Daughter Lise and I had been in the kitchen area for hours, then headed to bed. As I stepped into my bedroom, I heard that dreaded smoke alarm chirp. Another followed within half a minute, meaning we didn’t have much time until it would be sounding relentlessly through the night. There was no one we would call to help us, since it was nearing midnight. We flew into action. I got out a new battery as she tried to find a video to show her how to change it. Unfortunately, only newer models were shown. She climbed on the bed and began to poke and prod the unit. There was nothing to pull open. Finally, she pressed the right area, and a door opened so that she could slide out the old battery. Whew! It was simple to replace it. We thought we needed to test it, so I covered my ears as she pressed the button. That seemed to be all that needed to be done, and indeed, we heard no more chirps. Thank you, handy-woman Lise!
If I had been home alone, I would have gone to the furthest bedroom, closed the door, covered my head with a pillow, and tried to sleep. Thank heavens Lise saved me from that!
Neighbor Holly took me to the airport to pick up daughter Lise. The photo I have shows none of the angst of the 24 hours before. Lise’s flight was canceled, and she was told she could make it to Asheville by 8:00 pm instead of 5:00. That wouldn’t work, because Holly doesn’t drive at night. By sheer persistence, Lise was able to get a seat on the original flight from Atlanta. I knew when I got up the next morning, that Lise had already landed in Amsterdam. Whew! When we stopped for a traffic light, I asked the girls to face each other and took a quick photo.
The next day Lise and I ate at a local restaurant that no one else is willing to go to. It’s like a Southern diner, open long hours seven days a week. To me the food is good and the prices reasonable. It was a lovely way to start our first full day together.
A few hours later, we were sitting on the back porch when I got the message from son John $ that he had returned safely from his camping trip. He had been in some big wilderness in either Washington state or Idaho. A hiking rule is that you always let someone know where you are going and when you are due back. I was the appointed person who knew the facts about his car, license tag, and camping plans. Knowing he had seen a grisly bear on his previous trip there, I was happy to know he was safely home from the current hike. Lise and I were chatting on the porch, so I took this photo of her to send her brother.
John sent me a picture of a waterfall and a selfie he had taken by using a timer on his phone. I am a stay-at-home person, but my children get around!
I’m sorry neighbor-naturalist Joyce was not walking with me when I saw a flock of brilliant male goldfinches. As I neared a bank of wildflowers by the side of the road, six or seven of them rose in unison and flew to the nearest tree. This underscored her statement that goldfinches nest later than other birds. She said they wait until there are seeds available for them to eat before they mate and lay eggs. That’s what clicked in my head. The birds were eating seeds before I scared them away. I couldn’t help but wonder if I disturbed a bachelor party in progress.
Today I was thankful for self-imposed rules. The background is that I make up rules for myself all the time. A basic one is I must not leave my bed unmade when I head to the kitchen. A friend used to laugh at my rules for walking to the creek. I think I waved to every vehicle until I got to the stop sign, and then I acknowledged only those cars coming toward me. That one is no longer in effect, since I only go to the stop sign now. Everyone gets a smile and a wave.
Today I began cleaning all the stones lining the pathway in the garden. Those defining stones were placed by the original owners about 20 years ago. Some have tried to bury themselves in dirt and roots. Within the first five minutes, I made the rule that I had to return to full upright position (like an airplane seat) if I moved my feet. It was easier to remain bent over, but it was not in the best interest of my whole body. BODY thanked me at the porch steps by walking proudly into the house.
Stones between the pergola and solar fire bowl have now been unearthed and somewhat dusted off.
Do you have personal rules that you make yourself obey?
Although Mondays are no longer dreaded at the beginning of a work week, this one held no particilar promise. I was surprised as exciting things began to unfold. I heard a slow, steady hammering from my bedroom. Surely my closest neighbor was not making repairs on his porch, but that is what it sounded like. I quietly stepped onto the deck and tiptoed to the edge, having a premonition that it might be the pileated woodpecker. Yes! As soon as I looked over the railing, this great bird flew to the dogwood tree at the edge of my property. What a sight that was! The red on the back of his head was highly visible as he flew to safety. Later I walked around the house to see if there was visible damage under the deck. It’s there on the cross piece — two round holes and a gash.
If this wasn’t the longest day of the year, it would be off by only a day. Knowing the sun was coming up, I stepped on the back porch to see exactly where it rose so I could mark the spot. Now I have it in my head, as measured by the railing. Merry thought — I have had eleven chances to do that and only now thought of it.
Joyce wasn’t walking, so I took the weather warning that rain was coming soon, and left to walk 15 minutes early. It didn’t rain until after I got home and weeded one section of the garden path. I had planned to turn back if clouds were visible, and that’s when neighbor Cindy came into view, walking her two dogs. She said she’d turn around and walk with me, knowing my goal was the stop sign near her house. If I had gotten rained on, it would have been worth it to spend time with Cindy. Her exciting story of the day was learning why her riding mower wouldn’t turn on. She had stopped to move a branch out of the way and couldn’t restart it. A neighbor looked at it and explained it was a safety feature. She had failed to stop the blades before cutting it off, so the machine refused to start, since the blades would have roared to life.
Shawn’s day lilies were exceptionally pretty just across from my driveway, so I stopped for a photo. When I sent it to her, she asked for a copy. She recently learned that she should have been removing old leaves, and this was proof that it worked.
As I watered plants that David had put in my garden, I found one of the dwarf butterfly bushes had a bloom. The other one had more buds, but they hadn’t bloomed yet. I had to share that with him by sending the photo. We were both excited about it. This was a merry happening, indeed!
After I checked the side of the house for woodpecker damage, I noticed a plant growing out of a huge evergreen under the guest room windows. There was a red berry, and I knew I was looking at an unripe wild blackberry. I will check on it, but it’s likely a bird will get it before it’s ripe enough for me to eat.
Grandson Nathaniel and wife Sarah spent an afternoon with me on their way back from a short break, celebrating their first anniversary. What a delightful time I had! First, I asked about recent developments in their lives. Nate told about the last few days at the restaurant where he had worked for less than a year. Two other nearby locations closed, and subsequently the whole chain shut down. On one of the last days, a five-foot hole in the roof funneled lots of rain water into the kitchen. Nate grabbed a huge skillet and set up a frying station for one of the cooks, out of the way of the flood. They turned away customers and were able to serve those already seated. His story had me holding my breath!
Sarah’s account was vastly more cheerful. She recently got a good promotion at the hotel where she works. Modesty kept her from telling exciting details, but I knew this was a very good step up for her. It was wonderful to celebrate her success.
We ate lunch at the nearest barbecue place, one new to them. The baked beans tasted so good that they bought more to take home.
On the way to my house, we stopped at the farm stand that is nearest to me. They treated me to peaches and one baking potato. I stopped buying a bag of potatoes years ago, and this one will be a great treat. They bought peaches, too, as well as peas. I saw where strawberries had been displayed, but they were all gone toward the end of the day.
I really appreciated all the time they spent here. As they were leaving, Kate called and had a chance to chat with them a short while. She and I continued our chat later. It was great that Nathaniel texted me when they got home about three hours later. What a wonderful day it had been!
I was chatting on the phone with daughter Kate when odd things began to happen. A light was flashing on the base plug for the doorbell, the CD player began playing in the kitchen, and a few other noises came from the rest of the house. Usually the clock on the stove blinks when the electricity goes out, but it didn’t this time. The generator did not come on. There was no interruption in our phone connection, either. Neighbors checked in with a group chat. Everyone noticed the blip. Holly works for the electric company, and she was contacting the man on duty tonight.
I noticed the light outside was an odd color and went to the porch. There was a brilliant rainbow, and I saw a very pale second rainbow. The others saw the rainbow but couldn’t see the extra one. About that time granddaughter-in-law Sarah texted that she and Nathaniel were driving nearby. She wondered if I could see the rainbow they were seeing. The heavens certainly got our attention at that time!
The second rainbow is more visible down low, near the top of the tree.
Grandson David and I were walking toward the restaurant with the sun at our backs. Looking at the shadow of my head, I exclaimed, “I have horns! Look at that! Horns are coming out of my head!”
David took care of it in two seconds. He took a swipe at the top of my head with one long-fingered hand. “Now you don’t have horns!”
We laughed together. You can’t tell by looking at him that he has a good sense of humor, but he keeps me laughing.
Do you believe weather forecasts? I pay little attention to them, because it seems 90% of the time, no dire prediction comes true. I saw that thunderstorms were predicted before I went to town. I wasn’t going to sit around waiting for nothing to show up. I parked near Great Clips and walked in under a cloudless sky. My back was to the storefront. I enjoyed watching the young woman quickly cut my hair, paid for the service, and sat down to put in my hearing aids. Standing up, I took four steps, turned to the door, and saw the parking lot had disappeared behind a wall of heavy rain. An untranslatable sound escaped from my mouth, to which a male customer responded. “Didn’t expect that, did you?”
I was heading to the physical therapy place next door and quickly ducked under the eave of the building for those few steps. Every so often I go back to ask Fletcher to remove one or two exercises and add something new. The goal is to keep my phone session updated and under 20 minutes. He was the one who suggested I could keep coming back, and he is still willing to make changes for me. I wonder if there is anyone else who does this, but I won’t ask. It keeps me involved and looking forward to something that is essentially boring.
I dropped the envelope with my requests on the desk and asked if I could stay there until the heaviest of the rain passed. Fletcher was working with only one patient, and he included me in the conversation. It was like old times! When the man left, I stayed a few more minutes until the rain finally lessened.
I didn’t expect anything unusual when I opened the door of the car. I got in quickly, and I’m sure my eyes opened quite wide with surprise. I was sitting in a rain-saturated seat! There was nothing to do but keep going. I had forgotten I left the window open about an inch to let the heat escape. Instead, I had invited the rain inside. When I pulled into the garage and got out, I found the back of my jeans was wet from my waist to my knees!
I called the rain a deluge. My expectation that the weather would not change was delusional!
When I deal with the garden waterfall, there is always a lot of movement into and out of the screened porch. The remote pump control is inside, as is the water faucet. To add water to the pool, I put the hose in place outside, turn on the water inside, go outside to see when the pool is almost full, turn the water off, and hang up the hose. I described five times going through the door. This particular day I had also trimmed some old plants and watered eight new ones. Was I lazy to leave the gloves on the watering can, instead of hanging them on the handles of the trimmer?
First, I’m a miser by nature. I get pleasure in saving both time and money. The judgment took a few minutes, as I carefully thought of all I had done. I saved steps by temporarily leaving the gloves on the watering can. I wasn’t amused by it until I went back to put things away. It looked so funny to see the empty gloves grasping the handle, ready to move at a moment’s notice. I decided I hadn’t been lazy, after all. I had saved 10 steps to use another day. I will try not to squander them.
My name is Suki, my human is a writer, and this is about my world. The world according to Suki The Cat. My humans smell funny, look weird, and I can't understand a thing they say, but they feed me, so hey, what are you gonna do?
Mehrling Muse 