4th of July

 We had a nice celebration up on the hill with Levi, Mattie and the kids. Their neighbors joined us, and Grandma came over too. We ate a late supper on the porch, just a simple meal but plenty of it. They had been working at breakneck speed to get the last of the cut hay in the barn, since there was a chance of thunderstorms. 

Then began the wait until it got dark enough for fireworks. Levi doesn't want anything that makes a boom, because it scares the animals so we stick with fountains and sparklers. We had brought in two packages of assorted fireworks and five or six packages of sparklers. 

Little Rudy was in an agony of excitement as he sat on his little bench. The older kids disappeared for about an hour or so. Two were spreading calcium chlorite on the dirt road to stop dust. Two were using rotary mowers to finish mowing the grass. The oldest boy went down to help the neighbor with his chores. 

Rudy asked several times if it were almost time. It was getting darker and darker. Then it finally did get dark enough, but then we had to wait until the oldest boy got back from the neighbors'. Poor Rudy was very close to exploding himself. 

When Andy did come back, I was pleased to see that the neighbors came back with him. When Mattie said it was time for fireworks, a half dozen pairs of feet went pounding in to the house to retrieve the boxes and the long-handled lighter. Everything was dropped in their mother's lap. 

The sparklers were first. We found some good ones this year. They burned in colors and took about 4 minutes to burn out. Likewise, our collection of fountains contained some long burners too. Some of them made that satisfying crackle as they burned. It made quite a satisfying display that lasted about 40 minutes. 

No sooner did our show end then the English down the road set off three aerial fireworks with the loud booms. We heard a shout up the road and suddenly a horse went racing past the house. Somehow, in the dark, they were able to recognize it as one of theirs. Everyone rushed to get headlamps and headed down the road, but the chase ended very quickly when the horse came racing back and put himself in his own barn.

All's well that ends well. 

This horrible heat was supposed to end Friday evening at 8, and after a long miserable day where no one felt like doing anything at all outside, finally, blessedly, it did cool down and for the first time in a week, we were able to sleep well. 

So well that Tim had to wake me up Saturday morning. He didn't want to miss the 4th of Julu parade.

I am going to tell you a shameful secret. I am not a fan of parades. I went because Tim loves them. 

The first thing I noticed is that the crowds were much sparser than usual. I wondered if that was due to the heat. It was cooler, only 89° but it was humid. We sat on the bench in front of my old church. Usually that site is packed. This year, it was comfortably not packed. A fellow in front of us wore his veteran hat and his veteran shirt. He tried to start conversation. He told us that he arrived in Vietnam on July 4th. Ironic, since my discharge was July 4th, 1986. It soon became evident that this was about our only commonality. 

The parade started with our politicians. Our very own fake elector led the parade in a convertible. What struck me was the dead silence. He waved grandly to a silent crowd. The republican candidates marched along smiling and waving to the silent crowd. The democrats  had quite a display. Again...silence, although our veteran friend flipped the bird and began muttering under his breath about 'goddamn communists'. That surprised me. I was sore tempted to ask him what exactly it was that made him decide that we were communists. (Later, I discovered that calling democrats communists is our dear leader's holiday message. ) But as I said, everywhere else...silence. That was shocking to me. I think everyone is just tired of the chaos.

Finally we got to the parade. It was local business after local business driving their shiny trucks with their business advertising. Landscaping companies pulled their lawnmowers, excavating companies pulled bulldozers, oil tanker trucks from multiple trucking companies, John Deere show their shiny tractors. Like that. There were also fire companies spraying water on the crowds, very popular. Churches with floats calling for one nation under God. There were a half dozen marching bands, the Shriners and the ZemZems had their little cars and motorcycles zipping about. A rock band marched along side a truck hauling the drummer and the amplifiers playing screaming guitars as they played 'American Woman'. Interesting choice, I thought. Roller skaters, gymnasts, a radio car display. An off road group driving muddy jeeps. A local junkyard hauled two crushed cars, red and white. I think they could not find a blue car.

In honor of the 250th birthday of our nation, the parade was 2.5 hours long.

I watched the kids catching candy, all having a good time. I am ashamed to say that I was glad when it was done. Really, there must have been over 100 trucks blaring their airhorns. Cars from a local dealership, all shiny and pretty, revving their engines. A motorcycle driver who blared his motorcycle so loudly that it was actually painful. That was when we headed for our car. 

But I survived. 

So will the country.

Over in England, my youngest, a new citizen of the UK, spent her 4th by going to Sulgrave Manor for a picnic. It is the ancestral home of George Washington.

Community

Yesterday was another scorcher of a day. We were on a mission though. We had volunteered to drive Levi and Mattie to Pittsburgh for their second youngest son to be seen at the children's hospital there. Because it is a holiday week, they had trouble finding a driver. 

We were up early. We needed to be in their driveway at 6:30. I set my alarm for 4:30, but was awake at 3. We got there and there had been a change. Levi could not go. 

Hay had been a problem for all farmers here. A week ago, we were having one storm after another. You can't do hay in the rain. This week, with a long stretch of hot, dry days, everyone cut their hay, Levi included. Unfortunately, it needed an extra day in the field to dry due to the humidity.

We use balers, but the Amish do it differently. They fork the loose hay onto wagons, where kids are waiting to stomp it down as it comes on board, one fork at a time. Then it is pulled to the barn. They have a 'claw' on a arm and pulley system. The huge claw is dropped on to the hay wagon to pick up a big wad of hay. It is pulled up, hand over hand, swung over to the hay mow. The hay is dropped and it is once again stomped down so that as much hay as possible can be tucked away for winter feed. 

It is labor intensive work and in this heat, a hard job becomes even more grueling. A couple years ago, we were sitting on the porch. Levi was telling us that he had a strange experience. He was working in the hot sun and sweating up a storm. Suddenly he noticed that he wasn't sweating. He got a severe headache, followed by violent shakes. He had to stop what he was doing and lay down in the shade. "It always starts when I stop sweating, though," he said.

I could not believe my ears. It had happened to him before? I taught these classes in the military. "Levi, I said, "people die this way! What you are describing is the first stage of heat stroke." I explained to him about sweating being his body's way of cooling itself. When your body has lost enough water and salt that it stops producing sweat, your body temperature begins to rise. Just like a patient with a high fever will get violent cold chills, a heat stroke patient does the same. This explained his violent shakes. Everyone on the porch was listening intently. "If your body temperature goes high enough, it will kill you. All of you need to keep yourselves well hydrated when you are working like that." I explained the difference between water and sports drinks. 

Tim said, "we still have time before the Dollar General closes..." and just like that they were up and headed out. They take things like this very seriously and have been sticklers on hydration ever since. 

Anyway, Levi could not go to Pittsburgh because he had hay down. Although the oldest boy is a grown man now, he was not going to leave his children to do the job alone.

Mattie was worried about this meeting with the surgeon. She wanted Levi there to make any decisions with her. We picked up her mother on the way and drove just over two hours to get there only to discover that the appointment, made months back had been rescheduled to next month to accommodate the doctor's vacation. No one had contacted them to tell them this. 

Very frustrating. They were very apologetic but it didn't change the fact that it had been a wasted day.

We drove back home, determined to make the best of it, getting groceries and stopping at the Goodwill. 

As we pulled up, the haywagon had just been unloaded. Everyone came across the road tired and sweaty to grab a cold gatorade. Levi wanted to know what the doctors were going to do. 

I said, "weeeeelllllll..." and explained. Mattie was inside directing the putting away of groceries. 

Levi took off his hat and mopped his face with his handkerchief. "No...that's not right!" He exclaimed.

Mattie came out and said, "I was glad you were not there..."

Anyways, tonight we are doing a 'frolic', which is what they call a party after a big job is done. We are taking up hotdogs to roast, all manner of toppings, a roaster full of sloppy joes, potato salad, chips and a homemade ice cream cake. Afterwards, we will have sparklers and fireworks. 

A sad thing. A young Amish man was coming home after a long days work last week after those bad storms. He noticed three horses laying in his neighbor's field. He notified the neighbor that something was wrong. As he went back to investigate, he stepped over a barbwire fence. An electric line was down, and he was electrocuted. The horses were dead although they were nowhere near the fence. 

We knew him because he was part of a team we hire for construction work in town.

Lessons learned

 Well, I have been a-visiting and I have returned. A lot has happened. 

I got a very late start because Thursday morning my phone started ringing. It was the insurance company with the settlement. We are quite relieved. Tim has a keen eye for bargains. This car sold for well under Bluebook. It had a problem that they tried to cover with a bit of JB Weld. Tim saw the oil leak and insisted on a repair. It was a $4000 repair. If the dealership had done the right thing to begin with, they would have made that repair and sold it at full value. Their duplicity cost them in our case.

The insurance company paid full bluebook. They have been way more than fair with us, paying for things we did not expect. They even waived the deductible. Why? We can only assume that it is because we immediately went up there, paid the tow, got it out of a $100 a day impound, and drove it home ourselves. This alone saved them two or three thousand. 

So, what this means is that this has worked out quite well for us. So well that last night, watching television, a streaming company that plays one gambling ad after another (easy to win! Your winnings go directly into your bank account! Download today! Begin playing now!), I looked over at Tim and said our odds of making big money were better driving a Lexus into Canada.

So that is resolved. All they had to do was come and get the poor old car. They texted while I was driving. They continue to text every hour with texts that began 'You still have not responded,' etc. When I stopped midway in the drive I called and told them they needed to contact Tim. The texts must be automated because they kept coming in to my phone anyway. It made a long drive very stressful. 

My visit was so nice. The girls are growing so fast. I cannot believe they are going to turn 8 and 4 this year.  The oldest made me a clever banner of cats dressed in detailed clothing and jewels.

They are always excited to see me, and I hope that never changes. In fact there was so much excitement that a remote ended up kicked into a cup of water that was in the sofa cup holder. That put the kibosh on TV for the weekend. Not a bad thing.

We went to the library. The oldest girl loves the Ramona books. She had just finished the last one. I suggested Ellen Tebbits. She is a dancer too and has been giggling her way through the opening chapter in which Ellen's underwear are slipping down during ballet practice. 

There was a birthday party which was held at a local bounce place. Two hours of trampolines, climbing walls, ninja courses. Those two girls are both very athletic and ran full bore for 2 1/2 hours. Lesson learned: one does NOT attempt to do splits on a trampoline.

A supper out at a wonderful Mexican restaurant. I had Chiles Relleños. So very, very good. Lesson learned there, too. Margaritas are a big drink, and grandma has become a lightweight in regards to alcohol consumption. 

A failed bouncey ball making experience. Lesson learned: we look at why it failed. In this case it was an incomplete recipe. We found a National Geographic one with a video and two missing steps.

There were giant bubbles, chalk drawings, poppits, walks, swings, playground, church, ice cream, even a parade. What was learned? One does not wander around with a little flag stuck in her mouth.

Adult slushies were in order. Grandma once again learned that she is a lightweight in so far as alcohol consumption is concerned.

On the morning of art class, I saw them off and then headed for home once again. This time, the long drive was made even longer by multiple long stretches of one lane traffic due to road construction. The sudden flashing of an idiot light on the dash scared the wits out of me. Tim said 'Keep driving'. Lesson learned here as well. The Suburu is over dramatic. It was half a quart low on oil. 

Second lesson learned: I thought the wavy lines indicated water. No. This is oil. 

I am home once again. Unpacked. Laundry done. Dishwasher run. The house seems very quiet compared to that faraway house filled to the brim with excited giggles.

Driving home, I saw a huge billboard. CHAOS, CRUELTY, CORRUPTION: ARE WE GREAT YET?

Right next to it on a barn: TRUMP 2028. 

I will never understand how people are so gullible to swallow his bullshit hook, line and sinker. But there are people who believe his 250 rally crowds are tremendous. They believe the reflecting pool was damaged by vandals. That he has put the Iranians in their place. That the ICE Seizure of a nun is totally justified. That the cost of groceries and gas is some how linked to Biden's failures.The list goes on and on.

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto the sick, "you better have insurance."

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto the stranger, "go back to your own country"

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto the hungry, "my taxes better not be paying for these loaves and fishes."

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto the poor, "this is your own fault."

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto the little children, "let them come unto me, but only if they are part of my religion, my ethnic group, my nation, and are here legally."

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto John the Baptist in prison, "you should have just obeyed the law."

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto the Samaritan, "stop shoving your beliefs in my face. You are promoting sin. I am king!”

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto Mary outside his tomb, "did a man give you permission to be here? Go tell Peter I have a message for him to preach then head back and tend to your home where you belong."

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto Satan when he offered him power over the kingdoms of this world, "what an incredible offer, I accept."

Then Christian nationalist Jesus said unto Caesar, "we are going to rule this world together."

"You have a clever way of ignoring the commands of God so you can follow your own teachings." -Actual Jesus (Mark 7:9)

Headed out.

 We had two dry days and I tried to make the most of them. I got my junkyard flower bed weeded. I got the dahlias, and Mattie's plants, and my morning glory seeds planted. I spread the mulch.

I gave the raised beds a good weeding. After 5 days away, I imagine that my garden will look like a jungle. I am amazed at how everything is growing. 

I am all packed up and ready to head east tomorrow. My granddaughters are waiting. We are going to make galaxy high bounce balls. I have a rock painting project. I imagine there will be a teaparty or two. 

At the last protest, a candidate walked our line speaking to us. His question? "What is it that keeps you up at night?" When he got to me, I had my answer. "My grandchildren." He laughed and said. "Do they live with you?"I said no, but that I worried about the world we were leaving them. His smile faded. "I understand that."

You know how things all come together sometimes and you find yourself in a situation that is way out of your comfort zone? That's where I am. 

I live in a red county, and this red county has some ignorant people in it, people who can get pretty hostile when confronted with different opinions.

A woman brought the subject up to me. They are looking for people who can speak knowledgeably. They want people who can respond with facts, not emotion. 

I am not sure that is me, to be honest.

But I stood there with my sign, and I thought. About my grandchildren. About the woman at the ice cream place who was so shocked to meet someone would speak so openly in public. About family and divisions. About what matters. 

I signed the paper before I left. 

So far out of my comfort zone, but I feel as if it needs done. 

Much to my surprise, in broad daylight, I looked out the door and saw a deer tearing off a pumpkin leaf and chewing happily. Not more than 10 feet from the sliding door. She reached down and tore off another leaf. I opened the door and shook my finger. "You! Leave my pumpkins alone." Sheshowed me a bit of respect: she stopped chewing while she decided if I was a threat or not. She ambled out by the truck and watched me watching her. 

Later we had another visitor. It is a poor picture, taken through thermal pane glass.

Looks like we will have to put up fencing this year.

The insurance company is moving kind of slowly. We are prepared to wait them out. 

Happy Things

Today was a day of little wins. We both slept in until 9 am, unusual for us, but I think we were the better for it.

I continued weeding my plant junkyard. I have been buying distressed plants for a couple years now and tossing them into a spot I had designated to be a flowerbed at some point. Now I am weeding, taking stock of what has grown, filling in the empty spots with plants Mattie bartered for a ride, dahlia bulbs I had been given for my birthday, planting seeds,  rearranging plants.  A couple more days of working at it should make me feel better about it. 

As I worked Possum, one of the ferals came over to keep me company. She loves to be petted. She purrs and rubbed against me. She chased dirt clots and finally laid stretched out close next to me. It is so strange. As friendly as she is, I still can't pick k her up and she won't come inside for more than a couple minutes. 

The big news is that Tim got his tractor running. That has been troubling him. I am glad. I have been wanting some rock moved to make a little back drop to my flowers.  He spent a couple hours mowing. 

The vegetable beds look great too. They are so easy to keep weeded. I planted a couple dozen tomato plants - cherry, beefsteak, and San Marzano. Peppers sweet and jalapeños, onions, garlic, peas, beans, zucchini, carrots, corn and pumpkins. Herbs- rosemary, basil, chives. Oregano. It makes me happy to see everything doing so well. 

I saw a bluebird. It is nest building. That made me happy too. 

Thursday, I am headed east for granddaughter time. Another happy thing. 

Step by step

 Last night, I woke up about three hours after I went to bed. My leg just felt strange. Like an achy, sort of electrical thing going on. I got up, took some aspirin, and sat up a bit until things eased a bit back, and then went back to bed.

While I was sitting up though, I found myself fretting a little about the car. I will tell you what it was that troubled me: with that empty gaping hole in center of the console. What did it connect to? Were those components still there? How do you know? I mean, without the rear view mirror, with out that big screen, so many systems did not work. The automatic wipers, the back up camera, the electronic portion of the hybrid system. No navigation system. Simple things. No A/C. No heat. The white liquid sprayed across the console resulted in buttons that stuck when pushed. My big concern was how on earth do they tell what these computers connect up to? Did we still have those components? How can anyone know?

I finally went back to bed. Imagine my surprise to wake up this morning and discover that I managed to do something to my back. I can scarcely walk. It either was pushing a wheelbarrow or a couple days of aggressive weedeating. I was gimping around trying to look presentable before the claims adjuster came.

I almost made it.

The guy spent a long time studying the situation. He played with the sticky buttons. He took a lot of pictures. He retreated to his car to make some calls. He came back out from his truck and took more pictures. He said, "Let me talk to my supervisor on this one." Back to his truck he went. 

The raised beds had already been weeded. Nothing left to be done, I hobbled over and sat on the bench with Tim to wait.

Eventually, he came back out and gave it to us straight. "My supervisor is leaning towards just writing this off. The nearest Lexus dealer is in Buffalo. It would cost $750 to tow the car there. I am already at $7300 worth of parts, and who knows what else they are going to find..."

I think he thought Tim would protest, but all he said was 'That's fine."

The adjuster looked relieved. He made a joke. "I just have this feeling that if we wind up trying to fix this car, you will have to put an addition on your house. I would have to live here because you would be calling me every day with another problem. I am just afraid the car would never be right again. It really is all the Lexus bells and whistles..."

He ran some comps. Everything will be turned over to the claims guy. 

Tim stood looking at the car after he left. "We really had a pretty fancy car for a couple months."

Red Tape

 Tuesday, when I called the guy in charge of our insurance claim to tell him we had the car, that it was badly damaged, he immediately said, 'Let me get in touch with a local adjuster.' He assured us that he would have everything in place before we even got home. He said he wanted to get things settled for us as quickly as possible. 

Sounded good to us. 

This morning, we were trying to plan our day. I felt like we should wait to hear from the insurance guy. Tim, being Tim, had a tractor issue and needed to run into town. I decided to stay home and work on resolving the stolen plate issue. 

The first phone call was to DMV. Their automated system had no way to resolve that. 

I then called the state police. They told me about form MV-44 to replace the plate. I said that I couldn't really file for a replacement plate until I knew what the insurance was going to do with the vehicle. We might not need a replacement tag. 

He suggested calling our representative. I did. Her office assured me that I didn't need to worry about it. I said that I was not comfortable with that approach. Whoever had it was not honest. If they committed a crime... but the woman said, 'as soon as they run the plate, they will see that the tag does not belong to that vehicle.' 

Right...but the tag is still associated with our name and address. 

Boggles my mind that such a simple thing can't be done. 

In any case, it was 11. We still had no contact contact from the claims adjuster. So I tried to reach him, but got his voice mail once again. I left a message. 

I mean, what do you do? Just stay home until someone shows up?

I took my grumpy self outside and worked on weeding my poor flower garden. I weedwhacked for an hour. I planted 30 caladium along the north side of the house. I felt better.

I finally got a call back from Jason who was handling our claim. He was amazed we hadn't heard from the adjuster. He gave me his name and number. 

We know him.

I called and he was bemused. He knew nothing of our case. I said that he was supposed to have been emailed yesterday. He was driving, but pulled off the road to check. "Noooooooo," he said slowly. "Nothing yesterday...wait! Here it is. It just came in now."

Long story short, we are on his list for Friday. His appointments tomorrow are already in place.

Ugh. 

I went back outside to play in the dirt.

Remember those circling clouds that convinced Tim to put on pants? Turned out we had a tornado touchdown here in podunk. 

 https://www.weather.gov/ctp/Tornadoesof14June2026