and the good news is...

 
Sarah's test came back negative so Pam and I weren't exposed after all.

Thanksgiving day was a laid back day. I did finally pick up all the piles of debris on the side of the street from the ditch clearing and got it all dumped on the burn pile. Even moved the pile of poison ivy vines/roots. Fear not, I used the pitchfork to heft them into the wheelbarrow and then trundled them across to the other side of the field behind us and dumped them there. Earlier in the week I got the pansies and violas in

and yesterday I dug out the two packages of sweet pea seeds I bought two years ago and never did anything with and planted them in the little plastic 6-packs that accumulate. I don't expect they will all come up but I'm hoping some do.

It's been hot and humid this week, especially Friday morning. A cold front is moving it's way down and the first thing that happens is that it sucks all that hot moist air from the Gulf northwards so we've had a south wind for two days. That ended yesterday though around early afternoon when the wind died down and it started raining. It didn't rain hard or for very long but now it's considerably cooler out there. This is the first real winter front and they are predicting a freeze Monday night. So to that end, Thursday I borrowed one of Pam's collapsable tables that she isn't using since both mine are in use, one here and one over at the studio, to prepare for moving all the plants inside and then I cleared out and swept out the part of the garage where the big pots will go but haven't moved anything in yet. 

I'll probably start bringing in the succulents and other small stuff today. I have four plumerias to dig up, six in pots (I gave two away this year), the bird of paradise, the begonia, the nun's orchid, two angel trumpets, the night blooming cereus that will go in the garage and the staghorn ferns need to be brought inside, the white orchid tree to snug up against the house. 

I have too much stuff that needs to be protected!

As of 1PM today we've gotten almost 4 3/4” of rain in the last 18 hours and it's still raining. The weather notification app on my tablet is a little confused warning a child abduction emergency.

I've written before about my little dog who hates loud noises like fireworks, gun shots, thunder, backfires no matter how muffled and far away. They send her into a panting trembling bug-eyed mess that can't settle down anywhere. She doesn't like lightning either though she has gotten accustomed to rain as long as it's not a downpour and isn't accompanied by lightning and thunder. So my friend Debbie of the dog pack gave me some CBD chews to try on her next time she got freaky which happened to be early Friday morning with light rain but lightning and thunder. She wouldn't eat it of course so I had to break it up and force her to swallow it and within about 5 or 10 minutes that dog was chill. And she stayed chill all morning. When it started up again last night I gave her a half and it worked just as well. She settled down and we both slept through the night. Glory be!

I don't remember if I mentioned that my twin from another mother and a decade apart sent me a gislee print from a painting she had done that I expressed interest in. I've never actually met Cynthia face to face but we have 'known' each other for a couple of decades via one or another glass artist internet discussion groups/boards and we are very much alike. She lives in Utah and gave up glass years ago and started painting. Anyway, I got the print back from the frame shop Wednesday but haven't gotten it hung yet.

So now I'm just waiting for the rain to slack off to start bringing stuff in.