Grin and bear it!! This morning I learned I’ll have to wait several more days for installation of new air-conditioner. Gratefully, my “sick” A/C is providing some comfort.

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Confusion?! July 14, 2015

A year ago, I was apparently too polite to write about a repairman that “stood me up.” He promised… but never returned. No blog message addressing that topic. Lots of messages about the heat and the garden if you choose to read July 2015. As my A/C situation became more unbearable, I remembered an acquaintance from square dancing (a former RV-repairman) and he (David) arrived July 31st.

“Did you read the book?” July 16, 2015

Solo Senior Successfully Scouts Solution July 21, 2015

Wednesday’s Chronicle July 29, 2015

R-E-L-I-E-F- from the heat!! July 31, 2015

Rare and unusual August 1, 2015

When people admire my garden, I’m thrilled!! A soon-to-be-new-CARE-resident bubbled with enthusiasm about my “yarden.” She hopes to attract Hummingbirds, Butterflies and Bees to her yard. I have “extra” plants (designed to be gifts) and Mary’s are waiting for her to scoop them up and take them home. I assured her that planters–and other garden paraphernalia–are hers for the taking.

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See my earlier message Life’s “little” pleasures.

Check my earlier blogs Unscheduled and Saga of the watermelon vine.

Lots of blooms but I can’t find any little watermelons. This “Mary” was an earlier CARE resident who resumed travels with her husband. (Many nice ladies named “Mary” in my life.)

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Coincidentally, the eighty-four degrees temperature is identical between Sunday, May first, and today. I didn’t plan the pictures; I noticed… as I linked to the Unscheduled blog.

Waiting for the air-conditioner to be delivered.

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Postscript, Friday, July 29th: United Parcel delivered the air-conditioner at 5:00 PM.

David promised to be here at 7:30 AM tomorrow (Saturday). Two CARE volunteers are available to help get the A/C on the roof. (One hundred pounds shipping weight!!)

This “gift” fig tree  has been neglected for over a month. In my mind’s eye, the project would take too much time and I just didn’t have the time–and energy!! Well, frankly, I still didn’t have the time and energy **BUT** knew the little tree needed to be transplanted. With a somewhat cooler evening (after a brief rain), I drilled holes in the bottom of a large container. Then I cut up and cubed a Styrofoam container. First thing this morning, I drove to the farm store and purchased planter soil (and fifty pound bag of bird seed). Note: The farm store provides the large containers “free” so I buy from them.

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Just before noon, the heavens opened up and we enjoyed a cloud-burst!! After lunch I planned to take a picture of the water in the rain gauge. Oops, dropped and spilled. But more than one inch in about one hours time.

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I was planning to sit in my rocking lawn chair, with a glass of iced tea, and enjoy the crisp clean, cool air. I heard a strange sound and looked around. Finally spotted something in the bird house. “Who are you?” I dashed indoors for my camera and started snapping pictures. “OMG, a frog in a bird house.” Next, I got the tape measure from my tool box and (remarkable) eighty inches from the cement patio. Compensates for tripping…, falling…, overturning three planters…!! I get so much joy from my garden!! (I’m OK, just a few scrapes and bruises.)

FYI: That bird house was my first purchase in North Carolina. It made sense to me to buy something from recycled plastic containers. It would last forever!! I became hopelessly “in love” with Bluebirds and did a lot of research. I learned a bird house should be made of wood so it can “breathe”; plastic is a coffin for the babies. I’ve always had a large plastic container stuffed inside… to discourage a bird from building a nest. That bird house is simply an ornament on top of the planter. “Froggy” was seated on top of the container “talking” to me.

Frankly, miserably HOT and humid  but I “monkeyed around” with a project I couldn’t neglect. A friend entrusted the Turmeric rhizomes to me a few days ago and I promised to give them a good home. It might not be the ideal time to plant but worth the time and effort (imho).

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Don’t want to grow your own? Don’t want to grow your own and wait a year to harvest? Check this web link and (perhaps) learn how to enjoy the benefits of turmeric.

Less than twenty minutes  rain but cooled the air (2:20-2:35 PM). Less than a teaspoon of water in my rain gauge. TV meteorologist’ reported lots of rain–and flooding–in the Houston area. My plants–and “yours truly”–grateful for rain!! 

Strange day!! Hours spent on the computer doing more research about the best air-conditioner at the best price. The retailer with the best price, located here in Texas, advised me they couldn’t ship for three or four weeks!! So (if I wanted “the best”) it meant phoning retailers to ask if they had it in stock. I’m writing this at six PM and I’ve been advised (by email) my purchase has shipped (from Florida). Wow!! Meanwhile, miraculously, my A/C is still running. Believe it or not, right now the A/C is off because the air has cooled due to brief rain. (Not a rain “storm”–just brief rain.) So wonderfully cool. So many days, it feels like walking into an inferno when we step outside an air-conditioned building.

Speaking of “an inferno,” my prayers go out to residents in the Santa Clarita, California, area. That community is a short freeway drive from my former home in Lancaster.

Strange day but a gigantic sense of relief because I was able to cancel the TracFone order for a new phone. “What was I thinking??” (when I ordered). A moment of insanity!! Memories of my earlier TracFone nightmare haunted me.

Kudos to friends and acquaintances concerned about this old lady.