Snow Blower

Sometimes when it is really hot here I think about being cooler. I can visualize a huge snow blower (used to clear snow off of driveways and sidewalks in some locations during the winter months). I can see the beautiful, cold, white, fluffy snow arching high into the air - and landing into a huge pile. Then I can see myself right on that pile of snow in sunglasses, a sun hat, and with sunscreen on while sitting in a lawn chair in my swimming suit and sipping on an ice cold lemonade. It just seems like heaven.

Well on Saturday I think I figured out how I could actually make that happen. I was having guests to dinner on Sunday so I decided to make some bread. I got out my wheat grinder and put some wheat in it. I plugged it in and turned it on. Doh! Disaster! My freshly ground wheat flour was gracefully arching high into the air and landing in the general area of our table! Did I say, Doh! I forgot to attach the collection bowl to the grinder. Wow does that wheat grinder have power!

So I figure if I fill the wheat grinder with some ice cubes and turn it on, it would perform just like a snow blower and I could be enjoying my dream life on a huge pile of freshly ground snow. It is a definite possibility. I think I'll try it one day soon. Only thing stopping me now is that I have flour everywhere. Yes, even after sweeping, dusting, and vacuuming. So when I get every last drop of flour cleaned up I'll invite you over to enjoy a pile of home-made snow brought to you my my own wheat grinder/snow blower machine. Don't forget your boots!

Birds - Love/Hate Relationship

One day we saw 2 quail walking along the top of our fence.

I only got a picture one quail -

with topknot perfectly groomed and in place.

Cute. I love that bird!

These are my original shots

of the Baltimore Oriole

that keeps coming to our hummingbird feeder.

I guess when you are desperate for water -

even sugar water is better than none.

I love this bird.

Just showing you how my tomato plants are looking.

Pretty healthy! Right?

Tall, green, giving us yummy tomatoes.

We'll forget that the leaves are curling as long as they give us tomatoes.

I'm not even trying to make the plants look tall.

See me standing on the bricks?

Also notice that we are boat owners - see the boat?

We've had it for almost 2 years.

Guess how many times we have been on the water with it?

You'd be right if you said - NEVER.

We need some sailing lessons and some free time (what is that?).

Then we'll be "sailing sailing over ocean blue".

Now I come to the Hate part of my relationship with birds.

Very rarely do I mention "hate" and "bird" in the same sentence.

But I do hate it when my bird friends do this to my tomatoes:

The birds have finally figured out that they love my tomatoes too.

So I had to pick all my red or reddish tomatoes so they didn't suffer the same demise.

Maybe they aren't quite as ripe - but I'm not making it easy for the birds to share these with me.

But if you don't have feathers or a beak -

you, my friends, are invited over to share these orbs of garden delight.

Aren't they cute?

Aren't they cute?

Tennis and Fire

Tennis has been cancelled for 2 weeks due to people traveling and not being able to find subs. Today would normally be a tennis day for me. So instead I decided to make a tennis day for myself. I got a backpack ready by loading a bucket-full of tennis balls, my tennis racket, some water, my phone, and some ID. I rode my bike 1 1/2 miles to a neighborhood park to practice my tennis serve. It turns out I took 57 tennis balls. So my total number of serves was 247 (the math doesn't add up because i decided on the last round I had to re-serve any balls that didn't go over the net - 19). My arm started to get tired - and is sore this morning. Plus we have started our monsoon season and it was humid and I was sweating buckets. But I enjoyed it all the same. Here is evidence of my rocket serve - maybe.

As I pulled into the park I discovered 2 City of Peoria trucks in the parking lot. The "workers" were really busy - talking to each other. I'm sure it was very important city business! Ha, ha, ha. Just 10 feet from their trucks was a plastic garbage bin that had smoke billowing out of it. The smell of smoke was really strong! I don't know how the people in those trucks could have missed it. But as I said the people at the trucks were really busy!! I laid down my bike and ran over and said that there was a fire in the garbage can. They looked up at the crazy lady (me) and slowly looked in the direction of the bin. It was then that the guy jumped to action and got his little 20 ounce water bottle and worked on getting the fire put out. Sheesh! I had like 64 ounces of water with me. I asked if he wanted me to help but I'm sure they didn't want me doing anything due to liability. Anyway, I went on to the tennis courts and watched the action. He made lots of trips to the garbage bin and back to fill his water bottle. They eventually got the fire out and left. When they were gone, I walked over to the bin to take a look. This is what I saw.

This water leaking out the bottom of the bin - remnants of their heroic? fire-fighting actions.

A peek into the bin shows the side of the bin looking charred.

There is a garbage bag melted open with lots of debris from the previous evening's 4th of July celebrations.

Upon closer inspection you can definitely see the culprit of the garbage bin fire. It was the use of the fireworks that are now legally sold and purchased in Arizona. The problem is that in Peoria (where the park is located) it is totally illegal to actually use any of those fireworks. Now I know why that is the rule in Peoria - evidently their city workers do not know what a fire is, how a fire smells, or that a fire produces smoke, and if a garbage bin is smoking - it isn't a cigarette! I guess someone didn't get the memo about the Peoria ban on lighting fireworks. And they definitely did not make sure their used fireworks were all the way out before stuffing them into the bag and throwing them away. Thanks to me and my quick actions a disaster of monumental proportions was averted. Well at least I was at the right place at the right time.

Yay me! I saved the day!

Super Hero

Well Doug DeWitt is our hero. A Super Hero, really. He showed up at our house (with his right hand man, Kevin) and fixed our A/C unit. We had sprung a leak - I hate it when that happens! But he soldered over the leak and charged our system with that heavenly coolant stuff and before long it cooled from 90 degrees to bearable. A million thanks to the Super Heros who came to our rescue. I only wish I would have taken a picture or two of them.