No.......the reason I sweat so much today, was because we are in the middle of a heat wave, and with temperatures soaring above 90° F, I had to spend an hour cutting the grass around the house today after lunch. An hour was about all I could stand. I finished up, put the lawn mower back in the shed, and staggered back into the house, where the air conditioning and a tall glass of orange soda over ice, pulled me back from the brink of heat stroke! All winter long I cursed the cold and the snow. Now we have the miserable Mid-Atlantic summer heat and humidity! Combine the heat and humidity, and you get some truly muggy conditions! While the temperature was only 93° F (What? Only 93° you say?) today, the heat index (temp & humidity combined) was 98°F. Naturally after an hour of pushing a lawnmower around, I was drenched with sweat. Where is my yardman when I need him? I suppose the same thing could be said for my maid! Oddly enough, they are never here when there is work to be done!
After a hard day of toil and sweat, I decided that I deserved a good meal, so I drove to the nearest Food Lion (an American grocery store) and bought some fresh baking potatoes, a couple of New York strip steaks, and some Merlot. I'm not normally a big beef eater. I only have the occasional burger or steak. It's not that I don't love them, the fact is I do! It's just that we are constantly indoctrinated about the dangers of eating red meat, so I limit my consumption. I don't know why. I have no doubt that I will die of something totally unrelated to my diet! By the way, the grilled steak, steamed broccoli, and baked potato was absolutely delicious!
We had a hellacious thunderstorm roll through a couple of nights ago. Lightning was striking all around! I was at my computer, when suddenly the sky flashed outside my window, and at the very same moment I heard the crack of the lightning bolt! With all of the trees surrounding my house, that is way to close for comfort! The next day I surveyed the property to see if any of my trees had been struck. I didn't see any lightning damage, but a rather large dead tree did come down, and was partially blocking the entrance to my driveway. My girlfriend Sophie's chainsaw came in handy once more. Thank you so much Sophie, for selling it to me at such a bargain basement price! I've used it several times now, and considering the job it's done, I think I've already gotten far more than my money's worth! Today while going back to the shed to get my lawnmower out, I found two more limbs, that were blown out of the top of a poplar tree. I am surrounded by poplar trees and they are a real menace. This whole site was logged maybe 50-60 years ago to harvest it's hardwoods. The soft pines and poplars were left behind, so we have an abundance of them, and both are nothing but trouble during storms.
I went up to the mailbox on on the highway at the entrance to our rural subdivision yesterday to collect the mail. I opened the box, and instantly a huge smile came to my face. Now.......you are probably asking yourself, what in the world could it be in Melissa's mailbox, that could possibly elicit such a smile? Well....staring up at me from the bottom of my mailbox, was a post card! I don't often get postcards. In fact the last time I got one, was when my sister was in England several years ago, singing with her church's choir. (They happen to be very good by the way, and have been invited to sing in Notre Dame this summer! If I can ever figure a way to embed the MP3 file she sent me, you'll hear just how good they are!) But anyway......here was this post card staring back up at me, and instantly a huge smile came to my face. I knew just who it was from, and a closer look confirmed my speculation. It was from Caroline, Lisa and Lucy in France!
On the face of the card was a picture of a street scene in Collioure, a beach town they visited on the south coast of France, where they enjoyed a lovely meal and some wine together, while listening to the waves roll in from the sea! All three wrote a sweet note to me! Jokingly, I chided Caroline, saying that with her indecipherable handwriting, she missed her calling, and should have been a doctor instead! The French postal service made her handwriting even more indecipherable, by placing their postmark directly over the first three lines of her note!
Fortunately Lisa and Lucy printed their notes, so I had no trouble reading them. Later that evening, a few tears rolled down my cheeks, while realizing how sweet it was for them to think of me.
Here is a picture of me, that I took out on my deck earlier this evening:
Notice how lovely my complexion looks out in the daylight! That's a joke by the way. While not exactly horrific, the old acne scarring has always made me self conscious. Photographs taken indoors don't show them as badly, and I have to confess that I usually soften my pictures before posting them on line. I know...........phony, fake, insecure.........how could she? Well, all that I can say is that I'm human, and I have all of the insecurities of an average human being, and maybe then some. Now that I have gotten to know, and trust..........and LOVE so many of you, I don't so much mind showing my homelier side, exposed in broad daylight!I have always admired the look of espadrilles on women in the summertime. I think that in addition to sandals, they are the perfect all around casual shoe for warm weather. I finally succumbed to my desire, and bought a couple of pairs. These arrived in the mail today:
They have a 1 1/2 " jute wrapped wedge heel. At 6'2", I don't think I need a higher heel! I also have a pair in tan!I've been listening to Pink Floyd's Echoes this evening, but the song I want to leave you all with tonight, is Roxy Music's Both Ends Burning. Wasn't Brian Ferry, just the greatest!
Love,
Melissa XOXOX
12 comments:
Sounds like you've been busy...
We've been woken by lighting a few times over the years, it's terrifying when it hapens without rain - living so close to Schiphol the last thing you want is to be woken by a big flash and bang...
Stace
93 and up, and you decide to mow the grass? What were you thinking? It couldn't be done early in the morning when it is cooler, or on a cooler day? What if you had sucomed to the heat? My Gawd! how awful that would have been.. you know we are all quite attached to you.. sometimes I worry about you out in the middle of the forest.. I always fear the heat, and I always say cold is better, you can always put something else on, but you can't always take something off...
Now reguarding this lovely picture of you.. you couldn't put a little bit of a smile there?... well, I don't mean to nag, but you are special, and I care.. I find that really beautiful people never see the beauty in themselves.. only flaws, that only they can see..
Be Blessed dear Sister..
The way I always look at lawn mowing is that there's little better exercise so it beats working out! Of course, it recent years my parents whose lawn is my only contact with mowing, have bought a shiny Honda which is self-propelled, so it ain't half the effort it used to be.
If I could post a picture 1/2 as good as that one I'd be a happy bunny indeed.
Grass cutting in 'sweltering' heat; nothing like it for feeling somewhat righteous! That's how I feel anyway. A well-deserved feast is usual my reward too. Steak tonight chéz Halle!
As far as cutting grass in the morning, everyone needs to know that when it gets humid and hot, the grass is soaking wet in the morning, so it is really hard to cut properly. (cuttings clump together and 'bung up' the works), at least that's the way it works in the wilds of Ontario in the summer. 98 humidex eh? Girf. Keep cool girl, and that photo? If you retake it and smile some, I'll happily pass you off as my cousin Melissa from 'down south'! What flaws?? pshaw!
LOL, the 'word verification' is 'exhagg'... sort of like looking at the steering wheel of my car, seeing 'airbag' and taking it as a personal criticism! :P
He still is, he drifted into the small hotel where he was staying after a local concert while we were at a friends birthday party, sadly he did not give a rendition of the traditional birthday song even though he had his troupe of gorgeous girl backing singers with him.
I have given up on hiding from cameras now, the wrinkles are mine I confess but there is little I can do about them now. Wait till you have some bright overcast light and give us a smile like we have sent you another card. You look great in the shot you posted, follow my instructions and make us jealous.
Caroline xxx
Gld you liked the postcard. Luckily Caroline had your address.
x
Are you telling us that with the humidex at 98°F you baked a potato in the oven? But then, I guess that's what air conditioning is for. :)
So cool that you got a postcard from an exotic land!
@ Stace
Yes, that would pretty terrifying!
@ Naukishtae
It was 89° when I went out, but the temperature climbed four more degrees while I was cutting grass. I was red as beet when I came back inside, so I immediately downed a cold drink to lower my core temperature. I was OK a few minutes later. The problem is, it gets hot very early in the day, so no time is good to be out doing strenuous work. By 9:00 AM it's already in the mid to upper 80's and the humidity is higher, so the humidex is still high. The grass is also very dewy in the morning.
@ Jenny
Mowing is very good exercise, especially since I don't have a level piece of ground on my property, except for down by the pond. I bought one of those self propelled mowers a few years ago, but I never like it. I could never get its pace adjusted to match my stride. Eventually the drive belt broke, and just went back to my regular Honda push mower.
@ Halle
LOL @ exhagg!
@ Caroline
In the light I took that picture in, a smile would have looked frightening!
@ Lisa
That was very sweet of you girls!
@ Veronica
I baked the potato in the microwave oven. This girl's no fool! Well.....aside from cutting grass on a 93° afternoon!;-)
Melissa XX
Loved the title of this post!
Loved the picture!
Now where are you FOUR going to go next year? Something tells me Melissa is going to get that passport fixed.
Calie xxx
It has already been over 100 degrees in our area of south GA! Sarah insists on going outside and doing things later in day and I worry. I cannot tolerate the heat. I will get up really early to do whatever I do outside.
The picture is quite pretty. You have a wistful sweet look in the picture. All of us women worry about what we see as our faults, most other people never see them.
Kay
hi Melissa
I am glad our postcard cheered you up, it was a wonderful idea of Caroline to send it.
The photo of you is lovely and I have at times edited my photos, there is nothing wrong in you doing this.
The weather is very hot in England at the moment and I am loving it! with my Italain genes I dont suffer in the heat and hate the cold!
hope you are keeping well
love and hugz
Lucy & smudge
xXx
@ Lucy
What a dear sweet girl you are!Thank you so much for your kind comments.
Melissa XX
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