Thursday, May 27, 2021

Thursday This n That

I played the lottery.  Won a dollar.  Spent three.  I don't think this a sound path to financial freedom.  Of course, neither is writing, but here I am.

I don't know about where you live, but our tiny weekly newspaper is filled with Help Wanted ads.  No, I'm not looking for a job.  But I always look at the want ads.  Maybe someday, if I see the perfect job, I'll do something.  Right now, though, I have a friend who's kinda looking, so I'm looking for her.  Yeah, that's the ticket.

Just off our newly cleared yard space, we have two trees that are unlike all the others.  One at the southwest corner and the other at the southeast corner.  Yesterday, I took some pictures and got out my tree identification book to see if I could figure out what they are.  I got close with the book and then I went online to narrow it down.  Near as I can figure it, they're 'pumpkin ash' trees.  Of course, that species really isn't supposed to be this far west in MO, but hey, stuff happens.  Birds eat seeds.  Birds fly.  Bingo bango bongo, you've got trees where you weren't expecting them.  Anyway, here's a pic.  

The leaves all start in a funny pod thing at different points on each branch.  Then the pod opens and the leaves unfurl.  I wish I'd thought to take a pic of that.  Maybe next year.  (If you're better at tree identification and think I got the species wrong, let me know.  Seriously.)

I love trees, btw.  This place is a gold mine for my tree lovin'.  So many cool species live right here on my property.  I'm working on identifying them all.  Woohoo.  My other two nerdy loves are birds and rocks.  I'm in geeking out all over the place here.  I couldn't have designed a better spot for me to live.

When everything else is so freakin' weird, it's nice to be able to focus on something that's not crazypants.  Plants seem to be my outlet right now.  

I met the wife and kids of the guy who's building a house next door.  Turns out she's from Michigan, too.  In fact, she grew up about thirty minutes south of where I grew up and where my mom lives right now.  Her mom's still there, too.  Small world.   I wonder if she knows the one family I knew in that town.  Hmm.

They were cute kids, btw.  Most of the people around here are my age or older.  We only have kids around here when grandkids visit.  Soon, we'll have a little girl and a little boy right next door.  I'm not looking forward to the bus stopping out front at 6am, but I'll get over it.

Your turn.  What's on the this-n-that radar for you today?

2 comments:

  1. It wasn't my printer. It's a glitch in Word. I hate technology. 72 hours down the drain. And Windows blamed HP, HP kept saying it wasn't their fault, and guess what? It wasn't! Sounds like current politics.

    Stormy is coming this afternoon and is spending the night. Fun times.

    I caught up a little on my reading challenge. More on that come Saturday with your reading wrap-up.

    I set up several graphics with teaser lines from the book. I need to start sharing those. I'll get right on that...

    I have a cool app on my phone. It's called "Seek" and it's tied in with National Geo. I can take a picture of flora and fauna and it tells me what it is. My current obsession is these crazy mushrooms. They start out rather...phallic in looks (gotta get an actual pic of that phase) and then the caps open like umbrellas and the edges tip up to form a cup. I do have a picture of that phase. Cools stuffs.

    Not much else going on around here. Still trying to entice the crows to be friends. Had to break down and turn on the AC finally. 80+ temp with 90% humidity did me in. With luck, I can turn it back off tomorrow and over the weekend. I LIKE cheap utility bills. And don't get me started there...

    Anyway, chance of storms this afternoon and tonight and then sunn and temps in the low 70s tomorrow until Monday when more rain may arrive. Good times.

    Happy Thursday.

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  2. A pond turtle decided to lay her eggs in my mom's little garden, practically under the ramp up to the front porch.

    The local stray cat brought home a kitten to Mom's house today, too. Which is a little weird, since none of us feed her, but nobody hassles her either. She's a darn good mouser, so we know she's not going hungry.

    I have to wonder what all that says about Mom's house! ;-)

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