random thoughts – Day 2,325 (Monday) – new fixations

Meowdoku
fixation.

The latest game obsession (time suck) to hit my phone is Meowdoku. My cell and I have weathered dalliances with Pokemon Go, Woodoku, Words with Friends, and Arrow Puzzle, but right now I am sucked into the game with the little kitty faces that meow when you get something right and look very disappointed when you don’t. 

The problem, like with all free games, is the ads. Each game comes with an ad break, and if you make three errors and run out of fish, you can watch ads to stay in the game (instead of restarting). Some of the ads are 30-seconds, some are forever-long. When between games, it can be faster to close the game and reopen the app than to wait out the ads, but when seeking forgiveness for errors mid-game, one wrong tap in an ad screen restarts the game. Errr.

Out in the real world and away from Meowdoku, today’s yard fixation is planning plantings under the front yard tree. I read in the past that, despite its popularity in yards across the country, mounding dirt and/or mulch around the base of the tree trunk is a bad idea and can harm the roots. So it’s been lots of Internet reading about the best way and what to plant under a tree. One article said ferns do well under trees, so I can relocate some from the back yard. A sketch was made to calculate how many plants are needed. It reminds me a little of cramming for a test in school.

A trip was made to a couple stores that sell plants, but they only had full sun varieties. Quite a few people had plants on the free stuff Facebook group for my town in the past couple weeks, but that was before this morning when I made a plan. Hopefully, someone else will thin their Hosta plants this week and I can grab a couple.

Planning to plant around the tree.

Armed with info, a plan, and a few gardening tools, this evening the labor began. A circle was spray painted one foot away from the base of the tree with the interesting curly bark. Grass was raked and pulled out by hand between the line and the tree, with efforts made to keep the clover and other little flowery things. I still need a plan to handle grass regrowth close to the tree. According to several articles, fabric weed barrier, a thick layer of dirt, and/or mulch mounded up against the tree are not recommended.

A second circle was spray painted one foot from the first. This ring is where the plants will go once the grass is pulled out. Ideally, as in, if I can find any, edging will define the planting ring. The same stores that didn’t have shade plants today didn’t have flower bed edging. I don’t have a stash of interesting rock lying around and waiting to star in a flower bed. Yet. 

random thoughts – Day 2,324 (Sunday) – summer travel

It is horrifying to me that this is already the last Sunday in July. Where did the month go? Or the summer? Or the entire past seven months? A much as I love summer, I really seem to fall apart when it comes to planning activities for it. The doing of activities is fun, but planning and then paying for them is painful work. It’s just so easy to lounge around the house reading, cooking, and eating.

A couple weeks ago, I decided I wanted to go somewhere not my house and started to explore travel. I saw a listing of group tours that sound fun, but they are several months away and the markup for a single booking for most of them was an extra $500 punishment I don’t want to spend. Being a singleton has enough punishments already. And I really wanted something for now, not next April.

I looked online at packages for something sooner and spent several days looking at destinations and flight schedules and hotel packages until my head was spinning. And then I gave up. For now. We’ll see. So far, there have been several flights of fancy but no solid plans or air travel.

Mowing and meditating.

Tonight, after an exhausting day of watching British crime dramas from 25 years ago while also playing games on my phone, I mowed the yard and mentally zoned out for close to an hour. I admired the ferns and avoided some of the clover and little wildflowers, thinking of the pollinators.

I find mowing to be meditative, at least until the extension cord for the mower comes unplugged and I start swearing. When the task was done, I sat on the couch with a bottle of chilled water, my feet up on the hassock and two tennis balls in a bag between me and the back of the couch. It reflected on my daylong budget version of a restorative retreat that I didn’t have to drive to or pay money for. Maybe tomorrow I’ll imagine myself in San Juan or Saint Thomas.

random thoughts – Day 2,323 (Saturday) – summer squashes

It’s that magical week where everyone’s zucchini and summer squash are suddenly ready and I have been the lucky recipient of some gorgeous produce from the gardens of two friends. The weather has been beautiful and civilized and respectful and I have been enjoyed being in the kitchen without danger of suffering heat stroke.

The first thing made with the first wave of squash was a summer squash, zucchini, and cheese casserole that came out even better than I thought it would and has provided a couple hearty meals. Tonight, it was combined with ditalini pasta to mix up the textures a bit.

Fun with zucchini.

While at my sister’s on Thursday, we were talking about chocolate zucchini bread, and yesterday I was gifted a comically large zucchini. This morning, I woke up with chocolate zucchini bread on the brain. At least an hour was spent going through various cookbooks, the recipe card file, and websites in search of a recipe.

There are shockingly few recipes for anything zucchini related in my collection of church compilations and vegetarian cookbooks but there are many online. After reviewing online recipes and ingredients lists for what felt like forever, it was obvious a trip to the grocery store was needed to make chocolate zucchini bread because I ate all the semi-sweet baking chips from the baking supplies months ago. While preparing for departure, it occurred to me that I didn’t have to make the chocolate zucchini bread today and I could make the regular flavor version for which I had everything needed.

The recipe in my file that I would have sworn on my life was for Mummu’s regular zucchini bread turned out to be for zucchini boats which are not the same thing at all. Thank goodness for the Internet.

Mini breads from a
giant zucchini.

I got busy making a huge mess in the kitchen and baked four mini-loafs from the one giant zucchini which yielded 3.5 cups of shreds. I ate most of one loaf while it was still warm. A few slabs were with butter, and then a few more with cream cheese and it was all good. One loaf was delivered next door to Mom’s house. The other two are in the freezer.

There are still three more zucchinis ready for action. These will be plenty for the next batch of mini breads as soon as I get chocolate baking chips. I now have assembled a decent collection of zucchini recipes including grilled cheese made with fried zucchini patties instead of bread and a zucchini and cheddar frittata. It will be a great zucchini season.

random thoughts – Day 2,322 (Friday) – adventure day 2

It felt like an ordinary morning when I woke up at close to the usual time. While the coffee brewed, there was a noise outside that turned out to be a truck from the dumpster company. The driver seemed to be gesturing animatedly and talking on his phone. He didn’t exactly seem happy, but there a lot of flavors of happy.

I texted my contractor to ask if the dumpster for my still unfinished project was scheduled to be picked up. He said, “no.” That was it. I texted back that a truck was here and it was being hooked up. And contractor responded with “No one called me.” Um, ok. Cool.

Dumpster go bye-bye.

As the dumpster was driven up the street I responded, “Well, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s gone now.” The response was, and I quote, “.late night” (with a laughing crying face) followed by “Maybe the miss you sent to me by mistake lol.” I sent three question marks and never heard anything else.

My current best guess is that the dumpster company figured three months at my house was long enough for a roof and siding job and maybe it was time to rescue the dumpster hostage. Or something. I dunno. I’m neither a contractor nor a dumpster company operator. What I do know is the dumpster was tipped to go onto the truck and the entire summer's worth of rain drained onto the large rectangle of very dead grass where the receptacle sat since the end of April. There is still no timeline for the siding portion of the project.

At least the surprises improved throughout the day. A friend I don’t see enough reached out and we texted for a bit and set some tentative plans before she headed out for the day. A few hours later, another friend I see even less than the first one texted with an invitation to meet up for a pizza supper with her and her sister. Yes, please, count me in!

Delicious pizza at Thirsty Robot.

The three of us met at Thirsty Robot Brewing Company shortly before the musicians began playing. Johnny and Noel Nickerson delivered a nonstop stream of music with something for everyone. The Beatles. Jefferson Airplane. Talking Heads. Paul Simon. Amy Winehouse. The Cranberries. And more. They effortlessly crossed genres with barely time to breathe between songs and it was good. 

Thirsty Robot is decorated with a huge mural and smaller paintings of robots. Labels from their various brews adorn the doors to the rest rooms. The pizza was delicious with bubbles in the hand stretched crust. My friends said the pulled pork is amazing, as well as the quesadilla and I can’t wait to go back.

random thoughts – Day 2,321 (Thursday) – adventure day

Today's shopping scores.

It was another Mom and Sis adventure day. Today we visited a couple antique and resale co-op malls. In the first place we visited, which carries reproduction furniture,  carousel horses, military collectibles, costume and collectible jewelry, and everything in between, Mom found a birthday angel figurine (March) that has been on her quest list for years. I got a metal flower décor thing. Sis didn’t find anything. 

The metal thing is too tall to fit over the doorway where I thought it would, so the fantasy of immediately hanging it up did not materialize and it’s on the table for now. It fits in enough other places in the house that now I need to decide where I like it best.

At the second shop, Mom found a small table and chair set.  I found a silver-tone belly dance coin belt, not that I really need one, but there is also no such thing as too many. Sis didn’t find anything. I guess it wasn’t her day for finding treasures. 

Fresh veggie supper.

Sis had a load of yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and banana peppers from a friend’s garden that she shared with Mom and me. We went through Sis’s recipe box while at her house and found one for baked squash with cheese. 

Tonight’s supper featured squash baked with several types of cheese, and in a deviation from the original recipe, also zucchini, diced tomatoes, and corn cut from yesterday’s farm stand corn. I can’t wait to eat more of it tomorrow. I still have a couple more zucchinis so there may be bread in the immediate future.

random thoughts – Day 2,320 (Wednesday) – fabric and corn

Fabric and patterns haul.

Months ago, Mom mentioned she had a lot of fabric that she wanted me to go through to see if I wanted any of it.  This morning, we went through two baskets and a plastic tub of fabric. Mom kept the sports team fabrics and a fleece hat pattern for possible projects and I ended up leaving with most of the fabric and a box of 50 patterns, many from the 80s and 90s, plus sheets with instructions for various construction techniques. Mom is glad to have cleared out some stuff. 

The treasure trove includes some garments in various states of completion. A cute cotton summer top is 99% done, needing just one already hemmed sleeve set in. A tan linen jacket is half sewn. A gray lined vest just needs buttons and button holes and its coordinating jacket is cut out and partially sewn. Mom said she never mastered buttonholes and a friend used to do them for her. There were several projects started when my nieces were younglings and it’s unlikely their now grown selves will fit into the various summer shorts and tops laid out and still uncut from as long as 27 years ago. One pair of shorts is in SpongeBob fabric. 

As a sewist with a variable attention span, I understand how things get started and not finished. When I left Tennessee, I donated bags of fabric yardage with coordinating zippers, buttons, and thread, bought with great optimism and energy that disappeared, sometimes before I made it home from the fabric store. I have my own projects from as far back as the 1990s where the patterns were laid cut out, set aside “for now,” and never revisited due to lack of time, evaporation of interest, change of mood, or whatever.

Mom’s unfinished projects are fascinating. I almost began working on some right away, but then Mom invited me to accompany her to a farm stand and my energy was redirected to the thought of buying corn. The farmstand was small and busy. There was a great variety of amazing looking vegetables and fruit. I bought four ears of corn and a zucchini. Mom bought a lot of stuff.

Fresh corn.

I neglected to note the name of the farm when we arrived and forgot to pay attention along the way because we were talking, so I may never be able to get there alone. Mom is a navigation expert and I would never be able to follow the twists and turns of all the backroads we took even if she told me. Next time, I’ll pay better attention.

The corn was delicious. I shucked and cooked all four ears and ate two with supper. Then I polished off a bunch of cherries. Then I took the evening walk for the mail and had a stomach ache most of the way. There is probably a lesson in there. Let’s see if I remember it.

random thoughts – Day 2,319 (Tuesday) – weather talk

The clouds settled in and delivered much needed rain throughout the day. It hit all the shower settings from light drizzle to torrential downpour. The weather wizards and widgets noted the humidity at 96 percent at 9:00 p.m.

Moody, foggy night like a wet blanket.

The numerical designation of the humidity perfectly explained the scene outside. Heavy fog glowed yellow under the streetlight at the top of the street. It looked like the setting of a moody period piece or crime drama.

The thick, saturated air felt like a face full of Dad’s olive drab green wool Army blanket that my family used as a beach blanket every summer. It was scratchy, and when it got wet (as beach blankets do when people repeatedly leave the water and retreat to the fabric designation of the family’s beach real estate) it seemed like it took forever to dry. 

I can’t believe we laid on the beach on that wool blanket every summer (or that it was on my bed many winters). I can’t believe nature’s version of it is outside my door.

It looks like there will be more rain overnight, with possible thunderstorms, and more rain tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully this will help the very low water levels in pretty much every local body of liquid.