the SS Jeremiah O'Brien cruise

The SS Jeremiah O'Brien is one of two last remaining liberty ships, and she is kept afloat by a group of volunteers who take her out occasionally for a little outing. http://www.usmm.org/libertyships.html   For my birthday this year we took a day cruise from San Francisco up through Suisun Bay to look at the mothballed fleet tied up there. http://scotthaefner.com/beyond/mothball-fleet-ghost-ships/ Who knew there were so many types of ships?   But the lead paint and who knows how many other heavy metals are seriously befouling the bay waters, so these ships, mostly from WWII, are being either moved or scrapped.   I frequently drive over this bridge and have been watching the rafts of ships get smaller.  It was really interesting to get to sail up close and have the captain tell us what each one was and used to do.  Things look pretty different from the level of the bay, and it was a good time for all.

cocktails at the Dali Museum

I spent a few days at the Florida Pesticide Workshop.  The hotel is lovely and on the beach, although hot as you might expect in July.  The inside meeting rooms made up for the heat by being extra cold.  Monday night we had a field trip to a museum built on a pier in St. Petersburg a few years ago http://www.thedali.org/.  I must say that boy was hardwired very differently than I am.  However, any meeting reception at a museum always trumps a reception in a ball room.  I LOVED the garden they created around the building.  I want a bench like this one.

Sweltering in the mid-west summer

Life in California is good.  I am not in CA, I am outside St. Louis in a lovely community with expansive GREEN lawns and shade trees, triple digit temperatures and extra high humidity as it rains every few days (not to mention the Mississippi River, just a few miles away, is running at capacity).  It just happens to have a heat index above 90 by 7 in the morning.  So when I go on my morning stroll, hardly generating the speed to be actually termed a walk here, I come home soaked to the skin before 8.  Now let me think, why did I ever think life sounded good in CA?

On the good side, Mom is pretty strong and will have not problem doing for herself when I leave in a few days.  The wireless is pretty reliable, and the big lounge area is quiet this time of day, so working is not a problem.  I spend the rest of my time out on the porch with the overhead fan, thank goodness, trying to escape the non-stop Turner movie channel in the other room. 

Did you ever wonder if there is an alternate universe where all those things you meant to do tomorrow, but didn't get done, actually do get accomplished?  What would life be like with caught-up e-mail and a clean kitchen and mowed grass be like?   Guess I will get to wonder a little longer.   Left all that behind in CA.

a short detour for my week

My mother had surgery Saturday.  She is fine.  However, it took me way too far back to when we nearly lost her 3 years ago.  I spent all Saturday morning trying to breathe for her from here.  It was all very sudden and no way could I get there.  So I am all packed up and leaving today.  I guess I should call her and tell her I am coming.  I have boxes of plums and apricots on the counter, and hungry cats prowling the kitchen.  The neighbor promises to distribute the zucchini, so I guess I am good to go.  Oh, I need to find a jar and take Mom a plum and a cot.  I hear the tomatoes are in in IL where she lives, so that will be something else to look forward to.

July in my front yard

Some of the early daylilies are about to take a rest for the hot part of the year.  The mid-year troopers are getting ready to put on the next act of the show.  A couple of years ago, Loew's built a hardware store over on my side of town, and it did not take too long to find out they sold big pots of hybrid daylilies at half off toward the end of the summer.  Bedraggled?   No flower spikes?  No problem, my bed has just the place for you.   Here are three of the newer ones: