Are you familiar with Hal Borland? If you garden (and I do not) you would LOVE him, I am sure. I picked up this book years ago at a thrift store. If I'm remembering correctly (now THERE'S a big IF) I bought it when I was looking for old books with interesting spines (presently, I'm just hoping that MY spine never gets too interesting) and ended up finding a gem. Or, it may have been the time I was looking for books with one reading per day (oh, boy. do I have a plethora of those) only to realize that if one intends to read a shelf full of books with a mere one reading per day it will still take a very long time each day to read them. I tend to be slow in reasoning out things like that.
Anyway, today I give you this! I read it on September 11, but didn't feel it was fitting for that day.
But today as I write this, a cricket is giving me FITS. It has been for days now. It appears to be stuck in the purgatory of neither in the house nor outside of it (aren't there prayers for this?). At least there is hope today that the cicadas will be quiet long enough for me to locate it.
Shall I mention the annoying squirrel? I love squirrels. Never have I lived anywhere that did not have squirrels for me to worry about. In our last home, a squirrels nest full of newborn baby squirrels was blown from a tree. This still makes me sad. At that house our dog was a Westie. Bred to kill rats on sailing vessels. She did her best to keep our yard free from squirrels. Although she never, never, never looked up.
At this house our dog is a Lhasa Apso. Apparently they were bred to guard temples. This dog barks only when he feels compelled to bark. I've yet to figure out all that compels him. It certainly isn't crickets. Or squirrels.
Today as I let him out to run free in his newly fenced in yard, a squirrel stood only a few feet from the door chattering at him (is it chatter? more like - nah nah na nah na). Zeke gives neither two hoots nor a tinker's dam if there is a squirrel in his yard.
Now, I was going in a totally different direction with this post, but the latest annoying sound just over-took my thoughts.
Someone new moved into the house which was vacated when our sweet old neighbor lady (who adored THGGM) moved to a nursing home. They seem very nice. BUT, it's become apparent that they do not get adequate cell-phone reception INSIDE of their house. It would appear that they only get adequate cell-phone reception if they stand in our drive-way. You know how obnoxious it is to hear only one side of a heated conversation? Well, I can tell you that if one uses the 'speaker' option it is TWICE as obnoxious to hear both sides of a heated conversation. Seriously. Oh, and just for kicks, stand there with YOUR dog, while MY dog tries to guard this temple in which we live.
If I were someone who liked to share my limited knowledge of cell-phone reception, I'd tell them to switch to our provider. Our reception is flawless, or it seems to be, as no one ever calls us on it. I'm rather sure that if I were deep in the bowels of my basement and climbed into the dryer and closed the door I would still have clear reception. Maybe we should have them over and invite them to try it out? And while they are in there, I'll ask if they can still hear that cricket.
This probably isn't one of the options in the Dale Carnegie course, is it?
No. I didn't think so either.
Oh. And if perchance in the spring time I wrote about the wonders of chirping crickets, today would not be a good day to remind me of that.
(can't read the small print on that picture above? click to enlarge.)
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