Isaias

What good does it do to have a day off if you wake up at 2:30 anyway? Sigh…But my fasting glucose was 97. I wonder, is that “under control” enough for that eye doctor?

OK, moving right along, I was so hoping we'd get a halfway decent rain out of this hurricane, but as you can see, most of it passed to the East of us. 

All we got here at the house was an hour or so of light drizzle, not nearly enough to make a dent in the drought conditions.  Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have lit that candle after all.  Oh well.  The flag is back on the house and Pumpkin Kitty is plugged in and all is right in my world.  Except for that whole drought thing, I mean.  

On the bright side, it has been very chilly all day.  Well, chilly for us.  The high today was only 72, and it felt wonderful!  In fact, I had to put on a jacket when I went outside to work in the garden.  It's been so nice not to have to sweat all day!  

As far a yard work goes, I decided to go ahead and pull up the two little basil plants that were trying to grow in this planter, because they weren't doing well at all.  It's really too late in the year, and they wouldn't have amounted to anything anyway.   

I emptied the soil out and moved the planter up to the West side of the house.  Where it was, back by my white shed, was never where I'd meant to put it anyway.  I only moved it there because that landscammer piled up so much red clay around it.  I'm serious, that clay went about 4" up the legs of the planter.  Then he tried to gaslight me by saying that's what I'd told him to do.  Seriously, if I'd wanted red clay there, wouldn't I have moved the planter first?  

I'm going to level it before I do anything else with it -- or rather, level the ground underneath it.  I don't think I'll even put more dirt into it given how quickly it's rotting.  I may just use it to hold potted plants or something.  That will allow the wood to stay mostly dry, and it might last longer that way. 

I moved the soil I took out of it into this metal bed, and decided it was full enough to plant my pansies there.  

I also planted some of my crimson clover seeds in the back half, and consider them both to be cover crops.  I'm not sure pansies work as a cover crop, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  I'm sure the soil will settle some over the winter, but I can top it up before I plant in the spring.  

Once that was done, I recorded a new garden journal, which you can watch here:  Garden Journal.  I think I rambled a bit, but I chalk it up to that whole getting up at 2:30 thing.  I tried to go back to sleep, but sleep wouldn't come back to me, so I went ahead and got up around 4:00ish.  

I should probably mention that the tree guy came by and said it was my sewer line that was the problem with him getting into my back yard.  He would have run right over the cleanout and that would have been very not good indeed.  After some discussion, we decided he'd remove a section of this back fence -- that I'm going to get replaced eventually anyway -- and come through here. 

I was concerned about that dirt pile being in the way, but he said he could work around it.  So he's going to come sometime next week and that will be one more thing I can mark off my list.

OK, I need to finish up here because I need my computer to watch football. 

I'll talk to you later. 

A Hurricane

Unless you've been living under a rock lately, you probably already know that Isaias strengthened to a hurricane during the night last night.  That means for the first time in a long, long time, the ol' Jim Cantore Repellent candle finally got lit. 

As of this writing, Isaias is a category 2, and is expected to make landfall somewhere between Mobile and Pascagoula late tomorrow night/early Saturday morning. I'm far enough inland to avoid the worst of the flooding -- it's not the wind, it's the water -- but we're still expecting some wind and rainfall.  I do hope we get some rain.  My poor grass is downright crunchy.  They dropped our chances from 100% to 95%, but those are still pretty good odds...although our chance of rain last Sunday was 80% and we didn't get a drop.  

Other than that, I'm about as ready as I'm going to get.  I don't really expect the power to go out, but I've got plenty of batteries this time, and I'm going to make sure all of my power banks are charged up tomorrow.    Plus, I've got plenty of Vienna sausages and a camp stove -- just in case.  

Anyway, I went in to town to do my shopping after work today to avoid the rush tomorrow and discovered something quite different in my Walmart app.  I'd opened it to try to find where they'd moved a certain product I was looking for, and look at this:  

The app tracks your location in the store now.  I suppose it's helpful to see where you are in relation to where the item you're looking for is, but I find it's just a bit creepy.  

You know what's not creepy?  Pansies.  

I don't usually plant cool weather flowers, but I think I'm going to go ahead and put these into the planter where my now quite dead rosemary is.  I'll put these around the edges and put a new rosemary into the center -- once Walmart gets some back in stock.  

And finally, I tossed some of my crimson clover seed into a bare spot in the back yard.  I haven't seen any signs of germination yet, but it's still early.  Maybe I'll get some.  

If I don't, I've still got plenty of seeds. 

I Am Back!

I am back, baby!  

I have lights!  I have heat!  I have hot water!  And yes, I have internet, too!  

I am so back!  

I'm still just a bit in survival mode, though, because I keep being halfway nervous about my power going back out.  So far, it hasn't, and I really don't expect it to.  But I'm still just a touch paranoid about it.  

I've spent most of yesterday and today catching up on my DVRed shows and doing laundry.  While I was doing that, I finished the had I'd started.  

It kind of tickled me that my friend Marcy had commented how much she loved the colorful hats I was knitting, then the next one I cast on was plain blue.  Ah well, the bright colors will come back soon, but I need to use up stash yarn, too.  

I would have thought I'd have gotten more hats done, since there was nothing else to do while my power was out.  That was my main issue.  I'd stocked up on firewood, water, and food I could cook on the camp stove.  I wasn't prepared for the boredom.  How did our pioneer ancestors live like this?  

I guess because I'm so used to having TV and internet that I had to figure out how to keep myself occupied without those things.  I read a bit in my book.  I knit a bit.  

Oooh, I went into Cody's bedroom and got his old radio, but quickly discovered that I didn't have the right sized batteries.  I had every other size but the ones I needed.  Just my luck. 

Monday after the rain stopped, I ran into Walmart and picked some up, and have a little noise in the house helped quite a bit.  

Since I couldn't play my piano, I got out my old kalimba and tried to remember how to play it, but lost interest in it just as quickly as I did the first time. 

When I was putting it away, I found the needle felting kit my sister had sent me for Christmas a few years ago, so I played with that for a while. 

I made a mushroom, a moon, and a pile of poo

because that's what this whole situation was -- poo.  It didn't take long before I remembered why I'd put aside the needle felting.  It's fun, but very time consuming and it takes all of your attention so you don't stab your fingers.  So, even if you have electricity, you can't needle felt while watching TV.  

After a while, I put that away and started tidying the house.  As I was going to put my card table back into the closet -- it had been in the junk room since Christmas -- I found a jigsaw puzzle.  

It had been a Christmas gift ages ago, and I had never even opened it -- mostly because I didn't have any place to do it.  Now that I have a card table, I can work it!  I got started on that, and by and by time passed.

Wednesday we went back to work.  I still didn't have any power, so I got up and got ready in the dark.  At work, I was looking for a clandestine way to plug my phone in and give it a charge, but one of the other brazers walked around to Inspector Gadget and asked  him straight out, "I haven't had power since Sunday.  May I please charge my phone?"  

"Y'all do whatever you need to do," he replied. "Today, there are no rules."  

All righty, then.  I plugged my phone in and when he came around to the sub brazing area, I half jokingly said, "Hey [Inspector Gadget], will you go up to the break room in the front office and get us all a hot cup of coffee?"  Because they're allowed to eat and drink whatever they want up there instead of being restricted to plain water only like us floor peons are. 

I really expected him to say no, but he didn't.  "You got a cup?" he said.  I did, and I gave it to him, and he actually went and got me a cup of coffee.  When he brought it to me, I said, "I take back every bad thing I ever said about you."  

There were only four brazers there that day, and probably fewer than 100 people in the whole plant.  Even worse, the main factory had power, but the building where they make the hair pins -- which you can't make a unit without -- didn't.  Have power, I mean, so they couldn't make any slabs, and therefore could only run with the slabs they already had. 

I'm not sure how many units they ran that day, but I am sure it wasn't even enough to pay the light bill.  Thursday and Friday were a bit better, but we still didn't have a plant full of people.  

Anyway, there will be more post about the ice storm, but for now, I think I'm going to go to bed.  

Good night.  

Hunkering Down

I'm still here, safe and warm, hunkering down to wait out this ice storm.  I woke up this morning to sleet coming down, which is good.  

Sleet doesn't weigh down the power lines like ice does. 

Alas, we're not out of the woods yet.  At around 3:00 PM, the sleet changed to freezing rain, and as of this writing -- around 4:15 PM, we're starting to build up a bit of ice along the roof lines, 

and tree branches.  

I stepped outside a few moments ago to take a couple of pictures, but didn't stay out long.  It's way too cold.

As of right now, I still have electricity and water, but they're saying the worst of it will come through in the overnight hours.  Fortunately, we've got the King Of Weather with us throughout all of this.  

Matt is the best, and he has a sense of humor. 

I've been watching his livestream pretty much all day -- off and on.  They're still saying we're right in the middle of the highest impact area, but I'm hoping and praying the power stays on.  Or that if it does go out, it's back on relatively quickly.  

And by "quickly" I mean in a day or two rather than a week or two.  Everyone wants to compare this to the ice storm of '94, when some people were without power for three weeks, but Matt had a man from the Tennessee Valley Power Authority on the livestream earlier.  He was saying that they'd learned so much in the last 30 years -- one of those things being to keep the trees cut well back from the power lines.  He'd said most of the damage wasn't actually from the ice, but from trees and limbs falling across those lines, breaking them and breaking poles.   

Anyway, if we still have power in the morning, we should be good for the rest of this round.  Even if we don't, I've got firewood and knitting.  And instant coffee if the need arises. 

Let's just hope it doesn't come to that.  

I'll try to keep you all updated as much as I can.  Right now, I think I'll go try to move some of the buckets of water out of my bathtub and take a hot shower while I still can. 

Laters...

And Now We Wait...

This storm is going to be a doozy if it holds up to predictions.  This is the latest from NWS Jackson.  

My county is smack dab in the dark purple.  Of course that was all we talked about at work this morning, asking each other if we were ready.  One of my coworkers said, "We're as ready as we're going to be.  All we have left to do is last minute panicking."  

And that's exactly what I did when I got home.  OK, not so much panicking, but finishing up with storm prep.  There really wasn't much left to do.  The first thing I did was to move a small pile of wood closer to the back door just for the sake of convenience.  

Her majesty the queen inspected my work and found it satisfactory.  I also finished filling up this little spot beside my rack, so no matter how much it rains, I will have dry wood. 

After tearing up my shed, I found my roll of visqueen and covered the rest of the wood pile, 

 along with the one near the back door.  That ought to keep it dry enough to burn.  

Once that was done, I came inside for a quick bite of lunch and a couple episodes of About Face after which, I tackled my freezers.  Not literally, I just mean I got them sorted.  I took as much from my small freezer as I could and put it into the deep freeze, only leaving enough in the small freezer that I could eat up in a few days and that would be OK if it thawed.  In the deep freeze, I put the meat and fish on the bottom, then put the snake food on top of that, and the cookies and candy on the top, then covered it all with as many containers filled with water as I could fit.  Hopefully, that'll keep it all frozen in case the power goes out. 

Or when the power goes out, I should say.  

My last bit of prep was --since I never did find the bathtub stopper-- after I took my shower, I filled up a few buckets with water to flush with.  Even if it doesn't end up being necessary, it's better to have it on hand.  The water company already has their emergency generators ready to go, so as long as the pipes don't freeze, we'll be good.  

And everything is charged, and the car is full of gas.  Not that I'm going to be going anywhere, but I might need to crank it up to charge my phone a time or two.  Oh, and one thing people don't think about -- dim the brightness on your screens.  It really saves your battery.  

That's about all the storm prep I can do, so now we wait...

Can you believe it?  Cody texted me to make sure I was all ready for the storm.  I wasn't expecting that.  

They've upped the timeline again.  Now they're saying the freezing rain is supposed to get here around 11:00 or 12:00 tonight.  I'm going to top up the indoor wood box before I go to bed tonight, and....maybe cast on a new knitting project.  

Can you believe I've been so caught up with this storm that I haven't knit anything all week?  

I know I've probably bored you all to tears chuntering on about storm prep, but they're saying this will be one we remember for years to come.  

Those are usually the kind we'd rather forget. 

Hold On To Your Butts

Back to work today, and it was another one of those excruciatingly slow days -- you know the kind where we spend more time waiting on tubing to get work ready for us than we do actually working.  I hate those days.  They go by so slowly.  But they do go by eventually and right at 2:00, we all walked out -- because that's when our shift ends.  

Oops...

Of course, the talk of the plant was the upcoming winter storm.  Models are increasingly pointing to a significant weather event that will impact millions, including yours truly. 

Now, don't freak out over that map.  It's only showing the probability for impacts, not the severity.  It could be that some of those areas could get as little as some really cold rain.  This map, on the other hand, clearly shows my county in the significant impact area.

All of the meteorologists are using words like historic and memorable and potentially catastrophic, and one we'll be talking about for years to come...but we can all pray it doesn't get that bad.  As my governor likes to say, prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and expect somewhere in between.  

I'll be happy if the electricity stays on, me....But still, if you're in the area that is expecting winter weather, the time to prepare is now.  Don't be trying to run buy bread and milk after the roads have iced over and the power has gone out.  Have plenty of food and water on hand, have a non electrical way to heat your house and cook your food.  

Not being one to ignore my own advice, first thing I did after work was to go fill up my car with gas.  Then I came home and checked my supply of canned foods -- soup, beans, and what not.  I have plenty of that, and a camp stove to cook in should the need arise.  Tomorrow, I'll run to the store and pick up some more bottled water, because Cody and Brennan hit my storm stash pretty hard when they were here last.  They don't drink tap water, even though it's good where I live. 

If we lived in town and were on city water, that would be a different story, but here it's OK.  

I'm going to also get another bag of birdseed, because the birds have finally found the feeder again. I don't know what the deal was, but for several months, I hardly saw a bird in the yard, nor squirrels neither.  I think I'll pick up some canned ravioli or spaghetti -0s, just for some variety.  Just in case. 

-

And of course, I have plenty of firewood.  By the way, I was moving some this afternoon and look what I found. 

Do you see what I see?  Daffodils poking their heads up.  They're going to get might cold next week.  Good thing they're hardy. 

In other news, I did not stay up to watch the Natty last night, though I did check to see who'd won when I got up to answer Nature's Call.  I spent all day at work mentally composing a detailed blog post about how the NIL is ruining football and such, but when I got home and was able to check the weather, those plans changed.  

Oh well, maybe if I get iced in but with electricity still on, I can write it over the weekend. 

For now, I think I'm going to go get me some popcorn.  

Laters...

 

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.  

Duh...

There I was at work, bright and not so early this morning, just a working away when the powers that be descended on the sub-brazing madder'n a hornet, hooting and hollering that we'd only brazed 1400 headers yesterday. 

All the while I was thinking, "You sent half the department (and I'm including the tubing side in this) home at noon, most of the rest home at 1:00 and you're wondering why we didn't get that many headers done?  What did you think would happen????"  I rolled my eyes -- a common occurrence out there-- and went back to work. 

It wasn't long at all before Supervisor Maxwell was in the department yelling about how the lines were down needing headers, and all God's sub-brazers said, "Well, DUH!"  

Needless to say, we did not go home at noon today.  Or 1:00...well, most of us.  Group Leader Shark did come around at five minutes until 1:00 and asked if we wanted to go.  I said, "If you asked 30 minutes ago, maybe I would, but I done got 2:00 in my head, so I might as well stay."  In the end, Demi-god was the only one who left early.  

But I'm getting ahead of myself...shortly after Maxwell was freaking out over the lack of headers, I saw him and Junior deep in conversation.  One of the other plant employees told me that was why he'd been kicked out of his former supervisory position -- because he was messing up over there.  Now he's messing up over here.  I hate to say it, but some people just aren't cut out to be supervisors. 

At least now I know why Uncle Supervisor, when I was teasing him about abandoning us, chuckled and said, "I won't be for long."  

On a similar note, when I was fixing my oatmeal this morning, I noticed that my milk was starting to smell a little sus.  With that in mind, I went ahead and did my shopping after work.  Since I have been doing so well in keeping my glucose under control, I decided to treat myself and bought....bananas!

You thought I was going to say candy, didn't you?  Nope, although I will probably buy some candy corn before it's all over with.  And I was tempted by the pumpkin cake roll, but that didn't last long when I saw the price of it.  Nearly $6...yeah, I didn't want it that badly.  

I left the cake and the candy corn for another day, and came on home where I watered the baby grass, filled the hummingbird feeders, and sat in the air conditioning for the rest of the day. 

 I've been watching a documentary on Netflix about Warren Jeffs and the FLDS church.  Back in the day, I watched a movie on TV called Child Bride of Short Creek.  It was about the polygamist cult that lived there in Short Creek, and it is almost eerie how similar it is to what was going on in real life.  The only problem was the movie came out some 20ish years before Jeffs got there.  

In the documentary, they kept saying Warren Jeffs did this, and Warren Jeffs did that, and I was thinking, "That was just like the movie!"  At one point, I wondered if Jeffs had actually seen the movie and was patterning his cult after it. 

No matter, it's still a fascinating documentary to watch if you have Netflix.  

Hello July

This week hasn't started off in the best way, at work, I mean.  It seems like every order I've gotten these last two days has had something wrong with it.  I swan I've spent more time re-ordering parts and writing scrap tickets than I have doing my actual job -- which is brazing.  

But, only two more days this week, then we have a four day weekend!  Hopefully.  I don't think they'll make us come in Saturday, but it's not out of the question.  They've done it before.  Keep your fingers crossed.  

I had intended to run by Walmart after work and pick up some bags of top soil to start filling in the huge ruts that landscaper left in my front yard, but by the time I got off, I just wanted to come home.   I also wanted to run by Tractor Supply to see if they had a dethatching tool, but that didn't happen, either.  Maybe tomorrow.  

I briefly thought about getting the roto tiller out, but didn't.  It's too hot for that.  I did get out and cut some more of that tree up, and I got almost all of it on my side of the fence.  

I need to move those two last pieces of the trunk, and at least it'll all be on my property. I want to try to mow back there behind the fence this weekend, because the ground ivy is taking over.  I know it's not my land, but I still try to get back there and keep it fairly neat during the summer.  

I had a bit of a sad moment when I was watering my basil and discovered that one of the plants had died suddenly. 

I'm not sure what happened.  It was fine just a couple of days ago.  Bummer, but it's not like I don't have plenty more.  In fact, I was thinking about making some more pesto this weekend, and maybe, when I get another ripe tomato, I'll make something like an ensalada caprese.  

That's a Caprese salad.  I didn't even know what one was until I was stationed in Italy, so the Italian phrase is the one that automatically comes to mind when I think of it.   

Oh, and I found a wine and spirits store across from the post office, so when I go to mail my great - nephew's sweater, I'll try to stop in and pick up some vodka for my extracts.  I've got plenty of mint, and I'm thinking about trying it with my lemon balm.  I watched a YouTube video a while back where a lady was talking about making bunches of different stuff with lemon balm, and I think extract was one of them.  I'll have to go find it again to be sure, and I'll be sure to let you know.  

And finally, it was announced last night that local meteorologist Matt Laubhan has left the TV station to start his own weather media company.  Page.  Whatever it is, he's doing it.  

I'm wondering if nearly getting laid off a few months ago had something to do with that. 

Yeah, the Allen Media Group owns the WTVA station, and they were going to lay off all local meteorologists and broadcast a feed from The Weather Channel in Atlanta instead.  Local outcry was so great that they backed off, but still.  Maybe it shook him up, or maybe he just wants to do his own thing without being restricted to the ...what is it, four minutes they get during a news broadcast.  

It's still in development, but he has a web page up (linked above) and a new app:  Mississippi Live Weather, which I've already downloaded.  Independent meteorologists are becoming much more of a thing lately.  Think Ryan Hall, Max Velocity, and the like.  

Well, just add Matt to this list now, too.  If I'm not mistaken, Gabe Mahner is going to join him, so yay.  We can look forward to more great moments like this.

Whoever said weather was dull has never been around weather people. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's past my bedtime and I don't even have the coffee pot fixed for in the morning, so I've got to run. 

Good night. 

All Heck

Right after I posted yesterday, I settled in to watch the National Memorial Day Concert on PBS, as is my tradition.   They hadn't even finished singing the National Anthem when all heck broke loose. 

Here, not in DC, I mean.  That wind hit so hard, it knocked my tomato and pepper plants clean over.  I went outside to get them and put them into the carport where they'd be a bit more sheltered, and while I was out there, I took my flag down because it was whipping so hard I thought the pole might bend or break.  

I'd no sooner gotten the flag inside when I heard a crash.  I ran back outside and the baker's rack with all of my basil seedlings had tumped over.  I brought the rack into the carport and carefully got all of the little plants moved into the carport, not even worrying about the trays at the time.  I was just putting them anywhere I could to get them out of the wind.  

I had to take a couple of breaks myself to stay under shelter, because I thought that wind was going to blow me away.  I finally got them all moved, and by that time, the power was out. 

I tried to watch the concert anyway, on my phone, but the signal kept locking up, so I finally gave up and went to bed, reasoning that there was nothing more I could do until morning anyway, because it was so dark I couldn't see. 

I finally gave up and went to bed, but didn't sleep well because I didn't want to shut the bedroom door for fear it would get too stuffy in there.  Therefore, I couldn't keep the cat out, and she kept me up pretty much all night.  

When I got up this morning, the power was still out, but I was able to walk around and do a damage assessment.   My tomato and pepper plants seem fine, but my poor little basil took a beating.  

Even if I lose a few, I'll still have enough to put into my herb gardens.  

I walked around my yard and for the most part, all I got was little twiggy stuff down everywhere. 

Then I walked around the corner and the house next door wasn't nearly so lucky.  

The huge old oak tree that was at the very back of their property had finally fallen over and at least part of it landed on the house. 

 The good news is, the house is empty and is for sale right now, so nobody was hurt.  

I called the number on the for sale sign and when the realtor answered, I told her who I was, that I live next door to this house she has listed and said, "You have a little problem over here."   I told her about the tree, she thanked me for letting her know, and I got tired of sitting in the dark, so I got into my car and drove around a little bit, mainly so I could charge my phone up a bit.  

I'm telling you, there were trees and limbs down everywhere.  Mostly limbs, but a few whole trees down.  The roads were already clear by that time, though, so I didn't have any problem driving out to the lake, then to the gas station.   

I came back home and was just sitting in my car, scrolling through Facebook when I looked up and saw my kitchen light was on.  Yay!  I had electricity!  I ran inside and found the National Memorial Day concert on YouTube and was finally able to watch it. 

Shortly after that, someone came out to look at the house next door, and not too much later, some men arrived with chainsaws and cut away the parts of the tree that were on the roof.  There's still a lot of cleaning up to do, but at least they got that much done.  Now they'll be able to see if there was any damage to the house. 

While all of that was going on, I watched Taking Chance, and was just settling in to watch We Were Soldiers when the power went out again.  I wasn't too worried this time, as I figured they'd shut it off to make repairs to a branch a little further up the circuit, and sure enough, it was back on in right about two hours, and I am so over this rain. 

I have a rain gauge app called Raindrop, and according to that, we're more than 7" above our YTD average for rainfall.  I'm ready to be done, but guess what?  

Next week starts hurricane season.  

The fun just never ends...

In the midst of all of that chaos, we did not forget to take a moment to remember those who gave their last full measure of devotion in service of their country. 

We never will. 

LOOKIT!!!!!

Lookit!  My basil seeds are sprouting!!

Squee!  I'm not a seed starting failure after all!  I had every intention of coming home this afternoon and messaging a landscaper to come start getting my garden spot ready, but I didn't.  So I'm still a landscaper messaging failure.  

My problem is that I never know what to say to them.  I know I don't have good people skills, and I've run off other contractors, plumbers, etc. by saying the wrong thing, but I don't know what it is that I'm saying that offends them so.  For example, I never thought saying, "I can't have my phone at work, so leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can" was so off-putting, but apparently that one plumber thought it was, because he never came back.   Anyway, I guess I'm going to have to just take the plunge and hope for the best. 

My new raised beds are supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I need to get started on getting all of this set up. I mean, the whole reason I had the fence guy to enclose that spot is to put a veg patch and herb garden there.  

On a similar note, I got Marty Mac out and trimmed all the dead traps off of him.  

He's looking really good now, and I think I'm going to need to repot him next winter when he goes back into dormancy.  

Alas, it doesn't look like my orange mint is going to come back, though. 

Neither is my lemon verbena, lemon thyme, or sweet mint.  I'll just have to find something else to put into those spots.  

In other news, since we're not expecting any more severe weather for a while, I went ahead and put the fire pit and chairs back outside.  

I think I finally found a good spot for them, at least for now.  It's level, shady for most of the day, and nothing important is growing right there.  Plus, my shed gives me a little more privacy until I can get the rest of the fence installed -- which will require calling the surveyor to come mark the property lines.  

Ugh...

Speaking of weather, they've been slowly releasing the tornado tracks from the most recent outbreak, and this one hit mighty close to home. 

To put it into perspective, the blue dot is me. 

I'm pretty sure that was the one in this photo, taken by one of the local sheriff's deputies just up the road from my house. 

And finally, just so this post isn't a total waste of your time, here is hat progress.  

 I'm just starting the crown decreases, so it'll be finished soon.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go start psyching myself up to message the landscaper tomorrow.  Yes, it'll take all night and most of the day...but if you'll all cheer me on, maybe I can get it done. 

So Nice

Here it is, finally finished-- the hat so nice, I knit it twice.  

That makes three charity hats for the year, which means I need to get busy.  Eh, I'll cast on another one tomorrow.  I've still got all of my sock yarn hats I need to be knitting, plus baby stuff if my sister ever tells me if the baby is going to be a boy or a girl.  

In other news, it would appear our brief stretch of nice weather is about to come to an end.  I was going to put my chair back outside and sit in it for a while, but given that we are expecting more storms tomorrow, I changed my mind.  

Instead, I got my shovel out and dug up a few more day lilies from this spot.  

This is where I need a landscaper to help me, because it's going to take me forever to do it by myself.  I want to make this corner my garden spot, but it needs a lot of work done to it first.  I need all those plants dug up, but the day lilies and the spider lilies, plus what's left of that rose, then I need dirt brought in to build it up a bit.  And I need to finally get that fence painted.  

Once all of that is done, I want to put raised beds all around the edge, plus a couple in the middle.  I want a whole bed of lemon balm, a whole bed of sweet basil, rosemary, and peppermint, plus I want to put tomatoes and sweet banana peppers in the middle beds, and I may grow some chili peppers and cayenne peppers to hang and dry for Cody and Brennan. 

I guess I need to find out what he's going to grow first, so I can choose something else, huh?  I'm still waiting to see which of my plants from last year are going to come back.  So far, it's just the lemon balm, peppermint, Greek oregano, rosemary, sage, and French tarragon.  None of the peppers are showing any signs of life.  

Ok, Ok, I'll stop boring you with my garden talk, and bore you with weather talk.  I spoke to Supervisor Green Jeans today and said we got lucky that it didn't frost.  I told him I was thinking about his corn the whole time!  Oh, wait, that's garden talk, too, isn't it?  

Moving right along...this made me laugh way more than it should have:  

Shoutout to all of the meteorologists and storm chasers.  This last week has been very taxing for them.  

 With that in mind, I think it might be time for a re-run of my Weatherman song which I wrote sitting in the tornado shelter at work back in 2022, sung to the tune of The Wellerman.  

The Weatherman

There once was a man who watched the skies

He studied it with knowing eyes

The satellites, the radar scans

He is The Weatherman

(Chorus)Hear what The Weatherman says

We gotta go get the milk and bread

When he says a storm will come

To Walmart we'll all go

The radar turned all shades of red

The forecast filled our hearts with dread

The lightning flashed, the thunder crashed

Oh blow my stormy winds blow!

(Chorus)

There in the sky!  A funnel cloud!

The siren wailing long and loud

"Oh do not fear, for I am here,"

So says the weatherman!

When all around him fled in fear

"Not me!" he said,  "I'm staying here!

I must ensure the people know

To shelter I'll not go."

(Chorus)

For forty days or even more

The sky turned dark, then light once more

But through it all one man stood tall

He is The Weatherman

(Chorus Twice)

I'll see myself out.