Bummed

Some of you may recall from previous posts that the local Walmart has stopped carrying small animal bedding.  This presents me with difficulties because I have four small animals that need said bedding.  Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.

I hopped on to Amazon and ordered some. 

While I was there, I went ahead and tossed my first fairy house into my cart and bought it, too.  

Alas, when it arrived and I opened it, they'd sent the wrong item.  Instead of my adorable little house, they sent an ugly gnome flipping the bird. 

Ugh.

Good thing Amazon makes returning things so easy.  I hopped back online and started one, and that means I'll have to run into town after work tomorrow to drop off the aforementioned ugly gnome at the UPS store, so I might as well get my shopping done while I'm there, even though it's only Wednesday.   

Or it will be.  Tomorrow, I mean.  Not today...

OK, moving right along...look at this!  My sunflower is starting to open up. 

This is the one I think came out of the bird feeder, that a squirrel or some such planted in my planter.  I'd moved it a couple of weeks ago so I could empty and move that planter, and well, it looks like I didn't kill it after all.   At least I have something growing...

Supervisor Green Jeans came over yesterday and asked my how my garden was going, and I replied, "It isn't!"  I told him my yard hadn't dried out enough for me to even get my raised beds out.  With today's rain, we are now 9.5" above normal for the year, and I never ever thought I'd be glad to hear the words heat dome, but I am.  They're saying there is one out west that is inching our way, and should be here by the end of next week.  Maybe it will finally dry out a bit.  At least enough for me to mow. 

On a similar note, the landscaper sent me a message saying his truck ought to be out of the shop by next week, so as soon as it's dry enough, he'll come out and finish up my yard.  I'll be glad when he's done, because I'm tired of having this hanging over my head.  

I keep trying to look on the bright side.  This way, I'll have all winter to get my beds out and prepped -- except for that one week it gets really cold, I mean -- and will be all ready to plant come spring.  

In other news, there has been knitting as well.  Somehow, this blob is going to end up being a baby sweater. 

I'm not quite sure how, but it will.  Let me go look at YouTube...OK, I'm back.  There are lots of videos, which I'll have to peruse later.  

For now, let me tell you the latest about how my place of employment wants to make their employees hate working there.  Do you know what we have to do now?  We're going to have to let the security guard rifle through our bags before we can go into work.  It was supposed to start today, but apparently they're still training the guards on what to look for, because heaven forbid someone try to sneak -- oh the horror-- an insulated mug into the plant.  

And they can't figure out why nobody wants to work there.  Go figure...

Look, even the clouds are angry about it! 

 Well, Ryan Hall is live streaming again, so I'm going to go watch and knit.  Good thing, I was going through withdrawals. 

Later, peeps.   

Not A Drop

Looks like I cancelled my plans for nothing, because we have not gotten a single drop of rain today.  I could have gone to Batesville, except that I didn't really want to.  I wanted to stay home. 

It got dark and windy a few times, but no rain -- yet.  It rained all around us, and there is still a line of storms that might hit us later on this evening and into tomorrow.  With that in mind, I moved Mr. Mater and the other potted plants on my porch away from the edge and back up against the house.  

I thought for a minute about getting out and trying to mow, but the yard was still way too soggy.  Instead, I started cleaning this mess up--

which mostly involved throwing all the stuff over the fence into my side. 

I cut up some of the limbs into pieces that will fit my firepit until the battery on my mini chainsaw ran down.  By the time I charged it back up, it was too hot to be outside.   Too hot to want to, that is. 

I'm not exactly sure what kind of tree it was.  According to Google, it was a box elder, which makes so-so firewood, but since it's for the fire pit and not the fire place, it'll do.  Besides, it was free -- besides paying the man to cut it down, I mean, which would have had to be done anyway before I could get that fence replaced.  

I'm probably going to have to break out the big chainsaw to cut the bits of trunk up.  

The tree guy said he'd cut it into firewood lengths for me, but I wonder how big he thought my fire pit would be.  

Once it got to be too hot to be comfortable outside, I came in and cleaned two snake tanks.  I'd wanted to do the three I had left -- having cleaned out Onyx's last week-- but when I pulled the second bag of aspen shavings out from under the stand, I discovered it was only half a bag.  It was enough to do Slider's tank, but Sunny's will need a bag and a half by itself.  I'll have to order more before I can do his.  

I spent the rest of the day -- the part I wasn't doing laundry -- watching TV and making good progress on the BSJ. 

I've been watching loads of documentaries on Netflix.  Today I watched on the Astroworld tragedy a few years ago, when all those people got crushed to death in the mosh pits.  I also watched on called The Quilters, about men in a maximum security prison who make quilts for kids in foster care.  It was really good.  Then there was the one about the fertility clinic doctor who used his own sperm to inseminate women, instead of their husbands' and has over 100 biological children.  

And finally, I found this cute little gnome garden on Facebook. 

I'm not into gnomes, but I can adapt it into a fairy garden.  

Woo Hoo!

I knew right away what kind of morning it was going to be when the filter in my coffee pod busted and I ended up with a cup full of grounds. 

Sigh....

I supposed I could have cleaned the machine out and run another pod through, but I didn't.  I just drank what I could and tossed the rest.  Then went on about my day as normal.  The good news is, we have tomorrow off!  Woo Hoo!  

I don't plan on doing much at all this weekend, because I'm still feeling pretty drained. I don't think there's anything wrong with me other than just being exhausted.  I was thinking about it yesterday, how do people do it?  How do people work a full time job, and still have immaculate homes and gardens that look like a fairy wonderland?  Then they go out and do stuff...I mean, like volunteering and church stuff and all.  How do they find the energy?  

I come home worn out, my house looks like a disaster, the yard is an absolute mess, and all I want to do is sit.  I was going to mow yesterday, but it was too hot, so I said I'd weedeat the front ditch instead.  But I didn't even do that.  I just sat.  I knit maybe two rows on the baby surprise jacket, then went to bed early. 

 When Group Leader Shark told us we would be off tomorrow, I thought about running up to Lowe's and looking at their roto-tillers, but it's supposed to rain all weekend -- off and on.  I hope mostly off.  I'm so over this.   We are now 9" above normal for the year. 

Alas, I did not sleep through last night's storms, which is why I'm rambling. 

Anyway, I'm hoping things will settle down, and I'll get back to regular blogging soon. 

Monday....Demi-god and his wife are expecting their second child, a boy.  He came in Monday morning, very upset, because his in-laws had given them a baby shower last Saturday and only two people had shown up.  I decided then and there that I'd get him a little something, so when I was at the store, I picked up what every parent of a newborn needs-- diapers and bibs.  

As I was carrying my gift into work this morning, I had it in a Walmart sack to protect it from the elements.  I saw at one of the TXV stations a Walmart sack with what looked like shiny, irridescent paper sticking out of it. 

"Oh," I said to the person who works there, "did you bring a gift, too?" 

"It's supposed to be next Friday," she replied, and that's how I found out what apparently everybody else in the department but me already knew.  Later on, I asked a couple more coworkers, and yes, they all knew, too.  But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

"Oh, well," I said.  "He's getting his gift from me today, because I'm not wagging it back home!"

"Fine!" snapped the person who was organizing the baby shower, and I was like, whoa!  Back off there, sister.  If you're not going to tell me about this little party you've got going, you have no business getting mad at me for going off and doing my own thing. 

I mean, it's fine with me, because I'm not even going to be there next Friday, and Demi-god was tickled pink that I got him something.  A little bird told me he was over there showing it off.  But if the organizer had wanted me to bring it next Friday, she should have told me so.  She should have told me they were doing a baby shower in the first place, but that's just me.   

By the way, for those of you not from this area, to "wag" something means to carry or drag it somewhere - usually referring to something cumbersome or inconvenient.  It's a local colloquialism -- very local, because I've never heard it anywhere else. 

And finally, a bit of good news.  I found two bags of aspen shavings that I didn't know I had, so I can clean the rest of the snake tanks this weekend.  So woo hoo to that, too. 

It All Caught Up

It all caught up with me yesterday.  The early hours. The fatigue.  The heat.  The stress at work.  Even this landscaping project that's still hanging over my head. 

It all caught up and I was so tired I went to bed at 6:30.  I don't normally like going to bed that early, because I usually wake up around midnight and can't get back to sleep; not so last night.  I slept all the way through -- except for a couple of bathroom breaks, that is -- and was still sound asleep when the alarm went off at 3:30.  

And apparently had slept through a pretty good thunderstorm judging by the notifications that were on my phone when I woke up. 

This is why you need a good quality weather radio on hand and multiple ways to get alerts.  Heh, I was watching a video from Adam Couser a while back and he was reacting to a video about a tornado.  I think it might have been Rolling Fork, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, the storm chaser, which I'm pretty sure was Freddy McKinney, had the emergency alert go off on his phone and Adam like to have jumped out of his chair. 

All the Americans watching laughed our heads off!  Truly, that sound is enough to make you jump right out of the bed.  Adam is not safe for work or small children by the way, but he's pretty funny. 

By the way, Ryan Hall has his own app out now called WeatherWise.  He said it's a weather app for weather geeks, and there's a whole lot of stuff you can do in it, even in the free version, like access hazcams and follow some of the storm chasers.  It's still in development, but worth the free download.  

Speaking of rain, we are now nearly 9" above average for the year, 

which is why the landscaping still hasn't been done.  I had so hoped to be further along than this by this time, but no.  It just won't. Stop. Raining.  

And guess what it's supposed to do this weekend?  Rain.  

Sigh...

Still, Mr. 'Mater doesn't seem to be bothered by all the rain.  He's loaded down with baby maters.

And I harvested my first banana pepper, as well.  

I've only got one so far, but there appear to be a few more starting to come on. 

And finally, a knitting friend loaned me her copy of the Baby Surprise Jacket pattern, so I cast on right away. 

The pattern says to use sport weight yarn to knit a newborn size, and the only yarn I don't have in abundance is...you guessed it, sport weight. So I cast on in worsted weight, and they can put it back for later.  

Or maybe I'll give it next year for Christmas.  I don't know...I'll figure it out. 

Tuckered

I stayed up way too late last night watching Ryan Hall's live stream.  And the night before...

Then I fell asleep and dreamed I was watching Ryan Hall's live stream.  Clearly, I have a problem. 

Ironically, enough, I was not watching Ryan Hall's live stream the day the big storm hit here and knocked the neighbor's tree over -- so I'm watching it now.  Seriously, I am.  I got curious about what he would have talked about, so I went back and found it.  I skipped ahead, though, to the relevant part and am not watching the entire eight hours of it. 

All that to say, I'm a mite tuckered.  

All righty, then....on to more relevant topics. 

Except that I can't remember what it was I was going to tell you, so let me just show you this.  I got the last of my basil planted yesterday when I got home from work and Walmart. 

This isn't the best place for it, because it's in shade for most of the day, but I had to put it somewhere.    I'm sure it'll be OK.  It just might not grow quite as big as it would in direct sunlight.  That may be a good thing, because I'm not completely sure what I'm going to do with so much basil.  

I'll cut and dry most of it and probably give it to Cody and Brennan, and I want to collect enough to make another batch of pesto.  Maybe I'll find a smoothie recipe as well.  And if all else fails, there's always the compost bin.  

While I was out there, I grabbed a quick picture of the other side of the planter.  You can see my Greek oregano in the back of the photo above, and on this side I have lemon balm, peppermint, and what was labeled as orange mint, but I'm having my doubts about that. 

I eventually want to have a whole bed of lemon balm plants once I get my herb garden set up and going.  I'll have to research what else you can do with it except make tea and season cooking.  I know it has lots of medicinal uses, so I'll look into those as well. 

In other news, one thing I've really been missing since developing this insulin resistance is a good bowl of cereal.  I've tried one of the bran cereals and they don't taste good.  The one box I bought is still sitting in the pantry mostly uneaten because it tasted like cardboard.  

I tried the Magic Spoon cereal, and didn't like it, either.  To me, it tasted like sour milk.  So, I had this ibotta rebate for Cheerios Protein cereal, and bought some. 

I had a bowl of it last night, and it tastes pretty good.  This morning, I checked my glucose, figuring it would be through the rood, but it was only 96.  So maybe, just maybe, I can have a bowl of cereal after all. 

While I was at the store yesterday, I bought myself a new floor lamp for my living room after the old one started behaving erratically.  It was 20 years old, after all, and was a cheap lamp to begin with. 

It's kind of sad the things I get excited about now...

And finally, I'm still playing the piano -- working my way through my lesson books, but it's become a struggle.  I think I'm going to set aside the Faber book for a while and concentrate on finishing my Alfred's Level 2 book.  Then I'll go back and finish the Faber book before doing Alfred's Level 3. 

I don't think I'll do any more of the Faber books.  Oh, it's not a bad course.  I just don't see the point in doing course after course.  At some point, I need to just start playing. 

Well, since it looks like Ryan Hall won't be going live tonight, I'll have to find something to watch.  Don't know what, but I'll find something...

June 6, 1944

 

 Tell it to your children, 

and let your children tell it to their children, 
and their children to the next generation. Joel 1:3

So that we may never forget.   

A Damper

I've been saying for a while now that I am going to change my shopping day to Thursday in a probably vain attempt to avoid the madhouse that is Walmart on a Friday.  So it was today, as well.  I'd planned on going into town after work, but the minute I got into my car it started raining.  

That kind of put a damper on my plans.  It was raining hard, too, not just a little sprinkle, so I changed my mind and came on home.  As soon as I got home, it stopped.  

I took it as a sign.  

The downside to even that little bit of rain is that all the red clay in my back yard is now slicker'n snot.  Since it's supposed to rain off and on all weekend and through next week as well, I made myself a path out of the old stepping stones left by the previous owner.  

 Until the landscaper can get here and finish up, this will help keep me from busting my hiney every time I go out into the back yard.  I wish I had one more because that last one isn't quite close enough to the grass for me to step that far.  

I'll go out maybe tomorrow and see if I can find a chunk of concrete from that old fire pit that used to be behind the fence.  If there's one flat enough, I can make myself another step.  

Speaking of, the landscaper sent me a message this morning saying he hasn't forgotten about me.  His truck is broken down and as soon as he gets it fixed, he'll come take care of my yard.   Of course, now we'll have to wait until it dries out again...

At this rate, it might be July or August before we can get it done. 

Oh, and I'm thinking about buying a roto-tiller.   I'm thinking that I can till up the garden spot and mix the red clay with the regular dirt underneath it.  That way, maybe it won't be so slick every time it rains  At least I hope it won't.  It's going to be a multi- year project and I don't want to fall and kill myself before I get it done.  I'm thinking of putting either stepping stones or pea gravel between the beds.  I don't know which yet, and I might put down some pine straw until I decide.  

Also, if I till it several times, it'll level the spot out, probably even better than the landscaper can with his big machine.  

That being said, I looked at some roto tillers online, and they aren't very expensive.  The only question is, will I use it enough to justify spending the money?  The answer is, maybe.  

And finally, I took my first little basil harvest this afternoon.  I hadn't intended to, but I noticed some of the plants were flopping over.  I know they say don't cut the stems, but I did.  I thought if I cut the stems just above the first little branches, they'll get bushier, but won't put such a strain on the upper stems.  We'll see. 

Probably this weekend, I'll try to fit my remaining basil plants into the other planter.  It doesn't get full sun, but they need to be in something besides those little pots.  

Well, will you look at that?  I ended up writing a pretty decent post for a day when I had nothing to say. 

There Is A God!

What are you talking about?  Of course there is a God.  

But sometimes, when things are going not so well, it's easy to lose sight of him.  To wonder where he is in all of this.  Is he still there?  Does he even still care?

Then he sends you a little nudge, as if to say, "Yes, I'm still here, and I still love you."  Sometimes it's little things that wouldn't mean anything to anyone but me --  like sending a tree guy right to my house so that's one less phone call I need to make.  Or being able to get the lawn mower started on the first try. 

Other times, he slaps you right upside the head.

I walked into work this morning, and the plant was all abuzz with the news.  The Human Resources Director from Hell had been fired yesterday!  Hallelujah praise the lord!

I just hope the next one they hire isn't bat guano crazy like the last three have been. 

In other news, I hadn't planned on mowing when I got home.  I was just going to go out to get the model number so I could order that new part I need, when on a whim, I decided to try to crank it up.  Alas, on the second pull of the starter rope, it caught.  

Bummer.

But since it started, I wasn't going to waste the effort, so I mowed.  Just the front and side yards, i.e. the public areas.  I didn't mow the back, and probably won't until the landscaper comes back to finish the job.   I don't know when that will be, because yes, it's supposed to storm again this weekend.  

Sigh.  

We just can't catch a break, can we?  And as if that weren't enough, we have both Saharan Dust and Canadian wildfire smoke floating around...

In a bit of better news, there has been knitting happening.  

 This one for the Seaman's Church Institute.  My numbers are really down this year.  

I'd better get on the ball. 

He Came!

The tree guy came!  He came and cut down that little tree that was fouling my back fence.  

He had to cut a hole in the fence to get it down, but I'd told him that was OK, since I was going to replace that fence anyway.  That's the whole reason I needed the tree cut down in the first place. 

I hated to do it, but it had to be done. 

Anyway, while I was trying to remember how to write a check -- and I'm only half joking there -- I said, "When you have time, I would like you to come cut out the dead branches in that big oak tree."  He said it might be on into the summer before he could come back, because he still has so much storm clean up to do.  I said that would be OK.  I'm not in any hurry, but it does need to be done. 

He wrote my name and address in his book before he left, so here's hoping he comes back. 

Heh, he said, "I'd better write it down, or I'll never remember."  And I started to ask him if he was my long lost son or something.  I didn't. 

The things that sound funny in my head don't always sound so funny when I say them out loud.  I've discovered that it's usually better to keep my mouth shut most of the time. 

Well, this is going to be short, because I stayed up way too late last night watching The Fat Electrician (NSFW) videos on YouTube.  I think that's why I've been in a brain fog all day, so I'm going to end this and watch a few episodes of The Chosen.

I was going to binge the entire series before season 5 comes out, but I don't think I'll have time.  But, I do what I can.  

If I don't fall asleep.  

DOPE

You know what my place of employment needs?

A D.O.P.E..

Seriously.  A department of plant efficiency.  Someone needs to come out there and do a thorough audit of their policies and practices so they can streamline the place and make it a functional, successful business.  Not that they'll listen, mind you, but yeah.  

They can start with all these unnecessary positions that someone in upper management literally made up so that they could give their buddies a job.  Yes, Stalker's job is one of those, but not the only one.  I'm thinking of someone else who was hired simply because she was someone's buddy, and from day one, she's never had a real job.  They have to keep making up stuff for her to do so they can justify giving her a ...somewhat hefty paycheck.   There's probably dozens more similar positions in that place -- almost all of them are office jobs.  And none of them are vital to the plant's day to day operation.  

I am so old I can remember when the plant had one supervisor per shift instead of five, and one production manager for the entire plant, and the same person handled HR, Safety, and First Aid.  I can remember when we didn't have any quality auditors -- not the buttload we have out there now. 

And then there are the useless and redundant things they want us all to do, like filling out those papers every day where we write down the order number and how many headers we brazed off of that order.  Why?  If they want to know which orders we did or how many parts we brazed, they can just look it up in the computer.  Why do we need to waste our time writing it down?  

Do you know what else they want us to do, in addition to filling out those papers, sorting out bad parts, ordering shortages, and handwriting scrap tickets?  Now, we have to keep track of how many headers we braze each hour and write it on the white board in what I've come to refer to as the S.W.O.T. chart.  

In case you haven't guessed, that stands for Stupid Waste Of Time.  Because that's what it is.  It's just something else added onto our plates, and what's it going to solve?  It's not going to make tubing get the parts out faster, or get them to make the parts per print, or get them to count so we don't have to spend half our day either ordering shortages or writing scrap tickets for their overruns.  Those are the issues they need to be resolving.  As I told my coworker while I was down waiting for headers because for some reason tubing had only done half of the order I was working on, Junior is standing over the wrong people.  

I can reach no other conclusion but that they want us to fail, because that's what they seem to be setting us up for.  Failure. 

After a seemingly interminable, hot, frustrating, stressful day, I finally made it home, and I hadn't even gotten to the bathroom when there came a knock at my door.  I opened it to find the man from the tree removal company that's working on the tree next door.  He asked me if I'd happened to take any pictures of the tree.  He said he was in such a hurry to get the tree off of the house before the next round of rain came through that he'd completely forgotten to take before photos.  

I told him that I had, and he asked me to send them to him.  As I was doing that, I said, "I'm going to go ahead and add you as a contact, because I've got a tree I'm going to need cut down pretty soon."  He replied that it would be cheaper for him to do it while he's already got his equipment in this area, so I showed him this little tree that's growing up through my back fence. 

He said he didn't think he could get it down without cutting a hole in my fence, and I assured him that it would be OK, since I was going to have that whole fence pulled up  anyway.  So, he's going to come cut it down probably tomorrow, and that's one more thing off my list.  

Then he turned around and saw the big old limb that had fallen on top of my chicken coops, and said, "That needs to come off of there."  I said that I'd tried to pull it off, but it was too heavy so he just reached up there and tugged a bit, and came right off with no problem. 

Another thing taken care of.  And another chunk of firewood for the fire pit.  I'll have to get my mini chainsaw out and cut it up, but that's not a problem. Oh, and he's going to leave the tree, too, to burn in the fire pit.  

And finally, the basil seems to be perking up quite a bit. 

I propped a few of them up with twigs from the yard, just until they get their feet back under them.  

Now, I'll just have to figure out what to do with the other nine I still have in the pots.   Why on earth did I plant so much basil?  

The world may never know. 

One More Thing

What is it about Saturdays?  

When I have them off, they whiz by in the blink of an eye, but when I have to work, man, do they drag on and on and on.  So it was with today.  

But at long last, the day finally ended and I was able to get one more thing checked off my to-do list.  No, I'm not talking about the mountains of laundry I did.  

It's just me.  How on earth do I make so much laundry by myself?  But there it is...

Let's not talk about that, OK?  No, what I did was to get my rosemary and sage out of the planter and into some spare pots.  

There they'll stay until I can finally get my raised beds into place, which at this point might be next year.  

The next thing I had to do was dig all of the dirt out of the planter so I could move it.  The planter itself doesn't weigh very much, but the dirt -- especially when it's damp like it is now -- weighs a ton.  

Figuratively, of course, but it's still pretty heavy.  So I put all of the soil into my wheelbarrow, then moved the planter over here by the shed. 

Since that tree next door fell in the storms last Sunday, I've got a lot more sunlight in my back yard, so I have a lot more options there.   Eventually, I'll have to move this again, but it'll do OK here for now.  Next year, I'll use it for some partial shade plants -- which I'll have to research in the mean time -- but for now, I managed to get 18 of my little basil plants into their permanent home. 

 Some of them still look pretty bedraggled, but I'm hoping now that they've got more room, they'll strengthen up and grow.  

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with the nine plants I still have in the pots.  And what I'm going to do with so much basil...besides make pesto, that is. 

Any ideas?    

I Thought I Was Smart

I thought I was being smart.  Turns out I wasn't. 

Yesterday, I'd noticed that my tomato plant was leaning over, pulling the stake I'd put into the pot with it.  Today at work, I had the bright idea of tying the stake to the post of my porch, which I thought would stabilize both plant and stake.  When I got home, I did just that. 

A few moments later I was back inside watching The X-Files when I heard a thump.  I looked out my front window and the entire pot had fallen over -- still tied to the porch post.  It would seem the plant has outgrown the pot I had it in. 

Fortunately, I had an empty bucket, so into it Mr. 'Mater went. 

I also got a few more stakes and used some garden twine to make a makeshift tomato cage.  Let's hope that does the trick -- and that I didn't kill Mr. 'Mater when I was re-potting him. 

That's one more thing all this rain has disrupted.  I'd hoped to have Mr. 'Mater in a raised bed along with a few companions by now.  I never figured we'd still be struggling with all this mud after all this time.  

Another thing I moved was this sunflower that a squirrel planted.

I'd originally planned on putting him here, on the West side of the house where it would get good sun...

but again, I figured the landscaper would have been done by now.  So, I put him on the East side instead. 

It may not be the best location, but it is better than that planter.  It'll get good morning sun at least. I was going to stake it, but it's got a bud on it, so I didn't figure it would get much bigger anyway.  I probably could have left it in the planter, but as you can see, I need to move it so the landscaper can finish what I want him to do. 

If I'd known he was going to spread dirt all up under there, I'd have moved it before he started.  But, I've already moved the French Tarragon into a pot, 

and tomorrow I'll move the rosemary and sage, so I can empty the planter and move it out of the way.  I'm not sure yet where I'm going to put it, but it doesn't really matter since it'll eventually end up in the garden spot anyway.  I think for now, I'm going to move some of my basil into it for the season.   

Speaking of, I don't think this little one is going to survive.  

 I think the stem might have gotten broken when the rack blew over.   I'm going to cut it and hang it to dry, so at least it will have served a purpose. 

But for now, I'm going to stop boring you with my talk of my herbs, and go get myself something to eat. 

Laters. 

What Day Is It?

What with the holiday Monday, and Jury Duty on Tuesday, then Wednesday felt like Monday, and I have no idea what day it is. 

I keep reminding myself it's Thursday, but it sure doesn't feel like it.  Just to add to the confusion, I went to the store today instead of tomorrow.  I'm trying to change my shopping day to avoid the crowds, but it's such a deeply ingrained habit, it's hard to do.  

But I went anyway because I needed some more potting soil.  Some of my little basil plants have outgrown their pots, and I wanted to make sure I have enough soil to up-pot them. 

Some of the others will need to be up-potted soon as well, and it looks like pretty much all of them have recovered from their bout with the storms Sunday night. 

By the way, it rained again this morning, and they're predicting rain for tomorrow as well.  Then we'll have a couple of days of sunshine before it rains again...on Wednesday.  Sigh...

If it doesn't stop soon, I don't know what I'm going to do, because the landscaper can't even come out and finish with the garden spot until it dries enough that he can drive his tractor thingy through the yard without leaving 6" deep ruts.  

I guess I can put together one of my raised beds out towards the back fence, then next fall when all my stuff dies back, I can move it to its permanent location.  If it's stopped raining by then, that is.  I'm telling you, if I had known it would have been so rainy this spring, I'd have never started the little seeds in the fist place.  But you know what they say about hindsight.  

In better news, I finished my great-nephew's hat.  

 It seems huge, but then I always underestimate how big babies heads are.  I still need to seam the sweater sleeves, then it'll all be done. 

Except for mailing it.  Which requires a trip to the post office. 

My favorite place. 

Yay....

Jury Duty

Well, I had me one extra day off work this Memorial Day weekend, but it wasn't for anything fun.  I had jury duty, and not just any jury duty.  I had to go to the Federal court up in Oxford.  

On the bright side, I got to sleep past 3:30 for one more day.  

Anyway, I drove up there and found the place pretty easily, but since it was Federal court, I had to go through all sorts of rigamarole just to get into the building.  As I was emptying my pockets, I quipped, "If I'd known I'd have to go through all this, I'd have left most of this stuff at home!"  

Then my boots set off the metal detectors anyway.  I hadn't even worn my steel toes, so I guess it was the eyelets.  The guy didn't make me take them off, but felt around them to make sure I wasn't hiding anything in them.  However, when I came back from lunch, the security guy who was there then did make me take them off.  He'd asked me if they'd set off the metal detectors that morning, and I said they had, so he had me put them through the x-ray thing. 

He was apologetic, explaining that they had to follow the rules.  I told him it was ok, that I'll take any excuse to get my shoes off.   "I'm just an ol' country girl," I said.   "I am too," he replied, "From Grenada county."  Suddenly, it felt like old home week. 

All that aside, this was a summons for a grand jury, which as I'm sure most of my readers know -- as opposed to my coworkers -- is the one that examines the evidence and decides if there is enough probable cause to indict someone.  

But that's no matter, because I didn't get picked anyway.  It's back to work tomorrow.   

I'd planned on coming home by way of Batesville and stopping at the Walmart there to see if they had any small animal bedding, but by the time I got there, I had such a headache that I bypassed the store and came on home.  

Where I found my new movie waiting for me. 

That was fast!  I wasn't expecting it until tomorrow.  I'll probably watch it this weekend.  I also need to watch a WWI movie, since the power outages over the Memorial Day weekend really cut down on my movie time.  

Speaking of, there are some people whose power still hasn't been restored.  The damage here was pretty widespread, so I feel lucky that mine came back on so quickly.  I was driving home from Oxford and coming down 51 North -- for you local folks, between Hwy 7 and the Geeslin Corner area-- and some places looked like a tornado had hit it. 

We always tend to down play the damage straight line winds can do, but they can be as destructive as a tornado.  Underestimate them at your peril.

On that happy note, I think I'll go take me a hot shower and relax in front of the TV for the rest of the day. 

Laters. 

P.S.  Season 5 of The Chosen hits Prime June 15th!  I'm already counting down the days. 

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.