In the Heat of Summer

It has been in the 80’s this past week. Very humid most days, too. Our frequent rains have become sporadic. Probably a thunderstorm tomorrow which will help the sticky air disappear.

This afternoon I walked a short ways to see what is blooming at my neighbors’ homes. My knock-out rosebushes  have rebloomed and have lots of roses right now. My moss roses which love heat have petered out some; maybe when we get the rain tomorrow they will revive a bit. Lots of the blooms have gone to seed which is good because then I will have flowers next year. Not very pretty right now though.

My next-door neighbor is gone for awhile. Her rudbeckias? don’t seem to need her help.

The bright red house on Elder Lane has tomatoes just turning red. Reports are that tomatoes didn’t do very well this year because all the wetness made them susceptible to blight and disease. I am going to visit the farmers’ market early Saturday morning to see if any small tomatoes might be ripening. Corn is behind too, but we have had some decent Indiana corn-on-the-cob from the grocery store recently. Grilling hamburgers tonight and bought some ears of corn to eat with that.

My nearest non-condo neighbor has a yard full of flowers. The daisies are drying up some, but still pretty blooms to see.

She has fixed a nice seat for herself amid some other flowers.

That is my condo in the distance beyond the power box.

The summer has gone by so fast. We have a family reunion here in Winona Lake this Saturday August 1st. Squeezing it in before school starts again. I think school starts August 10th for Warsaw district; maybe a bit later. All the stores have back-to-school sales. I’m not quite ready to let go of summer.

How does it feel and look where you are?

Surprises

The past week has been full of surprises.

About 2 weeks ago we decided to test drive some cars. My husband has been wanting a cushier quieter ride and a somewhat larger car than that of the Prius. I had received a letter from Toyota in June with an incentive to test drive one of their vehicles good through July. We went to Jordan Toyota in Mishawaka July 8th to test drive a Camry hybrid. Drove a non-hybrid Camry as well. Turned out this was not what my husband wanted in a car. I had my test drive voucher signed to receive a $50 Visa gift card. Jordan is a no-pressure car dealership and they had lots of Camrys in stock. I would definitely consider them if looking for a brand new Toyota. It was a pleasant experience.

 I was interested in sticking with a hybrid car. July 15th we drove a Ford Fusion hybrid at a Warsaw dealer. Quieter than the Prius, but not impressive enough to want to buy it. The Toyota and Ford dealerships in Warsaw are co-owned. We had dealt with a salesman at Toyota who had crossed over to Toyota from Ford. We asked him to arrange the test drive of the Fusion. When we were done, we walked with him next-door to the Toyota dealership. He mentioned the Avalon hybrid, but we didn’t test drive the brand new one he had on the lot.

My husband has often mentioned he wished we had a Lexus. Even a used Lexus runs $40,000 to $50,000, more than I want to spend on a car. There is no Lexus dealer in our community so servicing might have to be done elsewhere. However, I started doing some research on the internet about the Avalon hybrid. Reviewers were comparing it favorably to the low-end Lexus, but of course less costly. There was a 2013 Avalon hybrid with low mileage for sale in Fort Wayne. I suggested Friday morning that we test drive the Avalon. We almost didn’t go because my husband had tired of testing cars.

 Good thing he changed his mind. We loved the Avalon. We bought it! We didn’t trade in the Prius. When we went to Fort Wayne Monday to pay the balance due (needed to transfer money from savings to checking), they made an appraisal on the Prius, but it was lower than we liked. Through phone negotiation they made a better offer, but the Warsaw Toyota dealer matched it. Tomorrow we will sell the Prius to the local dealer which is where we bought it new.

 Sunday we ate the buffet at Grace Village. One of the ladies who uses the library frequently, asked me if I had looked in the library. Not since Friday morning. After dinner we took a peek. 9 boxes of books that had belonged to a resident who recently died were in there. We really appreciate it when they give us a heads up. Better yet is if they let us look at the books in the apartment/condo so we can take only what we think we will add to the library. Monday I did a rough sort. Lots of crossword and brain teaser books (not filled in), some devotional books, small gift-type inspirational books. I took them down to Give ‘N Take table in K Hall. Yesterday when I went to practice with the choir the song we were to sing at the funeral, I looked at the books made available as the room is close by. Most of them already gone. I have been hauling books to various donation locations the past two days; down to 2 boxes of possible keepers. At least the Grace Village residents enjoyed their freebies, and I do consider it a ministry to the bereaved family to care for the disposition of the books.

 About two dozen family members on my husband’s side are coming to Winona Lake August 1st for a get-together. We will be using the Grace Village Community Center. One of the activities we decided on was our own Give ‘N Take table. We are encouraging them to bring puzzles, games, books, craft items, even good household items. Since my husband started making a pile of books for this event, I decided I would go ahead and empty out the bookshelves in the guest bedroom. You may remember I planned to get rid of that piece of furniture. One thing led to another until I had enough room in my other bookcases for my keepers. I surprised myself. Though I had made a start, I hadn’t expected to empty it out until next year.   

 

                

Kosciusko County Fair

We have a break in the weather pattern with no rain and low humidity today. Just in time for Senior Day at the Kosciusko County Fair. We missed the free breakfast, but we enjoyed the free ice cream and cookie this afternoon. We have not attended the fair in several years.

We walked thru the sheep barn, goat barn, cattle barn, swine barn, and horse stables. Judging of equestrian events was taking place in the arena. No poultry was allowed to be exhibited this year since a virus has decimated chickens in the Midwest and authorities didn’t want any risk of exposure and spread.

This young man doesn’t seem very happy with his 1st place ribbon; I guess he wanted Grand Champion?

We arrived shortly after 11 a.m.; some of the booths were not yet open. The midway only opens late afternoon into evening.

After eating a pork chop sandwich for lunch, we perused the craft and cooking displays. Then we moved over to the vintage tractors/trucks. Being a rural county, there were lots of those. 

Then off to the big white tent hosting the ice cream social for seniors. We saw a group from Grace Village there, residents of health care and assisted living with aides and volunteers.

Before leaving the fair, we stopped in the 4-H displays. Skilled and creative members participated in several categories.

 

Another beautiful day tomorrow, then temps in the 90s and high humidity set in for several days, including some rain chances. It was nice to have good weather for a change and enjoy the day at the fair. I feel lazy; good thing we are having leftovers for dinner that can be heated in the microwave.

The Eye of the Beholder

I want to get rid of this bookcase with pull-down desk within this next year. It was full; the little bears sat in front of books as the little doll figures above still do, but now the bears have nothing behind them. I have made some progress. However, most of what is left on the shelves I want to keep for awhile longer. That means culling the hall bookcase and the den assortment to make room for these.

I have some books that I am keeping because of emotional attachment. They were gifts from my sisters or in the case of a Peanuts book from my high school best friend.

Holly Hobbie was popular from about the mid-60’s to the mid-seventies. I still love the pictures in these little books. I sometimes display the Christmas one on a table along with my other decorations.

The Apples of Gold contains pithy sayings, paragraphs of wisdom centered around the fruit of the Spirit. My older sister gave me this when I graduated from high school and inscribed the event inside the cover.

I may have glanced at it back then, but as I perused it today, I decided to look through it a little bit each day this summer. The advice makes more sense to a 65-year-old than an 18-year-old I’m sure. Here is an item from Meekness: “We see things not as they are, but as we are”. No way a teen-ager could really grasp the truth of this saying. It takes experience through the years to appreciate how subjective our outlook really is. Or perhaps it could be interpreted if we want to see things in a positive way, we need to be positive.
Our past makes up part of who we are. It creates our perspective and colors our viewpoint. Among these books I found a lined-paper composition book with notes from Bill Roorbach’s Writing Life Stories. What a good book! Besides my reading notes, I had scribbled the writing exercises he prescribed. Here is one of my compositions that in its own way talks about seeing, about perspective.

The People in the Floor Other than for the obvious purpose, how could one productively use time spent on the toilet? Sort thru relationships, solve financial problems, plan the day or week ahead are possibilities. My thoughts never manage to turn in those directions. I blame the people in the floor. Not the whole floor, really, just the small rectangle in front of the blue rug. That’s my focus while sitting there, straight ahead and down to the swirling shades of gray. They make quite a diverse populace. Human shapes dominate reinforcing my anthropomorphic bias, but some apparitions obviously belong to other branches of the animal kingdom: the jaunty whale, the long-beaked water bird on the wing tucked into a crease of the menacing dinosaur’s jaw. How can a whale of great tonnage be jaunty? It seems unlikely, but his playful eye says he is. Over time others hidden in the larger figures make themselves known as I dissect smaller and smaller canvases for my imagination. I notice the floppy-eared dachshund and the pointy-eared almost-squirrel-faced fur-ball rodent months after the others. Broadening and narrowing perspectives add to the group. I almost miss the jug-eared man who lives in the pouffed gray bangs of the old gypsy lady with her dangling disc earring. Indeed, after the initial discovery, I lose him for awhile because I forget his address. He is a sub-basement kind of guy, going unnoticed for the most part. If I had such huge ears, I probably would want to fade into the background, too. Odd juxtaposing exists in this under-foot world: a homely club-footed angel chasing the beautiful blonde, the beauty’s filmy chiffon stole billowing out as she rides the back of the Chinese dragon, the dragon’s fierce visage threatening the jut-jawed curly-haired matronly face ahead. It is a world of ambiguity and imperfections. Is that a broad-faced aborigine with a choppy hair cut or a pointy-nosed big-mouthed woman whose cupcake hat squashes flat the fringe of hair framing her ugly face? Contemplating my choices, I am startled to see the slash of the mouth become a screwed-up teary eye for the roly-poly-faced pouty boy who encompasses more footage than my original tight frame. What a crybaby he is! I should disown him and shift back to the native man and the unattractive woman, but it is too late. Now that he has caught my attention, he can’t be ignored. I may miss my imaginary bathroom population when I move in a few years to the retirement community condo. Some of the floor inhabitants pop out so sharply surely the new owner will see them. But maybe not. They exist on the floor, but more in the mind, and thus peering at them requires looking beyond the obvious. I do not tell others of the people in the floor. Revealing them would reveal too much of me. A bathroom after all is a private place. The ancient flowing-bearded, cone-hatted sorcerer in the middle floor tile wisely concurs.

Pink Flamingos

As we headed up our block on our way to breakfast at a restaurant, we were greeted by these bright pink critters. One of our neighbors was flocked last night.

 

Amazing Grace

Tonight’s concert at MasterWorks had an unusual element. Anne Martindale Williams was to play Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104. It was announced that she had injured herself, not seriously, but enough that she would not be able to perform. 2 or 3 days ago, Alan Harrell, one of the faculty, was asked if he would fill in. He agreed and did an excellent job. I am sure his efforts were undergirded by much prayer by himself and others in the MasterWorks program. He did use a score for some of it which is certainly understandable.

The program notes mentioned that this was a technically difficult piece of music. It has intricate fingering and fast movement up and down the strings. In gratitude for not being disappointed by a canceled performance, the audience and orchestra gave several rounds of applause. On the third time back to the stage, Mr. Harrell announced he would play Amazing Grace through once, then invited the orchestra to join in and the audience to sing. This was not planned ahead, but I believe spontaneous prompting by the Holy Spirit. As the instruments and voices blended together, you could sense God’s presence among us. Yes, amazing grace for Alan Harrell to use his gift of music to glorify God. It was a touching moment to the end of an excellent concert.