thisendoftheswamp

A few days ago, we received a very official envelope from Harford County Government. Good Heavens, now what have we done?!

A dear friend from church had sent this in, totally unbeknownst to The Squire and me.

When I asked her what we had done, she said, “Everything! You two did so much – keeping the property looking good, teaching Sunday school, volunteering at Jerusalem Mill, helping with computer glitches. . . Do you remember what the bishop used to call you? We just didn’t know how much you did until you couldn’t do it anymore.”

Ah, yes. Bishop Sutton once called me the “Dean” – Doing Everything As Needed. At one point I was a crucifer/chalicest, lay reader, usher, sang in the choir and taught Sunday school. Not necessarily all at once, but there were some Sundays when I’d have to hurry and get robed because whoever was supposed to be the crucifer didn’t show up.

It was an honor for Carol to nominate us, an honor to even make it through the selection process, narrowing umpteen nominations to a dozen, and now we shall see what happens. I honestly don’t think we’ll win, but we shall see. I’ll let you all know on the 16th,

And we all know how that worked out.

I found this on the church parking lot Sunday afternoon and assumed it was an eagle’s wing. We have a goodly number of Bald Eagles in the area, and I figured I could find a way to work it into my Colonial Life program – using it as a brush or something.

As soon as The Squire saw it, he told me to get rid of it. “That is from a vulture, not an eagle.” Because of their diet, vulture’s meat is toxic, and should never, ever be eaten, even if you are starving, and obviously handling the carcass is dangerous. I didn’t know the poison extended to even handling the “loose” body parts.

So – I took a picture and then trotted it out to the dumpster.

Or maybe not. These were originally $4.99 but are now on sale for 49 cents.

Now, I’ll grant you, these are almost 2 inches, gimme a break! Nobody, and I mean nobody will pay $5 for four ice cubes.

We had a lollapalooza of a thunderstorm last night. Tremendous winds tore down trees and branches all over Joppa. Most of the traffic lights were out when we went to church. Sunday morning is pretty sparce where traffic is concerned, and most people were treating intersections as four-way stops, which kept things moving smoothly.

One tree had fallen across the road to church, and a crew was just finishing cutting it into manageable chunks.

The power had gone out here in the complex around 7:00 last night but came on briefly for a while later. I was “doing my legs” when the power went off for the second time, so I just said “fuhgeddaboudit it” and went to bed a little after 9 PM.

When we got up this morning, we had power in some parts of the unit, but not in others. My bedroom was fine, but The Squire’s bedroom had no power at all. Both bathrooms had lights, but the sockets didn’t work, so I couldn’t do my hair. Thank heavens, the stove and fridge worked and when I pushed the button on the mixer, which is on the opposite side of the kitchen it turned on, but the dishwasher, which is next to the mixer, didn’t work. We had visions of coming home to wash a small mountain of dirty plates and pots. The A/C was also out of commission. Oddly enough, the living room and dining room were fine – lights and outlets all in working order.

We went to IKEA for breakfast, swung by Costco to get gas in his van, and then rode past the old homestead to see how things were going there. Looked pretty good from the road. No large trees were down, so we left them to it. When we got home, all systems were “go”. I turned on the dishwasher and went to bed for a couple of hours. I might have gone to bed early last night, but Boris decided 4 AM was time to get up. I didn’t agree with him, but there’s no point in arguing with a cat.

Did my legs and knitted from 4:30 to 5:30, then tried to get another hour of shut-eye, but no dice, which explains my after-church nap. It is now pushing 7, so I’m going to try this all one more time and then see about some shut eye.

For years, I have been complaining abouy my feet swelling and turning blue. Because my legs were not hot or painful, nobody got excited about it but the VietNamese woman who does my monthly pedicure. At least somebody worried about my black toenails.

Finally I convinced my GP that it really needed to be looked into, and he gave me a referral to a vascular surgeon. After two different rounds of testing, that good man determined that the problem is not with my blood, but my lymph system – a bit of medical nit-picking – but the results look the same. At any rate, it did finally shake up some action.

So, now I spend an hour, twice a day, sitting with my feet propped up, imitating the Michelin Tire Man. I slide each leg into a pneumotic “garment”, attach the hose and control box, and let the machine work its magic. I do have to stay put, but I have darned two of The Squire’s socks, sewn on a multitude of buttons, and am now trying my hand at knitting. Last time I did this, we shall simply say it wasn’t a success, and leave it at that. I got a loom at the local thrift shop, and we’re going to try doing that again. I did go to the library and grabbed some books, The author I chose isn’t very good, in my opinion.

I don’t like a lot of blood-and-guts. I’m not a Patricia Cornwell fan, but I do like a bit of action in a book, especially if it is “off-stage”. Mary Ellen Hughes writes a lot of books about Maryland, which are fun.

Laura Lippman was a reporter with the Baltimore Sun and wrote some terrific mysteries, loosely based on events in the news – changed a bit to “protect the innocent”. A Baltimorean could tell exactly where the story took place, which made them fun to read, but after a while, her writing got too “dark” for me.

Well, I only got one suggestion for cleaning my cookie sheets and decided to give it a shot.

I made a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide and smeared it over the offending cookies sheets. I was supposed to let it sit for two hours but I fell asleep, so it was left overnight. This morning I rinsed off the pans, gave one or two spots a bit of a scrub with a nylon pad, and there you are. Worked like a charm.

Almost as good as new!