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Serendipity and Other Oddities

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I was hit over the head with a clear case of serendipity on Saturday evening. I was sitting at my computer, contemplating what to fix for supper when my phone rang. The conversation that followed had certain Kafkaesque properties.

Me: Hello.

Mom: What time are you coming over for supper? It’s getting late.

Me: I didn’t know I was coming over for supper.

Mom: Oh, well maybe we didn’t actually discuss supper. It was when we talked about you coming over to do some gardening today.

Me: Well, I didn’t come over this morning because of the rain last night. But what is this about supper?

Mom: I thought we’d agreed that you were coming over for supper tonight.

Me: I don’t remember that discussion, but I was just sitting here contemplating what to fix for supper when you called.

Mom: Well, you’d better get over here. I have the zucchini patties almost done and the steak ready to toss in the iron skillet.

Me: Okay, I’ll be right over.

Do you ever have the solution to your quandaries appear out of the blue like that?  Isn’t it neat when it does? (Thanks, mom!)

Time to get back to comforting Molly. The thunder and lightning has had her spending all afternoon and evening glued to me. The earlier lightning storm was strong enough to blow out the local cell towers. It only took them a couple of hours to get cell service back up and running. (One of the advantages of fiber optics to the door is that lightning is not a problem. So I could surf and email the whole time.) Now it is just putting up with the continuous warnings for the severe thunder storms and the tornado warnings blaring over all the TV programs. Makes TV seem really boring and pointless. Maybe it is time to go watch TV online. {*grin*}

hoax, Molly, rabbit, weather

Thumper Attacks!

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Tonight Molly and I got started on our walk a bit late – we had to wait for me to go fix mom’s electricity. For some reason she gets a little perturbed when her kitchen outlets and refrigerator quit working. {*grin*}

As Molly and I walked along, we passed near a stand of bushes. Suddenly there was the boom and squeals that signal the upset presence of a wild rabbit. Sure enough, there about 2 feet in front of us was a rather large doe working to get us to follow her. It has been hot and dry around here, so I suspect she moved her family to the bush near an irrigated lawn to solve the heat and water problem. In any case, she didn’t want us to linger near the bush and was trying hard to decoy us into following her.

Molly was all in favor of a policy of hot pursuit. Nothing like a big squealing rabbit right in front of your nose to get you excited if you are a dog. I had to explain to Molly that if she actually did catch up to the doe, she would probably suffer grievous injuries. The first thing the doe would do is flop onto her back and use those big paws and strong back legs to break Molly’s nose and then attempt to rip off her face, followed by sprinting away while Molly was distracted by the pain. I don’t think Molly really believed me, but she was willing to continue on with our walk. Good enough. After all, some wild rabbits around here are really big:

(You can read all about this rabbit here.)

The rest of the walk was pretty uneventful until we started back to the house. The entire sky from horizon to horizon in the west was being lit up by lightning, fast approaching us. Which was pretty amusing given that looking in the other direction you could see the stars in the clear sky. Now if some of it would just yield some rain.

Time to go protect the garden from big bunnies. {*grin*}

birthday, misc, Molly, printer

That Was The Week That Was

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Am I the only one here old enough to remember that TV show? (Even I remember it only from reruns on late night TV; it originally aired on the BBC way back in the early 60’s. I seem to remember seeing it as late night filler on a Boston UHF station in the 70’s.) In any case, it supplied a catchy title so the memory space it occupies in my mind is not totally wasted. For the insanely curious, go read the Wikipedia synopsis at That Was The Week That Was.

Last week I mentioned that I would write about the beautiful printer/scanner I won from the wonderful ladies of Aiming Low and HP. Late last week I finally got it unpacked and set up. (My delay was making it dangerously close to losing my tech geek card – true geeks must drop everything to play with any new piece of equipment!) Setup was trivial since it has built in wireless connectivity. And the photo prints are spectacular! Thank you Aiming Low and HP! Oh, it also looks pretty nifty as well:

Nothing like all black with a neat little touch screen to appeal to the tech geek in me.

L was home this weekend and we had the big thirtieth birthday party for my friend the writer to attend. A group of friends, great BBQ, two kinds of cake, and pie – the ideal way to say happy birthday. It doesn’t seem possible that he is that old. I have known him since he was in high school and it just doesn’t seem to be that long ago. (I suspect that is a symptom of aging – everything seems to have happened just a moment ago. When you are young, it seems like everything is yet to happen in the far distant future. The older you get, the faster things seem to happen.) In any case, Happy Birthday Bryson!

Time for Molly and I to head out for our walk. I think Molly will trust me by now. This morning it was time for her annual veterinary checkup and vaccinations.  She and I hopped in the truck went to the bank where the drive up clerk gave her a doggy biscuit. Molly thought that was pretty neat. Then we drove out to the clinic and Molly could smell all the dogs and cats and other critters in the gravel parking lot. That really excited her. She led me in the doors and sat with me in the waiting room. But when it came time to sit on the scale and she really didn’t want to be still. But we got through it and into the exam room.

That was when all those things that she blames me for happened. The cold stethoscope to the chest, the thermometer up the rear, and of course the three shots. All while I am holding her against my chest and beginning to look like I sprouted a white fur coat from her shedding on me. We came home and she carefully spent most of the day sleeping across the room from me in my office, raising her head to be sure I wasn’t up to another sneaky trick whenever I moved. By this evening she was willing to let by-gones be by-gones and was rubbing furballs all over my legs. So I think it is time for us to go. {*grin*}

cicadas, sound

The Omnious Sound Of …

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Tonight marked the early signs of the cicadas. There were a few out and making their droning racket as Molly and I braved the heat to go walking. Cicadas always amaze me. Years underground and then a metamorphosis followed by a short but intense life above ground. I always wondered about the poor cicadas who aren’t synchronized to the same n year cycle as the masses. I suspect they feel like the unpopular kids in school: they know there is something they are missing but aren’t quite sure what.

Cicada nymphs burrow underground and feed on sap from plant roots. The length of time they spend in this subterranean existence varies from 2 to 17 years, depending on the species.

When they are ready to become adults, the nymphs tunnel to the surface and crawl up on the side of the nearest object. Then the skin splits down the middle of their back and they emerge to inflate and dry their wings. This is done at night. So by day, one often spots the dried husks sitting empty on branches and trunks:

The winged adults fly around a bit, but spend most of their time sitting on trees and vertical surfaces. The males make the tremendous droning noises trying to attract the females. In the winged adult state, they look like this:

I’m not sure if this is the year of the mass emergence of the locals or if there will be but a few stragglers. I remember some years ago when L and I had just started up a new company and we had our newly hired marketing director out here in the boonies doing a corporate branding and imaging exercise. The meeting was in August and the cicadas were in full throat. The drone during the day was loud enough to drown out conversation as we walked on the sidewalk. Nanette, our new marketing director, had never heard cicadas before. When she inquired what the noise was, we showed her a few in the trees and some husks on the ground. It scared her enough that she was unwilling to spend much time outdoors after that. She thought the sound was horrifying; we thought it was a normal part of summer.

So what do you think? Scary or neat? (If you have never heard a cicada, you can visit the Cicadas of Michigan site to hear recordings of ten of the species native to Michigan)

electricity, rain, stove, thrills, weather

VBS and Other Tales

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It must be time for VBS (Vacation Bible School) in this neck of the woods.

Why you ask?

Well … we have had severe thunderstorm warnings, a tornado warning, and even a brief flash flood warning in the last 4 days. All in the late afternoon or early evening. When did VBS begin at church and what time does it meet? I’ll give you three guesses and won’t even count the first two.

Tonight brought forth water and more water as it thundered and poured water in sheets. Of course the gutters on the house chose then to suffer downspoutnodrainus, a nearly always fatal disease caused by pine needles in the craw, i.e.

The water was cascading out of the gutter and everywhere except out of the downspout. Me being me, I decided then would be a good time to unplug the downspouts while I waited for my chicken to finish baking. No need to get a hose or turn on the water; mother nature is dumping enough you can’t even see your hand in from of your face.

(No wonder – my arms have shrunk so I can’t possibly see them!)

As I am standing there with my arm in the air and my hand in the overflowing gutter, pulling pine needles out of the downspout and enjoying the icy water running down the inside of the sleeve of my rain coat, across my chest, through my pants. down my leg, and into my shoe, the thought crosses my mind about possible obituary headlines for when I am struck by all the lightning flashing nearby. (And how is that for a run-on sentence?) Some of the better ones included phrases like “Dumbass Former Mayor Dies Holding Hand in Air During Lightning Storm”, “Idiot Gets Grounded Just Before …”, or even “Franklin’s Experiment Sans Kite Proves Fatal To …’, etc. The worst thing was that the ice water running through my pants was the most thrilling moment of my day. It’s been all downhill after that.

I suppose my thoughts of electrocution came from replacing the heating element in the oven earlier this afternoon. Nothing like throwing both stove breakers (Ask me how I first learned that there were two double breakers for the stove.) and unplugging the (3) cords from the stove before disassembling the lower oven to pull out the old element and put in the new one. I have to hand it to GE. The stove was a high end model purchased by the people we bought the house from more than 20 years ago. In that time I have had to replace the broiler element and now the oven element. Never a problem with the burners or the built in microwave or the computer … Had to replace a little plastic knob on the cleaning timer, but not much else. they just don’t build ’em like that anymore.

Time to go put on dry pants. The thrill is gone. {*grin*}

Things Done Right