Sunny Monday

Well, it's 2:20 pm and FINALLY I'm starting to feel a little better today.  I've had a cough all week which can wear me out quickly but I've been prepared for that 'cause it seems every time I get a cough cold, I can pretty much rely on hacking my head off for two weeks or more.  What aggravates me more than the cough is having the tummy/bowel problem return.  I'm thankful I can be home and deal with it in private but I don't take kindly to being housebound to the toilet when the weather is so great and I could just as easily be out and about doing "stuff."

I did have some yogurt this week and I wonder if that's what caused the problem.  I'm giving the rest of the cartons to Maddie.  Seems so odd that yogurt could be doing a number on me when it's supposed to be a healthy food. 'Course I also had butter. I knew it was dairy but I didn't think "a little butter" would be a problem.  Maybe it was.  I only had some on my baked potato and a few days earlier on an ear of corn.  I guess I'm going to have to avoid every single thing that is dairy related so I can tell if it actually is the culprit. I have my doubts.  Or maybe I have doubts because I don't want it to be that. Ha!  I guess if I want to get an answer one way or the other, I'm going to have to buckle down and try harder.  I'm not good at trying harder.

Today, for example, I made a half batch of oatmeal/raisin cookies.  I wanted to use up the butter so I didn't have any in the house.  Yeah, I know. I'm full of excuses. I guess I deserve what I get.  Anyhow, I used my old standby Betty Crocker cookbook from the 50's.  Good recipe and very tasty but for some reason, the cookies all came out flatter than a pancake!  I had to scrape them off the sheet.  The recipe called for margarine so I wonder if that was the problem.  Whatever. I'll eat the suckers!

The weather report a few days ago said we were in for high temperatures all week.  I had Hunter and Wayne come by yesterday to put my floor model a/c up on this table so the water pan will be easier to drain.  The plug is near the bottom and by the time you get the light that the pan is full, you can't get a pan under it high enough to hold the water draining off.  And you certainly can't lift the pan without spilling.  Once it's on a table, I can hook up a little hose and have it drain automatically into a nearby bucket.  Saves me a world of heartache. I decided to cover up the tv and printer because the a/c can give off a lot of damp moisture.  Moved my laptop out here to the kitchen table.

Discovered a delightful radio station in Sequim this week. KSQM, 91.5 fm  The DJs are volunteers so there's no advertising outside of a few local people and their business.  The music is geared for adults and the variety is something else.  I'm hearing stuff I haven't heard in years or that I've never heard.  Barbra Streisand, Glen Campbell, Vince Gill, big bands from the 40's, the Weavers, Doris Day, and sometimes things like Home on the Range.

I have it on in my bedroom at night to help me go to sleep. I used to listen to music in bed but it got so irritating with ads and music that made me puke,  that I had to give it up.  Now I have it tuned in on my TV set via the Roku.  You can pick it up online too. It broadcasts all over the world.

I've got four fans going in this large kitchen/living room area and it's been comfortable all day.  Now that the sun is over on this side of the house, though, it's starting to get a little too warm.  I'll have to position myself in the recliner with the fans facing me.

One of my newer projects right now is to transcribe onto my computer all the letters I've received from my mother since 1967.  Interesting the stuff you forget after almost 50 years.  Haven't quite decided yet how I'm going to use it in my writing but I'll figure it out.  I got a short manuscript from an old high school classmate (year behind me) named Molly Logan the other day asking me to read some of her short stories. She lives in S. Korea now and man, what a talent for writing she has. She said the stories were about her cats and they were to a degree but were actually more about her high school days in Port Townsend.  I absolutely loved it. Especially since I knew the people and places she talked about.  Gave me an idea of how I might want to proceed with my next book.

Pictures I saw on Facebook this week:

                           My cousin, Denny in 1965 with his firstborn, Sheldon.

 Sheldon today with his daughter who had just graduated from Gig Harbor High School.

 My cousin, Cindy (also in Gig Harbor) shares the 7-mo picture of her new grandbabies--a boy and a girl.

                        My latest Facebook friend with her grandson, Kyle -- Susie Bishop Bara

                                                     Jake experiences fingerpainting

                                                                      At the park

Well, gonna have to sign off and get up to close curtains and rearrange fans. Here's a hummingbird shot I caught on my deck this afternoon.

A few days ago I set out my large roasting pan (with the lid) and filled them with water so the crows could have a drink once the bird baths dried up in the heat.  I wasn't sure if they'd even go near the pans but I was laughing when I saw one climb in to take a bath. Would have liked to have gotten a picture of that but trying to catch them on film is hard.  If they even see me in the window, they take off.  Don't they know I'm their friend? Ha Ha