"Pin the bag on the kitty"is the title of this post and here is the rest of the story to borrow from the late and very missed Paul Harvey. Poor Blue, our little tabby is one of the cats we picked up when we were back in Colorado. Abandoned by her owners in our neighborhood, we took her in and gave her a happy(at least some times)home. Hey, who could complain about a nice warm house with all the food and kitty litter you ever want or need. None that have lived with us and that's seven cats if my math is correct. Most have lived to be close to or over twenty years old. Our old vet told us that if she had to come back as a cat, she wanted to live in our house.

For the last year of so, Blue has developed a fear of rustling plastic bags. Doesn't matter the color or size, if she hears it rustle(like shaking it back open) she freaks. Now she has been a bit better as of late but today undid every move forward she has done to over come her fear. We are now in the process of cleaning out the cockpit so the workmen can start work on it tomorrow. It's been packed with the gear we had to take off the deck since we were having the teak planks taken off. They are pretty much done with that so now it's about time to work on the cockpit. Since both of us were out on deck, Blue, being the social butterfly she is(at least with us) wandered out on deck even though it was in the middle of the afternoon(prime kitty snooze time)to see what we were doing. We had several bags full of trash and some full of gear to bring down below for storage till the cockpit is done. Blue, being an inquisitive kitty(aren't they all) stuck her head in one of the bags to see what was in it. Unfortunately, it was through one of the carry handle circles. Suddenly the bag rustled and she jumped back as did the bag she how had her head stuck in. It wouldn't leave her alone!! Off she went, running around the boat as fast as she could with the bag--full of all kinds of trash including some small jars--trailing right behind or beside her. It was like she had a cape. Around and around the deck she went, then into the cockpit then out of the cockpit until she finally took off below decks, the bag still stuck to her head. Once she hit the bottom, off came the bag and she was free but I have a feeling her paranoia is now back in full force and it may be a while before she even comes back on deck. She's sitting on one of the cushions in the main salon looking at the companion way entrance with big buggy eyes just not sure what to do. I'm sure her adrenalin is still a bit high for her size. I'll let you know when or if she goes back on deck or what her reaction is the next time we pull out a plastic bag. It should be interesting.

This morning, while I worked on the deck prism holes, Tracy was busy reconfiguring our tarps. She was just not happy with all the rain water getting past what we had so she went to work redoing how they were laid out. More on that later. I meanwhile was enlarging the holes where the plates for the deck prisms go. The workers had put epoxy filler right up to the edge so there was no place for any caulk to come out around the edges to give us a better seal and keep the water out. I took our Fein Multimaster tool and with the help of a couple of the blade attachments and our vacuum got the holes ever so much bigger. About 1/16 of an inch all around was all we needed. I put blue tape around the existing hole out from the edge to the size we needed and then cut away the extra. The workers had shoved a good bit under the brackets so it had to come out also as it made one end much higher than the other. I got one done on Sunday morning before the rains started and I got the second one done today. Being a holiday(Labor Day) we had no worker here so we could get some things done on deck.

Once I was done with that job, I got with Tracy and we reconfigured all the tarps. We sliced some and added duct tape to cover the holes in others. Different lines were lead to the stands that hold up Zephyr and tied off. In the end, the duct tape failed and we had to use another tarp and so far it seems to be doing much better. As rain is in the forecast for every day this week, it's going to be put to the test.