Labor Day Vibes :: Feeling Shady

Happy Labor Day! I have never worked in a union and I am quite sure my father never did either. So my only familiarity comes from life as a newspaper reporter sharing updates on "negotiations." 

Yes, I am guilty of just seeing this as a day off and unofficial end of summer. But it hit home during the pandemic when I realized jobs like mine did not make me an "essential worker." No one is going to live or die based on my creative marketing copy. It does nothing really to move the country forward.

The ones who do deserve more than just one holiday off, in my opinion! Salute to you all!

As for my holiday, I did do some physical labor pulling weeds and random pop-up grape vines (probably poisonous) from around the front deck. I also laid all my hanging baskets of flowers to rest! RIP.

That was sunny, sweaty work! When I hauled the wheelbarrow full of weeds to our way back yard "dumping pile" I was immediately struck by how much cooler it was back there in the shade... with a breeze!

So I set up a chair in my new shady area and enjoyed a cool breeze while I listened to more of my marathon audio book. It was nice. I was wishing for a hammock!

Beyond that, it was a pretty laidback day for both of us. Always plenty of baseball on TV. Plus I needed my steps while listening to my book. 

This week is our week "in the office" Tuesday-Thursday, so I need to remember to turn on an earlier (dang) alarm and pick out clothes for work/immediately followed by golf tomorrow. There is a lot of pressure in the workforce these days, isn't there?

Hope you had a relaxing Labor Day Weekend and took time to pat yourself on the back for your hard work! Thank you!

It's Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature!

Some of us of a certain age recall a TV commercial for Chiffon Soft Stick Margarine in the late 1970s – one of the memorable ads with "Mother Nature" uttering her famous line, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!" 

This was back in the day when you had no choice but to watch the commercials. So we all new the popular ad slogans whether it was "Madge, you're soaking in it" to "Please don't squeeze the Charmin!" And we all were intimidated by Mother Nature.

Let's just say I forgot about her power.

I've been staging a silent protest. Obviously, a fruitless one. I decided that if she doesn't do her job of giving us rain FOR 23 DAYS IN A ROW then I don't need to do my "job" (ha) of blogging.

I surrender! This is our crispy crackly yard! She wins. Dang. 

We have finally gotten a teeny tiny bit of precipitation. In fact, Friday night when I was getting steps around the neighborhood, it started sprinkling and I kept walking. It was refreshing! Also I hadn't showered in 2 days so you know... two birds, one stone.

Today in church when we heard the familiar 5 loaves and 2 fish story, I thought maybe that's a sign for a miracle. The Weather Channel does not agree. And when I went out to try to resurrect my flowers – time of death was called last week – a snake slithered under the deck. So now I have to deal with satan AND Mother Nature! 

Our couples golf league finale tonight didn't lean the way of miracles either! Still fun though! And the grass was green! 

These days that's winning.

Embracing Mother Earth

 

Well Mother, Mother Earth is having her annual spotlight in the sun! Happy Earth Day!

Some years my friend and I pick up trash from the ditches, some years I completely let it pass by without thought, and this year there was too much going on for me to give the day the full honor and observance it deserves.

But...

I did connect with some "solar power" on the swing while working quite awhile after hours ... on my swing. That counts, right?

Then I bonded with the Earth when I trimmed down our Pampas Ass Grass. Which according to multiple sources (since I have 2 black thumbs) you should do in late April or early May when you KNOW there won't be another frost.

Well, when I got home from work and saw hubby brought up the fan to the bedroom window to replace the wintertime vaporizer/humidifier, I figured he must know something. Like maybe Mother Earth told her mentally disturbed sister Mother Nature to chill out and move onto spring already.

I hope that's the case!

But since my hubby stores the wheelbarrow in his One-Key-for-Jimmy-Only Shed, he'll have to do part 2 tomorrow as it will be dark when he gets home from golf tonight!

What habits have you picked up to help preserve the planet?

I admit Jim and I are so accustomed to recycling EVERYTHING, that I feel guilty when I'm in a situation where the vibe is "Just throw everything in the trash." 

But I did attempt to give up Aqua Net hairspray to save the Ozone in the '90s. I admit the liquid-type stuff didn't work the same. So I relapsed to aerosol spray and I hope some Earth-loving big hair fan picked up where I left off.

And don't get me started on how we deal with keeping volume in our thinning hair after we turn... ahem... 40? Sorry, Mother Earth, you are millions of years older than that. Please understand and forgive.

Enjoy Earth Day every day!

The Eagle and Fake Spring Have Landed

As a purely self-proclaimed photographer, I am the sort of person who is beyond irked when I see an eagle while I'm driving – and I don't have my good camera. Just my phone. So while I realize I should just enjoy the majesty of our national bird and (for me) a sign my daddy's watching over me, I still get a bit ticked. 

They are just so majestic and beautiful. Of course tonight on the way home from work there were two of them and one was flying while this guy was parked for a minute in the field. First photographer thought: OMG this will be awesome to catch them both! First eagle thought: What is that lady thinking? I'm flying off and out of here!

Still for me, when I hear random birds in the early morning hours, I have false hope that spring is near!

Of course when I got home, the warm temps and rain (not snow) today had my front yard also thinking spring is here. Sorry, yard, it's fake and this is just a reprieve. There's a meeting at 6 tomorrow night in our living room. We can all grieve together.

The weird weather thing is that it's supposed to snow Friday a.m. when Camp Crop-A-Lot commute time happens. Obviously nothing will stand between me and my scrapbooking weekend, but I will continue gathering my stuff tonight so I am ready to heave-ho at 8 a.m. Friday. Top priority!

It's Ash Wednesday. Never forget your priorities this Lenten season. 😄📖

 

Snowy Advent Prep

After all those over-the-top forecasts on Saturday, we ended up with about 5 inches of snow in the Rapids area. A nice backdrop to the Christmas decorations I already have in place as Advent begins.

Since hubby was up at the crack of dawn removing snow here and at his dad's, I had no issues getting to church this morning.

Of course, I had to take a few record-keeping photos before I left.

Our wreath is in a new locale this year. When we got it delivered, we realized we didn't want to pound a nail hole in our brand-new siding. Duh! Looks quite festive on the deck.

As the sun was rising, I tried to catch in our solar lighthouse. My mind saw it better than it turned out, but oh well.

After church, it was a quick day with the kiddos who understandably wanted to get on the road so they could get back to Dubuque in daylight. Especially since they got twice as much snow as we did.

Then it was just trying to relax and watch football. The Vikings are sucking and my fantasy football team is logging its first loss. So yes, before 6 p.m. I am throwing in the surrender towel and going in the basement to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie or two.

This is how I do my snowy Advent prep. May we all have a blessed season!

God's Work, Our Hands

Despite not wanting to get up and do physical labor, I got to an early church service and did physical work like raking and digging weeds and more. It was amazing what our team did in 3 hours this morning!

After that, I was able to run home and change out of my dirty clothes and then head to Assumption's first week of BINGO for the season.

Sad to say that I was only partially close to getting BINGO. (One away from the Goal Post BINGO above) But it was still for great cause.

By the time I got home, I realized I should pay attention to what my fantasy team should be doing. Turns out, it is doing OK on its own, despite the fact my tight end is up against the Packers.

So that's that. I'm about to just enter this next week. See you there!

Just the Usual Shallow Grave Scenario

 

Naturally, I think I awakened to a situation where hubby dug a shallow grave in our front yard. Of course, normal people who don't watch any weird TV shows would probably wonder what Mr. Austin is planting.

Whew! I'm safe!

So we both discussed quite some time ago planting some Pampas Grass – which I just said is brown with white feathery blooms on top.

Today, our transplant efforts from our brother-in-law looks like this.

But we hope it ends up looking like this. Either way, we'll have learned yet another lesson in Landscaping 101. Hopefully this time we get a passing grade! 

Before and (Unfortunately) After

After a very rainy Tuesday, I decided to take a "before" picture of our front yard after work, knowing the scenery was going go change in less than 24 hours.

 

And it surely did. And since they did classify today's weather as a Winter Storm Warning, I worked from home and didn't want to deal with that early morning transition from rain to ice to snow on my commute.

Although we were in the 3-6 inches of snow range, I think we just got like 3-4 inches of really wet, heavy stuff. Thankfully, the snowblower dude in my home office could handle it.

This Bluejay Drive Office has such a talented and committed team! Love it! (And him, of course.)

After work, we both were planning to go to Ash Wednesday service – he was reading at his church and I was singing at mine – but the weather changed my plans, at least. I guess when we're Lutheran we can postpone Ash Wednesday to "Ash Thursday." Either way, it's better to be safe, I guess!

But in between the rain and winter storm, there was some excitement. We went to our boys regional basketball game last night. Almost always it works out that Assumption plays at Port Edwards and gets eliminated from the playoffs from the get-go. But last night we faced New Lisbon. And although tied at halftime, we came away with a 19-point victory. What a fun game! 

So if you're following Assumption sports, our Lady Royals play a sectional game against Pacelli Thursday at Adams-Friendship. And our boys travel to the #2 seed Marshfield Columbus Friday night. 

The weather dudes say we're tracking to hit 63 by Monday so I think we'll be free to move about the country, or county.

Be careful out there!

The Heavy Stuff

I have to laugh at this meme from Caddyshack. Frankly, the "heavy stuff" has been coming down for awhile. And it resumed right before we teed off for golf league last night.

Not raining when I left work in Stevens Point, but then it started sprinkling and was a steady light rain by the time I got to TriCity. Our league rule is that we play in the rain unless it lightnings. Well, this was our view from the cart, which Marigene and I never use -- but had to to keep ourselves (and my new clubs) somewhat dry.

We were all wishing for lightning.

By the end, everything from our headcovers to our socks and underwear was soaked! Pretty miserable. I don't even know what our score was and how we did. We were all in cold, wet survival mode. So don't let anyone fool you when they say ANY day on the golf course is better than work.

There are exceptions!

Today it continued to rain so Jim didn't get together with an old friend to hit the links somewhere between here and Green Bay. But there was a moment of sunshine for about 2 hours when I set out my wet golf glove, shoes, headcovers, and bag to dry. That somewhat did the trick.

After work, I hit the road and headed north. For the first hour it was raining so hard I could hardly see -- and was experiencing the joys of hydro-planing. Good times, Mother Nature. You're not making any fans.

She always responds with "Yeah, but how are your flowers looking, Robyn?"

Must she have the last word? For the record, my hail-damaged blooms have sprung back to life. But so have the many, many weeds I "thought" I eliminated a month ago. Never trust Round-Up, I guess.

Too bad there's not a "We love our jolly good weeds June" to follow "No mow May."

Hope you all stay dry and safe. And can escape the moisture-induced mosquito invasion!

Some Bunny Loves You

Hubby texted me this backyard photo today and my first thought was, "Awww, some bunny loves us!" We can think that way because we don't have a garden and concerns he will nibble through it.

Instead, when Jim sent me the second picture, I thought, "Is there anyway you can order it to eat through those weeds he's trying to see over?"

No such luck. But I appreciated the cute photos.

Especially this week. Good grief, is it only Tuesday night? This has been a very stressful few days for reasons I can't blog about – for fear of offending the people who are contributing to my stress. But, I'm learning life lessons in patience. And learning that there's always some bunny out there who loves me.

Just need to focus on loving myself and trying to be the best version of Robyn that I can. And try to be that some bunny who makes someone's day brighter. Just like our little visitor.

May you all find positives in negative situations this week. Some bunny's got your back. And some bunny (this bunny) cares!