Friday, hot and dry

Still no rain on Friday and hotter still (high predicted to be 86 degrees). But, thankfully, the humidity is low.

I have wanted a good burger for a long time, so today at lunch I treated myself. I went to Max & Erma’s and had a mushroom and Swiss cheese burger (medium rare). I took the scenic route back to work (having no errands on this side of town to run), but still got back too early. So, I watched more of Jeremy’s presentation.

I drove home in the heat after work (still chugging every now and then) and got the mail. Pulling into the garage, I saw a box on the front porch. I retrieved it and opened it after treating the cats and pouring myself some apple juice (no coffee tonight – I need my sleep!)

It was from my daughter Melissa and had a Father’s Day card and a present carefully enclosed in bubble wrap and newspaper. I got it opened and it was an apothecary bottle!

It says “A. Lancaster’s Indian Vegetable Jaundice Bitters” on one side and “Col. Sam Johnson Proprietor Richmond, VA 1852” on the other side. Now, I’m not smart enough to know if its really an antique, (and she was the one who told me where I could find fake “antiques”) but its cool as hell and I put it up on my collection shelf. I put the card on the fireplace. Thanks, Babe!

When I checked the mail, I found an official birth announcement for my newest great-grandson, Holden Luke Montgomery from Dustin, Linnea and Gavin. “Nana” (Melissa) had sent me pictures before, of course. But, this reminded me of what a cutey he is and how much I like that name! That, too, went on top of the fireplace. Great timing and thanks, guys!

I was hoping to get more tile work done, but, as I suspected, the spackling compound is still damp in places. So, I moved onto my other (no less important) job, trying to keep my gardens alive. I carried six 2-gallon buckets of water from the house all the way out to the back and watered the transplanted day lily, the two peonies and the three roses.

Then I hooked up the square sprinkler and watered the vegetable garden. BTW, “something” dug up all my bean seeds and had a feast (I still think it’s the damn squirrels). I couldn’t set the oven timer (the stove’s still unplugged) so I checked the clock and promised myself to remember (yeah, right) to shut it off after an hour.

Then I started hand-watering the front container gardens. The nasturtiums (thanks, CC) are really blooming and I would have taken a picture for you if wasn’t so windy. The last thing I watered were the iris from Virginia I promised to take to my brother Carl tomorrow. Then I cut the leaves down to about eight inches tall and dug them out. I wrapped the bulbs in damp paper towels and put them in the car so I wouldn’t forget.

I filled in the hole with dirt and topped it with mulch. Then I moved out back and hand filled the window box reservoir. The hour for the vegetable garden wasn’t quite up, so I went inside, took off my brace (I had left it on because I knew I had to carry those buckets and dig out the iris) and filled in the Blog entry.

When it was time, I turned off the water, disconnected the square sprinkler, put the wand on the hose and started watering in back. I watered the garden behind the house, the raised bed herb garden and the herb garden and other gardens around the reflecting pool. I ended up at the little clematis and the morning glory plants at the arbor. The morning glory plants were grown from seed and are still not tall enough to reach the arbor.

I disconnected the wand, rolled up the hose and had everything buttoned up by 8:30 PM.

I was whipped from all that walking and the stove was still out of commission, so I just made a sandwich for dinner. I had bought 1/2 pound of rare roast beef from the deli to make French Dip sandwiches for my Father’s Day dinner. But, I used about half of it to make a cold sandwich with sour dough bread and deli horseradish mustard.

I ate that (it was no French Dip sandwich, but it tasted great!) and took my evening pills. I didn’t see anything interesting on TV so I watched a taped DIY show until 10:00 PM or so and then went to bed.