Thursday, October 31, 2013

Thou Shalt Not Lie

I know, I know - the correct wording in the 9th commandment is "Thou shalt not bear false witness" but it still means the same as thou shalt not lie, doesn't it!  And, even though the Bible says that we should love our neighbor as ourselves (& I guess that means FedEx drivers too), it doesn't mean that we can't be thoroughly disgusted with them!

I mean, how would you feel to have stayed home all day waiting for a package that was supposed to have been delivered today only to find the following on your online tracking page?

Click To Enlarge

Honestly, (well, at least honestly on my part) is there any wonder that I blog about FedEx in a negative light from time to time?  Why couldn't the driver have just said that it was late and he didn't want to make a delivery way out in the country?  Why lie about it?  Was he (or she) afraid the boss would fire him?  Why put it out for delivery in the first place if he had too much to take care of for the day?

Well, I certainly hope the package will be delivered tomorrow and I will definitely check carefully to make sure it's in good shape when it does finally arrive!

FedEx, this is just the first of November - what are you gonna do when the Christmas season really hits?

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Last Hurrah

The dahlias and some other flowers are still blooming their little hearts out even at this time of the year.  But, all that colorful beauty will probably come to an end tonight as we're expected to get our first frost by tomorrow morning.

It shouldn't be a killing frost but I thought I'd save some of the flowers anyway as I thought they might be damaged if not totally zapped by the cold weather.  Hopefully these will last until the weather warms up again as it usually does at least once before the cold sets in for good for the winter.

Enjoy them while you can - I know I will!

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Neither Fish Nor Fowl

I'm not sure I ever completely understood that phrase until now (although I'm still not totally sure!  lol)  But I think it has to do with something not being one thing but not another either.  Maybe something sort of in limbo?

Well, I can identify with that.  I had cataract surgery on one eye last Wednesday and I can't really see out of either eye at the moment.  I opted for something called "monovision" where the lenses used are of different prescriptions - the left eye will have a lens suited for close work and the right eye will have a lens prescribed for distance.  I had contact lenses like that at one time (before wearing contacts became too uncomfortable to wear any longer) and it worked very well for me.

But, since only one eye has had surgery, I won't get the full effect until both eyes have been done along with a short time for adjusting to the new lenses.  And, it may not work exactly as planned as trying to determine the exact prescription for each eye with the cataract removed is not an exact science.  I'm hoping that I'll not have to wear glasses or contacts at all, of course.

But, I won't complain as I can already see better out of one eye than I ever could with both eyes without correction!  But, right now is a little tricky as I've popped one of the lenses out of my glasses but put a patch over the eye that had surgery so everything isn't all "wonky" especially when trying to read or write something.  You probably wouldn't be getting this post but I'm bored silly and since I'm fairly proficient at touch typing, I decided to give it a shot!

Unfortunately, I'm not a Monet where having cataracts turned me into a great artist as I find it impossible to paint.  Trying to do so gives me a raging headache so please be patient with me for a while longer.  Hopefully, I'll be back to painting in no time flat - then being neither fish nor fowl won't really matter - I'll be back to being an artist!

Monday, October 7, 2013

It's a Hot, Hot, Hot Autumn

The Flaming Garden - Acrylic
Even though our main garden season is winding down, it seems the peppers are going stronger than ever.  The jalapeno, serrano and Cajun Belle pepper plants are loaded and fiery hot at this time of the year. 

The tomatoes have finished although we do have a volunteer plant that has some large Roma-type tomatoes on it.  They're still green and I hope the first frost will hold off until they ripen.  If not, they're far enough along to bring inside to finish.

But, we try to have something going as much of the year as possible and this year we planted rutabagas - a first for us.  We also have spinach, arugula, cilantro, parsley - all cool season crops for us.

However, the season has been anything but cool so far this fall.  Today was at least 90 degrees F as was yesterday.  The nights have cooled off a bit but nothing like they should be by now.  We're to get ours in a few days though as the cold front that brought snow to the western states is headed our way.  We shouldn't get any snow but probably some rain (which is needed) with a drop in temperature. 

How low will it go?  Actually not so bad - about 70 degrees F during the day and about 50 degrees at night.  That's perfect weather to my way of thinking!