziedietmeitas]

☀️ 📸 🔥

𝐎𝐂 𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐉𝐈 𝐀𝐒𝐊𝐒!

☀️ SUN - are they a morning person? what is the first thing they do in the morning?

Definitely, she runs a cafe so she gotta act~ but compared to her younger days, she acts slightly slower now. When she was younger (during Polish rule days), she had to be efficient as possible. It's to make sure she doesn't upset her conquerors.

The first thing she does is to eat breakfast. She loves the smell of bread and tea in the morning. It helps her set up for the day!

📸 CAMERA - do they enjoy having their picture taken? what's their go-to pose? do they like taking photos? what do they take photos of?

Honestly... no, she doesn't enjoy having her pictures taken. She's kinda camera-shy :> but she'll be less allergic to them if it's with friends. BUT SERIOUSLY THO...Milda is photogenic. She looks good regardless of angles.

If she were to take photos, it'd be nature scenery, buildings, animals, her art (pottery and knitting) or her cooking!

🔥 FIRE - do they have any self destructive tendencies? what habits do they have that hinder them from becoming their best self?

She fears being hurt. When she was young, people treated her like a doormat and she didn't know how to defend herself, so she depended on stronger people. Although she puts up walls, she does admire people from afar (if they make her less wary)--but the fear is too strong for her to get close to them.

And hmmm... I don't talk about this often, but Milda's kinda sheltered. She doesn't go out of her borders often (and if she does, it's usually nearby countries). It's due to her role as a domestic representation. Then combine that with her being introverted, shy, and with trust issues. 

[all-the-fand0ms-blog]

Reluctant Love

A/N: This is for @caramell0w  ‘s writing challenge for hitting 500 followers! I’m sorry this took so long to get up, but my life has been its own sort of hectic. Also, this is my first reader insert and Loki fic so please don’t judge too harshly! I am always looking for room to improve so don’t be afraid to give feedback. Enjoy!

Word Count: 980

Prompt: What is that hideous thing?

Summary: When Y/N gets to leave work early, she brings home an unexpected surprise whom Loki is reluctant to love.

Earlier in the day, you were able to get off work early due to some family emergency your boss had, so you decided to visit the animal shelter that was nearby. You had a certain weakness for baby animals, especially small, sick ones. So, when you saw the small, black kitten, you just had to get it. Going up to a worker, you asked the price of the kitten who was obviously sick. They were bewildered that you even wanted it, but since no one had wanted to take the burden of keeping it alive, they gave it to you for free.

After you left the shelter with a box in your arms containing the kitten, you took it to the vet. Opening the door, you hear the familiar bell ring.

“Afternoon Ms. Y/L/N.” Greets the smiling receptionist.

“Hey, Stef!” You say, smiling at her. You set the box down on the counter and open the flaps, revealing your perfectly imperfect kitten.

“Aww!” Coos Stef as she reaches down and picks it up. “You poor thing!” She brings him closer to her face and announces that it’s a boy.

“I was hoping Dr. Weppler could take a look at him.” You tell her.

“Of course! And since you volunteer here more than you need to, I’ll get you in for free.”

“Oh, no Stef, you don’t have to. I already got this kitten for free, I need to pay for something.” You protest, shaking your head.

“Don’t worry hun, you get to pay for his food, toys, litter, and future vet bills. We’ll just let this one slide.” Stef brings him up to her face again. “So, what are you going to name him?” she asks.

“Hmmm,” You hum thoughtfully, “I hadn’t really thought about it.” Before you could say anything else, Dr. Weppler walks in and greets you with a hug.

“Hey Y/N! How are you doing?” He asks with the most contagious smile on his face. You can’t help but grin back.

“I’m great!” you reply. Turning around and gently taking your kitten from Stef, you hand it over to Dr. Weppler. “I just got him today. They said he was on the list to be put down and he was just too irresistible!” you gush.

He hums thoughtfully for a second while examining him.

“Well,” he finally says after a few minutes, “He has minor pleural effusion which is just some small build-up of liquid in his lungs and rheum, or mucus discharge, in his eyes. He also has a runny nose, but none of this is something we can’t fix. I’ll go in the back and get some antibiotics for him.” He hands your kitten back over and leaves the room.

When he comes back, he hands you a bag with the medicine in it and gives you a list of specific instructions. You thank him and start your way home, excited when Loki gets back so you can tell him what you did.

“Love, I’m home!” Loki yells as he walks into your apartment. Running up to him, you bounce up and down, too impatient to wait for him any longer.

Loki chuckles, “Hello to you too. What have you been up to today?”

“Well, I got off early due to some emergency or another that included my boss, so I decided to go shopping, and you will not believe what I got!” You quickly run to the back room and grab your kitten before quickly going back to the love of your life who had wandered into the kitchen.

Loki turns around and his eyes go wide at the sight of what you were holding. “What is that hideous thing?” he exclaims. You frown, clutching your kitten closer to our chest.

“It’s our new kitten. He’s very sick and needed a home, so I thought we could give him one.” You hold eye contact with Loki for a whole minute before he looks down to the kitten, letting out a long, heavy sigh.

“Fine,” he forces out. “But I’m not helping with it at all.” You smirk, knowing that soon enough, your baby kitten will have Loki wrapped around his little paw. Loki has a weakness for small, weak creatures almost more than you do.

You hum, “Whatever you say.” Smiling, you walk over and peck him on the lips. “Can you hold him? I need to make dinner, so maybe lay on the couch and unwind for a bit.”  Grumbling, Loki takes the kitten from you and trudges into the living room. You hear the tv turn on and let your mind wander as you cook.

Finished with your task you walk in the living room to get Loki for dinner but stop in your tracks. You quickly but quietly run back into the kitchen and grab your phone, turning on the camera. Laying on the couch before you are a sleeping Loki and curled up on top of his chest is your kitten lightly purring.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Ace,” you say one day. You and Loki were on the couch snuggling with your kitten on Loki’s lap.

“What’s that?” Loki asks.

“Ace, that’s what I want to name the kitten.” Ever since you got him, both of you have been calling him kitten because you just couldn’t think of the right name for him, but now you know.

“That seems fitting. Hello Ace,” Loki says, scratching Ace on the head which causes him to start purring. Since that first night you brought Ace home and finding your boys asleep on the couch, Loki and Ace have become best friends, and with a little help from Loki’s magic, the kitten is almost fully healed and both of you couldn’t be happier.

“I’m glad you got him,” Loki admits quietly.

“I know, babe. I know.” You smile because everything you needed was right there beside you.

Tags: @caramell0w I hope you like it!

[markgodlee]

.unlikely encounters. /midorima shintarou/

     hi! huhu i hope ya’ll like this fanfic :( i’m sorry if it’s really crappy and shit :(( it’s my first time and all but if you do want some more just hmu! i also do reqs!

   The day was getting on very slowly and ____ was getting impatient every minute passed. Don’t get me wrong. _____ was very smart and was a star student. She just found class really boring today. _____ sighed as she waited for the bell ring. Right now, all she could hear was her teacher babbling on about her experience of whatsoever.

 ~le timeskip~

 RING!

“Finally!”  ____ exclaimed as she packed her belongings ever so gently (NOT.) and raced out the door. All ____ could think of was enjoying her favorite anime while eating some ice cream. Oh to even think about it was heaven. But that thought soon puffed out as she realized that she had to study. AGAIN. She walked home feeling slightly glum by the thought of studying.

*cue rain sounds*

“Crap. It’s raining. Better head to God knows where.”

She headed to a nearby roof for shelter. Whether she liked it or not, she had to stay and wait for the damn rain to stop. After all, she didn’t bring her umbrella with her.

“Damn. Why didn’t I look at the weather forecast today?” _____ grumbled.

Well, on the bright side, her study time would be cut off. That was a good thing right?

_____’s thoughts were cut off when a tall guy with green hair had appeared. It was a surprise to see him here. Especially at a time like this. Being the superstitious freak guy he is, he would always be lucky. ALL THE FREAKING TIME.

“Ah. Midorima-san. Such a surprise to see you here.”

“Hmph. This meeting was just a mere coincident. I have nothing to do with you.” There he goes again. Acting all tsundere.

“I see. So you got caught up in the rain too.”

“Yes, as you can see.”

_____ wasn’t lying when she saw the guy dripping and soaking wet

“Midorima-san, you’ll get a cold if you don’t wipe yourself up. Here.” ____ had offered him a pastel colored hanky and Midorima hesitantly accepted it.

“I’m not accepting this because you offered it to me. I’m just being courteous. You are a lady after all.”

“Uh. Yeah sure.”

_____ wasn’t really that close with the green haired tsundere, but they occasionally talked to each other when they had group projects and an occasional greeting would be let out of their mouths when they passed by each other in the hallway. To make it simple, they were just mere classmates/batchmates. Fellow acquaintances. She was rather comfortable being around Midorima. Something about him just made her… calm, as she would describe. Something really intrigued ____ to get to know Midorima. She was solely focused on thinking that she didn’t even realize that Midorima was talking to her.

“_____?”

“U-uh yes?”

“Were you paying attention? I was giving back your handkerchief.”

“Oh. S-sorry. Just spaced out a little. Thanks.”

Silence soon engulfed the small space and _____ was feeling slightly uneasy so she decided to break the silence.

“Ah. Say Midorima-san.”

“Yes?”

“What is your lucky item for today? I didn’t see you bring anything today.”

It was true that ____ didn’t see the superstitious boy bring anything ‘bizarre’ today.

“Hmmm. Oha Hasa had told me that Cancers will be ranked second to the last today and their lucky item is a keychain.”

“Oh. That’s pretty interesting. No wonder you got caught up in the rain as well.”

“Hmph. Be happy that at least you have a person to keep you company.” Midorima said

Is he happy that we both have each other for company? Strange.

____ and Midorima had made small talk until the rain had settled a bit.

“Where do you live _____-san?”

“Hmm? Oh, I just live around this area.”

“Y-you wouldn’t m-mind if I walked you home r-right?”

____ tilted her head to the side, a habit she had when she was confused. God, Midorima found that freaking cute.

“Why is th-“

“D-don’t get me w-wrong! Oha Hasa said that _____ (zodiac sign) should walk home with Cancers for that is t-their lucky i-item.” As you can tell, Midorima was beet red, a stuttering mess and incapable of speaking straight as he was talking to his potential crush.

“How do you know my zodiac sign Midorima-san?”

Crap.

“O-oh… Y-you are pretty famous in the walls of Shuutoku so I overheard some guys talking about your ‘information’.”

“That’s pretty weird of them. It is quite a shocker that I am quite famous in Shuutoku.” ____ chuckled softly

“Oh. The rain stopped. Midorima-san, is your offer still up in walking me home? You insisted after all.”

“A-ah yes. Of course.”

And thus began the journey of _____ and Midorima to her house.

The walk was quiet. Not in a sense that it was awkward but Midorima and ____ felt comfortable with the silence and the wind rushing through the trees. Most of all, they enjoyed each others’ company.

“Ah. Midorima-san. This is my house.” ____ said as she stopped in front of a cozy looking home

“Ah. Alright.”

“I really enjoyed your company today Midorima-san. I hope that we could do it more often.” ____ smiled. She was more than delighted with having Midorima as her companion

“Just Shintarou.”

“Shintarou it is then.”

“B-but I’m only w-walking you home because it’s your lucky item!”

“Hahaha. Yes tsundere~”

____laughed as she saw Midorima’s reaction

“Well, I guess I’ll be going now. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow as well.”

She waved her goodbye and entered her home. Midorima sighed. He totally wasn’t expecting his crush to get caught up in the rain. With him. Midorima was definitely looking forward to walking home with her again. He was quite lucky today despite what Oha Hasa had said (what are the odds?). And for that, he was pleased. He wasn’t aware though that a new love had blossomed, under that small, quiet roof.

EXTENDED ENDING:

“SHIN-CHAAAAAN!~”

“For God’s sake what is it now Takao?”

“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WALKED _____-CHAN HOME BWAHAHAHA!”

“T-takao h-how what-”

“Oh well, you should never underestimate my eagle eye.” Takao winked

“TAAAAAKAAAOOOO!”

[josephkitchen0]

How to Start Pig Farming Today

By Marc Burdiss – I’ve always wanted pigs and been curious to learn how to start pig farming. I’ve never owned pigs, never even was a close friend of someone who raised homestead pigs. I know farmers who raise ’em by the hundreds, but not anyone who raises just a few for meat. Pigs were always a project for “next year,” or “when we had more money.” And then the Chicken Coop Massacre of May 2010 occurred here at the family homestead and my wife said we need something bigger that the predators wouldn’t bother, and something that will eat the leftover food scraps the dogs don’t eat.

When given the green light, I sprung into action before the offer was rescinded. We, I, looked on Craigslist for feeder pigs, made arrangements on cost and delivery, and began to get ready. I know, I know, get everything ready before the animals arrive. That is all good and well, in theory, however, my projects have never met that standard before, why start now? It’s Thursday and the pigs come Monday afternoon. I searched the internet for how to start pig farming, pig farming for beginners and raising hogs for meat, and after a few hours of asking Uncle Google, I decided it may be important to have something that holds them in. How about a pig pen?

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The Pig Yard

The pig yard was built over an existing 12′ x 16′ concrete slab.

I thought about remodeling the coop to house the pigs in, but it has a dirt floor— couldn’t keep raccoons out—, how would it keep pigs in? Besides, I plan on making it predator-proof and getting more backyard chickens. In reading the books and articles on homestead hogs, I knew an option was raising pigs on pasture, but that was ruled out. Without any exposure to a normal pig’s habits, let alone a semi-loose one on pasture, I decided for my sake and the sake of my neighbors’ gardens I would want them enclosed. My wife noted that near the coop there was an old concrete slab about 12′ by 16′ that could be used. Of course, it was piled high with junk and would need to be cleaned, but as always, her logic was unquestionable. It should be easy to clean and pig snout proof and was near enough to not be a hardship walking out slop.

Off to the tractor store I went, family in tow, and we purchased two cattle panels 16′ by 48″ tall for $20 each. The employee helping us asked what we planned on feeding the pigs, to which I informed him I had not gotten that far in my research. What did he recommend? We ended up purchasing 250 pounds of pig ration and cracked corn, and I could scratch one more item off my ever-expanding list.

We live on a farm that is “resource-rich,” if only you look hard enough. In cleaning off the concrete slab I found a few bent, but usable, fence posts 7 ½ feet tall, and a few straight ones about 5 ½ feet tall. These would come in handy to hold the panels upright. I also found two other panels I could salvage and cut up; one pig and one cattle. I ended up with a pig yard 12′ by 16′, with the back wall a 32-inch tall pig panel that would serve as a step-over gate. To these panels, I attached three posts on three sides and barbed wire six inches off the bottom of the one floating over the concrete pad. Do not work these panels in place until a pig hut and feeder are in place, otherwise, you have to undo them to get them in. (Like I said, my list was a work in progress.)

So with the pig panel off the back, it was time to build the pig shelter, after all, it is Friday night and the pigs are coming Monday —I still have plenty of time. In the pile of junk on the concrete, there was a shipping container with four four-foot pieces of red roofing sheets. My mission was to turn these into a decent pig shelter.

The Pig Hut

Framing for the hut shelter

Saturday morning finds me scrounging for 2 x 4s around the buildings and yard after doing some rough estimates based on an Internet picture of a pig lean-to. Using the metal roofing panels as my important measurements, adding the fact from a pig book that the one pig needs 25 sq. ft. of shelter and to add 10 sq. ft. for every additional pig, I needed 35 sq. ft.

I once read that 6/4 of the people have trouble with fractions, and I being one of those people, decided that 6′ x 6′ equals 36 sq. ft. and that was close enough. I then had to figure the hypotenuse of a lean-to four feet high by six feet long would give me a slope needed on the back of around 7.2 feet, —perfect for my 8 feet of panels with overlap. I was in business. I just had to over-engineer this to make it “pig tough,” all the while trying to imagine how tough a pig could be.

The Pig Feeder

With the hut done Saturday morning, I had the afternoon to go talk to a few people I know who have larger barns and do very little with them. Now that I had thoroughly researched what can pigs eat and I had my feed, I needed a feeder. The one at the farm store was way too pricey. Worst case scenario, —I would feed them a measured amount every day, but a used feeder would be perfectly acceptable in my book. The first place I visited was a bust, but I got a good lead —Mike has an orange one and hasn’t had pigs for years. He may sell it cheap if he still has it. Twenty minutes of talking with Mike, a pig feeder is loaded and the price —a few jars of homemade jelly and the promise of a few pork chops. Done.

Water Vent

I loaded it up and hauled it to the pig pen. This was getting easier than I imagined. What was next? Oh…right—. Food needs water to wash it down. How am I going to water these pigs? I found a big concrete dog bowl and thought that I could make it work. Really, how much can a little pig drink? Sunday was wiring and arranging the furniture day. Feng Shui practitioners have not found as many configurations as I did, trying for the most pig-friendly layout of the pig yard.

Slide, scoot, step back, repeat.

“Hey, did you think of a slop trough?”

Start over; repeat. Until you see the present configuration in the photos.

Pig Day

Monday arrives full of hope and promise of pigs and bacon and all that is pork. The day drags at a Christmas Eve pace until the farmer’s truck pulls up, with a pig carrier on the back. I tried to play it cool, but have to admit I was as excited as could be. The pigs, it was explained, were Poland Chinas, and I was receiving a gilt and a barrow. I made a note to myself to look those up when I got inside.

These pigs had had all of their shots they would need to be shown in the fair. “I am just going to eat these two,” I proclaimed proudly, “and their pen is over there.”

“That should work,” the farmer said, “but where is their waterer?” I pointed to the concrete bowl as proof I had thought this through and was one step ahead of him. He laughed. “On a hot day, these pigs will drink five gallons each. That bowl is two gallons. I would get a blue plastic, 55-gallon drum and stick a hog nipple in it if I were you.”

A few probing questions later and I had a Tuesday project. The next few hours were spent taking care of a lot of important projects near the pig pen, and no, I assured everyone, I was not just working nearby to watch the pigs.

The Homemade Pig Waterer

Water vent

Water valve

The man at the farm store said they did have the bite valve hog nipples in stock, and they had other fittings to make it work. I had a drum with a removable lid that should work; I drilled a 1.5″ hole about a foot up from the bottom and installed a threaded bung mount with rubber gaskets. Into this, I had to add a reducer bushing to get the size down to 1/2″ needed for the hog valve. I could have Teflon taped the threads but didn’t and have had no problems with leaks. In the lid, I drilled a 1.5″ vent hole and covered it with a screen to keep bugs and debris out. The hogs, I was assured, would play with the valve and discover it contained water. They did. It does. We have a water source the pig farmer would be proud of. Come to think of it, I am now a pig farmer, too.

The Slop

It has been a few weeks since I tackled learning how to start pig farming (in one weekend!) and here is what I have learned. These are not rambunctious pigs— at least mine aren’t. They are great at sleeping, grunting, entertaining the kids and guests, but rowdy would never be used to describe them. They get excited when we bring our table scraps out, but even that would never be called “hog wild.” My pigs go “hog mild.” They appear at times to be just overweight hound dogs. I also learned I am raising some kids who are true carnivores. All animals are named by the kids at our house, and the pigs were no exception. However, my daughter broke with her usual naming convention of adding an “ey” to the end of an animal name and named hers Bacon; my son followed suit with Porkchop. Piggy will have to remain the name of a bank. They are counting the days until we haul these pigs to the butcher. Come to think of it, how will I get the pigs to the butcher when they weigh 250 pounds each? Hmmm. I have time after all; that is months away and really, how hard could that be?

I hope this gives you the guidance and inspiration to learn how to start pig farming on your homestead.

These snoozing pigs are oblivious to the frantic deadline that surrounded their arrival.

What interests you about raising pigs of your own?

Published in Countryside September / October 2010 and regularly vetted for accuracy.

How to Start Pig Farming Today was originally posted by All About Chickens