I like to blog and talk and I love the group of commenters who drop by and converse. We seem to have edited it down to a nice number of interesting people and have removed the outliers who make places like TOP a shit storm waiting to happen.
I have been too busy to do a lot of original blogging lately but I hope to do more soon.
In any event please enjoy the lack of shit hitting you on the head.
27 comments:
I vote conversative!
@MamaM: Ed seemed to dislike my latest chirbit. I guess I hit a mark. link. He is a bit like Charlie Brown. And Inga is Lucy von Pelt.
Ironrails talks about pelts.
Once you are orientated correctly you can conversate. Alot.
What the hell, language is going to hell with the rest of it, come rain or come shit.
Speaking of rain, it sure would be nice if it stopped - even for a day. I have things to do, but the rain just won't stop. Freakin' monsoon season is here.
There was a tornado just north of here yesterday - if I may posit a false dichotomy I would prefer rain rather to a twister. Or any other Helen Hunt movie.
It started pouring in NYC at about six o'clock tonight and it was terrible for about an hour. Several leaks started in the store because of the big volume of rain in such a short period of time.
"rather to"? Who wrote that mess. Editor, stat!
El Pollo, that horse sound is my downfall. Like Charlie going for the football, I know what's coming and still laugh every time I hear it happen. The sound of your voice when you've got a live one on the line is fun too--it brings to mind the smile on the face of the guy who pulled up that astonishingly strange looking fish.
Ironrails is one focused dude! I admire his fortitude! Such devotion to subject is almost as rare as the filaments he mourns.
The lightning bugs are finally out in MI. They usually fly no more than 8-10 above ground, but tonight they were in the tree tops.
It started pouring in NYC at about six o'clock tonight and it was terrible for about an hour.
A little set up to my storm story: We have had triple digit temps in our mountain area for the last 5 days which is pretty unusual for us. In the Valley it has been hitting the 115 mark. Usually we are not very humid. Its a dry heat is the remark we try to console ourselves with, and it is true. The dry conditions make the heat more bearable.....but it has been freaking humid. Tornado and thunderstorm humid. Missouri and Oklahoma humid, muggy and ominous. A couple of days ago we had such a huge windstorm in the evening when the black clouds would move in. Almost pulled our patio furniture off of the deck and ripped leaves and flowers off the the trees and potted plants.
So.....yesterday, Dumbplumber and I went in the air conditioned car!!! to look a pump house and tank combo he put in the other day (about 40 miles away on a beautiful creek). Needed to see that all of the glue, parts and connections were not leaking. before charging up the system. Since it didn't require more work, we decided to celebrate and had dinner and cocktail out at the next town over before going home (about 6:30). The lights in the restaurant flickered a bit but we didn't think much about it because, that is normal for our area.
When we drover home, and got in our little valley over the mountain, we were amazed at the destruction that we started to see. Trees on the golf course snapped off. Leave and tree limbs all over the street of our little downtown. Broken windows. HAIL and ice all over the road. It had been a tornado that had come through our area. I dumped a huge amount of rain in one area. The town. One of our friends who has a swimming pool said the rain overfilled his pool in the space of 15 minutes or less!
Fortunately, when we got to our property we could see the destruction starting to lessen and we only had a few tree limbs on the ground and in the driveway. Thankfully not the one from the tree that shades the master bedroom wing. Fruit trees had lost a lot of baby fruit, but that's ok we were overloaded anyway. Only one chair was sucked over the edge of the cliff and we were able to retrieve it. The others were wedged between the tree and the pump house. The skylights didn't break either!!! Dinner was really good too.
WE dodged a bullet. It is going to be the same tonight.
And....... I expect the same shit storm to continue over at TOP since Inga is up to her old tricks. What a disgusting woman.
Geez the typos. I guess I'll leave them so you guys can see what a wreck I am in the morning before my 2nd cup of coffee.
:-)
Weather can be a bear sometimes.
The sun is shining today and I am getting some work done.
I remember dry California heat, and a hail storm in Santa Clara. Heck, it even snowed when I lived in Sunnyvale - I took pictures, it was that unusual. We used to joke that when it rained all the Californians would get in their cars and get into wrecks. Snow really undid them - I stayed home until it melted. You know, about 10 AM that morning.
@DBQ: My tomato plants are topping over a 6ft fence: link
@ Chick
Awesome. Tomato sandwiches: fresh sliced warm from the garden tomatoes with lots of cracked pepper, sea salt and mayo on lightly toasted french bread. Yummmm
Is that a lemon tree I see in your photo gallery (jealous!!)
Weather talk. Never gets old. Since I moved here eight years ago I've been bitching and moaning (thankfully mainly to my self) about the Great Lakes rain shadow that overhangs most of upstate New York. No getting away from it other than to move which I'm not about to do so I whine. At least I'm about 35 miles south of the snow belt so there's that small favor. But this year has been killer. June, a month that can be miraculous up here was mainly dank. One thing: nothing stops the corn from growing!
I have written about the orchards that used to fill Santa Clara valley, and they produced wonderful fruit. But the best of them all was the large lemons that grew on what are now yard trees.
Those things were the size of grapefruit and so aromatic that if you set one on the counter the whole house smelled lemony fresh.
Yeah, I could use about a dozen of them right now...
@DBQ: Yes, I have a lemon tree...and a lime and an orange. The lemon is doing the best. I devised an underground irrigation system which uses rainwater from the roof and can be feed with a hose in the summer when it doesn't rain. They are all still babies though, compared to other older trees in the neighborhood. I previously had a lime tree which I dubbed the G&T tree. We bought it in Sunnyvale as a potted tree and put it in the ground. It did well for many years but then, quite suddenly, just up and died. Must have been tree-AIDS or something. So despite the gardening paradise, we suffer from diseases here.
Last year, I planted a grape vine which you can find a photo of in that series. This year I planted two more. We get occasional frost here in Jan/Feb and last year I thought the grape had died. After a frost, all the leaves turned brown and fell off leaving just the naked skeleton. It looked awful for months, but then the miracle of spring brought it back to life.
When the grapes finally mature and fruit, I plan to dabble in making either jam or wine. Still a couple years away.
I built an arbor for a volunteer muscadine grape vine over at my old house. While out walking the dogs today I realized I need to find another one over here and get into the grape business - mmm, grapes...
My grandma and my old man had concord grapevines. My old man was a wood carver and would sit under the arbor on days like this carving. My grandma made jelly, but what I really remember was the grape juice. She would put it in 7 oz. coke bottles and seal it w/ wax, just like the jelly. She would on hot summer days add a bottle of the grape juice to homemade lemonade..marvelous. However, once in a while, you got a chilled[not cold] bottle of the grape nectar. I really can still smell and taste it.
Lovely weather here, for a change. We're in far northern Wisconsin this week, and it has been just short of glorious. Unseasonable cool highs in the low 80s, high 50s at night. Clear skies, nice wind.
Yesterday was spent motorcycling in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Riding along on canopied back roads, listening to country music on the radio. A great day to be alive.
Today was spent at a couple of small-town parades. You've seen them, maybe. Every business in town has a float, form the dog groomer to the bank to the dentist tot he septic tank pumper. Fire trucks from all the nearby towns and villages. Americana at its best.
There was a pontoon boat parade on our smallish lake this afternoon. And fireworks, tonight, lots of fireworks, some displays legal, most other not so much.
Doing nothing tired me out, so I strung the hammock between to red pines, took a book and a bottle of beer and napped while listening to birds chirp and squirrels scold.
It's a great day to be an American.
My Dad had a couple of concord grapevines in the back yard, and he was constantly doing battle with the birds and critters who'd show up to eat the maturing grapes. Nd's reminisce made me wonder if my dad's devotion to those vines may have been linked to some past memory of concord grape juice/jelly, because he was very protective of them, even though he rarely received much of a harvest for his efforts. Maybe they served as a focal point for his overall struggle with nature, because it wasn't just the crows and raccoons that were "thieving varmits", it was the grubs and cut worms in his garden, the elm bark beetles infecting his beautiful elms with Dutch Elm Disease, the groundhogs digging holes in the window wells and compromising the foundation, and the squirrels stealing birdseed that engaged him in battle. As a dentist, he warred against tooth decay and advocated for tooth preservation, saving many a tooth other dentists has wanted to pull. He loved beauty, goodness and excellence.
He's been gone 19 years, and we bought the house 16 years ago, after parts of the land around it had been sold for development. Although the grapevine was lost in that process, it was several years before I was able to send the box containing his grape nets off to a better place.
I read a comment over at Legal Insurrection that gave me pause yesterday in reference to the law as a useful tool.
You see why I say the law is a clumsy tool. A hammer, at best…never a scalpel.
Anyone who does this for a living sees miserable outcomes.
I have never had a case where everyone got what justice would require. Not one.
You just have to recognize that…as systems made up of fallible people go…ours is as good as they come.
Which is NEVER to say it cannot be improved.
Although my dad didn't get the grape outcome he sought, he managed to save a few bunches. With his dentistry he was much more productive, touching hundreds of lives with his craftsmanship and care. It would be truthful to say he was truly committed to improvement
The varmints seeking to feed themselves and/or use (and destroy) something good to meet their own agenda are everywhere.
Sometimes grape nets are needed and useful tools.
At a house overlooking historic Cahuenga Pass, about a mile from the Hollywood sign. One direction is the LA basin the other is Blake's valley.
MamaM and Michael, you two write really well.
MamaM, Beautiful.
Bruce, thank you.
I am raising a drink to you all.
What comes first the chicken or the egg?
When the freedom to speak, the forum to do so, and the presence and prompt of another's words/thoughts all come together to offer an opportunity for expression, independence is celebrated!
Thank you, TY, nd, and El Pollo--Such provision and encouragement is very much appreciated!
Cheers, Evi!
MamaM said...
El Pollo, that horse sound is my downfall.
Each "whinny" is different like a snowflake, MamaM. Never prerecorded, always fresh. All for you!
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