Mysteries of the Universe and Other Sundries

It's been really hectic the last several weeks what with school starting back up for the kids and me finishing school. I've head several side projects involving the church website and youth T-shirt design, as well. Feeling a wee bit overwhelmed. Portfolio class is my last class, and for some reason I'm finding it difficult. That could be because the class rubric says one thing and the instructor says ignore that and do this instead. Or it could be that we are having to work on the cover letter and resume - again. I just finished 6 weeks of working on that resume and I don't appreciate doing it again because this instructor says it should be different. He apparently has different opinions than the other instructor on what goes in a resume and what does not. Whatever...

Here is a picture of my kids and grandkids on their way to the first day of school. The youngest one is in 1st grade this year, and was so excited that she ran out of the house and was half way to the bus stop and waiting for the rest of them impatiently. That's her in the pink way ahead, LOL.

Just this past weekend we had some drama in our backyard involving some kittens under the house and one in the shed. Apparently Mama Cat had her babies in the shed and got interrupted moving them to under the house and left one behind. We discovered the babies under the house in the little access "well" and when they saw us looking, went under the house through a small opening at the side of the board that blocks the access hole. When we got back from our trip to Joplin Saturday we heard a kitten crying and after a little investigating, figured he must be in the shed. Actually, I should point out that this kitten was crying so loud that we could hear it when we backed into the carport and Hubby panicked and thought he had run over one. It wouldn't be the first time we've had kittens hiding in the carport. I can't figure out why cats want to bring their babies to our house - dogs live here and they don't appear to like cats very much. It's a mystery...

Anyway, we couldn't find him, so we decided to move everything out the next day after church. I literally got no sleep worrying about that kitten out there all by himself! So the next morning before leaving for church I heard him out there and went to check and he was sitting in the corner of the shed looking at me. I promised him I would get him back to his brothers and sisters and take care of things. At this point we hadn't seen Mama and thought maybe she had abandoned them. We went to WalMart after church and bought kitten milk replacer and some kitten crunchy food and then came home and tackled the shed. We pulled everything out of one half and finally found him. What a little fighter! He hissed and spat and clawed - good thing we were wearing gloves. We put him in the access well and I mixed up some of the milk and put some crunchies in with it and took it out to him while he hissed and slapped the ground with his tiny paws like a big bad "puddy tat".  When I went to check on him later, I could hear him meowing, but different so when I peeked in, I saw him and Mama reuniting. Baby was so happy to see Mama and then she caught me looking and did an amazing impression of a bouncy ball by shooting out of the well and banking off of the wall of the house and running behind me underneath the Crepe Myrtle to watch and see what I was going to do. I did the smart thing backed away slowly letting Mama know that I wasn't going to bother her baby. I felt bad interrupting their reunion, but I had no idea Mama was around. I saw her again later that night lying outside by the access well keeping watch over her babies, so now I can relax a little. Although last night we had to move the panel and turn it on end to make the opening bigger because the kittens are getting bigger. Apparently my youngest stops by to peek in on them on his way in from school and said that yesterday they were trying to go in and one got stuck with his butt out and the others trying to get in pushed him on through. Too bad I missed that, LOL!

One day last week I came home and discovered odd shapes in the grass along the side of the road and around the area of the church parking lot that adjoins our neighbor's property in the back. Very strange...they look like...crop circles! Could it be......? No, it's what happens when the guy from the church who does the mowing has a problem with the blade on the mower and doesn't notice. See the shot below? And in the background is our nature-neighbor's oasis of tree limbs and brush that has yet to be hauled off. And her mower which she uses to mow around said brush pile and then proceed to just leave out in the

weather. Smart, right? Oh well, it's her mower - she can do that. Yet another mystery.

Here is a word for the day. Use it often:

smarm·y

ˈsmärmē

 Adjective, informal

ingratiating and wheedling in a way that is perceived as insincere or excessive.

"a smarmy, unctuous reply"

synonyms: unctuous, ingratiating, slick, oily, greasy, obsequious, sycophantic, fawning

I had occasion to use this word recently when describing an old guy calling me "Babe", and some people didn't know what it meant. But now that they do, they also know someone they can apply the adjective to :)

Nothing Quite Like It

There's nothing like getting ready for work in the morning and having the power go out...in the shower. Thankfully I hadn't gotten my hair wet yet, but it is very upsetting to be in there, naked, and here a big BOOM and then no lights, no A/C. There's that split second "Oh No!" moment, and then you think: "that was just a transformer, right? Not the electrical box exploding or anything like that - right?" Because if it IS your electrical box or something large and metal that just dropped off a jet in your backyard and NOT a transformer, then you have to plan your escape carefully. Well, it was, in fact a transformer, so then I had to race around the house and grab my stuff so that I could put my make-up on and fix my bed hair at work. Oh, did I mention that I had TWO funerals yesterday? So I'm leaving and as I'm driving down the back alley I see my neighbor on the corner is outside in his truck and he is walking towards me, the universal sign of "stop, roll down your window and have a neighborly chat". Well, stink! Here I am with no makeup, grubby hair, and here is my neighbor who reminds me of Robert Mitchum. You know, he's got those old- Hollywood looks (he really does look like Mitchum) and his wife is a perfect match for him - two timeless Hollywood-types slumming it in Kansas. At least I had my big celebrity-style sunglasses on to hide most of my unmade face. So I stop and roll down my window and he tells me he can't get into his garage. He smiles his charming crooked smile and then proceeds to become even more charming by saying that he had been sitting there clicking his garage remote and alternately banging it on the dash for something like 3 minutes, thinking his remote was bad before he went inside and found out there wasn't any power. I just totally lost it! So funny! And then his lovely wife comes out through the back gate and stage-whispers to me "he's such a dork!" and she gives him a sweet pat on the face. I felt like I had just landed in an old black and white movie...awwww!

So the rest of the day was a bit of a blur: two funerals and then I cut out of work a bit early in order to go register the boys in school; Thing 1 in High School and Thing 2 in 5th grade. Next year my baby will be in Middle School! Yikes! Am I ready for all of this? No. But I am ready to do battle over the high school class schedule. Back in the Spring we had to choose electives and type of science, social studies, & history, etc. Well, They make you choose second and third choices, and really there weren't a lot of options so you try to choose something not too awful. We didn't have a full course catalog apparently because we couldn't find info on some of the classes, but the most important thing was Art. My middle boy, like my oldest and my brother can draw and I want to see it developed. Art was not on his schedule and I was a little put out, so I will be contacting the school Monday to see about changing it. The principal was there at enrollment and as he went over it with me saw that there was already something wrong with it and when I told him about how important the Art class was to us, he told us we definitely needed to speak with the counselors and get it corrected. I'm hoping he can get in because it was the one thing he was really excited about that helped to balance out the anxiety over starting High School.

And speaking of school, I just found out two weeks ago that I am about to graduate. Back up - I just found out two weeks ago? That's kind of like saying "I don't know nuthin"...so anyhoo, two weeks ago I found out that I am two classes away from graduating - about the first part of October. I've been stewing over it since then and have come to the conclusion that I have mixed feelings about it. I'm kind of excited, but anxious too, and maybe a little sad? Although I haven't had much time for, well, anything, since I started this journey, I have enjoyed it. Then my counselor told me in September we can talk about enrolling for my Bachelor's. So now I'm thinking about that. 

So, while I stew that over a bit more, I leave you with a little visitor I found hanging out in my mint plant. I have found out that he is a stink bug - not the kind I'm used to which are more oval, black, and walk around with their rear in the air if you so much as look at them - but an Asian type native to China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan (according to Google). Well, I'd say these little guys, who also come in bright green, have adapted really well and now call North America home - and probably have for a very long time.

Sticky Songs and Laundry Debris

Yesterday morning on my way to work, I spotted an assortment of undergarments lying in the road at various points - some panties, then about a block after that, something like a tank top, then a little further on, one black sock. maybe someone's laundry basket in the back of a pickup got bounced? I dunno, but then on the way home I saw several of those colorful plastic balls like are in children's ball pits all down the street, like a McDonald's Playland exploded. I'm pretty sure this was due to the storm that blew through right around 4pm and seemed to go on all night long. At one point on the drive home, the truck was getting pelted with hail. I prayed the whole way home: "Lord, please let me get the truck home before it gets any bigger, and please keep my plants safe, mainly my herb garden because they are delicate, and are lucky to be alive anyway." Big thank you when I got home, because it quit hailing and all my plants survived that storm and the really big one that slammed us around 1am. I'd hate for them to survive me and then get taken out by a storm. Kind of like walking away from a plane crash and getting killed by a rabid squirrel three days later. Okay, so that's a little disproportionate, but you get the idea.

On the way to work today, there was a lot of debris in the road from limbs, trashcans and whatnot, but no underwear. At one intersection there were huge chunks of shredded tree scattered everywhere. The lightning was pretty bad last night, so maybe a tree took a direct hit. At any rate, the drive to work has been like an obstacle course over the last two days. And I guess we aren't done: according to the weather forecasts, there is more in store for us - woohoo!

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head for days? I do it all the time, and usually it is some commercial jingle. Like that McDonald's one where the guy is driving and drinking coffee and singing "I'm Electrified..."? Ugh - I had that one in my head for-ev-er! Right now I have Pharrel's "Happy" stuck in my head. But it's a good thing - I like that song! It could be much worse - it could be "The Girl From Ipanema"...

...and somebody somewhere just went "whaaat??" 

Elusive Hummingbird

It's been a busy week here in my dusty corner of Kansas. My middle son turned fourteen this week and I'm still reeling from the shock of that. It just doesn't seem possible. At all. :\

We took the boys to Joplin Friday afternoon  to have dinner and do birthday shopping and Saturday we painted the house. Yay - It's almost the same color all the way around now! Sunday is always a busy day with church and youth services and trying to get stuff ready for the coming work week in between all of that, not to mention any homework assignments due. (More about that another time.)

There has been a wee little hummingbird hanging around the pink lilies (for lack of the proper name) in the back yard, but every time I try to catch him with the camera, he disappears. It's not like I have to get right up on him either because I have that nifty telephoto that I got a while back for my Canon. It's like he's psychic or something. I started bringing the camera with me when I take the dogs out first thing in the morning - not an easy task - but he flits away and I got nothin'. I usually see him in the morning when it's cool, and the late afternoons or evenings when the heat backs off, so it's a short window of time. I have a hummingbird feeder, but I have never seen any around it. I think they are not fooled by it at all and these hummingbirds in our neighborhood are more refined than other hummingbirds. They have standards, and artificial nectar just doesn't cut it with them. It could be something like that - who really knows what goes on in a hummingbird's mind, anyway? But then again it's probably because it's too close to the house...

This little guy is tiny, though. I've never seen one so small before. One summer in California when my oldest son was just about 5 or 6, a hummingbird was lying on the front walk at my parents' house in the shade. His little body was heaving and he was listless, so immediately I went inside and grabbed my mom because she knew everything of course, and she would know what to do. She did. She said he was dehydrated and went inside and mixed up some sugar water and placed it in a red margarine lid and placed it near him and soon he was up and flying again. 

Looks like I will have to get more creative if I want to try to get a photo of my little friend. I think I need to move the feeder to a more strategic location also. I really do think it is probably too close to the house, but the main reason I did that was to discourage cats. So until I get a photo of my teeny tiny friend, here is one of a strange little insect on my dad's roses. I have no idea what this little guy is, but he is definitely colorful.

And there is a photo of said "pink lilies". They do appear to be some kind of lily and they are, in fact, pink, so...pink lilies they are and shall always be as far as I am concerned.

Potato Salad, Picky Eaters and Becoming My Mother

My mom was a great cook. She didn't cook fancy or anything, but everything she fixed from scratch was good. There were a couple of misfires over the years involving packaged meal starters that we laughed about over the years, but everything she made herself was awesome. You would think that I would have learned at her knee and been cooking up a storm at a young age. You would be wrong. Trying to learn how to cook from her was frustrating, and being the impatient soul that I was then, I lost interest. Why?? Because my mom never measured a thing in her life. I honestly don't know why she even had measuring utensils because she certainly didn't use them for measuring. Imagine being a 10 year old and trying to learn how to make chicken and dumplings while your mom says things like "a few shakes of this and a handful of that with a cup or so of this other stuff..." That is how she cooked. And it was perfect, even if she never thought so. 

She had to cook for some picky eaters. My brother didn't like anything with seeds in it; no onions or peppers of any kind for me and dad; and my mom was the only one who liked veggies. We gave her fits. I'm being paid back for my finicky childhood appetite with my two youngest boys, but Sully is the worst! He has a very short list of what he will eat and it is very frustrating cooking for him. I now know how my mom felt, even though I wasn't as bad as my son. I remember telling my mom that when I did learn how to cook it would be only stuff that I liked. What a bizarre comment: why would you cook something for yourself that you don't really like anyway? Oh yeahhh...you might marry someone who likes stuff you don't. And you might want to make him happy by fixing his favorite something which you hate...Nah!  What a silly thought, ha ha ha...

I never really cooked much on my own when I was younger unless I had to or when I wanted to do something special, but I always - ALWAYS - followed a recipe. Over the years, though a subtle change was taking place: I was becoming my mother. It hit me just last week when I had a craving for my mom's potato salad. I couldn't find the one of hers that I had written down, so I had to wing it. I knew the ingredients, and as I looked at them laid out on the counter, I heard her voice in my head telling me "use about a cup or so of mayonnaise and a couple of squirts of mustard...several good shakes of salt and pepper and a little celery seed..." I've been doing it all along for years, really but hadn't been paying attention. I would try a recipe and then I would improvise, then the next time I made it I didn't use the recipe but what I remembered in my head. And then it dawned on me that every time I got a recipe from a lady at church it was my mom all over again. All of those wonderful cooks at church are just like my mom - they have all of that knowledge in their heads and it's up to the younger generation to decipher their code and make it our own. Some of you, of course were paying attention all along and are fabulous cooks - I salute you!

So, here is my mom's potato salad for picky eaters who don't like onions or celery (my family) - pretty much the way she told it to me. (I'm going on the assumption that you already know how to boil eggs and potatoes):

* 5 lbs of potatoes (probably 10 or 12 medium - I buy the smaller 5lb bag and use them all) cut up and boiled.

* 3 or 4 hard boiled eggs, chopped up bite-size

* A cup or so of mayo, depending on how creamy you like it.

* About a TBSP or so of mustard - not too much, just enough for flavor and color

* A TBSP of dill pickle relish

* A splash or three of Apple Cider Vinegar or pickle juice if you don't have the vinegar

* A few shakes of Paprika

* Celery seed - pour out about a dime-size amount in your hand and that should be about right (we didn't mind the flavor of celery, it was the texture of it that we didn't like,so mom used celery seed)

* Salt and Pepper to taste

** if you want to garnish your salad, you can boil one or two extra eggs to slice up and lay on top

Boil your potatoes to tender but not as long as you would for mashing. Hard boil your eggs and let them sit in ice water for easy peeling. When everything is cooled down enough to work with, carefully mix all of your ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate. 

I have found that if the consistency is just right when you first mix it up, it will be slightly dry later after it has time to rest, so I add a bit more mayo to make it creamier and then a couple of hours later it is just right. And of course if there's not a single thing you like about celery, then leave out the celery seed altogether. 

In the event that you also don't like dill pickles or relish,  or mustard, then try omitting one or both and adding in bacon crumbles. Or just add them in anyway.

* 1/2 - 1 lb bacon cut up then fried (it's easier) and drained and mix into your potatoes, eggs and mayo, etc. 

See? Something for everyone! Potato salads even the pickiest of eaters can enjoy. Unless of course you don't like potatoes, then I guess never mind. Carry on  :)

Early Morning Warnings

I woke up at three-something yesterday morning hearing a tornado siren going off and wondering groggily if I needed to do something about it. So after a minute, I called Hubby (who was working) to find out what was going on. He answered and I said "I sure hope that siren is some kind of malfunction." He said it was and then laughed because he couldn't believe I had heard it. Well, believe it buddy! My ears are fine-tuned for picking up storm sirens - even over the a/c and locusts. I may not hear those little words muttered in another room while I am running water at the kitchen sink with the garbage disposal going, but a storm siren going off will always catch my attention. If you have never heard one, the sound is the same as those air raid sirens in old war movies and even some cartoons. Not something you would be likely to forget once experienced first hand. The worst thing about them (other than the fear that instantly grips you) is that even after they stop, you can still hear them! 

Mr. Praying Mantis eyeballing my intrusion.

Prior to that, it was a relatively quiet evening. We had deli-style sandwiches for dinner with homegrown tomato slices on them - yum! And I found a cute little visitor making himself at home in my lavender.

The lovely dead brush pile out my back door

The backyard is slowly coming together, but we have a lot to do to it still. A privacy fence would be awesome! Mainly, of course because our neighbor behind us (crazy catlady) needs to fix up her property. Although, she and some of her family did do all kinds of tree trimming and brush clean-up back in the first part of June. They even hauled some of it away. (Emphasis on some) Unfortunately the rest of it is still there. The city has recently started taking property appearance and maintenance seriously and begun issuing letters. We think she got a letter because it was a nasty mess back there. My husband and I have a bet going: he says that the brush pile will still be there in October. My position is that she will receive another letter before then, at least by the end of July, and will finish it. (but only because of the letter!) The loser of the bet has to buy the winner a regular priced drink of his or her choice at Sonic - no Happy Hour drinks or 1/2-price-after-8:00 shakes! So far it appears that Hubby is winning as she has made no additional clean-up efforts.

Yesterday we were under a Heat Advisory - heat index of 105 degrees and 49.7% humidity - WooHoo! That's the kind of heat I like: nice and thick like a wet wool blanket ;) That explains why all of the wildlife in the neighborhood was out early. The bunnies were out munching on grass (not my Hostas, thankfully) and I got chattered at by squirrels when I went to check on the tomatoes. The birds and locusts were all making a racket, and even the darn spiders were out in force - spider webs everywhere - Ack! I hate running into spider webs. Too bad those birds don't eat those spiders...

Planting Season and Periodic Slackers

Wow - has it really been that long?? It didn't seem like that long since I've updated anything here, but then school and life in general has been crazy-busy so time has flown for me. I recently had my neglect pointed out to me by two of my 4 readers (lol) and a potentially new reader a few weeks ago. So let's just pretend that no time has passed and that I'm not a slacker on occasion....

This Spring and Summer has been planting season at our house. We have planted a whole bunch of flowers, shrubs, and even a Kwanzan Cherry tree. Hubby planted tomatoes in huge tubs and I planted a makeshift herb garden of two types of lavender, Munstead and French,  Berggarten Sage, and Orange Mint. The lavenders and the mint in particular smell fantastic! The mint is especially lush and beautiful and has recently begun blooming. My French lavender has had some tall blooms that remind me of tiny Larkspur, but now the tips of the leaves are developing little purple horn-looking things so I'm anxious to see what happens. Can you tell I know nada about these things? I have no idea what I will do with them, but I love to smell them. My dogs seem to love them too because on their way past them they stick their noses in deep. I think I'm going to Google how to make lavender sachet. I'm pretty sure I can put that mint in tea and lemonade, but what I'd really like is to wear it in a little bag around my neck so I can smell it all day, lol. It has a citrusy scent to it that is soothing and energizing at the same time.

Orange Mint - shortly after planting

We also planted Hostas (which snails and rabbits both seem to love), a whole bunch of knockout roses in various colors, several peonies,  Oak-leaf Hydrangeas, Spirea, Butterfly Bush, and a Lilac. My lovely neighbor-lady to the South was gone during this time, and when she came back she said she made a little trip around our yard to see what all we had done. She has a beautiful Lilac that blooms every year and I wanted one too.

Orange Mint blooms

The sage (in the back), and the lavenders.

I'm thinking I got suckered with those hydrangeas. I told the woman I would like to have hydrangeas, but I didn't really know much about them. She told me these red hydrangeas were hardy and had beautiful red blooms and liked the shade. Well once they started blooming they were white. Okay, no big deal maybe they change later. Then I was told that depending on soil PH, certain varieties can change their color. But when the little blooms continued to stay white, and the bloom head was not in the typical round ball shape, I started Googling. I discovered what type of hydrangea I actually have (the aforementioned Oak-leaf variety) and that the blooms turn a dusty pink when they are dying, and the leaves turn red in the fall and winter - not the blooms. So, no, they do not have big gorgeous red blooms! The bloom heads are conical in shape and I don't really think they are all that attractive. So was the lady trying to give me something that would survive me, meaning that the other varieties were too finicky? Or did she really not know what she was giving me? My husband says she knew exactly what she was giving me....

Everything is growing and thriving - including the barely tolerated hydrangeas - so it appears that my plant-killing curse has been lifted. Well, except for the Purple Sedum - they all died and we have no idea what happened there. They're also known as "live-forever" - go figure! 

We have had several lovely tomatoes so far. We wanted to plant some cucumbers, but we missed the window for those, so we will have to rely on the kindness of others for those. Next year I am planting cucumbers and some peppers and then get someone who knows how, help me can peppered pickles.

The lightning bugs were out early this year. Actually, they are on time, which seems early because the last several years they have been late. The locusts (cicadas) are emerging from the ground and leaving their shells behind and have been singing for a couple of weeks now. I'll post some photos later ;)

So...maybe I'm not actually behind on my posting and am instead on time or even early and it only looks like I've neglected my blog? ...Nah! but it was worth a try! ~

Sniffles, Sneezes and Hanging out With John Cusack

It should have been a great weekend being a holiday weekend and all (Labor Day) and having Monday off, but really, how great can it be when you spend the whole time sick with a nasty cold? I started with a sore throat late Friday night and by Monday night felt like I'd been ran over by a truck and had wool shoved up my nose. Then during the night I alternated between chills and sweats, so I knew I wouldn't be going into work on Tuesday. I didn't do much, didn't feel like doing much: read most of the weekend but by Monday afternoon my eyes hurt too bad from sinus pressure. Instead, I caught up on DVR stuff and watched movies and Netflix. It became a John Cusack marathon - I watched America's Sweethearts, Must Love Dogs, The Raven, The Factory, and Gross Pointe Blank. I love John Cusack! I love that dark hair and eyes and quirky smile - he is just all kinds of good :) I have to say though, that while The Factory was a good movie, I once again got hold of a movie with a less than satisfying ending. Excellent movie right up until the end. Now most people would probably like the ending because it was a totally unexpected twist, but (SPOILER ALERT!!!)..... it completely sucked that Cusack's character, Mike Fletcher, died at the end and one of the bad guys got away the way that they did. It made Mike's death in vain and left me without closure  :( As I have mentioned before, I hate when the main character dies. Now, having said that, I did really like The Raven, but I knew in advance that the story was loosely based on the unexplained missing hours prior to Edgar Allen Poe's death, so that probably made a difference. 

My very favorite John Cusack movie is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with Kevin Spacey and a very young-looking Jude Law. Excellent movie - it has a little of everything, drama, mystery, comedy, and some spooky, too! Fantastic performances by all. Hmmm...I think I'm going to have to watch that this weekend. It's kind a long movie and I ran out of time yesterday. I have it on DVD, and the main reason I didn't watch it Tuesday was because I had zero energy and I didn't want to get up to hunt through the DVD's. Everything I watched was on the DVR, TV, or NetFlix. I know, right? But I was sick, so it's okay. And if you gotta be sick, well, at least hanging out with John Cusack is pretty sweet, yeah? 

Work today was kind of tough, but at least it wasn't a super demanding day. I used my nasal decongestant spray this morning and did pretty good. The extreme congestion is what makes me feel so crummy. When I can breathe, I feel much better, even with the sneezing and coughing. The only problem was that it didn't last the full 12 hours today. I used it last night before bedtime around 10pm and didn't use it again until about 11am today. But by about 4pm today, My nose was getting pretty stuffy. I'll hold out as long as I can before using the spray again because I can't sleep with my nose all stuffed up - it's miserable!

I leave you with a cheery photo of a pretty flower taken after a recent rain shower. It's almost the weekend again - yay! I finish up with my Concept Development class this Friday and then I start Digital Imaging on Monday, so I have an exciting week coming up. 

A Quiet Week

School has started back up here and it's been a quiet week - well, except for the crazy lady jacked up on something unidentifiable who was out in our garden at work picking flowers and plants. Apparently business had been good because she was carrying around a disposable aluminum roasting pan full of plant parts and someone's small empty flower pot. She had crashed through the plants to reach the large hibiscus-type flowers in the corner, so there was a lot of breakage. Then she was pulling up parts of ground cover plants - roots and all! At first I thought she was from the radio station and was taking the weather measurements. When I realized she was the same crazy woman that had come to church and acted like she was possessed, I went outside and ran her off.

At this point, I guess I should backtrack and explain the weather measurements and the incident at church. Many years ago, the then-owner of the funeral home established an official weather station out in our garden. We used to have to take measurements of the precipitation in the container twice a day and whoever closed at night had to reset the machine that recorded temps, get the numbers and call it into the National Weather Service in Springfield, Missouri. Several years ago we turned it over to the local radio station which is our neighbor to the east, but the measurement recording equipment is still located in our garden. Someone comes over from the radio station everyday to record the rain/snow levels, so we see them out there in the garden. The equipment out there is kind of ugly, so we try to camouflage it with plants.

As for the incident at church, well, my husband, being a law enforcement officer in this community for 30 years, knows just about everyone. So when I noticed this woman at church behaving slightly odd during worship and praise time, I naturally asked him who she was. As soon as he got a look at her, he instantly recognized her as TROUBLE (all caps!) and explained she had been arrested many times on drug charges and also spent time in the state mental facility, but was sent back. (More than likely because she isn't crazy enough to keep - they do that a lot because of money). According to my boss, she was recently seen outside on the roof of her house dancing with her sundress over her head. What kind of "odd" behavior was she displaying at church? Well, nothing like dancing with her dress over head, but more like clutching herself in various places and swaying, then abruptly sitting down and rocking her head side to side, then jumping back up do some more swaying and clutching. I was afraid we'd have some hysterics during the altar call, but she slipped out and left.

Similar to flowers that got picked

Hibiscus, similar flowers that got picked

So...when I went outside to the garden after realizing who she was to run her off, I asked her to please stop pulling up the plants. Her response was "Should I stop?" Okay..."Yes. Yes, you should definitely stop that and go on!" Then she proceeded to chatter a mile a minute about how she loved flowers and weren't flowers pretty, and how she was planting a garden and how MUCH she loved flowers...the whole time swaying her dress a la "I Feel Pretty", and swinging her roasting pan as if it was a basket full of beautiful cut flowers rather than the mess of flowers, roots, plants, and dirt that it was. Soon after she left, Lou from the flower shop popped in with a plant and I told her about the encounter. She said it sounded like the person she had heard on the police scanner that was seen pulling up flowers all through downtown the day before. I told her if she wanted a gander at her, she just left thattaway (pointed to the back of the building). Shortly after that, my boss came in and after telling him about it he told me it sounded like the same woman he'd seen up on her roof down the street from him, and if she comes back to call the police. Then Hubby stopped by and after relating the story to him, he said the same thing about calling the station instead of engaging her directly. Noted!

And if that isn't small-town crazy enough for you, here is another example of how things get done around here. On the corner across from the back side of our building, city crews just finished weeks of work tearing out the old curbing and putting in the brand new curbing all the way down the block to the south. This morning I had to detour around because they are now tearing up not only weeks of work on the curbing but the street as well. So now they are going to put down new asphalt and then new curbing - again! There's no doubt that section of road needed to be re-done, but unless they just needed to waste time and money, I think someone made a big mistake tearing up that new curbing. Or possibly they made a mistake in the curbing and it all has to be redone. Who knows? One thing that can be agreed on is that a mistake has been made somewhere, and I will tell you right now that is typical for around here. Nothing gets done without at least one major flaw. So does that classify as crazy or just plain stupid?

So that's the news from my dusty little corner of Kansas. I leave you with a pretty close-up shot of the Crepe Myrtle in our backyard. I took this Saturday while pulling nails and staples out of the clapboard siding on our house. The siding that is what I would call Goldenrod or maybe 70's Harvest Gold. Remember when everything from appliances to carpeting was green (avocado),  brick red, orange, yellow and brown? Ugh! Even though I was a small child, I remember it very well and hated every moment of it. It was everywhere! And so was plaid! And if it wasn't plaid, it was big ugly flowers or stripes. And all in those obnoxious colors - on furniture, walls, and yes, even on me! It's no wonder that I love blues, pinks, and purples. I do like greens also, just not that nasty color the 70's called Avocado - it didn't look like the inside of any avocado I'd ever seen. Yikes!

Where's Noah When You Need Him?

Well, it's been a wet and wild couple of weeks. I would have to check the statistics (but I'm lazy that way, so I won't) but I think this is the wettest August ever for our area. We had so much rain and had been under flood watch and warning so long it was becoming a way of life. For the first time in three or four years, water came in our garage. Our new neighbors across the street were quite shocked to see that much water. Apparently no one mentioned it to them. Our neighbors to the north were quite surprised as well. In fact when I went outside to take pictures, Mr. Neighbor was outside on his front porch looking at his new lakefront property. He asked me what was going on and I told him it used to do this all of the time, but since we had two years in a row of actual drought conditions, the ground absorbs most of what rain we get. Not this time - we're saturated. 

The front (looking west)

Looking southwest

These pictures to the immediate right are all of the front yard on just one day. This day, the water didn't get into the garage but came up to within two feet of the door. The two times it came into the garage, it happened overnight so there aren't any pictures. We prepared for it the best we could by getting things up off of the floor and moving important things towards the back of the garage, but you can only do so much. My neighbors to the north, us, and my neighbors to the south all have it the worst. We are all at the lowest point on the street, with our house the lowest, plus there is a run-off channel between our house and my southern neighbor. All of the rain from the western neighborhoods which are on a slope feeds down to us and is directed through that short channel. The problem is that the channel feeds into an old small sewer pipe which can't handle all of that water, so it backs up. And then you get idiots who try to drive through it and cause ginormous waves to crash up onto your front porch. All of the mulch we spread a few weeks ago is washed away, as well as a good bit of our gravel drive in the back of the house under the carport.

Looking due south

If we have a lake out front, then we have a river out back that feeds into another lake. At times the water was rushing so fast between my southern neighbor's house and my house that you could almost grab a kayak and do some paddling. My dogs sure didn't like going out to do their business in all of that, but unfortunately they haven't learned how to use the indoor facilities.

Looking north

The river out back looking to the south

So all of this water has played havoc on electronic equipment. Phones, cable, and internet have been going out sporadically all over town. We've also lost power a few times all over the city at random. Our internet was out at our house at various times last week and over at my dad's house it was out for like four days. But, I feel blessed because we are okay, and others have not come through this weather okay. Some folks out in the county got hit with a small tornado - a 2.5 on the Fujita scale is what I read in the paper. Apparently it picked up a house and rotated it on its foundation by about six feet. And then there are those who live near the river and have had it come into their houses, and the farmers who have lost crops to the flooding. It's not been very fun this summer.

The river feeding into...

And talk about hot! It has been so hot and humid that even if it wasn't raining, you wouldn't know it for all the moisture in the air. And throughout all of this, pieces of my house were still coming off and floating around. Thankfully, though, the tear-off process has finally started as of yesterday - YAY! So now I get to look at the nasty 70's Goldenrod color on my house. Yeehaw! About half of it is off and what's underneath is in pretty good shape. We just have to pull nails and patch holes and pick out paint. Of course agreeing on the color is an issue, but hopefully since the whole Greenbay Packer fanclub thing we had going on last year in the kitchen, we've learned a few things and can avoid any potential paint disasters.

...the lake out back

I am thankful that our roofers did a good job because with all of this rain, a lot of people who just got new roofs on their houses are finding that they now have leaks. I can only imagine how peeved I would be if that happened at our house. In fact, I'm pretty sure "peeved" wouldn't quite cover it. Not even a little bit.