HOT!

Hey, all!

You know it's too hot when the squirrels make little scooped out spots in your mulch after the sprinkler runs so they can stretch out in the cool damp on their bellies! You could almost hear them thinking "geez, it's too hot to dig any more holes in the yard!" They were cute though.

And speaking of the yard.... I got out there about 8:30 this morning and did some weeding and tidying. Gathered up a whole bag of stuff. Evidently it is not too hot for weeds to grow.

Golfer and I are doing okay. He's getting some time on the golf course and I'm getting some pool time. Now that he is retired this Summer, he's going to the outdoor pool with me more often. That's nice.

Nurse J and Bikini are doing well. Everyone is busy.

So life goes on. Stay safe!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, GOLFER!

It's been a wonderful forty-three years! I love you!

RACCOON UPDATE

I am more settled this morning and at peace with nature and wildlife.

I have looked out at the back yard many times since we saw the raccoon and have not seen him again. Hopefully he was just a traveler and passing through. But I am glad we were able to offer him a snack if he was hungry.

I do have an interesting observation though. After we saw him yesterday, I did not see any birds or squirrels at the feeder whenever I looked out. Not one. When I looked out first this this morning, the birds and squirrels were happily feeding and jumping around out there. So evidently all is well again.

Still "Africa hot" here. Heat index is supposed to be around 110 today.

Stay safe!

WILDLIFE !

I love God's creatures. They all have a purpose and reason for being. Some are more lovable than others and that is just a fact.

But they need to stay in their space and stay out of mine. I wish them no harm, just want them to go home. Sort of like illegal immigrants.

Golfer and I were in our office this afternoon and I looked out the window. This is what I saw --

Just munching away! I called the home owners' office to get the proper number to call. There have been many cases in our area of rabid animals and everyone has been told if you see a raccoon out in the middle of the day it is not good. The first number I called the lady got all excited and said "don't go outside!" But she was from the York County office and we live in the city of Newport News. So she transferred me to them. That woman was not so helpful. She said that of course they come out in the day if people have bird feeders. Then said we could rent a trap for $60 plus a daily fee until we caught it ourselves. Didn't offer up what to do if we did catch the poor thing. I wasn't up for that and thanked her for being less than helpful. I watched as the raccoon had a couple more bites of the new bird seed I had just put out earlier and then it sort of galloped along the fence and across the back of the yard and disappeared behind our shed. I am unsettled. I am hoping the raccoon was just passing through. We will keep an eye out and be cautious.

BTW...the picture was taken from inside through the window. And our cats were oblivious!

After that Golfer and I went to a movie. We can highly recommend "A-Team"! Great show!

Stay safe and watch out for wildlife!

JUST SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS.....AND SOME NOT SO RANDOM

Hey, all! We hope you're all doing well.

First of all, Happy Fathers Day to Golfer, CableGuy and Brief!

And then "Get Well Soon" to my sister!

It's hot and muggy here in Virginia. We're talking "Africa hot" here, folks. You can look out at the yard and see the grass drying up. And this is after the sprinkler system is running on schedule. I was looking out the window yesterday and saw a squirrel on the deck, stretched out flat on his belly with his head hanging over the edge of the deck. Pitiful! But he got up and moved about the time I was ready to go out and check on him.

Golfer and I had our first dealings with the Social Security office this past week. He did his application online last weekend. Monday we got a call from the local office to set up an appointment. We went to the office on Tuesday afternoon with our papers. Judy was excellent! She was so helpful and informative and efficient. Turns out she's actually retired herself and just working now because they called her back for a few months. I'm glad we got her! She did all the numbers and input data and the money was in our account on Thursday. It was all so much more efficient than we ever expected!

I do have a small rant though... I really do think that if you can't speak English you don't have any business in the Social Security office. Golfer and I were definitely a minority in the waiting room. It was packed with non-English-speaking young people. My thoughts on this are: 1. Are you here legally? Show me your green card! 2. If you are here legally, you should be speaking English. And have a job and supporting yourself. 3. If you aren't here legally, GO HOME! And that sums up my thoughts on the general state of things, folks.

Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts about why our "Harry Potter" DVDs won't play? We tried to watch them in order and the first three movies and the fifth one will not play on either DVD player. It just says "no disc". I am annoyed.

Did you know that your garbage disposal can become unplugged? As in no electricity? I was cleaning up in the kitchen this morning and flipped the switch and nothing happened. Boooo! So I got my tool kit, the flashlight, some towels, and got myself down on the floor and under the sink. Darn thing was unplugged from the wall outlet under there. Easy fix, but who knew?! And how did that happen?

I bought myself a "Gopher III" gadget. It's one of those extended reach helper thingies. It works very well and can grab a weed and yank it out of the dirt pretty well! Picks up a lot of other stuff, too, but the constant bending and stooping is difficult for my bad knee so I thought I'd try it in the yard.

Take care and stay safe! That's all for now!

Finally! A Functioning Computer in the Office!

Hooray! Today I could finally start on the pile of work sitting on my work desk! I now have a functioning computer. The planets are aligned and all is well. Mood is better.

In other news---- I had to go buy a new toaster. Yesterday afternoon I went to get my calcium supplement out of the cupboard and looked down at the toaster and it had ants crawling in and on it. EWWWWWW! I got the flashlight and did an inspection and there were NONE on the counter, crawling up the cupboard, or on the floor. Just in and on the toaster. Like they just appeared there. I put the toaster out on the patio. Again, EWWWWW! I thought about it. I couldn't soak and scrub it in hot soapy water. And if I sprayed it with insecticide there was no way I would eat toast that came out of it. So I bagged it up and put it in the dumpster. On my errand list for today was "buy toaster". I got a four slice Black and Decker one that will accommodate bagels, too.

We are still seeing ants, but they are moving slowly and coming out to die, I guess. There will be some major cleaning here this weekend.

That's about it from here. Stay safe!

Nope; Did Not Fall Off the Face of the Earth!

Hey, all! Golfer and I are doing okay. Just been busy!

We were away on a family vacation at the beach for a week. So there were preparations for that and then catching up to do when we returned. Vacation was good. Golfer and his buddies had some good golf, we visited with our family and friends, played with the grandkids, and enjoyed lovely weather.

I'm back to work this week. Having some issues there with the office computer, but hopefully that will all be fixed tomorrow.

We came home to discover we have some tiny visitors in the house and had to call an exterminator to come and deal with ants. The things we had tried just weren't making them go away. It's under control now, but "ICK!"

Happy Birthday to Nurse J!

Stay safe!