Redundant

Yup, it seems I'm posting about the same things constantly, but I really need to start keeping track of what's going on in the yard like I'd promised myself way back in this post. But, after this, unless it's something exceptional, I'll start keeping the posts to every other week or so.

What with the horrible weather we've had all growing season in the New England states, it seems a little mean to be posting about everything doing so well now that the heat has turned itself up here and the rain has dwindled to every other day instead of daily. Sorry.

The flowerbeds aren't looking half bad now that the plants are getting some sun. I had to prune out a lot of the flopping gloriosa daisies, but it looks a little neater now.



The Hosta have exploded into bloom.



The area around the lower pond isn't as full and lush as last year, but considering the weather it doesn't look half bad.



I've never had cucumber plants this loaded with blooms. The cucumbers are delicious!



Even though we haven't had a ripe tom yet, I'm considering the 'hay bale' experiment a smashing success.



Finally, a couple shots of the veg garden (so I'll remember what was where).





Happy growing!

Lightning And Other Stuff

We got hit last Friday. URGH!
It would have been nice if it could have stayed farther away from me than 5 feet -
It hurt! It felt like every muscle in my body had contracted as hard as it could. The muscles around my rib cage still hurt - they feel like they've shrunk 2 sizes. The tingle wasn't too cool either. You know how it feels when you stick your tongue on a brand new 9 volt battery? Times that by about a thousand and add your whole body. I was on the floor for a few minutes deciding if I was still alive. lol. The top of my scalp and my neck still feel weird, but not painful.
The concussion from the crack! when it hit the ground was so loud that it took out my oldest son's hearing for a little while.

This is the hole it left in the ground outside the window where I was sitting (it looks small compared to what it looks like in real life) Sorry it's a little blurry, but I was still shaking when I took the pic:



It blew the iris right out of the ground and pulverized the rocks that ring the tree (threw the rubble all over). There's a huge hole in the pathway and the plastic underneath is gone. There is a long scar mark that shows the path the lightning took up the tree. It swirled around it like a snake right to the top and blew of big chunks of bark. Harumph - the first thing anyone asked was, "Are the fish OK?" What, forget the humans, are the fish all right? lol.

My husband and I lost both our computers, the router, both tv's, the cable box, the modem, S's monitor, D's motherboard got zapped, the phone (I can't remember what else, but it was anything connected to cable or phone lines). It disintegrated the switch on the surge protector. Yeah, that didn't do much good.

Bro-in-law and sis-in-law gave me their old comp. Yay! D is going to use youngest daughter's with messed up motherboard as it can still work for basic stuff and she's getting youngest son's old one since he found a cheap one for himself on Craig's List.

Note to God: D lost his job, we lost Ronnie Tuesday and now the lightning. That's three. Are we done now??!! Please?!

Happier things -

I saw some turkey vultures sunning themselves. They're beautiful birds as long as they stay away from me. (Oh, Lordy, maybe it's another sign. ~sigh~)







I thought this swarm of ants on our front step was cool, but it kind of grossed me out at the same time.



A fabulous cauliflower we pulled out of the garden this year (that's a quarter next to it for size comparison).





OK, I guess that's it for the moment.
If you don't hear from me for a while, well, something else bad has happened and I don't want to think about it!
:(

Ronnieta Update

We've been searching for 23 years for my sister-in-law, Ronnieta. I'd plastered her info all over the net, anywhere I could find, any missing persons forum available, Hawaii bulletin boards, Washington missing persons FBI database. You name it and I probably posted on it - I had a friend physically searching in Hawaii and I did a post about her in 2007.

Unfortunately, we got word from Hawaii on Tuesday, July 21st that she'd passed away unexpectedly at age 40.

No one could understand how sad we are that this is the way she was finally found. Honestly, even a week later, we're still in shock. I'm really feeling guilty over the thought that maybe I could have done more - somehow. Maybe I missed some info somewhere, or could have posted more, found more boards, or I skipped over something that I thought wasn't important at the time that might have changed everything.

Information keeps dribbling in about what she's been up to all these years and about her daughter. Her close friends have been in contact (Thank you Dale, Sandy and Jeannie!). We still have a few to get ahold of yet, but we can't afford to continue calling just now.

Her friends have set up a memorial near where she was staying. I don't know about anyone else, but that makes me feel better.

Personal papers and pictures are on the way to us from some wonderful people out there, but for now we're in limbo.

There are lots of inklings we'd had of what went on in her early life that are being confirmed, and lots of new mysteries presenting themselves. It's hard to move forward with everything when you haven't gotten all of the needed information yet. (and you don't want do disclose what you know for fear of that info being told to people that have no need to know it - ever!) Unfortunatley, mouths run whether you'd like them to or not, so for now we're in silence mode. What we know stays with us. Period.

Now it's waiting, piecing bits and parts together, waiting on more info from her close friends and making small decisions. It's a little hard to get everything thought out when one person thinks they're in charge of all the decision making for the other siblings when they don't have all the facts. The 'we' of 3 seems to have dribbled to 'we' of 1. NOT cool!

Hopefully someone will come to their senses and it will all work itself out. As it stands now, D and I are just very sad and really miffed.

It turned out to be such a sad, sad ending that I can't seem to rap my brain around the fact that there is one.
Rest in peace, Ronnie, and know that many people loved you. Very, very much.