66 Degrees F & 87% Humidity

That's what it's like outside right now.  It was hot and humid yesterday and last night a line of thunderstorms swept through pounding us with rain for a short time.  We were on the southern end of the line so we got a little wind, a little rain, and a little distant thunder and lightning, not the slam-bam-thank you-ma'am storm they were threatening us with, and judging by the mild headlines in today's paper nobody got slammed.  Scratch that, I just did a little surfing through my eCopy of the newspaper (I kind of love getting the newspaper in an email as well as the actual paper--hey, that means I can read the local news when I'm on vacation and keep up with my favorite comics [which we all know is WAY more important that any trifling news stories]) and to the west and north they have some trees and power lines down but no houses destroyed and no injuries.  That's okay then.  I think the humidity's supposed to drop today.  That'd be good.

When I drove up to the corner by the dive shop I saw a huge tree trunk piece sitting there.  Remember last week the gypsy lumberjacks cut down the tree across the street?  Well, they deposited all of the chunks in the yard of the house next to the dive shop.  An old lady was out there picking up scraps of wood and she said that her son did the cutting and that all the wood is sold, including that giant trunk hunk, it just needs picking up.  So I got out my camera to snap a couple pics before it went away so you could see it.  (I know you're fascinated with each and every aspect of my days.)  It's nearly as tall as I am (which admittedly isn't as tall as it used to be, but still it's at least 4 1/2 feet across).  Smells good too.  I love the smell of sawdust, reminds me of Grandpa Stephan's shop.

Dr. Paula, my chiropractor, complimented me on how much less tense my back muscles were when I went for my adjustment on Tuesday and she taught me a better crunch to do to tone my abs without straining my back.  I did about 3 on her adjustment table to make sure I had the technique right.  She said to do 5 in the morning and 5 at night every day, so I flopped down in the back room at the dive shop yesterday and did 5.  No sweat.  OMG! my ribs, which were a bit tetchy from (I thought) digging out the window well, went insane.  By the time evening rolled around I felt like I'd been jabbed up under my ribs a few times with brass knuckles.  I'll be building up to 5 ONCE a day and maybe in a year or so do 5 twice a day.  Eesh.  Can't wait for Saturday morning yoga to get all these aches stretched out.

August 22--Paul Gauguin, Still Life with Teapot and Fruit.  A lone wasp buzzed at the mangoes ripening on the table.  The days had a sameness that made him forget that windows could be closed.  The sun rose, the rain fell, and the sun set but the air stayed the same.  There was no summer and winter, only dry and wet.  He didn't mind sharing his mangoes with a wasp.  There were always more mangoes.  In this climate there was always more of everything.  Plants grew, flowered, and fruited year round.  He thought that maybe the plants that died did so from exhaustion.  In his wildest dreams he saw vast deserts and found them restful.  The profusion of flowers and fruits confused his eye, made him long for the simplicity and starkness, the emptiness of the desert.

I was so happy to see a Gauguin that wasn't bare-breasted native girls.  I'm glad to see that he noticed other things in Tahiti, the perv.  I'm off to work again today.  I'm kind of in a quandary; I have an ebook, an audiobook, and a paper book and I want to read them ALL.  Right now.  What to do, what to do?  I'll figure it out.  Can't forget to make a PB & J for lunch, and get another jar of applesauce up since I have to work through lunchtime tomorrow too.  Lucky me, I'll have a bigger paycheck on the next 2 Mondays because I have to work part of the next 2 Fridays.  Cha-ching!

--Barbara