disturbing dream and anxious anticipation

Wednesday night as I was laying in bed I was thinking about my sister, about her ability to see ghosts, mostly strangers that gathered around. She would never engage them and could block off that part of her consciousness or psyche or whatever part of her that allowed her to see when it became too disturbing. Her husband appeared to her three times after he died that I know of, there was a ghost cat that she could feel jumping onto her bed at one of the houses she had lived in, a poltergeist that threw things off her wall once, and she told me one time she saw our father walking down the beach where our family beach house was after he had died suddenly from a stroke, the same way that she had died. I was thinking about all this and wondering why her and not me and why had she not come to visit me, you know, just to say goodbye at least. Anyway these were my thought when I went to sleep. This is the dream I was having when I woke up Thursday morning crying:

My sister and I were at a restaurant for breakfast to discuss something. The first table was too noisy so we moved to another table in the back where a man was already sitting. We were talking and the man made a comment about our conversation sort of supporting what we were talking about. It was still noisy so we moved to another table in front. The server came to take our order. My sister ordered french toast. Looking over the menu I couldn’t decide so I just said to bring me french toast too but before our food came we decided to leave and go to her apartment (this was a place where she had never lived in life). Later in her apartment we were sitting on the floor and talking and she was being very unkind towards me. I got up and walked over to the table. I said to her, you don’t like me very much do you and she said no, which really hurt. She told me to call our aunt (someone I do not know in life, all three of our aunts have been dead for sometime) who was at my house and see if she wanted to come there and give some input to the funeral we were planning so I went in the next room and called her and when I was trying to give her directions on how to find the building my sister’s apartment was in my sister grabbed the phone away from me and gave our aunt the directions as if I was incapable of being clear. Then a woman and her two kids, a young boy and a younger girl, a neighbor in the apartment next door, came in and the boy was just a wild child running around and yelling. I told him to stop bothering me and he punched me in the stomach with a stick like a broom or mop pole. Leave me alone I shouted and left the apartment to wait for my aunt outside. The little girl followed me out the door and into the vestibule and gave me a hug, never saying anything and then went back in the apartment. I continued outside and when my aunt arrived she had brought my dog Minnie who was being a happy dog greeting the other people out there like she does. We headed back in to my sister’s apartment walking through two vestibules, one after the other, and when we went in my sister’s apartment she was having a big party like maybe a Christmas party. There was candy and other refreshments on the table. Everybody was having a good time except for me. I was very sad. My sister asked me if I wanted her to get Minnie but not in a way that conveyed caring, more like indifference, and I told her no, she would just bother everyone and be underfoot and I started crying. 

That’s when I woke up and I was crying and so sad. I couldn’t believe my sister had been so mean to me and it took some effort to stop crying after I woke up. Had to tell myself that was not my sister in the dream although to be honest, she could be pretty condescending when people didn’t behave the way she thought they should and she had lashed out at me than once when she thought I was butting into something she thought was her prerogative. To her credit, she would usually apologize to me later. Maybe she’s mad that I kept her on the breathing machine for 7 hours after it was apparent she was mostly dead already while I waited for all the family that could to get there and say their goodbyes.

------------

I went to SHARE on Thursday but I think I overdid it a little. Not at SHARE because although the first hour was pretty much non-stop after that it slowed down and I had plenty of time between food orders to sit. It was really after when I was running my errands…taking the cardboard to the recycling location, giving a book to the little library across the street from the Post Office, returning a book to the big library, carrying a watermelon up the stairs to Pam’s/Robin’s house, taking leftover milk and another watermelon to my neighbor down the street all in the heat of mid-day so I was in afib pretty much from about 1 PM to about 4 when it had calmed down. Wasn’t sure if I was going to go to yoga last night but by the time I had to leave I felt fine and so I did and have been fine since.

The nurse never did call me back on Monday but I wasn’t concerned because whatever had been going on those first four days after the procedure had settled down but she did finally call while I was at SHARE. My doctor wants me to wear a monitor for a week just to check and see what is going on with my heart. I told her it had all settled down and I was feeling pretty good but, you know, if that’s what he wants, OK. I asked if he still wants to do the Watchman procedure (closing off that little pouch where blood pools during afib), she said yes, and if he still wanted to do it the same day as the cerebral angiogram which has not been scheduled yet. My appointment with the neurosurgeon is Monday and I’m to call my electrophysiologist’s office and let them know when the angiogram is scheduled. Fortunately both doctors have offices on the Memorial Hermann SW hospital campus. If both procedures can be done on the same day it would be one less trip in and I'd have both those behind me at one time. The angiogram goes through an artery but the Watchman goes through a vein which I guess is why both procedures can be scheduled the same day. Then all the heart stuff will be behind me (for now anyway, the afib could come back or not be completely repressed). The angiogram will determine if the neurosurgeon just wants to keep an eye on the aneurysm, which I gather is having MRIs on a regular basis, or if it needs immediate attention. I’m not sure how he would repair a fusiform aneurysm and I’m resisting the urge to google it again. I’ll find out soon enough on Monday.

I will be so glad when I finally have some resolution and have something to talk about than my heart and my brain. Like the unbelievable whackadoodle clown show cult that the GOP has become. Boats, and batteries, and sharks; bitcoin mining? The outright adoration shown by the republican House and Senate when he visited yesterday? What the actual fuck!

 

sharing, cats, and wildflowers

baby blue eyes

Yesterday was a food delivery day at SHARE. I got there after it was all unloaded, truck gone, things beginning to be put away. This is what it looked like in the back storeroom.

We also got four more of the big cartons of household goods at $7.50 a carton. Here’s two of them. There was even a small sewing machine in one of them. 

We were moderately busy with food orders. This month the food bank delivered cartons of bags of the little mandarin oranges called ‘cuties’ and bags of apples. Last month we got boxes of bags of frozen strawberries. Walmart sends us marked down/sell by vegetable and salad stuff, meat, and bakery goods every week, the dollar stores give us their milk, yogurt, lunch meat, etc that has hit its sell by date.

The other thing we got from the regional food bank yesterday was two boxes of unpackaged frozen solid in one big lump of cornish hens. At least 30 hens per box, maybe more. Like the boxes of unpackaged frozen little sausages they sent us a while ago, we cannot give them away even if they weren’t all frozen together and we bagged them up because we don’t have whatever permit that would require. We sent one box to Victory In Jesus, a christian rehabilitation residence and Gary and I, toward the end of the day when the second box was still just frozen solid, put the big plastic bag in the stainless steel sink, Gary running cold water over it all and slowly separating the hens while I bagged them up two to a bag and stuck them in the freezer (they were still frozen, just a little thawed on the outside). As I said, we can’t give them out so they are there for the volunteers to take.

It’s supposed to get up to 80 today and then will cool off a bit for the next week. The indian paintbrush is coming into full bloom and pastures are filled with the little yellow wild ranunculus, creeping buttercup.

My grandgirl Robin, who already has three indoor cats she’s taking care of, her cat Noodle and the Boys, plans to adopt the wildlings and so she is starting to join me in feeding them in the afternoons so that they get used to her presence and touch. She had all three of them at her feet yesterday while she sat on the threshold of the shed putting down small handfuls of food while she pet them and even managed to pick up Handsome Boy for a minute or two while I sat farther away and watched. I’m not sure they’ll take to being indoor cats so she may have to let them come and go as they please. Our best guess is that they are about 9 months old.

family portrait

My only obligation today is dinner so I’m going to work in one of the flower beds weeding and soil remediation since I’m not getting a good return on the stuff that usually grows in there, the love-in-a-mist, larkspur, and orange cosmos

fleabane

 

rain! well, sort of, and other activities

It's Friday and the weather app on my phone still claims there is an 88% chance of rain today. Empty promises. It's raining somewhere I guess, just not here. We've had two little showers since yesterday, maybe a 1/4” total. Just enough to make it humid but at least it hasn't hit the 90s yet.

The new hose I got for the front isn't long enough. I need at least 20 more feet so Wednesday I decided to do a single repair on one of the hoses I replaced but hadn't got rid of yet and to connect it to the new one. After a frustrating half hour I gave up (no need to go into the details, suffice to say it was being an asshole) and now my old hose isn't just old but also useless as well since it's in two pieces.

Thursday morning's sky on my way to SHARE.

It was a food delivery day from the Food Bank in Victoria. Jan had ordered three boxes of sausage that they had on the list. When we opened the first box, this is what we saw...

small loose sausages; beef and pork brats with cheese fully cooked and frozen, not the separately packaged sausages that Jan thought she was ordering. We can't give those out because they are not prepackaged and we don't have the facility required by the state to package them ourselves. So in between filling food orders we filled zip lock bags with the sausages from one box for the volunteers to take home or give away. The other two boxes she took to two religious organizations that have residents while they recover from the bad choices they've made in their lives.

We also got not one but two of the giant cartons of watermelons and so we also took a lot of those home to share with friends and neighbors since in this hot weather there's no guarantee they will still be good a week later.

On Friday after two nights of not sleeping well because the dog was in panic mode from the thunder that did not bring us any rain, I was sleepy. I should go take a nap but I probably won't.

Actually I did lay down to take a nap and just as I was about relaxed enough to drift off my phone rang. It was Rocky. When I took him some watermelons and sausages on my way home from SHARE I asked if he could help me get rid of some old appliances. You might remember when Marc was in the hospital the water heater crapped out on me and the old one has been in the garage all this time. And then soon after he got out of the hospital we bought a new washer and dryer. The old washer was so old replacement parts weren't always available when it needed repair and the dryer just as old. The washer still worked but it wasn't really doing a great job and then the dryer quit in protest. I'd been availing myself of my sister's dryer. Anyway, the old washer and dryer have been sitting outside in front of the overhead garage door we rarely open ever since because we were too cheap to pay $40 each to have them hauled away when the new ones were delivered plus there are two metal junk yards here in town one of which is at the end of the road our street ends at and we have a truck and a trailer. But the truck is always full of downed branches waiting to be taken across the street to the burn pile and always has a dead battery. So a couple of weeks ago Marc got the battery charged, emptied the truck, got it inspected, and was going to get a new battery so we could finally load up the old appliances when a pulley fell off the engine. So back to Rocky. I've got a guy he said. I'll call him cause I've got some metal trash for him to haul away too. And so they showed up yesterday and those old appliances were finally hauled away.

All in all, over two days, we got about 5/8” of rain while areas north and east got pounded. Still some storm activity out there so we could get more today but probably not. So this morning I picked up the piles of dead zinnias and ginger and hauled all that over to the burn pile in the garden cart and then picked up a cart's load of fallen sticks and branches but did not haul that over yet as I was sweating by then, not that hot out but very humid, though I'm going to have to throw a strap around that mountain of sticks before I do.

Later I got out there with my little mini battery operated chainsaw to cut up five large branches into more manageable size since the truck is out of commission and I have only the garden cart to trundle stuff over to the burn pile. Then I went to the very back corner of the property and just started cutting away at the ropes of wild grape vines that are trying to take over the big cedar tree and the dead raintree and from there into one of my pecan trees which Will. Not. Happen.

bonfire, rain, and bodily explosions

Correction on my previous post...Murdoch does not own the Washington Post, I meant the New York Post.

It's Saturday and it was raining when I woke up, not hard but a steady light rain. The weather prognosticators say it's going to rain all day and so far, yes, and that's fine as long as it's this same steady light rain. Of course I'm pretty sure that means no Farmers Market this morning and last week, while it wasn't raining it was cold and windy and wet. I did not venture out so I don't know if anyone bothered to set up or not. I wouldn't have.

Yesterday I torched the burn pile, had quite the bonfire going there for a few minutes while it consumed all the dry monster rose bush prunings and the mass of vines that I've cleared so far and whatever else had accrued before I piled those thing on top. Then I worked on the vines for about 40 minutes before I went in for lunch.

Moving further backward in time, Thursday at SHARE was busy, the most people ever since I've been volunteering there. We filled 42 food requests, mostly medium to large families. The little waiting to be interviewed area up front was packed when I got there at 9, which is when we open, and stayed packed until about 12:30 (we close at 1 PM). We were short one of the volunteers that do the interviewing so one of the guys that work in the back got pressed into service, I've been demoted, he told me. (We like our little niches in the back.)

Speaking of SHARE, it has become my first go to if I'm looking for a specific article of clothing as they have better quality than the thrift stores and...free. This summer I got two pairs of capris, one jeans and the other a lightweight cotton with lots of pockets and this fall a really nice blue long sleeve cotton shirt from L. L. Bean and when I told Jan I was looking for a lightweight jacket of sorts (she was still bringing the winter clothes out and putting away the summer clothes) she brought over five or six items...no, no, no, oh hell no, yes, no, no. The 'yes' is a buttery soft tailored suede like (but washable!) jacket. I love it.

And Thursday night is yoga at Hesed House here. One of the things about yoga is that some of the asanas and movements put pressure on your intestines that cause you to do something we try not to do in public. Like fart. And so, much to my chagrin, during one of the core strengthening exercises, I did. Now, it's not the first time I have farted during a yoga class but they've been barely audible little things. Not this time, no no, it was a sudden loud explosion and fortunately it was quick. I knew I had a fart building up but how do you stand up and excuse yourself for a minute in the middle of class while you go outside to release it. I was trying to have the proper muscles clamped down so it would release slowly, quietly but no such luck.

Ah well, no one laughed. Out loud anyway.

no AC and a shopathon

So, yeah, the AC quit cooling last Friday as reported, guy came out and got it working again until Tuesday when it quit cooling again. This time, bad news, the compressor is dead but it would be the next day before he could tell us if the part was under warranty (which expires next month), if it was available and/or when he could get it, and how much. Great. An immediate trip to the Evil Empire, the only place in town that sells window units, and we had a 5,000 BTU window unit which we installed in the window of the combination living/dining room. At least we had one cool room now. So, labor to just replace the part (which is under warranty) and coolant...$1,500 and it would be two weeks before he could get the part. Or we could replace the entire 12 year old outdoor AC unit with new; 3 options ranging in price from $3,500 to almost $5,000...one less efficient, one pretty much what we have now which he could get in a week, or one that is more efficient and could install in a day or two. We decided on the third option since it will supposedly reduce our electric bill for only $700 more than option 2, comparable to what we have now. Of course, a 'day or two' on Thursday afternoon means Friday or Monday. So excuse 1, excuse 2, excuse 3, they'll do their best to make it late Friday but having been self employed for over 40 years we know all those excuses. It means Monday. Of course, the most expensive route is the one they can do right away. Just call me sucker. In our defense, temps are mid to high 90s for the foreseeable future. And besides, 12 year old unit. If we opted for the repair it could conceivably have to be replaced in the next year or two anyway.

Spent the morning at SHARE as I do on Thursdays, it was really slow, maybe 10 or 12 clients for food. Worked on the wax box for a couple of hours in the afternoon. This inlay is going to be very fiddly even after I supposedly simplified it some. Hahahahahahaha. I'm having to adjust my mental image to correspond with what I'm able or rather willing to accomplish.

And I finished my watercolor of the yellow trumpet flower unless I decide to do a background. I'm undecided at this point.

Tomorrow is going to be a long long day. I have my follow-up for my toe and since I'm going to pass through the Shopping Mecca in Rosenberg on my way back I have a list of stores and items that have been piling up so I'm going to try and get as much of that done as I can before I throw my hands up and head home. Besides the doctor's appointment, I need to stop at Spec's (liquor warehouse, self explanatory), Michaels Craft Store (watercolor supplies), Lowe's (pond pump since the one in Big Mama's pond quit working a week ago), Academy (exchange some yoga pants), and maybe Famous Make Shoes (need new sandals). And maybe Target to look at some drapes for the big bay window in the living room if we're going to be streaming shows in the hot afternoons.

rice, a wreck, and SHARE

Apropos of nothing, my favorite rice is short grain brown rice. It used to be the only rice we ate and was available at several different stores when we lived in the city but apparently it didn't prove to be very popular as eventually the only place I could buy it was in the bulk section of Whole Foods. It was a pain having to go into the city just for rice after we moved and then we found 12 pound bags at Costco but Costco doesn't seem to get it anymore. So after two or three years of eating white rice (don't really care for long grain brown rice) I finally searched online for the short grain brown and the 12 pound bag arrived.

Yesterday morning there was a three vehicle accident including an 18-wheeler on I-59S just past the bridge over the Colorado River in Wharton. When the police and emergency personnel got there all three vehicles were engulfed in flame. The truck driver died. They closed the highway in both directions. I don't know where they funneled the traffic going north but when I had to pass under I-59 to get Robin to work at 9 AM they were diverting and directing the traffic going south right through town to the other bridge over the river. That road eventually joins up to 59 past where the accident was. Traffic was bumper to bumper through town, probably 85% trucks of varying size.

Usually it takes 5 minutes or less to get from the Walmart to SHARE. Yesterday it took nearly 20 minutes so I was late. Of course it turned out to be our busiest day yet, over 30, maybe 32, and there was already a mountain of baskets at my station to be filled and they kept coming. I don't think I finally caught up til about 12:30 (we close at 1 PM) and two of the guys had to do my restocking for me when they were in between filling carts with other food. Their station had 5 volunteers, mine, just me. These are the baskets I fill.

A is one person, B 2, C 3, D 4 or 5, E 6 and up. A and B families get one basket each, C – E families, two baskets.

This is my station. I just do the canned goods and some packaged food like mac and cheese, juice, laundry detergent, and (when we have them) hygiene items.

They also get meat, bread, milk, flour, sugar, peanut butter, cereal, eggs, butter, dried fruit, nuts, hamburger helper, assorted sauces, whatever fresh is available, desserts, etc. What they get depends on what we get either from donations (individuals, food drives, the grocery store, Walmart) or from the Food Bank in Victoria from which Jan places an order every month or direct purchases. SHARE also provides clothing, blankets, sheets, diapers, some household goods/appliances, financial help and temporary housing at motels if needed.

This week has been so busy. This is what my day yesterday was like...pick Robin up and take her to work, SHARE, drop the cardboard from SHARE at the recycling container, lunch, an estate sale with Pam, walk the dog, pick Robin up and take her home, yoga class. Today though, there is nothing on my agenda and I plan to sit and read. Because it turned cold again. Maybe vacuum the floors. Maybe. 

no catchy title for not much to say

I don't have much to report. I'm managing an hour, hour and a half at a time working on the new model.

The plumber came out Wednesday and cleared the kitchen sink. I now have the little whirlpool going which I haven't seen in years and yoga class canceled that night as no one was able to come. That may have been my last time to lead the class as Abby might be back next week. While I've sort of enjoyed it, it will be nice to just follow instead of lead.

Robin spent the entire shift with me yesterday at SHARE and it was a good thing since we had the most clients since I've been volunteering there, 27. I would not have been able to keep up without her help. It was foggy when I set out to pick her up Thursday morning, visibility was very poor here but it had started lifting by the time I got to my daughter's house and it's foggy again today.

I had intended to go to San Antonio tomorrow to spend the weekend with Jade but she decided to come here instead to check on her dad and the new baby. She came in last night and stayed with her parents but she's coming here today and spending the weekend with me. I've been lax about my house cleaning so spent a couple of busy hours cleaning both bathrooms, the back bedroom and swept the workroom. Then I did a half assed job dusting the living room/dining room today

The cosmos has finally decided to start blooming and it had gone crazy.

The toad lilies are blooming. I need to move them as the tree canopy has gotten larger and they are leaning out for sun.

So far I've gotten two stunted flowers on the confederate roses but lots of buds. They are late since the arctic freeze knocked them to the ground again after they had already started coming out after the winter.

Jade's here so we're off for the day/weekend.

hey North, your weather is down here drunk on my lawn and you need to come get it

I've been watching the birds at the bird feeder all morning. There's some new birds, I think, but they won't stay still long enough for me to get a good look and maybe identify them. Maybe the goldfinches weren't goldfinches after all or maybe they've already migrated on. If they were/are here then it is the non-breeding coloration but then I saw a few that I'm pretty sure that's what they are. And sparrows, many kinds of sparrows. And another little bird that looks like maybe a goldfinch but then it doesn't, perhaps a vireo or a flycatcher, neither of which I don't think I've ever seen and maybe a few of the warblers are still around. They're all very feisty out there today chasing each other away anticipating the approaching cold weather perhaps.

And cold weather is approaching. An arctic blast is arrowing down to us. It's already causing havoc in the northern part of the state with a 100 vehicle pile up outside Dallas and another smaller one around Austin because it's not just cold, it's rain and snow too so the highways are icy. It's currently 35˚ this Thursday evening and this is what they're predicting for the next 7 days...

Eleven degrees Monday night!!! with maybe snow and/or sleet! This doesn't happen here. I've already covered the ponytail palm with help from my sister. Also a poor attempt at protecting the big jasmine that was already putting out buds over in the shop yard. At the house I've covered the porterweed, the hibiscus, and the gardenia and brought in all the pots I had taken outside plus one or two more that I didn't worry about with a light freeze. There are other things I want to cover but I ran out of time and materials today as it started raining. I'm going to lose all the Boston fern that I've spent the last three years trying to get re-established on the west side of the house. And the emerging buds and flowers on the azaleas will get destroyed so no blooms on them this year. The yellow bells and the purple orchid bush will freeze to the ground as will the two yellow and one pink angel trumpets and I don't know if they will come back from a deep freeze. I'd like to cover the plumbagos but it might be easier just to replace them. I hung the big tarp across the back of the garage to help protect the plumerias and night blooming cereus and discovered the nest wrens are making. It's that pile of leaves back there in the plastic box of work gloves. I knew they were working on a nest but I thought they were refurbishing the old one on the top of the motor housing for one of the garage doors.

After it started raining I came in and covered some of the windows. We don't have any curtains, just mini-blinds, and the windows in the lower part of the house don't even have those so I tacked up some old sets of flannel sheets over all but one wall of windows.

We were busy at SHARE today but not because we had a lot of people come in, about 10 I think, but because we had a lot of food delivered. First some private donations, including 200 pounds of chocolate candy, 

then the truck from Walmart, and finally the big truck from the food bank in Victoria. And I got the shelf of soup organized again.

I'm ignoring writing about the impeachment trial because it makes me so angry knowing that the traitorous republicans will not vote to convict. I mean, what does a president have to do, how bad does he have to be, for them to decide it's bad enough to convict? Extortion wasn't bad enough and now an attack on our very democracy, an attempt to overthrow the election and install himself as president for life isn't bad enough? Some won't vote to convict because they are all in on Trump, others won't vote to convict because they are afraid of Trump going after them when it's time for re-election but I have to say, if they won't do their jobs out of fear of losing their jobs, they don't deserve their jobs to begin with and as to that  today, 15 republican senators didn't even bother to show up and Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee were seen meeting with Trump's lawyers today. Well, they're going to lose one way or another because the democrats won't forget their dereliction of duty and we will be reminding the voters of that when the time comes so you'd think they would rather lose their jobs over doing the right thing as opposed to doing the wrong thing. 

And once again I am behind reading your blogs.

 

if I've learned anything from all this

it's don't  make all your various healthcare checkup appointments in a two month period. So whatever the rash was, it was not shingles...not in the right place and didn't look anything like it. I've decided it was chilblains. It's the only thing that matched from location to the way it looked and felt and duration. And my wrist/hand was getting better, in fact I didn't wear the brace at all yesterday, until I did a stupid thing last night at yoga by doing this pose

image via dreamstime.com

except the soles of my feet were together in prayer position and yes, I'm bragging and my wrist was decidedly not happy about that so I wore the brace during part of the night and this morning. It's much better now, several hours later, so hopefully no great set back.

I was supposed to get my new crowns today but they were too white, like beacons, so they were sent back to see if they could be darkened, dentist says probably. I thought they mixed up the porcelain or ceramic the color selected but apparently, the color is a stain or paint and then it's coated with a glossy something so they can remove the polish and re-stain/paint and then add the coating again. Nothing is easy with me so I spent an hour in the dentist chair and left with the same temporary crowns I arrived with. Made my grocery store run, had lunch, loaded up the car with the recyclables and took them, walked the dog and now the day is done.

Yesterday at SHARE we got all the donated food sorted and stored and Thursday the monthly food delivery from the food bank in Victoria arrives. One of the volunteers had stayed on Saturday and unpacked the boxes and bags on the floor and my station was swamped. There wasn't a square inch of unoccupied space on the counters and more than one layer. Once we got all the food examined, we have to check the expiration dates on every single item because some people will just empty their pantries of all the old stuff hanging around (it gets tossed unless one of the volunteers wants it which no one does, some of that stuff was up to four years old), and put away I stayed another hour to organize my station, just the kind of minor OCD stuff that I like doing though if you were to see the condition of my desk and large and small work tables in the studio room in the house you would never believe it.

The other thing I did yesterday was upload to one of the glass art groups on FB the formulas for the colors of sand in the glass frit that I used on the drowned feather pieces. I had seen a post by someone looking for guidance so I thought I would share.

OMG, hundreds of people responded! They left comments, I got private messages, all very thankful and appreciative, several people said I should package it up and sell it. Nah, I was happy to just share it, not like I spent a month coming up with them, just a day messing around.

All but one of the Chinese fringe flower small trees are blooming,

something they haven't done well for a couple of years, and the little climbing jasmine is putting out its buds and the azaleas are opening their first blooms (still very pink out there)

so of course they're predicting a hard freeze Saturday night. Last night they were saying a low of 21˚, this morning it was adjusted to 25˚, and I looked just now and the predicted low is a very tolerable not so hard 31˚ so if it stays that way I won't have to cover the ponytail palm that takes two people to accomplish and all the new growth on all the other tenders might survive.

Well, it's almost dark and time to migrate to the couch with my book.

the days, they just blend together

 
I wish I had something profound or meaningful or even interesting to write about but since I'm avoiding all things Trumpian, truth to tell, one day is pretty much like the one before it and the one that will come after it. I'm not an early riser and it's usually about 8 before I drag my butt out of bed and take my thyroid med on an empty stomach and drink a small glass of water first thing, then my yoga routine, then my two cups of coffee while I visit blogland or write a post and then finally go fix breakfast at 10. This is how every day starts unless I have something to do for which I need to leave the house early.

One of which is that I've started volunteering at SHARE here on Thursday mornings, the only day they are open right now, and I try to get there between 8:30 and 9. SHARE is an organization that provides food and clothing and in some cases monetary aid to the needy so I go and help fill the baskets of food depending on how many in the family and help restock the shelves to be ready for the next week. It's a church sponsored organization and the other people there are religious. The lady in charge finally had me fill out a form, basic information I imagine to do a background check though she didn't say so as two of the other volunteers are my neighbors. The last line was what church or organization did I represent if any. I wrote in 'humanity'.

We've been having some cooler weather since Beta blew through, or didn't blow as the case may be. It has dried up enough to get some weeding done which I did yesterday until I ran out of shade. It's still hot in the sun and getting warmer but the weather liars prognosticators are promising us more cool weather next week, even down in the 50s! We'll see. There are several tasks I've been putting off for cooler weather...cleaning out/up the garage, also the barn, also the shop...all three in desperate need. Still need to continue moving cast glass stuff into the new studio room and set it up. Not to mention all the fall yard tasks. Speaking of which you may or may not have noticed I haven't been writing about pecans which I usually do starting in July when the trees start shedding immature nuts. There's been very little of that and while we had the best crop we've had in years last year, I don't think we're going to get any this year. I'm not seeing any nuts up in my three trees and the few that have dropped are rotten inside. My neighbors' trees however are producing so maybe I can beg some of their excess crop.

The hummingbirds continue to ignore the feeders for the most part. I see them more often among the flowers that are blooming. The rain from Beta has produced a new round of rain lilies and oxblood lilies, even two of the bulbs I have yet to get planted have bloomed! 

And speaking of blooming flowers, Sabine at Interim Arrangements posted a picture of one of every flower blooming in her garden a couple of posts back which I really liked so I've done it too. Here's what's blooming today sans one other that I forgot, a yellow walking iris.

I've finally decided where I'm going to plant the oxblood lilies I dug up out of the ditch over a year ago! I created this space in front of the buddha and I'm going to plant them there.

Still haven't started a new drawing but at least I know what it is I'm going to draw when I get around to it. Mostly I wonder what to do with these drawings. Leave them in my sketchbook and let them accumulate or try and frame them for possible sale. Which reminds me, I have to get my images and bio/artspeak blurb sent in to be uploaded to the Height's Artisan Market website for the online sale. I don't actually expect to sell anything but it's good exposure. I also have a new idea for the gallery page on my website which will take a couple of days to build. Now that it's too hot to work outside comfortably perhaps I'll work on that today.

Or I may try and finish the book I'm reading.