Boogerized

Today was mostly almost good.

I always make Challah bread on Fridays for Shabbat. I always begin making it as soon as I get up in the morning, even before I make coffee or check Facebook, because I have to prepare the dough, let it rise for an hour, punch it down and let it rise for another hour, braid it and let it rise again, and then bake it. If I get too late of a start, I don’t have time to make it. Shabbat doesn’t really start until sundown, but we always at our Shabbat meal at noon so EJ can enjoy it with us.

A couple of days ago, I got an email from the gift catalog company saying they had shipped my camera binoculars. They included tracking numbers. I love tracking numbers because I can follow an item as it gets closer and closer to my home. Yesterday I saw that the binoculars would be at the post office today so this morning I walked to the post office to pick them up. Our village is so small that everyone in the village limits has post office boxes. When we first moved here  years ago, I thought “What??? No home delivery? That’s just crazy!!!” but I quickly grew to enjoy the daily walk to the post office. And I like the postal workers. They are very sweet. Anyway, there was no yellow card in my PO Box indicating that I had a package. I told the Postmaster that I had a package that was supposed to be here today and could he tell me when it would be ready. He said that normally it would have been ready “an hour ago” but the regular carrier was sick and the substitute was doing two routes so it would probably be there in the afternoon. Bummer.

On the way to and from the post office, I saw a garage sale sign. Our neighbors were having a sale. We love garage sales, so when I got home, I told EJ about it and we walked to the sale. As soon as we got there, I saw a little bird fly into the back corner of their garage. He looked like he was just a fledgling Robin and was confused so I went to help him. He didn’t move when I approached and it looked like I was going to have to pick him up and carry him out, but then he clumsily flew away. I am glad I rescued him because my neighbor said that just a few days ago she discovered a dead bird in the garage near the window. The bird must have accidentally got shut in. Poor thing. Wherever I go, I seem to rescue birds. I am the Bird Rescuer. Also “the Cat Lady.”

We visited with our neighbor for a bit. Her teenage daughter came outside eating a piece of banana cake, so she (the Mom) asked us if we wanted a piece. At her urging we said ok so the daughter got us a piece. It was delicious. And then the daughter went and got us a piece to take home to JJ. He thought it was delicious too. We had visited with our neighbor longer than we should have, so I had to scramble to get our Shabbat meal finished before EJ had to leave.

I have been watching a live stream of an eagle nest in Decorah, Iowa, for weeks. I have enjoyed watching the three baby eagles grow bigger and bigger. Two of them left the nest a couple days ago, and the third one looked as if he might take off today so I brought my laptop to the kitchen to watch as we ate. Every time the young eagle went to the edge of the nest, we exclaimed, “You can do it! Fly!” but he didn’t. After EJ left for work, I took Danny for a walk, and when I got back I checked the live stream but the eagle was still at the edge of his nest looking around. So I decided to walk to the post office and when I got back, the nest was empty. Bummer. I missed the first flight.

However, my package was at the post office. Yay! I got it home, put in the AAA batteries that I had bought a couple weeks ago, but I couldn’t get the camera to work. When I plugged the USB cord in, the display turned on. It think the batteries aren’t working. I dug up some rechargeable batteries from a drawer and am charging them now. I also think I need a SD card before the camera will work. Bummer. I ordered one from Amazon. I will have to be patient.

I have some items I need to ship, so a week ago I asked the postal clerk, who is a real sweetie, if she had small boxes I could buy. She found boxes that were absolutely the right size that I needed, but she couldn’t get the cash register scanner thingy to ring it up. She said she’d have to ask the Postmaster about it. He couldn’t get it to work either. His computer said that he had those boxes in stock, but the scanner said there were “unavailable.” The Postmaster finally figured out that those sized boxes are no longer for being offered for sale. They are like outdated stock. However, they are just lying around so why not sell them to me? So the Postmaster is trying to contact a higher up at another post office to see how he can sell them to me. Every day either the Postmaster or the clerk tell me the progress of the boxes. I almost bought a bigger size box today, but the Postmaster urged me, “Since these are the perfect sized boxes, wait for another day or two until the supervisor contacts me to see how I can sell them to you.” I’m on no deadline and I have to wait to ship them until after EJ’s next payday anyway, so I said I would wait. I think our postal workers are awesome…but leave it to me to choose unsellable boxes.

When I got home, I found Luke sleeping in the basket on top of a loaf of unwrapped Challah bread–the bread it takes me all morning to make. Usually I put the Challah bread away immediately, but today I wrapped up the loaf we ate from, but I didn’t take the time to wrap up the other one because EJ had to leave for work, and then I was eager to get my camera binoculars at the post office….I suppose if I were a cat, I’d also want to sleep in a basket on top of soft, still-warm-from-the-oven Challah bread, but I was SO not happy with Luke. He totally crushed the bread and, besides, he was LAYING on it and he doesn’t wash his paws after using the kitty litter. So the birds got a special treat of a whole loaf of fresh warm Challah bread for Shabbat. I crumbled it up and put it outside for them. I have not been particularly happy with Luke lately. Yesterday morning he was sitting on the back of the couch behind me and he sneezed and I felt a booger hit my head. YUCK! I had just washed and brushed and styled my hair, but I went out and immediately washed it again because there was no way I was going through the day with cat boogerized hair.

I wasn’t going to mow the lawn today because we had had more rain overnight, but the forecast said the weather was clearing, Accuweather radar showed the rain had moved off to the east, and it hadn’t rained for several hours so I thought I’d risk it. I do like to mow the lawn before Shabbat and this week the Village is having a town festival (I think) and they like the town to look nice, so I went out and mowed the lawn. As I mowed, the sky got darker and darker, but I wasn’t worried because it wasn’t supposed to rain anymore today. I was mowing the back yard, which I always save until last, when it began to sprinkle and then rain lightly. I continued until I finished and only got somewhat wet. I guess forecasts can be wrong. It has been lightly raining ever since.

After mowing the lawn, I made potato salad because EJ asked to have some tomorrow. I’m also doing laundry. It’s been a rather busy day.