Mid-Week Musings...

90 degrees on the last day of April.  And that's all I'm going to say about the heat.  No, really.  There's no point bemoaning something I can't do a damned thing about.  (Though I reserve the right to grouse at a later date...)

Monday was the end of a wild storm front with torrential rain and truly strong winds.  I was able to finish my 1008-page mega-novel by early evening, then spent the rest of the night mulling over the plot, the characters, the author who wrote a book so intense and amazing I'm still rehashing things today.  It was great the weather was so foul for the three days I was lost in a time warp...

Yesterday was Ozzy's monthly trip to the vet for blood work to see if his liver is responding to the meds. It's not, so he'll have to keep taking the liver pills along with the other three meds, probably for the rest of his days.

So, we're sitting in the waiting room, he's on my lap hyperventilating and shaking like a leaf.  I'm talking to him, trying to calm him down, when I see this weird thing on his brow. We've just come from our morning walk so I think it's a piece of dirt or something and try to brush it off.

Frigging hell.  It's a tick.  I really, really don't like ticks, or anything remotely like a tick, or any kind of freak thing that can suck blood. And no, not because of Dracula movies I wasn't supposed to be watching on late night Elvira shows.

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The Summer I turned twelve, I got to stay with my grandparents in Alaska.  One day my grandmother took me and two friends to this beautiful lake/pond in the middle of the woods to swim.  The water was warm--pretty unheard of for Alaska--and we frolicked and swam and had a great time.

Until we got out.

And found ourselves covered in leeches.

Screaming, hopping, crying...chaos ensued.  My grandmother was suddenly faced with three hysterical girls who couldn't hold still.  Eventually she did the Voice of Imminent Demise, we calmed down (sort of) and she was able to get the horrors off, though the little round marks from their sucker mouths lasted for weeks. EEEEeeeeewwwwww.  My skin is crawling just remembering...

If I have any kind of childhood trauma...that's it, right there.

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Flash forward to 2014 and there's a blood sucker thing on Ozzy's brow.  I can hardly sit still until they call my name and the first thing I say to the vet is "Get it off!!"  He does, in short order, though is laughing at me the whole time--especially when I couldn't even watch as he yanked the thing out. Though after I told him the leech story, he stopped laughing, shuddered and got all grossed out on my behalf.

This experience just totally makes a case for living in a city, peeps.  Now every little twinge or itch, and I'm convinced a bloodsucking tick is crawling on me.

Today I worked outside for quite awhile after the morning walk.  Planted some Snapdragons to replace the ones lost over the Winter, cleaned out the four hanging baskets for the Fuchsias I haven't bought yet, and filled a couple of pots with Geraniums.  The slope looks really cool in the back with all the poppies.  I love that they have just sprouted on their own...

My sister gave me a really cool carafe-type jug when I was visiting last week.  When we were out shopping, I was looking for a new sun tea container--I live on iced tea in the Summer. She said I might like one she had that wasn't as big as the store-bought style. And she was right...I love it.  The glass is thick, the design is very cool, and it won't take up much room in the fridge.  It's a perfect container.

Six bags of Earl Grey, two quarts of pure, filtered water, and the sun...

It's a relief to have some of my outside chores done, though later--once the nuclear orb has set--I will mow the lawn in the cool of the evening.  But for now, cleaned up and non-sweaty, dirt scoured from under my fingernails, a cold, delicious glass of iced tea and my book sound just about right...