Friday, July 16, 2010

Haiku Friday: Weeds


Volunteers of green,
Crowding, blooming, reseeding,
More for me to pull.


Smiles in my day:
- Library group. It was a little corny today, but the kids enjoyed it.
- After library group, K- and I drove out to hook up with Hubs at his work so that we could go with him to help at a parade. K- and I rode on his work float and were candy tossers. We were some very popular people!
- Hubs temporarily putting the kitchen back together, while I cleaned and did laundry. We make a great team!
- Sungolds are ripe! Rachael, K- loves them!!! Thank you for sharing!
- K-'s continued quest to find ripe ground cherries.
- While this isn't a smile in a bigger sense, it was funny. I went to get dressed for work on Wednesday, was water spraying my shirt and when I flipped it, I found that a bird had left me a gift on the back of my shirt that I hadn't seen while I was outside folding from the line. The gunk did come out, but it makes me laugh as one of those things that happens when you use the sun to dry your clothes.
- The tomatoes love the heat and I've had to tie them up because they are flopping over the tops of their cages. The Sungold tomatoes are attacking us as we are coming in the back door.

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

All that sadness and they still remember that we're here.

Nature, that is.

Remember last week's post about the massive tree removal? Well each day I've woken to the sound of chain saws and shredders at 7:00 AM in the too-early-morning-for-that, but we've noticed that our visitors haven't forgotten us.

We had a Downy Woodpecker at the plum tree yesterday.

A few days ago, K- and I saw a hummingbird nectaring at the butterfly bushes.

We've had the hummingbird moths return and I didn't see them at all last year.

We've had Red Admirals, Monarchs, Painted Ladies, Black Swallowtails, Tiger Swallowtails, Silver Spotted, Great Spangled Fritillaries, Peck's Skipper and the usual Cabbage Whites.

Chuck, the resident chipmunk, seems to be very happy popping in and out of his creature home on a regular basis.

We hate to see the loss of any tree, but sadly our lack of shade is now starting to become familiar. We're getting used to our new light.

Smiles in my day:
- The last day of work for the week. Believe me, the week end and weekend have me very busy.

Have a great day!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Tales from the Trenches: Invisible

Do you ever feel that people don't see you?

Please understand that I'm not suggesting that we are the center of everyone's universe all the time and forever. That's not at all what I'm talking about.

I pulled down our road and there were several concrete vehicles (mixer, pick-ups and whatnot) down one side of the road. There was a gentleman, we affectionately call them pickers, with a truck and trailer on the other side of the road. That made for a very narrow passage, except for the fact that he was bent into his window looking for something, blocking the road. This went on for about 5 minutes. I did not honk, but really wanted to. When he looked up, he gave me a weird look and waved his arm at me like it had been all clear for years. If I had tried to pass through, I would have smooshed him into the truck door, yet he was mad at me.

We were out shopping for new kitchen lighting fixtures on Saturday. We found what we wanted at Lowe's, but wanted to double check a mom and pop just to give them a fair shake. When we went to leave the parking lot, K- said that she wasn't fully strapped in. I stopped at the end of a parking aisle to let her finish. (Equivalent to being the end cap on a grocery store shelf.) We had a van pull up and almost run me over so that they could have the front space right. next. to. me. I had to actually back up to get around the van. Hubs laughed. "Um, is it just me or did he just try to drive over you?" I told him that I was glad that he was there, because I'm certain he wouldn't have believed me otherwise. No, I didn't honk or say anything.

When we walk in the evenings, when people are coming from the opposite direction, we remind K- to "skinny in." More often than not, we are run off the sidewalk altogether by folks who decide to walk "stuck togedder" (K- speak) instead of making room for us. I told Hubs that it is like playing sidewalk chicken and I always chicken out.

I've had older women run me over and yell at me when standing in line at a school function, waiting to get in to be seated.

I had kids that were fundraising all laughing together and talking with their advisor that had the door to the grocery blocked. I admit that I gave them a frustrated look that their advisor must have seen, because he did have them part the seas.

I'm short. People reach over me. People just walk ahead of me in line sometimes.

When we were at the Franklin Park Conservatory, we were in their glass house for their butterfly release. Hubs watched a guy walk all the way up from the back to about where I was standing. We were up front and K- was watching the lady take butterflies out. She was giving details about them before releasing them. I was taking photos as I was standing there when all of a sudden, an arm reaches in front of me with a camera and just starts taking pictures of the butterfly lady. Never mind that I was standing there with my husband and child taking photos. Hubs said that he was about 2" away from me and that he had his arm around me to shield me from being plowed over.

Folks are physically incapable of holding doors open. I hate that they skinny in the door so that they don't actually have to spend that extra 2 seconds trying to do nice for someone behind them. (This always happens at Kohl's.) This happens all the time, but it was most irritating when I had K- in the stroller.

What about you? Do you feel invisible sometimes?

Smiles in my day:
- Hubs and K- had a great Happy Daddy Day together.
- Our butterfly is now all cozy in its chrysalis and will be a butterfly in about a week.

Have a great day!

Monday, July 12, 2010

There was a weekend. I'm sure of it.

A short post to say that I'm tuckered. This past weekend gave me a hormonal run for my money that kind of mucked up plans to paint. There were a few days that I traded my paint brush in for 2 Advil every 4 waking hours. Thankfully, the intense pain left after a few days and Sunday I was good to paint.

Y'all, I'm happy to announce that my walls are finally now La Fonda Terra Cotta. I'm also happy to say that it only took one coat, since we had two coats of primer.

I can also say that I bumped into the ceiling a few times and a couple of times, the wheel runners on my trimmer got paint on them (unknown to me), so I will be hitting them with Kilz a few times before I paint the ceiling.

Yes, I'm painting the ceiling after the walls. Trust me, I knew that I would whack the ceiling and the terra cotta is a darker paint. It's all good. I'm going to Frog tape newspaper to the border of the ceiling and go to town probably next Sunday. (Too much going on beforehand.)

We had two parties on Saturday.

We even managed to have a little fire on Sunday night.

If you'll excuse me, my pillow is calling me.

Zzzzzz.

Smiles in my weekend:
- Much!

Have a great day!