This is another post where there isn't enough to write about any one topic but just a lot of little pieces. I feel like a write a lot of snippet blogs but after all a lot of life is snippets- and sometimes those snippets are what makes us smile, laugh, or just enjoy being alive.
- Arthur's new favorite evening activity in the evenings is watching woodworking shows on the internet. He has discovered the New Yankee Woodshop and the Woodwright's Shop. I remember watching both of these shows with my dad on Saturday afternoons on PBS. Arthur, and his love for learning new things, especially beautiful craftsmanship, is eating these up. We watched two Woodwright's Shop episodes tonight that featured guests. One guest was a blacksmith and demonstrated how to make a wrought iron chisel with a steel blade. I must admit I never knew the shape of an anvil had a purpose. The next episode featured a craftsman who makes ships in a bottle and the detail workmanship and planning needed to get large object through a tiny opening.
- Sometimes what we learn by watching TV comes in handy in real life. One of my co-workers had a difficult case at work and was bouncing ideas off of me about what could possibly be wrong with this patient. He had excruciating thigh pain for several days that didn't change with sitting, walking, lying down, etc. Then all of a sudden one morning he woke up and the pain was going. He wants to know what caused this and how to keep it from happening again. As she was telling me this my first thought was, "This sounds exactly like the symptoms Dr. House had in the TV show House with his muscle infarct." We researched this some more and most of the symptoms seem to fit. Who knows if this is the problem this particular patient had and we will probably never know but it was the best answer we came up with. Now I feel like I should get continuing education hours from watching House.
- Driving on the interstate each day there is always something interesting or a little out of the ordinary. Currently I am listening to Dickens' Great Expectations about 19th Century Britain while hurtling down the road. Several times I have noticed trucks carrying the blades of wind turbines stopped at a rest stop. Wind turbines are impressive at any distance but being up close and personal to just a blade give a whole new perspective to their size. The blades measure 116' in length. A normal semi trailer is 53'. My car at just 10' long provides enough challenges parallel parking I can't imagine navigating something ten times as long. The other noteworthy thing I saw on my drive today was an Airstream trailer in front of me with a logo that said "Long Long Honeymoon". At some point over the past few years my dad has read blogs about people who RV and there was a couple from Florida who took off on their honeymoon and haven't really stopped since they can live and work in their Airstream trailer. And here they were tooling down the interstate in front of me. As a person who loves to travel I think it would be interesting to live on the road for awhile. But what would I do with my garden?
- This leads to the low points of the week. On my one tomato plant that is doing well this year I discovered ginormous caterpillars stripping it of its leaves. I will not stand for this and since I try to be an organic gardener insecticides were not the answer (more because I'm cheap and don't want to buy different solutions of sprays or powders for each different gardening problem). This meant bloodshed or caterpillar guts must be shed. (This may become a little graphic for our more
squeamish readers). The first plump caterpillar was place upon the alter (a large rock) and pummeled with another rock as the neon green insides came out. This was repeated with the subsequent invaders. Arthur stared at me in slight bewilderment as his beautiful wife in her light pink sun dress is squatting down in the garden carrying out revenge against garden pests.
- Another low point is the Grand Canyon (The Grand Canyon is literally a very low point). Next year we would like to do a Grand Canyon hiking trip. However to stay down in the bottom of the canyon reservations must be made a year in advance. You can begin calling for reservations on the first of the month at 8am so for Sept 2016 we call on Sept 1, 2015. Work was busy in the morning so I was finally able to call at noon. I kept getting a busy signal so I had to redial the number for 10 minutes before even getting put on hold for another 20 minutes since I was 14th in line. By the time I talked to a real person it was booked completely for every single day in September. I guess we will try again next month o maybe develop a plan B. I have considered starting a second career as an adventure trip planner since this is my new current hobby.
- Other random news-- There was a sheep that got lost in Australia. When someone found it, the sheep hadn't been sheared for years, if ever. It was the size of a fridge. They sheared 90 pounds of wool off of it-- almost equal to its body weight. Its health was endangered due to its wool. Literally, "It's so fluffy, it could have died." Here's a picture
- Since we are not in hard-core training mode for any evens currently we have been taking a lot of evening walks. Our town is in the process of improving the walkability of the area for transportation and fitness. I found a link to a survey for this the other night so I basically stopped everything I was doing to fill it out before I forgot. I asked Arthur what his thoughts or suggestions were to include and he gave me a hard time about my sudden civic-mindedness. It is true that I usually don't give two hoots about politics but I become passionate about the thought of better "active transportation"- walking, running, biking, etc in our community and I had a lot of ideas. I also pointed out to him that I took an entire class in college focusing on public health and how the community and environmental structures can greatly enhance or hinder physical activity and accessibility.
- Finally, we will close this post the way we are finishing each night. About an hour before bed we indulge in fudgesicles on most evenings. Arthur's blue eyes begin to twinkle at the thought of fudgesicles and we settle into our cozy recliners in the basement. It's amazing how the small, simple things add little joys to life. Omnia Vincit Amor.
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