Mow the lawn! It looks like at last we’ll be able to get outside and take care of some major duties. There’s the lawn to be mowed and by mid-morning the grass will be dry enough to be cut. I’m not sure I’ll be able to bag the stuff as my bagger balks at damp. But I can take the bagger off, go over the yard once and cut it down, let it bask in the sun for a little while, then with the bagger reattached, vacuum up the clippings. There’s a chance the place may end up looking normal in just a few hours.
While I doing all that, Wife Gator will be outside tending her gardens. Some stuff can be salvaged after last week’s torrential rain pounded it down. She is somewhat worried about the beans being able to survive, but thinks most of the rest of the stuff will welcome the good weather. Most of her flowers seem to be O.K., too.
The drying actually began yesterday when that strange ball appeared in the sky. For the most part, it was a beautiful day. We had mostly sun with a few passing clouds here on the south side of Route One, but I understand just a few miles inland, some rain did fall. Nevertheless, what a super mood changer that little sun up there can become.
I watched some local weather forecasts yesterday to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me with what I was seeing outside. At least two of the stations, and the third occasionally, show the radar with those funny lines circling the screen. One station even puts three or four of them up at a time. It is so obvious they don’t do anything I get chuckling. All three local stations and a couple weather sites show basically the same weather radar looping. And, of course, they’re computer colorized. For some reason the TV stations think we’re impressed with those lines circling the screen. Personally, I think they’re just a useless distraction.
I remember many, many years ago in the late 50s and early 60s one of the TV stations in the Tampa Bay area where I lived when not in Gainesville had radar for its weather reports. But it was real radar. The lines would go around in circles and anywhere there was weather, a white blip showed up briefly to indicate where the storm was. They weren’t trying to fool us by trying to trick us into thinking a three hour loop was a real radar depiction. The blip was on the screen on for a second or two before it faded away until that radar antenna came around once again, but we knew exactly where the inclement weather was. The entire weather radar was in black and white and not colorized as today’s loops are. Of course the TVs only had black and white pictures, too.
This is the month WG and I have always taken our vacation. A lone exception was a couple of years ago when we headed for Florida in November. That trip wasn’t to stay there through the winter but was just a two week vacation. But this year is different. We had already decided to stay home due to the gas prices. But now that July is here, a little angst is creeping in and just a tiny bit of travel itch. She has a vacation scheduled in a couple of weeks or so and we’re at least thinking we’ll take a day trip or two around Maine and New Hampshire. We both agree it’s a good idea to get away from the old homestead if only for a few hours. It’s a discussion in progress.
A couple of days next week have the potential to be a little messy and noisy around here. The roofer person will be here to replace our roof. I’m not sure just how the dog will take the noise and activity. She pretty much has things her way and, being way off the street, doesn’t get a lot of contact with people other than her family. I have a friend who occasionally visits and the pup gets very excited. My friend has a pair of shoes…I guess that’s another story. The pup and the roofer guy won’t bother each other, except the dog might smile him to death. But dealing with that noise will be interesting.
I just heard on the television that new laws take affect across the land on this July 1st. One of them, in California no less, outlaws driving with one hand while using a cell phone with the other. Drivers will have to have hands free devices if they have that need to talk on the phone. That is one law I could easily support. In fact, I could support outlawing the use of cell phones while a car is moving all together.
GiM
No comments:
Post a Comment