140526 It Will Hit Me on Friday

Awhile back, when I was a teen or young adult, lawmakers decided that it was easier to celebrate all holidays on Monday, rather than on random days of the week. The exceptions were Independence day, a.k.a. "The Fourth of July", Christmas, New Year's Day, and other holidays that were absolutely tied to a specific day of the week, such as those held on Sunday or that one designated as the fourth Thursday in November. (Thanksgiving is one of my personal favorites.)

Memorial Day has been the last Monday in May for decades. Today, people all over the country see today as the beginning of summer, as the day to have roasted hot dogs, picnics, and parties. This weekend, many family trips have started in a race to visit national monuments or to experience the great outdoors. For more than half my life, it has been celebrated on some day other than May 30th, but it is still May 30th when it hits me.

On March 13, 1976, my brother died while serving in the USAF. May 30th is when I mourn his passing.

140524 Blood-Sucking Vampires!

The worst thing about living here are the mosquitoes, (or the thorns, or the heat, or the scorpions...). In the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, mosquitoes are tiny little insects that secretly bite. In South Texas, they are the size of horse flies. They painfully attack right through one's t-shirt, shorts, and socks to leave swelled redness that painfully itches.

I took five steps out my back door to water my poor, lonely tomato plant and five or six of the monsters immediately attached themselves to my legs and started pumping blood like angry motorists demanding gasoline. I could not swat them quickly enough. Although I smeared several of the little devils across my body, I came away with seven welts in hard to reach places.

Soaking in Epson Salts helped a bit. Citronella oil is keeping them out of the house, but they hide in the AC units, and get into the cars at night.

Little vampires!

140513 Acknowledgements

I don't remember when I last posted on Facebook. Was it when I acknowledged birthday greetings? I don't remember if I did even that. I haven't really missed it, but sometimes I think I should check it. Then I wonder why?

140505 Tea and Nutritive Substances

I should not have had that glass of iced tea before bed. I slept for four hours, then *boing* I'm wide awake! Did you know that stevia goes bad when left out? Yep. Dissolve stevia in a drink, leave it to get warm and yuck. It tastes like spoiled, overly ripe citrus. Who knew?

Stevia is a naturally occurring sweetener, so can 'go bad' as all natural products do. The sure sign of nutrition is how fast it goes bad. Meat and vegetables rot quickly. Twinkies last forever.

Two weeks ago, I bought a tiny mouse for George, the ball python. He ignores it. If he doesn't swallow one instantly, he tends to ignore his food until it dies. I've been feeding the little rodent. It plowed through my supply of stale sunflower seeds. I gave it a single slice of pepperoni, a bit of kale, and a chunk of carrot. It loved the kale. Then, it ate the carrot as if it were corn on the cob. It ate all around the outside and saved the core for last. It completely ignored the pepperoni in favor of the sunflower husks and the vegetables. This surprises me. I thought it would love the high calorie meat. Maybe, the spices deter it. Strong spices do upset pests. We can't use Thieves to clean George's cage because it has cloves in it. Cloves repel snakes. Peppermint repels mice. I love both.

Now, I'm hungry.