Wordless Wednesday

It Was Difficult Getting Them to Pose for a Family Portrait

Punny Monday

Q: What is Donald Trump's favorite chapter of the Bible?

A: Chapter Eleven. 

Just Playin'

Thoughts on a Thursday

This has been puzzling me for a while now…..

It heartens me to see more and more companies making organic products available. This is a good thing! I am all for going back to the way our grandparents ate. REAL food from gardens and farms that don’t rely on chemical pesticides and antibiotics. But…..for certain foods I don’t see how they can claim that it’s organic.

I refer to honey in particular.

How can a bee keeper guarantee the honey his bees produce is purely organic?

I understand they have guidelines, like the area surrounding the hives for a certain distance has to be pesticide free. Or the citrus grove they are pollinating has to be certified organic.

BUT…..and to me this is a BIG BUT……how do they know the bees stay within that area???

How do they know a rogue bee doesn’t one day wake up and say, “I’m sick and tired of orange blossoms! I feel like some clover today!”  So he and his gang of hooligans fly off to an unauthorized area and chow down?

Which leads me to other thoughts….such as when they find a bee hive in someone’s wall….(that’s obviously been there for a loooong time and how did the homeowners not hear it for so long??? But that’s another thought for another day…..) is that some sort of street bee gang? Did they leave the hive because they were tired of being oppressed? Are they making ‘meth’ honey to finance a bee coup???? A world takeover??? Are they weaponizing their stingers??? And suddenly, in my head, I have a whole underground bee culture going on……..

And you think its easy being in my head……lol

Wordless Wednesday

(it works both ways.....lol)

♪♫♪♫♪ We’re Havin’ a Heat Wave…..♪♫♪♫♪

A tropical heat wave.....♪♫♪♫♪….. the temperature’s rising…….♪♫♪♫♪……it isn’t surprising….♪♫♪♫♪

I’m grumpy as hell….♪♫♪♫♪…..and sweaty…..♪♫♪♫♪

and the a/c in the house died!…..♪♫♪♫♪

(I know it doesn’t rhyme but I’m working under duress here…..)

DATELINE: LAST THURSDAY 
The a/c died. 
Long story short (sort of....lol) the tech told us the coil was leaking.

So…..choices.

New coil $2,500…..or new unit to replace what we have now $7,400 (which has never cooled the house to my liking)….or new unit upgrade with duct work @ $10,000…….hmmmmm.

He added more Freon to get us through the weekend. But it only lasted that afternoon and then the temperature in the house topped off at 86°.

We have every fan in the house going and all the shades drawn to keep out the sun. The a/c wall unit in the garage is running and we have Husband’s big work fan trying to blow the cool air from the garage into the house….

Even with all that the temp climbs higher in here every day!  

We decided on the new coil and they ordered it on Friday. It’s coming from Texas….it’ll be here by tomorrow (they think….) and then they have to schedule when they can install it.

I considered offering to drive to Texas to get it myself. It would have been faster and I would have been in a nice cool car the whole way……but…..I decided against it.  

In the meantime….I’m M-E-L-T-I-N-G…………(cue the Wicked Witch of the West screeching…..)

UPDATE: SUNDAY 
The tech came and added more Freon to keep us going until the part comes....and two hours later......BANG......WHOOOOOOSHHHHHHHH......the OUTSIDE unit blew! 

We are now getting a whole new system. Upgrading to a bigger unit, new duct work, new returns......BUT.......I'll be able to hang meat in here!

Debt be damned....I'll be COOL! 

Punny Monday

A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.

Kickin' Back on a Friday Afternoon

...enjoying the sunshine and a sketch......

Thoughts on a Thursday

Technology is amazing. I find it remarkable you can hold a tiny device in your hand, tethered to nothing, and have access to the world. ANYTHING you want….movies….music…information…..directions…..the list goes on.

Wireless technology is magical. I don’t understand it and it astonishes me. I’m sure there are gremlins involved in some way, they’re just not telling us! LOL

And yet I’m totally unimpressed with the fact you can turn on a radio and get music out of a box, or for that matter put a bunch of metal tubes on your roof and have another box filled with pictures.

Radio waves don’t impress me but wireless technology does…..

Why is that?

I grew up with radio and TV so it just seems normal I guess. But hand held devices impress the hell out of me! 

Pardon me, does this make me look old?

Wordless Wednesday

A Left Hander’s Burden……

Inspired by Koosje Koene’s Draw Tip Tuesday I decided to try my hand (no pun intended...you'll get that in a minute....) at the newly arranged living room bookcase.  I grabbed a ‘failed’ piece of paper from my discard pile, a blue ballpoint pen and took a few minutes while listening to an old movie.  

Just a quickie….no judgement. 

Two works of art for the price of one….lol.

Punny Monday

I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted pay checks.

(footnote:I'm running out of good puns so I've decided to switch to PARAPROSDOKIANS.

PARAPROSDOKIANS (Winston Churchill loved them) are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous.)

This is as Far as I'll Get

Writing about my grandparents made me feel all fuzzy.......I even thought I'd get ambitious and make a batch of End of the Garden Relish.......
I'm afraid this is as far as I'll get......lol

Thoughts on a Thursday

I often have trouble making art just for the sake of the doing. I find myself asking why? To what end? What am I going to do with it? To sell? To share? To exhibit?

If I can’t come up with a satisfactory answer I don’t do anything. I get stuck in a quagmire of nothingness.

And I brood.

I get cranky which leads to depressed…..

Then I wonder what’s wrong with me.

And  I wonder if some of the adults I encountered in my formative years who tried to make me right handed......or questioned some of the things I did, or said , or thought or believed…..I wonder if they didn’t fry some of my brain circuits.

It would explain so much……

Wordless Wednesday

End of the Garden Relish

During the depression my uncle raised and sold chickens. My grandfather was out of work for four years during that time but my mother said she never knew until she was much older. She never felt deprived or poor. There was always food on the table. During the winter months they had what my grandmother had ‘put up’ (i.e. canned) from the garden.

Grandma was famous for her End of the Garden Relish. A sweet relish made from green tomatoes and other stragglers from the garden at the end of the growing season. She gave me the recipe and I’ve made it once or twice but it was never as good as hers. 

 

Grandma's recipe, in her own hand. Give it a try, it's yummy! 

Punny Monday

They begin the evening news with 'Good Evening,' then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.

You Want a Toe-Mah-Toe Sandwich?

After all the hellos and hugs Grandma went into grandma mode…..feeding us! The first question out of her mouth after all the hellos was ALWAYS “You want a ‘toe-mah-toe’ sandwich?” Mostly she asked this of BigBro but I got in on the deal.

Toasted tomato sandwiches on homemade bread (sliced slightly thicker than store bought bread) with vine ripened tomatoes from their garden. In all my life, before or since, I have never had a sandwich that tasted as good as Grandma’s! And they kept coming! I don’t remember what BigBro’s record was, but I’m sure he put a significant dent in their tomato supply.

For my special treat Grandma made cinnamon toast for breakfast. Every morning of our visit I got to have cinnamon toast.  And eggs!  (keep in mind, as a kid, I was supposedly allergic to eggs….among other things. And Grandma conveniently ‘forgot’ all my restrictions.)

Now THAT’S love….feeding your grandchild food that could possibly have detrimental effects…..amiright?????

Thoughts on a Thursday

Next thought: Do you ever wonder…….. when some guy decides he’s going to pop the question to his girlfriend in a really big way and hires a sky writer to fly over a stadium at half time…….puffing out WILL YOU MARRY ME, REBECCA? Do you ever think about the statistical possibility of how many other Rebecca’s there are in a crowd of 80,000 fans? And out of all those Rebecca’s how many of them turn to their unsuspecting boyfriends shrieking YES and throwing their arms around his neck because all the way to the stadium in the car she was secretly hoping this would happen?

I wonder how many poor guys have been suckered this way?

Wordless Wednesday

More Memories of Grandpa

We only visited my grandparents once every four or five years. So when we did it was special. I remember the closer we got to their house (after driving for hours on the New York State Thruway, the MOST boring road in the universe) I would get antsy. I knew what was coming. I had to get through the ‘hellos’. I HATED that part. All the hugging and kissing and “My, how you’ve GROWN!” comments. But the part I hated most was Grandpa’s mustache!

I didn’t mind so much that it reminded me of Adolf Hitler. 

What I hated was he’d hug me and kiss me and ‘tickle’ me with that mustache. But it didn’t tickle, it scratched! And left red marks on my neck! I hated those first few minutes of every visit. But once we got that out of the way it was fun!

Punny Monday

I'm running out of good puns so I've decided to switch to PARAPROSDOKIANS.

PARAPROSDOKIANS (Winston Churchill loved them) are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous.

Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

(I may still throw in a Trump pun when the mood strikes....so reader beware.....)