Month: June 2020

It was like a cartoon

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There is no possible way you will guess what happened to us this evening.  It’s so far out of the realm of normal – you just couldn’t guess.  So I’ll tell you.

Bees.

LOTS of bees.

(Everyone is fine.)

Jack and I were in the front yard, near-ish the road, playing before dinner.  It was around 4:45 or so.  I was herding him in the direction of the back door when I happened to look over at the area in front of our front door.  I saw lots of flying bugs.  My first thought was that it was a huge cloud of gnats.  You know how gnats get.  But they looked bigger, and I thought I heard buzzing.  In retrospect, I’m surprised the buzzing was as quiet as it was.  I snatched Jack up, and we went inside.

Went up the back stairs, paused at the door to John’s office, “something is swarming out front,” heard a “what?”, and headed for the guest room windows.  Yeah, guys, it was a swarm of bees.  I googled “beekeepers near me” and found the Rhode Island Beekeepers Association.  Miracle of miracles: someone answered the phone.

“Um, there are a TON of bees, like, swarming in front of my house. What should we do?”

A calm voice said, “That’s very likely this time of year.  Swarming is exactly what they do, and they don’t sting when they’re doing it.”  Seriously, that’s the first thing he said.  He knows what he’s doing, this guy.  “Where are they?”

So I told him they’re on a branch in a tree in our front yard, we discussed how high up it is and if he needs a ladder or could cut down the branch, and then he said, “Text me your address and send me a picture. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

No delays!

He showed up right on time, Steve the Beekeeper (lawyer by day, beekeeper by free-time).  He put one of those hive boxes down the ground, cut the branch out of the tree, and with one firm shake of the branch, knocked all the bees from the branch to the ground, right in front of the box.  They wasted no time flooding into it.  He came back an hour later to collect it.

I asked him what he was going to do with them, and he said he’s just going to try to keep them alive.  ‘Tis the season for hives to split, so we were seeing half of an older hive looking for a new place to live.  They would likely have been gone by morning (that tree branch was only a stopover for the night), but if left to their own devices, they probably wouldn’t survive. Bees are apparently bad at surviving (see news about not enough bees in the world).

Want to see what ten thousand bees look like?  If you’re looking out our front door, this is the tree directly in front of you.  It’s right up against our front-yard neighbor’s garage.

And here’s Steve, holding the branch with the bees still on it.

The whole incident took maybe an hour and a half.  What a weird day.

Experimentation

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Today’s theme was “Empty out the freezer”.  In support of that goal, I made a berry pie for the very first time ever!  I bought a crust (let’s not be crazy here – I don’t have the time or inclination to experiment with crusts right now) and unloaded probably about half of the frozen fruit into it.  I had been warned by multiple recipes that using frozen fruit would add liquid to the pie, but those recipes didn’t prepare me for reality.  Folks, I made fruit soup in a pie crust.  It’s delicious fruit soup in a pie crust, don’t get me wrong.  But still, you can basically drink this pie.  Maybe it’ll firm up in the fridge.

Next up, frozen vegetables in a casserole!  It’s basically Thanksgiving’s green bean casserole, but with green beans, broccoli, peas, some cauliflower, and a few carrots.  And cheese.  And some sour cream added to the cream of mushroom soup.  I used almost all of my frozen vegetables, so it’s just as well that the glass pan I had available was the one a size up from 9×13.  (My 9×13 has the rest of the brownies in it.)  Guys, it’s so good.  And I made SO much, so yay leftovers!

The freezer is full again, but now at least there’s room for the ice cream (because pie), the frozen waffles (Jack loves them), and the popsicles (they’re going to blow his mind).

Our own little Keanu Reeves

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Some of you have heard this story already, but I figured it’s worth mentioning because it was ALL Jack would talk about, EVERY DAY, for at least two weeks.

The story goes like this:

Jack: “Two guck!”

Us: “Did you see two trucks?”

Jack: Stretches one arm way up high.

Us: “One of them was a cherry picker with the bucket way up high?”

Jack: “Hat.”

Us: “And the worker was wearing a hat?”

Jack: Drops his arm and points at the ground.

Us: “He had a chainsaw and he dropped the branches he cut all the way to the ground?”

Jack: “Hat.  Choo-choo.”

Us: “And there was another worker in a bright orange helmet who fed the branches to the chipper?”

Jack: “Yup.  Choo-choo.”

Us: “Oh, the chipper was attached to another truck?  Like a trailer?”

Jack: “Yup.  Oowee.”

Us: “You saw a police car?”

Jack: “Whoa.”

Us: “And the police officer ran his siren for you, and it was loud, and you said “Whoa”?”

And repeat.  Sometimes he adds the “two baa” interlude, but seeing the sheep was way less exciting than the cherry picker and the siren.

Jack is usually way more excited about the cherry picker than the siren, but the way he said “whoa” right after the siren made him flinch was hysterical and is definitely my favorite part of that morning.  I LOVE that he remembers that he said it and includes it when he tells the story.

 

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

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Started: 5/29/20
Finished: 6/4/20

Sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale, which I raved about two years ago.  It came out last year, and I have the third book already, so I am behind.  I flew (using my current definition of “flew”) through this – it’s so good.

Not so much a “walk”, then, as a “carry”

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Jack and I go for a walk almost every morning, but lately he’s been insisting on being carried a lot more.  He used to only jump into my arms when he heard a big truck coming.  Now, it’s like he just doesn’t want to put in the effort of walking.  At first, I thought maybe he was outgrowing his shoes and they were uncomfortable, but he has no problem running around in them later in the day, or even once we get back to our driveway from these morning walks.  Now I think he just prefers the view.  He doesn’t have to pay attention to where he’s going or what’s in front of him.  From my left hip, he can see traffic coming from both directions.

I wouldn’t mind at all except that these walks are supposed to help tire him out for his nap.  How tired is he going to be if all the exercise is mine?  So I put him down on his feet, take his hand.  Maybe he immediately blocks my way with an “up-up”, maybe he walks a little first before the “up-up”, but he always ends up with the best view on the street.

Six weeks to go!

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Yesterday, while complaining musing about the difficulties of choosing my next book, I mentioned that the only thing that makes that decision easier is having a specific reading project.  Well, the universe listened and released this year’s Hugo voter packet to voting and attending members of WorldCon, so…I’m all set for the next six weeks.

Whew.  No stress about what’s next on the list.

Do I feel a tiny bit limited because now I feel like I HAVE to read the Hugo-nominated books and short stories and novellas?  Maybe, but that’s because I’m dumb.  An organization that I voluntarily joined and support and enjoy is giving me free books to read so I’ll be informed enough to vote on which ones are best.

Do I feel a little bit stressed about getting it done in time?  Yes (I have six weeks), but I can manage that kind of stress. I’ve already read three of the six nominees for best novel and two of the six nominees for best YA novel.  And for best series, I’m pretty sure the trilogy I’m reading right now is getting my vote.  Out of the other five series nominated, I’ve read all of one (Expanse), most of another (InCryptid), and the first of a third (Wormwood) that I didn’t like very much.  That only leaves two, and I think I can live with myself if I don’t get through them in time.

I can do this!  Prioritization!  Focus!  Staying up late!

A time-turner could be handy here

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Mel just asked me for book recommendations, and while we were talking about that, she remembered reading something of mine the last time she visited that turned out to be scary.  She couldn’t remember the title or the author, and her description of the book didn’t ring any bells for me.  While she was checking with Corey (who read it, too, after SHE recommended it), I fell down the rabbit hole that is my Kindle library.

Guys, I have 711 Kindle books, and I haven’t read most of them.  I WANT to read them all – I was just browsing to see if any of the titles reminded me of the book Mel was talking about, and instead I was hit with this overwhelming desire to quit my job and hire someone to take care of Jack and just read all day every day until I can catch up.  If only we could win the lottery…

Part of my Kindle problem is that I can’t SEE the books.  I have plenty to read, but it’s hard to decide what’s next (unless I have a specific reading project) because I forget what I have, and there’s no easy way to view it all.  I want a holographic bookshelf.  I would like to project the title pages of my Kindle books onto a wall so I can browse through them as if they were on a bookshelf, not just a list, and decide what to read next.  Maybe that’s our million-dollar app idea!  Projection would be the hard part… (Yes, I know I can view my Kindle contents as a grid.  It’s not the same.)

Let’s shelve that idea for now, and get back to the point which is I DON’T HAVE TIME TO READ.  I’ve got a bookshelf overflowing with dead-tree books I don’t have time to read, either.  More on this in the near future.

The books Mel was thinking of (Corey identified it) were White Silence and its sequel, Dark Light, by Jodi Taylor.

A little change…

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We have begun painting the guest room (by “we”, I mean “John”), and if you open the door halfway and aim your gaze toward the northeast corner, you can pretend it’s done, and MAN I picked a good color.  It looks GREAT (and feels so refreshing to do something different in there), and it’s going to look even better when it’s done.  Here’s a link to the color.  It’s a dark-ish purple with some gray in it.  We’ll have white trim to brighten it up, plus the guest room gets ALL the sun in the house.  Next up: furniture.  White headboard, white dresser (small), white desk and chair (small).  The comforter needs to be white, maybe patterned, maybe white and silver, and I REALLY want to put a bench or trunk or something in that funny corner we have by the closet, in front of that window, so I can make it a cozy reading corner/window seat.  I have ALWAYS wanted a window seat.

Of course, it’s taking us WEEKS just to paint this one room. Before Jack, we’d have had it done in a single weekend (ceiling one day, walls and trim the next).  Now, only one of us can do any of the work, we can’t do it while he’s sleeping (night or day), and our weekends have been taken up with car shopping and other not-fun tasks.  So MAYBE we’re done with the walls next weekend and the trim the weekend after that, and who knows how long it’ll take me to find the furniture I want.  I’d like it used, but that requires actual in-person shopping, and, well, that’s not going to happen for a while.

It’s not like we’re going to have guests anytime soon, but it’s really unsettling to leave a project unfinished in such an open-ended way.

But until then, the half-finished walls look fantastic, and I will enjoy that.