The Sound of Silence

We here in the northwest corner of the Pacific Northwest enjoyed a record hot, dry summer this year.  It was a job keeping the tomatoes and dahlias watered. And it was way too much work trying to keep the lawn green so we just let it turn brown and crunchy.  Aside from that, though, it was a very enjoyable summer with more sunny days than we’ve seen in years.

Apparently, however, the clouds are now trying to make up for their bad behavior. We’ve been deluged with rain over the past couple of weeks. For the fun of it, at 2:00 on October 31, I put an empty bucket in the backyard to measure the precipitation.  Over the past 15 days we’ve gotten over 8 inches of rain.  That’s a lot of wet.  Our road is now flooded, which it does when we gets lots of rain.  The grass is now green but the yard is a swamp.  And my feet end up swimming when I take my morning walk. It’s getting boring.

I woke up at 3:00 this morning and I heard the tinny sound of the rain in the downspout outside our bedroom window. It was not music to my ears.  At 6:00 I woke again.  And this time it was quiet. That was nice. The rain had stopped. I drifted off for another hour. At 7:00 I again woke and this time I got up.  And when I looked out the window I saw why the rain had stopped.  It had turned to snow!  Our bushes and grass were all covered in white.  I had to get closer to the window to get a better look.  Snow on November 15? I don’t remember ever having snow this early in the season.

But it was pretty and quiet and I think that was great.

One Woman’s Trash is One Woman’s Treasure

Some years ago hubby and I made friends with a couple who were not afraid to go dumpster diving.  They didn’t do it because they were poor or desperate.  They did it to find treasures. One time (and to be completely honest it may have been the only time) they dumpster dove they found dozens and dozens of packets of seeds. They were last year’s seeds but surely some of them would still sprout.  And for free, well, who can pass up a deal like that?

Today hubby and I went to the Goodwill Outlet store. Which has bins and bins of broken toys and stained clothing. But if you have time you can search through all of that junk and find a treasure or two. And then pay pennies for them.  I found a nice pair of pants; hubby found a couple of quilted of jackets; and we found some toys for the grandson.  Along with a perfectly round hula hoop.

But my favorite trash find for today was in my e-mail. Months ago I started having issues with my long term e-mail address so I set up a new one and stopped using the old one.  I check it once in a while but it’s mostly promotional  junk that I ignore. Today I checked both accounts because I had been expecting an email, for two days, from a friend.  Nothing.  Then it occurred to me that maybe it went to my Junk folder in my old address.  Like e-mails used to do. Which is why I stopped using that account and set up a new one.  And sure enough, there it was.  And not only did I find the email I was expecting but I also found a bunch of other e-mails that were good, important things!

So there you have it.  One woman’s junk e-mail is her treasure e-mail, too.