Finally completed:

Praying for Sheetrock...Melissa F Greene....civil rights or the lack thereof in McIntoch Cty, GA..not a pretty picture, but not at the Emmet Till level either.

Shirley-Charlotte Bronte...definitely had to live in her time to appreciate this one.So therefore....Shirley was ....strong willed but wishing to be ruled and handled, yech. Caroline was the more worthy character but she didn't land the title. More compassionate, reserved, a partner not a poodle. whatever.

The garden is winding down now, or I am winding it down, but zuchinni and tomatos still abound in sufficient quantity to create an amazing red and yellow combo dinner (avec garlic and red pepper flakes). I pulled out the beans, which were not to my taste but flourishing, and very much to the taste of the two inch hoppers who took up summer residence in the vines. I suppose some birds are very happy with those hoppers, and some hawks are very happy with those birds, but that was another post, wasn't it? I pulled the beans so I could rototil away their footprint. Tilling is sorta kinda fun, and finally parts of the garden look neat, which of course is the American standard of success. Failing in every direction on that front, although Reesee looks kind of neat and so does Racetrack. Nyuh is too heavy to be neat, and mike is too tumescent around the stomach to be neat and Chief's unnatural foot is too unnatural to be neat.

Charlotte Bronte is an incredibly pleasant surprise, but save that for next time. And Jewel in the Crown is  pleasant on second, or third viewing, pleasant in an imperial racist depressing sort of way.

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. ha ha. allegedly einstein. via click and clack...probably not...

Fabulous day. 70, sunny...why work? Still, bread is rising, half the "lawn" has been mowed, and some army corps of engineers-type efforts at redirecting- future- water- from -away- from- the- house-type work has taken place. Look how good it worked for them.  So I guess they are a corps of engineers. Engineers are interesting. detail oriented, compulsive, obsessive, loony, out of touch with real people. I only know a few. At a training session recently, as an icebreakers, everyone was asked to draw a pig. the chief engineer for the company drew a pig being roasted. Just like an engineer. break the rules. like Kirk. He was probably an engineer too..

It is difficult to sort the reactions to the predators. Reesee..who has just returned home after 14 hours in the heat, rain, thunder, and lightening, spent the early morning hours before disappearing killing itsy bitsy rabbits and mice. Very sad to see their little body and body pieces lying about. One day I found a set of ears and a hind leg at the end of the driveway. A few hours later and the leg was gone. A few weeks ago, a massive shadow was cast in the sunlit great room. Peering  out through the binos, I spy a large Cooper Hawk (I had to look that up, but indeed it was a Cooper Hawk) sitting high on a branch across the field...looking at me. C.H's love small mammals. Mice, squirrels, wabbits, and cats. Eat or be eaten? No, Eat and be eaten. The Reevers of the Maine woods,though, are Fishers. Not the kind baiting hooks, either. Fishers are widely known as being right here in this neighborhood--I myself have seen them on the logging road, or at least one-and for having a predilection for cats. Small animals, really. Porcupines, too, which really cannot be all bad. Wiki says they eat cupines from the belly inward, which may explain the dead one on the road over the summer. Sloppy and wasteful, though, to leave the carcass, but you have to hold a special place for animals that prey on porcupines. and in a Reever like fashion too. A game warden stopped by tonight, for directions. Someone camping up the road called in a report of a skunk acting strange. I saw that skunk this morning on Vulner, and s/he didn't run at the sound of the car. Suspicious, I thought, but wonderfully black and white. Anyway, he said they caller had covered it with a bucket, and it had quills from a cupine. Well, who would not act strange. What it needed was a Reever. scratch that. Fisher. But back to the serial predator issues.  Or not. there is not much more to add. At this very nanosecond, all animals are alive and well inside the house, and there is no sound of a girl screaming, said to be the sound of a fisher. Nyuh is emerging from a night of fear in the bathroom, post lightening. Well, we all have issues.

August 18, time does fly, fun or not. Or as ....kermit...says...Time's fun when you're having flies.  A very wind swept day, which started with heavy clouds and showers, but moved over to bright blue skies with intermittent clumps of gray clouds and sprinkles. and wind. Cloudy internet access also moved over to ..big surprise after three days..access. Hello service provider, congrats on providing service.

in ANY case, did manage to get some work done (mindless-->priming the house skirting and the stair railings; more mindful--> reading: White Noise, Don DiLillo-->gardening: potting coleus-->) and some non-work done (eating--> pizza in town for a goodbye Tony meal. Crossroads does a really good job in the pizza dept), and the usual hog/dog walking....

Drunk with internet access after three days, determined to find something meaningful on the net. Not somethingawful.com. Spinningoff from 1944 Jane Eyre with Orson Wells and Joan Fontaine, I looked up Joan (then later Orson, whom I know well). She's Olivia De Haviland's sister, surprise surprise, though they haven't spoken for 32 years according to Wiki. Ok, I can relate. Interesting they are both still kicking. 86 and 91. And then on to a few others, in random order...Clark Gable (had a daughter with Loretta Young, blech, but neither parent told the kid who dad was til she asked in her 30s. He was dead by then), Francis Farmer (the too intense movie with the fabulous Jessica Lange was based on a non-fiction work that turns out to have been lies lies and more lies, including the lobotomy), Veronica Lake (Ray Milland called her Moronica Lake, ha ha), and so on. Oh by the way, 1944 Jane Eyre is pretty faithful, and in it, uncredited, is 11 year old Elizabeth Taylor. A dead ringer for her future self).

Aight. that was today. Tomorrow is Tony's very last day here, which creates some real pain. He'll be fine. We looked...he looked and related while I looked at 40's hollywood..at tech school durations...83 days to two years, depending on what job he pulls, and tech school is all in country. Deployments (assignments abroad away from the home assignment) average max 90 days ish, and there are none til tech school is over. Unlike the army, which is deploying for 16 months. In 17 months this fucking president will be history, Shame on America. But boy what a windy day.
Oh ya, the wind scared Nyuh and she stepped in the paint tray in her rush to get into the house. I mostly got the paint off. Against the wind..that is her theme song...

Today's quote.."Having no where to go, I went no where." Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte....