Favorite Picture of the Week- Hurricane Rachel

 

Friday, the clouds started moving in. This was around 6AM or 6:30AM. I was out there for a while waiting to see how the color in the clouds would change, because look at this! It was so pretty. That darker cloud reminded me of an alien invasion movie scene though. lol 

Saturday Sunrise. 

Then during Saturday the clouds started moving in later that day. It rained really hard all night and I slept through all of it. LOL 

Sunday morning. Lots of clouds and it rained on and off all day. The weather people kept saying that the remnants of hurricane Rachel was going to bring thunderstorms and heavy rain over the weekend and into Monday and it did. 

My courtyard flooded overnight on Saturday. The water was ankle deep in the alley.

You see that line on the wall? That's how high the water got overnight Saturday night and into Sunday morning. It was at least a foot high. 

That smaller block wall in front of the gate is the wall I showed in the last picture. The water was rushing both down on the bottom near the sidewalk and on top where the fence in part is. 

You can see the path all that water took down that little hill and onto the sidewalk and street. It displaced some of the rocks and sent them onto the sidewalk and into the street.

*Yep, that's my Clown Motel apartment building in the background.*

One of the nearly dead trees across the street fell over in the wind Saturday night. 

It was darn near dead and probably should have been removed. 

There were a lot of clouds Sunday, Monday and Tuesday but no more rain. This was Sunday night's sunset. 

Monday, lots of clouds but no rain. 

People in Las Vegas were sharing this. lol 

Book Review: The Bad Seed by Kate Yazowski

 

Book Description

Derek nodded as something caught his eye off to the left on Barlow. “Let’s check that out.” he said and swung the car onto the shoulder just as a shot rang out and the windshield cracked. “Get down!” Derek shouted and keyed the radio. “Shots fired 1204 Barlow road. Request back up.”

“Copy that squad one. All units, all units. Shots fired 1204 Barlow Road. Officers involved are pinned down. Approach code three.”

A movement ahead to their right forced both men to fire in that direction. The sharp pain of the impact sends Derek flat to the ground. Greg rolled over and emptied his gun into the darkness.

“Officer down! Officer down! 10-13 Chief is hit. Officer down! Officer down! We’ve been ambushed, repeat we’ve been ambushed!!”

In prowl car three Randy grabbed the microphone. ROLL EMS! ROLL EMS! 1204 Bartlow Road. Approach with caution shots fired OFFICER DOWN REPEAT OFFICER DOWN!”

My Review

Derek Landly chief of police in a small town. Two new cops get hired on, one named Greg. Greg makes people feel a bit off center and they think he gives off a creepy vibe, but he seems to be a good cop.

Ralph Wendell Homles and Henry Patrick Collins escaped from prison, they are both doing time for murder, and were believed to be armed and dangerous. The town of Heaven went on high alert when they escaped and soon after all hell breaks loose. 

The new police office, Greg was on patrol with Derek when they found the convicts. Right away one of the escapees opens fire on the two officers. They were able to get out of that situation and call in the state troopers to get the dogs, choppers and more manpower to find the escapees. They get away and are still on the loose.

Days later Derek and Greg were again shot at this time though, Derek is hit and ends up in the hospital. No one is sure he's going to make it. Questions arise about the shooting, who shot Derek? An investigation ensues and there are a lot of unanswered questions about the shooting. 

Derek and some of the other officers thought Greg was a little off, a bit different than the rest of them and it had them feeling weird. What they didn't know was just how weird Greg was. He had secrets, big secrets. Greg is behind some of the weird things going on in the office as well. 

Could a fellow officer really be behind the attempted murder of the police chief, twice? And if so, why? Did Derek do something to make Greg feel vindictive, is he a psychopath or just a bad seed? 

This book had me on the edge of my seat right away, I couldn't put this book down and read it in one sitting. This is more than just a murder mystery or a police procedural, it's a close look at how a cold stone killer picks his target, acts on it all the while acting like everything is normal until the moment he gets caught. I highly recommend this book. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Halloween Decorations

 

So, if you've been visiting my blog for a while, you know we decorate for Halloween. So here are some of the decorations. 

And yes, that's the cabin from Friday the 13th's, Camp Crystal Lake. I bought the cabin years ago. 

Of course there's at least one rat.

Oogie Boogie.

The cover for our lamp disintegrated but it looks creepy for Halloween month so we haven't replaced it yet. LOL 

The lights in the living room window change from purple, to orange.

I have Copilot on my laptop (it came with it) so I asked it to take a picture of me and put me into a Halloween themed picture. Why did it *enhance* my chest and make it bigger? LOL I liked the picture, so I kept it. 

Do you decorate for Halloween?

Apartment Life #541

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

While walking Falcor along the walking path next to the soundwall, I noticed a couple of police cars driving away and then noticed that there was an ambulance and fire truck still in the parking lot. I watched them come out of liquor store that's right there. They had a woman who walked over to the ambulance and she got on the gurney and they took her to the ER. I have no idea why though. Could have been anything. It's still hot here so it could have been heat exhaustion as well. I'll never know for sure though. 

---

Earlier this week my daughter's friend, Tia who lives in my courtyard got a call from a co-worker and said she needed help because of her abusive boyfriend. So Tia got her girlfriend, my daughter and another neighbor to go with her to pick the coworker up. But when they pulled up to get her the boyfriend was in a Vay rental car and followed them, chasing them through the streets. So Tia called the police and had the police stop him. The co-worker stayed with Tia for a few days, went back with the police standing by and packed up her stuff and left. 

---

On Wednesday right around dinner time I heard a lady in my courtyard screaming for help and for someone to call the police. I went outside to see what was going on and her ex-boyfriend was following her around the courtyard while she was screaming, "Just get away from me." And she's telling people to call the police. At that time my neighbor came outside as well and she and I both said come over here to us. 

 As soon as he saw me and my neighbor standing outside willing to get involved, he booked it away. We went over to her and asked her if she was okay and make sure he didn't hurt her or the baby she had in her arms and she said she was fine. She didn't need the police anymore and she said she needed to go back inside and call his parole officer and report what just happened with him. But I told her if anything like that ever happens again and she needs help just to knock on my door, that I'm always home.  She said she was really thankful that someone came out to help her. 

I had taken Falcor out for a walk about 30 minutes later and saw that he was sitting in his car in our alley. And when I got back from my walk my next door neighbor was standing by my door talking to my daughter and she said that he had just come back to that lady's door and was knocking on the door and she did not answer so my neighbor stood there and stared at him until he went back to his car. But he was still sitting in his car when I went outside later. Nothing else happened with them that I heard. 

---

The high this week was 101F/38C

The low this week was 74F/23C

Oh, and we are bracing for the remnants of Hurricane Rachel tonight and tomorrow. If we get the rain and winds that they have been telling we are going to get, I should have some good pictures, hopefully. 

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Saturday Vittles

 

Tomato Flight

My daughter saw something called a Tomato Flight and wanted to try it for me and her. 

What is a Tomato Flight? (I had no idea either) 

A tomato flight is a colorful, customizable platter of tomato slices topped with a variety of cheeses, herbs, meats, and sauces, perfect for summer entertaining or a creative snack.

So she made 6 slices of a large tomato and topped them with different toppings including, pepperoni, avocado, bacon, cucumber, cream cheese and lox, black olives, green olives, lettuce, seafood salad, cottage cheese, queso fresco cheese, bell pepper, and mint. 

The tin in the middle is smoked oysters. 

We halved all the tomatoes and the tin of oysters. It was really good. 

I didn't keep track of the calories for this but since we cut all the tomatoes with the toppings in half, I don't think it was much over what I usually have for dinner.

For desert later we had Banana Cream Pudding

Zero Sugar Banana Cream Pudding and a handful of Catalina Crunch Protein Cereal

I used the Jello brand zero sugar pudding and made it according to the directions. I added a handful of the Catalina Crunch protein cereal to it. I won't be using the Catalina Crunch protein cereal again, I don't like it. I reviewed it here. But the pudding was great. It's a nice, sweet treat. 

A 1/2 cup serving of pudding is 50 calories.

Would you eat either of these?

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full-sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things.  I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received: 

I cashed out a $10 Amazon giftcard from a survey site. 

Zolli Gum Popz from Try Products

Hero Cosmetics under eye rescue patches- from Hero Skin Squad

I won a Goodreads Giveaway!

A coupon for a free dog treat from Purina

Macy's perfume samples

A Daily Goodie Box that I won on FB

Wet cat food that I gave to my neighbor who has a cat

Strawberry lube (lol)

A full size bottle of batiste dry shampoo

Knorr chicken and tomato chicken bouillon powder from Influenster

My grandson really liked the Zolli gum popz. The Hero eye patches didn't really do anything for my under eyes. 

My daughter and I shared the Daily Good Box snacks and I filled the candy bowl with the Zolli gum popz. My grandson is happy. 

The perfume smells really good and I love the dry shampoo. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?