Just Goofin' Around...

LAUNDRY ROOM WINDOW

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

The light shining through these bottles in our laundry room window caught my eye last week so I clicked a picture, and, a day or so later, played with the image a bit in Photoshop. Nothin' special, just goofin' around.

Boy, I've had a few interesting mornings lately...

Tuesday morning, I woke up early, stumbled down the stairs to use the bathroom, flushed the toilet, and went into the kitchen to start some coffee (yes mom, I washed my hands). That's when I heard the sound of a waterfall coming from the back of the house and ran back to find the toilet overflowing like some grand artesian spring!

I hate it when a day starts out like that, before you even get the crud out of your eyes...

I can't remember the last time the toilet overflowed, but it was probably before our adult kids were teenagers.

...then, there was Wednesday, our food co-op delivery day.

I got up early to print order forms to give our members Wednesday, so they'd have them for Julys' orders, and then went downstairs to start the day off right with a healthful bowl of the wheatless eight-grain cereal Peggy had just cooked up (Peg doesn't eat wheat).

As I dressed up my cereal with frozen organic raspberries, frozen organic blueberries, almond-cranberry trail mix, hemp-hearts and soy-milk, I splashed a little milk on the stack of order forms I'd just printed, so I cleared off the table before I ate to avoid making a bigger mess.

I was thinking about the busy day ahead of me, of sorting orders and totaling them up, and wondering if the truck would be late again, delaying my calls to the members who were waiting to pick up their goods, and also, about the welder who was coming by to fix a few broken things around here.

After breakfast, I set up a table and chair out by the gate, getting everything ready for the delivery, then swept off the 10'x10' slab of concrete there so the welder would have a place to work free of flammable material.

Well, of course, the co-op truck and the welder arrived at the same time (the food delivery was early & the welder was late), both requiring my immediate attention and cramping the three of us into a rather small space when you consider that cardboard boxes were stacked everywhere and welding was going on. While I was checking in the order, a few sparks from the welding bounced off the slab, starting a little fire in some pine-needles---nothing serious---and the fire was quickly stomped out, but it was an interesting moment or two. A bit later, when the co-op members began arriving to pick up their orders, I realized that I couldn't find next months order forms, the ones I had splattered the soy milk on.

Not wanting to waste paper, I looked all over the frickin' house, to no avail, even going through the trash in case I had accidently thrown them away. I knew the forms had to be right in front of my nose but I never found them and eventually had to print a new batch. That evening, when Peggy was reading the newspaper, she found my forms folded up in the comics section. Quite fitting, don't you think?

...then, there was this morning!

But first, let me begin with yesterday, and last night...

Yesterday, the Summer Solstice, was a very enjoyable & productive day here, with lots of clean-up and repairs getting done. A friend took a load of junk to the dump/recycling center for us and I greased up my newly welded pedal-stone and sharpened some tools. We worked outside until it was nearly dark before Peggy and I went in to make our solstice dinner together.

Spaghetti with Fresh Herbs & Turkey Meatballs and a Tossed Green Salad

Peggy had picked a bunch of fresh lettuce and spinach from our garden, along with some sage, oregano, chives, and chive flowers. We also had some fresh basil and thyme from the store (we don't have basil to pick right now, and, after several years of faithful service our thyme didn't come back this spring, probably because of our extremely dry winter).

Anyhow, to make a short story longer, I prepared the meatballs, chopping and adding sage, chives, chive flowers and garlic to the ground turkey. Then, just for fun, I threw in an egg, a teaspoon of horseradish, about 4 ounces of Feta Cheese, and some chopped olives. At this point, I realized the mixture was a getting bit thin & gooey, too many ingredients for the pound of turkey, so I added two crumbled rice-cakes and two tablespoon of quinoa flour (Peggy doesn't eat wheat).

Much better, now I could actually form the meatballs.

Once the meatballs were in the oven I went to work on the sauce. I started with a jar of organic garden-vegetable pasta sauce that we get from our food co-op, by the case, and chopped up the basil & thyme to add to it.

By this time, well after 9 o'clock, Peg had already finished preparing a beautiful green salad with celery, avocado, and tomato, so she helped with the spaghetti by chopping some onions and garlic for the sauce, grating some parmesan cheese, and boiling the water for the organic quinoa spaghetti, which we also get, by the case, from our food co-op (again Peg doesn't eat wheat).

Everything came together nicely and the salad, sauce, and meatballs were absolutely delicious. By the time we ate though, it was well after 10 PM, and getting quite cold outside, so we decided to eat our solstice dinner in the house by the light of a hand-dipped bayberry candle we saved especially for the occasion.

After dinner we made our bed out on the deck, and I poured some red wine and grabbed my guitar. Laying there, propped up with pillows, candle aglow, and Dallas at our feet, we watched a few shooting stars burn through the sky while I plunked out some soft little ditties I know, and shortly began drifting off.

A fitting end to a lovely solstice event. Almost...

For years I've had a hiatal hernia in my stomach, and sometimes, if I eat too close to bedtime, it causes me great discomfort, to where I can't sleep. So, there I was tossing & turning, trying to get comfortable, and keeping Peg awake. It was getting very cold and my fidgeting kept letting the frigid air under the blankets.

Understandably, Peggy likes her sleep, so we decided to move inside about half past midnight. Peg went to bed while I sat up reading, until my stomach settled down, and I fell asleep on the couch.

...and now, back to this morning.

At about 7:30, from my groggy restless sleep, I thought I heard Peg moving around, and called her name. Dallas, sleeping near me at the foot of the couch, heard my voice and started wagging his tail, which knocked over last nights unfinished glass of red wine, which then spilled all over the coffee table, several good books, and my new hemp t-shirt, before running onto the wool indian rug beneath the table.

All before I could even get my eyes open...

Sheesh!!!

I hate it when days start like that!!!

But it's all over now, and really quite funny, I think.

And what does the laundry room window have to do with all this?

Absolutely nothing! I'm just goofin' around, that's all, and laughing at three little episodes from my own silly life.

So, have a wonderful, funny, weird, or goofy day...

...or maybe a little of each.

I'm not going to let this relentless human comedy screw up my day, even if the joke is on me.

I've had much worse mornings.

SHIT HAPPENS!

A lot.

Back out in the yard to play...