Not According to Plan - October 23, 2022

Pretend that heap of sticks and all that junk aren't there, and just look at my view from the back porch table.  :)

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Well, this weekend didn't turn out as planned.  :\

I worked hard last week - brain overload hard, probably fried some circuitry.  After spending three straight 12-hour days bent over documents, my neck and shoulders hurt.  The plan was to chillax all weekend.

Friday night was Senior Night for the band, the cheerleaders, and the football team.  They did it before the ballgame.  We went to that and cheered acceptably loud when Granddaughter #1's name was called.  We waited until her parental units (who had escorted her on the field) to get back to the stands with the rest of The Granddaughters, then we high-tailed it out of there.  So did The Other Grandparents, taking the youngest two Granddaughters with them.  The Husband and I had arrived in separate cars; he went to get us a hamburger while I ran home to get some papers I was supposed to have taken to the ballgame.  The Other Grandparents live about two miles up the road from our house; I passed the papers off to them at the 3-way stop sign that's halfway between us, and came back home to await the arrival of my burger.  

Lord, it takes a lot of work to raise children.

Anyway . . . . 

Yesterday morning, I poured some coffee and made some toast and settled back in my recliner with the Kindle.  When The Husband got up an hour later and turned on the tv, I brought the laptop out to the porch to work online word puzzles.  Come lunchtime, I was still in my housecoat.  Since we had contemplated driving three hours to watch The Granddaughter's band perform in a competition at 4, I got dressed, just in case we decided to do it.

Getting dressed was my first mistake.

On the way back through the kitchen, I stopped to stack the work papers I'd left on the table when I went to Senior Night.  Then I noticed dishes in the sink and loaded the dishwasher, which led to wiping down counters, etc.  About the time I finished the kitchen and came back out to the porch, The Husband came out.  We vetoed the competition trip, and he went to mow Nanny's yard.  I thought, "Cool, I'll have the rest of the afternoon to myself."  

I walked around the yard a little bit and noticed our Granny Smith apple tree still had a few apples hanging on.  Some critter has got the rest of them, and I've been meaning to pick what's left for us humans.  I picked three apples, brought them in, cooked them a little bit, and made some muffins with them.  When I turned the muffins out of the pan, they collapsed.  I scooped them up, stuffed them back into the tin, and baked them a little more.  (They look a little weird, but they taste ok.)  I'd cleaned up the kitchen again and was about to try a muffin when The Husband came back and said he might be in trouble.

I said, "What did you do?"  He said, "Come look."  I followed him around the house.  

He had found a pretty good wagon load of tomatoes, ripe and green, in our grassy garden.

I said, "Ohhhhh shit."  

I didn't want to lose those tomatoes, but I didn't want to fool with them, either.  There probably weren't enough empty jars for all of them, never mind rings and lids, and not enough supplies on hand to make green tomato relish. And I'd just cleaned the kitchen for the second time.  Eventually, I caved, and canned the ripe tomatoes.  Had to clean out the refrigerator and rob jars for enough lids.  I offered the green tomatoes to a friend and even tried to give them away on Facebook, but had no takers.  They are still outside in the wagon.

This morning was pretty much a repeat of yesterday morning until 10:30, when The Husband said, "What time does that birthday party start?"

I said, "BIRTHDAY PARTY?  Ohhhhh, shit!"  I had totally forgotten about our step-granddaughter's birthday party, hadn't bought her a present.

We made a flying trip to town, and arrived only 45 minutes late to the party.

Can I please have the rest of the afternoon off?

Crazy Weather - October 21, 2022

We've had some crazy weather this week.  The first part of the week turned off cold.  Right now, it's 79 degrees on the back porch.

I have worked from home three days this week.  Tuesday, I got my hands on the first real grant-writing work that's come my way since I was hired.  It took all of that afternoon to print, hole-punch, and notebook a stack of instructions.  I went to the office Wednesday morning, ready to dig in and start reading, but hadn't been there 30 minutes before it became obvious that I'd never be able to read/understand the documents with all the distractions around me, so I packed up and came home and have worked here ever since.  (I may get fired Monday when I go back to the office.)  For three days, I've been hunched over the kitchen table and the computer, reading, trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with the paperwork.  My neck is killing me.  Yesterday, I realized that what I really need to be doing is lighting fires under other people's asses.  

It may be that my real talent is lighting fires under other people's asses.

* * * * * * * * 

The stink bugs are out again.  We had a brief respite during the cold snap, but they're out in force today.  I have been spraying them with Dawn dishwashing liquid and water.  Some of them drop like flies; others thumb their noses at me and crawl or fly away.  At least the Dawn smells good.

Which makes me wonder why we perfume our dishwashing liquid.

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Tonight is Senior Night at the high school.  Granddaughter #1 will be escorted onto the football field by her parents and will be leading the band's "pride drill" at the football game.  We real seniors will be in the stands, wrangling grandchildren.  

Chilly tomorrow - October 16, 2022

Today was a pretty good day for back porch-sittin' - maybe the last day for a while.  I had my first cup of coffee out here, warm enough in my big terry cloth housecoat.  Been out here mostly all day, working crossword puzzles and such, and trying to decide what to do about all of these hydrangea cuttings I'm trying to root.  Weatherman says it might frost tonight.  That probably wouldn't do the cuttings any good.

I brought half of the cuttings onto the porch and covered the ones outside with thick clear plastic.  

Half of the hydrangea cuttings had a pretty bad mishap earlier this week.  They're planted in plastic cups, and the cups sit inside a plastic tub.  We had a hard rain that floated the cups and dumped them over.  I had to re-plant them.  They're a week or two behind the first batch I planted; I didn't see a sign of a root on any of them.  

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I am counting the hours until Son #2 and his family get home from their vacation and COME GET THIS CAT. 

He is a menace.

Chili Day - October 15, 2022

Today has been a pretty good day!

First, I slept till after 7 a.m., which might be a record for the past few months.  

I took my coffee out to the porch and worked my daily crossword puzzle undisturbed.

Son #1 had entered a chili cooking contest and invited us to come hang with them.  It started raining about noon, and we wondered if the contest was even still going.  But around 1:30, the skies cleared.  I mixed up a double-strength carb-free daiquiri, and we went to join our son and daughter-in-law.  He didn't win the contest, but his chili was delicious, and we enjoyed a rare Saturday afternoon with our young'uns.

To top it off, Tennessee just beat Alabama in football in a real nail-biter game.

Yeah, it's been a good day.  :)

Cat-sitting - October 12, 2022

Son #2 and his family have gone to Florida and have left their cat with us.

We are not accustomed to having an animal in the house, and hearing noises in rooms where we are not.

While we are gone to work and at night, we shut the cat in a bedroom with food, water, and a litter box.  When I let him out this morning, he spent a few minutes trying to trip me in the kitchen, then all of a sudden, he went buck-wild and started zooming around the house.  He ran nearly all the way around the living room without ever touching the floor, then he zoomed to my sewing room and tried to climb a bookcase.  I caught him on the living room windowsill yesterday morning, inches away from my violet pots.  If he crashes my violets to the floor, he's toast.

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Aunt B's funeral was Monday.  They laid her to rest in style.

To-Do List - October 8, 2022

I made pretty good progress yesterday at clearing some stuff off my to-do list. 

Two or more weeks ago, my niece brought me about a yard of silk and showed me a weirdly-shaped pillow.  She wanted me to make a pillowcase out of the silk that would fit the pillow.  I laid the pillow down on a piece of muslin and traced around it for a pattern, then I sent her and her pillow home.  Yesterday, I made a "sham" out of the muslin, a prototype for the silk pillowcase.  When I texted her to tell her the prototype was ready, she said it would be a week or two before she could get over here with the pillow to try it.  I'm not touching the silk until we find out if the muslin sham actually fits the pillow.

Meanwhile, Son #2 had brought over two t-shirts he wanted for an upcoming vacation.  The sublimation printer saw fit to cooperate with me, and the t-shirts are ready to be worn.

When my son brought the t-shirts, he also brought a pair of jogging pants that belong to Granddaughter #1.  They swallow her whole, and she wanted me to take them up.  Got that done, too.

After the morning's work, I retired to the back porch to laze away the afternoon.  It wasn't long before Cousin Roger came motoring over on his lawnmower.  He'd been in the hospital last week, or maybe the week before, with heart issues.  His mother, Aunt B, died this week.  He needed to get out of his house and talk to someone.  He was just beginning to tell me his story when my telephone rang.  It was his sister, come from Texas to be with their mother in her last illness.  She was trying to write the obituary for the funeral home program and the newspaper, and she was working against a 2 p.m. deadline.  She'd just had an argument with another sibling, and her thoughts were all over the place.  She needed help proof-reading what she'd written, and could I come over?  I left Cousin Roger on the porch by himself and walked across the road to help her.  

I spent most of the rest of the day reading.  Two weeks ago (or more), I downloaded Upton Sinclair's series about Lanny Budd.  There are 11 books in this series; I'm about halfway through them.  It's good reading, but I do most of my reading in bed at night, and unless the book is a real page-turner, I fall asleep after just a few pages.  At the rate I'm going, this book may last me until Christmas!

From the back porch - October 12, 2022

It's a little cool on the back porch this morning, but I've got a thick housecoat and a hot cup of coffee, so it's tolerable.  How I miss my morning porch sessions!  My new job has cut an hour off the time I can lollygag before work, and an hour off my evening hours at home.  Thirty years ago, this was my normal schedule (except that sometimes my work days were even longer).  I wonder how I did it with two little kids at home.

Speaking of the new job, it got moderately more interesting this week.  I met with the school superintendent Tuesday morning about the work he wants me to do for the school system.  He asked me to work on obtaining a grant to tornado-proof a hallway in each of the county schools.  He promised to hook me up with the county emergency management honcho and the county maintenance honcho, and since the superintendent is a get-er-done kinda guy, the meeting happened Wednesday.  The next day, I spent time on the phone with the state emergency management folks, and before the day was over, I was able to file the pre-application for the grant.  Now that the ball is finally rolling, I'm feeling a tad more useful.

* * * * * * * * 

Our plan for today was to go to Granddaughter #1's band competition, but the flu is raging through the schools, and so many of the band members are out sick that the band has had to cancel its plan to compete.  While I enjoy being out in the fresh air all day, I am kind of glad to be home today.  Earlier this week, Son #2 asked if I could make some t-shirts for him and his family to wear on a trip they'll be taking next week.  I said I would, even though I wondered how I was going to find the time to do it.  We talked about whether to do the shirts with heat-press vinyl or sublimation ink.  After he sent me the artwork, we agreed that sublimation would be the best route.  The next night, he and his wife went shopping for shirts made out of the right kind of material for sublimating.  

When my son sent me the artwork, I decided to go ahead and print the transfer so that when he brought me the shirts, I could slap on the transfers and send the shirts back home with him.  Easier said than done.  I have done neither vinyl nor sublimation for months and have forgotten most everything I knew about either process.  By the time he arrived with the shirts the next evening, I'd managed to get the artwork ready to print, but my printer would not cooperate.  I guess the ink nozzles were stopped up, for my test prints came out blank.  I sent him home without the shirts, half afraid that I'd never be able to print the transfers.  But after running several nozzle-cleaning routines, the printer began to work.  The plan for today (since we're not going to the competition) is to get the shirts done, assuming the printer nozzles haven't stopped up again.

* * * * * * * *

We had some sad news in the family this week.  Aunt B, who lives across the road from us, died this week after a 20-year battle with cancer.  Nanny (Aunt B's sister) is heartbroken, for they were close, having lived next door to one another for many years.  Aunt B's husband is in his early 90s and frail, and his memory is impaired.  We are all worried how he will manage his day-to-day living.  He has two children and a granddaughter living nearby, and two more children who live away.  Life is about to get more difficult for them all.  :(

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The stinkbugs are marshalling their forces on my porch screens again.  I fought them INSIDE the porch all spring, convinced that last year's stinkbug crop had LAID EGGS inside the porch.  They seemed not to react to bug spray, so I resorted to vacuuming them.  Last week, someone told me that a mixture of Dawn dish detergent and water would kill them.  I mixed up a pretty potent potion and set the spray nozzle on "STREAM," and every time I see a stinkbug, inside or outside the screens, I let him have it full force.  I'm not sure what is happening to the ones that fall onto the ground outside the screens, but I keep squirting the ones that land on the porch floor until they give up the ghost.  I may be just drowning them.

They're Ba-aaaack - October 3, 2022

You may recall the ferocious stinkbug battle waged on our back porch this spring.  Well, they're back, looking for a place to over-winter, I suppose.  So far, most of them are on the outside of the screens.  It'll probably get worse when the farmer cuts the beans in the field across from our house.  The stinkbugs seem oblivious to bug spray.  They don't like Lysol spray very much, though.  I doubt it kills them, but I'm giving them a good dose, anyway, then whacking them with a fly-swatter.  

Yesterday, I planted the three mums I bought from The Granddaughter, grown by the Future Farmers of America at her school.  They are NICE mums - full, and just now budding.  I hope they come back next year, but I've never had one come back.  

Fight! - October 2, 2022

I just witnessed the most bodacious fight ever seen in my back yard.

Sitting on the back porch this morning, I heard a squirrel barking in a tree.  I didn't pay much attention to it, for we hear that sort of thing all the time around here.  But in a minute, I heard a ruckus - flapping and squealing - and looked up to see an owl (or a hawk, maybe - some huge bird) battling the squirrel around the tree.  In seconds, the bird flew off with something gray in its claws.  Now, there's a squirrel in the tree, incessantly crying its heart out.  All I can figure is that the owl/hawk nabbed the squirrel's baby, or its mate.  Kinda sad.

* * * * * * * * 

Yesterday, The Husband and I spent almost all day at a band competition in which Granddaughter #1 was participating (she's one of three field commanders this year).  The preliminaries started mid-morning.  We got there about noon, in time to see a few of the smaller bands on the field.  Our band won 1st place in its division in the preliminaries.  Twelve bands went on to the finals.  Our band also won first place in the finals (in the big bands division).  This was the band's second competition this year (more to follow), and they needed the win after coming in third in last week's competition.  

We waited to see The Granddaughter when the competition was over.  (The other 3 granddaughters sat with us all day.  The Little Rotten Baby constantly attempted dare-devil stunts on the bleachers; it's a good thing there were plenty of us to watch her!)   We felt old and tired by the time we rolled in the driveway at midnight.

The day certainly brought back memories.  Both of our sons were in this band, and it was a winning band even back then (20+ years ago).  Every weekend we followed a string of buses and instrument trucks to towns all over this end of Tennessee and beyond.  We fried in the sun on metal bleachers, and shivered in the cold when the sun went down.  And loved every minute of it.  

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Poor squirrel is still crying in the tree.  :(