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| Tuesday's (headless) timber rattler in the wood shed. |
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| Yours truly ready for JB & the chainsaw. |
Monday 8/18. Yes, I am definitely more of a sit-on-the-porch-with-my-coffee person in the morning. This after feeding the girls and the dogs. The humming birds are gone, so that chore is over for the year.
Right after breakfast we cut the last two trees into rounds. JB used the tractor bucket to take them to the splitter. I cut branch wood, and JB used the chipper for the small branches down the driveway. He will work his way back up to the yard.
I created and printed out the invitations to our almost-annual Rose Camp Picnic and BBQ for this year. Will mail them when I go Down There on Wednesday.
Rain was in the forecast, but all the big, fluffy thunder clouds went to the west and north of us. Our high for the day was 89, but mostly is was in the low 80's.
Last year when we were on vacation in Maryland, I bought a small Canon camera at Best Buy because I had left mine in the car in Seattle. I also bought an extended warranty. No one mentioned that I had to come into one of their stores in person if I had a problem with my camera. The closest Best Buy is 100 miles from Wenatchee. I have encountered the worst possible customer service from them and the Geek Squad. I can safely say that I will NEVER even enter one of their stores again, let alone buy anything from them. 'Nuff said. Anything else would be too profane. . . My fault for not reading the small print.
There is another dead pack rat in the shop, so we had at least three of them as the one in JB's Jeep is still alive and well. Shouldn't last too much longer as it is obvious that he has been nibbling on the poison.
Tuesday 8/19. It was 62 and cloudy with a cool breeze this morning.
It was very difficult to get out of bed this morning, as at 7:00 am I was deep in the middle of a very realistic dream. I get those quite often and it is very hard to shake them off. They are usually about family with whom I am no longer in touch. My mother was fanatic about staying in touch with family and friends. She would remember everyone's birthday, and always sent myriads of Christmas cards, if not always on time. She never realized that sometimes people (friends or family) are not always a permanent part of one's life, but may just be passing through. I still morn for broken family relationships and often wonder how their lives are going. These dreams bring this back very strongly.
After washing two days' worth of dishes, I cut JB's hair. Then we pulled two trees' worth of branches up from the side of the ridge where they had fallen. JB chipped three Miss Kitty loads of the smaller ones, while I cut the larger ones into fire wood. Each snip of a large branch feels equal to a rep with weights. I never did this many reps in two days even when I was working in the fitness industry!
I went to stack the branch wood in the wood shed, and as I opened the gate I saw a timber rattler. Oh, Sh*t! I ran for my snake stick. When I got back he was coiling and rattling. I told him he could do that all he wanted, but I was still going to cut off his head. Which is just what I proceeded to do. And then cut off his seven buttons (rattles). He was about 2-1/2' long and 1-1/2" in width. I suddenly wasn't tired any more and got that wood stacked in short order. One look at me carrying that snake to fling over the ridge, and Jesse was down the road by JB.
I took a short nap while JB relaxed with a Magic card game on his computer. Then the dogs and I left for our afternoon walk. We barely got started when Dinga dropped her stick and ran back from the edge of the west ridge. Jesse wouldn't even go near it. I thought they were just smelling the snake I had tossed off the the edge, but then out of the corner of my eye I caught movement, and then heard the telltale "buzzing." I thrashed the area with my stick until I finally saw the snake move. A brown prairie rattler this time. I finally cut it's bobbing head off, but it only had two buttons, so I didn't even bother with them. Meanwhile, Jesse was telling himself that two snakes in one day was just too many and he took off down the road. Dinga and I continued on our walk, but Jesse was still gone when we got back home. I called him for dinner, but he was no where to be seen. So I fed Dinga and was about to go looking for him with Miss Kitty, when he came panting up the drive.
JB opened a bottle of wine to have with the pork chops he was cooking for dinner, but I was almost ready for my second glass by the time the chops were done. I'm sure Jesse would have wanted some too, had I offered. . .
And on top of this, I had e-mailed my sister-in-law yesterday to see if she could possibly stop by Best Buy to pick up my new camera. I was told they could not fix the one that JB had dropped off when he was staying with his Mom several weeks ago and that some one would have to come in person to get the new one. They could not mail it. She called to say she was at the store and we discussed which new one I wanted since they did not have one at the same price (of course). That settled, it seems that the extra warranty I paid for the first one and should last through 2016, does not apply to the new one. They wanted to know if I would want an extended warranty on this new one, but what I wanted to tell them would have melted both my and my sister-in-law's phones. She did get a new phone for me and will have to mail it as the store would not. I can honestly say that I have NEVER encountered such poor customer service anywhere.
I am going Down There tomorrow for grocery shopping - starting my winter re-stock. I should probably put a caveat on the picnic invitations I'll be mailing about the five snakes we have had this summer. . .
Oh, yes - on top of everything else, I have been called for jury duty in September. . .
Wednesday 8/20. It is 57, mostly cloudy and windy this morning. Hopefully it will be a nice, cool day Down There.
Thought for the day: Sometimes you're the windshield. Sometimes you're the bug.
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