Bad and good car news, plus assorted Ashleyness

[vilakins]

Last week Greg's car was damaged so badly it was written off. The driver in front of him braked suddenly because the car in front of her did. Greg braked too and stopped in time... but the driver behind him didn't. As it wasn't Greg's fault, the insurance paid out on the value of the car (not much as it was fairly old) and he's been going to work by bus since I need mine for the 50kms round trip to work. I think he actually went through a period of mourning for that car, he'd had it so long. It's odd how things with motors or some form of power often have personalities.

Yesterday we went to a Japanese import car yard and looked at some Hondas, and Greg bought the same model Integra as mine, but a year older, and in the same colour (the ubiquitous silver). So we'll have a matched pair in the carport. Pity we can't breed from them. I shall take photos. :-P

Anyway, because my car was very dusty from the commuting, I decided to wash it today so it won't look bad next to Greg's one when he picks it up on Tuesday. Ashley was absolutely fascinated. She sat in the driveway and watched intently the whole time. The LIBR8R looks extremely shiny now. I could see Ashley reflected in it.

In other Ashley news, she's known as the Dairy Queen because of her passion for yogurt. She knows when I'm getting it out of the fridge before I even have the container open, and the other day when I was eating a piece of lemon cake, she was all over me. I was puzzled till I remembered it was lemon yogurt cake. OK, that's impressive that she can detect an ingredient.

Oh yes, yesterday morning she was trying to get in the bedroom window from the sloping wet roof of the lower floor. She lost her purchase and slid down to the gutter, paws splayed out and green eyes fixed on us in sad surprise. I rushed downstairs and talked her along to the fence and she jumped down and chased Jasmin happily about the garden.

Comments

[zoefruitcake]

Poor Ashley on her slide. Amazing she could tell the cake had yoghurt in it.

Kevin-the-fun-vampire and I had matching Minis for a couple of years

[vilakins]

She was absolutely fine once I went outside and called her. So happy that Jasmin and I were there, she romped about in the garden with us. Greg had locked them all out in the early morning when Vic came in with a bird. :-( She's not used to being locked out. She's a very forgiving little sweetie though.

Awww! My first car was a bright yellow mini! We both had Integras, but they looked quite different as they've changed the model a lot. These ones will look almost the same, but I have a sun roof and Greg has monsoon windows. :-)

[zoefruitcake]

I felt bad yesterday, we were trying to get Maddie in and she didn't want to, just imagined her sitting behind the door as we walked away :0(

I've never heard of monsoon windows, and my attempt to google didn't bring up anything that cleared it up for me!

My first car was a blue 1967 Mini called Badvoc ;0)

[vilakins]

My Mini was called Julius. :-D

Monsoon windows are these things, properly "monsoon shields" but people often just call the whole "monsoon windows" or just "monsoons". They go along the top of the windows so you can crack them and not have rain come in, which isn't as much of a problem when you have aircon which our cars have. I liked them in the past though.

[zoefruitcake]

ohhh, I know the things. Not seen them about much in recent years, but I always wondered what they were for! We could do with them here today, the weather is awful, torrential rain for hours

[vilakins]

Aircon works better than opening windows in the rain anyway.

Amazingly it's been pretty much fine for about three weeks. That's a long time for here, and I've been glad since I travel 30 mins each way on the motorway to this contract.

[zoefruitcake]

enjoy your fine weather :0)


I have this constant fight with Stegzy in my car. I put the aircon on, and he opens the window, which you shouldn't do. I dislike the window open unless I'm still, because the road noise is too loud. Sigh!

[vilakins]

I hate having the windows open too because of petrol smells from other cars coming in. Ugh. I have the aircon going on recycle and only set it to so-called fresh air when I'm on the open road and there are no cars in front.

Greg keeps turning the aircon off when he drives my car, so then I get in and wonder after driving for a while why it feels so hot and stuffy. [rolls eyes] Now of course he won't take mine because he'll have one just like it.

OK, good night from me; "it's time for bed", Zebedee said.

[zoefruitcake]

night night! sleep well

[spacefall.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, poor Ashley! Not just sliding down, but in front of everyone!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

She came back up but couldn't get over to the window in the wet. I could tell she was nervous and rushed outside so she'd follow me along to the fence. They tend to come straight to us if they can see us instead of finding the best route. :-P

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Shame about the car, but good that he was able to replace it quickly.

It's amazing what cats can detect. Minsky has a passion for the smell of vanilla. He doesn't want to eat it or anything, just smell it. He's slowed down a little these days and doesn't care to run around quite so much, but when he was younger I had only to open the bottle and he'd be round my ankles in a flash. He wouldn't go away till I'd given him the bottle for a good sniff!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I love that smell too, and like to sniff various things repeatedly like rose soap and a (very) few perfumes. I didn't realise that cats would get the same enjoyment from a scent.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Ouch for the car...

Cats do not like losing their dignity (even though they do it so often and so well)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It was a an old but still spry car, even though it took its time waking up each morning. It'll be odd having two the same. At least I'll only have to look for the same one in carparks.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

I hope you didn't start laughing until much later when she had forgotten she was the one that you were laughing at. I sure you did as seeing that happen to a pet of mine would give me the heebbes for a while. Shame about the old car I know how much they mean, I would not want to find a replacement for the Silver Queen.
'

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We didn't laugh at all! I was really concerned for her that she'd keep on trying and I could tell she was nervous and a bit shaky so I rushed out. She was absolutely fine once she jumped down via the fence, and became extremely playful, maybe from relief or sheer happiness that Jasmin and I were there.

We'll have silver twins!

[samantha-vimes.livejournal.com]

We used to have a Liberator. Then the car I totaled, the Cobalt, was Lamont Cranston. Now our Aveo is our TARDIS. I suspect it's pretty common for geeks to give their cars that sort of name.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Mine's the wrong colour to be LIBR8R and I was disappointed it was the most common car colour here, but as Greg said, "It's yer basic spaceship colour, innit". :-)

My computer is Zen on the home network.

[samantha-vimes.livejournal.com]

My laptop demanded to be named as part of being set up, so it's ORAC. Behaves better than him most of the time.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't dare name mine Orac!

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

All my dad's cars we named and all had their different personalities. Yes, technically a car is an an inanimate object, but it has life.
I'm finding computers are the same, which is why all ours are named too. I'm currently typing this on Argentia, my laptop.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Greg didn't name his car, but I often have.

The silver one? Our computers are named too because we have a home network. Mine's Zen.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Yes, a silver laptop. For some reason she's female too.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

OK, that's impressive that she can detect an ingredient.

They have a truly amazing sense of smell.

(But, mostly, I just wanted an excuse to use this icon. :))

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Maybe Ashley can smell yogurt through the container. :-P

Perfect icon! I'm glad Ashley can't get into the fridge or the carton.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

She probably can! My cats can certainly smell catnip through multiple layers of packaging. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I've never had a cat who even reacted to catnip. :-( Pity, because I know some of them get quite drunk.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Mine go nuts for it. Enough so that I've only let them have it a handful of times.

[elmey.livejournal.com]

Yes, we need pictures of the happy car couple. I was really attached to my cherry colored Honda, the silver one is a nice second marriage, but the red one was my first love :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

My first Honda was bright red, a gorgeous colour! My very first car was a bright yellow Mini. Cars don't seem to come in bright colours any more, at least Japanese ones don't. I think those paints had lead in them.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

So what will Greg's new car be called? DSV2?

Tabitha would probably enjoy watching cars being washed. She quite often sits at the end of the bath watching me wash my hair - though it seems to be less about what I'm doing than about the water swirling round the bottom of the bath. That seems to be endlessly fascinating.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That's a great name! [immediately adopts it]

It was definitely the water spraying and flowing down the drive that fascinated her. Tessa loved moving water too, and Jasmin enjoys watching the water swirl in a handbasin or bath.

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

You can take comfort in a statistic I read earlier this year--silver cars are involved in fewer accidents than cars of any other color.

Yogurt has tended to be a favorite of all our animals--cats and dogs. We only eat the plain type, so it's not the sugar. I guess it's the dairy, or maybe it's the cultures? I'm glad Ashley little upset ended well. Our neighbor's cat likes to jump on our garage from a nearby tree, which he can't jump back to. Every once in a while we hear a pitiful meow, and call our neighbor. She has to pull her car over so he can jump down from the roof.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Most cars here are silver because they're Japanese and they go for silver, white, and very dark. Maybe it's helped a bit.

Cats can't taste sweetness so it has to be the dairy, and anyway we mainly get plain too. She's the only one that loves yogurt though Vic enjoys a little cheese too.

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

We had a cat years ago that went nuts for butterscotch pudding. He would do anything to get it. My little Emma loved sourdough bread. Go figure.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Someone here likes sourdough because I've found it partially eaten some mornings. I now pout it in the microwave to keep it safe, not having a bread bin.

[luinielle.livejournal.com]

Cats really do have a great sense of smell, don't they. And I chuckled at your description of Ashley watching you wash your car.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

She was fascinated! A stray cat called Larry whom we found a home for with friends used to love watching us do any sort of work. My friend's husband is a builder and he was putting up a new house out the back of the one they had. I told him Larry would enjoy watching him, and he did!

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Ashley is a darling.

I have to ask though - did you wash the car with yoghurt? :PPPP

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

She would lick the car clean! Ashley is indeed a darling. I've just been stroking her. She has such soft fur sometimes I have to pick her up and bury my face in it.

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

*giggling at the thought of a matched pair of breeding Integras*

Your cats are just the best. They really brighten up lj. Fascinating that Ashley can detect an ingredient in a cake. Did she do that 'wash-wash, I *meant* to do that' thing after missing her footing?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They'll be pedigrees!

No, she was so glad to be off the roof and with me that she charged off around the garden with Jasmin, who'd come out the window as an interested spectator. They both went into top playful mode with sheer joy: a fine morning, me outside with them (which they think should happen for several hours a day) and feline joie de vivre.

I don;t think either of them knows how to be embarrassed, and they don't mind being laughed out. Claudia used to look all offended.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about Greg's car. :(

Ashley definitely sounds like a yoghurt fan. :-p

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's worked out well because he now has a much better and more powerful car and won't be nicking mine any more. Now we just need to get that Navman for them. :-)

Ashley gets to eat some with me at breakfast. :-D It's our little yogurty ritual.