Home again, home again - higgedy jig!

At least, I think it's "higgedy-jig."

Returned home Sunday after a brief road trip with Jean and her daughter, Barb. We journeyed to Kalamazoo Saturday morning to visit another of her (accomplished and beautiful) girls after a July fourth concert in Saginaw the night before. It was a pleasant drive and the conversations were the usual - continuous, and filled with laughter and some introspection.

The daughter in K-zoo is an osteopathic doctor, performing her residency there. She has a lovely urban-funk-loft apartment in the downtown district, literally 'walking minutes' away from anything and everything, which is everything in today's economy. And even in Kalamazoo it can seem very chic and metropolitan to be able to walk to any one of a number of restaurants, entertainment spots, movie houses, the Farmer's Market, work, etc.

Dr. C is making me rethink what it is I want to do when I grow up, with her oh-so-cool abode and neat lifestyle!

Barb, Jean and I climbed back into "Louise" and headed east the next morning, but found it already hot and semi-sticky hours before noon! Thankfully, the AC worked well, and we made several fun stops on the way, too.

Thanks for including me in the family time, ladies.

While on the road I worried about the garden (no, not the boys), and called to be certain the boys were being smart about the fan and open windows versus the use of the AC and keeping cool. I won't even go into that debacle - it hurts too much to think of the wasted electricity!

On the other hand, Karl did water the plants and eat (and sort of do most of the other things he was assigned) - and the house was still standing - so it wasn't a complete horror returning home. I am only cringing a little.

Awoke this morning to silence and realized the air was very still. Very still. Turned on the TV to hear that there are several areas south of us without power; several thousands of folks without electricity, and I wondered if we were one of those households...until I remembered that I wouldn't have been able to turn on the morning news if we had had no power. [forehead smack]

I quickly ran upstairs and turned on the attic fan to draw the remainder of the cool morning air into/through the house. The heat of the day will arrive and bear down in a scant few hours, and I want the interior as cool to begin with as can be.

Can you blame me?

The thermostat said it was 76*F at 6AM, but currently (now 8:02AM) the temps have lowered about as far as they can with the sun over the horizon and climbing high. If the boys had left the fan on the entire night, the interior temp would be in the sixties right now, but the best we can do for today is 71*F as a starting point. Ah well....I will take it and be happy!

The garden is calling my name, so I am heading out there to finish the last of the grooming and replanting at the north end of the pergola. May have to trek to Lowe's for a few more bags of topsoil to get the job done - we'll see. And there are several die hard grass blades in that end that require pulling. Darn them! Oh, and those pavers to establish yet as the border for the last ten or eleven feet....but it is really so close to being completed that I can now concentrate on weed-pulling maintenance in the back, and head around to the front and begin my real work there. I am bound and determined to get this all done this year!

There will be a few photos tonight to show you the before and after of the perennial bed out back - there really is a BIG difference from the last couple of years to this. Being able to get out there and really work has been a Godsend - the last two summers of inactivity and "taking it easy" following the abdominal surgery were heartbreaking and maddening. I still have to be careful, but this has been liberating - and a load off of my mind - getting back into a normal routine in the yard.

Oh, crap! I left my hat in Jean's car!