Salad Days.

 Salad Days.

 

Have put on another pot of tea in the coffee maker, so another day of tea and salad or tea and whatever sparks my interest is on the horizon. Had some bourbon baked beans yesterday. Some of those with salad is not bad for a lunch. Patty pulled one of my stunts and ordered shredded cheddar cheese even though she still had an unopened bag in the fridge. So, a bag of cheese came home with me this morning on my trip back from down there. Know exactly how these things happen. She was thinking tacos and wanted to be sure she had all the ingredients. Have done that more than once around here. But food hardly ever goes to waste in those situations. Unless it is milk. Expired milk is just yucky. Salad stuff stays good for a bit, but if it goes limp, the hens don’t gripe in the least.

 

Was reminded the other day that too many of my conversations are about the trash bins. That particular service is just wonderful in my estimation. We had old-fashioned trash barrels all the days of my youth. Daddy had to pay a man to come dump it. The same was true here in WF for years. Then the city came up with trash cans and a couple of guys to throw the garbage in the back of a truck. Those cans were eventually so beat up that the lids would not stay on. And the city also was picky about the cans we used. But getting the trash taken out was never a problem while the children lived here. Think you have heard the story about the guy who called us in the middle of a horrible ice storm. He asked us to go down to his house and feed his guinea hens because he was unable to get back in town. We went down there to find the hens frozen and lying around the bottom of a tree. We brought them back up to our house and put them in the trash can and put the lid on it. By the time the trash man came to dump it, he opened the lid and out flew three or four guinea hens. Talk about a shocked guy using some language! Who knew that guinea hens could thaw out and fly away!

 

The poor chickens got their space under the deck sprayed just now. It is just miserably hot outside. Had to wait until all the water still in the hose was out before spraying under the deck. That water was so hot that it made the nozzle hot in my hand. Just hanging the hose with its nozzle in a tree branch generally keeps the nozzle from getting hot, but the water in the hose was pretty close to scalding!

 

You know that things that are found in different places have different significances: cocaine in the White House and phosphate in Norway. “A huge phosphate rock deposit discovered in Norway contains enough minerals to meet the global demand for batteries and solar panels for the next 100 years, according to the mining company that controls it.” Now we might expect the White House to let us know how much cocaine will be floating around in D.C. soon. Can you see the raised eyebrows on the old woman? We just shake our heads and laugh at the comparison. The desire for economical energy that is “supposed” to be non-polluting and the lax attitude toward kilos of drugs brought into our country are quite the contrast.

 

Listening to one other thing posted today from a news commentary group made me wonder about the readiness of this nation. According to this general—don’t ask me his name—77% of the recruits seen by the military are unable to pass the tests to get into the service. Primarily physical problems put them out of the class of fitness required to enter the service. Obesity is the biggest factor, along with prior sedentary habits—think video games. But probably the most horrifying element was the inability to read and comprehend simple instructions. Back in 1990, the football coaches at MSU sent around a list of their players to most of us instructors who had the TASP classes in reading and writing to teach. It amazed me that these kids could not write a simple paragraph. Apparently, the situation has not improved since then. How sad that our high schools will graduate students who cannot read an essay and find the main points or discuss those points in an answering essay. Education has fallen off the hay wagon, Folks.

 

Sitting here praising God for the sprinkles of rain out there in my yard. The temps are not supposed to get very high the rest of this week. Isn’t that wonderful! It would please me no end to see the front yard floating for a bit! God lets it rain on other places, too, but we pray often for this wonderful substance. Deep breaths of fresh air cooled by His hands.

 

Rest well, my friends. You are loved.