Almost Done

I am almost done with the to do list I'd made for myself this weekend.  The only thing I have left is to try to mow the front yard, which I might do later today after it cools off some.  We have triple digit heat indices right now, so whether it cools off enough is iffy in itself.  If it doesn't cool off, I'll try to get it in the morning, even though the grass will still be wet with dew.  

Of course, all of this depends on if I can get the lawnmower started...

Other than the heat, it's been a beautiful, sunny day, and I started it off by going up into town to the Farmer's Market.  I didn't buy much, but I did get some of Mrs. Terry's cookies. 

If you are local, do go up to her booth when you get a chance.  She has all sorts of homemade stuff: jams, jellies, relishes, chow-chow, salsa, homemade vanilla extract, breads, cookies...And it's all so good. 

I also picked up this pepper onion relish from another vendor, just because it looks interesting. 

I might give it to the kids -- or I might put it into my chicken salad next time I make some.  I thought about stopping by the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve and walking some trails while I was up there, but didn't have the right shoes on for that, so I came on home.  

The major thing on my list for today was to get that last snake tank cleaned, and that's just what I did.  It wasn't too hard, since Sunny has always been my cleanest snake -- if such a thing is possible.  Onyx is the nastiest, as he's always dragging his bedding into his water, and sloshing water all over the tank, but Sunny's tank is so clean that I didn't have a problem using his old bedding to mulch my planters. 

Oh, don't freak out.  I picked the poop and pee out first.  

Besides, birds and bugs are pooping on outdoor plants all the time.  That's why we wash our stuff before we eat it. 

Oh, and did you know snake pee is solid?  It looks just like poop, but it's white.   There.  That is a thing you now know. 

Moving right along, I now have four relatively clean snake tanks, and four relatively happy snakes. 

The two on the right have white paper bedding, because it's cleaner than aspen shavings, being that paper is more absorbent.  That's what I'm going to use in Onyx's tank from now on, and probably Blaze's, since one pack has enough for both tanks. 

OK, enough about that.  

In other news, I managed to dig both of those big chunks of concrete out and add them to my stepping stone walkway.  

I'm still not sure where they came from.  When I had that whole sewer line replaced right after I moved into this house, the plumber had to break up my patio to do so.  He'd used some of the pieces to fill in the old septic tank that was there, and that's kind of what these look like, which begs the question:  why did the landscaper dig them out, if that is indeed what they are?  

And finally, the last thing on my agenda for the day was to finish knitting this blob, which I did while watching a Netflix documentary on the space shuttle Challenger disaster. 

You know, while I was knitting this, I kept wondering why this sweater is so popular.  I certainly wasn't enjoying knitting it.  I didn't figure I'd ever knit another one...but now that I'm done and have folded it up to see how it'll look once I've seamed the sleeves, I'm kinda proud of it. 

Maybe I'll knit another one after all.  Even though this thing isn't impressed.  

 Not at all...

Prime Day And Birthdays

Happy Birthday, Onyx!  

And happy birthday to the other snakes, too.  Well, not so much.  Onyx is the only one I actually have a hatch date for, so I've made his birthday the default hatch date for all the others, too.  Onyx, Sunset, and Slider are all 20 years old today, and Blaze is 19.  I was going to try to get photos of all four of them, but only Onyx was out and about.  

OK, moving right along....

Last night while I was laying in bed, I had an idea.  I know some people hang up those disposable aluminum pie pans to chase birds away from their gardens, so I thought I'd give that a try.  Alas, when I woke up this morning, I couldn't find a single one in my cabinet.  I'm pretty sure I'd tossed them all out last summer when I was cleaning out the cabinets.  So, I did the next best thing. 

I got strips of aluminum foil and draped them across the flower.  Like so...

When I got home this afternoon, wonder of wonders, I actually found a pie tin -- in the snake room, of all places. I quickly got it hung and hopefully, it'll do the trick.  

While I was out there, I also noticed that it's time to replace Old Glory, as she's getting a bit ragged. 

On a completely unrelated note, I have no idea why I have Edinburgh in my world clock. 

Honestly, I didn't even know it was there until I accidentally opened said World Clock while trying to see how close it was to quitting time.  

Oh, look!  I did a vlog!  Heh, I had a brief moment of panic when I checked the video and there was no sound.  I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong.  I'd double checked to make sure the microphone was on, but still....then I remembered I'd turned down the volume on my phone.  

Whew!  It has sound!  I did it right after all!  Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. 

By the way, my friend Marcy has a blog at Amnicon Studio, and a YouTube Channel by the same name.  Go check her out, if you don't already follow her.  

And here is all my stuff lined up boringly...

And this, which wasn't a Prime Day purchase, but they put it into the same box anyway. 

 By the way, I already tried the salted caramel popcorn protein shake.  It's pretty good.  

But now I need to go get some solid food to go with it.  

Laters. 

Day Of Rest

It's been so nice just lazing around the house today, knowing I don't have to be getting ready for bed at 6:00 PM.  I still had a hard time shaking the feeling that I needed to be rushing through everything I was doing -- which wasn't much actually.  Other than changing my sheets and doing a few odds and ends, I didn't really do much of anything.

I finally finished knitting this hat, which has been on the back burner while I knit myself a couple of new washcloths. 

I haven't cast on a new one yet, but you know me.  I can't stay away from the hats for long. 

I did take a few moments to clean Slider's tank, despite how the glass looks.

That just leaves Sunset and Blaze to go.  They'll have to wait, though, because I just fed them and they'll need a few days to digest their food. 

In other news, yesterday after I'd posted, I started grinding and bottling some of this year's herbs. 

That's all I have so far.  I'm going to have to buy some more of those little jars before I do any more.  I'm going to put some of the same type of labels on as I'd made last year, but have decided to go with a smaller size.  I had to order them, because Walmart didn't have any smaller than 2".  By the way, I'd dumped out the Purple Deadnettle I'd previously dried.  I was going to try to use it somehow, but just couldn't get over the fact that it smells and tastes like dirt.  

As for what I'm reading, I finished that Tithe book I'd started.  It was a pretty easy read, but there was nothing new or original about it.  It felt like the author put Hugh Howey's Wool series and The Hunger Games into a blender, then threw in a dash of Divergent for flavor, and this is what came out.  It was the same old typical post - apocalyptic dystopian novel in which the main character is a spoiled, selfish, headstrong, narcissistic teenage girl -- only this one is 18 instead of 17.  There is even the love triangle that is so prevalent in these types of books.  It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't great.  Let's just say, I'm not going to rush out and buy the second one. 

Speaking of buying, I finally broke down and bought the last book in the Matched trilogy, Reached.  

I'd been waiting for them to mark it down or put it on Daily Deal, but finally came to the conclusion that they weren't going to do that.  I'll have to re-read the first two because it's been so long I don't even remember the story.  

And finally, I recorded a short vlog for you -- mainly to try out my new microphone and selfie-stick.  It's completely raw video, because I don't have any editing software.  My vlogs aren't nearly popular enough to make editing worth the time.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little trip around my yard.   

Calm Down, Y'all

First of all, let me just say calm down everybody.  When I said everyone at work was mad at me, I was being facetious.  Nobody was really mad.  I mean, people were frustrated that they thought they'd had a day off when they didn't, but they weren't mad at me.  

Lack of communication is par for the course out there, and if it's anyone's fault, blame Supervisor.  If he knew he wanted all the brazers to come in today, he should have communicated that to Group Leader Shark.  If he'd done that, there wouldn't have been a problem at all.  

Even so, he let the brazers leave at 8:00, and Group Leader Shark announced it loudly and clearly, where everybody could hear it -- just so there won't be any misunderstandings, she said.  And I muttered, "If she'd done that yesterday, we wouldn't have even been in this mess."

Anyway, I was able to run home, change into a clean shirt, and whiz on down to the Farmer's Market on the square.  Unfortunately, the lady didn't have any salsa yet.  She's still waiting on her tomatoes, so it'll be a few weeks before she gets some made.  I told her what Brennan had said about it being the best salsa she'd ever had, and the lady was so tickled, I thought she was going to pop. 

There wasn't much else up there, but it's still pretty early in the season.  I bought some tea cakes, and picked up a book out of the Little Free Library. 

Once I've read it, I'll probably take it back, so someone else can enjoy it.  

After that, I came home and mostly watched TV and knit the rest of the day.  I did get Onyx's tank cleaned out, which was desperately needed. 

It was a bit bittersweet knowing it'll probably be the last time.  He'll be 20 years old in July, which is absolutely ancient for a snake.  Sunny and Slider are the same age, and Blaze is 19.  It won't be much longer....

In other news, I was going to record a song for you, but there is this one section that I just can't get right. It's only about 4 measures long, but my brain totally forgets what it's supposed to be doing.  I've got the rest of the song down pretty well, but that one section gets me every time. 

The last thing I did of significance was to get my missing man place set up and ready for the weekend. 
 

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got movies to watch and knitting to...knit. 

Laters

P.S.  I found my sockets!  I just haven't fixed my lawnmower.  Too lazy this weekend. 

Personal Organizer

 I think I need a personal organizer. 

Not for my stuff.  It's pretty well organized -- except for that one room, that is.  

No, I need a personal organizer for all the stuff I need to get done.  Oh, I have good intentions.  I'll be standing there at work thinking to myself, "When I get off, I'm going to call the surveyor.  I'm going to call the landscaper.  I'm going to call the fence people.  I'm going to do so much stuff."  

But when I get home, I'm so hot and tired, all I really want to do is sit.  Just sit.  

I did the same thing today.  I had every intention of at least calling the surveyor, since everything I need done depends on knowing exactly where my property lines are, but here it sit.  In front of the TV.  Doing nothing. 

If only I had someone like a personal organizer who could get all of this...stuff...organized for me, I might be able to get some of it done. 

OK, moving right along.  Yesterday I got out my new piano book and started looking through it, and lo and behold, I discovered it has QR codes.  

You can scan the one on each page of the book, and it takes you to a video lesson of what is on that page. 

They also have what they call play along audio, that you can play the piece with the instructor, but you can adjust the speed faster or slower as needed.  I almost wish I'd found this course first, but of course, I've already bought all three books of the Alfred's, so I'm going to keep plugging away at it as well. 

In fact, I'm almost ready to record a couple of songs for you.  Maybe I can get to that this weekend.  

And finally, a little sad news.  Cody had to lay his beloved ball python Monty to rest today. 

He's had him since he was 12, so the snake had lived a good, long life.  

All of mine are still kicking.  

So to speak. 

They're snakes.  

They don't have feet.   

To kick with...

I think that means it's time for me to get ready for bed. 

G'night.  

Oo Dah Lolly

Oo Dah Lolly, oo dah lolly, golly what a day!

And for once, I don't mean that in a bad way.  If there were such a thing as a perfect day, today surely came close.  It all started when I didn't have to get up and go to work.  Of course, not getting paid put a bit of a damper on that, but hey, that's why I keep a savings account. 

Still, it was so nice to just lay in bed until I wanted to get up -- or until my bladder demanded I get up, rather.  I enjoyed a nice, leisurely cup of coffee, then got dressed and went into town to take care of my payday errands.  One of the bills I had to pay was at the water office on the square, so I was able to hit several Pokestops while I was there, and this time, I didn't hit the curb, thank goodness!

Heh, yesterday at work, the coworker who had stopped to help me change my tire said she and I were going to drive up to Arkansas and get those air conditioners.  I said, "Yeah, and I'm going to let you drive so I don't hit any curbs!"  By the way, I'm beginning to think they lied to us about those air conditioners.  But that's another post for another day. 

After paying the bills, it was off to Walmart where I spent way too much money.  I mean, I wasn't just spending willy nilly; it's just that everything I ran out of this week was the expensive stuff.  Like the cat's food, for example.  The kind I buy her is $15 for a 15 lb bag -- and it's the cheapest stuff there.  Plus, her wet food had a $5.50 ibotta rebate, so I went ahead and picked up another case of those, even though I still have an unopened one from Prime Days.  And a few other things, after which I couldn't afford to buy actual food. 

At least the cat will get to eat this week. 

Look what I found, though!

I've already got the refills in my air fresheners, and the house is starting to smell like fall!  OOOH, boy, I can't wait!  

I had just made it home and got the groceries unloaded, when a storm rolled through, cooling things off just a bit, and bringing some much needed rain, and a bit of a break from the relentless heat.  After multiple days in the upper 90s and low 100s, the high today is only 86.  I've stopped trusting the weather app on my phone, because it says it's 97.  There's no way it's that hot.  My personal thermometer on my back porch says 86, as does WeatherBug, which I find is usually the most accurate.

 

Anyway, while it was raining, I was inside piddling and getting stuff done.  And one of those stuffs was knitting. 

This is the hat I cast on last night while watching football.  That is the cat's tail doing the Vanna White impression.  Then I ground up and bottled some of my dried peppermint.

 I have some more lemon balm and pineapple sage ready to bottle  along with some rosemary, but I had to wash some more jars.  I'll probably wait until tomorrow to process those, just to make sure the jars are good and dry.  

As if all that weren't enough, I managed to get Blaze moved into his new home. 

I still need to get the old tank cleaned out and moved to the shed, but Blazey is all settled in and already hiding in his new cave.  

I just happened to also catch Sunset and Onyx out and about, so I snapped some quick photos of them, too.  

And finally, for what it's worth, I've been spending a lot less time on social media lately.   I seldom post on Facebook any more, other than my Wordle scores and the odd meme here and there.  I post on Twitter and Instagram even less, and seldom even visit any others.    

A couple of my friends and I were discussing it the other day, and we all agreed it just isn't fun any more.  I'd love to bring back the old blogging community that was so vibrant before Facebook and Twitter took over everything.  I mean, I still wasn't very popular, but I had a few regular readers and blogs that I read regularly, as well.  

We would comment and converse, and chat about how our days had gone, and I felt like we'd developed genuine relationships.  

I miss those days. 

All In

Sometimes I can be such a doofus.  And what doofusy thing did I do this time?  Well, I'll tell you.

As if picking the hottest day of the year to blow out my tire wasn't enough, I decided to mow the next day.  I didn't just mow, either.  I weedeated, too.  

Those of you who've read this blog for any length of time know I have a love/hate relationship with my weedeater.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I can't get the string wrapped around the spool correctly so that it feeds out more line when you bump the bumping thingy.  I have to stop weedeating, turn the thing off, and manually reel out more line.  Still, I persevered and got most of the yard done before I gave up in frustration and put the thing away.  

I'd thought that if I got started early enough, I could get the job done before it got too hot.  I thought wrong.  Oh, it wasn't that hot, but the humidity more than made up for it.  It was 90% when I started, and had only dropped to 64% by the time I finished.  All that to say, starting at 6:30 -- as soon as I heard the neighbor across the street get into his truck and drive away-- did me absolutely no good.  For the second day in a row, I completely sweated down.   

Once I was finished, I came inside, took a shower, and stayed in the air conditioning the rest of the day.  And drank a lot of water.  And watched Gladiator for the first time in ages, while working on a new hat. 

I should probably also mention that I finished the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu.  It was pretty good, but was one of those trilogies that should have been shortened into a two book series, or even a stand alone novel.  The first book was fascinating, captivating, and I couldn't put it down.  By the second book, the story had begun to drag... and drag....and drag.  It had a good ending though, and the story would have been much stronger had she cut out all the empty filler she'd needed to stretch it out into a trilogy. 

Now I've started the Variant series by T.C. Edge.  I'd started this one before, but only got a short way into book one when I set it aside to read something else, so I went back to the beginning and started over.  It seems OK so far.  I'll let you know.  

That brings us to today.  It's been a true day of rest for me, as I've stayed inside and relaxed most of the day, other than to get out and cut some more pineapple sage to start drying. 

If I keep this up, I might have to invest in an herb grinder.  The mortar and pestle is fun, but it takes a long time to get the herbs ground up with it.   It's still useful if I just want to bruise a few leaves to make tea with, but to grind a lot at a time -- like to fill jars for Christmas gifts -- I'm sure a grinder would be much more efficient. 

The only other thing I've done is to get Snow's old tank ready for a new inhabitant. 

No, I'm not getting a new snake.  I'm going to move Blaze from this tank into Snow's. 

That way, I can move that old tank out and get this corner cleaned up.  

I need to see if Cody and Brennan might want the tank for one of their critters.  Otherwise, I'm going to sell it.  By the way, that table is an old sewing machine that was given to me.  I've never used it for that, and frankly, don't even know if it works.  It's had a snake tank on it ever since I've had it.  I'll probably just offer it up for free to anyone who wants to come get it. 

I reckon that's about all I have for today, so I'll stop boring you with my drivel.  

Laters. 

And Some Sad News

This morning…oh, this morning it was so cool outside I actually got chilly when I opened the door to let the cat out.  It was cool enough I got out some of my pumpkin spice coffee pods, and put some fall scented wax melts into the melter. 

Then I got fall fever, and now I can’t wait until it’s this cool all the time…

Alas, we've got a bit longer to go for that, as it's supposed to be back up into the upper 90s by the end of the week, with heat indices into the triple digits.  Come to think of it, I probably should have mowed this weekend, when it was still relatively cool. 

But I didn't.  I sat inside and knit two more headbands.  

Funny thing is, the cat distracted me both times, so I lost my place on both of them, but instead of starting over, I just winged it.  They turned out OK, I think.   Oh, and yes, that is the cat's tail in the bottom right of the second photo.  

Not much else going on, unless you want to hear about all the TV I'm watching.  I re-subscribed to Discovery + just so I could watch Shark Week.  Of course, I won't be watching it live, but I don't normally watch things live anyway due to my work schedule.  Good news is, I can catch up on my cooking and home renovation shows, so yay!  

I'm still hesitating to get my internet hooked back up until I see if those rumors about a month long shut down are true or not.  That's what's going around the plant, that they're going to have to rework some of the assembly lines to run this new product line they're launching.  Funny thing about that, we were talking about it at work, and my coworker mentioned that she'd heard about it back in April, but hadn't wanted to say anything just in case it turned out not to be true.  But the thing is, she heard about it from a couple of different people, neither of whom even work out at the plant.  You'd think they'd let us know, since we're the ones who will have to be building it.  

And finally, the sad news.  My snow morph corn snake Snow has gone to that great herpetarium in the sky.  It wasn't really a surprise, as she was 19, which is ancient as far as snakes go.  

Still, the house feels a bit empty without her.  

Goodbye, Snowy-girl.  I will miss you. 

Well, That Was Interesting

It all began around...hmmmm, maybe 4:00 ish PM.  The sky grew dark and the wind picked up.  

It actually got worse than this for a moment, but I didn't get video of that.  Then, right at 5:00, the lights flickered, then flickered again, and finally went out for good.   It wouldn't be until 2:15 AM that they would come back on.  I'm guessing they had to re-set some utility poles, and that's what took so long.  Well, and they had to wait for the storm to pass, so it would be safe for the linesmen to get out there in the first place. 

While the electricity was out, I was actually a bit thankful I'd cut off my internet, because I've re-discovered how to entertain myself without it.  Mostly by watching The Office re-runs on my phone, so I'm not sure that even counts, but still...  

Be that as it may, the ol' Harvey lantern* got a good workout, and I used my solar power bank to keep my phone charged up, and I watched Jim and Pam get married, so we did all right.  I even played a game of yarn chicken and knit another headband. 

This one actually made me sweat a bit, and not just because I had no air conditioning.  Do you see the tail on the right?  Yeah, that's literally all the yarn I had left over when I finished.  So, I won, but it was a bit too close for comfort.  

Once I'd finished that one, I went to my cabinet to get another skein of yarn and found this Knit Picks Brava that I'd completely forgotten about.  I quickly whipped out a headband, 

then cast on another hat.  

Along about 9:00, I figured there was no point in sitting alone in the dark, so I went on to bed.  I'd actually woken up to use the necessary, and hadn't gotten back to sleep yet when the power came back on, so I had to get back out of bed and turn off all the lights and stuff that I'd left on.  And that was my excitement for yesterday. 

This morning, I went out to check on all my outside plants and discovered that one last tree that was out by my fence had fallen over.  It was leaning pretty badly anyway, and I guess without the tangle of privet and vines and such to support it, those winds were just too much for it.  No matter, I got it pretty well cleaned up and was able to push my fence back upright and secure it to that top rail, so other than being a bit dented up, it's almost as good as ...well, not so new and it still needs replaced, but it'll do for now. 

I'll get out after work tomorrow and clean up that last pile of branches and stuff, and I'll be able to turn my attention to other things -- like the rest of the fence, which was nowhere near as bad as this one was, but still...

Now for the bad news, we're expecting more severe weather this evening.  Fun fun...

And finally, after 19 years, I had a seriously Duh moment today.  See, my California King snake Onyx likes to drag his aspen shaving substrate into his water bowl.  None of the rest of them do that.  Just him.  I get tired of constantly having to put the snake into a holding box, get the water bowl out and dump the nasty water, clean it, replace it, blah, blah, blah...  Today, it suddenly -- finally -- occurred to me:  I have a wet-vac.  

I got it out and it was so easy just suck the water out, then pour fresh water into the bowl -- and all without having to even bother the snake.  I'm sure he's grateful for that. 

I know I am. 

*Harvey Lantern:  Back in 2017 when hurricane Harvey came through, my power was out for a whole day.  I couldn't find a single battery operated lantern or lamp anywhere.  All the ones I'd bought when Cody was in cub scouts were either missing or no longer functioning.  After work the next day, I went out and bought the biggest, brightest battery operated lamp I could find, and promptly dubbed it my Harvey Lantern-- a name it still goes by to this day.   

Still Alive

 Just popping my head up for a moment to let you all know I'm still alive.  Well, the three of you who still read my boring drivel.  

I know you're probably tired of hearing how tired I am, but that's my only excuse.  I was so tired this morning that I was thisclose to calling in and staying in bed.  I'm not sick.  I only wanted to sleep a little.  But I didn't.  I said to myself, "Self, if you skip today, then you worked Saturday for nothing."  So, I got up and went on in to work. 

I was treated to quite a lightning show on the way, but managed to make it there before the worst of the storms hit.  It wasn't too bad here.  Just normal spring thunderstorms, not severe weather, though they had a tough time of it down in the southern part of the state. 

By the way, they've finally stopped taking our temperatures when we get to the plant.  Finally.  I think we were the last place in the state where you still had to do that.  We still have to wear masks, though, and I'm pretty sure we are the last place in the state where you still have to do that.  I haven't worn a mask outside of work in a year.  Even Walmart is letting their employees shed their masks, and if you're going to catch anything, that's where you're going to get it.  But we're still walking around like doofusses wearing them at work.  

Unless you've gotten your booster, or are within 6 months of your second dose.  Then they give you a green card to wear, and you can stop wearing a mask.  I asked my supervisor what happens when your six months is up, do they take away your green card?  He said, "Yep.  They take your green card and deport you."  I said, "That's no problem.  All you have to do is turn around and walk right back across the border.  Old Joe is letting everybody in."  

That's about all I have for today.  Someone told me a while back she missed the stories I used to write.  Since then, I've been trying to write my posts as if I were telling a story.  This one isn't happening.  I'm just too tired.  It's not just the long hours, either.  It's the specific hours.  I think if we were working 5-3 instead of 4-2, I would be less tired, but it's just not natural to be waking up at 2:45, and I'm getting too old for this mess. 

That being said, I'm going to leave you with a video of this beauty I found in my back yard Sunday.  Or Monday.  I don't even remember...Never mind.  Here it is:

It's a speckled king snake.  I had one as a pet when I was a kid.  I had to chase the cat away from this one, because I want him to stick around.  

Maybe he'll eat up some of those voles, or whatever it is digging up my yard.  

Road Trip!

If you've been reading my blog -- or worse, know me in person -- you might remember I've been talking about getting a new Christmas tree for a while now.  If you haven't been reading my blog --or are lucky enough not to know me in person -- I've been talking about getting a new Christmas tree for a while now.

The one I have is big, and gorgeous, full, and ... way too big for my little living room.  A few weeks ago, I'd gone up to Batesville to see what they had at Lowe's.  I found a tree I liked, but had decided to look around some more before committing to it.  I'd planned on going down to Jackson or up to Southaven to look around at places like Michael's or Joann's, but alas, the older I get, the less I seem to want to go anywhere, so I kept putting the trip off week after week.  

Along about Tuesday, Cody messaged me and asked if I was still wanting to get rid of my old tree.  He said they could use it in his office, and that's when it hit me.  Thanksgiving is next week.  Which means I'll be putting my tree up next weekend.  It was getting down to the wire, and I needed to make a decision.  After thinking about it considerably, I decided to go back up to Batesville and get the tree I'd liked at Lowe's.  You know what that means?  

Road trip!  

As much as a trip 30 miles up the road counts, that is...and hey, as curmudgeonly as I'm becoming in my dotage, that's a big deal.  

I'd thought whizzing into the Walmart up there and doing my weekly shopping, but I since I had some other errands to run in town here, I just got my tree and came on back home.  

It is now sitting in the snake/craft/obsolete computer room, awaiting its time to shine.  While putting it there, I turned around and noticed I had an observer. 

I think he approves.  This is Onyx, by the way.  He's a 16 year old California King snake, and the first one I got when I decided I wanted another pet snake.  

Back to my story...

I'm not sure which day Cody and Brennan will be coming down.  I'd suggested that if he wanted to spend Thanksgiving Day with Brennan's family, they could come down Friday or Saturday and help me put my Christmas tree up.  We'll just heat up leftovers whichever day they get to come down.  

Speaking of, you'll all be pleased to know I remembered to buy the fresh cranberries this time.  And they had fruit cake mix back in stock, so I got some of that, too.  I'm going to make my Dad's fruitcake recipe, and will put most of it into the freezer, since Cody doesn't really like it.  That will be tomorrow's project, though.  That, and finding a place in my refrigerator for my turkey.  By the way, the plant gave us a gift card instead of a certificate for a turkey this year.  From what I understand, we can spend it on whatever we want to -- at that particular store, I mean -- so that'll work out better for me.  I still have last year's turkey in my deep freeze, plus the free one I got with my ibotta rebate, so I'm set for turkeys.  

But I digress...again...

I messaged Cody from the Lowe's parking lot and let him know he could take the old tree, and that I'd have some lights and probably some ornaments I could donate as well.  He seemed pretty excited about that.  We'll have to dig through what I have and see what he can take with him.  

The rest of the day was filled with mundane things like grocery shopping and doing laundry, but you don't want to hear about those, do you?  Except that somehow, I managed to pull a muscle in my hip folding the laundry.  I have no idea how, but I have a feeling I'm not going to be able to move much tomorrow.  I'll be a football and knitting day, I guess.  

I do have a bit of exciting news.  I got the old telescope out and managed to focus in on Jupiter!  I was able to see four of its moons.  For some reason, my phone camera didn't want to focus right tonight.  I'm not sure if there was a fog on the lens or what, but this is the best picture I was able to get, though I could see them much more clearly than that. 

I'm really enjoying that telescope, but it does have one drawback.  The tripod isn't very tall, and even though I'm pretty short, to see anything above horizon level, I have to bend wayyyy over to look into the eyepiece.  When you get to be my age, you really shouldn't be bending wayyyy over anyway.  I finally found my old tripod that I'd bought to mount my camera, and put my telescope on it.  It's a bit taller, so I don't have to strain my back so badly. 

By the way, did you know there is a crater on the moon with a mountain inside it?  There is.  I could see it with my telescope.  One of these days, if I can pry myself out of my house, I'm going to go out away from city lights and see what I can see out there.  I need to find the closest dark sky preserve.  I think there is one in Tennessee, but I'm not sure.  

And finally, I caught Rylea and this doe having a stare down yesterday.  

The doe didn't seem to frightened of Rylea, I guess because she was laying down, and the doe knew she wasn't a threat.  I scared her off taking the picture.  Figures...

Oh, and I named the rat I caught in my live trap Templeton.  Don't ask.  I've long since given up trying to find an explanation for such things...

Sunday Hymn And Some Other Stuff

First of all, your Sunday Hymn in Cajun. 

And now, on to the other stuff.  The last piano book I ordered arrived yesterday. 

It was recommended by my Online Piano Teacher Tim, but very little of it makes sense to me.  Question for my experienced musicians:  how important is it to know the scales and arpeggios?  The names of them, I mean.  Do I really have to know that this is the key of whatever?  Or is it enough just to know that it has an F#, for instance?  While we're on the subject, how important is theory anyway?  I know I need to know basic theory, but do I really need to know sevenths, and roots, and inversions and all?  

Hopefully, when this stuff is all over, and work picks up a bit, I can afford real lessons from a real teacher.  Then, maybe I can actually learn to play.  

Well, this weekend's big project was to finish getting the snake room cleaned out.  The first thing I did was to drag everything out into the living room.  This was what was left:

I sifted and sorted, and threw stuff away, but I'm afraid most of it just got stuffed into a plastic box and shoved into my shed.  To be sorted later, I tell myself.  At least it's out of the house, and my snake room can be walked into again. 

I still have a bookshelf and my computer desk to get organized, and my tool shelf as well.  Seriously, I'm considering selling my computer desk, since I'll probably never get another desk top computer.  I can replace it with a writing desk, which will suit me much better.  

Speaking of snakes, Sunny has refused his last three feedings.  This worries me, as usually he never misses a meal.  On the other hand, he is 16 years old, after all, and a pet shop snake at that.  He may just be getting close to his time.  

I wish I had something more exciting to tell you about, but I'm afraid this is it.  Oh, I did find some buried treasure amidst all that cleaning.  

These days, those are worth their weight in gold. 

And finally, I got my Mother's Day phone call from Cody.  I asked him how work is going.  He said sales are low, but they're paying them what they were averaging per month before all this started.  Tennessee is opening, but the mayor of Memphis still has them under a stricter lock down order, so they aren't getting much business.  

He also said he's been seeing a girl, and he wants me to meet her.  I told him to give me fair warning, so I can figure out how to act like a normal human being.  Or try to, at least.

But hey, if I don't scare her off, I might just get some grandkids after all!