A Whizz Bang of a Day for the Frogs

The rain began in the middle of the night. Frog smiles lit up the night. The farm was aglow with a lovely yellow light all day. The rain flooded the Gopher Turtle's house on the ditch bank and she escaped just in time. The fire ants are hanging onto the grass blades and taking their ire out on any leg that passes by.

David and I have sloshed from here to there. It is a warm rain and working in warm rain is better than sweating. You get just as wet, but don't suffer from dehydration. We have had seven inches of rain in less than 12 hours.

When I first came to Florida from Arizona, it rained to beat the band. A whole 10 inches in a matter of two hours. Two hours later, there was not water on the street, the lawn was not sogged out, and I was amazed. In Arizona, a couple of inches and the Salt River, normally a dry river bed, will be a raging torrent of water and people will be stranded and needing rescues.

Rain is why I love this place. Rain is why the flowers do grow. hahaha.. I wax poetic.

Love,
Betty

Betty,

We have had four straight days of rain. Yesterday we had the heaviest rain since August 2008. We have finally broken our drought. We had flash flood warnings out yesterday, too. Even the warnings are a good thing. Rain is beautiful. I had forgotten how it looked, sounded, and smelled.

Ann

Dear Ann,
When I was a child, my senses were all intact. Nothing dulled by cigarettes, polution or anything else. I remember the smell of rain, then. Rain that was coming. Rain not yet arrived. A dusty, nitrogen smell. I think there is some connection with the chemicals of this earth that make those smells a nice thing to smell even in our human sophistication. An excitement of the senses.

The smell of mud cracking in the sun. Dragonflies overhead.

The smell of cotton in my hand. The seeds and the cotton fuzz. Unique smells.


My daughter, who has never picked cotton, brought me from Alabama some cotton bolls. I put them in the vase that my foster mother got when she went to the Holy Land and got a vase carved from an olive tree that she believed Christ had passed on his way to the cross. All these things are wonderful to me. I keep them on my shelves as reminders.

Reminders of the beauty and toil of this world, the yearning and hope, no matter how futile, the spirit that is me and how I got to be here in this little space to write these little words.

Love,
Betty

Love,
Betty

Betty, I have not picked cotton since I was five. I posted about that experience on Phil's farming thread. One thing I remember about cotton bolls was that they had seeds. My grandfather told me about cotton gins, and how they removed the seeds by machine. I remember trying to remove the seeds myself, and how hard it was.

It has been ten years since my senses were dulled by nicotine, but the effects are still there, as is the occasional desire.

I remember reading that nicotine increased the amount of dopamine sent to the brain's frontal lobes. I think my dopamine is still playing catch-up.

I am having one of my Sunday evening reveries. Lynn and Chris just left. His parents were not here tonight. They were visiting Chris' brother Todd and his family. We Skyped with Dave and Lyn. Jaycie paid no attention to us. She was too focused on their computer keyboard. I told them to be careful, since Emmalisa and her brother got swept into their computer that way (sort of), but little Jaycie was in her own world. She gets more beautiful every time I see her. We all agreed that she looks more and more like her mother. I wish I knew how to capture a glimpse of her. I would share it with everybody.

As we were Skyping, it started raining here again.

This has been a totally delightful evening of Chicken Veronique and Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Shallots and Sage Leaves. Linda (Chris' mother) does not care for Brussels sprouts, but they are one of Lynn's favorites, so I planned tonight's dinner around them.

I solved the wine dilemma, at least for now, with a Black Box of Cabernet Sauvignon. Everyone was pleased, including me. I think I will leave you all and have another glass.

Ann

OK, I give up. What is Skyping?

Skyping is a way to communicate live through your computer. The only cost is for a little mini-cam that hooks into the computer. Dave and Lynn gave me one for Christmas last year. Skype is a free, downloadable program. Using it is also free. We use the computer to visit - like a phone call, but we can see each other while we talk. Since Jaycie (and her parents) lives so far away, it's our way to watch her grow up. It's pretty cool.

Ann

Thank you, Ann. Don't think I want one.

I wouldn't want one either, Dick, if it didn't give me a way to watch my granddaughter growing and changing. I've only spent real time with her for a few days a couple of months ago. She will be here for Thanksgiving, but that's still months away. And I can turn off the video from my end, if I want. We schedule our "visits," though, so I have time to put on make-up, etc.

Ann

If others can eavesdrop into normal telephone conversations, will they be able to peek in and see who's doing the talking?

A few years ago Skype was just merely a means of getting free phone calls via your PC it offered that facility for free only between other members of the Skype network. I used to comunicate with my brother in law over it saving huge long distance phone charges. Skype caused a lot of changes in the telecom industry to happen. Now days companies often use this sort of setup for meetings.
I never used a webcam back then and still don't.