Because he won't let me throw them away . . .

These were in my laundry to fold this evening.  They have a large hole under the one cheek.  "Can't I throw these away?"  Well, you see what his response was.

"Just put x's on the legs like you do so that I know not to wear them to work.  I did once wear x'd pants to work.  S just loved it."

Am I the only wife who has a husband who doesn't want to throw things like this away?  I've taken to putting these type of garments in the kitchen garbage and then scrape dinner leftovers on them to ensure that they will remain in the trash.

They are breezy.  He could at least use them for a rag, but he will still wear them painting and mowing.  Ugh!

Transformation of the Comet Darner

I was tending to my gardens this morning and saw what appeared to be a cellophane wrapper in my lilies.  

It wasn't cellophane.

Hubs reported that it was a newly emerged Comet Darner and while it is common other places, it is quite rare for us.  

He told me to watch it for a few hours and I would see how it would change.  

The wings are clear and glassy.  Just slightly lined.  The body is just filling with blood.  You can see how it isn't completely filled up yet.  

(A hair blurry.  If I got any closer, it would have flown away.)

The wings are lined.  The body is changing color.

Look at how the body has changed as it has dried in the sun. 

Class dismissed. :)

The tall and short of it.

My cousin and I have always been close.  Obviously, Jenny is a hair taller than me.  That's why in high school we shared a locker.  I had a locker next to her boyfriend and so we shared.  She could use the top shelf and I could use the bottom.  I could never use the top anyhow because I couldn't dig anything out of it if it got in there.

We took the girls to the Cleveland Zoo today.  I won't bore you with zoo photos.  There were a few interesting things:
1.  You could feed a giraffe a lettuce leaf for $2 each leaf.  I told my friend that I need to rethink my employment.  I said that I could probably make my salary in a few days at the zoo.
2.  A lady decided to jump one of the common green space fences to lay a blanket out and to change her child in the middle of EVERYONE.  She was about 20' from a bathroom with a changing table.  I know because I just used the loo with my cousin's daughter.
3.  There were some interesting clothing choices.
4.  It was 70 during what is normally the dog days of August and yes, I wore the coat all day.  I still have it on.
5.  I talked Jenny into working the zoo backwards and I think that was a good thing.
6.  We had a delightful picnic at the table right in front of our car.
7.  They need bigger bathrooms.
8.  The critters seemed happy.  There was even a bunny snacking on grass in the flamingo enclosure.
9.  Happily, we skipped construction traffic.  We weren't certain of our success until we got almost all of the way home.
10.  We didn't enter one gift shop.
11.  We didn't purchase one food product, though I did see a woman who had her child lose control of his hot dog while shedding his bun.  She paid $4.50 for it and went back and asked for a replacement.  I was stunned that they gave her one.
12.  We didn't run into rude people.
13.  Our kiddos were good.  :)

We had a great day!

Skip the AC, the air is just fine.

We have had a cool summer.  The bedroom windows are open and my bedroom is a bit chilly.  I have a coat on.  The highs have only been in the late 70's to lower 80's.  My electric bill is loving it.  Frankly, we are too.  We've certainly walked a lot more than we have in any summer past.  There has been enough rain to keep the rain barrels humming.  I haven't had to use municipal water once in my quest to keep the plants alive.

But we do have to wear coats in the mornings during what is normally the dog days of summer.  Makes me wonder if a similar winter will repeat itself.

I hope not.

Here's to hoping the air is chilled and the hum of the AC can be turned off in your neighborhood.  Have a great weekend!

A lot of loss.

My poor brother.  My brother, affectionately known as "Dumpy," has once again suffered the loss of a friend.  The friend was a neighbor of ours growing up.  He was one of the kids who lived two houses down.  This young man was traveling between bars on a newly owned Harley when he lost control in some curves in back city roads.  He revved the motor to pull out of it and instead of pulling out of it, he launched himself from the bike, 4 feet into the air, causing instant death when he met up with the telephone pole.  Since the bleed-out was so massive, the thought was that perhaps he tore open the aorta on impact.  My brother and his friends went to the scene later on the next day and found a pool of blood on the roadway.  There was massive bleeding.  I told him that in this case, instantaneous death was a blessing. They said that he died before he fell to the roadway.

My heart aches for the parents.  This young man was a few years younger than my brother-- 26 years old.  While his final choices weren't the best, he has parents, families and a one year old daughter and her mother.  The one year old?  She has multiple issues and has already had multiple surgeries.  My mom and dad spent a few hours with his parents the other day.  Both of my parents are in tears and I know that my mom is probably not sleeping because of it.

He was a neighborhood kid growing up.

My brother wasn't best friends with this young man.  The young man's lifestyle of "work through the week and drink the check on the weekend" wasn't quite where my brother is at in his life.  He has three kids and a wife.  They have jobs and bills and whatnot.  Bless him.  He's grown up and is trying to be responsible.  Still, he was friends with him and the loss has hit him hard.

This isn't where the trail of loss ends for my brother.  Right before high school graduation, I think maybe 3 or 4 kids (out of a class of about 160-180) died from a variety of accidents.  He has also lost friends in Iraq and Afghanistan-- one of which was a very best friend.  He and his friends work hard to keep Nate's memory alive with poker runs and having a stretch of the highway (that runs along the back of my parent's property) dedicated in his name.

It just seems that my poor brother is talking about one more person who died.  I feel sorry for him.  It makes me very sad for him.

The gift of two bowls.

Photo from Amazon.com.

My husband's Aunt Arlene died probably 4-5 years ago.  Before she passed away, she moved in with her daughter, Jackie.  As she was getting rid of her house and belongings, she gave something to my mother-in-law to give to me-- two Kitchenaid mixing bowls.

You see, Aunt Arlene was a baker.  She made my sister-in-law's wedding cake.  She probably would have made ours, too but my aunt was already making it.  I'll never forget the gift she gave to me for our shower-- baking dishes and utensils.  She gave me two pyrex pie plates, a sifter, the crust rocker thing that I can't recall the name of right at this moment and some lovely kitchen towels.

I still have everything she gave to me and I still use them.

If you own a Kitchenaid mixer, you know how wonderful the bowls are.  I purchased my Kichenaid mixer at Target on Black Friday years ago when the sales started at 6 AM.  I got the last mixer on the shelf.  I paid $169 for it, but saved $90.  I proceeded to the parking lot where I called Hubs and started crying that I couldn't keep it.

"I swear that you better not return that mixer.  It's not like you don't use mixers and you've gone through 2 already.  You'll have this one forever and I'll be mad if you return it."

You should know that my husband never tells me no, but probably because he knows that I don't purchase such things for myself.  He was right.  I had mixed my way through two stand mixers already and maybe a third, better branded one would be better.  It has been and I regret the regret.

Aunt Arlene knew that I bought myself one.  I don't know if we chatted about it or if she asked.  At any rate, she gifted me those two additional bowls.  I have used them for everything.

I use them as the mixing bowl they are labeled as.

I soaked my blood-stained shirt in one after I got home from having my little niece stitched back together.

They are the go-to bowl for garden harvesting.

They were just used this afternoon to hold the bottles of dye for tie dying.

Aunt Arlene was a wonderful woman.  I know that Janeen and Aunt Patti would agree.  Before she passed away, she made all of us afghans.  We have ours on the couch.  It's nice and toasty in the winter.

How thoughtful it was of her to pass the bowls along.  They will continue to be used-- for everything.    And yes, I think of her every single time I pull one out.

A small theft is still theft.

The other day, I confronted a man about leaving the store without paying for a magazine.  Now, that magazine is a local publication and costs probably $3.95-4.95.  I saw that he had it.  I saw that it had no receipt.  He had the front cover towards him, so when the cover tipped slightly, I looked to see if the price had been removed.

It hadn't.

(We always remove the price tags from everything we sell.)

He and another woman were leaving.

"Sir, would you like me to write that up for you?"

He looks at me.

"Your magazine, would you like me to write that up for you?"

He looked down, then back up at me and said, "No.  I already paid for it."

"Oh my gosh.  I'm so very sorry.  Would you like a bag for that?"

:nervously:  "No."

He left and my coworker looked at me.  I told her that he didn't buy it.  I called next door and confirmed.  He hadn't.  It walked out the door.  I could have gone out.  I could have followed after him.  When telling our bookkeeper about the issue I said that, "It wasn't worth getting shot over $4-5.00."

You know what?  That sucks.  He knew that he stole it.  I politely confronted him about it.  He lied and then he walked out with it in hand.

Probably 4-5 years ago, I saw a woman loading her purse up with shampoo and whatnot.  I went to the cashier and was talking to her about it.  The woman came up behind me with her cart so that she could quietly leave.

"That's her.  She has stolen things in her bag."  I blocked her cart from leaving.  The woman asked me to please move.

"You've stolen things.  You know you have.  You have them in your bag and I can even tell you what is in there that you haven't paid for."  She moved on past me and left.  What did the cashier do?  Nothing.  They did nothing because they didn't see her do it and since they didn't see her do it, it must not have happened.

People stealing things.  That's twice now that I've tried to stop someone and it was unsuccessful.

What's your thoughts?