And the Rains Came Down

A little January porch time.

In my last post I said that we would soon be having warmer temps, but that they would come with rain. Well, that was a complete understatement. Twice in the past 5 days, we have been inundated with enough rain to strangle frogs. 

It started Wednesday with some showers during the day and rain overnight and Thursday. Pull out the water pump for the basement...again. We had just gone through this several weeks earlier, before the cold snap.

It was a nice sunny-ish day on Friday with a high of 72. This is not unusual in this part of the country, but still...wow!

Then on Saturday - round two. Fortunately, it didn't start until late afternoon, but when it did it didn't let up until well past dinnertime. More water pumping ensued.

Sunday started off with some clouds and high fog, then a shower (which did not show up on the radar), and cleared up and the sun came out. Still way cooler than Friday at around 54, but nice enough.

We seem to be in the clear until Wednesday, and maybe we can get our basement dried out.

I hope the weather where you are is what you want. Either way, feel free to tell me about in the comments.

Until next time, take care and stay safe.

Just Another Day in January

It has long been said that January is the longest month in the year. In reality, it ties for the longest month with March, May, July, August, October and December. My thoughts on this are that January is one of the coldest months in most places in the northern hemisphere. When you combine cold with dark and often wet, windy or snowy, you get a LONG month.

Weather update here. We have climbed out of the freezing temperatures and will be quite balmy during the daylight hours for the next five days or so, hitting the mid sixties a couple days. Now we will still have two of the three elements for a long month...the dark and wet. Yep, our nice days come with some showers, again. It would appear that January will not duplicate this scene, but there are still eight days left, so we'll see.

Until next time, take care and stay safe.

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts

It is another chilly day in the sunny South. We never got any snow in my area, nor sub-zero temps, but mind you it did get down into the teens for several nights. It is supposed to warm up in a few days and then the rains return.

This was a typical Sunday afternoon, going to lunch after church. We went to McDonald's for their Big Mac deal, buy one get the second for a dollar, and then a quick stop at Dollar Tree (now $1.25 Tree).

In days gone by, there would have been a group of us meet up after the service to decide where to go for lunch. Well, when the plague hit in 2020, that put an end to that. Services were streamed and group lunches were a thing of the past.

Even when we were "allowed" to go back to in-person worship, things were changed forever. There is now one service at 10 a.m. Hubby and I still get lunch out and perhaps pick up a few things at the store on the way home like today.

Another thing I have noticed is how people respond now to getting sick. Do you remember when folks got a cold, or the flu, they would just say "I've had the crud"? Now it seems at the first sniffle, they get themselves tested. Unless you're seriously ill, why bother? Just my opinion, of course. 

I had the flu in early 2020 before the Vid was officially in our state. It was the same as any other time I had the flu. Now I must be clear here that it was a "flu-like illness" since I have never been tested for the flu (or anything else for that matter). 

Here it is four years later and the most I've had since is a very minor cold back in September. Could it have been the "thing"? Possibly, but most likely not. What would it matter anyway?

Now I'm not a doctor and don't give medical advice. You do what works for you and I'll do what works for me. 

Until next time, see ya round!

Getting Inked or Not

The prompt for Day 2 of the 20 Days of Chill writing challenge is Inked.

When Gina picked up her daughter after school, Tamara told her mom she wanted a tattoo. "I'm thinking about a spider web and a black widow hanging in the center. 

When her Gina said no way, Tamara brought up the age-old reasoning of every teenager, "but Mom, Jody has one." Jody was a new kid at her school and she was also goth. "Hers is really cool, and she said it didn't even hurt...much." Gina wasn't sure she liked this new friendship and felt Jody might be a bad influence on Tamara.

Her mom responded with the parental logic of, "so if everyone else walked off the cliff, would you follow?" This was typical of many of their mom/daughter discussions, and usually resulted in Tamara huffing off to sulk, and her mom sighing in disbelief at the stubbornness of teens.

"Please" begged Tamara again.

"No! For the last time NO. You are not getting a tattoo" her mom said emphatically. To her it was absolutely unthinkable to "decorate" one's body in such a manner, besides, no one under the age of 18 could get a tattoo without parental permission.

The final word had come down. "No one in this family gets inked! End of discussion!"

When they got home, Tamara marched into the house and to her room where she promptly slammed the door.

Gettin' Cheesy With It

 Well, ladies and gents, it looks like we have a chill in the air. 20 Days of Chill to be exact. The January writing challenge is back in gear, so let's see if I can get motivated. The first prompt is "Gettin' Cheesy With It".

So what do we mean when we say something is cheesy? Cheap, tacky, lacking in taste? 

That's one way to look at it, but I much prefer to take a culinary view, and that is definitely not lacking in taste. On the contrary, it is quite tasty. In addition to it's delectable goodness, here are some interesting and unusual facts about, you guessed it, cheese.

• The calcium in cheese makes it great for your teeth and bones. 

• Cheese can help you sleep.

• Some cheeses are safe for the lactose intolerant.

• The same bacterium causes both smelly cheese and smelly feet. 

• The world's most expensive cheese is made with donkey milk.

• It's not the carbon dioxide that causes holes in cheese, but instead it is tiny flecks of hay in the milk.

• Mice don't actually like cheese. [It is my personal experience that they DO like peanut butter.]

Click here for the full story, and don't forget to visit the other participants.