random musings
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Butternut Squash Soup
“The sun’ll come out…next Thursday.” That was the weatherman’s snide remark on the radio the other morning as my windshield wipers swished away. (And the song from the musical Annie is still stuck in my head.) By Saturday I am finally able to sit out on the café porch, surrounded by deep green leaves backlit by patches of chartreuse Continue reading
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Pets or Pests?
Why is it that a mouse in Shelley’s bedroom results in a cell-phone video of a screaming woman leaping onto the bed while begging her daddy to save her, but a hamster gone missing brings that very same woman to her hands and knees in her son’s room in a desperate search that, please God, will not end with dead Continue reading
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Monster caterpillar attacks Maywood
Last week we had enormous mutant mushrooms growing in the yard. Last night I came home to the biggest caterpillar I have ever seen in my life. I’m used to seeing bugs and critters, but this thing is creeping me out. Harper and John discovered it on a volunteer tomato plant in the yard, where it was voraciously Continue reading
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Looking for Normal
Maybe this week will be normal. No earthquakes. No hurricanes. No power outages. Just people waking up normally and going normally to where they normally should go. No dramatic surges in cell phone usage. No frantic texting. No schedule rearranging. I’m not getting my hopes up for calm. Just normal. Somewhere in the recesses of Continue reading
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Do we have electricity?
Monday, when my post for Mondays at Maywood is due, I will either have electricity or not. I will either be dealing with lack of power, fallen trees, and water where it shouldn’t be, or I will be calmly observing that the prior week brought both an earthquake and a hurricane. So on Saturday I Continue reading
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Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the East Coast in the most exciting hurricane event since the Great Atlantic Hurricane of ’44. The Jersey Shore has called for the evacuation of everyone east of Route 9. And Dear ol’ Dad is not here to track it. (Although this may be his latest responsibility since joining the celestial weather committee.) Oh Continue reading
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Swimmin’ in the gene pool
No disrespect to my third cousins in Ireland, but I’m having a distressing week with my gene pool. And I’m pretty sure the Irish genes are to blame. It started with an email from my first cousin Denise who was going through old stuff and worked herself into such a depressive state after finding her 1972 passport Continue reading
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Avoiding the closets
When the school year ended, my closets were in total dysfunction. Shoes were losing their partners in a heap that was taking over the floor. How do I even own this many shoes? I’m no Eileen Wilson. (She’s my lovely sister-in-law who owns lovely shoes. In fact, she owns a pair of really cute flip-flops that Continue reading
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Seagulls
While most of the country sweltered in the heat, we spent the past week in Cape May keeping an eye out for flying beach umbrellas. The flap-flapping of a beach full of umbrellas is relaxing until one decides to take off à la Mary Poppins. A suddenly launching umbrella can be like a jousting pole when it is headed Continue reading
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Who reads this blog? (or посадка гречихи)
Most of the people who read this blog are related to me. Or they are real friends. But there are others out there who stumble upon me by way of search engines. When there is nothing in my email-box and nothing new on Facebook, I entertain myself by checking out the site stats for my Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 