Rain - May 20, 2026

It is raining cats and dogs this morning, and according to the weather predictors, it's likely to rain every day this week.  We need it!

Yesterday's plan was to sneak down to Nanny's while she was gone to her canasta group and stick copper wire through all of the tomato stems and water the tomatoes.  I got busy doing other things and never got around to those tasks.  Now, I can mark watering off the to-do list.  

What I was doing while I should have been in the garden was experimenting with polymer clay, hoping to create some pretty pieces for jewelry, and today I'm trying to decide whether to invest any more time and money in the craft.  Yesterday's experiments produced some fairly interesting results.  

But I have enough baked and sanded pieces to fill up a quart zip-lock bag.  Is there really a need to make more?  Wouldn't the time be better spent in actually finishing some jewelry?

Copper wire - May 19, 2026

Something growing in/around our yard is producing an absolutely wonderful scent.  We think it's the wild grapes - at least that's what we're calling the vine that grows around the edges of the yard.  It is currently dripping with green clusters, but we never see any actual grapes.  Maybe the critters eat them green.

This scent, almost always in May, reminds me of my mother.  She and my father married in mid-May, 1945.  Once, when we passed a locust tree in full bloom, she said the fragrance always reminded her of her wedding day.  

* * * * * * * * 

Over the weekend, I came across a video about copper wire used on tomatoes as a deterrent of early and late blight.  The instruction was to use a short length - maybe 3 or 4 inches - of 20 gauge pure copper wire, driven through the tomato stem (perpendicular to the ground) about 4 inches from the ground.  The tomato stem needs to be at least as big as a pencil. The video stressed that 20 gauge wire should be used, as anything thicker might damage the plant beyond repair, and anything smaller would be too flimsy to go through the stem.   Since I am making jewelry with pure copper wire, I have plenty of wire around.  I've already cut pieces for all of my plants and will "install" them later today.

Oh, no! - May 17, 2026

"The best laid plans," as they say.

The Husband's birthday was last month.  When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he said, "Nothing."

Unacceptable.

I pondered.  One day as I was surfing the internet, I discovered that the comedian Henry Cho was coming to town.  The Husband likes him.  I got two tickets for his birthday present.

The show started at 8 p.m. last night.  We got there about 7:15 and parked in a lot behind a donut shop.  When the show was over, we went to our car, and IT WAS GONE, as was every other car that had parked in that lot.  

OH, SHIT!

There was a wrecker in the parking lot with a truck hitched to it.  I asked the driver some questions.  He told me where the car was but said that there would be nobody there to give us our car back.

While I was talking to the driver, The Husband looked for a "no parking" sign.  We hadn't seen one when we parked.  The sign was about 12 feet up a light pole, not exactly in the line of an average person's vision.  

Miraculously, as we were standing there trying to figure out what to do (Uber the 30 miles home?), we saw a former classmate and her husband walking across the lot.  They live 10 miles or so from us and agreed to take us home.  

Could've been worse, eh?

Anyway, this morning we went back to town to get my car.  Cost us $225 to get it out of hock.

Expensive birthday present.

Mole Battle! - May 16, 2026

The most disgusting thing just happened.

Yesterday afternoon when we came home from our trip, I walked around the yard to stretch and check on my flowers and noticed that a mole had absolutely wrecked our back yard.  It was late in the day, and I didn't want to fool with the mole trap.

But this morning I went outside and stomped down all the mole tunnels.  An hour later, I checked the trail, saw where the mole had raised up what I'd stomped down, and set the trap in the trail. 

Fast forward 4 hours.

I decided to water the thirsty flowers.  In the process, I saw that the mole had dug all around the trap but had not sprung it.  I figured he'd get there, eventually, but just as I was about to turn off the water hose, I decided to poke it down in the mole tunnel to see if I could drown it or at least piss it off.

Behold, a pink nose poked up out of the ground!

I ran over to the compost pile to get the shovel.  It wasn't there, but the pitchfork was, so I grabbed it and stabbed it down in the mole tunnel, and when I lifted it up, there was a fat, squirming mole impaled on one of the tines.

EWWWWW!

The Husband was not here to finish it off, and I wasn't about to chop it in half or brain it.  

So I drowned it in a bucket of water.

And left it for The Husband to deal with when he gets home.  

Home - May 15, 2026

Today, "home" feels like the best word in the English language.

There were about 500 attendees at this morning's final meeting, which was scheduled to end mid-morning.  I shuddered to think about what kind of mess there'd be when the meeting was over with 500 people trying to check out of the hotel at the same time, so I got the jump on them by starting the process as soon as breakfast was over.  Summoned a bellman for our luggage, summoned a valet to bring the truck, and re-parked the truck so that when the meeting was over, we could hit the road.  We made it home about 7 p.m., stopping only to pee and stretch.  

It's good to be home.

Biloxi - May 14, 2026

Hello from sunny, breezy Biloxi.

Can we go home now?

We got here Monday, middle of the afternoon.  Casino hotel.  Noisy.  Crowded.  

The one interesting thing that happened was running into a guy who grew up in my neck of the woods.

Small world.

There is no desk in this room - just a round marble-top table and two chairs that sit so low that my chin is almost on the table.  Hard to type in this position.  See you when I get home.

Yardwork - May 8, 2026

The past couple of days have been busy ones.

I got out Wednesday morning in drizzling rain and went to the grocery store.  While I was within walking distance (not that I walked it) of the hobby store, I had a weak moment and went in.  There always seems to be one more thing that I need.  And, of course, I generally come out with more than that one thing.  

Whatever.  It keeps me off the streets.

Yesterday morning I had breakfast with my sister, and then we both went to visit with our brother.  

Today, I had a haircut appointment at 8 a.m.  While I was there, my brother texted me and said I'd left my cooler at his house.  I wouldn't have bothered going to get it (he lives 30 minutes away) except that this cooler is the one we take on road trips, and we've got another one coming up soon, so I went to get it. 

Drove right past the hobby store, going and coming, and didn't stop.

When I got home, I decided to mow the yard.  (Nanny's yard needs it, too, but I saved that treat for The Husband.)  

Our yard is a b*tch to mow.  It was an especial b*tch today due to a series of storms that left sticks all over the place.  I picked up the big ones and drove down to the shop to get the lawnmower.  It didn't have much gas in it, and the shop gas can was empty, but there was plenty of gas to get home, where I'd fill the tank from our gas can.  It, too, was empty.  I said some colorful words, drove the lawnmower back to Nanny's, put her gas can in my car, came home for our gas can, started up the road to the store.  Got a mile up the road and realized I didn't have my wallet.  Turned around at the cemetery and came back home.

At the gas station, I filled up my car and Nanny's gas can ($51.43 for the record), but I could not get the spout off our gas can.  Went back to Nanny's, filled up the lawnmower, took her gas can to the shop, drove the lawnmower home to mow.

The Husband mowed the yard the last time it was mowed.  He doesn't mow under the low limbs and in the tree line between us and The Neighbor.  I like the tree line mowed to keep down the poison ivy for my grandchildren's sake.  It was a REAL b*tch to mow since it hasn't been mowed in two weeks.  

I must've run through a dozen spider webs under the limbs.  At one point, I saw a spider dangling from my glasses and nearly had a come-apart.

I cussed just about the whole time I was on the lawnmower, for one reason or another.  I cussed the weed-eater, as it, too, ran out of gas (and our gas can being still empty).  

Took the lawnmower back to Nanny's, came home, took a shower and put my dusty, spidery clothes in the washing machine.

I'm pretty sure I blew a spider out of my nose when I got out of the shower.