Smokin'

 Today was a good day. The smoke from the wildfires has died down. 

Yesterday was pretty awful. It was hot. It was humid and the smoke was so thick that you could not only smell it, you could taste it. My sinuses were nuts. 

So...yesterday was an inside day. I cut up a watermelon for the fridge. I made a bowl of chicken salad with grapes and tarragon for cold sandwiches. I made a cucumber salad and a broccoli salad. It is always a good thing to have a fridge full of ready to eat stuff on a hot day. 

When I was cleaning up, much to my surprise I saw three young men working in the wooded strip between our house and the road. I slipped on my sandals and went out to see what they were doing. 

They were industriously working with picks and shovels, digging around the base of a telephone pole. They explained that they were checking telephone poles for signs of rot. 

I observed that it was a hot day for such physical work. They looked pretty miserable, and they agreed. I said, "well if you need a cold drink, just come to the house," and went back. Almost immediately, there was a young man at the door, asking for water. I got out the Brita pitcher from the fridge and poured 3 glasses of ice cold water. He said, "we all have water, but it is in the truck about a mile up the road." I felt so sorry for them that I sent him off with watermelon and forks. They took a break standing in the shade and then moved down to the next pole in the neighbor's field. 

It cooled off last night, down to 58 degrees. Crazy 30 degree drop, but it was a good night for sleeping.

This morning, Tim was off to do Tim things. He is rewiring the ceiling lights in the old house, which was, despite the previous owner's updates, still knob and tube. He also had an appointment to get the new car inspected. 

It gave me a morning to do Debby things. It has been a good month for collecting clothes for my granddaughters, so I got them washed, dried and folded. A heaping bushel basket of things for them. I cannot wait for them to see. 

I got the house vacuumed and even vacuumed under chair and sofa cushions. Things like that.

This afternoon was so much cooler. The air much clearer. I weedwhacked. Tim mowed. We got 10 more bags of mulch (a distressed delphium and coneflower begged me to take them. At $4 each, I couldn't bring myself to leave them behind) and muriatic acid for the porch roof of the house in town. I dropped some stuff off at Goodwill. I also picked up some more nice clothes for the girls at Goodwill. Wouldn't you know they had a special deal going on too. Women's long sleeved shirts and sweaters were 2 for $8. Must be $4 is my lucky number. So I got myself 4 shirts for the fall. 

Tim wanted to stop at his favorite ice cream place. As always, it was busy. As we waited, I began sneezing. I apologized and explained I had been weedwhacking. 

A Johnny-come-lately said loudly from behind us, 'Canada complains so much about the United States. They owe us an apology for all this smoke in the air!'

That pissed me off. I said, "I am sure that Canada is having a worse time than we are, and they sure didn't do this intentionally.''  Another round of sneezing hit me before I could point out we had our own wildfires in Minnesota. 

I think that he realized he had stepped on toes, because he quickly said, "A guy in my church says if you sneeze 3 times, that's a sign of the divine."

I looked at him. What church does he go to? The Christian Sinus? Do they pray to the Almighty Mucus? All praise Kleenex? Hallelujah to hankies? Waiting hopefully for someone to sneeze so they can all bless him and go home?

Then he sat down at a picnic table. He said to Tim, "Right behind you. I just wanted you to know. I didn't want to hear you giggling when you sat in my lap."

What the freaking what???!!!

Lucky for him, my cone came out and I took it to the farthest seat and sat down. Tim followed with his banana split. Wouldn't you know, the man followed along with HIS banana split. 

I am proud to say, I bit my tongue. I think he also was biting his. He said more stupid stuff but pretty much avoided the offensive stuff. 

You know, an encouraging thing happened esrlier. My daughter posted something about the VA cuts. It made me mad that a relative immediately commented "This is false. Do research!"

The fact is that it isn't false. So I began posting 'research'. NPR. Newsweek. Articles from the government. From the VA. 9 in all, one right after another. I also suggested he do some research on proposed HR 9732/S. 4744. As a partially disabled veteran (Iraqi IED), if he wasn't aware, he needed to be. 

Normally I woild not have said anything. No point. I scroll past his stuff although I vehemently disagree with much of it. But he commented on someone else's post with the aim to make them look uninformed. He is a Christian Nationalist and MAGA so i figured he would just blow me off, but much to my surprise, today there was another comment, short. "I do have to say that you were right about the post. I was wrong for saying what I said. I'm sorry."

I couldn't believe my eyes. I replied to his comment: "I appreciate this. I hope you will follow the VA's suggestions."

That felt like such a major thing. Buoyed by that, tonight I ate my ice cream cone and let a foolish man babble. I got the idea he knew he was wrong too.