May 16, 2012 by Naomi.

At ten of the clock this morning the thermometer on the north side of the shop registered eighty Fahrenheit. That’s  OK with me. I like it warm. Ninety degrees or higher is normal for Richland. I lay back in my Adirondack rocker and appreciate every degree. There can be no sunbathing after I drive north. However I cannot loll around too long because there are things go be done in preparation of my absence. I will drive to Bellingham on Saturday and plan to stay with Nancy and later with Tom in Everett for a couple of weeks. I expect my trees will survive. Maybe not the grass and small shrubs. Too bad. I going to be gone and that’s that. Once I had an automated schedule for watering but not anymore. My computer comes with me and through it I will communicate to those who matter to me. Probably others will get a message whether they care to or not. But I can easily be erased if that is their desire. Life is so full of possibilities.

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May 12, 2012 by Naomi.

Not for the first time I came to the reality where I must decide to either cut my hair or put up with it brushing my collars. That always seems to be a bother. Right now it turns under nicely in a delicate page boy. Covers my hearing aids. I enjoy cutting my hair. I run my clippers up the back of my neck is easy and effective. But what if I let it grow. At times in the past the experience did not result in long flowing locks in spite of the fact that when curls were stretched out my hair was very long. It simply insists on curling. With a magnifier I compared a hair from my head of curls with one from Mary Patton’s head of straight hair and can you imagine the difference I found? A hair from her head was like a cylinder, a solid round. Mine is not round but a triangle. So it curls. It just simply cannot hang straight. Well that’s the reality. My immediate concern is whether I should cut it or not. Even after year’s of growth it will never look any longer. Each lengthy curl takes more time to wash and rinse. And more difficulty to dry. I have yet to decide. Shall I cut it? Or not?

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May 10, 2012 by Naomi.

Sitting in my sun room is pleasant. However watching the grass grow has its drawbacks. Sometime the stuff will have to be cut. I can tell that my weed eater would be happier if I put it to work. Anyway I got up and pulled grass and weeds from among the tulips and irises which was a nice way to absorb the spring sun. The thermometer registered only a few degrees above sixty so it has not become sunbathing weather. My cedar rocker is tucked in the corner between the back porch and my bedroom so it is a great place to sit and dry off the sweat of my brow and other places. I need very little encouragement to don a sun suit and get to the real business of tanning. So far the weed eater did not rush out to work. That is a chore for me. Getting the weed eater to work, that is. I have to pull the cheatgrass out of the chipped rock in the front yard and that is a back bender and won’t get done in one fell swoop. Probably with an aching back however. Getting a tan will be the payback. Besides that my appetite is good and my pantry is well stocked so I eat good stuff and lots of it. The skin needs some down time to put the tan on the surface. And just remember that summer doesn’t begin until June twenty-first! I think.

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May 5, 2012 by Naomi.

Been a long time since I put money in my mouth and I did it right with a teeth cleaning, xrays, evaluation and fillings to the tune of $500. A tooth on the upper right has been bothering me for a month or more. It needed a couple of fillings and a root canal. One decay is in a tight spot between two molars and Dr. Barton can not get to it for a filling so he suggested we wait and see how it progresses but most likely the tooth will be pulled. My jaw is still quite tender from the shot to deaden the nerves. I need that side for chewing. Those on my lower left were pulled years past. I want to eat meat for a long time and would rather chew it than have it pulverized like I did for my babies. We’ll see. I pulled cheat grass several days ago and that side of my head hurt from the bending over. I worked some just before lunch and it seems to be OK.  I have been sun bathing even when the temp is only 55 F. I sit in my Adirondack rocker which is in the corner between the back porch and my bedroom window. Really very comfortable. When the ground warms I will spread out the sleeping bag and get both sides browned. Sun shine in my back yard is bright, warm and free.

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Apr 30, 2012 by Naomi.

This wind is the weather I expect of March not April but here it is. I have no wind gage but the tops of the Ponderosa pine are dancing wildly as if to keep time to a marimba band. An interesting swaying to watch and I am happy to be indoors for viewing. When I work outside in such wind I get ear aches so I will stay in and watch the cheatgrass continue to grow in the front chipped rock. I pulled some last night just at sunset and a while longer since my eyesight is pretty good in the twilight. I think the stuff will be easy enough to pull but of course not without my effort. It will not be blown out of the soil so the job will still be up to me when I get up the courage or the wind dies, whichever comes first. Nancy and Jerry are on their seven-day cruise, now I forget their destination but they left from San Diego on some ship of the Princess Line on an upper deck on which their door opened. I can imagine Jerry in his wondrous mood for making conversation. He is one of those who has never met a stranger. The ship is large enough that it will not roll and pitch as did the sailing ship on which I did a barefoot cruise.  Oh years and years ago in the British Virgin Islands. Or was it from Culebra? Well those were great times too. We often anchored in protected coves because of the hurricane threats. No small winds they were.

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Apr 27, 2012 by Naomi.

An hour or two bent over sorting weeds from favorite plants might leave me permanently shaped like a question mark but I will tell you I got a big pile of pulled stuff for the yard waste bin. The soil is well soaked from the recent rain and grass clumps and dandelion roots are loose and willingly let go. Good thing they do not know they go to death row. Maybe they do. Interesting thought. Plants do not have brains but somewhere in their cells is the basis for human understanding so I wager with my squinting eye that they are resolved to their destiny. Unlike my body, however, when plants die can become mulch of food and nutrition for upcoming roots and stems of plants. I would probably do my garden more good if I turned the weeds over with my spade to become mulch. I have only so much energy and today I put it to making space for the roots of rhubarb, tulips, garlic, and iris that will pleasure me for the summer. Well done, bent or straight.

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Apr 26, 2012 by Naomi.

Last night when returning from the monthly meeting of the Tri-City Stamp Club in the community room of the Charbonneau Retirement Center, I got misled on both of the round-abouts from Kennewick to Richland. First the exit took me toward Benton City which was not only in the wrong direction but miles out of my way. I finally got on State Road 240 which eventually got me to the bypass where I found Abbot street. Traffic was brisk at 9 pm and in the outside lane it was expedient to take off on the first exit. It was to the right but nevertheless was wrong. At the meeting, I had picked up some past issues of the Scott monthly stamp publication. It had been some months, almost seems like years, that I had attended to my stamp collection and now that there apparently will be no new postage designations I took a fresh look at what I have. Each time the US Postal Service issues a new design it is numbered. I have some cancelled stamps of the first numbers in the six hundred series. At one time I purchased an entire new sheet of the issue. I see no need of continuing that practice. No one in my family is interested in such a collection. I collected thimbles, too, as well as stamps from counties I visited. Collections take up space which I am running out of. So I will not continue. My ‘collector’ gene was not passed on. But stamps have nothing to do with taking wrong exits from round-abouts, just a convenient connection from one subject to another.

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Apr 24, 2012 by Naomi.

My flights are booked from Pasco - Salt Lake City - New Orleans to attend the 71st annual conference of the American Humanist Conference  from June 6, 2012, through June 11, 2012. I registered at the New Orleans Sheraton in the AHA block at $129 a night. I have lifetime membership in AHA having served as a board officer. I have never been to New Orleans so this will be interesting for several reasons. It will be my first visit and because the city has not fully recovered from a hurricane years ago many areas are still in ruin so I have no concept of past history - that it once had been the dazzling port of entry to the USA or the gathering for the ruffians who terrorized and stole from people all along the gulf. What history shall I find there?

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Apr 24, 2012 by Naomi.

Last night I sat watching lightning flashing all around the sky. Fascinating to say the least. I had not yet turned on my houselights. Nor had the streetlights come on. The sun had just set and except for the flashing everything was very black. I have no idea how long the storm lasted but I stepped out and felt raindrops, happy that my plants would be watered without my help. The light fluttered as if uncertain of what to do. After fifteen minutes I gave up to my sleepy eyelids. My bedtime. This morning I could see that a wind had apparently come up because twigs from the tall cottonwood next door had blown off and lay all around. I have to rake the yard anyway so eventually I will clean it up. Storms of this nature happened frequently in Minnesota I remember very well. Here I will remember the event as a spectacle and be pleased if and when it happens again.

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Apr 23, 2012 by Naomi.

Just had a terrible panic. The cursor wouldn’t work. The pad below the keyboard is activated and sends the cursor all over the place. I seem to have hit something correctly because I can type but what happened is a mystery to me.  Somehow I must turn the turn that off pad off. I do not know how. Darn, I don’t know how I turned it on. Did it just happen in the JAM area? I guess I will find out when I turn the computer off and then on again. Oh bother. All I want to do is to blog.

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