Not Just The Husbands Serve.

Yesterday when I tried to mow the lawn I couldn’t get the mower started.  This morning I did everything I know to do to get it running.  It has spark, the float’s not stuck and I cleaned out the carburetor and checked that all the linkages were adjusted properly—still no luck.  Last time this happened a valve was stuck and I had to bring it in for repair.  This time I just bought a new lawn mower.  I got good service out of the old one and now I can play with it and learn a little more about small engine repair.

When Sophie was here I had a discussion with her about being bigger and smaller than someone else.  I told her that you will always find someone bigger and someone smaller than yourself and so it is OK liking how big you are and you shouldn’t feel bad because somebody else is bigger (or tease someone smaller).  I know she’s too young to comprehend that yet (it’s a little over her head?) but I mention it because that thinking is part of my philosophy.  It doesn’t mean you don’t compete.  It just means be happy with what you’ve got and make the best of it.  Why is this in my head tonight?  I went to the doctor’s today for a regular visit and found his receptionist, who only has been there 2 months, training her replacement.  I asked her what was up?

She explained that her husband (military) just got his next assignment to Camp Pendleton in California.  She said that she won’t be able to get a job out there because she doesn’t speak Spanish.  In that area of CA that is a requirement.  Then she explained that all here college credits won’t transfer out there.  Her husband’s been deployed twice and he is going to be deployed again in March.  At this point her eyes began to well up.

She went on to say that she has a 2-year-old niece here and she doesn’t understand why her aunt is going away.  She’ll be in CA for 4 years and her Niece will grow a lot in that time.

I didn’t know what to say.  We see this kind of situation a lot here with all the military.  Penny and I also see these types of issues with the engaged couples we deal with.  They marry knowing that their lives are not theirs to control.  When we marry we do it because being with that person is the most important factor in your life and normally we at least have each other to hold onto during whatever life throws at you.  But the military husbands and wives are isolated from family AND each other while 1 or both go in harms way.  It’s more stress than many can take.

I told her that there’s nothing I can say to make it better but I wanted her to know that I appreciated the sacrifices she and her husband were making for us. 

So those of you who have that special someone snoring loudly in bed next to you or throwing their underwear on the floor—think twice before you get upset. Life can be much, much worse and is for many.  Enjoy those around you just for being there and learn to appreciate and even love them for who they are. 

Sleepy Day

I had an upset tummy and have been very sleepy the past 3 or 4 days.  I don’t know if I fighting off something or just worn out from the week with the grandkids. (just kidding Karen-it’s not that).  Whatever the reason I napped all morning interrupted by a call from Louie (he’s better than fantastic!) and another from our neighbor telling us when our lunch, a tomato pie  she was making from our tomatoes, would arrive.

The Yummy Tomato Pie

The pie was good, well better than good it was scrumptious. Penny and I polished it off.

I accomplished little of value in the afternoon.  We did go to Mass at 5.  For dinner I made myself a BLT.  We are using those tomatoes! My appetite is OK now and I’m less tired tonight.  I hope to get back in the swing of things again tomorrow.  The yard and house wait for no man and I have a lot to do.

Garden Report

I haven’t harvested anything for the past 4 days because we had all the tomatoes, cucumbers and okra  we needed and I prefer to let tomatoes ripen as much as they can on the vine.  We’ve had some rain this week so I didn’t want to let the tomatoes split from too much water – so I harvested. The result was a harvest of 26 tomatoes not counting the 10 or so that were rotten or buggy.  Here’s todays stuff.  It will probably be the biggest harvest I have because everything has peaked.

Penny brought some to our neighbors – one of which is going to make us a tomato pie (not a pizza).

I haven’t been doing much this week.  My dry eyes are acting up again.  I did assemble the gazebo frame we got from target 2 weeks ago.  Now I must anchor it and put the cover on it.  I also broke down Penny’s quilting frame from 10 feet back to 5.

On the kitty front Buzz showed up Wednesday morning and has visited each morning and evening since.  Sometimes Meredith shows up on weekends and since today is Friday maybe she will show tonight.

You Threw Away My Stars!

We are now back home.  Our week with the grandkids is over.  It was a good week but it did wear us down some.  My thumbs are very painful after picking up the kids many times each day.

The kids travelled well to Jacksonville.  We set K&T’s DVD player where they both could watch and they were  happy to watch videos for the whole 5-plus hours of driving.

The big event in J’ville was a celebration lunch for Tim.  He is now a principal .  We had the whole family together.

On Saturday night I taught Sophie how to draw 5-pointed stars.  I would draw 2 dots and have her draw a line connecting them. After doing this 5 times we had a star.  She worked hard and made several attempts before she got to the point of making recognizable stars.  Then on Sunday with everyone at the house she asked me to help her draw stars again.  This time she was making decent stars most of the time and soon we had a paper full of them.  With each star we made I would hold up the paper and show everyone and we all praised Sophie’s wonderful ability to make stars.  I took a picture of the page to keep for myself.

I also brought about 40 tomatoes with me to Karen’s.  These were the ones I had to pick because they were ripe and would not last 4 days more on the vine while we were in Jacksonville.  I know that is more than K&T and C&C can use but at least I ‘m getting tomatoes this year.  I checked the plants today upon our return home and there are a dozen or so ready to pick now.  I’ll pick them in the morning.

Last night I helped Karen clean up and in the process I asked her if the star drawings were trash.  She said yes and since I had a picture of them I didn’t hesitate to throw them away.  This morning just before Sophie left for day care she looked at me and said “Grandpa, you threw away my stars.”  The look in her eyes made my heart sink.  As it turned out the star page was one of the last things put in the trash can and was clearly visible to Sophie any time she threw something out.  I should have known better than to throw it out immediately—hindsight is 20-20 and little girls can tear out grandpa’s heart with a single glance.

Wednesday With the Grandkids

It’s hard to believe that it is already Wednesday. This is our 3rd full day with Sophie and Lucy and while they do wear me down some it’s not as bad as I had imagined it would be.  Karen and Tim have done a good job.  S&L are for the most part well-behaved and downright fun to be around.

Sophie gets in her moods every so often where she rebels by not doing what we want.  I find it interesting which concepts she can grasp and which she can’t.  The best example comes from a pillowcase Penny made for Lucy.  Penny saw that Sophie had a princess pillowcase with her name on it.  So in Penny’s fair adult logic she decided to get a pillowcase for Lucy and put Lucy’s name on it.  She got her a Tinkerbelle pillowcase and put Lucy on it.

This morning Sophie and I had a discussion.  She said she should have  Lucy’s pillowcase because she (Sophie) didn’t have one like it.  I explained that she had her pillowcase with her name on it and now Lucy had a pillowcase with her name on it.  They both had the same thing now.  But she can’t see that and would not be happy until she had Lucy’s.  I don’t think this is selfishness on her part.  I just think that a 3-year-old brain has difficulty understanding fairness.  She only knows that she wants a pillowcase so she should have it.  Yes, I’m sure the fact that Lucy has it is a factor—I’m just not sure how strong a factor it is.

Sophie doesn't want to sleep alone here so I have been sleeping  with her so she’s not scared.  Tuesday she rolled over in the morning and put her arm on me and went back to sleep.  When she woke she didn’t say anything.  We just silently looked at one another and smiled.

Lucy was counting today in the book store and did good.  She got up to 10 easily and went on to eleven and then thirteen.  She also used a 3-word sentence when Brie, our cat, left the room.  She said, “Where go Brie?”

We’ve done something involving water every day but today was the first day we didn’t go to a beach.  We played at Destin Commons water park and then played in our wading pool in the late afternoon.

When I tucked Sophie in tonight she specifically requested that we go to the “new little beach” tomorrow.  That’s the beach on the sound side of the island.  Penny said that’s where she planned on going anyway.

Our priority has been watching the kids and we’ve been doing a lot of water stuff so we haven't had our cameras along for everything.  No photos, just happy memories.

Grandkids For a Week!

Karen is on the way over here with Sophie and Lucy.  She’s coming to see an old friend and let her meet the kids.  Following that Karen goes back home and the kids stay with us for a week.  This is the first time the kids will be away from mom and dad for that long and we don’t know what t expect.

I do expect to be quite worn out by next weekend.  I hope Penny and I have the energy we are going to need to keep up.  It should be fun.  We are making plans for the beach, the water park, the schoolyard, maybe the zoo and anything else we can think of.  I’ve got a small wading pool for the backyard and there are always the sprinklers to cool things off.

If I have time to blog you can read about me slowly wearing down this coming week.

I picked another dozen tomatoes today and Penny brought our excess tomatoes and cucumbers to the neighbors so they don’t go to waste.

Harvest

This was today’s harvest from the garden.

There Will be Tomatoes

The tomatoes are ripening fast.  One plant has about 30 ripening all at the same time.  Starting tomorrow we will have an abundance of tomatoes.  This year we should be able to share with the neighbors.

Here are some pictures:

Buzz has been showing up all week except tonight—Meredith showed tonight.

Life Goes On

I’ve had a lump in my gut all day today because I saw Buzz catch a bird this morning.  It was magnificent and horrible all at the same time.  In the mornings I feed the cats and put out food for the birds.  Usually the cats sit on the ladders and annoy the birds but aren’t quick enough to catch them.  Well, Buzz developed a technique which worked.  I won’t provide the technical details but the cat is an amazing hunter.  The reason I have a lump in my gut is that I could have moved the ladder away before today.  I just didn’t think it mattered.  I have now moved things around so Buzz can’t be successful again.

I observed a few other natural life and death events today. A lizard eating a fly, a cardinal eating bugs on the lawn after I mowed.  The many mosquitoes  I squashed when they were trying to feast on me.  None of that bothered me.  I still feel guilty about the bird.

Today, for the first time, I almost fell on the treadmill.  I’ve slipped before by stepping on the side of the machine just off the moving belt but that was with my toes.  That just involved a little stumble and then back to normal.  Today I somehow stepped on the side with my heel while my toes landed on the moving belt.  The result was my foot rushing under me sideways  turning my body as it went.  I floundered for a couple steps (if you’ve ever slipped on a treadmill you know how disorienting it can be) and maybe would have lost it if I didn’t have the computer shelf to grab for balance.  I finally recovered and continued my walk apparently no worse for the experience (well, except for some stressed thumbs).  I certainly don’t want to do that again.

This week Penny and I hit 2 double-yolk eggs in the carton we had.  Penny wished she found one when Sophie was here so she could show her.

Yesterday I picked 4 more cucumbers, 2 more eggplants and a few blackberries. (There are now 7 cucumbers in the fridge!)

Today it was more okra to pick.

We ate our first tomato from the garden—half yesterday in a salad and half today in yummy BLTs. We also had fried eggplant with the BLTs. There are 2 more tomatoes ready to pick and a bunch starting to turn red.  It’s going to be a good-eating week!

The Harvest Begins

This year I finally got most of the garden right.  My failures this year are squash eggplant and zucchini.  Those plants grew nicely for  a while.  I got one huge zucchini and 2 or 3 normal sized ones.  Then for squash I got 3 or 4 squash.  Then both quit growing with all the plants just died.  The eggplants died as soon as I planted them.

The Japanese eggplant however are a different story.  I’ve harvested 6 of those so far.  Sophie and Lucy helped with that.

There are 3 more ready to pick today.  Penny made eggplant parmesan from them.  We had oven baked zucchini chips.  Cucumbers are coming in faster than we can eat them—there are 4 in the fridge now and we’ve eaten at least 4—mainly as cucumber and tomato salad.  Sophie and Lucy helped pick those, too.

I tried growing okra this year to see how easy it was and to get an idea of how many grow on a plant  I found out the okra blossom is quite pretty and that the okra fruit grows fast

We had fried okra today from the home grown okra and it was very good.

And finally after many years of skimpy results with tomatoes I seem to have finally found the formula to grow tomatoes here in NW Florida.  The first tomatoes are coming in and I’ve got over a hundred fruits now growing on 5 plants. 

        Almost ready to pick these guys – I smell pasta cruda!

So far I’ve kept them safe from insects and birds.  I’ll be picking the first ones in a day or so and there should be a steady supply for a while.  We are having a hot spell right now-early this year-and tomatoes  don’t do well in temperatures close to 100 like we are having here.  That I can’t control.

Kitty Update -  Buzz and Meredith have been here all week.  One night I had 3 critters.  The 3rd wasn’t a cat.  It was a smelly raccoon.  I haven’t tried to catch him yet.