I told you I was KING!

KING OF TIDEWATER

I see you taking my photo! Why won't anyone believe me when I TELL them I'm King of Tidewater? It's nap time and this is one of my many places to nap. I've been to poop and snoop and the grass was WET! What is that all about? I think it rained last night. That's why the grass looks green rather than the brownish it's been lately. Maybe we'll get some more rain this afternoon. We sure need it. I had a puddle to drink out of this morning. I really prefer those puddles to water in a clean dish. I'll always choose the puddle water over the bowl water. It drives my human crazy. Just like I prefer fresh meat to that fake canned stuff, unless it's a sardine. I don't like getting wet and canned fish is the only way I'll get what I really like. I'm sleepy, and I need for my human to cover me up with my blanket, so tootles.

Jury Duty

I have served my civic duty. Three days of sitting, mostly in the jury room. Mid morning the first day the Clerk of the Court started calling names, oh no my name was called. They led 42 of us up to the 4th floor of the courthouse to one of the Superior Court Judge's courtroom. We were questioned 14 at a time, the DA's attorney first, then the attorney for the accused. I figured out I was number 32 on the list and when the two lawyers finally chose a jury I was rejected by the attorney for the accused. I was so relieved. It was an assault and armed robbery case. It was 2:30 p.m. before we were dismissed for the day, but too late to avoid a splitting headache from having missed lunch. Next day we sat for half a day before being dismissed. The third day we sat all. day. long. Twenty were called to hear a civil case. It wasn't long before all returned except for the six chosen for the jury. In the meantime, the people chosen on Monday to hear the assault/armed robbery case returned. Not guilty! The state failed to prove their case. He was guilty, but not enough evidence presented by the state, so they said.

Rumor had it, they were running out of jurors in a murder/death penalty case and we could be carted off up to that Superior Court to be interviewed to serve on that jury. Oh no! I don't want to get on a murder case! Around 4:30 p.m. the lady made an announcement, "you are dismissed for the week, if you need an excuse for your employer, line up at the window, I'll take your name, Mr. Burch will issue the letter." I was out of there like a flash, my employer could care less.

It will be two years before they can call me again. I know it's my civic duty, but it's painful--all that waiting, the questioning, the waiting, rejected, thank goodness, then more waiting and waiting. The murder case is still being heard.

Wild Animals Are Roaming

About two weeks ago I was out looking for Oscar (our cat) and saw a fox in our back yard. I rushed in the house to wake Hubby napping on the sofa. We went back outside and the fox was reclining out by the patio not at all afraid of us. That alarmed us, because a rabid fox can be very unafraid.

I was afraid he would be an enemy to Oscar, but after consulting the Internet, I discovered cats and foxes have a mutual respect for each other. We both kinda relaxed about the fox.

The following evening we found the fox out on the road dead.

Several days ago I was again out looking for Oscar and saw another fox down in the front yard over in the wooded area. I suspect he was looking for food or water. We had attempted to trap the first fox, but he out foxed us. We have a tender trap that Hubby and my brother baited with sardines. The next morning the sardines were mostly eaten, but the trap had not been tripped. We were out foxed.

Unfortunately, we found the second fox out on the road as well. It's sad because all the construction on the road has obviously run these wild animals out of their habitat.

We have lived here 30 years and this is the first time we have ever seen a fox.

We have hawks as well. We know there are three, a mom, dad and a baby. Yesterday we saw one of the hawks swoop down after a squirrel. Too bad the squirrel got away. They are rats with fluffy tails. They also eat siding off of workshops.

COOLER WEATHER?

I never knew 85 degrees F. could feel so "cool". It's overcast today which helps. After the record high temperatures the 85 degrees feels very comfortable. It was 100 degrees F on our porch yesterday, but that even felt "cooler", well, cooler than 105 degrees F. Amazing how five degrees makes a difference. The forecast predicts more hot weather for next week, back up to 100 degrees F. by Tuesday. I suppose more videos will be in order.

Hubby mentioned today we need to finish putting the siding on his workshop. Ugh! We'll have to get up in the middle of the night to start working on that project in order to get that siding up before it gets too hot to work. We only have about six rows to apply and I'm sure hoping it won't take us more than a couple of hours to do what seems like a rather simple job.

We saw another very good movie, "Miss Potter". It's a true story about the life of the English lady that wrote all the "Tales of Peter Rabbit." I don't recall ever having read those children's books, so I think we'll be off to the library to check those books out. This is a video we will purchase.

HOT, HOT, HOT

Take a look at the temperature on our porch. Would you believe 105 degrees F! This is why we are staying inside. We are so thankful for air conditioning. We both grew up in little small frame houses without A/C. I remember when Mama and Daddy bought a window fan from Sears & Roebuck. We thought it was wonderful. At night Daddy would close all the windows in the house except for the windows in two little bedrooms. Those windows were pulled down to about an eight inch opening, resulting in a breeze coming across our beds. It was like heaven to us. Yes, I had to share a bedroom with my brother until I was about 12 years old and Daddy enclosed the screened porch to make a room for my brother. That house was so tiny, but you know, we never thought it was small.

IT'S STILL HOT AS ALL GET OUT!

I suppose everyone knows we are having a heatwave, well, if you ever watch or listen to the news. I think this is pretty widespread across the country. I just heard on the radio we are going to have a heat index of 103 to 110 degrees today!

Well, another day inside. We have literally been inside all week. Only getting out to deal with DOT and/or contractors down at the road.

This has given us an opportunity to just rent movies and veg out in the theater without the guilt. We've seen "Man of the Year" with Robin Williams. It was a good movie and not what we expected from a movie with Robin Williams. Surprising end. We saw two 18th century era movies, "Battle of the Brave" and "Copying Beethoven" as in Ludwig van Beethoven. The music was great, as we both love 18th century classical music. Both very good movies. Being the 18th century history buffs we are, we really enjoyed the clothing. Yesterday we were finally able to rent "The Astronaut Framer" with Billy Bob Thornton. Great family movie!

Today we are off to the north side to have lunch with The Hubby's brother and our good friend, John. I've already informed Hubby I'm wearing shorts and flip flops. It's too hot to "dress up"!

Saga of the Road

Well, this afternoon our neighbor called us to say a dump truck was on fire at the road. We walked down to watch the thing burn for at least 15 minutes before the fire department ever arrived. The scary part, we learned the two fire stations closest to us are closed for remodeling. AND we discovered we no longer have a fire plug near us. What comfort! Traffic was stopped in both directions for at least 45 minutes, at 5:00 p.m.

IT'S HOT AS ...

The past two days we have stayed inside because of the heat, well, except to have meetings with the DOT people and contractors about the road situation. Now, the county has had DOT build huge "planters" that look like interstate walls, and wouldn't you know it, one of the six is right here at us. Now we can't see to turn out of our driveway without subjecting ourselves to grave danger. This all started Friday. DOT is suppose to be making us a driveway from our present drive over to the street just past where we live. As of this afternoon they don't have the gravel down. We have informed them we are not going to drive through all that dust, or mud, if and when it rains. We have involved the county's transportation department. They are being very attentive to our concerns. The gentleman sees the safety issues and liability issues as well. We have learned that lots of other people are real unhappy with the "walls" up and down the road. Will this ever pass. The project is already a year behind schedule. We are looking at the middle of 2008 before completion.

Today I have finally typed all of the Hubby's stories he has written about his childhood. They are a hoot. I thought I would share one of the short ones. After finishing he was sharing another "event" that I've never heard before. I was laughing like crazy when he was telling me the story. He's promised to put this one on paper as well.

THE CAR LOOKS BAD

We had an old 1946 Chevrolet Coupe that looked really bad.

My Dad wanted to have it painted before we went on vacation to Panama City, Florida, but didn't have the money. My Mom had an idea. So she ordered two gallons of pain from Sears. One gallon of beige and one gallon of powder blue. She and my brother, Denny, painted that car while Daddy was at work. It looked like it had been painted with pine tops.

You should have seen the expression on my Dad's face when he saw that car, let alone the words that came out of his mouth. Words that I could never repeat to this day. After circling that car for a couple of hours he finally came in the house and said, "you know, it does look somewhat better." He fell asleep in his favorite easy chair with the newspaper in his lap after he had killed a six-pack of beer before ten o'clock that evening.

We never heard another word about our fiasco point job.

This incident occurred in the early 1950's so Hubby would have been about seven or eight years old and his brother would have been about 14 or 15. I'm not telling his Mom's age.

Why am I so tired?

This has been an extremely busy week. Dr. appointments for my Mom, lunch with close friends, I had to work one day for the county, which is actually a real job, however, it's only one day per month, fishing, cleaning house for a Lia Sophia Jewelry party, whee, I'm exhausted! Then this morning we got up early to pick beans before it got really hot.

We picked and picked--22 lbs. of greenbeans and a very large basket of tomatoes. I've been stringing beans most all day, and I've managed to put a gallon of tomatoes in the freezer. This is so much easier than canning them, only thing when I get ready to use them this winter, I'll have to cook them, better in the winter than heating up the kitchen in 90ish degree weather. Monday I'll have to can those greenbeans. Last week we picked 16 lbs. and I ended up canning 11-1/2 qts. I suspect I'll have close to 15 qts. to can on Monday.

I've started to make a record of quantities and times for these type tasks, it took me about four house to can those 11 qts. from start to finish, that included cleaning the stove, putting away all the big pots and pressure cooker.

Tomorrow is our day of rest, literally. When we owned our own business we made Sunday our day of just church and rest. It has carried over into retirement, but it's a nice change to recharge for the coming week.

As of right now we don't have one thing on our calendar for next week, well, getting those greenbeans into cans. The Hubby has been testing his nail gun on pieces of the Hardiplant we have, so we probably will work on getting the remainder of the siding on his workshop. I would really like to take ONE. more. day and complete that project. Then we'll have to paint. Once thing calls for another. Now he's talking about adding on to his shop. I DON'T WANT TO GET INVOLVED in that project! How is it I always get involved in HIS projects? I did make him help me clean house Friday before the jewelry party, so I shouldn't complain.

We always look forward to church. Our pastor has been preaching some awesome sermons the past month, not that his sermons prior to that haven't been good, but he is really being bold in his stand on the word of God!

Blessings!