My very first MMP!

Morning all. Recyclables are out and ready for pickup. It looks like what’s left of Hurricane Sally took a right turn and is drenching Georgia instead of Ali-bama. So things look good for the weekend.

Probably need to stop by Wal-Mart and turn in my plastic bags (they recycle them) and my older glasses, and do a little shopping. Coach kids tonight, if the fields are open (they should be). Kitchen needs some cleanup work, it’s on the ‘do sometime’ list.

All y’all take care now. BLT’s need to be assimilated.

Me: : walks in :
Cat: hic hic hic hic hichichic HORNK
Me: : walks out :

Rescue: “We need proof of a 40 acre yard, 32 references, a genealogical chart dating back to 2500B.C.E., $500 and a sample of brain tissue.”
County shelter: “You promise to not fight it or feed on it? OK, she’s a scratch and dent so it’s $15.”

Oh, for the love - ew, ew, ew! But at least I’m prepared now, so thank you. I’ll be headed over to mom’s later with a pair of gardening gloves. My sister recommended stomping or drowning them in a bucket, but a) my mom is on the 3rd floor of a building and I can’t see the neighbors taking kindly to worm guts raining down on them and b) can’t see us walking through the building with a bucket of drowned worms. Mom’s preference is to dump the whole plant, which seems terribly wasteful. It’ll be a dilemma, but at least there will be wine at the end.

Got my waddle in this morning - a solid 45-minute power walk/run with someone who’s in slightly better shape than I am so she pushes me harder than I’d push myself. My butt hurts, but I’m butthurt in a good way and not a bad way. I’m becoming more and more excited to pick up my library books this weekend. They’ve got curbside service. I dearly miss wandering through the stacks, but at least there’s still a good way of getting books (for free!), and I’m so happy they’re open in any capacity.

LOL

But you forgot the fence, always a fence

wordy no need to ditch the plant!! Noooo! Heck, they’ll produce tomatoes even if (when) the hornworms defoliate the plant entirely.

And they will. Don’t worry so much about the big 'uns that are easy to see - they’re about to pupate anyway, not much more eating to be done.
Exterminate the smaller ones, which are preparing to feast!

Oh, and if you see any with white ovals sticking out of their backs … leave them be. They’re toast, thanks to a predatory (tiny, harmless to humans) wasp, and those ovals will turn into more hornworm-destroying friends.

See, that’s what I was thinking. I wonder if I can just pull off the big 'uns and figure out how to rid myself of the little visible ones and bag the whole thing up if mom doesn’t want it, though it’s a bit of a shrub (I’d like to avoid hornworms in my trunk, which would be a whole other level of gross). Monstrous as the little turds are, I HATE tossing plants that are otherwise healthy, so the plant can just live on my patio for the rest of the season.

I thought that millipedes were my kryptonite in terms of that crawly, grossed-out feeling, but now I’ve got another and it’s eating mom’s plant.

Good morning, people!

The ragweed pollen is everywhere, smoke still blankets the valley, and the two male cats (well, cat and kitten) have decided that being playmates is better than hissing at each other and are chasing each other around the house at full speed.

Shelter animals are the best! All of ours have either been from shelters or adopted strays.

We once looked into Siamese rescue and their paperwork stopped just short of asking for a blood test. We decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and we ended up getting a retired Abyssinian female from a breeder - she wasn’t going to breed the cat any longer so she spayed it and offered it for rescue. Sadly, she only lived with us 2 or 3 years before we had to have her put down. So sad, and she was such a beauty!

Finally have a few minutes to surf and post. Roxy was all fired up today - even the trampoline didn’t wear her out fast enough. So we took a short walk, then went to her swingset. I fed her an early lunch and she crashed right afterwards. Chris is painting all the crown molding and Eric patched all the nail holes in the sheetrock. They’ve put the gray in the hallway - OMG, I love it!! I almost wish we’d put it in all the bedrooms, too.

When Eric was repairing the floor, we discovered a lot more rot in the door frame and the plate and joists underneath. It was more than Eric was comfortable doing but he gave us the number of someone who’s coming over to have a look at it. Apparently the leak was going on lots longer than we’d thought. Much caulk must be applied before it’s all done.

Always something…

Yep, I got my feline critters from Animal Friends and the Humane Society. They both offered a senior discount so I got each beast for only $35.00 (regularly $85.00). I tell people they were “slightly used.” In order for each place to get reimbursed for the discount, I had to sign a form which amused me – it was a one-page form which had the name of the program in BIG letters across the top, “PETS FOR THE ELDERLY.” I made an additional donation at each place to help defray some of the shelters’ costs – they were vet-checked, microchipped, spayed and had all their shots.

Afternoon, mumpers! I would like it recorded that I have definitely taken up residence in Crazytown after this week’s work shenanigans. Our head of education referred to the last few weeks as a “skip-fire”…my boss messaged me during that meeting and asked if she misspelled sh*tshow.

Taters! Good to see you back again, hope Mr Taters enjoyed his birthday lunch of Death Chicken. I made that once, it was very good but since I rarely have condensed soup in the house, I haven’t made it since. I’m still up to date with Rigs on the Book of Faces though, she’s been in house-move land too.

Right…skimmed through the last couple of days of posting, and now I have an exercise class to get to while the sun is still shining.

Some years back, me and a then housemate decided to get some fancy mice as pets- while researching the best place to get 'em from- I wasn’t keen on just a random pet shop, as you never know how old they are, and with such a short-lived pet, that can make a big difference- a ‘mouse rescue’ came up as one of the local options, with fancy meeses. The person running it required people adopting a mouse to provide: one food brand, flavour specified, one bedding brand (with dust removed, using a process she described), a specific style of cage, and, the absolute kicker, the right to visit without warning, and, if she didn’t like the conditions, remove them, for the rest of their lives.
There was a little whine about how no-one was ever really serious about adopting them, and she was running out of space. I couldn’t stop laughing… I mean, I like meeces, but…

Anyway; honey removed from the hive yesterday, but I did’t have enough energy for extraction. Gonna do that Saturday instead.

Good morning, Mumpers. Nice first MMP, Old Wench! (Do you have a nickname? I feel so out of the loop.)

I’ve only skimmed, so I’m sure I’m missing something…

Glad you’re still with us, Bumba. Sounds like a really scary experience.

All that painting reminded me that I need to look at paint for our apartment, which is currently being remodeled. My brother and I need to agree on colors, which should be interesting. At least we both agree it should be a light color.

Was just on the recipe site because Rigs was looking for a recipe and couldn’t find it. If any of you want other recipes added, you can PM me here and let me know.

Off to do stuff before going to look at the windows they’re going to install.

Hugs to all.

Can some kind soul PM me with Rigs’ FB info? Maybe we’re friends and I don’t know it…

Have a dear friend friend here who is far from her North Carolina home who has bald peenots shipped to her. They don’t seem inexplicable to me. Far be it from me to look askance-my people eat poppy seed kolache filling for heavens sake.

My library has been my best friend (well, them and you Mumpers) during this isolation travail. They’ll do anything to get books into your hands. I can call up and say “I’d like a Book Bundle, ten books, of mysteries set in this century in North America”. They call me when it’s ready (no more than a day), I zip down, park outside, call inside, they walk out and put the bag in my trunk. No contact. If I win the lottery I’m going to give them half of it. I too miss wandering through the stacks though and talking about books with the librarian at the check out desk.

Strays and rescues here. One long term foster. I figure they are rescuing me.

A few years ago Son #2 moved away to school (little ingrate has yet to return), leaving me in an empty nest. He told me “mom, you need to get yourself a Siamese”. I searched Meezer rescues for months, up to 500 miles away. No luck. Son #2 tells Son #1 “find Mom a Siamese kitten”. A month later I drove 250 miles to pick up my kitten from the woman who runs a home cattery. We met in a huge interstate truck stop parking lot. I handed her a check, she handed me a handful of kitten (approx. $200 a pound) and I drove off. It felt like a drug sale between a gang of grey haired old ladies (there were 7 or 8 of us handing over money and collecting a handful of mewing mind-altering substance in exchange). I remain surprised I drove home without being pulled over for running drugs.

I love the pictures of those colors of yours. My whole house is painted in the palest gray possible, antique white trim. The seller picked the colors and I’ve never gotten tired of them. I’ve found them soothing and versatile. I’ve had rot problems rear their ugly head too, mostly around window frames. The old girl is ~140 years old, I figure she’s earned some rot. I’m less than half that, don’t look nearly that good and I’ve got joint rot too.

Just in to my iPad weather alert: I’m now in a drought warning. We already have forest fire smoke from 1500 miles away (not complaining. I’m too busy worrying about the folks, houses and animals actually there), but now have to worry about grass fires close to home. And it takes only one idiot or lightning strike…in the Midwest plains grass fires can move sooo fast. Wildlife has to run so far and so fast to to survive. We just lived through a derecho that flattened half of Iowa Aug 10th. Good thing there’s no such thing as climate change..

Have to go make some breakfast. My empty tummy ain’t happy about that mug of black coffee I dumped in it as I grabbed the iPad and caught up with all of you. Yes, I know it’s 12:43 CDT and all of you have been up half the day but somebody has to be on night watch.

Boo

Boy, do we have the thread for you!

If you or your mom know anyone with chickens, you also know someone who should be grateful to take the hornworms off your hands (assuming no pesticide spray) or as a long shot, anyone with a pet bearded dragon.
Hornworms are a favorite treat for chickens and bearded dragons. Probably other critters, too.

Speaking of mothers, mine is throwing a fit - from thousands of miles away - that I got a cat. Wander over to the mini-rants for {Paul Harvey voice} the rest of the story { / P.H. voice} because imma use bad words probably. Woman done lost her mind.

But gimme a few. It’s a pretty day, and I may need to simply wander off from my phone awhile.

I just looked at the registration renewal for the Prius. License fee + weight fee + filing fee + subagent or ferries service fee + DOL service fee + licensing service computer service fee = $68.25

The ‘hybrid vehicle transportation fee that supports green transportation programs’ is $75.

So I’m being charged more just for the hybrid fee than all of the other fees put together. And I do have to pay the other fees. (Non-electric vehicles don’t have to pay the fee.)

I think my OLD days are over. I did get into one good LTR, but generally there were more flakes than a bowl of raisin bran. The most fun profiles were the guys who claimed to be in excellent shape but posed shirtless to show off their beer bellies and claimed they were looking for a woman who looked hot in blue jeans but could rock an evening gown, was gorgeous without makeup, was fit and slender, but wasn’t into superficial things like appearances.

This would make a great epitaph!

flyboy, it’s ridiculous that green ol’ Washington state charges people more for owning hybrids. I’d love to see the logic behind that one. Or maybe I wouldn’t.

I’ve occasionally tried to figure out if I’d have tried on line dating had it existed way back when. There was some sort of computer dating thing when I was in college, but I had too many things going on to mess with it. But I can say with confidence that if anything happened to my sweetie, ain’t no way I’d go looking for love again. I lived alone before I met him and I’d be OK living alone again. Plus the thought of all the getting-to-know-you crap in such a situation just doesn’t appeal to me.

On a worrisome note, FCD got a call from his mom - his dad is in really rough shape. He had some tests done, but it appears there are heart issues. We may be heading to FL in short order - decisions will be made after we hear about the test results. Not too surprising, considering he’s 90 and has a number of health problems, but especially worrisome because MIL is legally blind, so unable to drive, among other things. Anyway, we’ll have to see.

As to the hybrid fees - my guess is that they make up for lost gasoline tax revenue.

Actually, that’s a real good bet.

Hope the FIL pulls through in quick time.