Tuesday, July 9, 2013

THE FIVE-DOLLAR PLASTIC

 


lawn mower from the Dollar General store would have worked just splendidly the other evening when the Small Actor was here to visit had he not chanced to spy the neighbor man on his five-thousand-dollar riding mower.   "I (want to) drive one of those!" exclaimed the Small Actor. 

......
(Young as he is, amazing how that Small Actor looked
across the fence and noticed how the grass being clipped off over there was so very much greener! Aesop could have very well made a fable out of this.  I would try to write one, too, but I fear mine would be the plastic one.)

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Monday, July 8, 2013

THE FIREWORKS DISPLAYS





...that I got to take in this year were rather meager and minute (I got to see tiny and nearly soundless pyrotechnics on the eve of the holiday [uh, the Third of July]), but the noise kept on going, night after night.  Around nine-thirty each evening all through the fourth, the fifth, and the weekend, a popping and cracking would start up, and the neighbors would be sowing their wild patriotic oats once again!

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Friday, July 5, 2013

THE LITTLE ACTOR



....came for a visit today.
I mixed a smidgeon of beet juice with almond milk and put it in a glass for him.
The drinking of this pink liquid was such a keen pleasure for me, even though I didn't taste a single drop of it!



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Thursday, July 4, 2013

Independence Day

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THE YARD MAN, (my chauffeur, and the mail carrier,* as well as the guy who can sometimes be coerced into assisting me with window washing) has gone out of town for the day, and I'm feeling quite independent.  In honor of this red-white-and-blue holiday, I decided my breakfast would be oatmeal cooked with blueberries, eaten from a red bowl.   As nature (chemistry?) would have it, the oatmeal turned a lovely shade of purple.



And then, the more I pondered it, the more I yearned for this country of mine to think purple!














*He only aids the USPS by carrying from the box
to the house.  All mailmen have off today, of course.



Monday, July 1, 2013

obx


....

THE OUTER BANKS of North Carolina proved to be an altogether satisfactory place to be!  I'll just let the photos talk, Viewer Dear (unless, well...unless I can't help myself.  Or if I think a photo really doesn't  have the knack for telling a tale and slipping in all the details the way it should).

If you see anyone serving up Middle Sister* wine or a mixed drink, that's my sis.   It's her house, and she's the one who pulled out the party lights and got me to help her string them across the ceiling of the deck.  She had me help her re-string her wind chimes, too.  She's the one who slept in the deck hammock for four nights and let me have her bed. What a sis!








The deck! It was the place to be at this place to be!
 Though the beach was a pretty sweet spot, as well!





Any photos that seem to show a multi-business, internet-cafe, pottery-painting, earring-making establishment are likely just what they appear to be.  And Viewer Dear, if you figure that my friend Judy made a dangly pair of ear jewelry, you figure correctly.







We shopped. 
Well, of course, we shopped.

"Our Last Shoplifter," says the sign.
Very happy to inform you, Viewer Dear, the skull is no one you know!

We chatted with the neighbors who traveled here from Georgia and Vermont (renting the house for a week).  You probably don't know them, either.

Does it look as though we're reading?  (There are other possibilities; they involve closed eyes and a drooping head.)

Cooley and Rose.  That's the book I was reading when I wasn't taking this photo (it would have been silly to try to do both at once). The book was written by the wife of a cousin of mine (It's hot off the press, and believe me, it's a hot read!)


On the beach there was this guy from South C'lina who's been staying at the Buccaneer Motel for months and months (and months) while he works on a major plumbing job.  He was fishin' for whatever was bitin' but nothin' was bitin'.


 
I wish I could say we ate figs!  I wish I could say that we stuffed our faces with so much of this fantastic fruit that it nearly made us sick!  There were thousands of tiny figs on those enormous fig bushes that a brother of mine planted there at my sister's house a couple decades ago**, but all of them marble-sized (yep, like I said--tiny).  Except for ONE.  It reached very early maturity the day we left.
We ate it.

And speaking of eating. 
Seafood--every night a different restaurant!
And, Great Sharks a-Swimmin', not one photo of all that good food to show you!






But at least I've got this (sister).
Thank  you, thank you, Dear Sis!
   
*She got it for me,
as I'm the middle sister.
(She is older than me
[maybe nicer, too].) 

**I told my children their uncle was like Johnny Appleseed, traveling around the country planting fig bushes rather than apple seeds.  We called him Ronnie Figbush.***

***Why, oh, why didn't Ronnie Figbush make a visit here where I live?!
Humpf, middle sisters who happen to also be the middle child  are always overlooked!****

****It's debatable. 

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