What are You Afraid Of?

no snow on the laneway today!

Today's word of the day is expatriate (ek-SPAY-tree-ut noun : a person who lives in a foreign country; also : a person who has renounced his or her native country). My sister and one of my brothers are both expatriate's living in New Zealand. Shawn, Kirsten's husband, and Olaf, my brother, work for Weta Digital, the company that did the computer graphics for movies like Lord of the Rings, King Kong, and of course Avatar. This is a dream job for both of them, however we sure miss them - New Zealand is a long way away and expensive to travel to/from so we don't see them very often. Thank goodness that long distance is cheap now.

My pleasures today: thinking that Carm was going out for the afternoon but him ending up staying home - is that a pleasure? you guess! Actually it worked out well as in exchange for hemming a few pairs of his pants, he ripped apart a pillow cover that I'm going to add piping to - that's a long thankless task ; going outside although that was also not so pleasureable as the wind was HOWLING - it was hard to take photos as it was making my eyes tear.

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31 Day Challenge is "something you are afraid of".

Spike getting hit by a car. He can get under the gate to the road but has hopefully learned he's not to do so. He hasn't for over a year and a half, but still I worry. There's also one spot way down, about 700 feet, at the other end of the hayfield, where the snow drifts up against the fence, almost covering it. He went over onto the road there last winter when we were walking that way - I freaked out at him, I was so scared. Yesterday a cyclist went by going towards that end and both Bella and Spike took off at top speed after him. Of course they didn't hear me calling and they ended up right at that spot. I could see Spike moving towards the fence line but I shouted at the top of my lungs and luckily he stopped and came back to me... He's independent and not averse to exploring on his own.

me with new kitten Puff

My fear is partially based on seeing my cat Puff get hit by a car right in front of me. I was 12 and it was possibly the most traumatizing moment of my life. I had gotten Puff for my fourth birthday - she was a treasured friend.