34 Big Ones!

Yup! Frost killed the basil on Saturday night and that means it was time for Bob and I to celebrate 34 years on non-anniversary. (I'm considering asking, "Where did/does the time go?" but it's rhetorical and a cliche so I won't.)

Savvy blog readers will notice that the basil is in a small plastic pot. Out basil did so badly that- as noted in a previous posting- we did not have pesto this summer... not even once! One day while at our local supermarket, I happened to spy herb plants (and organic no less!) and purchased the above victim. Pretty sad that this plant was born to be offered up as a sacrificial avatar of our anniversary. But it did its job and here we are.

 

We also bought a nice cheerful little chrysanthemum to celebrate our 34 years of un-married adventures, along with sushi and tempura and seaweed and teriyaki. It was a pleasant evening until we accidentally attempted to watch a comedy which was describing the relationship of two women (one of them ostensibly an asshole artist!!) who would spend much of the next hour and a half beating each other into bloody pulps- and comas- multiple times. Be careful of what passes as "comedy".

And then there was this:

Yes! An amazing full moon (Hunter's moon) that I just couldn't do justice to in pictures. The whole sky glowed and the abundant clouds were tufted and rippled and rumpled. It was pretty spectacular!

Hope everyone got to enjoy it and thanks for the anniversary good wishes!

We Went to the Animal Fair...

 

Yes, the birds an the beasts were there! As well as some pretty awesomely scary rides!! Take the freaky Pharaoh above... please! (*1) There was a terrified child being tortured on that Egyptian nightmare; the mother looked totally unconcerned. The child has no doubt been scarred for life by his/her experience!

A big hit with us fair-goers was the hall of fruits and vegetables. Rows of multicolored Swiss chard and plates and plates of peppers, beans and eggplants, each more splendid and appetizing than the last. Cathy was searching- in vain!- for some vegetable dish to consume and Bob remarked how ironic it was that for all the fruits and veg on display, there was none to eat. He thought it was a missed opportunity to have a giant farmer's market. But honestly judging by the girth of many of our fellow fair attendees, vegetables were NOT what they were chowing down on. (*2)

Look at that lovely rainbow of peppers! Clever display!

And award-winning apples, attractively arranged into diamonds. Oh! the produce... what a fair should be. We saw some pretty heroically giant pumpkins, too.

The flowers were a big hit, too. Lovely dahlias and exotic coleus and zinnias and hydrangeas and celosia: all looking pretty good despite four days of being on display. We had an altogether super time, and were an appreciative audience.

There are a few things we missed. We never did make it back to see the many chickens on view. Somehow skipped right past the pigs and cows and missed the bunnies... Also we never made it to the marketplace tent where we would no doubt have been able to purchase cheeses or maple syrup, all locally produced. We were too busy being seduced by the terrifying marvels of the midway, (*3)

I also missed having fried dough topped with tomato sauce; probably a blessing. But as it was Bob's first time to the Durham Fair, we did our best to sample a bit of everything. As we boarded the shuttle bus which would deliver us back to our cars, we spied a Monster Truck demonstration that was enthralling a vast crowd, seated on the hillside. Alas! Maybe next time...

(*1) All of the photos in this episode of my blog were taken by my sister Cathy, who did a marvelous job of documenting the fair. I was too busy stuffing deep fried apple fritters in my mouth to take pictures!

(*2) Unless humongous paper platters of ketchup soaked greasy french fries count as "vegetables".

(*3) Who thinks these rides up? Not one of us appreciated the allures of rocketing upside down in a metal cage- it all looked like barf-inducing torture to us! (Especially after piles of greasy french fries and chocolate covered bacon. (an actual offering...))

NuTruk!

 

Hooray! Look what landed in our driveway! A new truck for Bob (and Rita) to drive and enjoy. No, it is not brand new, but it's the newest vehicle (2014) we've ever gotten- even newer than our beloved Red Rover (2010? I think?) Anyway, we're pleased as punch... and relieved.

Do you know how hard it is to find a good used truck?!?! With an eight foot bed? (practically unheard of in this day and age!! They're all those weird stumpy long cab, short bed fiascos. We NEED the long bed- think sculpture and hay bales and gravel...) Believe me, used trucks fall into two categories: really old, decrepit- (suitable for "total restoration), with 200,000 miles or really new and costing major $$$.

So I think- WE think- we got lucky, especially as (what were the chances?!?!?) this crazy truck was located in our town. We were even able to have our mechanic check it out. He loved the truck; he was very impressed and said, "Except for needing two front tires and wind shield wipers, it's a great truck". That made us happy and reasonably certain we wouldn't regret buying it.

All we need is a new "Bernie" sticker for that naked bumper! We took a field trip and looked at a pretty much identical truck out in Willimantic last week. It was good to have a comparison in cost/mileage/color/year but there was no comparison. That truck handled oddly and even made a loud clunking noise when we tried it (universal joint?) But the dealership sales man (who looked like a character out of Twin Peaks) and the greasy young sales "closer"keep emailing and asking "what's it gonna take to get that Ford into your driveway?" I informed them we bought another one...

Anyway, between the new car and the new truck we should be happily motoring for years. And as was "helpfully" pointed out by a friend, accelerating the Climate Crisis.

When It Rains, It Pours

 

We all know that we've been suffering through a drought: well, no more! While I welcomed the much needed rain, the fact that it was delivered in a monsoon-like one day event was pretty stunning. I heard four inches in some spots; a month's worth of rain in one day! And some of that decided to inundate my studio.

The site of the worst leak was right above my woodstove. I entered my studio last Tuesday to find the floor wet, the stove dripping and the ceiling drooling. As witnessed above, I placed buckets and waste baskets and towels to mop up and collect the deluge. I'm still drying out today, two days later.

Fortunately, nothing of import (read: my artwork) got wet.

I emptied this tub three times! To bad all this water wasn't available a month ago... The grass and parts of the garden are recovering but face it; it's already September and how much time do we really have left to garden. Now there's a grim thought! We all waited all winter for the gardening season, it starts out really nicely with a mix of sun and rain and then we were thrust into the driest two months in who knows how long. Hahahahhaha!! The "joys" of gardening!

To take our minds off all that watery mayhem, here are a few delightful pictures of our morning glories; erupting into their own heavenly blue cascade of waterfall-like loveliness. Here's another shot:

This variety is called "Flying Saucers' and is so interesting as each flower is striped and sotted in a different pattern. At least the flowers enjoyed all the rain.

Things have been busy and distracting, the ceiling leak was only part of it. In the last week alone, my poor horse Neko showed symptoms of a new infection (or recurrence) of Lyme disease and is unrideable and on antibiotics for a month, we're discussing have Maggie (the ancient Mexican pony) euthanized, our favorite pizza place went out of business, two friends got sick with COVID, we're driving around looking for a new(er) truck (*1) What else? Hey! isn't that enough? Oh yeah, the queen just died.

(*1) Much much harder than you'd think! We need/want a long (eight foot) bed and they're all short and stumpy. We don't want all that extended cab nonsense and guess what? That's what 95% are. And every truck out there is either really old with like 220,000 miles on it or really new and waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much money. We are in process of checking one out right here in our town. Stay tuned: it may be the one.

Re-Tire

 

What are the chances? Twice in one week!!!! Sometimes, the universe just likes to mess with your head...

Neither tire puncture was due to lousy driving habits or faulty cheesy tires. Both incidents were apparently caused by driving over something sharp...

Last week I was tootling back from Stop and Shop when I noticed an idiot light was on on the dashboard. Investigation proved it to be a low tire pressure sensor... what won't they think of next! (sorry: we're used to driving very old cars that don't have such new fangled instruments as back up computers and automatic transmissions...) Anyway, I checked the air pressure when I got home and lo! the driver's side rear tire was very low. Bob added air, but the next morning the tire was really low again. As luck would have it, I had an eye doctor appointment that morning but our local garage squeezed us in and was able to patch the tire- and not charge us! Thank you Jimmy!

So yesterday, I announced my intentions to drive to Trader Joe's in Danbury. Bob agreed to accompany me as he needed roof tar at Home Depot. This turned out to be fortunate in the extreme. As we tooled along towards Danbury, traffic on Rt 84 came to a crawl and we decided to get off the highway a couple of exits early and run our errands in the opposite order. As I pulled into the exit lane, that damned low air pressure light came back on. I suspected the patch had failed and as we rolled off the exit ramp, the noise of a flopping definitely flat tire became louder. We pulled into a gas station (*1) and yup! Flat tire! But on the passenger's side rear!

Lucky for me, Bob was present and "we" changed the tire (Bob doing most of the work). It really took only a few minutes and donut installed, we returned to Southbury to drop off the tire for patching or replacement. We suspected- and had it confirmed- that whatever we rolled over had punched a nice, really big gash into our tire. Heigh ho! New tire. I am hoping we have reached tire-max and don't need to have another flat for at least a couple of years! What were the chances! (*2)

(*1) Not a REAL gas station- do they even exist?- but a convenience market. At least it had a large, flat parking area! And air! But there was a dopey guy parked right in front of the air dispenser... do you think he'd move? Hahahahahaha!

(*2) And other than that, the car is really great: runs quiet, handles nicely, is comfortable, gets good gas mileage... exactly what you want. And the car now has a name! Beatrice ad John's car is Great White, Cathy's Corolla is the Silver Vortex. So, in keeping with a sort of family color motif, I christen our car Red Rover.

Eye Spy

 As some of you know, I messed up my left eye a number of years ago. No need to go into the grim details here but let this serve as a reminder to always wear eye protection when doing almost anything. My eye looks pretty normal, but what I see when I look out of it is anything but normal. (*1) And no, nothing is going to make it okay again as my cornea was sewn back together and I have copious scar tissue through which to view the world. But it's alright: I've gotten used to it!

Anyway, my regular eye doctor had noticed in the past couple of regular eye exam visits that it was noticeably blurrier. She recommended a laser procedure as a secondary cataract had formed behind my eye. I put it off last year as COVID prevented me from wanting to do a lot of things. But this year, after my exam,I decided to go for it.

Last Friday I had an experience that felt pretty sci-fi. I know that this laser technology has been the medical standard for quite some time now, but I don't undergo procedures often so it was novel. The cornea doctor is very relaxed about this procedure as she's doing it hundreds of times a year but I was a bit unnerved by the odd red light and strange clicking noises and her space-age helmet. It certainly didn't hurt while undergoing the procedure as my eye was numbed and it only took a couple of minutes. Afterward, on the way home, it felt (briefly) like someone had rubbed my eye with sandpaper and then put salt in it. That sensation passed quickly. Although my first application of the steroidal eye drops reinforced the salt-in-wound feeling. It was fine after that...

So two days after the procedure I can report no pain (good), no discomfort in applying the eye drops (also good) but I do have a few big black honking  floaters. You know how floaters are usually translucent and wiggly? There are two of these black spots that look like flies have come into view. I want to swat them! This is supposed to resolve soon... kind of annoying but normal. Other than that, I think that color seems to be a bit brighter but I'm not sure I'm "seeing" any less fogginess. I guess I'll have to wait a few days to really know what's up!(*2)

(*1) If you want to sort of approximate what I see out of my left eye, take a small piece of plastic or plexiglass and sand it. When you hold it up to your eye and close the other eye; it will be weird and foggy. You will still "see" but it will not be clear, distinct or articulate. It is like everything has been "generalized". Yes, you see the book shelf or the computer screen or the dog, but it will be as forms with no specific details. 

(*2) I reiterate: no, I will never see totally normally. Medical science cannot do that. I think the best my doctors and I hope for is less cloudiness. Too early to tell!

 

More Medieval Farm Fun!

 

Isn't it amazing that this lovely, halcyon woodsy vision is on our property? Is it any wonder that our friend the bear chose to stroll through, no doubt enjoying the view? This break in the trees leads to our stream which we are so fortunate have because it's now how we're watering our gardens. As I referenced in an earlier post, our well was presenting with low water pressure and we are being conservative with the hose watering.

Here's Bob down by the stream ready to dip in and fill the buckets. It's really quite pretty here... if one scares the bears (and coyotes and bobcats and probably a few stray mountain lions!) away. (*1) Anyway, this has become a daily event in our modern efforts to re-create how our medieval ancestors lived. Some things never change!

Fill those buckets! Tote that weight! And then we schlepp them up the hill to the awaiting water cart and pour the water into the bigger buckets. Bob is much stronger than me so he carries a couple of buckets at once; I can only manage one. But who's counting? It's all in good, clean medieval fun!

And then we push that cart up the hill (of course it's a hill!) and through the gate and away across the lawn to the various containers and vegetables that need refreshment. But all our hard work is paying off as nothing has died despite the continued drought. In fact the vegetable garden is really productive, serving up a bounty of Swiss chard, okra, lettuce, parsley, squash, peppers and the first tomatoes. (Soon to come: hazel nuts, grapes and beans.)

(This is a picture from earlier this year because I'm too lazy to go out and re-photograph the vegetable garden. It's too hot and I'm hungry. And I guess too honest.)

(*1) Not to mention watching out for ticks and leeches and variously infected mosquitoes... scary world we live in!