Observations

  

I believe everyone that has (had) a dog, cat, hamster, duck, chicken or pig learn to recognize the sounds of concern that send each human flying out of bed (chair, house) to deal with whatever the problem is.  Could be to run off the neighbors’ dog as he tries to get into the duck pen or wanting to get the cat off the bed (carpet, wood floor) before hacking up a hairball. 

For me, now, the sound that usually jolts me up from bed is the sound of splashing water.  Daryl

loves water.  He likes to splash in the water.  His favorite time and place?  About 5am and the water in his water bowl.  He will shove the water bowl out to the middle of the kitchen, shove the two dry food bowls up close and happily splash the water onto the floor and dry kibble.  In the past, he’s just splashed the water all over the floor, however I recently changed their dry food (to weight control because one of the DD is as round as a little tub) and he started making sure the dry food gets wet as well. 

Daryl, pudgy as he is, has two other talents.  He can teleport (yep, as in beam me up scotty).  He can be across the room until the door to the outside is opened and then, he can teleport across the room and squeeze through a tiny opening and be out.  He also is the GREAT GRAY HUNTER.  He’s always chases down any bug that gets in the house and he is an unrelenting hunter – catches whatever, release, chases it down again, catches, release, etc.  With the opening of the new back porch, he has a whole new thing to chase, catch, bring inside, release, chase, catch, etc. 

Little green tree frogs.  I’ll bet I’ve rescued a dozen and tossed them back outside already.

I worry that I’m getting old.  You know – old (stodgy) in my thinking (not years). 

I’ll be visiting my daughter over xmas in the frozen northlands (Albuquerque).  Now, I live in near perpetual summer.  So, the majority of my clothes are ideal for this climate.  I was looking over said clothes and decided I needed a few long-sleeved shirts (like something that buttons rather than t-shirts).  Off I went to JCPenney’s.  That’s the closest store we have that carry nice women’s clothes.

On a scale of 1-5, JCP gets a four (Target a 3 and Walmart a -1).  If I want anything else, I have to go to Houston (ick, ick, ick). 

And, here’re my observations and remarks.

Who buys the clothes for JCP??  96% of them are heavy fleece, or wool blends.  We live in near perpetual summer!  We may have a dozen cold days in January or early February (or we may not).  Then, summer starts again.  People! what are you thinking.

Also, who thinks this makes sense?

Hooded, cropped fleece jackets.  What?  Your boobs are warm, ergo the reset of you stays warm?  I don’t understand.  I thought it was your hands, feet and head to keep warm, not boobs.

Didn't buy anything.

Lately, I’ve been (I hesitate to say watching because, mostly, I just listen) to an old TV show (Castle).  I usually put something like that on when I’m working on a project that requires 70% of my attention (the sweater I’m currently crocheting).  It’s a cute show.  I know what to expect.  I don’t have to pay much attention to follow along.  

There are commercials and they float over my head for the most part.  Though, one or two have caught my attention but only because the actors are very attractive and the setting of the commercial is very elaborate.  Now, don’t think for a second, they are selling something I might buy because although I know the category of the product, I have no idea the brand.  Plus, those commercials are right out of a bad romance novel or the beginning of a scifi book, so – no.

#1  A hunky man in a tiny white speedo dives off an impossibly high cliff into cerulean blue ocean and shoots out of the water onto a floatie wherein lays a beautiful woman.

#2  A beautiful woman rises up from the ocean (you know – like the birth of Venus).  She is dressed all in body clinging gold and she is dusted with gold glitter.  Her eyelids are heavy with gold glitter.  She offers the camera a flower.

What are these people selling? 

Perfume!  

Really?  What I actually think is – I hope she doesn’t get that glitter in her eyes; that’s gonna hurt.  The other one – just makes me shake my head – riiiiight like that’s gonna happen.    

Well, I have to go now.  Zack discovered my suitcase sitting out and is determined to sit on me.

I will leave you with this small thought –

 

13 Dec 2021

Little things

  

That’s what I’ve been doing lately.  Little things.

Many little things that have kept me very busy.

The back porch is finished!  And beautiful!

The Boys like it out there.  Zack sits in his comfy bed while Daryl hides amongst the bromeliads.

My Great Plan

My great plan was that the finished porch would winter over all my potted plant this year.  It also included a decision to line the outside of the porch with plastic to make a sort of greenhouse.  I mean, how hard could it be to staple clear plastic to the outside of the porch.

So, first of all, I spent two days moving plants on to the porch.  Little plants and very large plants.  Day three I pulled out the staple gun, the sheets of plastic, and the 10’ ladder. 

A few noteworthy things 

1  The staple gun is very difficult for me to use.  I have to be able to put my full weight into holding it in place and pulling the handle.
2  The wind loved the individual sheets of plastic and blew them all around me.
3  The 10’ ladder is aluminum which makes it lightweight.  Good / Bad.  Good, I can carry it easily.  Bad, it wobbles easily.
4  The porch is really tall.
5  I am not tall.  Even on the ladder I had to stand on the second to top step and reach up over my head.

I did manage, after many bad words and sheer stubbornness, to get three panels up.  Stood back and surveyed my handiwork.  Crooked, lopsided, and uneven.  Well, that’s bad – and I pulled them down and put them away.

Fine!  I’ll come up with something else or maybe I’ll just look at all those plants and tell them – 

Live or Die – you’re on the porch!  

Maybe we’ll have our normal mild winter and not a repeat of last year.  Something to worry about later.

Then arrived Thanksgiving.  I was invited to celebrate Thanksgiving with my niece and family – Ellen’s daughter.  And, it was a happy and fun celebration with nine adults, 1 baby, 4 dogs, a couple of cats, a big lizard and a hedgehog! 

Saturday I decided to bring in the Christmas tree (which was living in the loft of the shed).  I wanted to set it up undecorated for a day or two so the Demon Duo would get used to a tree in the living room.  And, while I was up in the loft, I’d go ahead and get the tubs of ornaments down.

Again – the 10’ ladder.  The tree sections were heavier than I remembered from last year but I got them down.  And, got down five of the 6 tubs.  The last tub? – the last tub was really heavy plus I was getting tired but I wrestled the tub off the loft floor and started down the ladder.  And . . . . .

yep, I fell off the ladder.  Didn’t break anything but I torqued my back and raised enough bumps and bruises to make me lay on the shed floor and cry for a couple of minutes.  I managed to get everything onto the back porch then spent two days sitting in the recliner or laying flat on my back.  During that time, I determined there is no place for the big tree in my small living room.

Hmmm - anything else?  Oh yes, I have a few plant things to show off -

Giant Yellow Crown of Thorns

Euphorbia tirucalli Rosea or Fire Sticks

And the wildflower seeds I planted in October are blooming and/or covered with buds.

Okay, that is all I know.

2 Dec 2021

 

Time, Time, Time

  

Today, I may have too much free time.  I should be outside getting the last few plants in the ground (since the back porch is finished, I know where the rest go), but . . . nope not doing that.  Tomorrow. 

I should be moving the rest of my plants onto the now finished back porch, but . . . nope not doing that either.  Tomorrow. 

I should be repotting a few things, taking down my sister’s canopy, moving my work table to its new location, and so on and so forth blah, blah, blah.  But I'm not doing any of that.  Tomorrow.

Today, I am being the computer equivalent of a couch potato. 

And, I found a very cool site.

Back in the days before Siri and Google Maps, we used paper maps. 

I actually got quite good at using maps because I have a terrible, awful, bad sense of direction!  But, give me a map and I can usually figure out where I am in regard to where I am supposed to be. 

Now, to be honest, my preference of maps is something like this –

It involves imagination, fears, warnings and I feel certain that somewhere there is a similar road map to this as there are monsters, dragons, pirates, potholes, and other things on the highways as well.

The site I found is full of maps with all sorts of odd and interesting information.  For instance, this is the world map many of us grew up with.

However, this is how the world map should look.

Wonder or worry about population?  Well, here’s the population density around the world.  (My part of the world doesn’t look too bad.)

Closer to home, the population of middle America = both coasts.  And that tells you why property along the East and West coasts is sooooo expensive.  I’ll just stick to my gulf coast area.

I thought this was interesting – Land Use here in the US.

There were others that caught my attention but this is probably enough.  Don't want to wear out my welcome.

Think I’ll get up and walk all the way to the sofa and sit down with my book.  Tomorrow will be busy.

 19 Nov 2021

Wednesday

  

My new back porch is almost finished!  And, it is beautiful!  They maybe finished today and I’ll start moving things around tomorrow. 

 

The Demon Duo have been watching out the window and are very interested in what-ever-the-hell-that-is.  I plan to let them out there - as close to outside as they'll get.

Also, the front walk if done!  I got three more bags of pebbles and put them out.  I suspect it will be an ongoing process of adding more pebbles as needs arrive but, right now . . . . ta da!

And just so it’s not completely boring –

There are shells and beach glass sprinkled around.

Interesting rocks and critters.

Fossils, plants, and sculptures (in case you can’t tell, the big statue is a pelican – he’s very old but stands strong).

Plus, a lion guards the front of the walkway.

I owe a big thank you to two friends – one who said – would you be interested in these landscaping rocks?  I don’t want them anymore.  And one that said – would you be interested in these bags of gravel?  I don’t need them.  My answer to both was obviously YES!  So, THANK YOU!

Inside the house I’ve done “catch-up” stuff. 

Found and hung drapes in the living room. 

Decided on and put up a door cover for the bathroom.  The door into the master bathroom was positioned so it opened on top of the toilet.  Which means, you’d have to close the door to get to said toilet.  Fine if the need arises BUT, I am a little old lady and if I have to get up in the middle of the night, in the dark, all I could see was running into the door, one way or the other.  I took the door off.  Instead I’ve hung a linen drape that is the same color as the wall and will slide back completely out of the way.  Or, slide across the door if required.

I put a bulletin board over my desk.  I think I must be a dying breed of human that wants a place to pin various little things I might need quickly.  Of course the drawback is after a year I have to clean it off as things get pinned over things, over other things.  But, it works for me.

I also finished the ornaments I made earlier (well, I have one more to do).  Several are pretty much okay-not-spectacular and I don’t know what I’ll do with them.  However these three (and the fourth one to be finished) I really like.

They are a combination of needlework and beading. 

The pattern didn’t call them out as ornaments (coasters, actually) but I liked the design.  So I changed the colors, added the beadwork and completely filled in the entire design (no empty fabric showing).  Also, I don’t like ornaments that have to face one direction because the back is - - - well, obviously the back so, I reworked the finishing so the backs look like this

I think they turned out nice.  Don’t know what I’ll do with them either but they were fun and challenging to make.

What else???

Today is Homemade Bread Day.

The origins of this particular Day are shrouded in mystery, but the history of bread obviously follows along with the history of humanity itself. Bread has been an important part of diet and culture and has appeared in pretty much every corner of the world in some form or another. It is estimated that grains and cereals became an important part of the human diet long before bread came along. Bread, itself, is believed to have entered the scene perhaps as long as 10,000 years ago, during the Neolithic period in Europe. Some loaves of bread even from that long ago used the concept of retaining a piece of the previous day’s bread as a ‘starter’ in the fashion of sourdough bread. In 79 AD, the tragic volcano eruption of Pompeii preserved the city’s ovens so that archeologists would later find them. It was discovered that the people from that time had access to bread that was baked in at least 33 different bakeries.

Now, here’s a couple of Did You Know?

1  Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented a machine to slice bread in 1928.
2 Red Skelton first coined the phrase “It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread” during a newspaper interview in 1952.
3  Bread is the staff of life and in the breadbasket of the nation the breadwinner of the family cashes his paycheck and hopefully has enough bread to purchase bread for the family.
4 Pan de Campo (aka. Cowboy Bread) is the Official Bread of Texas.
5  In 1890 women baking at home produced more than 80% of the bread eaten in the United States.
6 On January 18, 1943 the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture banned the sale of sliced bread .  The Reason: Sliced bread went stale faster; therefore, Americans used more wheat, needed to feed soldiers.
7  Most of the bread marketed in the U.S. as “wheat” is actually white bread dyed brown with caramel food coloring.
8 The distinction of “upper crust” comes from the 1600s. When the bread was made in stone ovens the bottoms would become dirty from ash and soot. If you were wealthy you cut the bottom crust off and just ate the “upper crust” part of the bread.

Hmmm – think I’ll make some English Toasting Bread.  It’s a wonderful bread, easy and tasty.

Today is also my second granddaughter’s birthday, so . . . .

Happy Birthday beautiful girl!

And, I think that’s all I know today.

17 Nov 2021

 

Not Much

  

exciting – not much exciting going on around here. 

 Although, first of all - - -

I have a carport! 

Yay!  In case you’re wondering why, the front panel is longer than the others, it’s because the front faces west.  And, with no big trees (yet) to break up the very hot sun rays, it gets to be somewhere between “pretty damn hot” and “ohmigod I think I have 2^nd degree burns on my derriere” in the car. 

I would like to say it went in without a hiccup.  That was (of course) not the case.  But, in order to not have any more heart burn, all I’ll say is DO NOT EVER use a company called Star Buildings and Carports out of Nacogdoches, TX.

The shims finally arrived and I spent Monday and Tuesday working on the walkway up to the stairs.  I still need a couple 3 more bags of pebbles but you get the idea.

It was hard work and I spent several hours lifting 500 lb stepping stones, moving 300 lb landscaping rocks, and putting out 150 lbs of pebbles, but I’m happy with the look.  Possibly I exaggerated the weight – possibly not.  I came inside after crawling around outside with a single thought

I am too old to do this sort of work! 

At 74 aren’t I supposed to be in the “golden” part? 

Honestly – my back, shoulders, wrists, and knees still hurt!  Oh well, as my aunt that lived well into her 90’s said – the secret to long life is never slow down. 

And, another good thing.

The screened-in back porch is under way.  Maybe finished by the weekend or early next week.  Everybody – keep you fingers crossed for me!!

What else?  Well, I moved the plumerias into one of the bays of my sister shop.  Come November, plumerias go dormant, lose their leaves, and need little water or light.  And, while we haven’t had any cold weather, I know from experience, those sneaky cold fronts can arrive with minimal notice.  I do not want to try moving said plumerias in the cold, rain, and dark (which I have done too many times when I was younger). 

Uhmmm, let see -  – I noticed my Devil’s Trumpet is blooming.  Datura, also known as thornapple, jimsonweed, or devil’s trumpet, is a member of the Solanaceae family (which includes nightshade, tomatoes, potatoes, and chili peppers).  Personally, I’d put the chili peppers with datura and nightshade as being dangerous to your health and well-being, however that’s just me.  If you do grow this plant, be sure to remember it can cause respiratory depression, arrhythmias, fever, delirium, hallucinations, psychosis, and even death if taken internally.  So, don't eat this.  Don't pick the flowers.  Just enjoy its beauty outside.

I got my covid booster yesterday.  No negative reactions or it could be that all my muscles and bones still hurt from carrying very heavy rocks, etc and I just am not noticing anything else.  But I am, I hope, as immune as possible.

Daryl, the teleporting cat, managed to teleport himself from the living room out the back door the other day.  Honestly, for a fat cat he is fast and can get through small openings.  Anyway, he got out and headed for the canopy under which sit all my shade loving plants.  I was right behind him.  However, the two big dogs next door saw him through the fence and barked.  Daryl skidded to a halt, looked over there and saw dogs AND a male human person (my neighbor), turned tail and was back up the stairs to the door (lemme in, lemme in). 

He hasn’t tried to get out again.

Well – that’s all I know so far today. 

 

10 Nov 21

Hmmmmm . . . .

  

Well, it’s nearly 11am and nothing's happening.  Something is supposed to be happening.  But not yet.

Several weeks ago, I ordered a carport. 

It’s going to look like this – white with black trim.

Finally, last week I got a call that they were ready for the installation.  TODAY!  Yay!  They would be here early.  I obviously have a different understanding of ‘early’ than they have.

This is early.

Currently, it’s mid-morning, heading quickly toward noon-ish.  Nothing happening.  Of course, they are coming from East Texas so . . . . .  I will call if nothing is happening by noon.  I may not be nice.  ps: I just call (and I was nice) no one seems to know exactly where the truck is.  I am not encouraged. 

I’m still working on the walkway up to the house.  Still waiting on the shims that were supposed to be here Saturday.

Currently the package is at a post office carrier facility in Huntsville, TX.  102 miles, 163 km, 88 nautical miles (though I’m pretty sure there’s no waterway between here and there).  Depending on how it gets here (truck, bicycle, donkey), I might get the shims by Thursday or Friday.  I’m about to be annoyed.

I have to get out and vote today.  Usually I vote early but for some reason just didn’t get myself together enough to do it so I have to go today.  Not voting for people – voting for amendments to TX constitution.  I’m ready!

Wow – it’s November already.  And, we go off DST this weekend.  That’s fine.  I like it to be light in the morning when I get up.

The materials for my back porch are here. 

Construction is supposed to start next Monday.

One final thing –

Happy Birthday Cookie Monster!

I shall have some chocolate chip cookies to celebrate.

And, that’s all I know right now.

 

ain’t it the truth!

 

2 Nov 2021

Greetings Ghosties and Ghoulies and Long-legged Beasties

  

We have officially reached The Changing Season.  For a time now, everyone in this part of the universe will change clothes 2-3 times every day.  This is because . . . . . the mornings are chilly, so long sleeves and long pants; the afternoons are very warm/hot, so shorts and t’s; and the evenings cool down quickly, so some sort of compromise is required (long sleeves and shorts or t’s and long pants).  Of course, Summer is apt to elbow its way in at any moment so there’s no putting anything away. 

The nice thing about The Changing Season is, I’ve gotten lots done outside.  My current project is the walkway up to the house.  It has been paved with very heavy stepping stones.  With the coming of the new season, I am redoing the walkway.  This has required

1 Moving all the very heavy stepping stones
2 laying down heavy duty weed cloth
3 Moving said stepping stones back
4 Moving them around
5 Moving them around again
6 Moving very heavy decorative boulders (okay, okay, actually very heavy medium-sized rocks)
7 Moving them around again
8 Moving planters

I would like to say, the end result of this is

but actually closer to

So true, Auntie Acid

I still have to shim all the stepping stones so they’re level and don’t wobble and then put down bags of pebbles.  Next weeks’ project.

And today is

and, I have a Halloween story to share.

Once upon a time . . .

a Farmer decided to

plant a little punkin’ seed.

That seed, along with many others started to grow.

And, next thing the Farmer knew, he had a field of beautiful orange pumpkins.

His next plan was to truck all those orange pumpkins to market.  Little did the Farmer know, one of those pumpkins was special.  Jack.  Jack the special pumpkin.

So, did you know that there are very weird people in the big wide world out there that use pumpkins in

Bread

Soup

Eggnog

Cookies

Pancakes

Risotto

Pasta

Shakes

Cakes

Trifle

Pudding

Coffee

and, oh yes – Pie.

However, Jack knew he was meant for something else.  Something meaningful.  Something unique.

  Something spooky!

The Farmer sold his pumpkins to a grocery story and they dumped them into a big box.

Jack waited and waited and waited for the right person to choose him.  And along I came.  I looked at several different pumpkins but when I picked up Jack, I knew he was the one.

In order to BECOME, Jack had to undergo some changes.  

He had a bit of a “nip and tuck”.

Under went a facial transformation.

and grew into what he knew was his destiny.

Jack-o-Lantern

 

The End.

 

 31Oct 2021