Keep track of your bananas!

I have no sense of smell. This normally causes me no problem. I have smoke detectors in the apartment. I wear my clothes only once and then launder. I eat my food within a few days and don't worry it's gone bad. However today something happened that made me wish I either had a sense of smell or was younger and not becoming forgetful.

A while ago someone gave me a banana.

A long while ago.

Apparently I threw it in my canvas bag I tote back and forth to school each day. I put the bag in my bottom desk drawer at the beginning of the day and take it out at the end. My lunch is in a lined lunch bag in the fridge so I don't need to use my canvas bag for food transport. So today when I sat down to eat lunch I noticed fruit flies. "Hmmm, where are these flies coming from?" I wondered. The trash can was clear on the other side of the room. I knew I didn't have any other food with me aside from the good food I was eating. Oh well.

I got home today and I noticed a brown stain on the bottom of the bag. I opened it and took out the book I'm reading, the bible, my checkbook and my pad of paper, standard items for me at all times, and lo and behold at the bottom of the bag lay a gushy, moldy brown stain and a withered banana peel. The bag is currently being laundered, most of the things I listed above have been thrown out, and the bible I am trying to reconstitute with a wipe-down and a dry in the sun. Maybe having a sense of smell would be a good thing. Or maybe just having some sense. Do not throw bananas into your tote bag!

Harry Belafonte - "Banana Boat (Day O)" - 1956

PS: I don't think the bag is going to make it. I have laundered it and the mold won't come out. I poured bleach directly on it and am laundering it again. I suspect the bleach wash will do further damage. I mourn the trusty bag, one I'd bought in Canada on my last vacation in Maine 6 years ago...

Cleaning Frankenstein's bolts

I much like how a child shifts from one topic to the next. I would like to do it that way myself but it would be considered rude by other adults. Too bad. Here is an example of a child's segue:

Tying his shoe we discussed his sneaker, his foot and his leg. When I finished tying it, he said, appropos of nothing,
"You know the bolts in Frankenstein's neck?"
I said, "Yes, what about them?"
"I think he takes them out every day to clean them."
"I think so too. Otherwise he'd get an infection."
"Yeah. That's what I think. Bye!"

source

Now that's a convenient way to change to a different topics when you're done with one.

Now some other boys were having a joking old time this morning. One had brought a list of jokes. He'd done a good job of memorizing one particular one. He ran up and said "Hey, you want to hear my jokes?" I said sure.

"Why was the nose sad?"
"I don't know. Why was the nose sad?"
"Because he didn't get picked!"
HA HA HA HA, riotous laughter from all the boys.

I've memorized two jokes to share back with him. I hope he laughs:

Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Boo
Boo Who?
Don’t cry it’s only a joke.

What do you call a prehistoric monster when he sleeps?
What?
A Dinosnore!

I made a cauliflower soup last night and it was pretty good. I steamed the cauliflower, and boiled up some bouillon cubes. I added some already steamed potatoes and carrots to the bouillon, and then the steamed cauliflower I'd pulverized in the blender. Mmm! A chicken salad with craisins on a fresh bagel finished the meal, and it was good and filling. Soon it will be too hot for soup. Unless I learn to make chilled cucumber soup or something. (Not gazpacho. I'm not a fan).

This week I learned the word Sesquipedalian, an obscure word that means 'a lover of obscure words.' I love the word, the irony of its meaning, and the perfection of a word that describes words I love!

Yeast expires, you know

I made bread today. I have a bread machine and I thought it would be a nice, homey thing to have it baking while I wrote the prophecy newsletter. So I started making it and I took down the bag of yeast packets I have and I noticed that they expired two years ago. Hmmm.Time files, apparently. Well, I thought, I have the yeast and I have the other ingredients, so why not?

Here's why: because what comes out of your bread machine at the end is a little bowling ball the mass of a black hole, weighing 3000 pounds and compressed to something that will crash through the floor like a meteorite if I dropped it. So my light, fluffy loaf of bread is compressed down to a size of a softball and about as dense as cobalt.

I ate it anyway.

Hey, with butter, anything is edible.

A nice day, upper 70s and I know this from the temperature thingie on the top right of my laptop screen. I didn't actually go outside, silly.

I am looking forward to a good time at church tomorrow and then a Sunday meal and nap, then correspondence with some internet friends. I have a new book by Michael Landon Jr called The Silent Gift. The highlight of my day will likely be the crossing off of another day at school, marking the final countdown to summah! (19 1/2 days left!)

Long week!

I was listening to bluegrass hymns, and there was just a little too much banjo music for me right now. I need a soothing baritone and some traditional hymns, not a jaunty plinking that unsettles my nerves.

It has been a long week. We just finished administering the CRCT (Criterion Referenced Competency Test) to all the 3-5th graders and a mock test to the 2nd graders. It is an extremely intense test to take, and the kids feel every minute of it. It is a very difficult test to administer, and to proctor. The kids in turn feel pressure and when the pressure is released, as in the afternoon when the test is done, they let loose. It makes for a long week.

We had a very good study at church last night. We are going through Matthew, and we are up to Matthew 3. I love the chapter that shows John the Baptist, and I loved exploring the Nazirite vows, and his message of repentance. The people in our study will talk and share and contribute, which makes it interesting and collegial.

I've been glad that the initial heat of the spring season has gone away and we have coolish days (low 70s) and cold nights. It was too soon for the deep heat of upper 80s. We also received some blessed rain which we needed very much. My plants are growing well in the pots, and soon I hope there will be flowers. Meanwhile, the flowers are busting out in the yard. The tiger lilies have already gone by and the morning glories are poking up.

I'm going to settle down on the couch with a book, and the cats. I am finished with this evening's essay at The End Time and for me, 6 pm is an early evening. I am going to enjoy it. These old bones need a rest.

And here I was so sure I wouldn't get old...

So growing up all my older relatives wore glasses. As a kid I'd see them look, fumble, hunt, and grope around for those glasses they always seemed to misplace. How silly, I'd think! Those forgetful grownups. I'll never be like that!

LOL, yesterday I was mumbling "where are my glasses??" and went to look in some usual haunts for them. They were on top of my head. Oy!! And today I actually got in the car and drove out the driveway heading toward church before I realized I didn't have my glasses on. I squealed to a stop and backed into the driveway, reversed down the length of it, turned the car off, and went back inside the house to get them. NOW I'm beginning to understand those long ago private chortles would come back to haunt me!

As far as the school year goes, we are rounding third and heading for home. There is only another month to go and then I'll be liberated from the clock and from bells and from schedules. From opening countless lunchroom milks, from tying shoelaces that have been dragged over the boys' room floor all day, from unsticking backpack zippers, and from shushing kids in line. I'll miss those tiny kid hugs, though, and the light that comes across their faces when they finally understand a new word or a math problem. Sniff sniff.

Though as a routine oriented person I will keep my schedule as rigidly as ever, but knowing that I am doing it for me and not for work makes a difference. My teacher friends are busy making plans and reservations for summer vacations. I am making plans on which books to read. I am not going anywhere. I am staying at home!

Maybe that is another symptom of getting old...now where did I put my glasses...?

Blooming garden

The heat seems to have abated with the storms that came through yesterday, and I went outside to take some yard shots. After 6 consecutive days of sitting, I decided to get up. LOL.

The yard looks great, thanks to the landlord's mowing and blowing yesterday, and the rain. It is verdant green carpet, with flowering bushes and budding trees everywhere.

This is some kind of flowering bush along the north side of the house. I know, that isn't too knowledgeable nor is it very descriptive...

Here is a closeup of that bush. It is really pretty. It bloomed in the last few days.

And, even closer.

Now that I am outside, and not inside, the cat doesn't know what's happening. "Where is she? Why isn't she in her chair? What is this screen between us? What is out there?" he kept following me from window to window...

Last year the landlord cut back the crepe myrtle. Or severely pruned. Or, as the Grumpy Gardener says, 'crepe murder.' Anyway, as the crepe myrtle comes back, it looks like Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons...

Last year I'd thrown around a bunch of flower seeds (again, not descriptive, I forget what kind these are) and here they are, nestled against the tree trunk in the front yard.

I planted a pepper, two flowers with a name starting with C, and some other flowers. LOL, I am not a gardener. I just bought what was cheap, pretty, and would last in a sunny spot with concrete, and went from there. If anything actually comes up I will be shocked. I spent a total of 20 minutes. At least I put them in fresh potting soil.

A friend of mine will give me an aloe cutting and also a spider plant cutting. I will stay on the lookout for small succulents to put in my white espresso cups. And now, I'm back down. Up is good. Down is better.

Vacation update

I think my new favorite dinner is veggie tacos. I made them this week and I've been enjoying them for three nights straight. What I did was:

Opened and rinsed a ban of black beans
Opened and drained a can of Spanish Rice
Sauteed a green pepper.

I mixed the above and then added to my taco shell shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado. Voila, a healthy and filling dinner that costs cents on the dollar. (At my place the local store often has avocados on sale for 78 cents). If I run out of taco shells I can still make it into a salad and it is just as good.

I like that is takes mere moments to fix. When I get home in the afternoon I'm pretty tired of being on my feet all day. If I don't have to stand at the stove for a long time, I'm happy.

A friend gave me a bag of pecan halves. I'm happy about that too. I love nuts! You name the nut and I love it: cashews, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, etc. I like something crunchy at night to munch on and pecans are just the ticket.

I was so sad about the tornadoes in Dallas yesterday but what a happy thing that so far there are no fatalities!! In seeing that viral video of the tractor-trailers being flung into the air like matches I was sure that there would be deaths all over the place. That tornado was powerful. But like the weatherman said, this is early in the season, and we still have a ways to go. I pray that the tornado season is calmer than last year. We get tornadoes here in GA so it is a fervent prayer.

I am enjoying my vacation but I have had little motivation to do anything. I haven't vacuumed or done the laundry. I haven't even put out the pots and potted some flower seeds. The upside is that I am de-stressed and have been sleeping soundly at night, and have had no need for daytime naps. I am awake and alert, just lazy!

Come a storm...

Our hot day has ended. It suddenly clouded over and we are getting rain and thunder now. There are severe thunder warnings up for the county next to ours. Just before the rain hit I snapped these clouds. Mammatus clouds I think.

I'm totally wasting my day

It is the first week day of spring break. I enjoy having the Monday off. Sunday was great knowing I didn't have to get up today and rush out this morning. I had banana pancakes, watched a couple of videos, and did the dishes. Then I moseyed to the PO and then to a friend's house for a visit. We yakked for a couple of hours, then I stayed for lunch. Back home, I am watching hulu.com and munching crackers.

Except for the dishes and a blog entry at The End Time, I have done nothing productive. Perfect.

I'm totally wasting my day

It is the first week day of spring break. I enjoy having the Monday off, Sunday was great knowing I didn't have to get up today and rush out. I had banana pancakes, watched a couple of videos, and did the dishes. Then I moseyed to the PO and then to a friend's house for a visit. We yakked for a couple of hours, then I stayed for lunch. Back home, I am watching hulu.com and munching crackers.

Except for the dishes and a blog entry at The End Time, I have done nothing productive. perfect.