Another Gorgeous Morning

If it weren't for the rattle and roar of the passing garbologists it'd be perfect.  I made fresh coffee and Durwood's still asleep so it's blissfully quiet--except for that roaring stick-grinding truck.  Oh, they just drove off.  Ahh, back to the quiet.  It was cool enough when I was out just before 7 o'clock that my tootsies are still chilled.  Maybe I should have on more shoes than fake Crocs... ah, well, they'll warm up in the shower in a bit.  The cherry tomatoes are going gangbusters, the rest of the tomatoes are lagging because it's so cool.  They like it hot when it's time to ripen.  Durwood called to order a 1/2 bushel of tomatoes to begin canning tomato soup but they don't have more than the few handfuls they have in their farmstands around town, so he's reduced to making soup with canned tomatoes mostly, I suspect, to see if he can but also because he's out of canned soup, the homemade kind anyway, and he's getting desperate.

Supper last night was so delicious and pretty I took its picture.  Durwood had a taste for pork chops and Festival conveniently has boneless chops on sale right now, so he found a WW recipe with panko and parm and thyme from the garden for breading.  He pounded them, dredged them in egg white and his crumbs and pan-fried them.  He steamed a small butternut squash in the micro and also steamed a third of the gigantic purple cauliflower I got from MW at last Saturday's Farmer's Market.  The pork recipe called for squeezing a lemon wedge over the meat; he didn't like it, luckily he'd tasted his before I squirted mine so we swapped; I could do without the lemon but I liked it with.  Good trade.  The navel oranges I bought at Aldi last week were so tart that neither of us was enthusiastic about eating them so I quartered the last 6, stripped off the peels, and sprinkled them with Splenda.  Naturally I did that too long after supper for Durwood's liking so they're ready for tonight.  I miss having an orange and he doesn't want to pay the price for a bag of clementines, maybe someone will have them on special soon.  Fingers crossed.

Speaking of fingers crossed, no new inquiries about renting the duplex since an email I got the other day that took me a minute to decipher, "High were do we go for an app."  After a delay for translation I emailed her back our phone number, and did NOT snark about her spelling or the fact that the number's in the ad, she emailed back, "OK ty."  Haven't heard back.  (is that text-speak?  I'm so behind the times.)  Do I want to live next to someone whose brains are in her thumbs?  (if she has $650/month to pay for rent + utilities, yes, yes I do)

August 14--Edward J. Steichen, Cyclamen--Mrs. Philip Lydig.  What big eyes she had, and she knew how to use them to her best advantage.  She would lower her chin and then look up at a man through her long, lush eyelashes and they would race to do her bidding.  And that mouth--a perfect Cupid's bow in crimson so artfully applied that even my strict Baptist maiden aunt though her lips were naturally that red.  Sadie was small but fierce.  I think if she'd have had a high-pitched baby voice we'd have all made fun of her but her voice was deep for a woman and there was always a note of self-deprecating humor in it.  Everyone loved her, which was why no one believed that she hung herself with the bell pull rope in the village church, suicide note or not.  She lived life too eagerly to have ended hers like that.  I just know she wouldn't have left us so bereft.

Last night I was determined to have myself tucked between the sheets at 10 o'clock exactly but when it was 10 minutes before 10 o'clock I was two rows from being finished with a preemie hat I started in the doctor's office waiting room so I stayed up to finish them, not weave in ends to be totally finished but the knitting's done, so I was in bed, teeth brushed and writing to the prompt by 10:16, and the light was out at 10:35.  Not bad.  It was much easier to roll out when my 6:05 alarm shrilled, I only hit snooze once, so I'll aim for 10 o'clock again tonight.  Sleep is good.  Especially when the night is cool.  That's good sleeping weather.  I'm off to keep the world safe from SCUBA diving.  Ta-ta.
--Barbara