Old and new

On Friday, we had beef k-bobs.  I opened my grill and saw that one of my grates had split and started to rust.  I'd been pondering on a new grill for a while, wondering if I should replace the insides of the old one or replace the whole grill.  I'd replaced parts three times before, meaning my old grill was old...really old.  We'd spent many years doing battle over food and the fact it only had two temps; arctic snow and fires of mount doom.  Despite the fighting, we made a lot of good food together...and a lot that had to be microwaved to finish it...and a lot of char.  

Goodbye old friend

Hello new friend

We were fine with the smaller grill.  There's just the two of us, but the smaller grill was the same price as the larger one, so we went for it.  We'll see how it works when I do some burgers this week.  

We had trees cut last week.  We had a limb come down in the wind and since the tree guys were here, we got an estimate to do some additional work, including taking out the dying maple in the front yard.  This was one of my favorite trees.  We think it was put in when the house was new in 1978, so it had a good long life.  The arborist told us long ago that this tree should not have thrived here and it must have tapped into some water source.  Over the last few years, it's started to slowly die and we'd been having pieces cut off it.  This year, only half of what was left leafed out and dead limbs started to fall off it in the wind, which was dangerous.  And, for a while, about every three days, someone that was cutting trees in the neighborhood would ring my bell to see if I needed it cut.  When they cut it down, it was dead in the center and only had good wood around the edge.  

I miss you tree, mostly because the leaves that grew on this side shaded my office window from the afternoon sun.

All that rain we got a couple weeks ago has brought on its own set of problems.  Mosquitoes are swarming everywhere and just walking around in the back yard, I get multiple bites.  I can wear bug spray, but if I don't want to smell like that all day long, I put on long pants and a long sleeved shirt to go out and do stuff.  Yesterday, I was out in full sweats with the hood up to set up the grill, but I didn't get bit at all.  I wore the same outfit to do some hand watering last week and it worked then too.  

The other problem it's brought is mold.  Every day I'm taking an antihistamine to get through the day.  That happens in summer around here, but not usually for this long.  I keep reminding myself that the garden looks great because of that rain and the water bill was lower last month than it's been for June in years.  Everything has its good and it's bad.  

I didn't take a lot of pics last week.  It's hard to get a pic outside when I'm running through the yard before the mosquitoes can find me.  I barely think 'that's a pretty flower' before they zero in and attack.  

When they were cutting the trees, Dottie was freaked out.  Rob took her on a walk that day and she wiggled out of her harness and got away from him.  He called me and I started driving around the neighborhood.  I found her on our street, running fast as she could for home, tongue lolling, clearly panicked.  I tried a couple times to get her to stop, but she wasn't having it and eventually crossed the street to avoid me, but then crossed back over and ran for our front door.  I cornered her there and got her inside, then went and picked up Rob, who'd been running behind her, wearing his work clothes and shoes.  

They both hurt their feet.  Dottie tore her front pads up and for a couple days, walked around on her toes, something I'd never seen a dog do, but then things got better and now, she's ready to be walked, but her pads are pink and tender, so we're going to have to build her back up to the long walks she was getting before.  I still see Rob wince once in a while, but his feet are doing better too.  

With all the things going on with the crook-in-chief, the one I care about the least is epstein.  I have struggled to understand why his followers care so much.  They thought they'd catch the dems up to no good and now trump is trying to keep his own no good out of the news.  I mean, with all the sexually deviant things we know about him, surely no one is surprised that he needs to keep his friendship with epstein quiet.  I wish that this would be the thing that would take him down, but you know he and his crooked clowns are trying to think of a sufficient distraction, like bombing Greenland or some other such nonsense bullshit.  While the letter and whatever else they're squealing about right now doesn't feel important, it would be great if Murdoch turned on him.  Let's face it, Murdoch is into him because the stupid shit trump says is good for ratings.  When torching trump is good for ratings, Murdoch will do that too.  And, that day can't come soon enough.  

I hope Stephen Colbert finds a new place.  Someplace courageous enough to let him keep his platform.  The truth must be spoken and if CBS has lost the will to speak it, then someone else will get a try.  We don't lose until the last one of us stops speaking truth to power.  

Everybody have a great week!  Find something you love to do and a comfortable place to do it and relax.  Find peace, love and joy for yourself before trying to assist others.  

Lane