Scattered Thunder Showers

It's gonna be rainy all week long, so I'm settled in and I'm watching Netflix movies.  I just got done with, "i am Sam."  That was a real tear-jerker and funny too.  All the characters really played their parts really well in this movie.  It was so good I watched it twice.

Suzanne texted over a Youtube video link of B.J. Thomas and Raindrops keep falling on my head.  It's a very fitting song for today and for the rest of the week.  I always loved this song.

There's not much going on in my life today.  I'm okay and sometimes I even feel that I'm walking better.  It seems that by late afternoon I can walk without the use of a cane lately, but not everyday, but more days than before......so that's an improvement.

Here it is June 7, 2021 and I finally turned off the pilot light to my natural gas fireplace this morning.  This has been a really weird year.  It was very cold, then very hot and now it is in the upper 70's and 80's finally.  I don't think that we need any more heat for now.  It'll be summer in just a couple of weeks from now anyway.  

Rick is at his place trying to get his mower going.  He called me earlier and said that he needs two new front tires for his old new looking riding mower.  He's going to weed-eat some too while he is there.  I didn't think that he had much weed-eating to do but he said that he did, and he knows best about his yard.  I haven't been able to help him much since I hurt my back.....well, not so much my back as my sciatic nerve in my left leg, but sometimes my back feels a little stiff too.

I try not to cry over Brian being gone so much, but it hits me in waves and I can't help it, so  I write in my blog.  I try to post something everyday to make myself feel better, and to sound cheerful.  Sometimes it works, but every time I pass by his apartment I can't help but feel sad that he is no longer with us.  I know it's crazy, but sometimes I feel like stopping by his apartment and asking the fella that now lives in there if I can come in, but that's crazy, so I don't dare do that.  I know it wouldn't make me feel any better, but maybe even worse.  On some days I can't even bare to look in the direction of his apartment it hurts so bad.  I pray that nothing happens to anyone else in my family.  I don't think that I could stand another death in my family.

Okay, on to something else before I start crying.

Rick just called me again.  He's about finished with the weed-eating.  He has a corner lot, and a very large one, so there is quite a lot of weed-eating to do.  All of his road frontage needs to be weed-eated.  The previous owner purposely created high banks all around so that vehicles wouldn't take shortcuts through his yard.  There's a small wooden railroad bridge right past Rick's house and semi tractor trailer trucks try to go over it even tho there are signs posted saying that they can't.....but they try anyway and get stuck or tear down parts of the wooden bridge in trying.  The road is so narrow that they then have to back up all the way back to Rick's and end up in Rick's ditch leaving deep ruts that Rick has to fix later.  The previous owner had his yard banked up to keep the semi trucks from backing up in his yard and tearing it all to hell.....now they just tear up the ditches.  Last week the State Road Dept closed down the old RR Bridge and put up yellow cones and lit up signs with "ROA.D CLOSED," on it.  I guess they decided not to fix the bridge anymore and are going to make a new road somewhere else.  That's what I read online.

Well Jybow is crying for me outside so I better go out there and pet her for a while and give her some attention.  She's my old cat and needs lots of attention.  She minds Rick really well, but from me she wants attention and some love and hugs.

 

Ice Cream Cones

 This may not be Sonic in this picture, I'm not too sure, but I still want to send a big shout-out to Sonic for their ice cream cones.  They're the best in town, and look very much like this one without the craters of course.    

The ice cream cones there are the creamiest ever, and Rick & I have stopped by there in the evenings on hot days and have each gotten one.  We had one last night and boy was it ever good.

It just started raining heavily again, and rain is something that we really need right now.  Just thought I'd mention it because my poor large Sycamore Tree could really use the rain right now......and so could my flowering plants and bushes.  I guess everything and everybody need this rain.

Thunderstorms Expected

Thunderstorms are expected again today so I mowed just as soon as the grass was dry enough to mow.  I hadn't realized that I had waited 3 days short of 2 weeks between mowings, so the grass was really high.  I like to mow when the grass is a little high so that I can see my rows.  The mowed grass however doesn't need raking thank goodness, it wasn't as bad as it sounds.

I hear the raindrops against my tin roof at this moment.  I got done mowing just in time, and I'm glad I didn't wait until 1:00 p.m. to start as I had planned.  I got started mowing at 11:00 a.m.  My instincts to start mowing early were right on cue.

Here are some of the flowers that are blooming right now.  I took the pictures while mowing.  I forgot to take a picture of my Clematis  but I'll get it another time.

Perfect Weather

I woke up to the pleasant sound of rain this morning.  I don't mind it so much this time of year because I know it is making all things green, just the way I like it.

Pretty soon the trees will be covered in leaves and will provide us with some shade.  It's been hot here and the grass is growing so fast that it has to be mowed weekly.  Jimmy mowed it yesterday, and today it is getting rain to make it grow even faster.

We set up the table and umbrella and we were going to hang the hammock yesterday, but it's a good thing that we didn't because of the rain.  I don't have a rope hammock.  It's a solid quilted like material so that when it gets wet, it takes a couple of days to dry, but I love it and so do our cats.  I love the color and that you don't hang out through the ropes, but I don't like the way it catches the wind and spins and spins, and winds itself up.  That I could do without.

It looks like the rain is ending for today.  I just saw the sun peek out and it's as though everything outside perked up at the sight of the sun.......including myself :)

I hope that everyone is having a nice day, and for those that are riding, I hope that you are having sunny skies, pleasant weather, and lots of fun.

It's a rainy day so cats get new umbrella

Woke up to a rainy day with actual raindrops hitting the ground.  It's been wet for a few days but it was mostly fog or a fine mist, and finally today we have rain.  Since it's finally raining and one of our cats, Warty, put a hole in the top of the umbrella covering his food, it was time to change it and put a new one up.  We buy several beach umbrellas at a time, so that we always have one to put up if the wind should carry it off or it gets a hole in it.  The umbrellas are hard to find cheap so when we find some we buy a bunch.  When we first started buying them at Big Lots they cost $5 each and now they are up to $15 a piece.

The Sycamore Tree still has lots of leaves

Jimmy out in the rain putting new blue umbrella on
cats feeding table

So that the wind doesn't blow the umbrella off the table Jimmy ties each wire down to the table leaving openings in each section just big enough for the cats to squeeze through to get up to their food.  This keeps their dry cat food dry and it also serves to feed all the cats of the neighborhood, a practice that we are about to put an end to because it's getting too expensive feeding every stray that come to our feeders.  We will probably wait until Spring before we stop the free food, because it doesn't seem quite right to take away the food supply now with cold weather and winter approaching.
    

Needed Rain

While Jimmy runs quickly out in the rain to place the fern out in the grass so it gets plenty of water, Petey sits watching from the safety of the front porch bench.

Today we are getting much needed rain and the plants, bushes, trees and grass are smiling. We've been getting a slow steady rain all morning but now it's raining much harder. I just heard a loud crack of thunder and so did Jimmy's cat Jybow, who quickly ran and is hiding under our bedspread. That cat is afraid of loud noises and since the 4th of July she hides from any noises loud or quiet, that might sound like the crack of a gunshot or firecracker. The other cats just stay put and noise doesn't seem to bother them, not even the sound of a vacuum cleaner unless you get too close to them.

Petey is still watching it rain from the bench on the front porch and I'm still here on my laptop. Jimmy is taking this opportunity to check out the amplifier on his bike because the volume of his music isn't as loud as it should be. Hopefully it's just a dial that has slowly worked itself to a different position and just needs to be reset back. Things like that happen with the constant vibrations and jarrings it gets from riding and the last time this happened, David found the problem and fixed it for Jimmy while we were in Nevada. Hopefully it's as simple as that.

All is quiet here, too quiet....

Rain Rain Rain / Brandon & Jessi

It is raining here and from what I hear on the local news station is that we can expect lots of rain. It rained nearly the whole month of July, which is usually one of our dry months, and now August is beginning the same way with lots of rain. The temperatures have been nice but I could use less rain myself and I'm sure that Jimmy will second that.

I read on FB that Brandon has 4/5 of his classes with his girlfriend Jessi. They both are in accelerated advanced classes, so I know he'll be really happy in high school now and especially since Jessi will be right there with him. Nothing like having your sweetheart by your side. Now they can really study together. Brandon & Jessi are both Freshmen/9th graders and are both smart kids. I recently took them to a movie because they are both still much too young to date on their own. If you missed reading that post, you can read about it HERE.

Not much else happening here but the day is still young.

I love a good thunderstorm

It's raining here this morning and I didn't feel like going out and getting a picture of the dark clouds to show you...call me lazy this morning.

When I woke up and looked out, before the rain started, I couldn't help but thank God for the beautiful new day that he has set before me once again. Although sometimes I complain about all the rain that we've been getting lately, I really do see the beauty in it, like the beautiful green trees with a stormy background of dark black clouds.

The Rhododendron is still blooming and my jeep is still parked in that spot. It doesn't get much movement when it's dry out and neither does the car.

Rain, Jonathan & neighbors

Today I woke up to the sounds of light rain hitting our tin roof, and what a wonderful sound it was. The two indoor cats woke me up around 8:00 a.m....it was time for them to go out. And out they went into the wet air. The rain stopped for that moment and I could see that it hadn't rained very much as there were still dry spots here and there.
As the rain began again the cats just lay out in it not caring that they were getting wet. I think they were enjoying the gentle rain beading down on their furry coats. It was just a slow steady rain, not hard, just slow and steady. It rained on & off until about 2:00 p.m. when the sun came out brightly.

The day is now very warm and there is no breeze to speak of. It's not what I would consider a hot day like yesterday and it's quite comfortable with the a/c turned off and the windows wide open. There is nothing like open windows to air out the old stale air and odors from your house. I love the fresh air and the open windows.

Little Bear, the visiting kitty did belong to the neighbors after all. Just as soon as they came home they stopped by and I gave them the picture collage of their kitty. At first the mom from next door didn't recognize their kitty and complimented me on my gray kitten, but then her #1 son blurted out, "Mom...that's Jonathan, our cat!" I told them that their house & dogs were fine, but that when they left the kitten came to our house and as they could see by the pictures that she, Jonathan, had made herself at home here...and if they couldn't find her, I told them that they could come and look in our yard. The mom from next door was quite surprised to find out that they had a cat, but later remembered that the kitten belonged to their #1 daughter. That explains the reason we were never asked to care for their kitten...they forgot they had one.

Today Jonathan came for a visit between showers, ate and went back home, so I guess she knows where she can find food now. The neighbors are a little on the slow side when it comes to caring for their pets and sometimes for themselves as well. When they first tied their dogs they would forget to put water near them and when we mentioned it we were told that their water was in the front yard. Now tell me how are dogs that are tied up in the hot sun in the back yard supposed to get to their water in the front yard??? After a couple of days of watching the poor thirsty dogs in the hot sun, we filled up two 5 gallon buckets of water and fastened them over the fence within reach of the four dogs. The neighbors were very grateful and thought we were genius's. They asked me what else they could do and I told them to either move them where they could get some shade or build them each a lean-to or something. To my surprise #1 son built each dog their very own doghouse. That was then and in my book #1 son, who is barely 16 now scored a big fat star in my book.

Don't get me wrong...these people are good neighbors, but like I said a little on the slow side or so it seems. Everything to them is an emergency and life threatening. There is no in-between...someone is either dieing or dieing and rushed away in an ambulance only be seen an hour later out driving around in their car going after take-out. They always make swift speedy recoveries and I guess that's something to be thankful for. And the other thing to be thankful for is that now the local ambulance service knows exactly where we live and it shouldn't take them long to get here if we ever need them.

Today we waited for our #1 son who said he'd be by in the morning sometime to pick up our old heating stove to take to the metal scrap yard. I tried calling him and I spoke to my first born grandson this afternoon who said they had just left. I assumed they were on their way here, but it's now early evening and they haven't showed up. Oh where, Oh where has my #1 son gone, Oh where, Oh where can he be????? Got side-tracked I guess.

a correction, a visit and a visit

Do you remember the nice cool refreshing drink I told you about called the "GEORGE?" My daughter who makes these drinks told me that I posted the wrong ingredient amounts and if you made one, in all probability you hated it!!! Here's the corrected recipe:
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The George

1/3 part orange juice

2/3 parts Sprite

1 tsp (or a drizzle) of marachino cherry juice to taste

Serve chilled over ice

Top with cherry

(The ingredients can also be adjusted to your own tastes)

Where's the water????

(Click the sign for a larger picture.)

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Sunday afternoon Jimmy & I rode over to visit Rachel and she took us on a grand tour of the city which included the lake. We were exploring back roads and discovered this sign next to what used to be a boat ramp before the lake was lowered in order to repair the dam. The water level will remain down for approximately 7 years which is the time it will take to finish all the dam repairs...oops, there goes my GP Blog Rating. Now there is plenty of parking around the lake which was always in great demand, but now most of the boaters have gone to other nearby lakes.

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The lake is very large and still has plenty of water in it, but just not here at this spot. Rachel took us around to the many lakeside homes that are now up for sale at bargain prices, but they were still out of range for me...way out! Jimmy & I got to peek into windows and dream of what it would be like to live beside this beautiful lake...well it will be beautiful again in 7 more years and if I had the money I would go ahead and purchase one of the beautiful homes that we saw.

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One of the homes that was overlooking the lake, the part that still had water in it, and without any obstructions like trees and a clear view of the lake was selling for $269,000 which I thought was a steal. We have homes here where I live that cost more and don't overlook anything but the neighbors yard. This home had cathedral ceilings with a wall of windows overlooking the lake, decks on three levels, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, hardwood floors, attached garage, large laundry room, 3 full levels of living space, a loft walkway over the garage...It was beautiful , but it didn't have much of a yard. It had a no maintenance yard and this was one of the smaller homes....there were many much, much larger homes with decks that spanned out at least 60 feet from the house and just as wide. They weren't empty or we would have been looking into their windows too. It was an afternoon of exploration, good conversation, great company and followed by a good meal at one of the harbor restaurants. When we finished our meal Rachel drove us to the water's edge at the marina and she pointed up to the house I just described to you.Back at Rachel's we were surprised by a thunderstorm. It threatened to rain all day, but what else is new? We never get any and when we do we can count the drops on our windshield. We could have danced with joy, out in the rain, but Rachel's neighbors were watching. In fact one of them from across and down the street shouted to Jimmy and told him that he could move his bikes over to his garage until after the rain stopped. Now wasn't that nice? The bikes were already wet so Jimmy didn't see any point in moving them and just thanked the neighbor for his kindness. I bet he was out dancing in the rain, hehehe. After the rain stopped we said our goodbyes to Rachel and started our trek back home. Two miles from her house, it hadn't rained a drop.

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When almost home we were pleasantly surprised by the site of Zac on his bike, who followed us home. He fixed some settings on my new cell phone for me and created a myspace site for me and invited all the grandchildren who already had sites to be my friends. I was very reluctant about the site telling him that I was too old for a myspace site, that it was only for the young people, but he insisted that it would be a great way for me to communicate with my grandchildren on a daily basis. I told him that they probably wouldn't want me to be on their sites daily, but he insisted that they would all love to hear from me daily. To this I say, hahaha and I'm thinking that it won't be long before some of them change their URL's. But in the meantime I have posted some pictures for my grandchildren to see on my new space and have sent out a notice about a 4th of July cookout at Peanut & Laura's which we are all looking forward to. I'll just have to see how the site goes, but if you are reading this Zac, I need you to fix the space that says I'm SINGLE...I tried to do it myself but can't figure out how to change it to HAPPILY MARRIED.

a little rain

A little rain and a lot of humidity are doing wonders for my flowers. It rained for about 5 minutes yesterday afternoon and the wind blew fiercely through the trees. This morning we awoke to scattered small dead branches on the ground and a greener lawn. Yesterday our lawn was on the crunchy side, but today it looks very refreshed, as our surviving flowers do.
The black rain clouds are here today shielding the flowers from the hot sun. The temperature is cool and refreshing and it has threatened to rain all day today. It may have rained here while we were gone, but we didn't see any signs of it when we returned home from our trip to the big city. I love my flowers and I'm loving the cool temps we are having today.
The water garden always does well, drought or no drought. It's a bit slow getting started this year because this is the second time it has had to get started.
Because of the very early hot weather that we had at the beginning of the year, the water garden was growing nicely until the plants were killed off by the April freeze.

The spiderwort plants looked like they were beginning to die, but yesterday's brief shower and today's cloud cover and cool temps have brought them back to life. These little flowers open up and bloom in the early morning coolness and just as soon as the afternoon sun starts getting hot, they begin to close up for the day. Today they have remained open for most of the day.

Below is the another color of spiderwort that I have blooming right now. The main plant is an older plant and after the freeze it has been threatening to commit suicide. It has lost it's will to live and bloom. I've tried bribing it to live, with fresh water mixed with Mir*acle Grow, but to no avail. It's still hanging on, but is beginning to dry up. This little plant below is a shoot that it has sent off to live in another area and I suppose that this is the plants way of living on and I will take good care of it's little baby. AND...

Speaking of babies...did you know that Alipurr of Kitten Yarn has given birth to a son, my great nephew? He was born on Saturday June 2. Hop over here and here and here to take a peek at her cute little bundle of joy.

This is my blue spiderwort. The only reason I know that these plants are called spiderworts is because Alipurr of Kitten Yarn told me so. I'm not very good at remembering names of flowers, of course, unless it's a daisy or blackeyed Susan, so I really appreciate it when you guys name the flowers for me in the comments.

Today is another SPECIAL day...It is Alipurr's Birthday. Motherkitty has posted some wonderful pictures of Alipurr on her site today. Go over and take a look at the pictures and wish Alipurr a Happy Birthday. We can't top the present that Alipurr already received on Saturday, but we can wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

It rained buckets today

Today I woke up, looked out and thought that this would be a great day for a ride. I took my time, drank my morning cup of coffee, ate my cereal and proceeded to take my shower but when I started out the door to tell Jimmy that I wanted to go for a ride, a BIG black cloud appeared. While waiting I checked the bird-feeders and killed time pulling some weeds waiting for that cloud to pass over and when it got directly over head it cut loose with buckets of rain. I think that it even hailed for a second or two...very tiny little bits of ice.

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I hobbled quickly into the house as fast as I my legs would carry me just as it started to rain and decided to check my email. It began to really come down at this point and I watched, from my window, as a group of motorcyclists passed the house. They didn't look like they were having fun and one woman was covered with a plastic bag over her head...NO she wasn't driving...she was the back seat rider, hehehe. When the shower stopped Jimmy came in and told me that he counted 85 bikes in all but that they were not UBAD, our local Christian group (United Bikers Against Drugs) but another out-of-town Christian group.

Daisy stayed dry under the frog's umbrella between showers, while Hopalong sat in the chair behind her.

Despite all the rain we got the temperature was in the 80's and the sidewalks and rocks dried off quickly. There were large deep puddles of water in the grassy areas and pulling weeds was much easier. Jimmy & I took advantage of the wet soft soil in the flower beds and pulled all the weeds we could between showers and we even got wet...but it was fun working out in the rain. I took some pictures between showers, but these pictures were taken before it started to rain. My flowers are starting to bloom but they aren't as big as they should be because they had a lot of catching up to do. They were killed by that mean April freeze and had to start over.

Here's a close-up of one of the flowers that Jybow is standing near in the picture above. It seems that everytime I get set to take a picture, there's a cat in the way. They have to come and see what I'm doing and those of you that have cats, I'm sure understand what I mean.

Only one of the Rhododendron bushes is blooming and it's not very full of flowers. I think that the freeze also damaged some of the buds although this plant stays green year round. You can't see my azalea very well from here, but it's on the other side of these bushes and is very brown. I think most of it is dead and it's not recovering very well. It has VERY FEW green leaves on it...I think I can count them on both my hands & feet. Any suggestions on how I can save it? Should I prune it, cut it down, cut it back, give it food & water???

Here is a close-up of theRhododendron flower...Isn't it beautiful.

My neighbor has three Mountain Laurel's that are in full bloom...I don't think you could possibly fit another bloom on any of her plants, but todays pounding rain took its toll on them and knocked some of the old blooms off and soaked the rest. They kind of look water-logged. I wanted to take some close-up pictures of her Mt.Laurel's but I waited too late...maybe they'll perk up tomorrow.

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On another note: While I was writing this post, I happened to look up at the 11 p.m. news and saw my grandson Matt aiding in a horrific auto & tractor trailer accident on the interstate. Matt works for our county's ambulance service, but he wasn't there as an EMT, but as a fireman. He was using the "jaws of life" to cut someone free and the newsman said that I-75 had been closed for hours this afternoon due to the accident and clean-up afterwards. Matt is such a good boy and I'm so proud of the work he does. The pays not that good, but as Matt says, "It's not about the pay, but about the people you help."