Author: Rene

Once in awhile the Tupperware drawers become full again. Errant containers come home to roost at the same time and the lid drawer is overflowing. However, it can still be impossible to find the correct top when you need it, thus requiring an entire “testing” phase for the vessels.

This little Pinterest poke amused me as I struggle to find my yogurt receptacle. At least the drawer is getting a good cleaning again.

My sister claims to have had the last cup of coffee from the gasping for breath Keurig. The slow demise seemed to have finally ended. My brother-in-law was forced to travel to Starbucks for his morning jolt. If we were a VRBO we would have had to refund a portion of the fee. No coffee.

However, after a day of rest, I have resurrected the implement and managed to eke out a cup of coffee for my puzzle period. (I did have to use the electric urn from my mom for the bridge gathering…no way was there going to be time to make four cups of coffee that morning!) It takes longer than usual, but I can get a full cup!

There will be a new machine by the time my next guests arrive, courtesy of the now institutionalized “Amazon Prime Day.”

Morning shadows shorten, the sun rises high,
Temperatures are climbing, we are in mid-July.
The air is still, without a breeze,
Evidenced by the silenced trees.
A rabbit lolls, subdued by the heat.
The once-green meadow accepts defeat. 
At times oppressive, though it won’t last,
I’m savoring summer, it goes too fast.  

Remember that gorgeous fern my mother had in the front room of her home? It filled a spacious room with its overflowing beauty. I separated it when she passed and each sibling got a third of the monster. It was my grandmother’s fern.

My husband is slowly killing it. He continues to close the draperies in the spare bedroom where my third resides. Yes, he is doing it to keep the house cooler, but it is also a fact that plants need light for proper photosynthesis – and this plant has been slowly dropping fronds and succumbing to the lack of light. When I realized the problem I meant to say something to him – and kept forgetting. I have been making a daily excursion to that room to rectify the issue.

Since he occasionally reads my missives, I am using this forum to educate him in the art of horticulture. And of course, giving him grief. I’m sure the fern will flourish hereafter.

There is no walking outside across the lawn without shoes. Everything is so dry you’ll have thistles stabbing your toes, scratchy weeds clinging to your feet, and regular old grass working like a pumice. Bone dry in spite of watering.

Thus, I’m sure the hail-damaged ferns loved me repotting them in this stifling heat. We’ll see how hardy they are now! Hail-stricken, wind-blown and now sun-fried. I used to think working at a gardening center could be rewarding and fun. It might be? I just might not be the person to expand a gardener’s knowledge, especially with my “survival of the fittest” mentality.

We’ll see how things look in September.

So true. The local librarian in my small town loved it when my sister and I visited. She would give “Pindy” a dime to go and get her a donut from the cafe, too. I’m sure we were her favorites? Anyway, she led me to the historical fiction section of the library and encouraged me to up my reading level while in grade school.

When I preferred reading to burning my skin at the public pool, I remember lazing about all summer long. “Giants in the Earth” was my first big novel, by Rolvaag. I’ve reread it three or four times since – just this past year as a matter of fact. I credit her with cultivating that thirst for history and the weaving of stories.

I think I’ll search out a donut this weekend in her honor!

Amy, the grandmother who swam almost 30 miles in shark-infested waters through San Francisco Bay, is my hero. The biggest challenge I faced today was the struggle to replace those little felt pads on the bottom of the kitchen chairs. I nearly impaled my hand on the screwdriver.

Just a normal day of danger for this old lady! Amy did make me want to jump in the ocean again…maybe next vacation?

We did not have central air conditioning in our home when we were growing up. We might have had a window unit somewhere? (Help me, sibs?) If we did have any “conditioned air,” I was unaware of it. I recall propping my window open and placing my head on the sill to catch a breeze. Having survived a possible decapitation made me think of turning on the air today for our heat wave.

It’s the time to hunker down and store the memory of this warmth for an icy day in December. And to this I offer a poor poem for our consideration. (Author unknown. Or unwilling to own.)

In July ‘tis the rule
One must try to remain cool.
Go ahead and hit the pool.
Do not be a silly fool.
Do not veg out on a stool.
Do not run out of fuel.
Use a fan as a tool
To continue being cool.

(Written while not in school.)

Reading my favorite Dr. Seuss book, “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket,” always gives me pause on the “vug” page. I get the feeling that I should be vacuuming something, looking for that vug under the rug.

One of these days I’ll put my own stories to print. My hold-up has been the illustration process. I can copy, but I can’t draw anything worthy on my own. Perhaps I shall employ a personal AI assistant? (Thank you, Son, for that encouragement!)

Time to create my masterpiece. If I can only find where I filed the story? Another cup of coffee should aid in this. Stay tuned.

”The Naked and the Dead,” is the novel I have been plowing through. Norman Mailer. How coincidental there is a documentary on him in theaters now?

Actually, I began “plowing” through and have come to the “can’t wait to finish” status. The writing depicts the men of a platoon during WWII. Rough language, rough characters, and in-depth studies of the men who braved their way in a culture of war. I like to think I can tough out bad situations, but after his descriptions of intimate moments with death, sickness, anti-Semitism, constant weather challenges and personality clashes, I would have folded early on. I’m glad I stuck with this tome. It has been enlightening. I have felt the moods and quirks of these men, smelled the odors they lived with, languished in the despair they endured. Now I have to see who survives!

And…it’s one of those rich books where I’m hanging on each and every word written so masterfully. I’ll be heading to a theater soon!