There is so
much on the national level one could write about, but this week I will write
about other stuff. Like the fact we have
had a tad over 3 inches of rain this week.
For those overseas readers, I live in the very, very darkest red of the
red covering the drought area of California on the maps. We have our own water supply so to celebrate
the rain, I let the water run while I rinsed off the dishes!!! Not for long – just enough to feel
decadent. We are so dry here that even
after 3 inches there are no standing puddles.
It just soaks in, and in, and then in some more. We are supposed to receive more rain about
Feb. 17, but haven’t read whether that will be some or a whole lot of it. Hope for the whole lot.
We have
lived in our house for 35 years now.
When we were building it from 1977-1979, we lived in Fresno, CA. For those two years, all but about 4
weekends, we would leave Fresno at 3:00PM, arrive here about 6:00 PM, work on
the house all weekend, then leave here at 6:00 AM, and arrive back in Fresno by
9:00 AM. A good friend of ours had a
contractor’s license, so he would work on the house while we were in
Fresno. One weekend we arrived to find
that he had decided to fit the ceilings to his height, which was about 6’9”. He had always wanted a house where the
ceiling was way above his head, so our ceilings are about 14’ in our
living/dining room! We have heated with
wood, primarily, so after 35 years this room has really needed painting. We did it last time, but no way could we do
this again. So, we have professional
painters. I’m looking forward to when
they are finished. They are not only
going to do the walls, but will paint the bricks behind our wood stove. The bricks are beige, but our friend thought
I would like black grout with those, and they were done before I saw them. So, finally, the bricks, and grout will all
be one color to match the fireplace at the other end of the room. Oh, joy!!!
While
getting ready for the painters, however, taking stuff off of the walls, etc., I
came to the conclusion that I have too much “stuff”. Some of it I don’t want to throw away, so
will get a plastic bin and pack pictures away.
Years ago a friend gave me a picture of a Japanese Madonna and Child
which I really liked. Then I inherited
an Italian Madonna and Child. When our
adopted granddaughters arrived, since their fathers were from El Salvador, I
found a Salvadoran Madonna and Child.
Over time people have given me others from Greece, Russia, Italy, and
the United States. But I don’t want to
put them back up. I think I want to keep
my walls clear for a time, but neither do I want to throw them away. So, into a bin they will go, along with about
two dozen family pictures in frames.
I’m glad
that my “office” isn’t going to be painted this time because I have a bad habit
(or not) of cutting out, or typing off quips or comments that I really like and
taping them to the side of my antique wood file cabinet. One I wrote myself. At one time, Bill was involved in a
discussion on the placement of nuclear waste in unlined trenches in Ward
Valley, which is very near the border of California and Nevada, and the
Colorado River. It took some time, but
Bill proved that Ward Valley drained into the Colorado River in five
places. There was a hearing in Needles,
CA, which, of course, we drove over to.
If anyone has driven across California to Nevada, you know what a long
trip it can be, with nothing for about 90 miles of it through the Mojave
Desert. So, to occupy my mind I wrote
the following take off on the old cowboy song, Home On the Range. I will complete my blog with this:
Oh, give me a home, where the isotopes roam,
And the children play, let’s mutate today.
Where the tortoises’ are so big
They could swallow a pig,
And the vadose zone is wet all the way.
Home, home on the range,
Where neither deer nor the antelope can play.
Where good values of old
Have been sold for some gold
And we wait for the river to glow.
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