on a personal note...

[merlina]

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OK, amazement, sympathy an' al (as I've said elsewhere) BUT 81 degrees! We've had hail today and the wind has blown the pub's (new) sign completely off and there's flood warnings out for several rivers...hmmm, 81 degrees?..could do with just a touch of that.

 

[leashedForLife]

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Thanks, @Ari_RR -
it’s a challenging life, but Lord & Lady, at least now i have a roof over my head, & it’s the SAME roof from week to week, *lol*.
Being homeless was the pits, & scrambling to find $$ for an AirB&B on a near-weekly basis was crazy-making; they deduct the payment up front, so I could never go more than 2 or 3 weeks out, & my money was constantly tied up in pending accommodations. It made it really, really hard.
I worked 7 days a week from Oct 26th of one year, to April over a year later, & just barely made ends meet; i never want to do that again, if possible. [all digits crossed, & fervently praying to a pantheon of multicultural deities]


Thanks, @Flobo -
One thing i haven’t shared, & it’s a big worry: MassHealth dropped my coverage again.
I went to pay my January bill for Feb, & couldn’t make the payment - i thot it was cuz i had a one-month balance in my acct, but when i phoned the next morning [Feb 1st], she told me i had been dropped “because we haven’t had an update in Ur paperwork since last March”.

WTH?!?!?! - they did not RENEW MY POLICY until *August* for Sept coverage, & I was sending in paperwork the entire time, to satisfy their various demands.
I will have to do bureaucratic battle when we get back in April [not looking forward to it], & pray Goddess nothing serious comes up, meanwhile.
It took 7 bl**dy months to get it restored the last time, with the near-weekly help of Dawn in the Financial Planning office of Mt Auburn Hospital - & she no longer works there. *crying* I had coverage from Sept thru Dec, & all that work was for naught.


@merlina , we peaked at 86’ F for 6 hours, one day - i’m So, so indescribably glad that this week will be unseasonably cool [upper 60s & low 70s].
My boss is whining, but we have another trusty S/S space heater from Vornado [that i bought, a duplicate of the one i owned & brought with me, in our Boston apt]. He is currently luxuriating in a 75’ bathroom with a towel over his lap, the heater blowing warm air under from the side, & his smart phone in hand, with a headset for phone calls. No reason for HIMSELF to complain, but he does, bless him.

I tell his friends that the main reason he hired me was to get the accessories - heater, humidifier, 4 magnetic humidistats for strategic spots around the apt, some dandy kitchen tools, good knives, etc.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


This past week to 10 days was very crazy -
I bought St Pat’s Day t-shirts for all 3 of us, & was trying to embroider details to make them stand out [particularly as the Boss’s shirt had 2 words screen-printed dark green on Kelly green - virtually invisible, so I outlined them with a running stitch].
Attempting to do handicrafts in-between household tasks & caregiving was hard enuf, but every time he turned around when i was sewing HIS shirt, i had to fold the shirt & put my needle down, LOL. Argh!
I will append photos... before, one “during”, & afters.

For Himself, BEFORE -

... & after:

For my fellow PCA, *before* -

As U can see, I snapped that after i’d done a bit of stitching.
Completed:

... with her headband / choker & bow, for the total look -

... & finally, mine, which i never got ‘round to gussying, with my headband & polka-dotted bow. I really like the way it echoes Rosie’s headscarf!

I’m going to make the initial letters of each word [E, G, B] into CAPS, & then embroider the entire phrase in satin-stitch. // Rosie has a tattoo on her upper arm that reads, ‘Lucky’. I might do that, & her collar badge, too.

My client’s T-shirt is not quite done; i want to fill-in the outlined word IRISH in solid yellow. // The white dashed outline on ‘today’ looks fine, I am not going to mess with that any further.
If i get really ambitious, i will do the word ‘Italian’ in red, pink, pale pink, & white, as flame-stitches that will shade in color, from bottom to top.

Thank God, it’s only 72’ today; the plumber has already come, he repaired the tenants’ leaking tub fixture, & replaced their kitchen tap entirely. [$360 for parts + labor].
I only wish our AC had been repaired / replaced - we are leaving sometime in the 2nd week of April, & 90s is normal here, this time of year.
I will become amphibious & LIVE in my bathing suit, running in & out of the walk-in shower, if we get stuck in the 90s! ... but at least until Friday, i am safe.

Cheers,
- terry

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[leashedForLife]

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This is a photo dump of Florida pix -
Now that i’ve finally figured out how to post photos from my Google Photos, which was a struggle, & still lacks quality [I can’t make the photo go edge to edge on my iPad, & thus my screenshots include the open headers. Ugly. And dumb. C’est la vie.]


Below, my 1st cattle egret - notice how nonchalant the bird is, he’s about 10 to 12-ft from the fella who’s picking up curbside litter, & he alighted on the turf beside a gas station.
Shy, he’s not.

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Below, that’’s a sycamore on a cloudy day, heavily draped in Spanish moss, & soon it will die; the foliage has been cut off from sunlight, the tree has only a few leaves at the tips of its limbs that can gather energy. // It’s a ghost tree.

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Below, a 1930s era stucco house - I LOVE that hand-built brick wall “fence”, decorated with shells set into the wet plaster. // Very cool - & sadly deteriorating.
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Below, an interesting study in vertical lines -
The palm trees, the power poles, the building corner, the stand-pipes at the edge of the parking lot access drive [painted lipstick-red].

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Life is, above all else, persistent -
The plants below are all growing from cracks in the tarmac [asphalt paving AKA macadam].
They may look delicate, but they’re tough as old boots.

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This is what U can plant in the household flower beds, in Florida: variegated croton.
=:—O
I think it’s a S American native, but wherever it originated, it’s a shade-loving tropical species that is pampered in indoor pots, back in New England. // Amazing, to see it planted outdoors.

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A monster-sized, GORGEOUS stag-horn fern, a few doors up from us, hanging in a live oak.
That thing must weigh between 75 & 100# - it’s massive, & so, so healthy, it glows.
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A non-native escapee: ELEPHANT EAR, growing wild in a roadside hedgerow.
I think they are native to the Indo-Pacific.
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I don’t know what this is, but it’s a tough, pretty little plant -
The flowers are almost identical to strawberries, but the foliage is very different.
It thrives in dry exposed roadside curbs, & mowing does not discourage it.
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More later - we are going to a carillon celebration in Lake Wales.
- terry

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[Ari_RR]

Wow.. you sure know your flora...

 

[leashedForLife]

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Sorry for the long absence -
I was one of the many? / several? forum-members who were denied access by the forum software, & Josie had to restore our connections. I couldn’t fix the issue, it had decided my e-addy was not legit, & demanded a different one.

I’m also trying to simultaneously survive a Spring-into-Summer heat-wave, pack for our return North, and urgently finish my perennial “garden” - bulbs planted in fabric potato-bags, secured in milk-crates. // I planted day-lilies & peonies in the milk crates; it looks as if the huechera did not survive shipping, i wetted each small pot & they have yet to sprout — it’s been over a week.

I have been planting at night, after midnight, as daytime temps are hovering between 85’ F & 90’, with humidity over 70%.
I wish i had my hiking headlamp, i only have the street lights to illuminate my work area, & my cell-phone flashlight for such fiddly bits as reading how much humid-acid to mix into 5 gallons of raised-bed “soil”.

I bought a 4-cubic-foot bale of #4 Sunshine Mix as my base, plus expanded-clay beads & humid-acid to retain any water in the soil, so the rain doesn’t just wash thru & run off.
Then i discovered coir-bales of compressed coconut fiber, shipped with an packet of spores for friendly mycorrhizae to colonize the coir - it’s fantastic, a 5-inch thick paving stone of compressed coir becomes 2 cubic-feet of “soil” when U add 6 gallons of water, ONE gallon at a time.
The 4-cu-ft bales are bulky & prone to tear, so shipping is a constant problem - the coir brick is hard & light, & easy to ship. // DUring re-hydration, the coir actually snaps, crackles, & pops as the water separates the fibers - it’s quite the process.

Because of the many free-roaming cats in the area, I’m trying to cover the soil in my planters with a layer of the Humitron ceramic-beads, to discourage them digging to defecate, but i don’t think i have enuf beads, & there’s neither time nor money to ship another bag from Amazon.

I hired a pre-teen boy to water my planters, while we are gone- i bought 50 feet of weeping hose & strung it over the 2 rows of planters, he only needs to connect the hose, turn on the main valve at the street, & let it trickle overnight, then shut the hose off, & turn the main off, in the morning.
As he’s 4 doors down the street, & his father is mowing all 3 lawns [my client’s house plus 2 tenants’ lawns], it’s a pretty easy gig.

I am sweating my days thru the week, as our AC unit is still not working properly, & the house easily reaches 80 to 84 by 3-pm. Whew - it’s not fun, i am using a spray-bottle to mist my uncovered skin, keeping the bottle in the ‘frig, & wearing as few clothes as i can manage. My silk T-shirt is practically a daily uniform... if the AC was running, i’d be fine, but this heat every day feels smothering.
I’ll be happy to be back in more-temperate temps, once we up wheels for Boston!


We’re celebrating an early Easter today, with a special dinner & some goodies - i bought malted-milk speckled eggs for “nests”.
All of us continue healthy, my client didn’t have a single cold all winter - the humidifier was a huge help, we’ve been blessed. // I hope y’all are well & happy - wishing U a bountiful spring & summer,

- terry

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