The sun is finally shining this morning after big storms on Monday and rain all day yesterday. Monday night’s thunderstorms seemed to go on forever with lightning lighting up the sky constantly. It was stunning, a light show flashing all over the sky.
It’s much cooler this morning and the humidity has left.
Now I have to figure out why one of the ‘nodes’ to my router isn’t working. The node is the extension we use in the kitchen to get better coverage. I’m not in the mood for that, but I’m the one who follows through with most of the tech stuff around here and Don is recycling this morning. So right after I hit ‘publish’ I’ll give them a call.
I’m also running a few birthday errands today, as the big day is tomorrow. I have the presents, I just need some wrapping paper and candles and a card. I think I may venture into Target for the first time in over a year!
Back to the storm. Like clockwork, the minute the hydrangeas are in full bloom, rain pummels them down. The same thing usually happens with peonies. I hope they can lift themselves up again, but I find I’m at the point where my reaction is, “Whatever.” I can’t control everything around here, not by a long shot, so I’m slowly learning to let go. Slowly. I do like to be in control, or at least, think I’m in control.
I’m reading Maigret and the Informer by Georges Simenon. I love the Maigret books and they’re fairly quick reads, only about 150 pages or so. I needed something to read while I was waiting for the next Elly Griffiths to arrive and, happily, I discovered it in my TBR pile. I think I purchased it at Oblong Books on that first day we went out after being fully vaccinated.
Stay safe.
Happy Wednesday.
same about control.
too bad about the flowers, though. hopefully they bounce back.
we had a nice little rain last night. not enough, but at least some. it’s been so hot and dry here and elsewhere and other places getting too much … i feel sad for farmers, animals and plants, everyone and everything when weather gets extreme.
glad you found a book to read. i am trying to finish knitting a hat. hadn’t been able to sit in a comfortable position for months, but now i can and want to finish a hat that for some silly reason i chose to do a lot of ribbing throughout. i am tired of having to pay attention and count on something that is otherwise fun for me to do. ha.
i know you’re extra-busy now (good luck with the router, errands
and birthday-planning), but what will you paint next?
happy wednesday and stay safe!
kathy in iowa
…kathy, so glad you can sit more comfortably these days with that troublesome back of yours!
hej, vicki …
thanks very much!
it’s been a very slow process (i have a near-constant ache and lots of stabby pain each day) but i am blessed, grateful to now be more comfortable … i need to finish that hat and some chores!
will be praying for rain and peace of mind (about insurance, potential for wildfires …) for you!
thanks again.
kathy in iowa
I’m glad you can finally get back to knitting, Kathy!
I’m going to paint another piece of Roseville. Just a bit too busy to start it right now. Soon.
Stay safe.
Sorry to hear about the heavy rains flattening your hydrangeas. We haven’t gotten enough rain to deal with that. Quite frankly…I wouldn’t mind dealing with that. I just heard tumbles of thunder…but after checking the radar, the storm is just north of us. Hopefully, tomorrow. I can’t worry about things I can’t control. I just have to find a solution.
Hope you’re successful with your errands. Big day tomorrow for Don! ;)
Hey! That “storm” to the north of you gave US about 39 drops of rain. I guess we have a better chance tomorrow evening. Are you as tired of all the watering as we are?? We don’t want a deluge, but 12-24 hrs of rain wd be glorious!!!! Hope tomorrow comes true…
Oh…wouldn’t it though! The mayor has asked us not to water unless absolutely necessary. So watering the grass is out…but we do water our evergreens, flowers and trees. Because that IS absolutely necessary! Fingers crossed for tomorrow! ;)
Hope you get some rain soon, Donna! We’ve been through droughts and it’s not fun.
Stay safe!
Your floral photos are always so pretty.
I certainly have rain envy here in dry, too-warm, parched Southern California. If I read one more scary article about our drought, I think I’ll scream. (I don’t need more reminders; I’m surrounded by BROWN mountains, hillsides, lawns [golf courses, cemetery, people’s homes].) We’re on our third insurer for the current home we live in, and this is in under seven years. It’s not us doing the shopping around for a best rate; it’s about us getting non-renewed because the insurers feel anybody in the area we live in are bad risks (that we’ll have claims because of wildfire threat/devastation). As it is, for that and also flood insurance which FEMA simply will NOT budge on (although it hasn’t flooded where I am since 1969 and every single factor [other than God’s will] that led to the flooding was ‘fixed’/improved), we’re now at $3200 annual premium. (And that’s not even the best/higher-end coverage, not even close.) You can’t have millions of people being uninsured in California/western United States, but what it will mean is that, in order to get insurance, we’ll pay staggering premiums ahead, which is difficult on fixed income/the retirement years. If you have a mortgage, you have no choice; you have to have homeowner’s insurance (a lender requirement). If you’re old and own your house fully but are on meager income, you probably will stay uninsured and run the danger of having your primary asset (and everything you own) be vulnerable.
An off-the-wall question for you, Claudia. Since you grew up in Michigan but have also lived in San Diego, although one’s fresh water and the other salt, can one of the Great Lakes be compared to an ocean? What’s the feel? I know in Michigan near Traverse City there are even big sand dunes. My husband says the lakes also have waves (got wind, got waves?). I guess my point is, could one of the Upper Midwest lakes be a good-enough sub for an Atlantic or Pacific ocean (if a person needed their body-of-water ‘fix’)?
Hi Vicki,
I live in west Mich. a couple miles from Lake Michigan. It definitely is ocean-like. We have beautiful sandy beaches and the waves can get very rough with rip tides. There are almost always waves, it is never really still like like a small lake can be.
I have been to the Atlantic and Pacific and they don’t seem much different, although the waves can definitely be bigger.
The whole west side of the state is quite beautiful. The Traverse City area is a couple hours north of me.
Thanks for weighing in, Marilyn; your perspective on it is valuable to me! I have a former co-worker who was just the BEST friend who’s now in Traverse City for 32 years but we’ve lost touch. She’s an artist who actually paints those dunes! I also have tons of relatives in the Grand Rapids area I’ve never met. It’s on the bucket list to go to these places for at least a visit, sooner (by far) than later; I feel like I think about it and talk about it incessantly. I have a neighbor who waxes nostalgic of her childhood in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (a grandmother’s house in the woods; I guess a lot of people have a getaway home/vacay cabin).
Of course the reason for my query is that my husband can’t seem to let go of the idea of moving to Michigan or Wisconsin from Southern California; we have the freedom (due now to closest relatives themselves having fled to other states [or they’ve died], i.e. nobody key to worry about ‘back home’) to go to most any state but those two are his picks (not necessarily mine, but I’m open to it; although, notably, I see from comments here on Claudia’s blog that Wisconsin is suffering from a lack of rain, too). My mother did visit (in the Fall) some of the aforesaid Michigan relatives about 25 years ago and I recall that one of the things which mesmerized her were the beautiful apple orchards. (I had to pull up two apple trees we planted in 2014 here; we just don’t get cold enough in ‘my’ part of SoCalif; they couldn’t thrive.) I think Door County in Wisconsin is also known for its apple orchards as well as cherry trees (of course Traverse is also known for ITS ‘ag’ belt with not only the vineyards/grapes but cherries as well).
I’m trying to learn more about these areas/Upper Midwest although this subject has been ongoing with my husband for the past few years and he especially has really been studying ‘real estate’ in these states for awhile now (I can’t recall anything we’ve ever been so indecisive over; the holdout is me, but I’m wishy-washy on the topic because it’s hard to consider permanently leaving the home of your ancestors for well over a hundred years [which for me is indeed Southern California and in the very town in which I still live]; it’s a major decision for two old people like us [or, as Claudia would prefer {hi, Claudia!}, two OLDER folks!]; I’ve been telling him that the caveat of such a relocation [to a part of the country I know so little of, especially the snow] would be my plan to fly to Southern Calif once a year for as long as possible, since I’m such a beach girl and couldn’t quite bear to never see my Pacific O ever again). We’re not some kind of ‘rich’ Californians making a killing in real estate, going to another state to buy some big-fancy mansion; we’re just regular retirees on a budget and downsizing to a large degree, trying to position ourselves away from excessive drought, lack of water and wildfire danger.
Frankly, the off/on, one day we’re gonna move, next day not, is really wearing to the soul at an age when all I want is to feel settled once and for all!
Vickie, Traverse City is beautiful. Lots of great wine/tasting rooms in that area. A couple hours south where I live has alot of orchards,…apples, cherries, peaches, and asparagus fields. My little hometown has an asparagus festival. I grew up here and I love where I live. Summertime in Michigan along the lake is wonderful. I can’t imagine a better place to do summer. Winters are a different matter. We get quite a bit of snow. It’s beautiful but cold. Lots of retirees here head south in the winter. We don’t spend the whole winter, but do try to go somewhere warm around the end of Feb for a couple weeks to break it up.
By the time we get back it’s starting to feel like spring is coming.
I have to tell you what my granddaughter said at age 2. Her mom was going out in lake michigan to swim a little and my granddaughter freaked out, started crying , and kept saying “don’t go over the waterfall.”
Because all you see is water, like the ocean, and at 2 she thought that the water must be going over a waterfall at the far “edge” that she could see.
Stay safe
Marilyn, I have so enjoyed your comments; thank you. To say you love where you live is so important for anyone; to feel that special connection and gratitude. To feel rooted happily. And your granddaughter sure answered my initial question of the lake being not much diff from an ocean!
I do, for myself, worry somewhat about cold, frigid winters as I’ve never been around snow although my husband, growing up elsewhere in the Midwest, definitely knows ‘snow’ (but at least he’d teach me how to live in that type of weather; like how to prepare a house and yard for it, how to prepare oneself with proper clothing, driving in it, etc.). I guess in snowy months, to me, it would seem somewhat like Covid lockdown where you just don’t leave the house! (That’s okay to a point; I’m a homebody.)
But people in my life I’ve shared all this with are holding up big warning flags that I wouldn’t know what I was getting myself into, moving to a cold climate. My cousin lived in Cleveland and said he felt like he didn’t see the actual ground for eight months but I’m sure that’s a ‘snow’ exaggeration!
Definitely takes a lot of thought; consideration; investigation. Thing is, you overthink it and then will never do anything! My aforementioned friend who lives in Traverse could have lived anywhere, but she and her husband made the decision to go there cold turkey, to my understanding, on the heels of their wedding and then never left. But they were both from that area of the country (she from Ohio; they both went to college in Indiana) and I don’t think snow was any big deal for them.
You know of course, too, who’s ‘famously’ (not that he’s THAT famous, because he isn’t) from Traverse is the carpenter-guy who did a few home-improvement shows for HGTV, named Carter Oosterhouse. He was doing that ABC-TV show about the Christmas Lights Fight even this past Christmas. I’ve heard him quoted in the past as saying that Traverse City winters are ‘brutal’. I think he has a vineyard there, maybe bottles his own wine. Anyway, can’t wait to see your neck ‘o the woods, Marilyn! (And yours, Claudia; thanks for letting Marilyn and I ‘talk’ on your blog!!)
hej, vicki …
may i join this conversation, please?
i agree with what marilyn said. i’ve not been to all the great lakes, but the ones i’ve been to, i can easily recommend. lake superior is by far my favorite (it is vast and definitely ocean-like). there are waves and white caps, more boating than surfing (but i’ve occasionally seen small groups of surfers), some nice beaches and very sweet towns in the area … especially northern minnesota, wisconsin and michigan. to answer your question, i think those lakes are wonderful in their own right, but would make very good “substitutes” when oceans are as they are, hours or days away from the central part of the u.s.
there are lots of videos about the great lakes that people have posted on youtube. also, look for webcams. better yet, head east and see for yourself! i’d be glad to meet you somewhere. :)
hope you and your husband are well. stay safe!
kathy in iowa (about eight hours south of lake superior at duluth, but it’s a nice drive and worth it)
…well, kathy, I’m so grateful for your input; thank you very much; I didn’t even think about checking out youtube; I do know of course, even going back to that 70s song about the Edmund Fitzgerald ship going down in one of the lakes (who was that singer; you’re probably too young to remember; it was a Top 40 hit at the time, Gordon Lightfoot, yes, that was the singer [wow, he must be ‘up there’ in age now), such that of course the Great Lakes are as deep and wide as an ocean for sure; I don’t mean to be THAT naive about them but I am fairly uninformed; anyway, as always, you’re so kind; thanks again…
I have been to all of the Great Lakes and spent a considerable amount of time on the beaches and camping near them. I’ve also sailed on Lake Erie. They’re all beautiful. They’re all huge. Lake Superior is the wildest and the coldest. My parents lived on Lake Huron for many years and it’s beautiful. My cousin lives on Lake Michigan. And yes, the western side of the state is lovely but so is the eastern side (where I’m from.) Yes there are waves, maybe not the size of ocean waves, but you’d get your wave fix. I love lake water more than salt water, but that might be because I was born and raised in Michigan. You should plan a trip and check them out. Truly, you can’t see land from the shore, they’re very, very big.
Stay safe, Vicki.
The Great Lakes: ‘… you can’t see land from the shore, they’re very, very big.’ Now, indeed, that’s a really critical comment for me; so, thanks, Claudia; I appreciate your descriptions. I really think before the end of this year is here (maybe Sept), likely just my husband will be flying to this Upper Midwestern part of the U.S. for a look-see (has been 40 years since he’s driven the area as a tourist); he has already flown of late to Oregon in June; has decided airline travel is safe for the vaccinated; I wasn’t so much for it, but he had a job obligation).
I’ve been encouraging him to scope out in person what has interested him, but we just got waylaid by Covid/lockdown. It would never do to move somewhere sight unseen although I’ve known people who’ve done it. What am I saying, I-me-Vicki did it; I moved to Houston never having been there, never having been in the Southeast at all, and my husband picked out the home to buy, just sending me photos. What can I say, I was young; I’d never do that now!
(If you’re gonna make a big move across our big country, you really need to see the places in winter and summer to see how cold, how hot [knowing spring and fall most anywhere is probably lovely in terms of landscape]; clearly, though, no place is perfect. If I couldn’t live in Santa Barbara of California, another choice among many for me would be Carlsbad in north San Diego County but, there again, the lowest-selling homes in the lesser-desirable neighborhoods are still currently approaching $700,000. Home values are ‘up’ all over the U.S.; still, Southern California is beyond-the-beyond in cost of homes; it’s a seller’s market and that also means there’s not enough homes for the buyers out there [certainly not AFFORDABLE homes].)
I don’t have the best neighbors where I live, in the old SoCalif neighborhood (north of L.A.) I grew up in; but even with all the work we still need to do on our house, we’d stay, if it wasn’t for the looming issues around fire danger. It’s a really tough case of simply not knowing what to do, hoping you’re making the right decision to stay or go. The ‘if onlys’ — if we could predict rain; if climate could be controlled; but, in the meantime…
…that wildfire we had in December of 2017 changed everything around here; there are STILL homes being rebuilt in my county by their original homeowners who’ve been without a home all this time. As it is, our fire danger is now early; as early as next month/July rather than, say, Oct-Nov. When it gets so hot, when the Santa Ana winds blow, you can feel your body stiffen; tension; on edge. It’s a heckuva way to live, with the thought of danger looming.
I was living temporarily on that Gulf Coast (30 yrs ago) with tornado threat and it could be really frightening. (The flooding, too.) I know folks in the Carolinas/Eastern seaboard (Florida) deal with bad hurricanes. Of course the whole West Coast from Washington to (and including) Calif are very prone to earthquake. Look at the devastation in places like Iowa last year with those freaky wind storms (what was the word they used, a ‘derecho’ storm[?]). I have a cousin in Dallas TX who just had to have a roof replaced … a fairly-new roof of only ten years! … due to a severe hailstorm; what a mess, he was out of town, leaks thru the ceiling and his walls; has had to have the whole place overhauled for mold control and repair; a nightmare!
No place safe to live. Yet I think of old houses still standing from the early 1700s in New England! It’s a lot to balance through, like making sure there are good medical facilities where one might need to go; is the state tax-friendly; housing obviously; weather; other amenities. I find the topic interesting but exhausting. It must have been great when my great-great grandparents were in Los Angeles in like 1903; palm trees and paradise. Citrus groves, olives, walnut orchards. Ocean. Sure, there were earthquakes to come; Santa Ana winds, warm weather. But never fires like we have now. Never so much lack of rain. Never such high-heat temperatures like we’ve seen in the last five years. Too much has changed.
xoxo
I think everyone needs to feel they are in control…truthfully there is so much beyond our control.
I am the tech person here too. I don’t know what I’m doing but don’t get as frustrated as my husband does. We have roku on our tv and the remote stopped working. First it was just the volume and then the whole thing just died. New batteries didn’t help. I finally fixed it but I really can’t tell you how I did it. It involved unplugging and replugging, pushing buttons and messing with settings. I have no idea how I did it.
Today my garage door opener remote stopped working. I think that should be just a new battery…I hope.
Granddaughter update: has had 48 hours on antibiotic. So far I don’t see any change. She continues to have a low grade fever, headache, not much appetite, achy all over, fatigued. Her covid antibody test came back negative. I guess that is good but I have read that it can take 1-3 weeks from the start of illness to detect the antibodies so maybe it wasn’t long enough?? The whole medical system is weird with covid. Her Drs office won’t see her with a fever! She had to go to a different office in the system who is seeing the sick people. The nurse and Dr wore hazmat type suits and took them in/out the back door. Understandable, but strange.
Stay safe
How unsettling for you and your granddaughter!
My dear, absent-minded husband accidentally went into the local drugstore here in SoCalif yesterday without his mask; just too much on his mind I guess. He was already in the pharmacy line when he got that creepy-crawl at the back of his neck that something seemed wrong, noticing that (for as much as he could see at midday in the store), he was the ONLY customer NOT wearing a mask (and, of course, all store personnel and pharmacy peeps were masked [this is every age group by the way, in total at the store including the customers); we’re vaccinated of course, but he still felt ‘naked’ without the mask. We were out doing errands a couple of days ago (I still stay in the car) and I made particular notice of pedestrians (not folks doing exercise, but on their way here & there, carrying a sack from a store or an armful of something/whatever), of which there were several, and only ONE person was maskless. At least here, even though our state is completely ‘open’ now, I don’t think masks are going away anytime soon. It seems the public just can’t be reassured. Or else there are a lot of good hearts out there, trying to protect other at-risk people. (Of course, at Disneyland, no masks indoors/outdoors, no temperature checks, no physical distancing requirement; they don’t know which guests are vaccinated and who’s not as it’s all on the honor system [I have been to Disneyland more times than I can count in summer and it is PACKED with wall-to-wall humans].)
But I sympathize for your loved one, to be sick and not even be able to go to her own doctor. I’m wondering, too, if the medical community is more worried about those variants than not. The other thing, though, is that I guess they’re continuing to see unvaccinated patients, and the unvaccinated are at such awful risk for Covid AND the variants, more than ever. What a world. It’s confusing.
Oh, I so want some answers for you from the doctors. I can’t even imagine how hard this is for you and for your granddaughter.
Praying, Marilyn.
Stay safe!
Tech stuff…like going to the dentist, necessary, not one’s first choice, relieved when it’s over and happy at the outcome (hopefully). I sincerely wish you a quick and easy fix, Claudia!
Unseasonably hot in the West, fire season arrived mid-June (!), water levels worryingly low. But the wildflowers and garden perennials carry on as best they can. I’m following their example.
In good news, watching my fairly-new peach tree develop its first donut peaches is a hoot, I’m sorting through my doll-clothes-fabric stash and purging the unlikely candidates while matching other fabrics with cute patterns for my sewing pile, and I’m painting daily in hopes of progress.
Summer is my favorite!
Yes, I keep hearing about how hot it is out there! I’m so sorry!
Yay for painting daily, Roxie.
Stay safe.
I hate tech problems. I never know what to do and try to muddle through. My computer is old, too, so tech problems come with that territory.
I’m with you on rain and hydrangeas and all. Same here. And so smart to know when to let it go.Easier said than done!
It all worked out. Much easier than I thought it would be!
Stay safe, Jeanie.
I came here today after having a very emotional day….as I have said before your blog brings me fond memories and comfort. As far as control…I think mankind always wants to be in some sort of control no matter what the situation, but like you said we just have to let go. My husband and I had the difficult task of doing just that today as our oldest of four dogs had to be put to sleep. It’s going to be hard to come to the realization that she is gone, but I know she is no longer in any pain and I believe in my heart that somewhere she is running and playing 🥲. Goodbye my sweet Kelli you’re free❤️
I’m so very sorry, Michele. My heart goes out to you. We’ve been through that loss several times and it is the hardest decision to make. And the loss is heartbreaking. Kelli will be with you always, my friend. She was loved.
Much love and sympathy.
Claudia
oh, michele …
i am so sorry for what you’re going through, missing your kelli.
i hope you find comfort in happy memories, knowing you did right by kelli and that she’s waiting for you, and in God’s promises of eternal life.
sending a virtual hug, if you like.
kathy in iowa
Michele S.: I am so sorry for your loss. Losing a pet is so, so hard. I’m facing it with my 12-yr-old shepherd/retriever; she’ll tell us when, I hope. We’re just taking it day by day. And that means you’ve been through all that, too; so, again, my deepest sympathy, one loving pet owner to another.
Michele,
I am very sorry about the loss of your beloved pet. They truly are a part of our families and leave a big hole when the go. Praying for comfort for your family.
I am looking forward to the birthday post!