The 4th - July 6, 2026

Cousin Gus, who is somewhere near 80 years old, invited us to his annual 4th of July barbeque, which always happens at straight-up noon.  We haven't missed many of his barbeques.  We usually get there in time to help pull the meat while it's hot off the grill.  Man, it's good.

But this year, Nanny (who just turned 85 and recently had a "spell") decided she wasn't up to the heat, so we ordered some ribs from our daughter-in-law's father's BBQ joint and had a quiet dinner with Nanny late in the afternoon.  

As darkness fell, folks in the neighborhood began to shoot fireworks.  Things were still booming when I went to bed at 11.

It was so hot last week that I rarely ventured outside.  Finally, on Friday, I had to go to the grocery store.  It was a madhouse.  As I entered the store, people coming out would stop and exclaim, "Shoooo!  It's hot!"  Inside the store, everybody seemed frantic and irritable.  There was a traffic jam in the bread aisle, with people grabbing bags of buns off the shelves and store employees waiting to refill them.  I did not dally; I got what I needed and got the heck out of there.  On the way out of the store, I heard a lady grumbling about the crazy people inside.  Then she almost backed into my car as we were attempting to leave.  For the first time in about 30 years, I laid into the horn on my car, which probably pissed her off even more.  

This week I have an appointment to have a tooth pulled.  The dentist has been telling me for months that the tooth needs to come out.  When I went in Wednesday for a cleaning, the area around the tooth had been tender for a couple of days.  So the time has arrived.  I dread it.  I never even had a cavity until I was pregnant with Son #2, and now I have a mouth full of crowns that have begun to loosen.  It looks like this might be the Year of the Dental Makeover.  Boy, do I dread it.  

The Spider - July 2, 2026

A few nights ago, I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.  I did not turn on the bathroom light until I reached for the toilet paper and realized that the roll was empty.  When I flipped on the light to find a new roll, a fairly good-sized spider came out from the tiny space between the floor and the bottom of the door facing.  There was nothing within arm's reach with which to bash it except the empty toilet paper tube, still on the roller.  When I reached for the tube, the spider went back under the door facing.  

I hate spiders, in general, and especially one I know about.  This one would be dealt with, but first I had paperwork to do.

While I was putting new toilet paper on the roller, the spider came out again.

I flattened the toilet paper tube and managed to jam it under the door facing.  I jabbed it around until I was satisfied that if the toilet paper roll was going to kill the spider, the deed was done.  Case closed.  Back to bed.

The next morning when I turned on the light, the spider (or its identical twin) came out from under the door facing.  Back to the toilet paper tube.  Jab, jab, jab.  Then I smashed the bottom of the door facing with my foot for good measure.

I haven't seen the spider again.

But that doesn't mean it's not there. 

. . . . 

Heat is on - June 29, 2026

It's hot on the back porch this morning, no breeze, not a leaf moving anywhere.  The ceiling fan is running, and the fan-on-a-stick is blowing right on me.  I worry about The Grandson, who is working as a carpenter's helper this summer.  He's going to have a tough week.

Our weekend was half fun and half worried.  We threw a birthday party for Nanny on Saturday - pizza and birthday cake.  The majority of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were there.  It was fun.  We've got two 5-year-olds, a boy and a girl, who are hilarious to watch as they play together.  Then yesterday, Nanny had a dizzy spell.  The Husband convinced her to go to the hospital to be checked.  Preliminary tests looked fairly normal, but they kept her overnight to do one more test today.  Maybe we'll know the results by the end of the day. 

Last week, the mailman delivered a box of polymer clay - 82 little blocks about the size of a piece of Double Bubble.  There were zero instructions in the box, except for a small sheet showing how to make some characters and such.  I didn't know if it's supposed to be baked and, if so, at what temperature.  It took a good bit of searching before I found the answer.  This is worrisome.  The clay is labeled as "non-toxic" and is supposed to be okay for children to use.  I bought it thinking The Little Rotten Baby might have fun with it when she comes over, but now I'm not so sure I'll show it to her.  

For the past few days, I have been trying to figure out how to make polymer clay bezels for some resin pendants and earrings.  I wanted to encase the resin pieces with clay.  The problem is that the clay must be cured by baking it, and resin is not supposed to be baked.  So this morning, I made some polymer clay pieces using the same molds I used to make the resin pieces, thinking I might use them as forms for the bezels.  Uncured clay (the bezels) is not supposed to stick to cured clay (the baked forms) without the use of some liquid clay.  If I bake the bezels around the clay forms, will I be able to pop the forms out and insert the resin pieces?  To be honest, I don't think it will work, but at least I will get some practice making bezels.

It is so nice to have a clean porch.  There's still a little bit of stuff that needs to be somewhere else.  We're working on it.

The craft corner was a wreck.  Bead boxes on the floor, in a semi-circle around the table.  It was plumb hazardous.  Friday I bought a rolling cart with 10 shallow drawers, enough for all of the bead boxes, tools and wire.  I need another one for polymer clay if I continue with that craft, which is still "iffy."

I'm almost out of clay.  Last week, I practiced blending colors and making "canes," using up my biggest chunks of clay.  The irregular ends of the clay went into the left-over pile, which I then chopped up and re-formed into pendants.  They turned out a little weird.

A little more clay is coming in the mail, a brand I haven't tried.  Maybe it will be easier to work with.  

Porch cleaning - June 25, 2026

This back porch needs cleaning.  Seriously.  The dust is so thick

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I interrupted the foregoing broadcast to get up off my a$$ and actually clean the back porch.  Jetted everything with the water hose.  Washed all the furniture, the cushions, the throw pillows.  Threw away some stuff.  Moved out some stuff that belongs in the shed.  

The shed is full.

Texted The Husband to stop on his way home from work and buy us a big new shed and enough metal shelving to line its walls.  

I doubt he will do that.  But maybe the idea has been planted.  

* * * * * * * * 

Today is my father's birthday.  If he were alive, he would be either 104 or 107, depending on which document you believe.  ;)

Gripe, gripe - June 24, 2026

Yesterday, I tried to make a beaded rope necklace, not one with actual rope inside, but one made of nothing but beads and thread, to use as something from which to hang a clay pendant.  I had all the stuff  - beading needles from "way back when" and seed beads in a wide range of sizes and colors.  I watched a how-to video, multiple times.  Got this.  

The thread was a recent purchase (the "way back" stuff has dry-rotted), thin, clear, nylon line.  The video said I'd need 5 meters of it, which amounts to 20-something feet if my math is approximately right.  I measured about 6 arm lengths, threaded it through a needle, poured up a bowl of sparkly size 11 beads, sat down in my recliner, and got to work.

For one thing, I can't see worth a shit.  Tiny beads, miles of nearly invisible thread that kinked and curled and knotted, needles with tiny eyes.  

Lord have mercy.  

Do I have a beaded rope necklace today?  

Nope.

I gave up.  The battle was mostly with the nylon line.  It fought hard.  There's about 40 feet of it in the garbage can this morning.  And every time I sit down in the recliner, I hear beads raining onto the floor.  

Following that failed attempt, I found a pattern I like just as well and understand a little better.  I'm going out to buy groceries in a little bit, and while I'm out, I'm going to check the hobby store for a different kind of thread.  Going to the hobby store could be dangerous to my craft budget.

Speaking of buying groceries, have I mentioned how I hate this chore?

* * * * * * * 

Yesterday afternoon when I went to retrieve our garbage can from the roadside, I noticed that Nanny's garbage can was still at the end of her driveway and decided to take it home for her and check the garden while I was there.  I had not set foot in the garden in a couple of weeks.  The tomato plants never got staked and were just running across the ground, almost invisible in the weeds and grass.  It has rained a lot this month, so the ground is mushy.  In places, there are strips of landscape fabric and mounds of wood chips left over from last year.  The garden is a haven for fire ants, ticks, frogs, and no telling what else.  

I waded in and pulled enough weeds to find the tomatoes.  They do not appear to be faring any worse for laying on the ground.  We've had so much rain that the some of the fruit is baggy with water.  But there were a lot of firm green tomatoes.  I picked some for Nanny and some for us for fried green tomatoes.  The mosquitoes nearly ate me alive.

 

A Stormy Day - June 22, 2026

It is raining cats and dogs here this morning.  Gloomy.  Thunder booming overhead.  I'm at my worktable on the back porch, trying to decide what I'm going to do today.  I've been watching tutorials for inspiration, but the rain is so loud at times that I can't hear the narrative.  

The smart thing to do would be to clean up my workspaces.  The junk on this porch table has encroached so far that there's only room left for the laptop and the mousepad.  There's scarcely an inch of free workspace on the sewing room table.  The danger in cleaning is in running into something that has been set aside for later and forgotten - "Oh, look!" - which will open up a whole 'nother can of worms and only add to the existing clutter.

* * * * * * * * 

A day later:

Well, I did manage to mostly clean off the worktable in the sewing room.  I did not put away the pile of polymer clay pendants and earring components on one end of the table, intending to finish them.  Someday soon.  For real.  I promise.  

I also managed to produce a couple of pendants that - well, they were different and interesting in a weird sort of way.

Shout out to the lady at TurtleSoupBeads - YouTube.  Her tutorials got my mojo workin'.