Another one of those days with too many things to do...

Good morning! Yesterday was a very rainy day. Not only did it rain all day, it rained a lot. This is a good thing as I hadn’t planned any outdoor activities although Amena forgot her bag with stuff for track so I had to take it to the school and we did go to Lancaster to get Seth’s new glasses. 68.5 miles taking about an hour and a half to drive. That’s according to Google Maps and that’s about what it was because the entire trip took slightly less than two hours including dropping Amena’s stuff at school and getting Seth’s glasses. Looking at the map, there appears to be a better way to go from Quabbin Regional High School to Lancaster but I’m hoping I don’t have to worry about that any time soon in the future.

Egg dying adventures 2016. This was accomplished using a weed growing in a crack on the front steps held to the egg by a piece of nylons and boiled in red cabbage. Next time, the vinegar needs to be added much earlier.

I had planned to start a whole bunch of mini-greenhouses yesterday. Once we were home and had some lunch I brought in a bag of dirt and got out eleven empty milk/orange/water jugs. Then I went in search of the clear packing tape needed to tape the top back on and couldn’t find any. Well, I couldn’t find any I was willing to use. I have some but it is better quality than the stuff Paul comes home with and I’m not willing to use it because it costs too much and I have other things I use it for. Think letterboxes. And soap stuff. Not that starting seeds isn’t important, it is, but I’m not willing to use my tape for it. I emailed Paul to see where there might be some and he called not long before I needed to pick Amena up from practice so I didn’t go looking because there really wasn’t going to be any time for that stuff for the rest of the day. When he got home, he handed me a partial roll. I should be all set now and now the plan is to push forward after lunch today.

Ditto. Sort of. I used a flash to take this picture which wasn't the best thing to do. This and the next two were dyed with yellow onion skins. Obviously, no problems with the vinegar. The flower that made this was a primrose.

I finished Adrenalized Saturday. It turned out to be pretty good. I do think, however, that Phil was pretty clueless about the world until September 11, 2001. Because he didn’t actually write the book himself, I can’t really comment on his writing style but I can say that I learned a lot about what life is like for a super rock star. Crazy. Just crazy. For someone who really likes to stay home most of the time, I’m not sure I’d like the lifestyle much, especially when they’re on the road. I mean, yes, I would like to travel and visit places I’ve never been and some places that I have been, but I would not like to have to go from one place to the next to the next to the next with hardly any time to breathe between. I understand that it is a job for them, but it isn’t a job I would want.

More onionskin with no flash. The flower used was a hyacinth and the other egg had rubber bands around it.

I finished the Visual History yesterday as I wanted to drop both books off at the library on the way to Barre. I really wouldn’t want to live in front of a camera in order to have so many pictures. Again, I understand it’s part of the job for them. I’m just glad it isn’t for me. It was fun to look at the pictures; I used to have a couple of them on my walls.

This was from a leprechaun plant.

Now I’m reading Dancing With Myself. I don’t remember why I was looking Billy Idol up but the link for the book on Amazon showed up and I decided to check it out. If you are familiar with Amazon, you know that you can read previews of most books and I did this. Yes, it is like the beginning of Adrenalized with a few too many f-bombs, and he goes into a bit more detail than is necessary (okay, a lot more detail) when it comes to his sexual exploits, but it is otherwise well-written and he has got a vocabulary. I had to look two words up in the first fourteen pages that I’d never even heard or seen before. I’m about a fifth of the way through and I don’t think it’s going to be done in a couple days of easy reading.

I’ve been fighting off whatever ails my glands for about a week and finally they are feeling better. My throat was still sore, though without spots for which I am grateful. Still, I’d been using oregano oil diluted with coconut oil on my neck and in my ear which is wonderful stuff. This morning I decided it was time to gargle with a drop or two of oregano oil in some water. If you ever used it, you might understand why it took so long. I love oregano and use it a lot for cooking with but the oil is something else. It is HOT. Still, it does a good job of fighting off infection which is why I use the oil. Two drops in about a quarter cup of water and instantaneous relief. It isn’t completely gone, of course, and I probably should do it again in a few hours, but so much better. Why did I wait?

Now it is time to go milk Zoey.

All done. Weather reports for today indicated a high of 45° with lots of wind. I can believe both. I really would like to get out and do some hiking, as would Joseph to get more miles logged, but I really don’t feel like being out in the wind. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice and Thursday is as well with a 20% chance of rain. I think we’ll be able to get out one or both of them. Since Seth has decided where he would like his letterbox planted, we have that as one of our goals. Or a part of one, anyway. I know where I’d like to plant Papa’s as well but I’m thinking about planting it on his birthday since it’s coming up relatively soon. There happens to be the 10^th Annual Plant a Letterbox Day on the 24^th of May. Since that is a Tuesday, they suggest planting earlier and not listing until the 24^th. That would work. On the other hand, I might just decide to do another one and plant and list Papa’s on his birthday. We shall see. In any case, I have carving medium and I just did some reading up on LTC (letterbox trading cards) so there are lots of things to keep my touchy-feely creativity busy.

There is a project to keep my mental creativity busy as well. In spite of the fact that I never felt like I really fitted in growing up in McCloud, which is probably more a case of my being somewhat introverted than my lack of being Catholic or Italian, I am glad that I did grow up there. It is such a beautiful area and I had one of the best English and Spanish teachers I could hope for in high school. I have been working on my story about Hywel and Cailín for probably too long and feel it is time to get it out there. With my two usual proofreaders not able to help, I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do but one night when I was getting ready for bed “Mrs. Brickell” popped into my head. What a brilliant idea! I contacted her via Facebook and she indicated she’d be willing to take a look. I am somewhat chagrinned now that I overused thing/s which happens to be one of her pet peeves. It isn’t something I’d even thought to consider but now that I have, there seem to be very few instances when thing or things is a good word choice.

In other words, I have much to keep myself occupied between revisions, stamp carving and all things letterboxing in general, and planting. Not to mention school for the boys and other mundane activities such as laundry and eating.

In other news, Grandma is now connected and on Facebook! How exciting!

Have a terrifical day!