The weekly update: bobcat sighting, books, garden pix, and a small batch of memes
Good morning and happy Saturday! This week’s update will be a little short, because we’ve had a distinct lack of excitement here at Camp WTF. After today, I’ll be on vacation for a week, so I’ve spent this week working, working, working to get stuff done. And that’s after spending all weekend cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, because my son has a houseguest this week. This adulthood thing is a thrill a minute, I tell ya.
Before we get to all those thrills: This post is part of the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer; Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge, hosted by Cee’s Photo Challenges, and the What’s On Your Bookshelf Challenge, hosted by Deb, Sue, Donna, and Jo. Grab a treat, pull up a seat, and let’s get to it.
Our one moment of genuine excitement happened on our evening walk around the neighborhood on Tuesday, when we encountered this critter:
I’ve been to a bunch of national parks and wildlands, but the first time I see a bobcat outside of a zoo is in someone’s front yard in midtown Tucson. Go figure. Apologies for the poor picture quality, but all we had with us was my husband’s iPhone, and we weren’t going to get too close.
Let’s talk about books, baby…
I’ve complained in previous What’s On Your Bookshelf posts that I’m not reading as much this year as I usually do. I’ve been making more time to read in the last month, and it’s been wonderful. Less doomscrolling the news, less reading of angry rants on social media, more feeding my mind and soul. Yeah. Well, and a few long flights didn’t hurt either–lots of uninterrupted time to read at 37,000 feet.
Books I finished in the last month
- Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (Outlander #9) – Diana Gabaldon. This one started a little slow but turned out to be better than the last couple of Outlander books. I think she’s going to write one more in the series, and with this one, I could feel the pace picking up and the various threads coming together.
- The Midnight Lock (Lincoln Rhyme #15) – Jeffery Deaver. Another twisty thriller from Deaver.
- Cause of Death – Jeffery Deaver. Deaver short stories, including this one, made up the bulk of my airplane reading on my trip to and from New Orleans. Nothing like some fast-paced, twisty thriller action to make me forget I’m crammed into a too-small seat with too little leg room in a too-crowded metal tube hurtling through the stratosphere.
- Scheme – Jeffery Deaver. Another Deaver short story, this one about a poetry-obsessed serial bomber. Fun!
- Turning Point – Jeffery Deaver. Yep, it’s another Deaver short story.
Books I’m currently reading
AKA BILFs.
- Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick – Maya Dusenbery. Still reading this one for a book discussion group associated with my day job.
- Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence – Derald Wing Sue. Still reading this one for a different book discussion group associated with my day job.
- Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer’s Journey (Sisters in Crime the Writing Life, v. 3) – a collection of short essays by Sisters in Crime members about the writing life.
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2020 – C.J. Box (ed.). Kind of hoping this collection will inspire me to write a mystery short story for an anthology call. So far that’s not happening, but I’m enjoying the stories.
- After Dark – Phillip Margolin. I love me a good legal thriller, and so far this one has kept me turning pages.
In the garden
We’re heading into Giant Hair Dryer Season here in Satan’s Anus (when it’s hot and dry and windy, so every time you go outside, it feels like you’re being chased by a giant hair dryer). At least we’re back under 100F (barely).
Most plants don’t much like Giant Hair Dryer Season. Our roses are slowing down (partly because Giant Hair Dryer Season has coincided with Aphid Invasion Season), the peas are dead, and several of my newly-transplanted petunias are now dearly-departed petunias. But we do have some good news: the peony poppies are finally blooming!
I’m sharing this one as part of Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge.
The calendulas are also putting on a show:
And here’s a shot of most of the backyard. My neighbor’s white oleanders are lookin’ fine!
Mid-may marks the beginning of Oh, Hell No season in the garden, as in: I should weed/deadhead/mulch, but it’s the approximate surface temperature of Venus outside, so oh, hell no. I’ll resume gardening when monsoon season starts, sometime between mid-June and early July (if we’re lucky).
On that note, let’s get to the part everyone’s been waiting for…
The memery
This week’s crop of memes is a little smaller than usual, but there are a few gems in here. First, the old fart section:
That’s me literally every single morning, especially during allergy season. Benadryl hangovers are awful.
Fellow children of the 70s and 80s will relate to this one:
True story: I once stepped into a pool of something like quicksand on my husband’s grandmother’s property outside of Camas, Washington. It was this weird, sandy mud. I sank down to about my waist and could. not. get. out. Long-Suffering Husband had to pull me out. A similar thing happened with snow on Mt. Hood a few years later–fell through about 5 feet of snow (crusty on top, soft underneath) and couldn’t get myself out without help from Long-Suffering Husband. So maybe all those 70s and 80s quicksand scenes were warnings I should have heeded.
Or maybe the Pacific Northwest was trying to kill me.
Speaking of the Pacific Northwest:
At least we get to look at cool things in the sky down here in Satan’s Anus… right before we spontaneously combust from the heat.
This kid’s mom was a freakin’ genius:
Here’s some more quality reasoning:
I’ve wanted a tank for years. It would have been so much fun in Southern California traffic.
Or Portland traffic.
Or Seattle traffic.
And speaking of people wanting things they can’t have:
And finally, if you’ve ever had cats, you’ll relate to this one:
That’s it for me this week. How about y’all? What’s happening in your world?
19 Comments
Bobbiem91
You poor thing. I get that Satan’s anus. It was 42 when I go up this morning and is only 67 right now 9:30 am I’ll be in Phoenix next week…yuck. 102 yesterday there. I wanted to thank you for the great laugh with the memes. Just went through giving a cat a pill for 2 weeks. Still have the scratches to prove it. And the tank. I wanted one so bad in FL. Miami has the WORST idiots on the road.
Janet Alcorn
I’ve heard about Miami drivers. Atlanta drivers are awful too. Ditto for Houston. I’m convinced Southern hospitality stops at the steering wheel.
Sorry you have to go to hell…er, I mean Phoenix next week. It’s even hotter than here. Bleah.
Gary A Wilson
Hahahahaha
Yes – to the PNW meme, except in my case, it was Kirkland Wa where I went to college.
My wife loves to tell how there was more sunshine for our Dec. wedding in San Jose, CA than during the first 2 years of living with me in Kirkland.
Rude – but not far from true.
Janet Alcorn
I get it. I went to grad school at the U of Washington in Seattle. Gloomiest place I’ve ever lived. Seattle is beautiful, but I wouldn’t live there again.
Jo
Go Tell The Bees That I’m Gone seems like SUCH a commitment! And as much as I want to read it I’m not sure I’m ready for that sort of commitment. I laughed at your gardening woes. I do the same re weeding and mulching in summer – complain about it being too hot and I’ll deal with it when it’s cooler. The problem being that this summer we had a years worth of rain in February (no exaggeration it really was a year’s worth of rain in a few days), more in April, and May is now also the wettest May on record and my weeds are loving it! Thanks for linking up.
Janet Alcorn
Bees is great if you’re an Outlander fan. Longer=more time to spend with Jamie, Claire, Roger, Bree, and everyone. If you’re not a big fan, then yeah, it’s a lot.
I’m jealous of all that rain. I’m a sunny weather person, but we could really use the water.
Natalie
Your poppies look gorgeous. I hope that bobcat stays out in the wild and doesn’t get any closer to humans. Thank you for your #weekendcoffeeshare.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! The bobcat seemed pretty uninterested in us, so I’m afraid it’s already too used to humans.
leannelc
Hi Janet – I raced through Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (I’m a big fan of Diana Gabaldon) and found it interesting that you said there’s only one more in the series to go – it’s a long wait between books, but it’ll be sad when they finish. As a cat owner, the Hercules meme always gives me a smile.
Janet Alcorn
Last I heard, she was only going to write one more. I’ll be sad too when the series is over—and I really hope she doesn’t kill off a bunch of characters. I’ll be a nervous wreck the whole way through the last one.
Susanne
Haha, I love your memes! That last one about cats, and the Oregon one were my favourites. I can so relate to the Oregon one. When Met Éireann says “there’ll be a heatwave this weekend!” and Donegal and Dublin gets up to 30 degrees while West Cork is like 14 degrees and wind. Every time. Your garden looks very nice by the way! But I can imagine the temps are not so friendly in the summer there.
Janet Alcorn
Oof, that’s a big temperature difference!
Thanks for the kind words! And yeah, our summer temps are rough. We’re supposed to be back over 100F starting tomorrow. *sigh*
Debbie
Hi Janet, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bobcat before! I’m currently trying to get through Go tell the bees…I’m listening to it as I walk and it’s taking forever but then they are all big books so I shouldn’t be too surprised. It’s good 🙂 Great to have you join us with your list of books – some very interesting titles there! I always enjoy your memes too.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! The audio for Bees is wonderful (as it is for all the Outlander books). I could listen to Davina Porter read the phone book 🙂
Deborah Drucker
We feel like we’re in a furnace by mid-summer. The peony poppies are beautiful.
Janet Alcorn
Ugh, I feel your pain. We’re supposed to be back in triple digits starting tomorrow–and probably lasting till October. *sigh*
Deborah Drucker
Yuck. Stay as cool as possible.
Kirstin
That meme about Oregon was hilarious and so true…I live about 30 minutes from Camas. Your yard looks amazing. I love peonies. My hubby saw a bobcat on one of his walks…I haven’t seen one.
Janet Alcorn
We lived just north of Beaverton for 14 years, and my husband lived in Camas when he was a kid. And yeah, that meme is spot on.