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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 24, 2018 19:04:46 GMT -6
Are there cheap motels with kitchenettes in the area? A Crock Pot and an Instant Pot would be perfect for a small kitchen. Maybe even a toaster oven, electric skillet, and/or an air fryer too? When I was in third grade we packed up and headed to Salem, MO for a few months while Dad iron-worked on a job there. Our Motel had a living room, kitchenette, and one bedroom. It was way cheaper than renting an apartment or house, and the motel was full of other families from my county. It was a cool experience. The motel felt like our own little 'home' world in a strange land. We packed up for home before the pool was opened up for the summer. *pouts*
We were supposed to get lots of rain this weekend. There were sprinkles an hour ago, but nothing more than a few. The night temps are in the 60s, and the day temps are in the 80s, but feels like in the 90s. Yesterday felt really good. Today was a little bit stifling, but plenty bearable. I'm not going to get excited though, 'cause August isn't here yet. And September can sometimes be just as horrid as August. And then the short days and cold will be here, and I'll be even more miserable. Best start stocking up on Vitamin D.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 25, 2018 2:36:53 GMT -6
Our Motel [room] had a living room, kitchenette, and one bedroom.
It had a bathroom too, I’m sure ... I just don’t remember it How strange is that?
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Post by Phalon on Jul 25, 2018 5:01:44 GMT -6
Probably because it is just an incidental, unimportant detail of your memory.
Joxie! People around here (and I'm sure everywhere!) always say about nice weather 'enjoy it while you can because, tomorrow it'll change'. Don't worry about what the weather is going to be like a week, or a month from now. Enjoy the day!
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 25, 2018 21:12:29 GMT -6
One of Mom's many sayings that she drove me nuts with was: "You can get glad the same way you got mad." Used to irritate me to no end. But, of course, there's wisdom in that saying. I just need to work harder to 'get glad.'
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Post by Phalon on Jul 26, 2018 4:55:24 GMT -6
My Mom had a ton of sayings that drove me nuts - one of which was "You'll be late for your own funeral" referring of course to my perpetual lateness....like this morning for example!!!
Yep, running late. Catch up later.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 26, 2018 20:55:14 GMT -6
It cooled down quite a lot late afternoon. Clouds rolled in, and I felt a few sprinkles as I was on the back porch keeping the raccoons away. It was nice. The storm followed the river, and we just got a nice breeze and shade. The highs and lows for the foreseeable future is: 80s/60s.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 27, 2018 4:50:08 GMT -6
It's supposed to be cooler here too - the weather forecast for the weekend looks really nice with highs in the low to mid-70s and lows in the 60s. Perfect weather in my book.
I'm sitting here at the kitchen table now, watching a pair of goldfinch pick the seeds from the sunflowers right outside the window - which is the exact reason I plant them there. I love watching the birds, especially in the morning. This weekend, Hubs noticed caterpillar poop on the tomato plants - hornworms! Bluck! Except searching the plants, none of us could find any. The next day, I saw why when I watched a cardinal fly in and out of the structure Hubs built to trellis the tomatoes; he was plucking the hornworms we couldn't find. Unfortunately, Hubs discovered one that had burrowed into a tomato, eating it from the inside out. They are so gross, they make me cringe just thinking about them.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 27, 2018 21:00:24 GMT -6
Monday & Tuesday is supposed to be in the high 70s. I don't mind the 80s if there isn't any humidity.
I've had to rip apart many, many tobacco worms when my parents raised tobacco for extra cash. I thought they were beautiful. Green with touches of Gold. My niece kept one once and we watched it become a beautiful cocoon. Green with touches of Gold. And then we watched as a huge, beautiful moth emerged. Green with touches of Gold. I called them tobacco worms, but they're not what comes up when I Google: Tobacco Worm. And it isn't the same Moth either. Weird.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 30, 2018 8:51:03 GMT -6
Tomato hornworms and tobacco hornworms are hard to tell apart - they are both big and green, and I suppose they are beautiful if they weren't so gross. They pupate in the ground though in bronzy-brown casings, and turn into a brownish sphinx moth. Green with touches of gold? Could it have been a luna moth? I've only seen an adult luna moth once, and dang, it was pretty! entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/moths/luna_moth.htmIt's sometimes hard to identify things in nature. I found a large snake at the nursery on Saturday. Even though at first it scared the heck out of me because I didn't see it until I almost stepped on it, and even though it grossed me out because it had a live toad that was still struggling halfway ingested, it was a beautiful snake, with patterns of brown, black, and white on it's back, and a checkerboard of orange underneath. None of us knew what kind of snake it was, and though I searched on-line, I still don't know. This weekend was a blur - probably because I whacked the cr@p out of my head on a metal rack at work on Friday, which left me with a huge knot, and an off-an-on brain-splitting headache for the past few days. Busy as heck at work, and at home too - mostly fun, except for the occasional customer that would have given me a headache even if I didn't have one to start. Friday evening, our neighbors stopped in, asking if we wanted to go get ice-cream; Hubs declined, not being one to eat sweets, but I was not about to turn down ice-cream. We left in their convertible, for what turned out to be a two hour drive through the countryside under that big, gorgeous Blood Moon, with blankets around our legs, and our hands in the air like we were on a roller-coaster. Writing group was Saturday evening; always a good time with fun people who I've known for years now. Yesterday with the family, leisurely working out in the yard, talking with neighbors, grilling dinner, and capped off with a family walk around the neighborhood which ended up a Xena Sis's for coffee. Which leaves me today to do all the chores and errands I should have spaced out over the last few days. Ah well, time for visiting always seems to be short, so when the opportunity arises, other stuff can wait!
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 30, 2018 19:16:18 GMT -6
It could be that there were a mixture of hornworms on the tobacco and I didn't pay them much attention until I saw the gold. I thought they were all the same worm. It's been really nice here the last few days. Temps are supposed to get back in the 90s next week. And here it is Monday again.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 31, 2018 6:00:06 GMT -6
Here too. We've been in the 70s the last few days, and I loved it! Back into the low 80s though, and that's not terribly bad without the humidity. Yesterday evening we had a brief shower out-of-the-blue - literally. The sky was blue and the sun was shining, but all of the sudden it dumped down rain for about five minutes. Then it was over, and although I looked, I couldn't find a rainbow.
Today is my "Monday"...and when I get to work, my co-worker will say, "Happy Monday to you", (and on Saturday, he'll say "Happy Friday to you."). It's been two years since my days off have been Sunday and Monday, and though I love having two days off in a row after 15 or so years of having Sundays and Wednesdays off, I still get confused as to what day it is sometimes.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 1, 2018 5:04:29 GMT -6
It seems I jinxed the weather yesterday when I wrote that we were without humidity. It rained last night, and this morning it's humid as hell. Too make matters worse (for me), my hot-flashes which have been pretty tame lately, kicked into high gear again yesterday.
Despite being a hot, sweaty mess yesterday afternoon, had a fun time - my boss and I went to a "field day" function at one of our perennial suppliers. I've been there before, to tour their demonstration gardens - which are fabulous, but have never seen the inside look at the operation. They're the largest grower of bare root and plug perennials in the U.S., and it was extremely interesting to get the behind the scenes look at everything - it's all so very high tech and precise.
And bonus - they fed us dinner. A local micro-brewery provided beer, warm soft pretzels with omg-oh-so-good beer cheese, a smorgasbord of gourmet pizza, and fresh-baked cookies.
Though I "worked" much later than normal, and didn't get home until around 8pm, it felt like I was playing hooky!
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Post by Joxcenia on Aug 1, 2018 23:40:06 GMT -6
That's usually how it goes. As soon as you say one thing, something different happens. (And Proboards is acting up. This is the only account I managed to log into.) It's still nice here. Got some rain yesterday. I hate the lulls because they make dealing with the hot flashes so much harder after they start back up. I wish the lulls never ended.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 1, 2018 23:52:06 GMT -6
Still having problems ... guess I'll log off and hope it's all worked out tomorrow.
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Post by moonglum on Aug 2, 2018 12:24:31 GMT -6
Hope your problems have been sorted Joxie. As I write this the temperature in the lounge is 35C (100F). It's been like this for weeks now. We had a thunderstorm the other night, the first rain we've had for at least two months. All the grass everywhere is parched and dead, the field where we walk the dogs looks like a desert, it used to be green with a football pitch marked out. I hope it rains soon, just so I can stand out in it and get soaked.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 2, 2018 19:38:40 GMT -6
It is getting a wee bit more humid here, but the temps are low enough that it doesn't make the outside too unbearable. And I got back in as normal today. I guess Proboards was updating yesterday. Next week the temps will be back in the 90s, and August is one of the worst months when it comes to stifling heat. I'm just glad I have a/c. I feel sorry for the places that don't normally need a/c and are experiencing extreme heat/humidity without help.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 4, 2018 9:55:47 GMT -6
One hundred degrees inside?! Ack! We don't have air-conditioning in the store or office at work, and it gets sweltering in there - sometimes it's even hotter inside than it is outside. It's miserable when you can't escape the heat. I'm so thankful we have central air at home; we didn't when we first bought the house - there was just a single window unit in the dining room downstairs. The second summer we lived here was one of the hottest recorded in this area; LX was little, and I was pregnant with BP. The whole family slept downstairs on cots in the dining room, until we could get central air installed. Without it, you'd take two steps up the stairwell to the upstairs, and be slammed with a wall of heat. That's exactly how it felt - like hitting a solid wall.
We're supposed to get up to near 100 today. We all walked down to the farmer's market early this morning before it got too hot; bought some omg-oh-so-good farmer's cheese, the Boyfriend bought peaches, and Hubs got some bones for the dog, which I thought was a weird to have at a farmer's market (and weird to buy too). Stopped in at a yard sale on the return, and got a nice basket and vintage ceramic pot to use for the Christmas greens arrangements I sell at the winter market.
Fun stuff that I usually miss out on because I work Saturdays. I took Friday (yesterday I went to the Art Center; there was an exhibit I've been wanting to see) and today off work!
I scheduled this weekend off way back in April; we were originally going to go to good friends' daughter's wedding in Kentucky. As Mom would have said, "You think you know people..." Some racist comments were made though by the mother-of-the-bride, and I said to myself 'f*ck it'; I cannot abide racism. Instead, tonight we are all going to see Collective Soul and 3 Doors Down in concert.
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Post by moonglum on Aug 4, 2018 14:46:39 GMT -6
The Brits have never really been air-conditioned! I suppose it's because this sort of weather is not a regular occurence over here. The last time we had temps like this was 1976, 42 years ago. I remember it, we had a severe drought. The authorities shut off water supplies to conserve what little was left as the resevoirs had virtually run dry. There were stand-pipes and bowsers dotted around where we queued for water.
Ah, men and shopping. We have ventured into the world to buy. We are man, we have bones!
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 4, 2018 15:38:10 GMT -6
It's the high humidity that makes the high temps so unbearable. We didn't have a/c in our house when I was young. We had a 'whole-house' attic fan to help pull a breeze throughout the house. It made the inside a wee bit better than the outside, but no one wanted to move around ... and the thought of cooking was imaginable. Then we finally got an a/c wall unit to cool the whole house. Bliss. Although, we couldn't shut our [inside] doors when it was on, or we'd be back to square one.
If you got spray bottles and filled them with water, you could 'spritz' yourselves every now and again. In front of a fan would work best. Or dampen dish or bath towels and hang them over your shoulders ... wrap them around your waist.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 5, 2018 8:06:32 GMT -6
We didn't have air-conditioning either growing up, and Mom and Dad never even put in a window unit. After they died, and my brother moved in, he didn't install air-conditioning either. I'm not sure why no one ever added air-conditioning. There were a ton of windows in that house, so there was a great cross-breeze....if there was a breeze. If not, it was stifling.
Speaking of breezes - it is very windy here this morning. Supposed to get up in the 90s today, so (aside from sucking any moisture out of the plants), the wind might make the temperature seem more bearable.
HA! That made me laugh.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 7, 2018 5:07:49 GMT -6
The last day of my four day weekend yesterday started off with a thunderstorm, and ended with rain. No matter - having time off was nice having some time off in the summer; there is a lot more to do with days off in the summer than there is in the winter.
Gotta run. Time to vote.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 7, 2018 21:57:02 GMT -6
November is closer than it was, so you'll have plenty of time off then. Although a wee 'vacation' can help get you refreshed, depending on what you did on that 'vacation.'
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Post by Phalon on Aug 9, 2018 6:00:49 GMT -6
Ahhhhh...relief. Maybe?
Here comes the rain. Thunder all around us this morning, and it seemed like the rain was going to miss us, but it's just started. Hoping it'll bring down the humidity - August came in typical fashion with all the accessories - sun, heat, and lots of humidity.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 9, 2018 20:04:03 GMT -6
The rain keeps going around us. It isn't as miserable as it can be, but it's still pretty unbearable. We're working on Mom's house again. Spent all of yesterday helping my niece take out a loan to start renovations. Good grief was that ever a hard and painful experience. Even with my sister and I as co-signers, and all three of us having high credit scores, and all the hoops we had to jump through, we still had a hard time getting any money from the bank. When I was younger, the bank told me anytime I needed a loan there was no need to ask ... just write the check and then call and tell them how much they needed to transfer over into my account. We'd sign papers later. I'm gonna miss those days.
There's not that much still in the house, but we need to get it out of their way when they start on the inside. They're gonna start on the outside first to give us a little more time. There isn't much to be done, so it probably won't take them too long. If all goes well, he expects to have it all done in about a month. And since they can have it done at that speed, my niece decided to just stay in her home until it's all done. No need to move in and have all of that going on around them. I CANNOT WAIT!!! But the garage is still full of Mom's stuff ... so there's still that to deal with. As soon as the humidity drops and stays there, we'll try having a few yard sales before trying another route to take.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 12, 2018 8:17:39 GMT -6
That rain we had the other day when I last posted in this thread - we got an inch of rain in 15 minutes - and my hopes that it would bring down the humidity? HA! It made it even more humid than it was prior to the downpour.
The humidity, of course, is doing wonderful things for my hot flashes. <-----extreme sarcasm.
Bringing me to this...
We've had some work done on the outside these last couple of weeks too. Our driveway is a mess, and has been since we moved in twenty years ago. It was the worst outside the garage; the concrete was crumbly, and though Hubs has patched and resurfaced it a few times, it had gotten to the point where it was uneven enough to be a walking hazard - and you know Hubs, if there's a hazard and an opportunity to hurt himself, he's going to find it! We finally had that portion replaced completely - it's about a third of the total driveway; concrete work is expensive, so we are doing it in phases. Hopefully, we'll have the rest of the driveway replaced next summer.
The other thing we're having done is the front porch - which had also become hazardous. I don't know how old the wood decking was - again, it was old when we moved in (and turns out, it wasn't up to current building codes). This past winter, when I was on the porch, standing on a stool up against the railing, putting up Christmas decorations, one of the legs on the stool completely went through the porch! The edge of the decking was rotted. Scary part is, beneath the porch is the old fruit cellar; it's a separate little room in the basement.
Hubs and I debated replacing the decking ourselves, but it involves putting up temporary supports because the porch posts hold up the edge ski-slope roof line; too complicated we decided, and it's a good thing that we hired the construction company. The thing that wasn't up to code, is there was no permanent underlayment under the porch decking - just a sheet of foam insulation, and then the sheet rock of the fruit cellar ceiling. If the edge of the decking had been rotted enough, I could have fallen right through to the fruit cellar while decorating the porch last Christmas.
One day last week they put up the roof supports and tore off the rotted decking. At the end of the day covered it with a tarp.
Back to my hot flashes....
I've gotten into the habit when I wake up in the middle of the night with hot flashes - usually between 2am and 3am - of going out on the porch to cool off. Sometimes I let the dog out if she wakes up. Such was the case last week - the dog was awake when I stumbled downstairs at 2:30 in the morning in my state of hot-flashing, needing fresh air. Though I hate letting her out that late because she's black and I can't see her outside, it was a good thing she wanted out with me that night. Half awake, and in the dark, I didn't see the sign I'd taped to the door - "DO NOT USE!" I opened the door, but instead of rushing outside like she usually does, the dog wouldn't go out. She just stood in front of the door, not budging except to kind of shift her weight from front foot to front foot. It only took me about half a minute to realize why she refused to go out - she didn't want to step on the tarp, which was the only thing separating the black hole into the fruit cellar!!! If she hadn't wanted out, I would have just stepped out onto the tarp.
I put a chair in front of the door as a reminder not to use the door.
Having lived through more than six months of renovations, she made the best choice!
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Post by moonglum on Aug 12, 2018 10:19:05 GMT -6
At last, rain. We've had a couple of thunderstorms over the last few days. The grass is beginning to turn green again, just! It's been so humid and hot of a night, I keep waking up in the early hours and going outside to cool down. The other morning I did what I said and stood outside in the rain, sheer heaven.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 12, 2018 22:14:55 GMT -6
Phalon: Glad you didn't end up in the cellar/basement. Give Quetta extra treats this week. And, yeah, a lot of times rain can make the humidity far worse than before it rained. I was complaining about my hot flashes being the worst ever this last week ... covers off, covers on, covers on, covers off ... and my sister told me she slept with a fan blowing on the bed, and she sleeps a bit easier. I use a fan every now and again. I'm not crazy about a fan blowing on me when I'm not hot. It can mess with my sinuses and start me sneezing and ending up with a stuffy nose.
MoonGlum: It's amazing how quickly everything can turn green again. We're supposed to get rain here all week, and into next week. We shall see how well they are at predicting the weather, they're wrong more than they're right sometimes. Temps are supposed to be nice for a while too.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 19, 2018 8:44:33 GMT -6
It's been a helluva week! The temperature hasn't been that high - in the mid-to high 80s; we've experienced a lot hotter this summer. The humidity though!!! Oh-my, the air has been so thick, it feels like swimming. Soaking wet with the slightest bit of work outside - even the customers have been sweaty.
Speaking of customers, we had an uneasy experience at the garden center yesterday concerning a customer. This might be the norm for some people in some places, but it left all of us and some of our other customers shaking our heads in disbelief - a couple people even mentioned they were concerned for their safety: one customer was walking around with a, what we could only assume, loaded gun in a holster. In the morning at a garden center?!
Personally, I'm against open-carry or even concealed carry. The whole 'good guy with a gun' rhetoric is beyond flawed, in my opinion. That this guy felt the need to strap on a gun just to buy some plants and create tension at place of business, was ridiculous, in not just my opinion.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 19, 2018 18:41:00 GMT -6
It's been in the 80s here too, but the high humidity makes it impossible to enjoy. Storms moving in and out doesn't help much either. A couple of days are supposed to be in the 70s, and the nights in the 50s. August is half over, so September could be better, or worse.
I grew up with a house full of guns. Dad carried one wherever he went. Our family 'fun' was driving down our road into the bottoms and shooting soda cans. And watching Dad shoot snakes and turtles and whatnot. My sister and I knew better than to touch them when not allowed to, so I'm used to ignoring their presence. When I was a teen, and I was left home alone, my Dad would take out a handgun and place it on the table next to me for protection. ... But in this day and age, I would be a wee bit leery if I was around a stranger carrying one.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 22, 2018 5:00:33 GMT -6
I feel like a heavy weight has been lifted these last couple of days...the humidity is gone!!!!
And it's only supposed to get into the low 70s today. Ab-so-lutely glorious!
Gotta run. I'm on track to not be a late bird this morning, unless I don't start moving now.
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