It’s time to add up our deductions and send them off to our tax preparer. We always file an extension and I can put the whole thing out of my mind until…da, da, DUM…August. And now we’re here. So that’s what I’ll be doing this afternoon and tomorrow. Of course the amount of deductions we as performing artists can take has shrunk to next to nothing, but New York State still allows them. So we still have to do the same amount of calculating.

Sigh.

A little bit lobelia has popped up in my geranium pot. There’s a big pot of lobelia nearby and it self-seeded here in the geraniums. I love those little garden surprises.

My yellow garden spider is still here.

I’ve never seen one stay in the same place for so long.

We had another one hanging on the siding next to our kitchen door, but it was particularly windy that day and the spider was constantly buffeted by the winds, so it moved on. Where, I don’t know.

So today, it’s deductions and other chores. We’re headed over to Rick and Doug’s for dinner, as three of our former students will be in town. Can’t wait to see them! They were members of the last class that I taught at The Old Globe/USD. Jim Parsons was one of their classmates. It will be fun.

As for Las Vegas, I plan to be indoors most of the time I’m there. I’ve never had the least desire to visit but my hand has been forced. Since I’ll be working much of the time, it should be fine.

Happy Thursday.

• The limelight hydrangeas are opening. They’re in front of the porch. We have hydrangeas at both ends of the porch, one of my gardening dreams come true.

• After some thunderstorms yesterday and a bit of torrential rain, we woke up to a beautiful day. Sunny and not so humid, which is a good way to start the month of August.

Three little “Claudia’s life in a nutshell” stories.

• The other day, we stopped at the library so I could pick up a book that been reserved for me. Don stayed in the car while I went inside. Got the book, thanked the librarian, and exited through the door to the lobby. As I walked, I caught a glimpse of someone close by on my left and I automatically began to say “Excuse me.” Except for the fact that I quickly realized that the person was a potted plant and there was a young woman sitting on the floor to my right so I stopped at “Excu…” and quickly tried to turn it into a cough.

I don’t think I fooled her.

When I told Don about it, he couldn’t stop laughing.

• And then yesterday: I went to another B & N (don’t ask, just as dreadful as ever) that required driving on the thruway. When I got to the exit and had to pay my 75¢, I counted out the money from the center console. As I handed it to the woman working the booth, I realized – too late – that the coins were covered in melted chocolate. I was mortified and apologized profusely. As I left, she was wiping off the coins.

I figured out that it was chocolate from a candy bar Don was eating when we drove back from the concert last week. I remember thinking a piece of it had dropped somewhere. Now I know that the piece fell in the cup holder and proceeded to melt all over everything.

• Also, from Barnes and Noble: I seem to always have to use the restroom immediately upon arriving at a store, and yesterday was no different. As I was sitting in the stall, I heard the occupant of the stall next to me having a conversation on her phone. She was on the toilet. As I washed my hands and got ready to leave, she emerged, still talking on the phone. I saw and heard her a few minutes later out in the store – still talking on the phone. And about 15 minutes after that, she pushed open the door to exit the building – still talking on the phone. And she did it all quite loudly. I wonder what could have been so important that we all had to share in her conversation – even in the bathroom?

• The yellow garden spider is still there. The web is even more elaborate now. It now covers a large triangle where the day lilies were once blooming.

• And some sad news. I walked by the sparrows’ nest in the clematis last week and saw only one egg, rather than the three that were there originally. It looks abandoned. I have been keeping tabs on the nest about once a day and there was no way that anything hatched and fledged during that time period. We had a couple of days last week with heavy rain that surely would have impacted that nest. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or if the eggs weren’t viable.

Happy Thursday.