the eclipse, a helping hand, and Sibling's Day

That horrible ditch my neighbor so kindly cleared for me 3 1/2 weeks ago has new weedy grass growth already a foot high but it’s sparse enough I can get in there and use the trimmer and I’ve been telling my self that as it gets higher and higher. Should have done it last weekend or the weekend before when it was only half that high. 

The eclipse has come and gone. We were in the 95% range but it was overcast all day so I didn’t even look to see what time it was happening here which was about 1:30. I was sitting at my desk looking out at the overcast day and if I noticed it getting dimmer I guess I attributed it to the overcast getting denser. Later, walking the dog I chatted with two neighbors who came out and said they could see it, the light noticeably dimmed, crickets started up. It wasn’t a clear sky like other parts of Texas had but it cleared enough to see it. So I’m kicking myself in the butt for just assuming it wouldn’t be visible. I shall strive to live another 20 years to see the next one.

Yesterday my neighbor and her son in law came to the house in the morning, interrupting my morning routine, to help get my printer to talk to the new mac mini or vice versa as I haven’t been able to print anything since November. I don’t really print all that much, a recipe now and then, mailing labels, an occasional picture but it’s nice to be able to instead of sending whatever in a PDF for my neighbor to print out for me. After breakfast I did a little weeding in one of the flower beds, same as Monday, but when I came in I started sweating profusely, then it was time to do the week’s grocery shop and as the day wore on I felt less and less well. I didn’t feel sick, I just didn’t feel good suffering with some intestinal distress and a funky stomach and after lunch took a rare, for me, nap. Later, standing in the kitchen organizing my binder of recipes I broke out in a heavy sweat. What the fuck! Being Tuesday it was my night to fix dinner but all I managed was a big salad. 

I don’t know what the deal was but when I woke up today I felt fine. Didn’t sleep all that well because about midnight the rain they had been predicting for the last two days finally came, preceded by distant lightning and then as it got closer, thunder and finally high wind and rain. They were also predicting the possibility of tornadoes and I think one must have passed through here because when I was out running errands today I passed one big tree laying on the ground and another that was all broken and splintered and the ground here was littered with downed branches from small ones with green leaves attached to large ones 2” in diameter. The little dog was, of course, panting and shivering and in perpetual motion, hence the lack of sleep.

Last year my sister planted a peach tree, a magnolia tree, and gathered the seed heads from some queen anne’s lace growing in the ditch at the end of our street. We had both tried a couple of times to get it to grow in our gardens with zero success but this spring she has a magnificent stand of queen anne’s lace, 

just one of the things she will not see come to fruition just as her peach tree has baby peaches on it and I think her little magnolia tree will give at least a few blooms. 

I miss that woman. I heard on NPR coming back from yoga that today is Sibling’s Day. And so here is the last picture that will ever be taken of the three of us, taken last fall.