Boreal Witch

I have never been stung by a bee or wasp before. Ever. I'm 30 and I didn't even know whether or not I was allergic to bee stings.

Until today.

I was dumping some water out and leaned against the side of the porch when I felt a sharp pain in my side. I thought it was a big splinter until I looked down and saw a hornet in the exact spot that I had leaned against. It flew away, leaving me to ponder whether or not I should call 911.

Now, no one else in my family (that I know of) is allergic, so I had a reasonable assumption that I would be okay. About 10 minutes after being stung, my heart started racing. Then I got a little worried...should my heart be beating so fast?

About 45 minutes later, my heart was fine, I was fine, everything was fine. No harm done.

It's pretty amazing to think that animals and humans have defensive systems, ways to protect themselves when they feel threatened. I guess if someone were pressing me up against a wall, I'd try to find a way to get off, too.

Blessed be.

Our toilet, in general, is pretty unreliable. There's just insufficient water pressure to push and slide all the waste down.

Josh and my dad are visiting.

I think you can see where this is going.

Yesterday Josh flushed and then flushed again right away, causing the toilet to overflow. He started to scream and my dad came rushing up the stairs to see what was going on. Dirty water was everywhere. It had even started to leech out onto the carpet. For the next hour, my dad and I tried to figure out how to unplug the clog. Then I got online and discovered the Dawn and hot water trick, which - amazingly! - solved the problem.

For those of you who don't know, you put some Dawn in the toilet, let it sit for a while, then heat up a big pot of water and pour it down the toilet. Then plunge like mad.

Then we ran out of water.

So I write this blog this morning trying to keep laughing about the entire situation. The bathroom is off limits so all bowel movements have to be made outside, so it's really hard not to get a little down about the situation. It's tough not being able to keep ahead of the dishes (I've been doing the dishes in the morning just to keep them from piling up).

Still, when life gives you poopy water, sometimes the only thing you can do is dump it out and laugh about it. So, people, just laugh about it.

Blessed be.

Normally I don't complain about the rain. I do love the smell of wet earth and I love how cleansing rain can be, but we haven't really had a nice string of days in a while. And I feel like I'm living in Washington again with all this rain. (Not that that's a bad thing. If I ever move, it will be to Seattle.)

Still. It's nice to be a little on the cool side since it gets so hot here. And I love the pitter-patter sound the rain makes as it falls on the roof. And it's nice to not smell smoke from nearby forest fires. And I love the sound of thunder and the crack of lightening.

So, I suppose there are some good things about rain.

I could do with a change, that's all.

Blessed be.

It's so great to see how Arthur's growing and developing and learning new things. I love it! It's also exciting to see how excited he gets when he has a good morning. This week we had two great mornings and Arthur loved talking about all the great things he did.

Today we went to the store. As usual, Arthur got half a cookie. Then we took a walk to the fabric store, came back and drove to the post office. We picked up the mail, then went to the "train park" (Pioneer Park). The park is currently tearing up the parking lot, so Arthur got to see a backhoe. Then the man who was working it got out and asked Arthur if he wanted to ride in it. Arthur was a little scared, but we did venture over the fence and look at the backhoe close up. Then we went to the park (and ate some strawberries from a strawberry plant that we found on the way to the park) and played on the swing and the slide. We got to ride on the carousel and saw the train. Then we went to his friend Cedar's house where we had lunch and played at the park across the street.

It was such a busy morning that Artoo fell asleep on the way home.

I love great mornings. It makes the afternoons go by so much easier.

Blessed be.