Purpose

The day Dolly died, I woke up that morning when the alarm went off way too early, and I promise you this is true.  My first thought was, "I woke up this morning!  I have a purpose!"  But then, if you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know I figured out my purpose long ago.  

Lots of folks think that if they're not called to preach or be a missionary, God has no use for them, or if we don't have a global stage like Dolly did, we won't have an impact.  That is so far from true.  For most of us, it's the small, simple acts of kindness in His name -- like a warm hat to wear -- that shines His light in this world.  

So let your light so shine, no matter how small you think it is.  Somebody somewhere is going to see it. 

Speaking of light, were you able to see the eclipse last night?  This was my view for most of the time. 

I'd go out and would be able to see a little of it, then the clouds would move in.  I'd check every 15 minutes or so, and despite the cloud cover, I was able to see a good bit of it.  Fortunately, there was a break in the clouds during peak totality, so I was able to see that.  I didn't wait to see the moon uncover, though.  I'd still gotten up at 4:30 that morning, and I was tuckered, so I took a quick shower and went to bed. 

This morning, amazingly enough, the cat let me sleep until 6:00 AM.  After a leisurely cup of coffee, the plan was to start cleaning up this mess in my shed.  

I've tried to clean it up before, but would take one look, then get overwhelmed and walk right back out.  This time is different, though, since I don't have to figure out what to do with all the junk in there.  I'll just pile it up and once I'm ready, I'll call the clean up man to come get it all.  I made a good start, then had to take a break when it got too hot.  I'll probably be able to get more done once it cools off a bit -- like mid-September.  For now, I have to keep reminding myself that I don't have to get it all done in one day.  

The other thing I did before it got too hot was to pick up all of these twigs and branches that the recent winds had knocked down. 

I put them here to dry, so I can use them to start fires once winter gets here -- or when they lift the burn ban and I can sit out by the fire pit.  By the way, we actually got a bit of rain this week.  Not much -- just enough to raise our monthly total to 1".  We're still in drought conditions, and my water bill is reflecting it.  From watering my garden, that is.  Oh well, it will all be worth it when I'm enjoying a nice bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich on a cold winter day.  

Speaking of, I splurged a bit yesterday and bought some of the fancy soup from the deli section at Walmart, only it's so hot right now, I don't want to eat it.  

On a similar note, The Millennial Gardener says that the end of August is a good time to remove your shade cloth from your gardens, so I did that yesterday evening.   

I noticed that these tomato plants seemed a bit more leggy than the ones I'd planted in the spring, so maybe I shouldn't have put the shade cloth on them in the first place.  They got so leggy, I had to add an additional stake to the two smallest ones, because they were flopping over.  I'll give them a few more days until they get big enough that the cage will support them, then remove those stakes.  Or maybe I won't.  They're not hurting anything, so might as well leave them. 

Next year, I don't think I'll plant tomatoes in succession, because knowing me, I'll still have tomato soup in the freezer from this year.  I do want to plant one round and maybe look into making homemade salsa.  I'll have to research recipes over the winter.  I also want to look into planting a Fall garden, so I'm going to research that, too.  

On a brighter note, my zinnias are blooming again, and the pollinators are very happy about that.  

Not to mention, they look much healthier than they did before.  Next year, I'll know better than to plant so many in the same bed. 

By the way, they say the best way to make sure you don't have tomato hornworms is to look for them at night with a black light.  Apparently, they glow in the dark.  I'd bought a black light years ago, but I have no idea where it is.  I found the battery holder thingy, but not the light itself.  Eh, they're not that expensive, so I ordered another one.  

It would seem I have indeed gotten all of the hornworms off my tomatoes.  I checked while I was waiting for the eclipse to start.  

Since I was ordering anyway, I tossed in this collection of Autumn themed washi tape that I'd been eyeing for quite some time now. 

I'm not sure why, because I only have one pen pal left -- the one from Australia.  Everyone else has stopped writing, but what with a stamp costing nearly $1 now, I can't say's I blame them.  Or else, I'm just boring. 

Here's a fun fact, the black light I'd bought years ago was so I could send letters to one of my pen pals in invisible ink.  But that's neither here nor there. 

The only thing I didn't like about that washi tape was the box it came in. 

The only way to find the tape you want is to dump all of the rolls out of the box.  Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I repurposed this little lunch box I got when I helped Cody and Brennan clean out their house.  They were going to throw it away, but I figured I would be able to make use of it somehow.  Now it is the happy home to my washi tape. 

And look, it's even got cute little handles to carry it around with.  

In work news, they've started taking down the wall between the front and the back of the plant.  They actually started yesterday while we were all there, and I wondered how safe it was for them to be pulling all of that fiberglass insulation down with a plant full of employees.  

Oh, and do you want to see a visual definition of the word irony?  Look at this:

This is just a small section of a much larger pile of junk that was in the break area...right next to the "Report Unsafe Conditions" code...

I guess that's about it for today.  If you'll excuse me, I need to go write a letter to my Australian pen pal so I can use my new washi tape.

Laters...