The yellow bells aka Esperanza aka Tacoma stans finally started blooming. Mine usually start later then ones around as mine get a lot of shade and they like sun.
Saturday - Well, crap. Changed out the relays and still can't get those switches to come on. I guess a call to the manufacturer is in order on Monday to see if they have any helpful hints.
Glory be! We got about an inch of rain Friday in about 20 minutes. So nice not to have to go out first thing in the morning and set up the sprinkler.
I did finally cut back all the gone by purple coneflowers last week but it took me three days of effort in the heat and two full garden carts.
Went to the library the other day and as I was approaching a man passed me on the sidewalk and said 'god bless you' and kept right on walking. Um, OK. Did I look like I needed blessing? I suppose he thought he was just being a good christian spreading whatever but I'd just as soon his god not take notice of me cause that god lets all kinds of horrible things happen and then expects to be glorified for it. Not sure which is more annoying, this or the ubiquitous 'have a blessed day'. What does that even mean? I know what a good day is like but what is a 'blessed' day like? Angels circling around you playing harps?
I've started calling the cat Chloe but mostly just kitty. After a couple of weeks showing no interest in going outside she started going out with me and the dog first thing in the morning for about 10 minutes in the little backyard and then coming back in until Saturday when she jumped the fence and stayed out for a couple of hours before she came back in. Same Sunday morning and today though now I let her out the door to the garage.
I bought this scratching block for Chloe
and this was the warning sticker on it...
it's cardboard, cardboard that you shouldn't let your kids play with or near. Really? The human race is doomed.
Sunday - I finally took care of three tasks...repairing 2 wind chimes that have been laying on my work table for months (I'm really glad to get this one back up)
and replacing the parachute cord that the bird feeder hangs from with thin galvanized wire. Let's see that little bastard squirrel tightrope walk that! Edit: And of course he did. I looked up today and there that bastard was chowing down. Oh I was pissed, went running out yelling at it and he scampered back to the tree hanging upside down as he traversed the wire.
Monday - Before calling Paragon this morning, Marc had one more thing he wanted to try and voila! It works!!! There's a master relay that controls all the others and he switched it out with the one from the old kiln and now he's doing a test firing with a never used mold we made to see if our plaster was old. By the time this test run is done, we will have only lost a week and a half.
Today is a good day...so far and fingers crossed.
The Nanny state- I reckon our country is the worst- Do not ingest laundry detergent pods...do not go near cardboard...and on and on...It might be a great art project, go through TARGET or some retail BS and collect all of the warning tags.
ReplyDelete"god bless you", My only response is "hail Satan".
I do wish I had thought of that but I'm often slow on the uptake.
DeleteI do love the "hail Satan" response. We hear "have a blessed day" here and it just annoys the living snot out of me. Keep your beliefs to yourself. I'm happy that you are keeping the cat, so is the cat.
ReplyDeleteOh, that is good news about the kiln! I hope it keeps working so you can get your glasswork done.
ReplyDeleteLove those yellow flowers!
Let's hope the kiln will now work. Saving many $$ as well as travel and general annoyance. I guess the warning label would work if the kitty got fiercely protective of her scratcher and would attack all comers. Short of that it's as useful as the label on my fire logs saying caution, combustible. Well I should hope so!
ReplyDeleteI can't understand how someone can say those words out loud to a stranger. It comes with so much presumption. I only hope they think it is offered with sincerity. I'm glad the kiln make actually work again That is great news.
ReplyDeleteThey walk among us, and they vote ..... that is the scariest part! I haven't watered all week long, rain, rain and more rain here. It doesn't cool things down, just makes it muggy. A deer pulled up about 12 zinnia plants in my upper garden. I saw thw tracks. Another bear is lurking near. A neighbor told us he has been sighted, but is just a sall one, only about 275 lbs! You can smell him before you see him and I have a remarkable sniffer! I am armed with wasp spray at all times. Used to be for miscreants at the kampground, now for hornets and bears. Life changes.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad y'all got rain. Nothing at all fell on us here in Katy. Good luck battling the squirrels. Noting I do seems to work. I stopped feeding the birds after I saw a rat coming along the fence from a neighbor. Throw in the possum that ran across the yard and I'm about ready to stop composting too. Now there are orange ants dropping from the ceiling. Two found their way upstairs; one dropped down onto my desk and the another bit me twice when I was in bed night before last.
ReplyDeleteYou have an amazing green thumb! The only things thriving here are the crepe myrtles, the Turkish fig,, jasmine and coreopsis. But only because I water them.
I don't ever see rats out here but I do get mice in the house now and then. Be glad of the possum. They are harmless beneficial animals. They eat slugs and ticks. They will only be aggressive if they are cornered with no avenue of escape. I've gotten little black ants in the kitchen twice until I found their access point which I sealed.
DeleteMy stuff is surviving because I water and my water bill shows it.
Glad kitten is settling in to your routines...or finding her own. Happy to hear kiln may actually work! Keep cool.
ReplyDeleteYou could name her Katherine, for which Kitty is a nickname. Also my dad's first fiancé, who left him. Dad wanted children; she didn't. And, yay for the rain.
ReplyDeleteThese gratuitous religious (mostly Christian) comments drive me crazy too. I have no idea why people think that sprinkling their benedictions on people they don't know, nor ever will, is welcomed by anyone. It's just another form of proselytizing without having to stand on the doorstep. Speaking of which, the Jehovah's Witnesses seem to have concluded that our neighbourhood needs salvation and we have been targeted over the past few weeks. Damn!
ReplyDeleteHurray for rain and a fix for the kiln!
ReplyDeleteYes. The human race is doomed. The question being- soon or in eons? I'm thinking sooner.
I've probably said this to you before but I think humans will be one of nature's least successful life forms in terms of how long we exist. What other creature destroys its own ecosystem?
DeleteI can't remember how this came up, but I think it was some situation where someone said "if you met Jesus what would you talk about" & I said I would ask him WTF is wrong with his followers & why wasn't he a little more clear, and couldn't he just do something about it if he was so powerful? And I'm a Christian! Ha!
ReplyDeleteI also don't get the need that some people feel to espouse their Christianity to me, a complete stranger. I guess they think they're spreading the gospel but I don't think that's what Jesus meant. And yeah, that sticker on the cat scratching pad is overkill! The lawyers definitely had a lot to say about it. LOL
ReplyDelete