Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
It’s Friday.
Good morning one and all! Okay, it’s not really morning. But I like morning. Best time of day. So I always say ‘good morning’. No matter what time of day it is. After all, it is morning somewhere in the world. So I am right when I say ‘good morning’. No matter what time of day it is. Sigh. It’s one of those days. It’s cold. Colder than it should be this time of the year. And it appears that is the outlook for the next several months. Sigh. Didn’t see any chipmunks today. Even the peanuts I put out for them are still sitting there. No chipmunks. Bad sign. Even calling for flurries tomorrow. Not good. Too early for that. Finally had to give in and turn the heat on this week. That’s the way it will be until next spring. That’s a long time. Sigh. I am not a cold weather person. This winter I just might try hibernating. Okay, can’t quite do that. But perhaps the way the chipmunks do it. Sleep, eat, sleep some more. Never go outside until the weather warms up in the spring. Doesn’t sound so bad. Really. Sigh.
Speaking of garage sales. Or yard sales. Or whatever you call them where you live. I have had over 140 garage/yard sales over the years. I used to enjoy them. Not anymore. Was planning to have one more this year. Didn’t work out. Probably just as well. They are not fun anymore. People have gotten very picky. Fussy. Hard to deal with. Always complaining. For example; a lady comes to me with a 10 cent item, ‘will you take 5 cents,’ she asks. It’s only 10 cents, I said. I don’t want to pay that much, she said. Then don’t buy it, I said. But I want it, she said. Sigh. I took the 5 cents. I just couldn’t handle arguing over 5 cents. I had a dozen canning jars for sale for $2. A man looked at them and said, that’s too much, besides, I only want 4 of them. So I said, 50 cents each. That’s a good deal, he said, and took four of them. Total, $2. Amazing really. A lady came by and wanted to buy 2 of the jars. 50 cents each, I said. That’s cheap she said. And bought 2 of them. Sold 6 jars that way, then sold the remaining jars for my original $2. Amazing. Had a nice antique cream and sugar set for $10. A lady came and offered me 50 cents because the sugar bowl had a chip. It did? I had checked it earlier and didn’t see any chip. She showed me the chip, and let me use her magnifying glass so I could see it. No joke. Even with the magnifying glass it was hard to see that tiny chip. But since she found the chip I said she could have the set half price. She was shocked and said she would never buy something that was broken. Then why did she offer me 50 cents. Had a nice antique platter. Priced it at $20. A lady said she would give me $5 and said it wasn’t worth $20 because it wasn’t old. How do you know? My son told me. Where is your son? He lives in Calgary. That’s several hundred miles west of here. He told on the phone, she continued. You have your phone with you? Of course not, it’s at home. She seemed a bit annoyed. She wasn’t the only one. Sigh. I could go on and on. I don’t like garage sales anymore. I’m not having any more garage sales. It’s enough to make a person jump up and down, pull their hair, bang their head against the wall, and, and…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s okay. I’m calm. I’m fine. It’s Friday. It’s cold. Summer’s over. Sigh. Enjoy your weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin (who is curled up sleeping in her favorite chair).
It’s COFFEE Time!
Good morning everyone and yes it is definitely COFFEE time now that fall is here and yes I know that officially fall has not yet arrived but in this part of the country fall arrives Sept. 1 and sometimes even before that but usually around the first of the month things really begin to change making it ideal COFFEE time and the fall colors begin to really be evident and most of our birds have already headed south making it ideal COFFEE time and the weather changes quite noticeably though sometimes it can get very warm even this time of the month like on Sunday the temp hit a high of 85F which is abnormally warm for this time of the year but then the temp dropped down to only 40F that night and the next day our high was only 50F making it perfect COFFEE time and that can only mean, ‘Welcome to Fall!’. And fall is perfect COFFEE time. Nice to have one of those long opening sentences again. I like them. It’s different. And that’s me. I’m very different. People who know me will agree with that. It is cool these days. Very cool. Too cool. But ideal COFFEE time. Some people actually like these cool days of fall. I’m not in that group. Still, it is better than what is coming up after fall. That cold white season. My least favorite season. This year will be even more least. Okay, I know that’s not proper English. But face facts, my ‘musings’ are not about proper English. Too boring that way. I’m late again this week. Technical difficulties again. Namely me. I was going to do this yesterday. But something happened. Sigh. I ended up in bed for most of the day. Except to get up to help my landlord show her hired hand how to dig a trench. Properly. I should not be digging. But I did. And that did not help my situation. Sigh. Speaking of digging. There are a lot of blue jays around now. At least 8, maybe 10. And they are getting quite friendly. Some of them at least. They won’t quite take a peanut from my hand yet, but they are getting close. I toss the peanuts to them and some will sit close waiting for their treat, I toss the peanut and they will jump up and catch it in the air. Fun to watch them. They are also a good alarm system for the other birds and little critters like the chipmunks and squirrels. There is a large hawk around right now. There is a lot of bird action here and that attracts hawks. But the blue jays are usually the first to spot the hawk and let out a very loud alarm which warns the others to hide. I’m sure that hawk hates the blue jays. LB, my squirrel, has discovered the walnut tree in the front yard. He has been gathering walnuts for over a week.
It’s actually quite amazing that he can even carry those walnuts. They are bigger than his head. But he grabs it with his teeth and off he goes. That tree sure produced a lot of walnuts this year. Rusty, my chipmunk, tried to pick one up, but it was just too much for that little critter, so he came for his peanuts instead. It was cool, partly sunny fall days like this one that dad and I would pack a lunch and head out to find some insulators. No bugs to worry about at least. About the only plus that I can see for these cool days. Summer is OVER!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s okay. I’m calm. I’m fine. Speaking of bears. They are coming around a lot more now. There was one on my deck 2 nights ago. He is around the 300 to 400 lb range. And he didn’t seem to be very calm. He stood up and looked in the living room window. Scared poor Muffin, did she ever fluff out her fur. Then the bear slammed against the plastic crates I have stacked up under the window. Then he pushed at the pole holding my bird feeder. Then he stood up a couple of time and fell back down hard. He even came over to the door and banged on it a couple of times. Thought he was going to break the window on the door. That was it for poor Muffin. She was gone at that point. Then the bear suddenly ran away. And hasn’t been back. Which is fine. That critter is just a little too big. He obviously wasn’t trying too hard though. He could have easily pushed open my door. Sigh. City living can be dangerous. Never had problems like that living in the country. Sigh. But, still, fall is definitely one of those country pleasures. Get out and enjoy it, fall is very short. Around here anyway. In the great cold north. Sigh. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
Steve`s Country 