Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Happy First Day of Summer

Today is the first day of summer, the longest day of the year. The temperature here is a balmy 81 with a little breeze. Nice way to begin the summer, not too hot.

This is just an observation this being my third spring into summer in the mountains. No allergies, no colds or anything like that but I think the dry air, the lot less humid air on a daily basis plays havoc with my sinuses and throat. During this time of year, noises that I don't intentionally make just volunteer to show up and usually around the time I would like to sleep. Sometimes when I am breathing I could swear my nose is just trying to imitate the sound of a rotary phone...long distance dialing noise. It's horrible! Sometimes these little noises come from my throat and my throat does a pretty good job of sounding like a squeaky hinge noise of a door. Sometimes it almost seems like there is some kind of call and response going on between my throat and nose.

The day began early yesterday. With a 10:30 hair appointment I did as my usual custom to have an early breakfast at Corner Kitchen. Love that place and love their grits especially. Breakfast took a more leisurely course and left me with just a little time to kill in Biltmore Village. I went to  Talbot's. I think in my life I have stepped inside a Talbot's like two times and one of those times was with Dena when she was exchanging an item. Not my usual choice of stores to shop but it is close to the salon, so  what the heck....  So, I was greeted with a locked door and it was after 10:00. I heard the sound of a door being unlocked and a friendly saleslady greeted me by apologizing. She was kind and informative. I told her I didn't usually shop there and I was just killing time but she just took the opportunity to tell me all the items on sale were an additional 30% off. I began looking at the sale items and thought Talbot's has way too many things with stripes. I also realized it is more of classic and traditional look and I don't always lean that way. Given me linen is my spring and summer shout and flannel, boots and jeans for late fall and winter. Not being too impressed with the sale choices I began looking at regular priced items and then came back to the sale stuff one more time...very surprising that I then found two items, that I bought. One is a denim shirt and it is like I need another denim shirt but this one didn't have tencel in it. The other shirt is blue gingham check and I am all about gingham in this season of life. So while in the grand scheme of things, Talbot's is not on my radar I'm glad I took a few moments to look through the store.

After my haircut I headed over to Target going the back way. There is a repurpose/antique warehouse in the area and if there had been parking, I would have stopped. So, since it was packed out, I went to Target for a few things. I even remembered to bring the list of things for a hygiene kit to do for the fair ministry. Then I was happy to find a lot of outdoor accessories on sale, so I took advantage of that opportunity. Since I was in the area I made a stop at Home Goods too. Then to Whole Foods for some peeled and sliced oranges. So over the weekend I made up a little DIY spray bottle of spider repellant of 20 drops of peppermint oil to two cups of water, add a citrus oil for extra punch. Well, I didn't have a citrus oil but I did have peppermint. It works! So while at Whole Foods, I got some orange oil for the extra punch. Everything on the porch and soon to be on the back deck has such a lovely fragrance.

It was kind of exciting at the Whole Foods. They had discovered a shoplifter and had confronted the man. I had actually talked with the alleged perp while standing in front of the peeled and sliced oranges. He tried to shoplift some beer, they took it from him and told him to leave and they wouldn't call the police. Well, the guy wouldn't leave so all the chefs in their white coats stood guard at the doors. It would have been better if they had huge knives in their hands. A little nervous going out to the parking lot cause this guy might think I was being friendly when I said excuse me cause my cart was in his way, but in hindsight, he was probably using my cart as a beard trying to shoplift beer. The guy moved across the lot and I was on my way home.

For the past few days I have been a little nervous because I thought there was something dead under the propane tank. It was a miracle, so I thought, that the smell wasn't grossing me out. I didn't get too close and didn't really take a good look cause you know, it might freak me out or something. When I was over at Vivian and Bill's home yesterday I talked about what I hoped was not happening, that vermin and the like were taking a stroll down our embankment to visit. The groundhog has been here twice, huge groundhog, and it is squirrel city sometimes. Bill came over this morning to put some poison in the crawl space and didn't see any activity or evidence of mice or snakes. Then I asked if he looked under the propane tank...he said he did, didn't see anything. I pointed out where I thought I saw a dead thing and he reaches over and picks up an unattached tree root. Relieved and embarrassed but at least the mystery of the could be something dead and yes technically it was something dead since the root is unattached...is solved.

A couple of errands and all but the bank involved hardware or hardware type stores. Tractor supply for birdseed, Ace for decorative lights, and Reems Nursery to look at plants. Talked with a very informative employee and told me when the plants I am looking for will be delivered and it looks like it will be in the next several days.  Now at home and contemplating short nap...yes, the nap has it.


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