Ambergris

If you let him stay until then, something will happen and it will be September 15, then October 7 or 19 or something. You know this song, and the next verse is same as the first.

First the hair rose up on my arms and my head tickled and went cool, and the cats took off. Then there was a click to my left with a flash. Then there was a big flash and a KBLAM. Then there was a chemical-metal smell. The cats are still freaked, now mashed against me. So am I. PM called. She felt/smelled it from her house, and the puppy is hiding in the shower. Come daylight, we need to hunt for burn marks to see where the lightning struck, exactly.

I grew a couple of tea camellias and was not favorably impressed. In zone 8, you could do better with yaupon. (I thought I had posted this before. I don't know what happened to that.)

CTRL

According to quora, the failure rate is 20% in the coast guard boot camp.

Also tell your insurance company IMMEDIATELY that you gave them notice ahead of time that you would not be able to be there due to the scheduling. Insurance generally does not cover no-show fees.

I grew a couple of these, but wasn't favorably impressed. In Zone 8, your better bet is yaupon.

I had those shelves. They are absolutely worth it. Even after mine got moved to the porch and mistreated horribly, they held up and looked good for year after year. My financial planner only has my US phone numbers, so can't get hold of me any more. Which is good, since our goals don't really mesh. (He was assigned to me.) I have a guy coming either today or tomorrow, I'm not sure which, to do yard work. Preparing to move, I need these big planting pots pushed over to the verandah walk, the grassless spots under them patched with turf I bought the other day, and the grass all over the yard neatly cut. He's coming as soon as he finishes "a little job" with someone else, so I have no idea what time to expect him. It might be a long two days of waiting. Luckily, I have a lot of things I can putter around doing: Spanish lessons on the computer, other stuff on the computer, preliminary packing, salting down more key limes, etc.

DS1 has a job.

I've used carrot tops, sparingly, in my vegetable powder mixes. Kind of a parsley-ish taste, but can get bitter. On a related note, I picked up an herb today that's called "maggi" because adding it to soup produces a flavor similar to adding Maggi brand bouillon. The cube or granular Maggi is very popular here, but considered too expensive for everyday use. I also picked up a rosemary that's different from the one I have, something called "anise," and a trio of one of the horchata herbs, but not the white sage because PM was so delighted I'd found some--and there were only two plants. She's more likely to grow them big and happy enough to take cuttings from, so she gets custody of them. I'm trying to effectively identify the "anise." It's not anise, anise hyssop, nor star anise, but might possibly be a tarragon. It has a pleasant anise smell and taste and leaves that would look like French tarragon leaves if they were more pointed at the tips. Still looking into this.

Spinach quiche for breakfast, couldn't finish it because it was too much. Negotiated for a lunch delivery of fish and chips, which is a Friday special and supposed to be very good. Arranged a delivery of sand for PM's new pool. Went to the nursery and got flowers for her and five square meters of sod for me.

If you don't know the age of what you trapped, or have reason to suspect it's "not young," helps to boil it tender and then start the curry or barbecue or roast or whatever. Alternatively, brown and then fricassee. Make sure to get the glands off when you skin and clean it.

Feed GS some meat and have him pee a fenceline. Meat first.

The fencing is an investment that will pay you for many years.

Stores being cleaned out of cough syrup has previously been the sign of a Bad Thing going around that nobody wanted to talk about.

Went to what I thought would be an art class today. Turned out it was a navel-gazing session using paper and crayons and colored pencils. Weeping occurred, and group hand-holding, and much hugging. Also, surprisingly enough, it did not feel like a waste of time. Went to a "paper store" and got a second color photo copy of my local ID plus a color photo copy of the relevant pages of my passport, and got them laminated. These are now in my go-bag. Also got some colored gel pens, a much-needed new pencil sharpener, a white Pelikan eraser, a clipboard, a large and a small spiral-bound tablet of grid-marked paper, four ink paintbrushes (the guy was so patient when I pointed to the four of them and asked for "all fourteen"), and an accordion file, all for $19.75.

This

Lazy day. Checked on the hens. They're doing fine in their temporary quarters. All three are laying now, one putting out double yolks about half the time. Found a damaged rose bush, a floribunda with beautiful pink blossoms that fade to near-white as they sit on the bush. I cut the two damaged branches, brought them in, and clipped out four cuttings to try to root with raw honey as a rooting stimulant (something I've heard of but not tried) and the butt-end embedded in a chunk of overripe banana to keep it from drying out before roots form. I have another overripe banana, so I'm tempted to go collect another branch. Redid and rethought my bag-beside-the-door. The one I was using has short straps, meaning I can't sling it cross-body. So I moved everything except the first aid kit to my backpack, and put that by the door. Also made notes of things I want to get and do when in town tomorrow to upgrade it, like photocopying my passport too, and getting both it and the copy of my local ID laminated in case the bag should happen to get soaked. Breakfast was eggs, sliced tomato, and leftover sourdough pan bread. Not my hens' eggs, as their babysitter is enjoying those, but still good eggs. Lunch was leftover black eyed peas, a fresh cornbread pancake, and the rest of the sliced tomato. Snack: Greek yogurt with dried flor de Jamaica (dried Florida cranberry blossoms) stirred up in it. Supper? Probably either chicken or leftover bits of salty pork (heavy on the skin and fat) from Sunday's market trip, plantain, and leftover sweet corn of a type called "choclo," meaning the kernels are round and white, and mostly as big as my thumb-tip. Edit: Also rearranged tools to see how many/what would fit into the new tool box. I think this is going to be labeled Drill and Drill-Related Items

Middle of my front yard...major problem would be if the hillside went liquid, but there'd be nothing to do but surf if that happened.

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These are fun to consider, but I prefer not to warn people. Sometimes they get to find out firsthand.

We just had a brief earthquake here. While discussing it with a friend, I was kindly advised to always keep a bag by the door with cash, copies of my documents, and water. How sweet of him to lay this out for an old lady like me.

Evacuated. Wow. Then went shopping. Am now back home.

https://earthquaketrack.com/p/ecuador/recent says there have been 0 earthquakes in the past 24 hours, so either they haven't listed them yet (why wouldn't they?) or it was just the skin of our mountain slipping. I don't add in "dreaming" because my cat was sitting up and upset both times. Could have dreamed that too, but it seems really unlikely.

Earthquakes woke me up twice last night. Neither shows up on earthquaketrack.com yet. One at I think 2:20 and one, which lasted a good twenty seconds after I woke up, an hour later. I put money, ID, bank card, and phone in my pocket and put on my shoes, and somehow had trouble going back to sleep after. So I don't know what I'm up to today, but I hope it's not challenging.