AC Weather

Temperatures are predicted to be 91 degrees out there today, and I may just might have to buckle under and turn on the central air for the first time this year. I don't pay a lot of attention to the numbers, but when my bodily thermostat feels it's uncomfortably hot, I have to do something about it. We've been using our ceiling fans and have the windows open. It's been sufficient thus far, especially when there's a nice breeze blowing, even though we've reached record temperatures for the season on a few occasions.

I love fresh air and I enjoy being outside. The sun is hot in our yard, and there's little shade, due to the fact that the contractors stripped most of the trees from the area before building. Unless we sit on the porch, it's pretty unbearable out there. I've been spending a lot of the day inside, where it is cooler. I commented to Mike the other day that I always have a bit of a tan in April, and I'm still white as a sheet now, in late May. He replied, "Well, Lovey, you have to be outside to get a tan!" Yes, that's true, but I'd look like shrivelled bacon if I spent time out there these days. We had, literally, about one week of Spring weather this year, and that was mostly rainy.

There is another option that I toy with. We have a low, rectangular wading pool that we bought for the grandkids. I suppose we could blow that up and lie out there in the sun, while splashing in a foot of water. I'd be cool for a few minutes and tanning at the same time. So far, I'm not that inspired to have a tan. It's too hot out there in the sun...wading pool or not.

I must be getting old. I really do not like the hot sun. When I was younger, before the sunblock was thought to be essential, I'd take the kids to the bay and we'd stay all day long, swimming and sunning ourselves. I can only pray we'll all be spared from skin cancer as we age! Maybe I'm doing myself a favor by not worrying about a suntan.

The best solution to the whole heat/sun thing is this...staying inside the house. Of course, another option would be to install AC where we need it most....outdoors, but that idea is just plain silly. So, as the day progresses and the sun gets hotter, I may cave in and turn the AC on in the house, lay back with a glass of lemonade, and hibernate until the temperatures drop.

See you in October!

Amish Country

Once again, her blog sparked memories...and I must write about them. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is one of my favorite places in the East. I so enjoy the the vistas of acres of rolling farmfields, being tilled by Clydesdales and other horses, the smell of the rich, fertile earth which awaits the planting of tobacco, the sounds of the old steam trains and the rhythmic 'clip clop, clip clop' of the former race horses that pull the Amish buggies.

I enjoy shopping the Amish road-side stands. In Fall we've purchased fresh vegetables and jars of preserved goods. Baked items are always available as are wood products. We've got several wooden crates, birdhouses, a toy Noah's Ark with animals, and a bench from one favorite place on a back road in New Holland. We bought an Amish-sewn quilt top in Ronks. It's dark green, burgandy and white, and is still awaiting my hand at finishing. I'm afraid I'm not as 'industrious' as the Amish are. I mean well, but...well, you know how it is. Life gets in the way.

When we pass those simple, but orderly, Amish homes in Pennsylvania, I am always amazed at how neat they are. The gardens are weed-free, the barnyards are clean. The porches and walks are well swept, even the clothes on the line are hung in order. The Amish would be appalled to hear that I am envious of their responsible use of time. As the old-fashioned windmills big paddles turn, pumping water up from the ground to the pipes that run to house, I consider the size of the homes and the families that live within the walls. Numerous generations share the building, many of which have had separate homes added on to house the newly married family members. I find myself envious, too, of the fact that those families have the multi-generational experience of living together on the same acreage. The work together, live together, pray together.

I've always wished I could experience an Amish worship service, sitting on the benches in the barn where they are meeting on that week. Of course, if I did attend, I wouldn't be terribly welcome, as I'm "English" and an outsider. I wouldn't understand a word of the worship, either, as the Amish have a language all their own....a kind of mixture of old German and some form of English. (I've heard some conversations between women in a fabric store, and what was said was not discernable to my ear.)

Aside from the intrigue I have with the Amish way of life, other things available in Lancaster County have a draw for me. There's the staying at the Red Caboose Motel which is made up of real train cars which have been turned into comfortable sleeping quarters. There's a restaurant car, too, where one can go for meals. The floor is attached to hydraulics which make it seem to be rocking and rolling along a track, all the while 'train' music is playing. (Think Chattanooga Choo Choo and the Wabash Cannonball. Out front, an old steam train stops in front to pick up passengers and take them on a scenic tour through the farmlands. there's a miniature train display running in the store, and lots of railroad memorabelia decorating the walls.

There's a fun store ....in New Holland, I believe, called "The Outhouse." There are lots of gags being played on customers while they window shop or find the perfect gift.

Lancaster County is a busy, touristy area, but it's fun to go there, and it never seems to get old for me. I hope to get back there, one of these days....Mike's running short on Amish Chow-Chow.

Caution: Serious Side Effects!

Recently a friend passed along copies of some poems I had written for her when her first child was born. It was fun reading them, and seeing how different the style I used then is from the way I write today. We had a conversation about those and other poems I'd written.

One was a favorite of some of my friends. It was written for another friend, as she awaited the birth of her first baby girl. Many of the women had asked for a copy of those words, and honored by the requests, I granted them. Before long, I was being blamed for those women adding to their families. The poem was nicknamed "the fertility poem."

Perhaps, after the first accusation, I should have added a warning. "Caution: Reading these words may produce nausea, vomiting, headache, extreme drowsiness, strange eating habits, severe abdominal cramping, ultimately ending in the arrival of new family member. Risk responsibility is entirely that of the reader and author of these words will accept no blame for readers conditions."

Maybe I'll just steer clear of writing anything that smacks of family.

A Privy

We want a 'privy'. For those of you who are too young to know what that is...it's an outhouse. We don't care to have it for it's intended use, which was, back in the good, old days, a rest room. We've used a few of them on our camping escapades, and believe me, it is an 'odiferous' experience not usually desired to be had again. However, as they say, 'any port in a storm.'

We really know we're in the country when we ride along in the car and suddenly see an outhouse on an old property. We've seen them...original ones...on properties which have newer homes and on land with houses that stand looking abandoned and delapitated. I don't know why it gives us such joy to see them still standing, but for some reason, my husband and I both are happy to see the old relics.

Now, I will go back to my earlier statement about wanting one. We don't so much want an old one, for the majority of them have seen better days, having withstood the elements for years numbering close to a century. We'd be glad to have a brand new little shack with a half moon cut into the door, maybe one that they used to call a '2 seater'. Why do we desire to plunk such a building out near our mini-barn shed? Because it would make a great little garden tool shed. It might drive some of our fussier neighbors over the edge, but they'll just have to tolerate it. We don't tell them what to place in their yards, do we?

My husband was born with, and has developed well, a very odd sense of humor. If he had his way, he would get an old toilet, and he'd plant something in it and tell everyone that it's the original 'pot plant' as we saw once in Pennsylvania. Neighbors be on alert! As long as I'm alive, there will be no visual of that sort of potted garden from your windows. However...if he outlives me, I can't promise anything. Also be notified that you may also see a life-sized, wooden cow or sheep or both standing near the barn-shed. He will probably carry out his threat of putting an old bed out in the yard to plant a 'flower bed'. He may also finally hang that huge knight on horseback plaque over the garage door, if I'm not around to stop him. So far, I've been able to prevent all this, but I cannot promise what the future holds. Perhaps you should count your blessings when you see our outhouse.

Who Are YOU Related To?

A good mystery can't be left alone...not by me, anyway. For years I've been digging up roots....MY roots. I've run into some surprises along the way as to who I'm related to, usually in some off-shoot way. My recent exploration of my children's father's side of the family brought me a possible new, yet distant, relationship between an old friend and my children.


My friend's grandfather's family was from somewhere in the Bahamas. So was my ex-husband's grandmother's family. It had always been difficult for me to find anything about Grandmother Carrie except US censuses, until I purchased a subscription to the Worldwide version of Ancestry.com. There I found her in a passenger list, coming to the USA from the Bahamas with her husband and her first few of many children. I assume that they had been to visit her family there, as I knew from the US census that she'd been living in the states for years. I continued my search and discovered that her father had been married prior to marrying Carrie's mother. Lo and behold, right there in the same town, the surname of his first wife was exactly that of my friend! That news warrants further investigation.


The other day I placed a note on a genealogy site, listing the surnames of my ancestors. Another surprise came as a result. A friend with whom I've recently reconnected asked if I knew that her surname is also connected with one of my ancestral names. Again...furter investigarion is required to relieve the curiosity as to how, if at all, we are connected.


I think I should have been/should be a professional ancestral investigator, I so enjoy it! Not only do I revel in the digging up of my own skeletons, but I love the thrill of connecting others to theirs. Some may call it 'nosey', some may call it curiosity. As for me, I call it intriguing and worthy of the search. I think everyone ought to know who their family is.

Pollens

ACHOOOOOO ! Spring is here and the breezes are filled with yellow pollens. Though the leaves have unfurled and blossoms have burst, the pollens continue to saturate the air, causing eyes to water, noses to run, sneezing and coughing to occur all around us. I've never had allergies before moving here, and this is all new to me, but I'm exposed now to new plantlife here that I'd never run into in the North. My brother told me that he experienced this for about three years after moving here, and then he 'got used to it.' I'm hoping to do the same, but this is my fourth Spring here, and I'm beginning to wonder if I will ever get used to it.

There's really not much I can do about it, other than to take Claritin for the symptoms. It seems to work quite well. I am grateful not to be as sensitive as some are, who require injections to combat their allergies. I love to be outdoors at this time of the year, and would hate to have to hibernate behind closed doors and windows during this beautiful season of buds and blooms.

For today, though, I will be inside, and unfortunately I will be exposed to high pollen counts as I tackle the cleaning of the sunroom. Without thinking, we had opened all ten windows in there when the warmer weather came, and that allowed thick layers of yellow pollen to cover every surface of the room. I'll need to carefully dust the surfaces and to vacuum the upholstered furniture, and probably even the walls. Spring cleaning has never been my favorite activity, and it's even more despised with this new enemy at hand. However, the task awaits and must be accomplished.

I wish I had a Haz-mat suit to wear while I clean. Without question, I'll be covered in gold dust, and not the good stuff!

Water: Friend and Foe

The abundant rains of this Spring, combined with the thawing of frequent snow falls during the Winter of 2009, has caused a good deal of inconvenience for many people in my old stomping grounds. There's water that requires pumps in the basement to run incessantly, followed by weeks of dehumidifiers. Homes that formerly stood on dry land are now lake front properties. Some huge, oceanfront homes were in danger of going into the drink, due to erosion, during the storms raging. Drivers, not aware of the depth of the water, plow through it, causing the engines to quit.

Water is a good thing, but like everything else, when there's too much of it, it can become a nuisance. I remember flying over the flooded Mississippi River back in the early 1990's. Looking from the plane's window, water seemed to be everywhere, and I just couldn't imagine what the residents in those areas were having to deal with. In later years, there was a trecherous flood in Keene, NH where homes on the river were swept off the banks and damage was horrendous. Then there was Hurricane Katrina which caused enormous devastation to the city of New Orleans.

On a much smaller scale, thank Heaven, we've suffered water damage in a few instances. The water table was high on our East Hampton property, and when the Spring rains came after a particularly wet Winter, we'd sometimes get puddles in the basement. We learned how to fix that...placing a ten foot long lead at the end of the corner gutter pipe that would carry the rain away from the house. It worked quite well as long as it was connected. However, in Nov. 2005 while we were in SC finalizing the purchase of our home there, torrential rains fell in East Hampton for a week or more. Returning home, we opened the door to a 'swampy' odor which came from the basement. Apparently, in strong winds, the corner gutter pipe had disconnected from the gutter at the edge of the roof, and the water rushed straight down and leaked into the basement. What a mess! The water vacuum sucked up the pool, the fans and dehumidifiers dried the rest, the open windows took care of the smell. Much of what was stored in the area had to be taken to the dump.

In August 2009, while away from home for the day, we came home to find our entire first floor under flood waters. The dishwasher connection had malfunctioned, and water poured from under the sink, saturating everything in its path. $10,000 and four months later, we were back on track.

While water can certainly be important to the world, which we also learned during extreme drought conditions in our area for two Summers, it is also prone to be an enemy. I hope, for the sake of my old friends and neighbors in my native area, that the flood waters subside, leaving them with little expense and damage.