Bits and Pieces

The early morning air is humming with the sounds of lawnmowers as neighbors take advantage of the still-under-sixty-degrees weather.   The cats have found a warm spot on my small patio and are stretched out, getting their daily dose of sunshine.  I leave the doors into the house ajar so that they can flee to safety when startled by the bark of the neighbors' dogs.

We've had a lovely weather week, with morning temperatures ranging from the high forties to low fifties.  The humidity is low and it's a pleasure to be outside.  I need to enjoy this break in the weather while it's here; while we've had highs only in the low 80's for the last few days, a warming (or should I say "hotting") trend is on the way, and central Arkansas will be back into more seasonal weather all too soon.

* * *

While I should have been outside more during the wonderful weather,  I've been doing other things, indoors. My stamping buddy and I will host a Stamp Camp on Sept. 16. I designed three cards and cut and packaged materials for twenty of each.  I'm also leading the make and take sessions at two other stamping groups, one on Saturday the 17th and the other on Monday the 19th .  I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess!  While we have several Stamp Camps during a year, I teach only once a year for the other groups.  I usually select September as my teaching months, since it's easy to remember that my responsibilities fall around birthday time.

* * *

I have four wonderful children, three daughters and one son.  Son and two daughters have lived within a few miles of me for many years, while youngest daughter has roamed the world with the U.S. Air Force until her retirement to Nebraska two years ago.  Son has recently accepted an excellent job in a small southeastern Kansas town about 5 hours away.  He and his wife have purchased a lovely older home there, and are in the process of moving their household goods. Daughter-in-law has stayed here to cope with packing and real estate agents and the like, and Son comes back to Arkansas on weekends to help with the heavy stuff.    To their delight, even in a very slow real estate market, their Arkansas home has sold, and they will vacate the premises by month end. I'm looking forward to visiting them in their new digs, but will miss having them close by.

* * *

I marked the milestone of yet another birthday this past week.  My natal anniversary falls on Labor Day every few years, and this was one of them.  The whole nation took a holiday to help me celebrate  Ha ha!  I had a lovely dinner with my children on Sunday night, followed by a quiet Labor Day/Birthday with absolutely no hoop-la --  my kind of day.  I even got in an afternoon nap.  The evening brought a small gathering of my closest friends. One of the ladies also has a September birthday, the day before mine, and we have a joint celebration.  We enjoyed a good visit, exchanged gifts (with the other birthday girl and I on the receiving end of gifts from the others).  We also shared a delicious cake that has become "our" birthday cake.  The cake, called "Summer Fruit Tart," is made by Silvek's European Bakery in Little Rock (look here for a photo of our cake and other delicious treats they prepare), and it's been our birthday treat for the last four or five years.  Birthdays do have some nice things about them.

* * *

When not doing card stuff, I've been reading. Light reading only; I'm not up to material that requires a lot of brain power to digest.  I'm finally comfortable with my Kindle, and have read seven books in the last ten days, four of them, by the same author, in two days. If you're interested, the seven "cozy" books I read were by authors Robert Spiller and Judy Christie, and are listed in "Books Read in 2011" on my sidebar.   Other than tiring my aging eyes a bit, I've thoroughly enjoyed the quietness of entertainment that doesn't require sound. I had been watching far too much television.

* * *

Speaking of TV's -- my Gardening Daughter's husband gifted me with a huge surprise for my birthday, a new-to-me wide screen HD TV!  He's a "latest and greatest" techie and a big time movie buff, and recently acquired one of the 3-D televisions.   Having no room in their home for another wide-screen TV, something had to go, and the sweet boy was kind enough to replace my old, beginning-to-get-fuzzy television..  The television set that used to be in their living room is now in my living room.  I'm still getting used to being able to read all the fine print on the commercials!  Gardening Daughter assures me that it was entirely his idea to pass the still good-as-new TV on to me, and he delivered and set up the unit (and a new DVD player) while I was away from home for a day.

Guess that's about it.

Tomorrow is also a day.

'Weather' I Like It, or Not ...

2 p.m. - 69 degrees and gathering clouds

...the anticipated cold front is beginning its move into Arkansas.  At church time this morning, there was hardly a cloud in the sky.  By mid-afternoon, it was hard to find a shard of blue. 

In a few days, northern Arkansas is supposed to have snow, and southern Arkansas is supposed to receive heavy rain -- supposed being the operative word.  Weather forecasting being what it is, we shall see what we shall see.  I just hope that the folk in central Arkansas will not have to (1) get out the snow shovels and tire chains or (2) row, row, row our boats.  Geographically placed as we are between south and north we're likely to have ice -- if anything.

If it's going to get really cold again, I'm glad I haven't yet cleaned away the leaves that have blown into my flower beds.  This latest warm spell has encouraged my spring bulbs to send up green shoots. I'd hate for them to freeze.

While I wait to see what's going to happen to the weather, I'll be reading and napping, not necessarily in that order.

Tomorrow is also a day.

Weather Related Woes

On this past Friday afternoon, shortly after 4 p.m., we had a "willy-waw" of a storm charge through town. The highest official wind gust at the weather station 5 miles from me was 52 mph, but if it wasn't 60-75 mph, or more, in my front yard, I will eat an anemometer -- without catsup. I thought I was going to lose my maple tree; the top branches were bent almost to ground level. Huge clumps of leaves from the large oak three houses to the west were whizzing across the yard. Hanging on to the wrought iron roof supports of my small front porch, I stepped outside in time to see strange cloud formations, moving at an extremely rapid pace from west to east. My daughter called me a few minutes later to report that she had seen a funnel cloud aloft from her then position of about 1 mile north of me. A funnel cloud aloft (probably the same one) was photographed above a business about 1.5 miles west of here.

"Severe and potentially dangerous thunderstorm warning" was about all I could find on the local weather reports.

The most vicious wind gusts were followed by almost as strong winds accompanying a torrential downpour (actually, "down" was not the direction in which the rain was falling) which lasted only about 10-15 minutes. I thought my lilies were gonners! I could just imagine their little heads, and remaining buds, being blown into the next county. I'm happy to report that they survived, though the then open blooms were beat to a pulp much the worse for wear when I finally could get to them.

The storm passed, and we were experiencing only a very light drizzle and no appreciable wind when, at precisely 5 p.m. , the lights flickered and went out. Everything dependent upon electricity shut down: computer, the air conditioning system, refrigeration, telephones, etc.

When it got dark, I opened a window for some air circulation and went to bed. Saturday morning's first light revealed that I, and my adjacent neighbors, were still without electrical power. Strangely enough, the folk directly across the street, and all their neighbors had power. The folks immediately behind me on this block had no power, but their across the street neighbors had power. Somebody's picking on us!

Saturday morning telephone calls to the energy company revealed that they were, of course, aware of the problem and expected to have power restored by noon. Noon came and went.
My sweet neighbor across the street brought me a container of ice so I could have some cold water. More calls. "We're working on it. You should have power in a couple of hours." Later.... "we expect full power to be restored before midnight."

So, I stayed here another night, taking a shower by candlelight and going to bed with the chickens. I awoke this morning around 5:30. No power. I managed to brew a cup of coffee by pouring almost boiling water through coffee grounds in a filter. Yum! -- and thank goodness for a gas range, even if I had to light the burner with a match.

I left for church at 9:45. No power.

I'm delighted to report that prayer must have some efficacious effect on energy company problems/delays because when I got home from church. Ta Da!! The electricity was on! Thank you, energy company employees for your dedicated work. I don't know the full extent of the problem, but it must have been pretty serious.

I've spent some time disposing of items from the freezer which had thawed and were on the way to being refrozen (not a good thing.) I still have the refrigerator side to clean out. Thank goodness tomorrow is trash pickup day.

Enough of the woes. I'm a happy camper! The air conditioner is humming, the ceiling fans are turning, the computer is functioning, I can put the flashlight and candles away. Life is good! Thank you, Lord.

Where Did Spring Go?

I spent the first part of this week working inside, in the church office on Monday, then keeping an eagle eye on my 4 year old granddaughter at her home on Tuesday and Wednesday while her mother was elsewhere. I had hoped to work in my trashy uh, beginning-to-be-overgrown, abandoned-looking must-soon-be-mowed-and-edged yard today and tomorrow, but...

...good grief! Where did Spring go? It's after 7 p.m. as I write this, and it's 86 degrees outside -- in the shade! When I engage in physical exertion, which working in the yard certainly entails, I tend to melt into a puddle, i.e., sweat like a horse! My northern European genes don't like the heat -- not one bit!

I can see right now that I'll have to be in the yard at first light tomorrow or I'm going to have to rent some goats!

Image: Wikipedia

Bits and Pieces

Caught in the Wind

(click on photo to enlarge)

It's time for another Stamp Camp. I've been occupied this past week with designing cards and creating samples. This coming week, I'll be cutting card stock, decorative paper and ribbons and otherwise gathering all the materials needed for the participants. It's fun, but time-consuming, so my blogging and blog-reading has been and will be somewhat neglected.

A week ago, I was working in the yard, enjoying the sunshine and balmy weather. We had temps in the low 80's and I thought Spring had arrived. On Wednesday of this week, the icy cold descended upon us again, and temps have not been out of the 40's for the past several days. Thursday brought a bit of icy weather, but it didn't hang around long, but it has not warmed up very much, either. It's good that I have "indoor" sorts of things to keep me occupied.

I was walking my "back forty" a few days ago (before it turned so cold) when my eye caught something hung up on a limb of my fig tree. Closer examination revealed a delicate feather, which had been caught by the not-yet-budded out leaf. How it managed to stay there in the strong wind is a puzzlement.

That's about it for today. I'm off to take precise measurements in preparation for cutting card stock and paper.

I Almost Wish I Hadn't Checked the Weather - Yuk!

"PRECIPITATION MAY END BRIEFLY TUESDAY MORNING BEFORE REDEVELOPING LATER IN THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING. FREEZING RAIN IS EXPECTED ONCE AGAIN...AND ICE ACCUMULATIONS COULD BE SIGNIFICANT. A QUARTER TO HALF AN INCH OF ICE COULD OCCUR IN SOME AREAS." (emphasis mine)

I should quit my grousing! I could live in Nebraska, or Iowa, or Minnesota, or somewhere that it's REALLY cold and nasty in the winter time.

::: counting my blessings... really ::::

Stuff and Junk

"Stuff and Junk" meaning that I have nothing of importance to say, but am posting anyway, just so my faithful readers (bless you) will know that I'm still alive.

I've been absent from the blogs for over a week now, neither posting nor commenting very much, although I have sneaked a quick look at a few of my favorite blogs from time to time.

It's year-end wrap up and new year start up at the church where I volunteer as treasurer, and I'm much involved in both, with a few more days to go before I can draw even a shallow sigh of relief.

Although I'm scheduled to "man" the office only from 9 to noon, I had a full 9 to 5 job today with no lunch break (I did raid the church kitchen and found some cheese and crackers, and made a pot of coffee; I'm in no danger of starvation) since I sloughed off last week and didn't go in on the MLK holiday. (One advantage to being the Monday office volunteer is that most US holidays are scheduled on Monday.)

The anticipated icy precipitation started about fifteen minutes before I left the church office. I had to take some mail to the post office located about 4 miles from the church, and by the time I arrived there my car was covered with a light coating of ice. I haven't taken time to check the weather forecast to see if much accumulation is anticipated, but will do so shortly. There's nothing at all I can do about freezing rain (nor any other sort of weather), but it focuses my worrying.

I would very much like to have some sort of wood-burning device in my home in case the electricity goes out, which it is wont to do when we have ice storms. I have a gas furnace, but the ignition and fan that distributes the heat is electricity-driven, so that's that. My gas stove oven won't work, either, if there's no electricity. For all my gas appliances, I might just as well live in an all-electric home when the power is out.

It's at times like these that a tropical island looks really good!

Update on Snuggles, and Brrrr!

I had a brief visit with Snuggles this afternoon. She seemed glad to see me and wagged her pretty, bushy tail as I spoke with her. She's hanging in there, but has developed a cough, one of the symptoms (details omitted) following the treatment. She is confined to her large indoor kennel except for brief, gentle walks outside as may be necessary. She must be kept from excessive exercise for some time. Still keeping my fingers and toes crossed that she's going to survive the cure.

I think it's colder than a well-digger's boot here today (19 this morning), but I'm really very grateful that I don't live in Iowa, Nebraska or the other states that are suffering from the 40 (or more) degrees below zero temperatures I have read about on blogs from those areas. The older I get, the more sensitive I am to temperature extremes; I dislike both. I had to make a run to the local warehouse store this morning to buy supplies for this coming Sunday's annual church meeting. When I left the house, I looked like Nanook of the North; layers of clothing underneath a heavy coat, a fuzzy hat pulled over my ears, and gloves -- and I was still cold.

Ah, well. This, too, shall pass, and I'll be wishing for a bit of this cold weather when the thermometer hits 110 degrees in the shade this summer.

Sky Watch Friday - Stormy Weather - Post 27

I captured this image a few days ago, about 24 hours ahead of yet another torrential downpour in our area. I haven't checked lately, but I'd venture to say that our precipitation year-to-date is not on the 'minus' side.

Sky Watch Friday is hosted by Tom Wiggers. Check out his site for Sky Watch photos from around the world.