Category: Blitherings

Laundry Day

I have done most of the laundry. It is in the dryer. And I am restless as I really don’t feel like sitting still, but I want to accomplish something. I really want to get out of the house. Laundry is my morning’s ball and chain.

Times like this, when I am restless, are always a good time to do little tasks. So, I put away the tripods I had pulled out. For a birthday present, I got a geared head. With Josh’s help, I moved one head from one tripod to another, until the good old Gitzo 1227 was freed up for the geared head.

It is now time to take the tripod and head out to use, testing it out with and without the L-bracket, but that needs to wait as I want to get to the botanical gardens and local parks for that, and load up a couple of different cameras for that. Waiting for laundry to dry is a shorter time period than loading up camera gear and running away from home.

To pass the time, I posted to my other two blogs – my most recent pastel and a picture of ink on my desk. Exciting stuff.

And thus, I am thinking about what I have been doing and not doing this week, and I really cannot complain. It has been a good week in many ways, with a sense of satisfaction and / or accomplishment. What is there to cry about? I have seen family and friends, been creative, and realized that I really do need to schedule all my different interests! That was a good insight, so I have a calendar printed out for my consideration.

Meanwhile, the dryer has 20 minutes to go.

In the Garden

This is the view out my window these days – orange, smokey skies. Despite that, there is beauty to be found in my flower bed and fig tree and potted plants.

I ordered some herb seeds a couple of months ago and planted them in coconut fiber pony packs. I used three of them, and put them in alphabetical order to spell H O T! Hyssop, oregano (Greek), and tarragon (Mexican). They were all nicely lined up, but then I moved them when I wanted to use the table and now have no idea what is where! But, time to transplant into larger pots.

The Brown Turkey fig tree is in full swing! There are plenty to go around. The local varmints like them, too, but I have a great homemade repellent made of dried chilis, garlic, and mint. I spray the tree every night after sundown (to keep the leaves from burning) and have managed to keep most of my fruit.

Of course, the roses have been happy with the heat, and the fact that I actually water them. A flower mix strewn in May is producing all sorts of flowers (and some weeds). The lemon verbena is in full bloom as well.

I also had a couple of cucumber vines. Originally I thought I had planted lemon cukes, but it turns out they were pickling cukes. They have now gone to cucumber heaven (though I have another one blooming), and the leaves are all that remain.

Life begins the day you start a garden. – Chinese proverb

Hot

Today will hit over 105F (40C) where I live – inland, temperatures are 10 to 20 degrees F hotter. We stay indoors, close the windows and shutters, keeping the house dark and gloomy, only opening the shutters as the sun travels east to west. The air conditioning is put on when the house reaches about 80F. Then, you plop down, to conserve your own energy as well as electric energy – air conditioning is set no lower than 76F to help the grid and hopefully avoid a black out. Everything you can charge gets charged before the heat of the day begins, just to be safe: phone, laptops, tablets. I just wish I could charge myself as all this makes me a blob.

The first year after we moved inland 20 miles from the coast was pleasant in our valley. The next summer was like the weather we are having now – hot, hot, hot. It was hot all that second summer. This summer we have had a few weeks of such heat mixed with cooler periods. I guess I shouldn’t complain. However, that second summer I got what I thought was the flu. I was exhausted, sniffly, and weak for days. It wasn’t the flu. Instead, I was dehydrated despite drinking water and close to heat exhaustion. Flu symptoms and overheating symptoms are very much the same, at least for me.

Enter the coronavirus. So many different symptoms. And the heat is here. What is going on? Yesterday, I was dead tired – again, not my usual feeling. Chills. Flu? Coronavirus? Heat? No fever, drinking Gatorade, and two naps later, I was still tired. This morning I feel more human, but still tired.

It is a strange feeling when you don’t know what is going on. Is it real? Is it a symptom of something serious? Do I have coronavirus, the flu, or am I just in need of more water and Gatorade? Are my allergies the reason for the cough or is it the air conditioning?

Heat makes you crazier than you already are.

Ucky, Sucky, Blubbery

Do you ever get  an ear worm? I do quite often. Usually it is a song lyric, but this morning it was

Ucky, Sucky, Blubbery.

Yes, you read that right.  And what is it from? I thought I knew, and looked it up. Nothing like being somewhat correct as far as the poem. Thus, without further ado, here is the poem from which it came.

“The Wendigo”, by Ogden Nash

The Wendigo,
The Wendigo!
Its eyes are ice and indigo!
Its blood is rank and yellowish!
Its voice is hoarse and bellowish!
Its tentacles are slithery,
And scummy,
Slimy,
Leathery!
Its lips are hungry blubbery,
And smacky,
Sucky,
Rubbery!

The Wendigo,
The Wendigo!
I saw it just a friend ago!
Last night it lurked in Canada;
Tonight, on your veranada!
As you are lolling hammockwise
It contemplates you stomachwise.
You loll,
It contemplates,
It lollops.
The rest is merely gulps and gollops.