Category Archives: Thoughts on a ________

Happy Independence Day! I hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends.

We’re having a quiet celebration here. Due to the excessive heat warning and then the threat of thunderstorms later this evening and into the overnight, we’ll cook our cheeseburgers inside. We still hope our wonderful neighbors down in the valley behind our house will give us a beautiful show as they make their own festivities.

I just went out to gather ripe tomatoes. We didn’t have many, though the plants themselves are still looking okay. The minute I walked out, sweat started spurting out on my forehead. And that’s at 9am, BEFORE the excessive heat warning that starts around noon and lasts until around 9pm this evening! I’m hoping that if we can get past all the dangerous heat, the tomato plants will be happier and more tomatoes will ripen. The suckers I started inside are still not perky, but they’re still alive at this point. One day at a time on this experiment. I’m hoping to move the survivors to the garden planter mid July.

Although in OUR eyes, our driveway is a delight to behold now – after scraping and shaping and spreading of good gravel that is used on the roads around here, plus the huge trimming of branches that were threatening to grow together across the driveway and make it impossible for us to drive down – some people are still having some traction problems.

Yesterday I drove down to get a package that UPS had ‘delivered’ – putting it on the ground behind the trash can that lives in a spot almost at the bottom. I had noticed someone had trouble the day before, leaving a hole in the driveway gravel where a tire spun. I put the smaller shovel we have in the truck and took a few minutes to pull the gravel back into the hole as best I could, given my strength and the heat. I did a reasonable job.

Michael Remillard, of Tangles Hair Studio in Greenwood, performed a miracle once again, transforming this women who looked like a gone-to-seed dandelion into ‘someone-who-had-a-plan.’ We enjoyed visiting and catching up, and it was time for lunch by the time I returned home. I got our mail and dragged the trash can back up to where it lives to the side of the driveway.

This morning my husband was in his recliner in the living room when I came downstairs. He had already been out working in the shop on the drink holder he’s making for me on the lathe. I again thanked him for thinking that this would be a good thing to help protect my cold drinks from Jet, our cat, but more than that – I thanked him for doing a ‘doable’ chunk on the project, which is quite labor-intensive, AND coming in before it got too hot in the shop. I don’t care if it takes him a year to make it. I just don’t want him to risk a heat stroke.

Shout Out to ML, my SIL, who suggested a squirt bottle of water as added ‘Jet control.’ This, and my rolled-up newspaper, are gentle attention-getters for the cat, and she hasn’t bitten me or sampled a drink on my table in a couple of days now. :0)

I’m down 31.2 pounds as of this morning, so I seem to have found a workable combination for my ‘losing-of-the-lard’ project. Tonight we’ll celebrate the 4th with cheeseburgers – with bun for my husband, chips and baked beans; Mission Net Zero Carb tortillas and no beans or chips for me; deviled eggs and some ripe tomatoes for both of us.

Enjoy your holiday!