HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

GuineAntulaPig Gonna Eat Ya!

(thanks to CD3, who STARTLED ME!)

HURRICANE MAKES LANDFALL, LE TERRIBLE!

 

Hurricane Sandy from Space

 

Hurricane Sandy Before Landfall

 

Floodwaters fill Ground Zero
in Manhattan

 

Sandy rampages into Manhattan,
flooding roads, subways, and 
all major transportation
infrastructure.

 

Cars flooding; blocking roads,
blocking emergency first responders
from reaching those in need.

 

Sandy blew the entire front off a
building as firefighters can only 
gaze, helpless to stop rampaging
winds.

 

A crane building a luxury high-rise
condo breaks, hanging...where will
the winds send it? Crowds look on
in astonishment.


 

A homeless man sits alone on a bench,
all of his possessions beside him;
nowhere to go.
Beside his cart a sign advertises:
"THE FUN BEGINS"


 

Streets are transformed into Rivers
of Destruction before electrical
transformers begin exploding,
creating the hazard of innocent
people accidentally stepping on
live wires hidden beneath dark waters.

 

H.M.S. Bounty set to sea and a 
"MAYDAY" call went out as 
all aboard were ordered to 
"abandon ship" into two tiny life-rafts.
Only the video does justice to the
heroic efforts of Search & Rescue
Helicopter crew to save those aboard
yet not all survived, including the
captain. One passenger remains 
missing while another was
"unresponsive" upon rescue.
Ship sank. What in Heaven
was she doing out at sea?
Apparently, trying to outsail
the storm.


 

Exploding transformers
throughout the region that have
placed tens of millions in the dark
also set fire to at least 50 homes and
other buildings, perhaps more. 
We are not clear on details but while 
record-breaking wind, rain, and floods 
destroy everything in Sandy's path, she 
added explosive, fiery infernos to her
resume as a storm of Epic Proportion.

 

President Obama leaves campaigning
aside to focus solely on his role as 
Commander-in-Chief,
conferring with FEMA and other
rescue organizations on strategies
to save American lives.

 

These are just a few random images
chosen to give our readers a glimpse
into Hurricane Sandy's unprecedented
impact on the United States' most
densely populated areas...not even
including those affected by the 
early Winter Blizzard 
coming off every single one of the Great Lakes 
(also unprecedented and historic) 
dumping record early snowfall to Appalachian Mountains, causing even more power outages and damage further inland. And she's not done yet.
~*~
We were texting our dear friend, Connie, who
at least lives far from the Jersey shore (which
is no more) when her power went down.
Our prayers go out to all.
The storm is not over, and only at daybreak
will Americans awake to survey a new
coastline, cities, fatalities (one hospital
generator failed in Manhattan) and despite
evacuation orders from New Jersey Governor
Chris Christie, residents of Atlantic City were
instead placed into a shelter...which flooded.
(we think it was Atlantic City but it's late
and we must get to bed.)
Some of our captions may not be accurate,
but are the best we can offer at this time.

Friends, please offer support however you
are able to those in dire need and First
Responders at this time.

We promised Connie in New Jersey we
would not worry.
We lied.
~*~

HAPPY HALLOWEEN & THANK YOU ANN ADAM!

 

Sir Dominic the Italian Greyhound:
what a TREND-SETTER!
Will you check out those "DOGGLES?"
THIS GUY MEANS BIZ-NESS!

 

 

ON THE OTHER HAND...
Princess Camille has her own opinion:
Leave it to the kitty to be witty and pretty,
while flaunting her Devilish Ways.

{Thank you, Ann, for making us laugh! Ann is one of our oldest friends from Seattle...no, Ann is not an old lady from Seattle, she's one of -
thanks, Ann!} 
Happy Halloween.
If mom gave us anything to wear,
we would EAT IT.

P.S. did you check out that JACK-O-LANTERN
 by
Sir Dominic? Waaaaaah-Ha-Ha!

THE VET DID WHAT?!

 

Sorry, mate, we neutered you.
Do not ask what that word means.
Do not ask why your bum's as sore as...
like i said, just don't ask.
No, don't ask why your tail-fur was
trimmed down for fall, it'll grow back
for winter.
Don't ask why after you and your friend,
Peter-Peanut, underwent this procedure,
Peter-Peanut has mistaken you for a
guinea-hooker!
(do not ask me to explain what that means.)
It has been suggested that once his 
hormones settle down, he will recognize
you again.
Yes, of course he'll stop humping you!
Eventually.
Don't ask when.
We know you don't approve this message
and never expected you to approve what
the vet did, either, but it was supposed
to calm you and Peter down.
Hey, on the upside, you've got the rabbit
pen all to yourself now! You can run your
figure - eights, through every tunnel, box door,
leap across your cuddle cup, fly completely
OVER the Big Orange Carrot only you have,
and run your obstacle course
the exact same way you run it,
every single time you run it,
however many times you run it,
before you re-run it all over again!
Do not ask what OCD means.
We love you and that part of the message
WE ALL APPROVE!
(the first pig who explains OCD
gets a nail-trim when i find out
who you are.)
~*~

NEW YORK CITY FROM TWEET PIC BY INGA SARDA-SORENSEN

 

storm clouds already loom over New York City.
photograph copied without permission from
the photographer's TWITTER:
THANK YOU, INGA, your photo skill gives us
the chills yet captures in stunning, dramatic
style what remains still days into your future: landfall.
Inga is a New Yorker. You be safe, girl!
The guinea pigs would like to have their say:
"PLEASE CONSULT YOUR LOCAL
HUMANE SOCIETY AND ASPCA
FOR PET EMERGENCY 
PREPAREDNESS!
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PET ALONE! TAKE YOUR ANIMALS WITH YOU AND FIND OUT NOW HOW TO DO IT, WHERE TO GO.
PLEASE."
love,
5 Guinea Pigs & their mom who care

FRANKENSTORM: From Space: 2012 Hurricane Seen From ISS As 'Frankenstorm' Looms (VIDEO)

Dear Readers,
Believe it or not, we just found out about Hurricane Sandy, dubbed
"FRANKENSTORM!" from our
dear friend, Connieeee (MOD variety!)

on the phone. I cannot spend much time online anymore due to vision issues so we are posting this link to:

1. ASK, IMPLORE, PLEAD with all of our readers to pray, send love, good vibes, whatever "floats your boat" spiritually, because if this storm is not being over-hyped (and it appears that it is not) all in it's path need everything we can send straight from our hearts and souls.

2. Here's a link to provide up to the minute info FROM SPACE of the SIZE AND MAGNITUDE OF THIS MONSTER. 

3. A combination of factors is creating an extraordinarily dangerous weather system, including collision with a winter storm, full moon, and lots of meteorological words that are big and scary. And it's Halloween.

4. We are using The Weather Channel ap to keep up with Connie and our many friends in the area, and if you have loved ones in the NorthEastern Coast of the United States, please contact them before the storm as they may not be able to contact you once it makes landfall.

5. New York City has already declared a State of Emergency.

6. We wish this was a Halloween hoax. We have not been following the news, so you're probably going to go: "This isn't news to us!" And we would be really grateful to know that. But since it is news to us, and we have many foreign readers with kith & kin living in the United States, we wanted to share this.

GODSPEED TO ALL IN IT'S PATH.

CONDOLENCES TO THOSE IN THE CARIBBEAN WHO HAVE ALREADY FELT ITS WRATH...we have below a link for you to see this monstrous hurricane from Space. Sending love and light to all, including birds, fish, whales, animals, and every soul who has or will be affected by this storm. 
God bless you. Be safe. Be well.
Please stay in touch and we invite your comments here if you have any.

love,
YumYum, Bhindi, Vinny-Guinea, Peter-Peanut, Squirrel, and Chana
Frankenstorm from Space link below:
(it's very quiet in space and watching this video is quite an experience.)
Sandy From Space: 2012 Hurricane Seen From ISS As 'Frankenstorm' Looms (VIDEO)

BHINDI TUCKS HIMSELF IN...HIS WAY!

 

some pigs sleep on their beds.
some pigs sleep under their beds.
i'm a WunderUnderPig.
i approve this message.
sweet dreams.

 

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............................Ommmmmmmmmmmm.
~*~
(Bhindi's hut and "floor" created by Jen's Custom Crafts, we love them!)

MOM WON! SHE'LL BE A FLOAT IN THE THANKSGIVING MACY'S PARADE IN NYC!

 

HI, it's me, Bhindi, and my story actually goes backwards like pretty much everything around
here, so if you can't read backwards, we'll give you a treat to stop reading since you've been warned.

Here's how mom won a place floating (we don't know exactly where) in Macy's Thanksgiving Holiday Parade LIVE in and from New York City!!!

First off, she didn't and none of this is true.
(Except they do have a Novelty Balloons category.)

Second, mom has to walk every day. One day gale force winds brought the brunt of a November windstorm upon us skipping fall entirely. Come to think of it, the storm skipped October, too.
In gale force winds, mom still walked on the dock.
But mom isn't a sailor on the Schooner Zodiac like that dapper version of Captain Jack Sparrow you see below, she's a mountain girl, so all she had to wear was her mountain gear except when you are in the mountains (and there is now snow there - WHEEK!)
MANY more layers of clothing are worn beneath what you see her sporting above. Without the layers,
the winds blew her mountain jackets so poofy-puffy
she nearly blew away. Not to mention she won't be modeling her togs in your next Patagonia catalog, either. (Cuz most of her old gear from The North Face.) Way more than you need to know...Still here?FINE! She looked more like the Giant Pumpkin of "Charlie Brown" fame. Except it was less pretty.
But really who knows? Since, as we all do know,
the Giant Pumpkin never showed up.
IF YOU AREN'T AMERICAN, we apologize, you might not understand everything. But we are American and - believe me - we don't understand, 
either! So we saw mom's pictures and entered her in the Macy Parade's "Novelty Balloons" category, thinking how fine it would be to see New Yorkers and visitors from around the world looking up and
there would be mom blowing about, knocking back and forth, to & fro, smashing hither & thither into
Manhattan's towering sky-scrapers. 
Actually, we didn't enter her in anything. 
Frankly, we found her appearance mortifying.

 

Please forgive us, whoever you are, but you one fine sailor dude aboard the Schooner Zodiac and THIS IS THE PROPER WAY TO DRESS ON THE WATER OR IN A SCHOONER OR PIRATE SHIP!
THIS is the kind of thing mom does that embarrasses us all the time! Why couldn't she dress like this?
When she came home, we kinda acted like we didn't know her. But she was happy for the walk, especially because in a storm that bad the only others out actually were mountaineers! YEAH, now this part true: There was an elite cross-country skier actually running, a seventy+ year old geezer guy mom liked who only took up snowboarding 4 years ago, mom, and then she met the former HEAD OF SEARCH AND RESCUE from Mt. Baker who would have been the one to find her (note brightly colored vest? not just for good looks: easier to find her if Search & Rescue...well, ya know) and they got to talk about where it's safe to snowshoe on the Mountain without dying in an avalanche, which a few years ago a snowshoer did. Rare, because it's usually the defiant snowboarders 
and back-country skiers who go WAY OUT OF BOUNDS and need rescuing.
If they survive. 

Mom said the coolest part was everybody waving:
"SEE YA ON THE MOUNTAIN!" as they passed one another along the dock.
(Distinctly not nautical.)


 

What will mom do to embarrass us next? 
Well, her eyesight is not exactly what we would call
Kosher and she doesn't know what we are saying here because she sorta can't even see it! (hee-hee)
But we know one thing for certain:

Yum-Yum: "What would that be, Bhindi?"

Bhindi: "I don't approve this message. But I have to approve Captainess Jacky Sparrow, cuz she our mom and plays with us, and cuddles us, and feeds us."

For more info on the parade, see collage link above.
(On the bottom of the collage.)
SEE? You were warned!

Squirrel: "NOBODY APPROVED THIS MESSAGE! WHEEEEeeeeeeeeeek!"
"Thank you, Squirrel," quoth Bhindi.
P.S. we have a very funny story to share about Squirrel but need to be able to see & type good to share. hope we can soon.
love you.
We made up nearly everything and just wasted time you will never get back again for the rest of your life.
'scuse us.
~*~

SWEETEST SHADES OF GREY...SQUIRREL!

 

it's me, Squirrel...
mom still dreams that i have a tail.


 

i love sitting in her open palm.
without the tail i don't have.

 

sometimes i think Deep Thoughts
while in repose on mom's open palm.
thoughts about being receptive, 
accepting change, going with the Flow.
i may be little but my Philosophical
Perspective on Life is quite profound.
which is why i know that i am a
guinea pig because all squirrels do
is steal bird feeders: they are nefarious!

 

so i know i am a guinea pig.
although in this photograph i don't 
look grey: i am multifariously 
COLORFUL and only appear grey.
still: i remain beautiful on grey days,
blue & sunny days, cloudy days,
rainy days, dark days, windy days...
mom says i make her day!
What more could one ask?
i make everyone happy! 
and i approve this message.

SHADES OF GREY: LONELINESS OR SOLITUDE?

 

 

Are you lonely when you are alone or can you sit on a bench
and feel comfortable in the Gaping Grey Jaw where the water
meets the sky?
(I prefer to walk with my poles and look for otters.
Here is no loneliness:  only land, sea, and me.)
And on a lucky day...river otters!
On the luckiest day that hasn't happened yet? KILLER WHALES!
YEAH, KILLER WHALES!
ORCAS.

I wanna be a Whale-Rider in the Deep!
Riding Orcas in my sleep...

Alone, yet not lonely:
October's Shades of Grey.
~*~

HANDS in ORANGE & BLACK

 

MY NAME IS VINNY-GUINEA AND I APPROVE THIS MESSSAGE

Mom is going offline effective
immediately to spend time with us.
These are Yum-Yum's final days,
weeks, we don't know. But we do
know we need her more than 
cyberspace so we are now officially
OFF THE GRID.
We know you all understand why.

Actually, we all approve this message.
~*~

OUR "LITTLE BUDDHA"

Yum-Yum is less active daily but showers
upon us blessings on how to Die with Grace.
His habitat now sits surrounded by all of his
minions (including the Big one on the bed)
 creating
a Ring of Love surrounding him.
I think he loves us more, though.
He has stopped crying in pain
even when peeing blood and is
not on any pain medication as
the vet refused to dispense it
but I would no longer force
anything upon him anyway
so that when I do reach in to pet or
pick him up he will not be afraid I am
going to force medicine on him.
He loves chewing on his wooden
box and the doors are becoming
so large it now resembles a Pavilion!
He is still eager for his salad and we are
now growing a new crop of wheatgrass,
and he eats well, drinks with delight,
yet has become Peaceful: no longer do
the Pirates on Runabout chattering their
teeth at him receive a response. He seems
simply to love them and appreciate their
dropping by to visit, even if their own
intentions are to make him mad.
He has begun to take on the qualities of
a Living Buddha, with equanimity,
peaceful repose, still playful, still loving
Life, still wanting to be held and petted,
now wrapped up like a Pig-in-a -Blanket
in one of our new custom-sewn soft, quilted
"floors" gifted to the Sanctuary: one is his
to be picked up in when he comes to bed
with me and we snuggle under the electric
blanket now that it has become chilly at night.
Polarfleece, which these floors are made of
(i think) is used in jackets and mountaineering
gear for warmth so he is my "Pig in a Blanket"
except wiser, calmer, and Holier than anyone
I have seen die...with the possible exception of
my godson in the Philippines who passed away
as a child...and had Visions he wrote and described
only to me in letters which I have shared with
no one yet, not even his own mother. One day
I will. The time still does not seem right.
It feels like YumYum is already halfway in
Heaven just playing Here until he finishes being
a guinea pig and gets his Angel Wings.

Beautiful Boy Next To My Bed

 

By my bedside now the guinea pigs
play
With Yum-Yum never far
away
Their habitats touch
Noses rub so much
because not a one
among us
can live
far away.
He is happy
he plays
With his Squirrel
becomes Young
Old Friend, Guinea Pig,
Yum-Yum,
Please stay ~

WindyCanes

Last night we listened to bits and pieces of
Bellingham blow away beneath us; early for
the Winds which usually arrive in November.
We didn't mind. Rain pelted the windows,
wind drowned out all sounds of the city,
and Nature tucked us in bed reminding
us that She will return...and before we
can shake a lamb's tail the mountains
will be capped with fresh powder.
Yes, exactly the content of guinea pig
dreams: fresh pow.
Off to watch "Shrek" now and have
our cages cleaned with snuggles
and cuddles.
And still the wind blows.

CAN WE TALK?

 

Dear Friends, Readers, Well-Wishers,
Guinea Piggers, Brothers and Sisters,
It has been brought my attention that I do not understand the process of "How to Blog" in a way that does not make you all want to pull your hair out, scream into Clouds, throw yourselves
in front of a fast-moving train...that I "publish" the Title and Photographs then write, edit, re-write, post, edit, re-post, ad nauseum...heck, it makes me sick just thinking about it!

And I do believe my friend speaks the truth. I haven't got a freaking CLUE how to blog, never have, may never in the future, either! I used to use this thing called a typewriter and another thing, some of you may remember this one: film!? Anybody?

I actually used to touch paper, ink, film, scratch out words, change punctuation, develop film in a darkroom, hand stuff to an editor...

Well, obviously you are not enjoying the luxury of an editor if you read any of my blogs since I rant on and on whereas back in the old days they would say "You have so & so many words for this" and each double-spaced, typed page (I think, so this really is something I'm making up) was about 500 words...

POINT IS...I DON'T KNOW HOW BLOGGER WORKS. I KIND OF JUST THROW STUFF OUT LIKE A JACKSON POLLOCK PAINTING, THEN SMEAR IT ALL AROUND.

What I did not know, however, is how frustrating this "creative process" (hee-hee!) is for you, our readers and friends. 

So! One day I will learn how to Blog properly
O.K. seriously, if you have read anything here, you know that's about as likely to happen as World Peace. Do we Want World Peace? OF COURSE. (Well, lots of us do.)
It gonna happen? Yeah, when I figure out how to use a laptop. Which gonna be NEVER. And it's not my fault, either, because a bunch o'crackheads in Silicon Valley and up north here
at Microsoft wait...wait...just for shits & giggles they wait until they figure the average Joe or
Joe-Girl is getting her head wrapped around a certain thing they have programmed then they throw a party and MAKE IT BETTER! 

Like politicians drawing lines on a piece of paper to delineate what they call "countries" that only separate and divide people and make them hate each other and go to war. It's only lines on a piece of paper but look at all the damage those lines do! (lots.) 

So, I apologize. And suggest you wait a day or three after I first post-a-post to read it because it will have reincarnated many times before I forget about it and move on. It might be safe then to read and assume you are getting the final edit.

Blame it on us old-school photojournalists. If you did it for real you probably don't have a job today in the profession. Nobody I know does anymore. If you are/were a dentist or rich and did it as a hobby and could/can afford all the latest/greatest iThings, you are probably taking the best pictures either out in the field or with Photoshop.

Either way, I still have that film stuff in my freezer from 1983, Kodachrome, and a pencil and paper with lines.

So don't expect things around here to improve much. Just didn't realize that this process is so aggravating for readers, and I really do wish you could come here and have a delightful experience. Until then (like, until NEVAH!)
We really do appreciate you taking the time to drop by and let us become a part of your lives.

love,
Chana & the Pirate Pigs

(Our motto is: "Never let incompetence keep you from doing something stupid.")
That's our story and we're sticking to it!

"Who Loves Ya, Baby? Yum-Yum
Loves Ya!"  We really do.