Twenty Years

I woke up disoriented this morning, not being able to remember if it was Saturday or Sunday.  Then it hit me.  It's only Friday, and my long weekend had just begun.  I know it'll fly by, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can.  

I wish I had a more exciting post for you, but truth is, I didn't do much at all today.  I finished watching Band Of Brothers, then watched the Netflix documentary on hurricane Katrina.  It mostly focused on New Orleans, as usual.  People always forget the storm hit Mississippi as well.  

Oh, you can find documentaries on Mississippi, but they're mostly locally produced.  All the major media ones -- Netflix, National Geographic, and the like -- focus on New Orleans.  

I remember that day well.  They had us working all day at the plant, but my coworker's boyfriend was in the shipping department.  They had a radio on, and he came out and give us regular updates.  We knew when the roof blew off of the Superdome, and when the levees failed.  But they kept us there until 3:00 -- which was quitting time back in those days.  We worked a 7-3 shift.

The shift finally ended and I came home to find that the schools had let out at 1:00, so Cody was already home.  That little stinker was outside playing in the yard,  yes, during a hurricane.  He came bopping up to the car and announced, "Mama!  A branch fell out of a tree and nearly hit me in the head!"

"What-choo doing out in the yard during a hurricane, boy??  Get your but in that house right now!"  

Just to be on the safe side, we spent the night at Beverly and James' house, because the storm was still packing quite the punch even this far inland.  I don't remember if the kids had to go back to school the next day, but I do remember we had to go back to work.  They let us go home after only half a shift, though.  Someone said it was because the roads were so damaged that many of our purchased parts and supplies -- like steel and aluminum -- couldn't get through.   I don't know for sure, though.  

In other news, my back feels much, much better, but I didn't really work all that much out in the yard, mostly because we got quite a bit of rain yesterday and the red clay needs to dry out some.  It was a nice, sunny day and didn't get out of the 80s once again.    It felt so Fall-ish that I put my wreath up on the front door. 

I usually put my Fall decorations out over Labor Day weekend anyway, and I'll probably start with the rest tomorrow.  While watching the football games. 

Now for a bit of serendipity, several weeks ago, I was in the check out line at Walmart, and someone had changed his mind and put this up onto the candy rack.  

I saw it sitting there, and on impulse, I picked it up and added it to my  stuff.  Well, today I made a hamburger with this stuff to season the meat, and I do have to say, that's one of the best impulse purchases I've ever made.  Boy howdy that burger was good!  

And finally, I got another pleasant surprise this morning when I checked my fasting glucose.  I expected it to be high because I'd eaten two of those Little Debbie cakes yesterday -- one of each flavor.  Much to my surprise, it was only 99.  

That's all I have for now, because I'm sure you don't want to hear about my laundry and other housework.  Which reminds me, I still need to mop my bathroom.  I guess I'd better get to it, then. 

Laters.

P. S. I really need to come up with a clever and witty sign off for blog posts.  I'm open to suggestions.  

Do You Remember?

Do you remember last summer when I bought my first box of Victor Allen's coffee?  It was so good, a few weeks later I bought two more boxes (plus a box of Maud's, but we won't talk about that)?   But wait, there's more!  A month after that, I bought yes, another box of Victor Allen's!  

Yeah....

At long last, I am pleased to report that earlier this week, I put the final pod of all of that coffee into my carousel, and you know what that meant.  Yep, I had to order another box!  

Just the one this time, though, and later on in November, I'll probably buy one of the holiday variety packs -- most likely the one with the hot chocolate in it, but I won't go absolutely crazy like I did last year.  

Since I was ordering anyway, I tossed my little hobbit hole into the cart.   

It's as cute as can be, and it's going to go right up in the front -- provided I can make what's in my head a reality.  That's the hard part.  I can think of cute stuff, I just can't make it look like that in real life.  

On a similar note, I went outside after work yesterday, and pulled the last of the dirt away from two sections of my fence, and this morning I washed them down really well with the hose. 

You would not believe how much dirt was on top of that bottom rail, but I got it all cleaned off. 

Oh, and just for clarification, when I say a section, I mean these parts between the posts. 

I did a little bit more this morning, and got that third sectioned cleaned and washed, but didn't take a picture.  It looks just the same as the rest.  Anyway,  I want to start in that corner where the fence meets the house, and once I can see the beds in the space, I will better be able to visualize how it's going to look once it's all done.  I hope to get it painted once this next heat wave passes -- maybe Friday.  

I thought I might work outside some more, but we're already under a heat advisory.  They're predicting triple digit temps by Tuesday -- and that's actual temps, not feels like temps.  Instead, I cut some more basil and made another batch of pesto.  I have enough pine nuts for one more batch,  so in a week or two, I'll make that and I'll be done with pesto for the year.  

I still have a packet and a half of basil seeds, so next year, I'll probably plant them as companion plants since the deer don't seem to like the odor of them.  I'll do some more research on that before spring comes, though. 

In other news, one of my neighbors had a yard sale this morning.  I told myself I wasn't going to go, but I changed my mind and walked down there anyway.  She had lots of jigsaw puzzles, but I didn't get any because I figured the Incarnation Of Evil wouldn't leave them in peace.  She also had pots and pans and various other things, but in the end, the only thing I got was this electric fake fireplace heater. 

They plugged it in and let me verify that it still worked, and even carried it back to the house for me.  The cat wasn't too sure about it, but I told her she'd like it more when it's cold outside and she has a nice warm place to snuggle up to. 

And finally, we have a hurricane.  Not just any hurricane, a major category 5 hurricane.  

Erin was just a tropical storm yesterday morning, and in just 24 hours, she's a Cat 5.  

My first thought was, "Well, that escalated quickly."  

She's still expected to be a fish storm, though she will likely cause high winds and waves along the east coast.  

With that in mind, I think I'll go watch on of the documentaries on  Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in Waveland, MS 20 years ago this month.  Oh, and if you're a weather geek like me and aren't watching the Discovery channel series In The Eye Of The Storm, you really should.  

It's good. 

Milton

 All eyes are on Milton as he makes his way across the Gulf.  

He is an absolute monster.   As of this writing, he's still a Cat 5, but is expected to weaken a bit before making landfall.  The good news is, he's not expected to hit the same area that Helene hit -- but you never know for sure.  Weather is ultimately unpredictable, which is what makes it so exciting.  I'm not going to drone on and on about the details; there are professional meteorologists for that.  But I will tell you one thing -- 

Here's how you know it's going to be bad:  This is the Waffle House closure map.  

You know it's bad when the Waffle House closes!. 

In better news, we're finally getting a taste of fall here in the Fine Martial Household. 

Yesterday when I got off work, I went straight to the gas station and filled up both my car and the gas can I'd put in there Sunday.  I hadn't intended to mow as soon as I got home, but it wasn't too terribly hot, and I told myself, "You know if you go inside and sit down, you'll never get back up."  

So, I got out and mowed the front and side yards and hardly broke a sweat.  I came inside and sat down to watch an episode of Sister Wives, then the Cowboys ball game, which I missed Sunday night due to a lightning delay.  I got to halftime, and decided to pause the recording and take a shower.  But first, I went into the kitchen to fill up my water cup and put it into the refrigerator.  I turned on the water and...nothing.  No water. 

I quickly jumped onto the water company's FB page, and yep, they had it turned off to work on something.  It should be back on in about an hour, said the page.  I went back into the living room and unpaused the game.  

After about an hour, I checked again and still no water.  I finished the ball game, practiced my piano, then watched an episode of Land Of The Lost. 

Long story less long, the water didn't come back on until after 8:00 PM, and even then the pressure was low.  Still, I needed a shower, so I took a quick one even with low pressure, then went straight to bed -- only about 30 minutes later than I normally turn the light off.  And that was my excitement for the day. 

All that to say, after all that, I just didn't feel like blogging, even though I had stuff to blog about.  Like the big meeting we had at work last week that I keep forgetting to tell you about.  There isn't much to tell anyway.  They said the reason we're still working so much overtime this late in the year is because they're phasing out the R-410 refrigerant and the coils that use it.  A few weeks ago, the company put out a last call for customers to order the old units before we stop making them completely. 

Since then, we've been swamped with orders from customers wanting to stock up on the old units, and thus, we will be working overtime through the rest of the year, and on into next peak season.   The good news is, I might be able to save up enough to get some necessary work done on this house -- if I can find someone I can trust to do said work.  I've been blown off or ripped off way too many times for that. 

OK, moving right along... Sunday morning I recorded a brief vlog for you.  

One day, I'm going to get better organized and record something actually interesting for a change. 

This is not that recording. 

And finally, I'm thinking about changing the name of my blog.  I no longer draw, because I can't see well enough, so no more fine arts.  I no longer do martial arts, because sensei closed the dojo during the last recession, so no more martial arts. 

The only thing I still do is fiber arts, and those are mostly charity hats, which I'm sure get boring after a while.  The name just doesn't seem to fit any more.  Even the reader who suggested the name no longer comes here, and has unfriended me on Facebook as well.   We'll see...

On a similar note, I'm almost done with my incognito knitting, so you'll soon see more boring charity hats.  I guess I'd better get to it, then. 

Laters. 

Better

I hope you'll be pleased to know, my back is feeling much better today.  I'm still getting the odd twinge or two but the spasms so severe I thought I was going to throw up have settled down.  I slept pretty good last night on top of that.  Maybe because I had been so exhausted yesterday.  

In fact, I felt well enough that I dug up a few more daylily bulbs when I got home. 

I didn't get very far, but at least I have a path wide enough to get the lawnmower through, should I choose to mow again this year. 

Eh, I'll probably knock the grass down at least one more time this year.  Especially in the front yard.   

One nice thing about having a privacy fence -- I felt much more comfortable leaving the wheel barrow out (since we're not expected to get any rain for a while) without worrying that it will wander off...so to speak.  

In book news, I finished reading The Ancient Origins Of Modern Holidays.  It was pretty interesting, but some of his information was a bit sus.  The author claims to be a Christian, but parts of this book gave me the heebie jeebies.  I can't really explain it.  It was just a vague creepiness.  If you can find it on sale, give it a shot, but I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it. 

Now I'm re-reading The Paradise War, by Stephen R. Lawhead.  I've read it before, and it's one of those books I can read over and over again. 

Other than that, there isn't a whole heck of a lot to talk about today.  One of the meteorologists I follow on social media posted this photo this morning.  

 You can clearly se where Helene left her path of destruction.  

You can also see people all over pulling together to help.  Elon Musk has made Starlink free for the next 30 days for people in the affected area, and the Y'all Squad has bought the hook up thingies and delivered them to the most ravaged areas.  

Samaritan's Purse and Cajun Navy are also on site and delivering supplies.  I even heard of a mule train taking in necessities to the most cut off areas.  

Now we have hurricane Kirk in the Atlantic.  He is expected to live long and prosper, but will be one for the fishes.  Thank goodness.  

We're about hurricaned out for this year. 

Chilly Saturday

The raggedy tails of Hurricane Helene blew themselves out during the night, and this morning dawned cloudy, chilly, and damp.  It was chilly enough the coffee hit the spot, and my new lounge pants felt nice and warm. 

I found these at Walmart yesterday, less than $10, and they have pockets.  Functional pockets that will hold both a phone and a hand.  I'd bought a couple pairs last year, and was glad to see them back on the shelves this Fall.  

By the way, I can't debunk this meme.  

I don't know if the percentages are completely accurate, but based on my own frustrating attempts to find women's clothing with functional pockets, I wouldn't doubt that they are.  I've never understood why clothing designers seem to think we don't want or need functional pockets, especially in exercise wear.  It's not like I'm going to want to lug a purse around with me when I'm out walking.  I just need something that will fit a phone and ID.  

I don't carry a purse anymore anyway.  To me, it's just a handy way to lose everything at once.  But I digress...

After my morning coffee, I went outside and piddled in the yard a bit, and found the storm had broken off another branch of my sunflower. 

Given the devastation up in NC and Tennessee, I'm not complaining. My heart goes out to those people.  You never expect a hurricane when you live in the mountains.  They're just not prepared for it.  Entire towns have been wiped off the map.  Roads and bridges swept away in the flooding.  They say Asheville, North Carolina is completely cut off by flooding.  The only way in or out is by helicopter -- although the water may have receded some by the time this gets published.  I remember going to youth camp just outside of Asheville, so I have fond memories of the place. I will be sure to give a little extra to the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Fund. 

Anyway, I chopped up the broken branch and put it into the compost, then began deadheading some of the spider lilies.  It always makes me sad that they die back so quickly.  I didn't get very far, because they were still so wet with morning dew my clothes were getting soaked.  I'd said I was going to go back outside after said dew dried, but I got caught up watching the rest of season 1 of Downton Abbey, and then the football games started, and that's where I've been ever since. 

Navy won and is now 4-0.  Texas got off to a slow start, but picked up after halftime and beat MS ST 35-13, with Arch Manning getting his second start of the season.  In the middle of that game, Cody and Brennan stopped by for a visit on their way home from Memphis.  While they were there, I had Cody go through his old DVDs and take the ones he wanted.  Out of the entire stack of about 20, he took two.  Mainly because he wanted to upgrade those movies to 4K HD or whatever it was he said.  He wanted upgrades of the ones he didn't take, I mean.  The two he took didn't have upgrades, I guess.  

In the middle of the stack, I found this piece of ancient history.

Remember these-- when you had to put the disc into your PS3 to stream from Netflix?  

Those were the days...

A What?

I swan...

If you're from the South, you know what that means.  You will also know what "I swanee" means, too.  If you're not, I don't know if I can explain it to you. 

Nevertheless, I swan...I take these weekends off to get stuff done, and so far it's rained every one of them.  Two weeks ago, it was Hurricane Francine.  This week, it's Hurricane Helene.  

Next week, it just might be Joyce.  

I'd originally thought I might drive up to Batesville and walk the trails at the Mounds, but when I saw the forecast, that plan went out the window.  Then I thought I'd go walk the trails out at the lake, but by the time I finished my coffee, it had already started raining, so I just stayed home and piddled around the house, but more about that later. 

A funny thing happened yesterday that I have to tell you about.  I left work early to go to the dentist, but that's not the funny part.  I had a good check-up for once.  No cavities or anything to be concerned about.  After my appointment, I thought to myself, "I'm already in town.  Might as well go to Walmart and get my shopping done."  But that's not the funny part, either. 

So, I get my shopping done and come on home, only to find the electricity was out -- but only on my road.  I got the message from Entergy that it had already been reported, so I sat down to wait until it came back on.  Figuratively speaking of course.  I didn't really just sit.  I piddled in the yard a bit, deadheading some of my spider lilies, adding stuff to my compost bin -- that sort of thing.  I thought I might paint a little on my fence, but remembered my paint sprayer runs on electricity.  Then I thought, "Hey, I'll go ahead and power wash my back porch...oh, wait..."  so I came inside and knit until it was too dark to see, after which I read a few chapters in my book on my Kindle -- Stormy, Misty's Foal, if you're wondering.  

About two hours after the outage began, I got the message that a lineman had arrived.  I guess most of them are down in Florida, so they only have a skeleton crew still here, and had to wait for someone to get here.  Once he'd arrived, he got the power back on relatively quickly, just in time for the ball game.  

Cowboys won, by the way, even though it was a very sloppy win. 

I finished the hat I'd been working on, 

 and cast on another. 

Sometime during the third quarter, I got an update on the power outage.  It had been caused by an animal.  

That's a new one on me. They didn't specify, but my guess would be a squirrel.  Those things aren't good for anything but eating.  Me eating them, I mean.  They do make for good eating.  I just hope I can get some this season. 

By the way, the refs threw so many flags in the football game, that even Al Michaels quipped that they had to get onto Amazon and order more.  

So, back to today...It started raining about 9:00 AM and hasn't stopped yet.  Yes, this is from Helene as she drags her skirts behind her.  We're fortunate, though, that we're only getting some wind and rain.  The images I'm seeing out of Florida and the Carolinas are absolutely devastating.  Our thoughts and prayers certainly go out to them. 

Since I couldn't really do anything, I got onto Facebook and found out Dame Maggie Smith had died, so I've been re-watching Downton Abbey from the beginning in her honor.  I don't normally get all upset over celebrities, but she was so talented and I loved her as The Dowager Countess.  

After getting this far into the post, it suddenly occurred to me that you don't really want to hear about me washing my shower curtain, so I'm going to end this and go get something to eat.  I bought some Everything Bagel seasoning, and that stuff is so good, I'm absolutely going to make some pasta and put it on it.  

Laters. 

Storm Prep

OK, there really wasn't that much prepping to be done, but I did it anyway.  It's not even supposed to get here until Thursday, and will be greatly weakened by then, but I went ahead and brought the plants inside -- just in case the wind starts picking up before I get home from work tomorrow evening.   

We're expecting some wind and maybe 2-4" of rain, but not much more. 

 And Francine is now a hurricane.  Time to light the candle. 

Ugh

The first day back at work is never fun, and today was no exception.  Man, when that alarm went off at 3:30, it made me seriously question my life choices.  But somebody has to pay the bills around here and this evil cat of mine isn't out there hustling up a paycheck, so out of bed I got and off to work I went. 

Where the day passed largely uneventfully, and after some of the days I've had lately, that was a welcome respite.  I'd thought I was going to come home and get at least the front yard mowed before that hurricane makes it this far inland, but I didn't.  It was too hot and I was too tired.  Eh, it'll last until the weekend.  

What I did do was to come home and start watching some of the videos for my new piano book, the Faber All In One Adult Piano Course.  I've actually had it for a while, but I've only recently started going through it.  Anyway, the book has QR codes that take you to the videos the author has made, but I found the channel that I'm going through my Alfred's book with -- Let's Play Piano Methods -- has also made a playlist of lessons for the Faber book.  

I hope that paragraph made sense.  I'm so tired, I don't know for sure. 

What it all boils down to is, I'm watching both sets of videos as I'm going through this book.  Honestly, the Let's Play Piano Methods videos are much clearer and he explains things so much better than Mr. Faber does.  He also agrees with some of the things I thought about the book, such as it introduces some concepts way too soon.  Transposing, for example.  If you haven't even learned what the keys are -- remember this is a book for beginners -- then why would you even worry about transposing?  And why would you try to improvise your own tunes when you don't even know what a chord is?  Mr. LPPM says not to worry about any of that until later, so I'm not going to.  

I still intend to vlog some of this, now that I'm getting to the part where we play real songs.  I just haven't. 

OK, moving right along, I finished the hat I'd been working on yesterday. 

I still have quite a bit of yarn left, but I don't think it's enough for another whole hat, so I may pick up some black and make a couple of black hats with a section of this.  Or maybe I'll do stripes.  I don't know yet.  I think it's Mexicana colorway, but I don't rightly remember, and I threw the label away.  

I guess the big news is, I'm finally in the cone once again!

And yes, I do realize I shouldn't sound so excited about that, but I'm far enough inland this storm won't pose a major threat to me.  We are expected to get 2"-4" of rain from it, though, and we desperately need that.  

Best of all, I'll finally get to light my Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season candle for the first time since I bought it.  (Scroll back a few posts.)

And finally, for those of you who don't live along the coast, here's a handy dandy guide to hurricane categories. 

 Now I need to get my hiney into bed.  Good night, all. 

Back To Work

Unfortunately, no I don't.  As they say, all good things must come to an end, and my long weekend was no exception.  It was back to work today and boy, I sure didn't want to go, but somebody has to pay the bills around here, so out of bed I got and off to work I went. 

Shortly before 9:00 AM, I bumped into Safety Guy, and since the opportunity had presented itself, I asked him if they were going to be handing out Gatorade this year.  He said, "No, but I've ordered some sticks."  

Sticks?  It took me a minute, but I figured out that he meant popsicles.  That means I'll have to change my call-up song from MARLIN WITH THE GATORADE to Paaaahhhsickles!  No matter.  They both work. 

I replied, "Good, because it's 96° in my work area!"  Except that it wasn't today, because it was cloudy all day.  It only got up to 92°.

Anyway, Safety Guy said, "Oh, I know.  I've been monitoring it."  Then he told me that only three of the A/C units in the front of the plant were working.  He'd had two different companies out here working on them,  and "Honestly, I don't think there's anyone in the area that knows how to work on something this big."  But he'd put in a call to a consultant from -- I don't remember where he said the guy was from, but they're affiliated with Lennox.  He ought to know what to do, because all our units are Lennox units.

"That's not a very good sales pitch!"  I said.  

He kind of laughed, and replied, "No, it's not."  Then he had to go to a meeting and I had to go check on the hurricane, which made landfall about the time I was getting to work this morning.   

Ain't that just my luck?  A hurricane is making landfall and I'm stuck at work.  *Pout*

I had several of my SETX -- that's SETX, not sext-- friends keeping me updated, and so far, all of them are OK.  I know a couple who have lost electricity, but for the most part, they are good.   

The storm has already moved past them, and we're possibly going to get some rain from it tomorrow.  We could use it.  We're not in drought conditions just yet, but we're getting there.  

In other news, I cast on a new hat yesterday.  

 In other other news, I had to run into town after work to pay a couple of bills and mail my sister's socks to her.  Now it's nearly bed time and I haven't even eaten anything this evening.  If you'll excuse me, I need to rectify both of those things. 

Right after I make a little extra donation to Texas Baptist Men.  

Laters. 

Marty Mac's Moment Of Triumph

Somehow, I ended up with a pretty big infestation of house flies in my kitchen a day or two ago.  I'm not sure where they're coming from, but they sure are annoying.  "Hmmm,"  I thought to myself.  "What can I do get rid of them besides slapping at them with a newspaper?  Wait!  I have a Fly Trap!  A Venus Fly Trap!"

Enter Marty Mac.

  

I set him on the kitchen windowsill yesterday morning, and by the time I got up today, he'd caught and began consuming six or seven of the little buggers.  I put him back outside and killed a few more of them myself, and that seems to have taken care of the problem.  Mostly...There are still a few flitting around, but nothing I can't handle. 

By the way, don't be concerned about how manky the water looks.  It's just algae and not harmful to the plant.  I clean it out every so often, but in this summer sun, it's not worth worrying about just to keep it clean. 

On a completely unrelated note, look at this!

Do you see that blue thing right up at the top of the screen cap?  Do you know what it is?  Yep, someone has finally put a Pokestop near my house!  It's actually within walking distance, and maybe that will convince me to walk a bit more.  It's kind of weird that it's in a cemetery, but hey, it beats having to drive all the way into town just to spin one.  

Well, I came to the conclusion that my cilantro plant was done for, so when I went into town today, I picked up a sage plant to replace it.  

It is now safely tucked into the raised bed where the cilantro used to be, but I didn't take an after photo.  Eh, you'll get one sooner or later.  I also saw that they had some Black Eyed Susans on clearance, so I picked up the healthiest looking one. 

I'm not sure where I'm going to put it yet.  I'd love to have a stand of them naturalize and maybe even spread to that field behind the fence.  I know deer don't seem to bother the ones that grow wild, so maybe they'll leave these alone.  

By the way, what will probably be the last sunflower has fully bloomed.   

I sure have enjoyed growing these, and will probably save some seeds to plant next year. 

In other news, I'm not sure what's been wrong with me this year, but Independence Day was just like Memorial Day here in the Fine Martial Household in that I just couldn't get into the mood to watch any of my traditional Independence Day Movies, including The Patriot.  The only one I watched was 1776.  I guess it's OK to skip a year, right?  

Even so, I got plenty of knitting done on my latest hat. 

I just found that they've put all 10 seasons of JAG up on Prime, so that's what I'm watching now.  I'd seen season 1, but the rest had to be bought.  Now that they're included, I know what I'll be binging for a while.  

And last, but certainly not least, what with Beryl crossing the Yucatan today and entering the Gulf, I felt it was time to dig the ol' Jim Cantore Repellent candle out.  

Hmmm, maybe I need to get my friend to pour some Reed Timmer The Weather GOAT candles, too...

Rough Day

We woke up this morning to the news that Beryl had increased to a category 5 hurricane, but thankfully, wind shear is slowly weakening her. 

 However, they're now predicting her track will turn North once she crosses the Yucatan peninsula and enters the Bay of Campeche.  

And yes, in case you were wondering, I did fall asleep listening to Ryan Hall, Y'all last night.  

Other than that, it has been a rough day today.  Every single order I got had something wrong with it.  By the end of the day, I was hot, tired, and very very frustrated.  Then I had to go to Walmart.

But look, there is hope. 

I know, I know, some of you will say it's too early for Fall decorations to be out, but they aren't decorations.   They're craft supplies and it takes time to make stuff with them, so sit yo' self down and be quiet.  

For us Southerners -- and even some Northerners this year -- Fall colors bring hope that better times are ahead.  

We still don't have air in the plant, but they put up a handy dandy urine color chart in the bathrooms. 

Yay, us! 

The best news is, there is only one more day of work, then we're off for a four day weekend!  Even yay-er us!

One more thing, the cat is almost back to her normal self, but she's still moving just a bit slower than normal.  She ought to be as ornery as ever soon. 

I Meant To Blog

I meant to blog yesterday.  Really, I did.  I'd even planned on doing a vlog, but you know what they say about best laid plans. 

It all started when I decided to mow before it got too hot.  I didn't make it.   

I only mowed the front and side yards, but by the time I finished the heat index was 106, and my arms and legs were jelly.  I put the mower away, came inside, and chugged three glasses of water.  Then I took a shower and sat in front of the TV for the rest of my supposed day of rest. 

Oh, and I should probably mention that I had to fix the lawnmower again before I even started.  The thing that turns when you pull the rope had slipped out of place, so I had to take the cover off and re-seat it.  It wasn't too difficult to do, just frustrating.  And I should also mention that I lost one of the bolts and muttered, "I'm about to say a few unwholesome words..."  I never did find that bolt, and the unwholesome words stayed in my mind, but the lawnmower started just fine, so I'm not going to worry too much about it. 

Anyway, I'd planned on doing a quick vlog after mowing I was drenched in sweat, so I didn't.  You get still photos instead.  Probably the biggest thing is that I cut the Cilantro completely back.  

I left a little bit of the stems to see if it would come back, and if so, maybe I could keep up with it this time.  I also saved the seeds, and am going to google what to do with them.  By the way, the granules in that photo are some Repels-All.  Something has been getting into my beds and digging holes.  So far, whatever it is hasn't actually dug anything up, but why take chances?  

I was also going to talk about my big sunflowers -- two of which have started to wilt already.  

The third one is behind Old Glory, and it was the first to bloom and the most wilted.  I think these are the ones that make the good eating seeds.  To bad I'm not big on sunflower seeds...I may try to save them and send them to Nate and Grace for Christmas.  Hmmm....

And this, the last one to germinate, has finally bloomed. 

It's pretty, but I prefer the yellow ones to the red ones.  

In other news, the cat came in gimping yesterday morning.  I checked her over as well as I could -- or as well as she would let me, rather-- and didn't see any signs of obvious injury, so I just left her alone to sleep it off. Which is pretty much all she did all day long.  She seems to be feeling much better today, so it appears a trip to the vet won't be necessary.   

I reckon she got into a fight with one of the strays around here, though I would have thought she'd have more wounds if that were so.  I just hope she didn't try to jump that racoon.  That thing would tear her up.  

On the weather front, hurricane Beryl is now a Category 4 -- and possibly even Category 5 storm.  

She is headed for the Gulf, but is currently forecast to make landfall in Mexico.  Still, it might be wise to dig out the old Jim Cantore Repellent candle -- just in case.   This would be the first time since 2021 I've had to light it.  In the meantime, Tropical Storm Chris formed and dissipated and no one even noticed.  Poor Chris...

And finally, there has been knitting.   I've been making progress on the Seaman's Scarf, but grew tired of working on it. 

So, naturally, I cast on another hat.   

I got this much knit while watching the season 4 finale of The Chosen.  And if you'll excuse me, I think I'll knit some more before I go to bed. 

Laters.