Fertilizer

Every winter the deer hang around our yard eating anything and everything available...bushes, tree bark, leafy ground cover and grass. So it was no surprise to see piles of marble-sized deer droppings all over the front lawn this spring. If I left them where they lay I'd end up with spots of especially green grass, since they are a good fertilizer. So, a couple of weeks ago I went around to each pile and with a swift kick of the foot sent the little brown marbles flying. The lawn is looking pretty good now and almost ready to mow! I like free fertilizer.

A Dark Winter Night

Midnight is a pretty good time to visit the emergency room. It's a lot better than any day-time hour. There are fewer people milling about or seated in the foyer and the roads getting to the hospital are pretty clear too. So upon arrival, it was just a matter of a couple of minutes before I was ushered back to the inner workings of the emergency room.

The last time I was there was about a year ago...January or February. These things always happen to me in the winter time. Almost every surgery or major illness or hospitalization I've ever had has always happened in the winter. That might be one reason I dislike winter so much. Just the thought of that approaching season brings on a darkness and dread. Or could it be the darkness and dread that bring on the illnesses?...vicious circle.

Unlike my last visit to the ER, this time a problem was found, treated quickly, prescription given and I was on my way. But not before I once again had a little time to sit and listen to the sounds and horrors of the place.

First of all, there was an incessant beeping that went off every ten seconds. Between the beeps I heard what was going on in the room next to mine. "Okay sir, we're going to apply some Lydacream (a numbing agent)to the contusion and wait ten minutes." (I know about Lydacream because Roger uses it for dialysis. And I know that it takes at least an hour for it to numb an area. Ten minutes is no where near enough time!) After ten minutes of beeps and conversation from the nurses station across the hall, I was again alerted to the pending drama in the room next door. "Okay, sir...are you doing alright?" What I then heard was something I never hope to hear again...a grown man screaming in extreme agony and pain. It wasn't as loud as it could have been because he kept his mouth closed. But it was screaming and it went on for about a minute while the doctor did whatever he was doing.(maybe cleaning out a wound) "Okay, sir...we're finished messing with you now," were welcome words and but the screaming didn't entirely cease. It gradually tapered off and faded out with a series of whimpers.

Once again, I felt very fortunate to be walking down the hall headed for the double doors that led to the foyer and to home and to bed, where everyone belongs at 2:30 in the morning.

Warm Winds

Something wonderful happened this January. Instead of piles of snow and frigid temperatures, we are enjoying the effects of an "El Nino" - warm winds from the south. Yesterday the thermometer on the window read a glorious 52 degrees and it was sunny! My very being suddenly came alive and out of the gloomy funk that winter always puts me in. I began to fantasize that it truly was spring and all the possibilities that brings - working in the garden, taking hikes up the mountain, watering the lawn...I would liked to have mowed the lawn but it was still cropped short and brown. So I hooked up a hose and backed the car out of the garage and washed it. I wasn't the only one ecstatic about the weather. The entire time I was washing the car, Buddy, my 15 year-old kitty was running in and out of the garage with his tail straight up and waving and with a wild look in his eyes.

I know our fantasy will probably end, since it is only January. The coming storms and snow will bring us back to the harsh reality, but while it lasts we will soak in the sunshine and pretend that summer is here again, even for just a couple of days.

PS Update on my last blog when Buddy disappeared; he came back after about a week... and not one word about where he had been.

Letting Go

It's been a tough week for two reasons; the disappearance of our wonderful summer weather and the disappearance of our beloved cat named "Buddy." Both of these tragic events happened at about the same time causing a tear or two and a sense of great loss. I was there the night Buddy was born almost 15 years ago and if he had stayed around a couple more days we would have given him a birthday bash!

Just like Buddy the summer of 2009 is gone forever from this earth. I tried to hang on to it by covering precious geraniums with plastic. But the freezing temperatures left them brown and wilted. The garden which provided tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, squash, beans, peas, beets, lettuce, apples, peaches, cherries, plumbs and raspberries is gone too. All that remains are piles of dead vines and dirt.

Time is moving on and we have no choice but to go with it. I can only look forward to next year when our warm weather returns and I also look forward to the next life when we'll see our precious Buddy again.

Skeg?

A couple of weeks ago I tried out my new inflatable kayak on the Little Spokane River. It's a two-person kayak so I asked my sister, Gayla, to go with me. And I borrowed another one-person kayak from friends, so that Suzanne could go with as well.

With her set of oars, Suzanne manauvered her kayak with skill and sped down the river ahead of us most of the time. But for some reason Gayla and I could not get control of our kayak. It turned us around in circles during the whole journey. Nothing we did could divert it's determine course into bushes, fallen trees, sharp sticks, and sandbars. And the bushes we frequently became entangled in were full of aphids and spiders which we continually brushed from our hair and clothing.

We were exhausted from our four-hour trip down the river. And when we finally reach the exit point and were taking the kayaks out of the water and deflating them, I noticed that the one-person kayak had a little rudder, fin, or "skeg" on it's underside in the back, and that the two-person kayak DID NOT have one.

I have since bought a "skeg" that I can attach to my kayak and I hope to try it out soon. I may be going alone though... I doubt that Gayla will agree to another trip. If it works I'll be happy, if not I'm giving the kayak away. Any takers?

Zeke

A couple of weeks ago my sister Rosalin, who is also my neighbor, heard a cat screaming in the middle of the night. She said it sounded like it was being eaten alive...a sound that gave her a sick feeling. The next morning Zeke was nowhere to be found. I was saddened and depressed - positive that he had met a horrible death. But after two days Zeke reappeared...but not the Zeke we all know and love. Somehow his personality has changed. He is no longer the neighborhood bully and he no longer wants to prowl around outside all night long. He stays strictly inside the garage and will not go out. Even when the afternoon sun heats up the garage to a toasty 85 degrees, you can always find Zeke in there somewhere.

Yesterday I hauled the poor kitty outside onto the cool grass. He stayed there for a few minutes while I petted him, but when I went to inspect some flowers, he got up, looked nervously around him and made a mad dash for the garage.

It must have been a pretty traumatic experience in the woods that fateful night. And although Zeke doesn't have any physical injuries or scars, he does seem to have some emotional ones. It's been suggested that I take him to a cat psychologist...right.

The Year of the Sugar Ants

Every summer something decides to become the number one pest. Last year it was the wasps. They were everywhere...hovering around the flowers, making nests under the eaves of the house, trying to get water from hoses and grass. I suffered greatly from their angry stings.

Two years ago the number one pest was the frogs...croaking constantly, sticking to the windows with their suction cup feet and sometimes hopping right in through open doors.

This year is the year of the turkeys who make their rounds just about every morning, sitting on, breaking off and scratching up my petunias looking for bugs. Along with the turkey, this is the year of THE MOST PESKY OF ALL...the sugar ants, also known as piss ants.

First of all they figured out how to get into the humming bird feeder which is hanging by a wire from the eave of the house. And during ninety degree weather when our air conditioning stopped working, they were to blame. They had gotten into the inner workings of the heat pump, died there by the dozen and their little ant bodies piled up high enough to stop an electrical connection.

I've seen them all summer long marching in lines across the driveway, through the garden and along their own personal super highway...the hose.

Three mornings ago I was going to make waffles for breakfast, I opened my baking center cupboard where I keep baking supplies, mixer, blender, bread maker etc., and was horrified to see the whole inside crawling with sugar ants! They were scurrying around and up and down among the spices. They had found their way inside a bag of sugar...under the mixer, bread maker and toaster. I could see them scurrying up the walls of the cupboard and across the tops and bottoms of shelves...even under the shelf liner.

Needless to say, breakfast was late that morning as I vacuumed up, wiped down and cleaned like never before.

For the moment we are ant free, but you never know what they are planning, where they are heading or when they will next be discovered.