First Day of July

It's Monday.
July 1st.
Two months since the last day I worked.
I'm still here....

 and it rained today. We're expecting rain most of this week which is great because it means it won't be hot-as-blazes like it usually is in Georgia in July but it sort of stinks because arthritis plus rain = pain.

Today I had a banana and some cherries for breakfast... leftover spanish rice for lunch... a kitkat (my newest chocolate addiction) ... and some Stouffer's chicken and rice bake thing that was much better than I thought it would be for dinner. We need to go to the grocery store but nobody has been motivated enough to go.

The garden seems to be doing what it's supposed to be doing but I'm very much not a gardener so my only measure of success is "still green". It has not provided any sustenance yet although I imagine it will at some point.

Our basil plant (in a big pot beside the driveway) had some sort of web thing in it last week but we cleared it out and hopefully it will resume good health. Have you ever noticed that people who grow things in the dirt like to show you all the things they're growing in the dirt? Purple Michael always did and I loved taking the "garden tour" with him every visit.

Austin sprained his ankle while mowing grass yesterday. He seems to have a thousand impediments to grass cutting. He was kind enough to lower the porch swing for me - it was too high for me to reach the ground when sitting back in it. I'm fairly short, you know.

Uncle Carl caught a bass this morning. I don't think Mama's caught anything over the past few days but she went and bought more bait today so she's set to try her luck later.

Mama's new boat - which was Granddaddy Pennington's old boat - has been safely delivered and is resting beside the driveway. I would have taken a picture of that to show you but it would have required a walk upstairs and I'm not up for that this evening. The boat has a bullet hole in it which we believe can be repaired. I don't know where the bullet hole came from - perhaps target practice by one of my cousins.

My spine has had a rough July so far... my couch-bed has this piece of wood where the back connects to the seat that I had never discovered and somehow last night I rolled into bed (onto couch?) aggressively and smacked my spine against that wood with a thud. There is much padding on top of my spine so that had to be quite a whack to make a sound. Then this morning I was sitting in the recliner and Oscar the Fishing / Security Dachshund saw something outside that he needed to attack so he made a running leap onto the recliner but instead of landing smoothly, he bellyflopped my left foot and bounced back to the floor. He may only be sixteen pounds but that was sixteen pounds at sixty mph and it really jarred my back. My mom was all, "Poor baby... are you ok?" to the dog.

And that's about all the news that's fit to print from today. I leave you with a dozen pictures of the cat because that's what I do... take pictures of the cat. Happy July. Love and hugs.

My Saturday

I hear that it's hot outside. I haven't gone out to find out for myself, unless you count the sixty seconds or so that I worked on cleaning the impossible to clean sliding glass door. I decided it was a chore beyond my skill set so I came back inside and snapped a photo of the view from the Whine Cellar. I'm sure there are places in the world that are lovelier but none of them are home to me like this view is... and none of them have a nice cozy nest for me to hang out in on a hot Summer day. I'll take this view for now, thank you very much!

I'm nesting right here. I know it looks sorta tacky with the furniture all covered up. We have lots of fur shedding creatures around here and a one still very messy still a teenager living here and it's just easier to cover it than to try to undo their damage. It's so delightfully cool here in the basement! It was only five Summers ago that I was dying in the ungodly Jacksonville, Florida heat on the third floor with the a/c out for a week or so. For that matter, I grew up without air conditioning although I had much less insulation then and we had one of those massive attic fans that sucks everything for a ten mile radius up...  And for that matter... I worked Summers at a laundrymat. We took in napkins and tray liners for the different airlines and had to wash, dry and then press them on these huge open ironing machines in a building with no air conditioning. The money was good and it was walking distance (and you could safely walk in Riverdale then) from home and, again, much less insulation. But now? Give me air conditioning or give me death! I don't sweat pretty any more.

Today my cousin's son got married. It's my mom's oldest sibling's youngest child's oldest child, my first cousin once removed. We are distant enough that it wasn't something we would have been invited to (or gone, you know how I am about going ANYWHERE) but close enough that I'm happy for them and can't wait to see some photos posted on Facebook. Congrats to Mac and Hannah!

Tomorrow my Aunt Ginger and Uncle Carl are bringing Mama a boat. Yes. A boat. It belonged to my Granddaddy (I think) and when he passed it went to my Aunt Linda's house and in the midst of cleaning things up following her husband's death (two weeks ago tomorrow, already) the boat is one of the things that is being redistributed. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about boating because although the lake is lovely to look at from my cool and comfy nest... it's not critter free... and I'm not entirely sure that I would be confident of not capsizing and ending up in that water. With the critters. I guess from a fishing standpoint it will be nice to have although I doubt Oscar the Fishing Dachshund should be in a boat. One day when it's not hot outside (maybe next November) I'll walk down to the dock and take pictures of Oscar fishing. He's INTENSE! He loves fishing so much that you can't say the word "fish" around him without him spazzing out.

I changed a few things on my blah-g, it was getting sort of stale looking. I also wanted to link to a few of the blogs I read. There are approximately 500 on my list but of course not all of them update daily and even the ones that do, I don't always get around to reading even though I'm in cyberspace just about every waking moment. I picked the ones I like the best and if you're looking to expand your blog library, you might check a few of them out. I seem to be drawn to blogs of young Catholic mothers or women battling infertility which, I know is odd. I did so very much love being a new mommy (and am so glad that I am now an old mommy) and I always loved birth stories. Catholic mommies have lots of birth stories. 'Jes sayin'. And the infertility blogs are fascinating because I cannot imagine NOT having had babies and it breaks my heart that some women have to work so hard to achieve that blessing. For me it just took a lustful glance. Had I not had my tubes tied at age 26 I would have a dozen kids, no doubt. I also love historical stuff and families with multiples. Basically, I just like knowing how people live and if the blog is well written or has a lot of pictures or an interesting storyline... I'm there. It's a great way to pass time.

Anyways... so this has been a really lovely, restful day. Muscle spasms are the pain of the day and I have been resisting the urge to o.d. on muscle relaxers. Laying down vs. sitting in a recliner helps that a bit. It's ok. It's not the worst pain I've ever had and it just bugs me only slightly so I will survive.

In the nest.
Looking out at the lake.
In the air conditioning.
Happy Saturday, y'all.