House Cleaning is Not a Recreational Sport

I planned on working in my garden again today, but one look around my house today and decided that in order to  avoid the spread of pestilence and  disease I'd better do some house cleaning instead.  So it was kitchen and bathroom day, what fun, shining stainless steel and scrubbing down all those porcelain thrones.
  Then I Swiffered the hardwood floors.  Swiffers are ok for picking up dust, but the bits of debris on my floors just laugh at it.  I also have a Swiffer-type mop and it's a waste of time, it's good old hands and knees on my garden kneeler when I break down and do that.
When that was done I jumped in the pool and scooped out leaves, flies and wasps.  The pool has been reasonably cool lately, hope it stays that way.
While I was in the pool I ran the air conditioner in the upstairs so I could do some work up there, which I did.  I managed to lose a needle, destroy a pillow and cut out some fairy squares that I want to use to make a small quilt with. All the fairies are blue fairies but each one is different.  I also have a set of pink fairies.   I've never quilted, but once the weather cools down a little I'm going to give it a try.

Down the Garden Path

I worked out in the garden today, under an umbrella, for the first time time in forever.  The heat has just been oppressive. and though it's not as hot today it is very humid.  When I get to complaining too much about the weather  I have to stop and remind myself that we live in a swamp and if we have swampy weather there's a good reason.

Anyway, after weeding I wandered around the yard to see how things were holding up.  The Rose of Sharon was the only plant I saw that actually seems to be enjoying the weather.

 Mac's sunflowers, though not blooming yet, are doing well, as are the multitude of Zinnias that seed themselves every year.

Mac caught a fish while I was out there.

And Miss Kitty, dragging her leash behind her, was hot on the trail of a lizard.

Earlier today when we'd headed out on our walk the Lantana was so covered in butterflies you could hardly see the flowers, now it's just too hot.

I snapped a picture of the Bougainvillea on the front porch and headed in to get my suit and go swimming.

World's Best Husband

When I was out in the pool yesterday floating around my husband folded the laundry for me.  Most of the laundry that it.  He used his socks to spell out a message to me---Q is my nickname.  Now how sweet is that!

Responsible Citizenship

I went Tuesday to vote in the Republican run-off election for Governor, I don't usually do run-off elections but I missed voting in the primary.  I missed voting in the primary because they'd moved my polling place and by the time we'd track a polling place down and found out it was the wrong one I decided a pox on all their houses and I just didn't vote.  Which is too bad because the person I would have voted for lost, bady,  and I was left with 2 people I knew nothing about in the run-off election.  Georgia is one of those states where if a person doesn't get at least 50% of the votes then they hold a run-off between the top two vote getters.
So before voting I decided to look up some background on the two candidates and the news was not good.
The woman running has been the Secretary of State for Georgia, but she never graduated from college, one of her first jobs was working for Marilyn Qualye the wife of a really bad Vice-President, and to me the kiss of death was that Sarah Palin endorsed her.
The man running was worse, though he's been a U.S. Congressman he has had  so many ethic violations filed against him that it took me a half hour to read about them.
What a choice.  But I voted and the man won.
I think I'm going to vote for his Democratic opponent, at least he has experience, he use to be Governor here, and has some idea of how to get things done.
I have serious doubts that our system works for regular people any more.

Little House on the Prairie Time

Had a good little loaf of bakery bread yesterday and decided to stop being so lazy and make my own.  So Mac got my breadmaker out and I made a loaf of crusty French bread.  The top didn't get as dark as I thought it should and to my taste it's just a tad salty, but all in all not too bad.
Then to go with the bread I made Blackberry Jam.  I got the recipe from Amazon's Daily Blog page and they said it was originally a BBC recipe.  Basically you cook blackberries and sugar together in the microwave and seal the results in little jars.  Looks good, tastes pretty good, but rather seedy, I may make some more and strain some of the seeds out.
With the left-over berries I made a kind of cobbler and we'll be eating that with ice cream tonight.
A nice way to spend the morning.

Random Thoughts on Childhood Illnesses

I was reading about an outbreak of Whooping Cough (Pertussis) in California and  it got me to thinking about why it was happening.  Some say because many parents won't vaccinate for fear of side effects and though no connection has been found that their child might become autistic.  Others just don't think vaccinations are important and others have religious reasons.
I had whooping cough as a young child, young enough that I don't remember it, but my Mother told me that I'd had it.  That got me thinking about whether or not I'd been vaccinated, the vaccine was developed in the 30's and widely available in the 40's, but I have no idea whether I had it and sadly my Mother is gone and I can't ask her.
This in turn,  led me to thinking about other vaccines and illness's.  The only vaccine I can actually remember having as a child was the polio vaccine, I was among many other children who were the guinea pigs for early polio vaccinations, and in fact, to this day I don't know if I had the real vaccine or a placebo, we were never told.
So when I started school, about a 100 years ago I probably had few vaccinations, so out of curiosity I looked up the vaccinations to start school in Georgia, quite a list:
Diptheria
Pertussis (Whooping Cough)
Tetanus
Polio
Measles
Mumpts
Rubela
Pnuemoccal
Varicella (Chicken Pox)
Influenza B
Hepatitis   A and B
I know I had chicken pox as a child, again from family memories, not my own, but as to whether I ever had measles, mumps or rubella I have no idea.  I sure hope I've kept a better record for our daughter.
The biggest round of vaccinations I can remember taking was when Mac was in the Army and we were being sent overseas and I had to take Tetanus, Thyphoid, and Small Pox.  When we were stationed in Turkey I also had a gamma globbin innoculation for Hepatitus.
Because we're outdoors a lot we renew out Tetanus shot every 7-10 years and this year we broke down and took the  Pneumonia shot, have never taken the flu vaccine and probably never will.
It's a wonder I've survived all these years, but most of my Grandparents made it to their 80's and 90's and I doubt that they were ever vaccinated for anything.

Bombs Away, Sort Of ...

Missing Hydrogen Bomb

They found a Civil War era Parrot shell at Ft. McAllister, that's just down the road from us.  It was still full of black powder and they had to detonate the powder.  They're not quite sure how the shell got to Ft. McAllister because it's the kind of shell shot out at sea and not towards land.  The shell was found dug up and they're theorizing that someone with a metal detector (which it's illegal to use in the park) found it, dug it up and decided they'd better leave it there.
The park has now put it on display.
The reason I said bombs in my title is because there is another bomb in the ocean near us.  In 1958 the Air Force had to jettison a hydrogen bomb from a B-47 after a mid-air collision with a F-86.  The missing 12 foot  hydrogen bomb, weighing about 7600 lbs. is somewhere on the bottom of the ocean  just off our coast in the Wassow Sound, that's between Ossabow Island and Tybee Island.
The Air Force has never been able to find the bomb, but claims it is not a threat to local residents because it didn't have its nuclear capsule (I guess that's what's needed for detonation).  Unfortunately they've never been able to find that nuclear capsule either, they're not sure where it is.  For now they think it's safer to just leave the bomb in its muddy bed.  Sure hope they're right.

New Painting

Mac framed my latest painting for me and I've hung it in the "Beach Bathroom", and  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  I was painting another bucket to go with it, a purple one, but I'm not happy with how it turned out so it won't get hung.

Old Boat Painting

Current work in progress

The new painting will replace the one of a boat that I did several years ago, I'll probably put the old one on etsy.  Right now I'm working on another boat painting and want to start one of a doorway.


 I'm not as dedicated as Mac, he paints every day, I try to do some at least once a week.  He's currently working on a basket of strawberries.

Memories

I was rubbing paste wax into the wood of my piano yesterday, don't know how it dries out so badly when it's so humid here, when I glanced over at the antique school desk sitting next to it and realized I really needed to clean the black wrought iron on it.  So I got a rag, some cleaner and a paint brush to get inside all the scrolls and set to work.
As I worked on it I thought about where it had come from, it wasn't my old school desk, though I'd had one like it when I went to school  in Oakland, CA.  No, it had belonged to my Mother-in-law Patty.  She'd gone to school at Hayward Grammar School (later renamed Markham Elementary after a local poet and school principal) and when the school was town down in 1953 (it had been built in 1904) she went and got one of the desks.
Patty had  loved school  getting to attend only part-time because her family picked crops for a living and she had to leave school to follow the crops with them.  At 13, having completed 8th grade, her family had her leave school entirely so she could work full time, this was in 1926.
She loved to read and though her formal education stopped early her life-long love of reading continued and she always had books around to read.  When she died in 1990 we brought some of her books to our house and I've always wondered about one of them, Patty Goes To College.  I've wondered if she identified with the young girl in the book and wished that she too could have gone to college.
I know that she and my Father-in-law both valued education and though neither of them had much of an opportunity to attend,  all 4 of their sons graduated from High School and Mac and his younger brother George both graduated from college, with Mac adding on a Master's Degree.  I know she was very proud of all of her sons.

Shamefully Spoiled

I had a dermatology appointment this morning,  less said about that the better, and Mac dropped me off and went to do some grocery shopping for me.  But as always when I have an appointment where I don't really want to go he brought me back a surprise, a snail and even better he had a dark chocolate bar stuck in him.  He's actually a watering can but he's much to cool for that, he will live in front of the fireplace next to Mac's turtle.
I love snails, well actually that's not true, in fact I'm terrified of snails, I think if I touched one I'd pass out, they are gross beyond words.  But a number a years ago I started collecting nonliving snails made out of everything: alabaster, wood, porcelain, glass, clay, you name it.  I don't know if I was trying to desensitize myself or what.  Of course it hasn't worked, I'm still afraid of snails, but I do love my nonorganic snails and this one will make a great addition to my collection.

Yes They're a Little Bit Strange

For years I've been buying gardening gloves: cheap ones, expensive ones, cute ones, pairs guaranteed to fit like a second skin.  But after a few wearings they all ended up in the garage collecting cobwebs and other interesting things.  They didn't feel right, they weren't like a second skin and when I'm gardening I need something that lets me feel the soil, the seeds, the weeds.  If I'm hoeing or digging or raking I can wear a heavier glove, but not for the down on the ground work I do most of the time.
So last year I got a bright idea, I bought cheap, disposable plastic gloves and they're wonderful.  No more ant bites, no more peeling my gloves off so I can sow seeds, no more pulling up plants when I meant to grab a weed.  Two or three wearings and I throw them away and grab a new pair.  I'm not usually in favor of disposable objects but this works so well I do it.  After all I was disposing of my "real" gardening gloves every year.