Tag Archives: Mother Nature

Too, too Hot!

Lewis Mailbox Decoration

My computer says it’s 97 degrees F. out there now, with a heat index of 108. They’re now forecasting a heat index of 118 this afternoon. Oh, GOOD.

I’m trying to get my husband to wait as long as possible to mow. I’m purposely NOT reminding him about a hat and sunglasses because he’ll react by NOT wearing them, so the best I can hope for is that he does it because it’s a smart thing to do…

Our plumber called last night to tell us he’s trying to get here sometime next week to help us with the 2nd line we need in the well house in order to set up automatic watering of our front yard planter boxes. (With 12 inches of rain the past week, we aren’t in huge need yet; but since the rain has stopped and none is forecast for the coming week, we WILL be more interested as the week goes on.) Our weather tends to give us more than we need and then cuts off, with no more rain for weeks at a time, cooking our plants. When we get the 2nd line and timer installed, we’ll be doing as much as we can for our greenery, other than perhaps running the system longer or twice a day when needed.

My husband is actually hoping for NO rain for the foreseeable future so that our lawn will turn ‘brown and crunchy’ – his favorite condition of grass that doesn’t need to be mowed every 5 seconds the way it does now.

I’m planning to get out late this afternoon with a two-gallon spray container of KILLZALL, the weed killer, trying to get the rampant weeds under better control. I’ll need to mix and spray several containers of this, but will handle it one container at a time.

Stay cool and safe!

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Greenwood AR Flooding 6-10-2022

Here you see the post office on the left and the street department on the right.

The main road between our place and Greenwood. (We drive down the main road coming from the top of this photo. You can’t see there is a road there at ALL.) You can see City Hall, the street department building next to it, the fire department building on the other side of that, the post office across the ‘street’ from those. Wow.

I was griping that WE were having all that rain, and before that, that we were unable to come down our driveway. Meanwhile, this was happening in Greenwood, with water rescues for some families who had water in their homes, businesses damaged, government facilities inundated, some roads damaged or washed away. Makes our problems seem really small.

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Ah, Yes…

123RF.com

We’ve now gone from getting almost 12 inches of rain in the past week to a heat index of 100 degrees F. today and 110+ tomorrow. Seat belts aren’t enough.

We DO have a driveway left, even though we did get some damage along one side. I’m really amazed that ALL of the crusher dust the nice man spread for us, allowing us to finally get down our driveway – and back UP again – didn’t end up in the road that runs along in front of our property. We’re just pleased that Mother Nature seems to have calmed down, or at least moved to the east now. Hopefully she won’t bring problems to others.

I plan to get outside in several sessions today, mainly this morning and late this afternoon, to try to catch up.

Lee County Center-NC State University

I need to check my tomato plants first. I need to prune them and may need to add more support. I’m hoping that tomato worms haven’t descended. I’ll spray everything heavily with Eight, looking carefully for signs we’re infested.

This is what the zucchini plants are supposed to look like.

I need to get out to the garden. I’ll pull my lettuce plants – which are probably trying to touch the sky now – and see what else needs to be done. I’m hoping I’ll have some little bitty zucchini. This is the first time I’ve ever tried to prune and stake them, as the pic above shows I’m supposed to.

With the heat index this high, I’ll need to keep my sessions really short, resting a lot in-between and drinking lots and lots of water. I would like to have things under reasonable control by the end of the weekend. I’ll plan on sharing pics with you.

There was a lot of flooding in Greenwood yesterday. I’m hoping things are getting back to normal today and that there wasn’t a lot of damage.

Have a nice, safe Saturday.

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Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Gfycat

Supposedly the rain will stop this afternoon sometime and we’re supposed to have a dry, HOT/HUMID weekend and week ahead.

Would you look at the accumulation – with the circle right over where I live? The circle was placed there by the 5News Weather Team. There was a listing of flooded streets in Fort Smith, where I worked for many years. The ENTIRE STREET to my former job seems to be completely flooded with barricades this morning.

And this is the forecast for the weekend. At least it’s supposed to be dry.

I wait to see what damage is being done to our beautiful repaired driveway. Crusher dust is very fine. I’m afraid all of Jeremy’s good work will have been washed away by this afternoon. I have all appendages crossed that we come out of this in reasonable shape. At least we can get down and up our driveway now. I’m hoping that Greenwood isn’t badly flooded. All I know at this point is that the whole county is under a flood warning until at least mid afternoon. WOW.

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Hahahahahahahaah

Manhattan College

Insult added to Injury –

It seems that Mother Nature has her nose out of joint. We didn’t even get to LOOK at our repaired driveway yet and we have thunderstorms, predicted ‘downpours’, wind advisories, flood warnings, and flying hair balls.

Needless to say, we’re waiting until things tame down before even thinking of venturing out. The skies are a bit lighter now, but that’s the only improvement I’ve seen so far.

I don’t mind getting WET, but I’d rather not drown, have to swim to the grocery store, or get stuck on a flooded road…

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And the Rain Continues

Be Happy for this Moment-activerain.com

Still rainy here. We’re going to need a boat soon. I keep hoping the weather will allow me to see if my tomatoes need pruning and to feed them, and I really need to get out to my garden. Mother Nature is laughing at me being frustrated at her.

The weather is also delaying the man who is going to spread chat on our driveway for us, plus the plumber, who is going to help us create another garden line in the well house for irrigation in the front.

My husband and I are harder to get along with as we age. I think Mother Nature has beaten both of us at this game. We’ll just have to wait her out and hope to not make her angry…

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Cloudy Sunday

Silk Roads-flickr.com

I LOVE this troll! He’s so ugly I want to adopt him, though he looks like he’d wreak havoc on an hourly basis around the house…

ML Lewis

A last look at the beach. And what a virtual vacation it was! My SIL is home safe and sound and ready to take up her ‘regular’ life again. I’m hoping I’ll hear more details of her time on the beach soon. A last sunrise over which I can drool. Ahhhhhh.

Here in Arkansas it’s quite cloudy. A cold front is pushing through and the HIGH will be 66 today! Quite a change from the 90 degrees F. we’ve been having the past couple of weeks. At least we did not get any severe weather yesterday as we could have with the change. It looks like we could get rain at any time this morning. What a difference!

We have our yard irrigation system half solved. We got a timer yesterday, but it will only control one outflow. We have it set up for the BACK of our yard so it will handle the two tomato planters and our deck flowers. We’ll need to call our plumber to see if he can arrange another line for the front and then we can put another timer on that. We’ll see what he says.

No big plans for the day yet. I hope your Sunday is a good one.

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Beware the Blobs

Today is just supposed to be isolated rain, but tonight the forecast is for red, yellow, and pink blobs to come over us and try to blow and rain us away. (We are just southeast of Fort Smith.) This is supposed to start late-tonight-into-tomorrow. Something to look forward to. :0)

I’m trying to gear up for my husband and I to change our truck tires this morning – taking off the snow tires and putting on the regular tires. All the tires are already on wheels, but it’s still a big job. My husband promises we’ll rest after we get two tires on. This job will be my exercise for the day, although if I’m not TOO pooped, I’ll try to do my yoga this afternoon to stretch things out. Between the weather and my husband – the forces of sloth have conspired to clobber my new regimen. I haven’t been keeping to my exercise goals this week, except for Monday.

I hope that the blobs aren’t after you, too.

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Thoughts on a Friday 4-2022

Schulz – Peanuts

We have been very happy this month that we live on top of a ridge line in Arkansas. Being up a bit has its own dangers – lightning and gusty winds and tornadoes being some – but we DON’T have to worry personally about flooding, though we HAVE discussed tying a rowboat at the bottom of our driveway in case we need to get to town at times. We’ve had a LOT of rain this month. May might bring dryer weather, but it won’t bring calmer weather. We’re under a tornado ‘watch’ much of the summer. We’ve gotten to the point where we don’t really pay attention unless the weather alert says, “A tornado is on the ground in Greenwood, headed for the Lewis’ house.” I’ll be happy to wave goodbye to April tomorrow.

Good/Bad – GOOD: We saw our second hummingbird of the season this morning! We’re not sure if it’s the same hummingbird we saw yesterday or a different one, but he/she took a good, long drink before flitting away. BAD: It looks like we might have another raccoon. The feeders were all absolutely empty this morning after my husband filled them up yesterday. The suet holder on one end of one of the feeders was pulled out on one side. We have yet to see a bird who pulls out the side of the suet holder to get at the suet. We had a suet holder down on the ground below the deck… We’ll have to set the humane trap and see if we can catch the critter for relocation.

CLEANING: I was planning to tackle cleaning up our porch as my next project, but I think I’ll postpone that, since the weather forecast for the next few days is really gusty winds and chances of rain and severe storms.

Instead, I think I’ll work on our pantry. It’s gotten out of hand over the past couple of months, since there wasn’t a good place to put extra supplies and things tended to get ‘stuffed’ wherever it was out of the way a bit. This will be a several day project, but it’s overdue and I don’t have to get the cooperation of Mother Nature to do it.

FRIENDS: Today is Lunch Bunch. In fact, we leave in about 45 minutes to meet our friends. I think that Kay’s daughter will be here, visiting from Albuquerque. She’s a wonderful person and I really enjoy it when she comes home to her parents. :0) Catching up on Fridays rounds the week off nicely.

Have a fabulous Friday.

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Thursday Thoughts 4-28-2022

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Alamy

I just went out and took a walk around the yard, taking pics to share with you. Alas, my battery died on my camera, so I need to let it charge before I can get the pics off the camera. Later.

Madison Gardens Nursery

I’m hoping the weather will be cooperative on our going out today to buy flats of flowers to plant. The deck planters are now ready. My husband is interested in finding some ‘hardy’ for the three concrete planters we have that are not on the irrigation system, too. I would love to get some pretty flowers in the pots today. Fingers crossed.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

I must have eaten ROCKS yesterday. I gained two pounds and I was good! UGH. I’m keepin’ on keepin’ on, but picture my grim, determined, disgusted face as I say it. I KNOW all the reasons it can happen – water retention, too much salt, changing fat to muscle, that I shouldn’t weigh every day, ya, ya, ya. These are the days it is the hardest, since it is SO hard to get the weight off and so very EASY for it to come back on. I’ll have my whine with cheese, please. :0(

Have a fun Thursday.

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Enough

Pinterest

We’re supposed to get another 1-3 inches today and this evening. Oh, good.

Yesterday, I started weeding one of our planters. The wind was blowing SO hard, it picked up the plastic bucket I was using for the dead stuff I was removing from the planter, threw all the dead stuff into the yard as it whipped the bucket around, and was trying to blow the bucket to the next state. I managed to jump up and catch it between gusts of wind. :0)

This is part of the planter before I started working on it. It was FULL of packed dead stuff. I spent about an hour cleaning it up. It’ll take another pass, plus the iris are so thick I want to thin them out so I can replant a bunch in a place in the back yard. Since it’s raining today, that’ll have to wait until another day.

These are the ‘after’ pics after the hour I spent. It looks a bit better now, I think, but I’ll spend probably another hour or so thinning out the iris in it when the weather cooperates.

This is the other side of that same planter. The poor iris is choking itself. It gave us a nice display of the deep-purple, twice-blooming iris we love, but they’re finished now for the spring. Hopefully, I can tackle the planter again tomorrow, at least getting out the iris I’ll replant another day.

Today is definitely an inside day. I’m happy that we have a warm, dry home on days like this. The temperature is nice, so we have the door open to the porch.

Enjoy your Sunday.

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Sharing the Purple

Will bloom soon

Deep purple is my favorite color. Whenever I see it, my soul reacts, with happiness welling up inside and spilling over. Spring is one time of the year where our yard reflects my love of the color.

These are to one side of the top of our driveway.
These are to the other side.
back yard planter

They are blooming almost all the way down one side of the driveway now. When they are finished, yellow ones take over.

I hope our wisteria hasn’t been beaten down by the hail.

You can see my heart is really full this time of year. There is much to do in the yard, and little time right now to do it between severe weather. Soon things will tame down (hopefully) and I can get our planters weeded and cleared out, tomato plants in, and buy some purple petunias for the deck. :0)

Stay warm and dry!

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And the Rain Comes Down…

Tenor

I checked the weather website yesterday evening right before dark to find that, not only were we supposed to get rain after sunset, but HAIL. I went out and clothes-pinned sheets over my veggie planter boxes to protect my sweet, young veggies as much as I could.

It DID storm overnight and we’re still under a ‘thunderstorm and hail’ forecast this morning. It’s raining and very dark outside now, though the thunder and lightning are so noticeable. It looks like the sheets won’t come off until at least lunch time. I hope the plants don’t get squashed by the weight of the wet sheets!

Here was what 3 of the 6 garden boxes looked like last night –

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Trip Around the Yard Before the Storm

The rest of the pretty blooms on the tulip tree will probably be blown or rained off today and tomorrow, so I got a last pic.

The wisteria has done well this year. It is fuller and more lush every day. I don’t know how it will fare in the storm, but we’re lucky to have had this beauty for as long as we have this year.

The twice-blooming iris is really doing its thing now. All up and down one side of the driveway, too, and in several places in the yard. They will bloom again in October.

These are the two tomato planters I’ve been weeding, then adding potting soil to in order to get them ready for tomato plants. I’m hoping to be able to plant Thursday, or into the weekend, assuming the storms have abated.

Finally, this is Amber, who never misses a chance to ‘go’ anywhere, whether it’s on foot or in the car. She was a bit disappointed that it was a walking trip this time, but was quite companionable, nonethelesss.

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The Price of “No Snow”

5News

The price we’re paying for ‘no snow or ice’ is severe weather. Yesterday, thankfully, we missed tornadoes and really large hail along with heavy rain. We got some rain, but the bad stuff was JUST north of us.

Today we have a ‘few isolated thunderstorms this afternoon and evening with HEAVY rain coming tomorrow. Ironically, we have some guys scheduled to come to the house to talk about installation of solar panels tomorrow morning…

Depositphotos

My husband got an email saying there was a government program for installing free solar panels on our home. I started researching a few minutes ago and found “Simply put, you cannot get free solar panels from the government. These payment plans are actually solar leases or power purchase agreements (PPAs), and they’re a no-cost upfront option that gives ownership to the solar company or installer.” So, it looks like their visit here will be very short.

I just got home from my massage. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I’m a very happy camper right now. I’m going to fix us some lunch and then do some of my exercises: stretching video, 10 minutes on the elliptical trainer, weights video, yoga – stretched out during the rest of the day.

It can’t decide whether it wants to rain yet or not. When I was driving home, it was dark and looked like rain was imminent. Now it seems to be clearing up.

Lunchtime!

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Duet

Jeff Cox-reddit.com

I had to cover my garden planter boxes with sheets last night due to a freeze warning. “The average last freeze for the River Valley is March 26th, with the latest on record occurring on April 17th 1921/1951.” I really hope this is the last one.

I uncovered the plants a few minutes ago, stuffing the just-washed sheets into the bag and carting them to the garage, to wait until ALL chances of freezing are finished until the fall and then I’ll wash them again for storage.

My sweet veggies, including the zucchini plants I planted yesterday, came through just fine. I’m really relieved.

(Greenwood is just southeast of Fort Smith)

Today I’ll try to finish hauling the bags of potting soil to the two brick planters we use for tomatoes. After a stormy Mon/Tues/Wed next week, I hope to find some good tomato plants to plant.

After the freeze this morning, we’re supposed to have a beautiful weekend. I’m getting a bit of whiplash from the changes back and forth.

Have a great Saturday.

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Wet Wednesday

Giphy

The rain started early this morning. We avoided the possible severe weather, though, thank goodness. It’s still rainy, though we’re due for a break in the rain until ‘downpours’ this afternoon. An inside day, for sure.

Happily, I pushed myself yesterday, doing three sessions of weed whacking to clean up the edges from my husband’s good lawn mowing. We almost look like someone cares!

Since we have a cool front along with the cloudy, rainy weather, I’m cooking Keto Chili tonight from Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto recipe book. I feel I have a good start now on my renewed effort to lose the lard. My scales are noticing my efforts this week. :0) Today, since I can’t work in the yard, I’ll try to add some time on my elliptical trainer in the garage along with my afternoon yoga stretching session.

VectorStock

A good thing: my husband agreed to try using a cell phone again, mainly because he wants to be able to receive verification codes on HIS phone rather than mine. We went to AT&T yesterday, and the two nice people there got the new phone added. The guy showed my husband how to get rid of the stuff he doesn’t want on the phone, so now he’ll quit bothering me about the stuff on mine… PLUS, the lady helped me make it so I can again take pics with my phone and email them to my computer for use on the blog again. (I haven’t been able to make it work since I had to change my email address.) The final great thing was the guy suggested I call ‘611’ on my cell to ask them if they would waive the extra fees associated with adding another phone. I was to ask for the Loyalty Dept. I did and they DID give us a credit toward our next bill. Yea!

Another good thing: I spent a long time on the phone this morning, trying to get the status on some wire transfers we did lately. The nice lady was able to confirm one was ‘good,’ and is researching the other to find out what’s what. It’s good to find competent, polite help when you need it.

My husband is trying to make his new computer work. It’s together physically now, but he’s having trouble adding software. My contribution is to keep my mouth firmly shut. Some access to things we share aren’t working yet, so I’m modifying my activities until they do again.

Stay dry and warm wherever you are.

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Filed under .gifs I Love, Challenges, DIET!, exercise, Gardening, Mother Nature, Thoughts on a ________

Spirit Lifters

It’s cool here (45 degrees F. and a pretty good breeze), but I needed some spirit-lifting and took my camera outside to walk around and see what I could see.

tulip tree
tulip tree blossom closeup
just one of the groups of daffodils
Redbud starting to bloom
Forsythia starting to bloom
Wisteria buds
Harder to be down when Mother Nature is starting to put on her annual show! :0)

“Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun.” — Kahlil Gibran

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Ah – Rain!

Quora

It started raining last night and is still raining today.

I got my early spring garden planted, so I’m really happy about the rain, even if we drown going to Lunch Bunch today. :0)

Two days ago I got some leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower plants in my raised bed, square foot garden. Yesterday I planted to bunches of red onion sets. I don’t have the irrigation timer installed yet, so I was really glad to see we were expecting rain last night. The garden is started! I’ll probably plant some radish seeds, plus more lettuce (my husband likes me to try head lettuce) if we can find it, but basically, the early spring garden is in. (This photo shows three of the six planter boxes. I took it before I planted the onion sets.)

I’m looking forward to seeing my friends for Lunch Bunch today. It’s a big moment of ‘normal’ in a chaotic, scary world, and I treasure it, and my friends. We’ll probably stop at Real Food on the way home to see if we can find some goodies to bring home.

Since working outside isn’t in the cards today, I’ll concentrate on cleaning some of the inside. Most of what I vacuum up is dog hair. You would think Amber would be completely bald by now.

I hope that you can stay safe, warm and dry today.

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Thoughts on a Mild Monday 3-7-2022

QuotesGram

We came through the night – with threatened severe storms – just fine. The cold front came through and now it’s 31 degrees F. We have another chance at a ‘wintry mix’ Friday, but I’m really hoping the back of winter has been broken and that we’re moving on to spring. I’m also hopeful that Mother Nature receives the memo and acknowledges the official beginning of spring on the 20th, if not unofficially, before.

My spring garden of veggies is still only a bright spark in my mind. I’ve decided to wait out this week and see what happens Friday. I want to uncover at least some of my raised bed square foot planters and fill them with early spring plants of spinach, lettuce, and broccoli, if not more. (Ours looks much like those in this photo, except we built them up at my chest level, on metal table-like supports, so I don’t have to bend over double or get up and down from my knees.

Meanwhile, our daffodils are determined to put on bold, happy faces no matter what our weather is doing. I’ll gather some more to bring in the house today.
Free Arts

I’m definitely starting to have ideas rattling around about playing in my art room. I’ve been finding artwork all over the net that is getting my juices flowing, particularly involving mixed media stuff.

Have a safe, happy beginning to your brand, spanking-new week.

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Thoughts on a Wet Tuesday

iStock

The rains started last night with a lot of thunder and lightning. They continue today. I’m not griping TOO loudly, though, as this is much better than what we’ll have starting tomorrow – ICE. Ugh.

We’ll leave in about half an hour to run errands, keeping appointments and picking up supplies for the coming winter storm.

I’m very happy we have a warm, dry home to ‘weather’ the storm in. I have to admit I’m more than ready for spring to arrive, though. Yesterday we saw veggie plants for sale at the local hardware store. Just too soon to plant, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want to have to cover the plants every night from now to mid March – though I really felt drawn to the plants…

Stay warm and safe.

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AND Flying Hairballs!

BoredPanda.com

Mother Nature is trying to give us a lesson in humility, and not taking her for granted in the next few days.

This morning, while the weather was nice, we went to Ft. Smith to leave our tax stuff with our wonderful CPA. While we were there, we were able to swing by and see my good friend Nora, who is office manager at an insurance agency. I hugged her neck quickly, then again, because we don’t get to see each other often.

Tonight Mother Nature is serving us some possibly severe weather. Tonight-into-tomorrow, heavy rain and thunderstorms, some possibly dangerous. Heavy rain tomorrow, and then ice and snow Wednesday and Thursday. Great week, huh!

We will do errands tomorrow and pick up supplies in case we’re stranded up on our hill again. I rescheduled my massage that would have been Thursday, so that won’t be a worry anymore.

Yesterday I gathered a few more blooming daffodils for us to enjoy inside. They were lying on the ground, but still pretty. My favorite is the one that dares to be different in the center of the pic. I wish I could bring them ALL in. Hopefully, there will be more after the freeze, ice, and snow of Wednesday and Thursday.

Stay safe and warm!

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Lovely Surprise

giftsforthemasses.tumblr.com-giphy

I was as happy as this sweet dog today at Lunch Bunch. When I started to open the door to the restaurant, my friend KAY opened the door! (she is the one who fell and broke a bone in her back about 2 months ago now, and has been on quite a ride trying to fix the problem and find a way forward.)

Her husband is watching her like a hawk, making sure she doesn’t lift anything and is doing all of the housework for her, as well. He’s a real keeper. She is very grateful, and yet was understandably glad to be out of the house and with friends. She ordered a couple of individual pizzas to take home so they could eat together.

It was such a celebration to be able to babble at each other, catching up, giving hugs, laughing, etc. My husband was on his best behavior, only becoming ‘deaf’ when Kay was telling us all her husband was doing to help clean the house. :0)

Aside from a truly enjoyable Lunch Bunch, the weather couldn’t be nicer. Sunny and supposed to get almost to 70 this afternoon. What a treat!

I’m making a note to get outside and walk around our yard this afternoon. We’re getting a cold front tomorrow, dropping our temperatures up to 25 degrees (high of 39 tomorrow), with possible winter storm on Wednesday.

I’m still grinning at my friends finally being able to get together. I’m rich in friends.

Enjoy your Friday!

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Thoughts on a Sunday 2-6-2022

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We’re having a heat wave – sunny and 32 degrees F. right now! It’s supposed to get to the low 40s this afternoon. We’ll check again this afternoon, but I think our driveway will still look like something used in the Olympics. I’m really hoping my husband doesn’t insist we risk life and limb by trying to go to town anyway, when we have all we need.

Our cat, Abby, should be boasting to all her cat friends how ‘well-trained’ her people are. The driveway detector just went off. Since my husband is trying to take a nap, I leaped up to see what had caused the alarm. I opened the garage door and the cat calmly strolled inside. She didn’t seem impressed that I had acted so quickly, obviously assuming that this is her due… I was chatting with our son online when the alarm went off. He was amazed first that she set off the alarm, and second, that we jumped up to let her in. :0)

boredpanda.com

I am TRYING not to make what we’re eating the focus of our days. Since we’re stuck up here on our ridge line, there is still snow and ice on the ground and it’s COLD (even with the heat wave), I’m doing a lot of listening to music, reading, and watching TV – all sedentary things. Food then becomes ‘entertainment’ more than sustenance – a very bad thing.

I’m making promises to myself to MOVE more once Mother Nature gives us a break.

I hope that you are having a happy Sunday.

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Thoughts on a Monday 1-31-2022

Ray Villafane

Ray Villafane is known primarily for his incredible pumpkin carving. Apparently he can do his magic on anything. These potato faces made me smirk. :0)

It’s a gorgeous day in Arkansas – sunshiny and will be in the 60s today followed by rain turning to ice turning to snow much of the rest of the week. I’m going to try to get a haircut in tomorrow before we’re possibly stuck up here on top of our ridge line. Fingers (and all other appendages) are crossed that the weather has been too warm for things to get really bad, but we’ll see. Mother Nature definitely seems to be in a snit lately.

Our wonderful bug spray guy is due here around 2 pm. After that, we’ll probably go pick up our food order from REAL FOOD, plus maybe hit STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’ before we settle in again.

It’s hard to believe January is already gone this year. I’m still trying to get used to it being 2022!

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Thoughts on a Tuesday 1-25-2022

Bright Side

I’m a bit ticked off by January this year.

I spent the first half of it worrying that my time here was up. As soon as I got the news that I would be here to annoy people for hopefully a good while longer, my husband got sick, and then graciously gave it to me. I’m enough better to be ticked off now, so maybe I’ll feel fine again soon. Today my plans are to make myself into a human sandwich in my recliner – heat pad under me, throw over me, and me comfy and cozy in the middle. My husband will do the errands this morning. He leaves in about 10 minutes, actually. We’ll see how he does. :0)

Our weather has been gorgeous the past few days. I wish I could have gotten out and enjoyed it. Tomorrow evening cold weather is supposed to come back, but hopefully it will just tease us a bit, rather than dumping on us. (Susy, I hope you’re digging out now.)

I had a nice chat with our son this morning. He is buying an apartment and will hopefully get all the details handled by the end of next week. I’m excited for him. He sounds happy and excited – just the way we love for him to be. :0)

Happy Tuesday!

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Filed under Family, Mother Nature, taking care of yourself, Thoughts on a ________

Thoughts on a Saturday 1-22-2022

popularmechanics.com

My day has started really well.

My husband hugged me first thing this morning, thanking me again for figuring out how to navigate the website so we could transfer the money we needed to move in our investment account, and again for figuring out what we needed to do to make our new house phones work. Last night I did a final test, calling our house phone with my cell, confirming our call screening program was again working, then leaving a voice message. I’m relieved that we didn’t have to spend another tense day trying to figure things out, dealing with strain of dealing with each other when things don’t work, plus the support people who always want information I can’t supply, with me desperately trying to hear and understand them.

The sun is shining and it seems that we will have just a ‘typical’ winter week here in Arkansas – really welcome news. One of my less favorite feelings about winter is the difficulty of trying to make and keep appointments when you don’t know what Mother Nature will supply. We have been stuck up here on top of our ridge line for a couple of weeks at a time, not able to negotiate our steep driveway – the last place on the planet to thaw after snow and ice. We plan ahead as much as possible, trying to make sure we have all we need for whatever happens, but I hate inconveniencing others when I have to call and reschedule things I’ve promised to do.

My Lunch Bunch friend Kay has a new primary doctor now. She was raving about him when I talked with her last night. She is hopeful that the pain in her back due to her fall will finally be under some control. I’m SO happy for her!

Since I am definitely in ‘the land of the living’ again, I’m starting to have ideas rattling around my head of things I’d like to try in my art room. I haven’t been up there for over a month now, so it will be good to finally be in the mood to play a bit. I’m hoping to do some experimenting – probably making a mess – but definitely smiling. :0)

I hope you’re feeling healthy and happy this Saturday morning. Enjoy your day!

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Filed under Challenges, playing in my art room, Seasons, Thoughts on a ________

World of White

Giphy

Isn’t this an amazing .gif? I don’t know how these are created, but I’m in awe of the talent and creativity of these smart people.

Our snow has stopped now. We only got about 3 inches, but when you have a 650+ foot STEEP driveway, it’s enough to keep us inside. (At least I HOPE. My husband sometimes considers the snow and danger for us a challenge to prove we CAN get down and up our driveway again.) I don’t know yet if the evergreens along the driveway are drooping down into it, cutting off passage. It’s 24 degrees F., but is supposed to get above freezing this afternoon. Maybe the driveway will start melting. Our driveway pad is clear, and the streets may be clear, but the world is white and pristine as far as we can see right now.

I was a good girl yesterday, balancing checkbooks, paying bills, finishing the bookkeeping for December, filing, and getting the makings of beef stew ready to go into the crock pot for today. I’m PLANNING to clean off my desk and then clean up the kitchen, unless I’m overtaken by the great sloth that flourishes inside me. :0)

I hope you are having a safe and happy Sunday.

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Filed under .gifs I Love, Mother Nature, Seasons

Thoughts on a Monday 1-3-2022

Tanja Brandt-reddit.com

I’m feeling a bit frazzled this morning – not sure why.

Our son left us a URL to a video featuring Peter Green. He was playing a really soulful guitar and singing, “Fool No More.” I don’t remember ever hearing him before. I think he’s amazing.

Our day is pretty today – lots of sunshine and plenty of cold temperatures. It’s 24 right now. I haven’t switched gears to having winter yet. When we’re home and relaxing in our recliners, I’ve turned on my heat pad to warm my bones. :0) We have several errands to run, and a pretty day to run them in.

We have no evidence yet of more raccoons, but I don’t think we have EVER had just one…

bizwaremagic.com

On my list of ‘things-to-do” today is exercise. I will do my yoga stretches this afternoon and see if I can actually build a habit this time.

Have a nice Monday.

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Thoughts on a Sunday 1-2-2022

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Good morning! I hope 2022 will be a great year for you!

Although my husband scoffs, the weather people were absolutely right about what the weather would do yesterday. Temperatures fell all during the day and it was 17 degrees F. this morning. We didn’t get any snow flurries yet, but I don’t think you’ll hear any complaints. It is COLD and gray outside, with some stiff breezes.

I got the ingredients for beef stew into the crock pot first thing this morning, so we’ll have a nice comfort meal this evening. I also got a comfort gift – having a chat with our son. He’s in Thailand and has almost forgotten how cold it can get in Arkansas. He considers wearing a hoodie and shoes other than sandals “cold” there. :0) He fondly remembered my fixing beef stew in the crock pot while he was growing up. Although crock pots aren’t big in Thailand, he’s thinking about trying to order one online so he can fix his own stew. It was a wonderful way to start the morning, talking with him before he goes to sleep. (He’s 13 hours ahead of us this time of year.)

This is a great day to have a warm, dry home. My heart goes out to the people in Colorado who are now suffering through such awful devastation of hurricane force winds driving wildfire. I hope help comes soon.

I’ve become a slug. I’m not exercising as I should. I’m trying to “get back on the horse” exercising three times per week and see if I can actually keep that going. It is said that you can build a habit in three weeks. I guess it takes longer for me. I’m not really kicking myself, having learned that that isn’t productive, but I HAVE written it on my calendar, and hoping to check it off. Fingers crossed and trying to build determination. I’ve also gotten back into cronometer.com an online program for tracking your food, drink, and exercise. Things CREEP in insidiously. You THINK you’re only fudging a bit, and one bit is added here and then there, and…. OUCH. As my friend Maria encouraged me to do, I’m breaking my goal into “doable chunks ” and I plan to reward myself with stars, time to play in my art room, etc. to encourage success.

I hope you have a warm, quiet Sunday, doing something that brings a big smile to your face.

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Filed under DIET!, exercise, Mother Nature, Thoughts on a ________

Roller Coaster?

Animal Skin and Allergy Clinic

We’ve been having record warm weather lately, with lots of sunshine and summery temperatures. It was 78 degrees F. A few days ago.

BeChewy

Now we’re enjoying fall-like weather, with sunshine and rain, cooler temperatures, lots of gusty winds, and leaves everywhere.

BabaMail

The forecast is for continued rain followed by cooler temperatures and a distinct chance of SNOW Sunday!

Leave it to Arkansas to provide three seasons in one week. I have my seat belt fastened and will try to enjoy the ride.

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Filed under Mother Nature, Seasons