Such a summer! No traveling due to Covid and a chance that Steve had to be on jury duty for a couple weeks. That was cancelled due to Covid at the last minute (court closed to Covid) but we couldn't plan not knowing that.
Now we are in the usual hotter than hell drought after a very rainy early summer. Huge storms blew in and knocked out power for a huge stretch of Southern Michigan. Presumably we are one of the top areas for power outages due to our many trees. As we are on a well, no water either. Rodents had eaten through a hose of our existing generator so Steve found another one despite the high demand. Feeding it for 5 days gasoline and oil, plus the outrageous cost of the generator made more sense to throw out all our food and start over. In our old house, a generator was necessary to keep the sump pump going. We have one here but it never has come close to overflowing due to us living on sand (versus clay)
Shanna has power so we were able to shower. I dredged up pond water to keep the plants alive. Very hot without AC or even a fan.
I am getting less and less tolerant of those who refuse to get vaccines and those in power who forbid mask mandates when the children can't get vaccinated. My grandsons are now both vaccinated. The younger one just turned 12. His mom tried to be proactive and schedule a vaccine in anticipation of him turning 12 but that wasn't allowed. Some people were already getting their boosters when he eventually showed up. Fortunately we live in a bubble (Ann Arbor, top educated city in the US) but we are surrounded by uneducated idiots. Yep some of them are dying but there is collateral damage.
My almost 97 year old mother in law in a nursing home has covid despite having been vaccinated. Her doctor gives her a 50% chance of recovery though I think that is optimistic as of today.
Naomi is going back to school to hopefully become a computer programmer. Our state lets those without a degree and over 25 get free schooling, a pain to set that all up but she's good to go.
When it isn't extremely hot (rare) I have been increasing my running. Yesterday I wish I had my camera. The sun was a huge orange ball, which was all hazy due to the western fire smoke that made its way here, reflecting orange and red on a pond. At first I just saw upside down cranes, I could see their relections better than their actual bodies It looked cool.
And I saw a meteor last week making it three I have seen in my lifetime.
8 comments:
Love your garden - despite the pests. Sigh at the smoke. Our vaccine program has been/is totally shambolic.
We are back in lockdown. So far it seems to be working. Time will tell.
I agree completely about those who are refuse to get vaccinated. It never occurs to them that freedom is compatible with responsibility.
Wonderful photos all. Who would throw away that coyote?! I would have taken him. As to the pool-jumping girls; what a photo for the to love their whole lives long.
Heat here too--114 at its worst, but without the humidity that you surely have. Now, western Oregon is down in the seventies and low eighties for daytime highs.
We can't have lockdowns anymore. Even mask mandates can't be enforced. Of my grandchildren's schools, only Maya's (Ann Arbor) will require masks in school. The other kids, though two are vaccinated, are sitting duck particularly the one who lives in Trump country. Even Trump told his worshipers to get a vaccine (and was booed) but maybe a few listened. Of course he might be concerned that his base might die, literally.
I didn't turn down a perfectly preserved coyote decoy complete with a real tail. In the last few weeks I have scrounged up a nice planter full of white petunias and a fooseball set, minus the fooseballs
Sue, while Oregon also has its share of Trump nutburgers (the state's entire inventory of ICU beds has been running in the low to mid forties, thanks to Republicans), things are still better here than in the Midwest and South. For example, here's the latest from Oregon's Covid front: https://www.opb.org/article/2021/08/24/oregon-covid-19-outdoor-mask-requirements/
My mother in law is in Seattle. She seemed to be getting better and was sent back to her nursing home but died a few days ago. She is to be buried in New York. A pain trying to coordinate that. They won't load her body on the plane without a death certificate and the doctor can't be reached. So we don't know when she will get to New York. Her daughter needs to know to buy a ticket. We can drive there in 12 hours.
I'm so sorry for your family's loss. If I ever again leave home to attend a funeral, it will only be because Peggy insists, my biggest problem being that one of our five cats has trouble keeping his food down. He's on a special diet, but if I'm not here to feed him, he still vomits. No funeral is worth endangering him for, so if Peggy really needs me to be with her, I don't know what I'll do.
I'm also sorry your vacation got screwed-up.
Peggy and I don't have pests, aside from slugs. Although we live near downtown, deer have been seen in the neighborhood, but none have bothered us. Interestingly, we haven't had fruit flies at all this year, although they're usually a big aggravation.
Power outages are a problem here, too. Of course, in 31-years, our power has only gone out twice for more than a few hours, but those times were doozies, lasting up to a week. I would die without a BiPap, so outages are a real problem for me. My medical need gives me priority for having power restored, but it can still take a long time. I think a lot about getting a generator, but hate the aggravation of maintaining anything that burns gasoline.
My friend needed to be on oxygen. Although she could use a portable tank, that quickly runs out When we had one of our many power outages, the electric company provided a generator and hooked her up. We have had at least one power outage a year. As I had said, Michigan is second in the country for power outages allegedly because we have a lot of trees. Well we just drove through Pennsylvania and I have to say they seem to have a lot more trees than us. When I did the bike ride in Western Pennsylvania in the Allegheny mountains, the forests were very moist, almost like a rain forest with thick moss everywhere.
but if you are dependent on that BiPap, a generator is necessary unless there is some battery powered backup
I am sorry that your kitty has feeding issues
No slugs here at least
I do have a battery back-up, but it's only good for one night, and lights don't go out often enough for me to want to endure the hassle of a generator.
Given that every place east of the Mississippi is filled with trees, for Michigan to give trees as the reason for its especially high black-out rate sounds pretty lame, especially since it's not a mountainous state.
Electricity didn't arrive in my family's part of Mississippi until the mid-1950s, so I spent my early life without it. Then when it did come in, the lights went out every time it rained, and we got sixty-inches of rain a year.
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