Meet The Teacher

I'd thought about going to the store after work today, because I'm almost out of milk.  Then I remembered it's Meet The Teacher day, so I decided not to. 

Just in case you don't know what Meet The Teacher day is, it's when you and your child go up to the school to get the kid's schedules and school supply lists.  At least, that's how it's supposed to be.  

How it really happens is that the student, parents, both sets of grandparents, various aunts, uncles, cousins, and your long lost 27th cousin from the old country Wilhelm all go up to the school and mill around in the halls.  And someone brings a dog.  

Seriously.

I remember when Cody was still in school, someone was up there with a dog at Meet The Teacher day.   True story.

Then, once the parents have the school supply lists, they, the student, both sets of grandparents, various aunts, uncles, cousins, and your long lost 27th cousin from the old country Wilhelm all go to Walmart to crowd into the two aisles that have school supplies and buy them.   And someone usually gets into a fight over the last five subject binder. 

Yeah, I'll go tomorrow.  

I came on home and went out back to water my grass seed, but when I turned on the water, my hose blew.  I wasn't too surprised, because it had had a weak spot there for a while.  I expected it to burst sooner or later.  And sooner or later came today. 

I tried to repair it with my handy dandy duct tape, but it didn't work too well. 

I guess I didn't get the tape wrapped tightly enough, because water was squirting out of both sides.  Ah well, it held long enough to get my grass and basil plants watered, and I'll look for a repair thing at Walmart tomorrow.  If they don't have one, there's always Amazon.  

And finally, after a bit of a hiatus, you get a meme debunkeration!  When all these NFL stars are supposedly saying the same thing, you've got fake sites on your hands. 

 

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.  

It's so obvious, yet people still fall for it.  

Dread Pirate

I have a spider living in my house.  I've named her Dread Pirate Roberta, because every day I walk past her and say to myself, "I really ought to kill that spider," then I don't.  And I say, "Maybe tomorrow." 

Although when that egg sac hatches and I've got hundreds, nay thousands of baby spiders running all over my living room, I may regret that decision.  If I could kill the sac without killing Roberta, I would.  Hmmm, let me think on that a bit. 

In other news, there I was Saturday evening or Sunday morning -- I don't remember which -- shoveling dirt into my little pail, painstakingly picking out the rocks by hand when I said to myself, "There really ought to be an easier way to do this."  

Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I came inside, jumped onto Amazon, and found a better way to do this.  I wasn't expecting them to arrive until tomorrow, but imagine my surprise when I got home from work this afternoon to find that they'd gotten here early!  

And just what are they?  Sieves, of course. 

Heavy duty mesh sieves specifically made for sifting rocks from soil.  Even though it was pretty hot outside, I couldn't wait to try them out, so I did, and in less time than it takes to work up a heat stroke, I had a nice little pile of sifted, rock-free soil. 

I'll definitely be using this more, given how easy it is.  Even in the garden spot, I can sift the rocks out of the soil and leave the dirt where it is.  Much better than picking them out one by one with my fingers. 

That was with the smaller mesh sieve.  I'd gotten the set of two, thinking I could use the larger mesh to sift my compost, separating the stuff that's ready to use from the larger bits that need to break down more.   I'll do that as it cools off a bit, weatherwise, I mean.  For now, I got out the five gallon bucket of spider lily bulbs I'd dug up from my garden spot earlier this year, and put those bulbs into the sieve, then washed the dirt off of them.  

By the way, these are made to fit a five gallon bucket perfectly.  

I spread the bulbs on the old concrete slab to dry, and will probably end up burning them later on this fall, because I've got more than I need as it is.     

The whole time I was doing that, I had a very interested supervisor. 

Really, she was just impatient for me to leave so she could get at the corn I'd scattered behind the fence.  It didn't take long before I was done and she was able to nibble her little snack. 

And I came inside and took a shower.  

And finally, there is a bit of sadness in the weather community today, as Reed Timmer's little storm chasing buddy Gizmo has crossed the rainbow bridge.  

So long, Little Giz.  We're going to miss you. 

Sorcery

I walked into work not so bright, but very very early this morning, and right away I noticed something odd.  Very odd.  The air felt different.  It felt....cold.  

Sure enough, when I got to my work area, the little thermometer I keep on my stand said 71°.  

I quickly checked the calendar on my phone to make sure I hadn't walked through a time warp and ended up in January, but no.  It was still August.  What is this sorcery?

Seriously, I thought it was some sort of fluke, but no, the temperature never got above 83° for the entire day.  I'm telling you, work goes so much better when you're not absolutely miserable.  I just wish the upper management realized that as well.  

OK, moving right along, since Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, that is pretty much what I did yesterday.  I watched a few of my DVRed Shark Week shows while knitting on a hat, 

and behold, the finished object.  

I caked up the rest of the yarn and I think I have enough for another hat.  

I realized after the fact that I didn't include anything to give you a sense of scale, since I don't have any bananas around at the moment.  

The only other things I did yesterday was to scoop up some more of that dirt and fill in a little bit of this tire track -- you know the ones that are 4" deep in my front yard. 

And I planted a little more grass seed in a new spot. 

 I hope this stuff grows.  The package says to water it twice a day, but that isn't going to happen.  I already get up at 2:30 AM, I'm not getting up any earlier than that just to water some grass.  

And finally, Facebook is at its suckyness again.  This afternoon, I got a notification that two of my photos had been removed for -- get this -- child sexual exploitation.  

Yeah, I'm dumfounded, too.  They won't show me the photos they removed, and I can't even imagine anything I may have posted that is even remotely close to that, so I appealed.  They did not restore my photo, so I have no idea how I may have violated community standards.

This is why Facebook is a dying site.   The young people aren't getting on it, and the older folks aren't getting on as much because it just isn't fun any more the way it used to be.  

If it weren't for the storm chasers and meteorologists I follow, I'd probably leave the site altogether. 

But I'll still post links to my blog.  The ones Facebook doesn't remove as spam, at least. 

Lazy Saturday

Yep, it was a lazy Saturday here in the Fine Martial Household.  Well, lazy only in the sense I didn't have to go to work, and was able to work here at the house.  After enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee and some protein pancakes for breakfast.  

A very popular frozen waffle brand has recently come out with protein pancakes and waffles.  I tried them a few weeks ago, and they don't seem to negatively affect my blood sugar, so I'm getting them every now and again.  

Once my breakfast had settled a bit, I got out into the garden spot and shoveled up a wheelbarrow full of that red clay dirt the landscammer brought -- fussing all the while about did he really think I wanted my yard to look like this.  

Honestly, it wasn't really that hot today.  I mean, it's hot, but not blistering hot like it's been the last few days, so I wanted to get this done before summer comes back.  I haven't done anything with it yet.  The plan is to sort the rocks out and put them into the low spot in my driveway, then put the dirt into the 4" deep tire tracks the landscammer left in my front yard.  

I'm going to wait until it cools off a bit before I get back out there, though.  

While I was out there, I said to myself, "Self, you really ought to get the mowing done while it's still relatively cool."  But that's not exactly what I did. Oh, I started while it was still relatively cool, but with several cool-off breaks for both me and the lawn mower, it was pretty hot by the time I’d finished.  Not as hot as it has been, but still...

Oh, and check the oil in your lawnmower every once in a while.  It will thank you for it. 

It was hot work, but the yard looks so much better now.  Deciding to cool off once again before tackling the weedeating, off came the boots and socks. 

Oh, and before I forget, I scattered some grass seed in this spot right here, then surrounded it with flags to make sure I didn't mow it.  

The instructions say not to mow for several weeks to let the grass roots get established.  Thus the flags. If it works here, I'll put it into a few more spots. 

OK, I'm going to stop talking about how hot it is.  This is August after all. 

Wait, this is AUGUST???  When did that happen?  July seemed to go by in just a blink. 

I was watching my friend Marcy's latest garden vlog, and realized I hadn't filmed one all year.  I'd thought I'd do one this morning, but got busy doing other things.  Not that there has been much to vlog about this year, what with all the rain.  And once it dried out enought to actually do some prep work, it got too hot. 

Once it finally starts cooling off a bit, I can hopefully get the ground leveled and some of my raised beds put into place.  Oh, and I have to paint the fence first -- after I pull all of that dirt away.  

On a similar note, I guess the other landscaper has forgotten about me.  I know he said he was backed up, but it's been a month and I haven't seen hide nor hair of him.  I guess if he doesn't come soon, I'll have to get my rototiller out and break up that red clay myself, and try to push it into all those tire ruts the landscammer left. 

Because I didn't point each one out to him, so he thought I wanted them left in my yard.  

I guess that's about all I have for today, other than that I finally finished the Ryan Trahan series I was watching, and knocked a few more X-Files episodes out.  I mean, unless you really want to hear about me cleaning out the cabinet under my bathroom sink.  

No?  

I didn't think so. 

Wonder Of Wonders

Wonder of wonders, we have tomorrow off, y'all!  I couldn't believe it.  Heh, Group Leader Shark announced it in the morning meeting Thursday, and immediately one of the other brazers shouted, "No backsies!  You said it and no backsies!"  Which seemed a lot funnier at the time, now that I think about it. 

But there were no backsies and yes, we do have tomorrow off.  Even more, they let us go home at 2:00 today.  The first thing I did was to run home and grab the gas can...OK, the first thing I did was run home and run to the bathroom.  THEN I grabbed the gas can and went to The Ol' Corner Store first.  

Would you believe it, they still don't have modern gas pumps?  No card swipers, or chips, or anything.  So, I pulled out as fast as I pulled in and went to Mr. Monroe's, and wonder of wonders, the pump I went to actually worked!  That gas station has always been a bit of a hit or miss kind of thing.  

Anyway, I filled up the can with the intention of mowing later on today, but as it happens I will not in fact be mowing later on today.  And why?  Because wonder of wonders IT'S RAINING!!!  It's been raining for about an hour or so as I write this, which is probably more rain than we got in all of July.  So, I'll take it. 

Instead, I stayed inside and watched a few more Ryan Trahan videos, then I realized, hey, I can go back and watch the rest of season 9 of The X-Files -- which I'd skipped to watch the reboot seasons, when Mulder came back.  So, I did that, and knit a bit on the charity hat. 

I'm really liking the way these colors are knitting up.  I might have to get some more of this yarn when the Hobby Lobby in Batesville opens.  I'm not exactly sure when that will be.  I'd heard October, but I don't know for sure. 

But before it started raining, what I had intended to do was to get the front yard mowed, then spread some of this EZSeed in the bare spots I left in the back yard when I pulled up all that ground ivy. 

I may do that here in a little bit, after the rain stops, and I'll try to get the yard mowed tomorrow.  We're supposed to have a brief break in the heat, then it'll get hot again.  Still, any break is a relief after this last week.   This was Tuesday, and check out that heat index. 

I'd intended to blog that day, but never got around to it.  

This has been such a rough week at work, that blogging just didn't happen.  It seemed that every single order I got had something wrong with it, and the frustrating part is that those who could do something about it don't seem to care.   I had one order a few days ago that every single adapter tube was bent wrong.  Every single one.  

I showed the order to Group Leader Shark, but if the parts were done on second shift, there really isn't anything she can do about it. But it's been like that all week.  Yesterday, I had an order that two of the four adapter tubes were wrong, and today I got one that three out of the four were wrong.  When I showed that one to GLS, I seriously thought she was going to cry.  

She's as frustrated as we are, but as I said, all she can do is talk to the group leader on second shift.  If second shift GL isn't going to make her people do right, then all we can do is re-do all of those parts.  

Gee, if only we had an upper management who would give us the support we need to be successful at our jobs.  

On a similar note, change the phrase "answering an email" to "making a phone call" and this is me to a T. 

I've got so many phone calls I need to make, and so many phone calls I'm just not making. 

Maybe next week...Speaking of, I just realized that thanks to judicious scheduling of my vacation days, I only have two more Fridays to work this year!  Woo Hoo!  Maybe I can make some of those phone calls then.  

Now, wouldn't that be a wonder...

Of wonders.

Lesson Learned

First, a bit of sad news.  I got home from work, and discovered that a huge branch had broken off of Mr. Mater.  It was hanging by just a bit of skin -- so to speak -- so I went ahead and cut it completely off, even though it had a baby tomato on it.  Now Mr. Mater looks a bit sad,   

but I'll just consider this a lesson learned.  Next year, I'll make sure to get them proper tomato cages.  And next year, I'll have some of the raised beds in place, so I'll have them in the ground instead of a bucket.  They won't dry out so fast that way.  

In a bit of better news, I made an impulse purchase on Amazon, which arrived today.  And just what was that impulse purchase, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you. 

Rocks!!  

Polished rocks which I thought I could use to decorate my fairy garden.  But first, my bee pond got an upgrade.  

I didn't do much else outside, other than water the basil, fill the birdbath, and dump the manky water out of the deer trough and refill it.  We have a heat index of 109° this afternoon, and that's just too hot for me.  

Oh, I did trim off some of the bigger leaves of my basil plants, but I just tossed them over the back fence for any wild critters that might want to eat them -- or to compost down if none of them do.  That will give the new leaves better air and light to grow, and I might get one or two more batches of pesto out of them before they die off for the winter. 

By the way, this is what basil looks like when it flowers. 

 These are the ones in the front planter.  I've decided to let them go through their natural life cycle and either live or die as they will.  Oh, I'll still water them and all, but I'm not going to cut the flowers off or harvest any more leaves from them. 

That's about all I have for today.  I got to work this morning and told a coworker, "It's too early in the week for me to be this tired!" and she replied, "No it ain't!"  So, between that and being sore from working in the yard, and I hammered my thumb, and getting up at 2:30 in the blessed Ay Em, I'm all in.

I'm going to go take a hot shower and watch a few more episodes of either Ryan Trahan on YouTube or Shark week, then try to go to bed early.  

Laters. 

Back To It

Well, after a bit of a hiatus to knit baby sweaters, I'm back to my charity hats.  This time, I dug through my stash and found a skein of Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn, which I'd bought years ago and couldn't bring myself to use.  I decided it was high time I cast something on with it, especially with the new Hobby Lobby opening up in Batesville soon. 

And that's just what I did.  

This is the first time I've worked with this yarn, and I'm impressed with how soft it is.  The colorway is Royal Gorge, and it's royally gorgeous.  Heh... I crack myself up sometimes. 

OK, moving right along...

Cody and Brennan stopped by yesterday evening on their way home from Memphis and visited a bit.  We went out to eat at a local burger joint called Spencer's, then as we left Spencer's, I suddenly exclaimed, "Oh look!  A rainbow!" And Brennan said, "It's a double!"  

Sure enough, there was a huge, gorgeous, full arc double rainbow right in front of us. 

It's been so long since I've seen one of those, and pictures didn't do it justice.  At all.  I asked Cody if we could drive through the lake and across the dam, where I took a whole lot more pictures that didn't do it justice. 

But it was still gorgeous.  Then Cody missed the turn and we had to drive all the way down 333 to Highway 7 to get back home.  Oh, and we took Riverdale Rd instead of driving down to 51 Highway, so it was a nice little outing. 

Before they left, I gave them that old gas weed eater I had, showing Cody where the gas tank needed to be re-attached.  He said that it shouldn't be a problem to find screws to fit, and I said, "It's a good weed eater; it's just too heavy for me.  Ten years ago, I could handle it.  Now, not so much."  He was glad to have it, because they hadn't gotten around to getting one of their own yet.  I'm glad to have the battery operated one, because it's so much lighter and quieter than that gas monster. 

While I had the shed unlocked, I dragged that old storage tub out and put it in the back with the rest of my gardening stuff.  This morning, before it got too hot, I cleaned it out, then got the finished compost from my tumbler and put it into it. 

I tried to get some out of that big composting bag, but there wasn't much that was ready.  The way it is supposed to work is that you add plant matter into the top, and there is a little door to get the finished compost out of the bottom.  I got a few handfuls out, but that was it. I think that one will take a while, because I was putting sticks and stuff into it.  

Then I got my thatching rake out and scratched up enough ground ivy to fill up the empty side of the tumbler-- the other side having fresh grass clippings from when I mowed last week.  I only put things like grass clippings, leaves, and weeds into that one, so it breaks them down pretty quickly.  

By that time, I was pretty sweaty, because before I'd even started that, I did something else.  Remember when Ian The Landscammer left huge ruts in my front yard?  He said they were just tire tracks, so he shouldn't have to fill them in, but they're 4" deep.  So Justin The Good Landscaper had told me to fill them in with sand.  That's what I'd intended to do -- go up to Lowe's and buy sand to fill those ruts in -- but then I remembered.  

I have all of that red clay that I've already paid for.   And because we haven't had any significant rain in July, the stuff in the garden spot that I'd run the roto-tiller over a few times was still pretty loose, so I was able to scoop up a couple of bucket loads with my garden trowel, picking the rocks out as I did so, and haul them around to the front.  This is all I got done this morning, because I decided it's the day of rest, and by golly, I was going to rest. 

So that's just what I did.  I came inside, took a shower, then watched Marcy's latest garden vlog. If you watch it, you just might hear a familiar name in it...By the way, Cody and I were just talking about this yesterday, how it rained almost non stop from April to then end of June, then when July got here, it just stopped.  Seriously.  On June 30th, we were 10" above average for our area, and in July, we're 2" below average for the month.  Our total for the year is still 6" above normal, but still...By the way, I'm using the Raindrop app, and it's pretty good.  There is a free version, which is what I'm using, and also a premium version.  I don't know what's all included in the premium version, though.  I haven't really looked into it. 

Anyway, it's supposed to cool off later this week, so I may get out and fill up the wheelbarrow with that stuff and really fill those ruts in.  But tomorrow and Tuesday are still supposed to be brutally hot, so it's going to have to wait. 

And finally, for no other reason than that he's totally cool, here is my Venus Fly Trap, Marty Mac.

His growth has really exploded this year, but I've read that this is typical when they get to be about 4 years old.  I'm afraid he'll out grow his pot and I'll have to split him soon.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get something to eat, then watch some TV and knit on this hat some more. 

Laters...

Just Dropping By

Just dropping by to let you know I'm still above ground.    Just busy, and tired.  These long, long hours at work are leaving me running on empty.  Not to mention the heat.  Serious heat. 

A couple of days ago, my air conditioner didn't shut off until around 9:00 that night...but then, the cat puked on my bed again and I had to do an extra load of laundry.  I think that's why the house got so hot. 

I don't know why she's still throwing up.  I guess it wasn't the treats after all.  But at least it's only once every couple of days, not eight times in one day like it was that one time.  Even so, I decided to slowly transition her to this gentle formula to see if it helps. 

 It helped Squeaky when she was vomiting, so keep your fingers crossed. 

In other news, they've taken the expiration warning off of The X-Files on Hulu, so that's good.  I've already finished, though, but I do want to go back and watch some of the earlier seasons...just not right away.  I was all set to come in here and tell you that this last season wasn't all that good at all.  It was almost like a parody of what the show once was.  I kept expecting to see Weird Al popping into a scene now and then.  

Now, when I intended to post that -- but didn't get around to it -- I was going to tell you that so far, I'd only seen one episode that I even liked.  It was...I think episode 6, titled Kitten.  It was when Skinner went to go find someone from his past, and that's all I'm going to say about that. 

But then....I watched episode 8, Familiar.  It was creepy, and weird -- good weird -- and totally disturbing.  It was like Chris Carter suddenly remembered what his show was supposed to be.  I was spellbound, and as soon as the credits started rolling, I said, "Now that was an X-Files episode!"  

Alas, the final two episodes of the series were back to being mediocre, but I'm done now, and it's time to catch up on Shark Week and some of the other shows I've gotten behind on while trying to binge these last two seasons.  

Oh, speaking of bingeing, I've found a new series on YouTube I've been watching.  It's a guy named Ryan and his wife Hayley are visiting all 50 states in 50 days to raise funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  His goal was to raise $1 million, but as of this writing, they've raised over $10 million. It's a really fun series to watch, and here is the first episode: 

That's all I've got for today, as I still have to go in to work tomorrow and it's already past my bedtime. 

I'll try to pop in again soon...

Without Excuse

They are therefore without excuse.  Romans 1:20

I did a little tidying up Saturday afternoon, and found all these different bug sprays.  Therefore I am without excuse -- and yet, I still go outside without it.  Go figure. 

I had a little pleasant surprise yesterday afternoon.  Cody and Brennan stopped by on the way to Memphis and visited a bit.  They couldn't stay long, but it was good to see them.  Cody has gotten into baking artisan bread and brought me a loaf. 

He tossed a bunch of different herbs into it, but I can't remember what all they were.  I could definitely taste rosemary, though.  It tasted pretty good, but I kept thinking it needed to be dunked into some soup.  Particularly tomato soup.  

Except that it's way too hot for soup.  It's way too hot for pretty much anything.  I was going to come home and get that box out of the shed and start putting some compost into it, but I didn't even do that.  I watered my basil, filled the bird bath and bee pond, then ran back inside into the air conditioning and watched three episodes of The X-Files.  

I also set up my DVR to record Shark Week, since I'm usually in bed by the time the good shows on.  The first episode they had on last night was Dancing With Sharks, and I know they must be trying to draw in new viewers, but really, we don't want that.  We want Dickie, and Tristan, and Paul, Craig, Neil, Kina, and of course, the Shark Week Goat:  Andy Casagrande.  

I've said it before, fewer celebrities, more science.  

So, anyway, I turned off Dancing With Sharks just as soon as I'd bound off the Baby Surprise Jacket. 

 I think I'm going to take a break from BSJs for a while, and work on hats.  I'm way behind on my charity knitting, so I need to get back to that.   

Later, though.  For now, I'm going to finish this episode of The X-Files, then go to bed.  That's one thing I hate about my job -- having to be there so early in the morning, which means that when everyone else is just getting started, I'm already heading for bed. 

Speaking of work, we have a new supervisor over our department.  They've put Uncle Supervisor up in sheet metal, and gave us one whose blog name will be Maxwell.  

If you work there, you'll get it. 

He's always been nice to me, but I've never worked under him since he's been made a supervisor.  But, as long as he approves my vacation day, one supervisor is as good as another.  

A Not So Leisurely Day Off

Well, after I got all excited about the thunder yesterday, it didn't even rain-- at least not here it didn't, so I got out and mowed anyway.  I just did the front and side yards, i.e. the public areas.  I was going to do the back today, but didn't.  No other reason than I just didn't want to.  

That's the whole reason I'm getting a privacy fence, you know.  So the neighbors don't have to look at the mess in my back yard.  I used to have this one neighbor who if I didn't mow often enough for her, she'd be over at the house knocking at my door.  After looking out my back window one day, seeing her looking into my back yard with a disapproving frown and shaking her head, I decided then and there I'd get a privacy fence.  

But I digress...

What was I saying?  Oh yeah, I mowed yesterday evening, and in doing so, I committed the cardinal sin of a Southerner during a summer evening.  I forgot to put on bug spray.  Man, I got eaten up!  Plus, I think I must have gotten into some poison ivy or something when I was using my thatching rake, because some of these whelps don't look entirely like bug bites.  To add insult to injury, I couldn't find my Claritin, so I was dousing myself in Ivarest.  It helped some, but I was still itching all night.  

On top of that, the cat decided she didn't want me to sleep, so she yowled outside my bedroom door off and on...

Needless to say, I spent pretty much the entire day with the bottle of calamine lotion, and I'm pleased to report that the whelps and itching are slowly getting better.  And you can bet your sweet bippy that when I went outside to work in the yard this morning, I put that bug spray on.  

Speaking of, it would seem that my adventures with my thatching rake have come to a screeching -- albeit temporary -- halt, as my compost bin is stuffed to the brim.  I had hoped to have my raised beds in place by this time, so I would have been able to get the composted stuff out of the bottom and used it in those.   But we all know how that has gone...

So, I need to get something to put my stuff that has already composted down into, and I think I have a bin in the shed I can use at least for now.  I was going to throw it away, but I think it'll be good for this.  Unfortunately, I didn't remember about it until after I'd taken my shower, and I don't want to get out and get all sweaty again. 

That's the downside of summer in the South.  When I have a day off, I try to get my outside work done early in the morning, except that the humidity around that time is still around 97%, so I still end up drenched in sweat.  By the time some of that humidity burns off, it's too hot to work outside for very long.  Twenty years ago, I could handle it.  Now, not so much.  

Thank goodness for air conditioning and Willis Haviland Carrier is all I have to say about that. 

Once it got too hot to be comfortable, I came inside and caught up on some YouTube videos.  My friend Marcy has a new flosstube out, and I just discovered my friend Leann has a channel.  I know, where've I been, right?  But I'm here now, and have a lot to catch up on.  

Oh, and Hulu had a notice up that The X-Files will be leaving in 13 days, so I watched a few episodes of that.  Spoiler alert....I've watched almost all of the original series, but skipped to the end of season 9, when Mulder came back.  It just wasn't the same with those other two.  Seasons 10 and 11 were when they tried to reboot the show in 2016 and again in 2018.  I watched one episode of season 10, but it ...I don't know, it didn't have the same vibe, so I won't be heartbroken if I don't get those finished before Hulu takes it down. 

And finally, just so there is some merit to this post, here's a photo of BSJ #2 progress. 

 I'm about half way through the rows of 90, and if you've ever knit this pattern, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  The yarn is Red Heart Bitty Stripes in the colorway Rainbow. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some flosstubes to catch up on. 

Laters. 

A Leisurely Day Off

The first thing I did this morning was to sleep until 5:30, and when you’re used to having to get up at 2:45, believe me, it felt wonderful.  I got up even before the cat, which was surprising, since she's usually yowling outside my door by 4:30 -- even on days off.  This morning, I got up on my terms.  I enjoyed a couple of leisurely cups of coffee, watched an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s new show, and just enjoyed a morning where I didn't have to rush off anywhere. 

All the while, the back of my mind kept telling me I needed to get up and do something, but I reminded the back of my mind that I didn’t take today off to do stuff. 

Honestly I took it off because the plant doesn’t let us roll our PTO over, and if I didn’t use it, I’d lose it.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I still have vacation days to come this year, but they're already scheduled.  I had a couple left that I needed to schedule, and was running out of time to take them, so I just picked a random Friday and put one in.  Not that any of that matters to you, but that's what it is. 

After a while, I got dressed and ran into town to the post office, where I finally got the baby sweater mailed.  I asked the clerk if they had any of the Navy 250th Birthday stamps, but they didn't.  They had Army and Marine Corps, but I guess I'm going to have to order the Navy ones from the USPS website. Because it'll probably be December before I make it back to the post office.  Still, it's not surprising that the Navy ones sold out first, being that there is a Navy JROTC here, and the high school fight song is Anchors Aweigh.  

Once done with that, I went on to Walmart and did my weekly shopping, and I'm telling you, it was so nice to walk through a nearly deserted store -- well, for a Friday morning, I mean.  There were people there, but it wasn't its usual madhouse.  And for once, I managed to find everything on my list.  I even made a couple of impulse purchases.  

I got two extra toasting forks in the -- probably vain-- hope that Cody and Brennan will want to come up and toast marshmallow over the fire pit sometime.  

I already had one, so now there'll be enough for everyone.   Maybe in the Fall...

And I picked up two new sheets of stickers, because I need to write a letter to my Australian pen pal. 

I like to decorate the envelopes, and don't trust the international mail with wax seals.  I don't trust domestic mail with wax seals, either, so there is that. 

Anyway, there I was just a walking through Walmart when all of the sudden I started feeling a bit shaky.  That's when I realized I'd forgotten to eat before I left the house.  I quickly checked out, drove home, and fixed myself a pot pie.

A couple of episodes of JAG later, and I felt much better.  Good enough to get out and play with my new thatching rake some more.  That thing is a wonder, I'm telling you.  In less time than it takes to break a sweat in Mississippi in July, I had a whole wheelbarrow full of weeds and yard debris to put into the compost. 

If this keeps up, I'm going to need a bigger bin.  Compost bin, I mean. 

By that time, I was sweating, so I came inside to cool off.  Heat index is 103°, you know.  Now, I'm sitting here watching Major Dad, trying to psych myself up to mow.  

Later. 

After it cools off a bit. 

P.S.  It's not working...

Oh! I just heard thunder!  That’ll put the nix on mowing!  I just settled in for an evening of TV and knitting!  Hooray!

Forty Seven Years

Today was the longest, most miserable day I've dealt with in a long long time.  At one point, I looked up at the clock and exclaimed, "It's not even 9:00 yet!  Feels like I've been her for forty seven years today."  I think having the day off tomorrow ...well, it certainly didn't help the day go by any faster.  

Not to mention, we're going to be under a heat warning for the next several days at least.  Heh, my coworker asked me what my thermometer said, and I told her 92°.  She replied, "It's 93° outside, so we may as well be outside."  At least outside we'd have fresh air instead of the filthy pollution we have to breathe inside the plant. 

Then, when the second person in two days fell out, they finally decided to pass out water and the little Gatorade packets they keep for the people up in the front office -- you know, where they have air conditioning.  They used to pass out Gatorade all the time, but stopped because we had water and didn't need it.  Or so they said.  

I was going to come home and mow, but as of this writing, it's still too hot.  What I did instead was to put together my last Prime Day purchase which finally arrived.   Can you tell what it is?

It's a thatching rake!  I'd bought it to clear away the ground ivy, which is a highly invasive species and is absolutely taking over my yard.  I'd been pulling it up by hand, but that takes forever and is very hard on my back.  I thought this would make an easier job of it, and boy did it ever!

Here:  I took a before photo. 

And after literally 30 seconds of work, all of that ground ivy is cleared away. 

It was so easy to use, too.  Next I tried it on a spot where the ivy is very thick, and after about a minute, I got all of this up.  

Feet included for scale, because I had to cut way down on my banana consumption due to the insulin resistance.   This might possibly be the best investment I've made in a long time. 

After coming inside to cool off for a bit, the last thing I did was to fill the pedestal of my new bird bath with rocks and put fresh water into it.  Now I'm just waiting for the birds to find it. 

And to finish this up with a bit of good news, I found Major Dad on Tubi.  I used to love that show, so if you'll excuse me, I'm off to binge.

Laters.