It was bound to happen.
Sooner or later, it was bound to
happen.
“Peg! What’s goin’ on‽” you wanna know. “And what’s that funny
mark after my question?”
That ‘funny mark’ is called an
interrobang. It’s a combination question mark and exclamation point. Sometimes,
even though it’s a question, I’ll just use an exclamation point. The editor on my
word processor wants me to use a question mark, but a question mark alone doesn’t
give it emphasis. Some people will use the two marks separately with the main
feeling being on the first of the two. I’m not sure I like the interrobang and
may go back to the way I used to do it.
And to answer your first question, not
a lot. And that was bound to happen sooner or later. COVID keeps us at home
with very little physical contact with the outside world. But I have the
internet to keep me connected and most mornings I call my Miss Rosie.
“Hey, Miss Rosie!” I cheerfully say
when she answers.
“Hey, Miss Peg!” she always responds. “What’d’ya
know today?” she asked before I could.
“Hey! That’s my line!” I told her.
“I know. I said it before you could this
morning.”
We chatted for a few minutes, covering
the little bit of news since our conversation the day before and it didn’t take
very long either.
“Boy! We lead such exciting lives!” I told
her.
“I know. I find it interesting to see
what you’ll write about in your letters.”
I laughed. “So do I!”
And BAM! Just like that she’s
given me something to write about!
>>>*<<<
Kat’s been gone five-going-on-six years now and
we’re still ‘friends’ on Facebook. Sometimes I’ll scroll through her page, read
her posts, see the pictures she painted. I’ll never delete her.
Little Itsy’s been gone since December and my
alarm is still set for 5:30 a.m. Seldom do I get up at 5:30 a.m. Another alarm goes
off half an hour later, at 6. If I’d been up in the middle of the night taking
Itsy outside, I’d wait until the later alarm to get up and take her out again.
“Why don’t you turn off the 5:30 alarm,” my
handsome husband asked. “You never get up till 6 anyway.”
I can’t explain it. I can’t explain why. “I
like it,” is what I tell him. “I like the half hour of snoozing before I get
up.” But it’s more than that. When the alarm goes off at 5:30, it reminds me of
Itsy. If the alarm didn’t go off anymore, maybe I wouldn’t think of her anymore
either.
Saturday morning, I was up before the first
alarm. Way before the first alarm. I was up at 11:30, though technically that’s
still Friday night. Mike had been asleep when I put my book down around 10:00
and now he was watching TV. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Can’t sleep,” he answered.
I threw an arm over my head and went back to
sleep.
Waking up several times in the night is
nothing new for me. Hot flashes demand an immediate unsleep and uncover. Then I
can’t go back to sleep until the hot flash has passed, I’ve cooled off and can
snuggle back down in the blankets again. Around 3 Saturday morning I woke up
with no hot flash and laid there listening. What woke me up? I wonder.
“You awake,” came a tiny whisper from the other side of
my king-size bed.
If I’d been asleep, it wouldn’t have woken me.
“Yeah,” I whisper back. Saying it too loud would crack the gauzy haze
of sleepfulness I was struggling to hold on to.
I went back to sleep.
Five o’clock I wake again and this time decided to get up and start my day. It is, after all, my day to visit with you!
>>>*<<<
My decluttering, dusting, and cleaning
carried me into the bedroom where I found some coins in the bottom of a basket
sitting on my dresser. I don’t know what else was in there, at least not
anymore, and the coins were covered in green and white barnacles.
Okay! Okay! They weren’t really barnacles
but something bumpy and green and white was growing on them.
“What can I use to get this off with?” I asked
Mike but he didn’t know. I know that you can use vinegar to remove rust from things
like tools and nuts and bolts. I wonder if it’ll work on pennies. I got
a little bowl, dumped in some vinegar and the coins and let is sit — overnight.
Doggone it! I think I’ve ruined the coins. They’ll
still spend, at least I think they will, but the three-cent value of the wheat
backs is probably gone.
“Peg, why didn’t you Google it first?” you wanna know.
I know, right! I should’ve.
>>>*<<<
We had a pretty sunrise this week. I didn’t know how
pretty it was going to be when I first started taking pictures so let’s do a
study in Tuesday morning’s sunrise, shall we?
I grabbed both my cameras and took pictures from the
kitchen patio.
Then the sun started to peek above the
horizon and the sunrise became more beautiful. It’s generally not a good idea
to take pictures of the sun but because it’s clocked … er cloaked in morning clouds,
I took a chance. The difference a letter makes!
Something I’ve discovered is I also like the view from
the other side of the house, so I hurried and took pictures from that vantage
point too.
As I zoomed in on the sun the camera picked up more of the colors.
>>>*<<<
I’ve been reading the series Earth’s Children
by Jean M. Auel. I read the first three books and thought I was getting the fourth
one, The Land of Painted Caves. It wasn’t until I’d gone looking for the
fifth book that I realized what I’d done. I skipped two whole books! I never
checked to see which one was next, I just assumed they came up in order on my online
library. Assumptions get me every time!
When book three left off, Jondalar and Ayla were
just starting a year-long journey to Jondalar’s home and people. I just assumed
there wasn’t any story in that journey and that’s how I justified the jump in
time in my head. Then, when the author referenced a fact from a previous book,
I just thought it was a clarification, not that I’d missed a book — or two! Luckily
the book stood on its own.
I
took a break from the series when Little Fires Everywhere appeared on my
shelf with a note that it was available for me to borrow. I jumped right on
that! I’ve been waiting since April of 2020 to get the book. My place in line
was 1,428 and they had 43 copies.
It takes me an embarrassing long time to
read a book. As an example, I had to renew The Land of Painted Caves
five times. I finished it a week before my last two-week loan was due. That
means it took me about nine weeks to read it.
Sigh.
“What’s the problem, Peg?” you wanna know.
My eyes get tired. I don’t know if it’s my
age or the electronic device I read on but it doesn’t seem like I can read long
before they’re too tired. Sometimes, if it’s a really exciting part in the
story, I can push it and endure, using eye drops or stopping to rub my eyes
every so often.
“I’ve gotta finish this book before my time’s
up,” I told Mike. “I’ll never get it back again!” More than 900 people were
still waiting for it.
I started reading it Monday evening during
my recliner time. Mike was watching Trails of Wells Fargo and I can
mostly tune that out.
I finished reading it Wednesday. Needless to
say, I spent a good part of Tuesday and Wednesday reading and not much else. It
was an easy read — a page turner and I really enjoyed it. It a refreshing
change from the caveman series. I really liked how Celeste Ng wove the whole,
complicated story together.
And I’m not the only one who liked it
either. Hulu has made this book into a miniseries.
Now I’m back to the real fourth book in the
Jean M. Auel series.
>>>*<<<
After spending two days doing nothing extra
but reading, I found myself in a lull. I’ve got a couple of projects on my
glass table and about a million more rattlin’ around in my head, but I couldn’t
quite seem to get motivated.
I need a game to play on my computer, I thought. When I checked what came with
the computer, I wasn’t happy. Klondike Solitaire or Candy Crush Friends.
Then I remembered that I had Jewel Quest on CDs. My cute little red-haired sister got me addicted to this game by giving me the first disc. I’m responsible for buying Jewel Quest II and Jewel Quest III on my own. As a matter of fact, I completed all but the last level on the third one. It’s been years since I’ve played this game, I figured it’d be new again. And I was right. I can waste a lot of time playing this game.
>>>*<<<
We did go shopping one day this week.
“Maybe something exciting will happen when
we’re out,” I told Miss Rosie, but nothing exciting did.
For one thing, it was raining, sprinkle-schmitting.
Now there’s a handy word. Schmitt. Mike’s
dad used to use it as in, “Hand me that measure-schmitt, kid!” Now it often
finds its way onto the end of lots of words during our conversations. It’s very
versatile.
I took a picture of the rain-speckled
windshield. “Now I can tell them the reason they don’t get any road pictures is
because it was raining,” I told Mike. I thought the truck would give it more
interest.
I tried really hard to capture the beauty of
our fog-shrouded mountains. I don’t have the knowledge or the equipment or the know-how
to do them justice.
How about a short study in mountain mist?
“Mom! Where’s all the traffic!?” that handsome son of ours asks.
I
know, right! Where we used to live in Lake Ozark, Missouri, you couldn’t go anyplace
without a ton of traffic. It’s a little different here. Lots of times there won’t
be a car in front of us or behind us for as far as we can see.
Our shopping trip only took us to
Tunkhannock and McDonald’s for lunch was our first stop. Talk about beautiful
houses! Tunkhannock has a lot of beautiful old historic houses! Some day we’ll
do a study on those, but here’s a taste.
One
of the many things I picked up on our shopping trip was goodies for our grandson
Andrew’s Valentine box. We live so far away now that the only way we have to
show our love is to send him a goodie box from time to time.
There aren’t any toys I can buy and
stuff into a flat rate box that he would want or need so I stick to treats, solar-powered
dancing characters, and craft projects.
I
end up sending him a lot of these little plastic paintable suncatchers. After
he paints them, he can hang them up and enjoy them for a long time.
This time, instead of getting him the tiny
little tubs of paint, I went for the more professional tubes. Then I picked up
a pack of three canvas boards for him to create his own original works of art.
I packed the box and let it sit on the
counter that night. I was watching TV with Mike when I remembered I’d forgotten
to include the plastic paint palette that came with my glass paint and I’ll never
use. Not only that, I’d forgotten to put in the suction cup hooks to hang his
suncatchers from too! I got up and got the palette from the back of the counter
where I’d stowed it and put it on top of his box. I’d have to open it back up and
find room, but I’d do it. Then I went out to my shop and found the open box of dust-covered,
cobwebby (but new) suction cup hooks. I washed the hooks and put ‘em in the
drainer to dry. The next morning, I opened the box, repacked it, and went off
to the post office to mail it. After I got home and emptied the dish drainer,
guess what I found.
Yeah. You know what I found.
The suction cups I’d meant to include.
Sigh!
I guess I’m getting old and forgetful.
I’ll have another box to send before long,
I’ll put them in there. Until then, Andrew can hang his suncatchers from a
string and bent paper clip — or just a string.
Some of Andrew’s snacks I get at Aldi’s.
We really like a lot of the Aldi’s brands and we especially like Aldi’s
pricing. We do the majority of our shopping at that store.
“How did we ever get by without Aldi’s?”
Mike asked another couple in the same aisle as us.
“I don’t know. We love Aldi’s,” the
Mrs. said.
“I know. We had to go to Dickson
City,” I chimed in.
“Or Sayre,” Mike reminded me.
“Do you know what we really like that
we always buy here?” Mrs. asked.
“What?” I wanted to know.
“Chocolate bars. He loves dark
chocolate,” she said indicating her husband, “and these are made in Europe so
the chocolate is really good — not bitter at all. You can get it with either
almonds or hazelnuts.”
Mike loves dark chocolate too. “We’re
gonna try ‘em! Where’re they at?” I asked.
She started to tell us but Mr. interrupted.
“NO! Don’t tell them! They might buy ‘em all!”
And
everyone laughed.
We found the chocolates right where
she directed and I picked up one with almonds (I don’t care for hazelnuts). They’re
made in Austria and UTZ certified.
“What’s that?” you wanna know.
I know, right! I wanted to know too!
So I looked it up for us.
UTZ is a certification program for
sustainable farming of coffee, tea, cocoa, and hazelnuts. The program is part
of the Rainforest Alliance, an international non-profit organization working to
create a better future for people and nature.
We weren’t in
the car long before I had that baby opened and broke off a bite. “She’s right.
It’s not bitter. But it’s still chocolate.” I’m not much of a chocolate lover
or even liker for that matter.
“Would you buy it again?” I asked
Mike.
“No.”
“Why not?” I suspected the answer
before he said it.
“I
don’t wanna eat that kinda stuff.”
“If you were eating chocolate
and buying chocolate, would you buy it again?”
“Maybe.”
“Is it better than other chocolates?”
And that’s the nitty-gritty of it.
“Not necessarily.”
When you’re a chocolate lover, even bad
chocolate is good chocolate.
>>>*<<<
Look at these two pictures, would ya!
“What about them?” you ask.
These are pictures of shots I missed.
Smudge climbed up on top of the ladder
and sat there as pretty as you please. I went for the camera and when I came back,
he was gone.
And the other one is a missed shot of
Tiger. He got on the very end of the crown molding and laid down. Again, I went
for the camera but he was gone when I got back.
And there’s another shot I missed too.
I
missed a shot of a pair of hawks circling over the house. I had my camera with
me but not the long lens. I took a couple of shots of one of the hawks but knew
he was much too far away, then ran for the long lens. Alas! They’d moved on by
the time I got back outside.
Since I was already out with my big lens,
I decided to take pictures of the melting snow coming off the roof through the
downspout.
It
falls into a trashcan-turned-rainwater collector.
Isn’t
it interesting how the ice pushes up from the bottom?
The dripping water has melted a hole in the ice in the bucket.
Heading back in I thought I’d see if I could get pictures of drops falling from the end of icicles.
My
first few shots were duds. My camera wanted to focus on the trees in the background
and not the icicles in the front.
I turned off auto focus and caught the next
few shots manually.
Our final study is a study in the formation and drip of a drop of water. The refection in the droplet is the tree line behind it.
For all of my missed shots, someone who was still there when I went back out with a camera was this guy. Ol’ Mr. Woolly Bear was right smack-dab in the middle of a frozen tundra.
Okay! Okay! So it was in my backyard,
but what the heck is he doing out this time of year! He’s supposed to be
hibernating!
I took his picture and walked away. Then I felt bad. The least I could do was help the poor critter out! He was halfway between the tree line and the stone pile heading towards the stone pile. I picked him up and gave him a ride the rest of the way. I hope that’s where he wanted to go.
>>>*<<<
“Specks!” you exclaim.
Shhh. Let me have my illusions.
And the other thing I want to point
out is I can’t recreate the photo. So, you’ll just have to look at my dust.
Speaking of dust…
Mike was concerned about the health of
my lungs, especially when the physician’s assistant said dust could aggravate and
worsen my cough.
Mike was so concerned that he bought a
house air purifier.
The
Nuwave OxyPure will take care of 1,200 square feet, pulls air from all four
sides, has a five-stage filter system, and eliminates 99.99% of odors and bacteria.
“Yeah, but Peg, they want to sell you
one,” you say.
I know, right. Mike did research it
and check online reviews before he bought it. Now that it’s in the house, I
have to tell ya, I think it works.
We’ve got seven litter boxes in the
house. The air purifier is in the living room, just outside the bedroom door. I
can scoop the box in the closet, the one in the bedroom, walk past the air purifier
and be working on the one at the far end of the kitchen and the purifier kicks
on. It knows when I’m doing litter boxes.
It came with extra filters but I don’t
know how long it’ll be until we have to change it. The unit will tell us.
“How are you doing?” you wanna
know.
My lungs don’t hurt anymore. I still have a cough but it’s not as bad as it was. Thanks for asking.
Until next time, remember, you're all in my heart.
Let's call this one done!
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