Post-Holiday Blues

Ray making pancakes

Friday was a holiday and then we had the weekend. We did not have to worry about our electricity fast during those days. Yesterday was relatively cool and we kept the house below 78 without running the air. This morning the windows are open again, but I don't think it is as cool.

The service yesterday involved members of the congregation sharing their thoughts on independence, interdependence, and patriotism. Some of the speakers were moving or inspirational. I think particularly of Mary, who spoke about growing up here, subject to discrimination and segregation. They even had a separate window at Dairy Queen! She couldn't go to college at UGA and went to a small historically black college. She went to Beirut as part of their Junior Year Abroad program. Someone there referred to her as American, not Negro or worse. It was the first time she thought of herself that way.

We talked to people and then took ourselves to the "new" Transmet on Tallassee for lunch. We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, so salads seemed right...but we split one piece of pizza to go with. The woman who greeted us, Jen, was super friendly and enthusiastic. When we came in, she said hello to us like we were old friends. I was trying to think who she was, and then looking behind me to make sure she was really talking to us. She was very high energy and said "Fantastic" after each item we ordered. It made us laugh. She liked Ray's t-shirt, too, of course, and he talked to her quite a bit...kind of like my Dad.

One of the many advantages of an early service (10:30 in the summer) is that there's more afternoon left, even after lunch. We were home before 2. I lay around inside, reading e-mails and recipes. About 5, Ray went out and started working on getting rid of the boxes in the garage. He is breaking them down and using them for mulch around the blueberries. Not very pretty, but effective. I came along and let the chickens out. I started to clean out the nesting boxes and got chased by some wasps that had built a nest in the old coop. I only got stung once, on my hand, but I was terrified. I screamed and screamed for Ray to come help me. He came, of course, but the crisis was over. Cameron came too. My sting hurt (I put baking soda toothpaste on it, which helps a surprising amount), but I also felt a little queasy. I think I had a megadose of adrenaline that affected me for several hours. I felt shaky and just not right. The chickens were fine. I guess they don't eat wasps and are not bothered by them. Ray knocked down the nest and killed at least one wasp. I was a little nervous for a few hours whenever anything buzzed near me, which is often, when I'm outside.

Some of the chickens had trouble figuring out how to get out of the coop.

I watered the main garden for about an hour, concentrating on the cucumbers, which are wilting from the heat and lack of rain. Most of the zucchini have died, probably from borers, but I think they are more likely to attack the plants during a dry spell. I picked a few cherry tomatoes and kept working on pruning the suckers off, and one banana pepper. Ray got about a cup of blueberries.

We ate leftover potato salad with hard-boiled egg and pie with raspberry sorbet. That pie is delicious!

I discovered that Ancestry.com was allowing access to the census records through the Fourth of July weekend, so spent the rest of the day looking up as many of our relatives as I could. We watched a pretty intense episode of Leverage, ending with Nate getting shot and turning himself in. This did not help with the excess adrenaline problem and I thought I would never get to sleep, but Ray read to me for a long time and eventually I relaxed.