A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.

You already have zero privacy - get over it

Pet peeve time . . . do you know what annoys the crap out of me?  Of course you don't, so I'm going to tell you.  I hate it when people use a public bathroom as a private phone booth. 

For those of you who grew up in the 1990’s may not be familiar with this nearly obsolete 20th century necessity.    For the un-initiated and/or clueless . . . a telephone booth is a small structure furnished with a payphone; often, but not necessarily, with a door to provide privacy.   When I was a kid you always carried a dime in your pocket just in case you had to make an emergency phone call.  When I was in high school it was up to a quarter . . . now, mostly everyone has cell phones, hence the obsolescence. 

Besides using a phone booth for making calls, they were once used for a fad called . . . appropriately enough . . .  phonebooth stuffing.  As the name implies, the point was to get as many people into the 80”x32”x32” space as possible.  It was considered "one of the all-time great fads” of 1959 but the craze had come and gone within the year.

Anyhoo, I find it irritating to walk into a public potty room to do . . . uhm . . . you know my thing and to find someone chatting away.  It’s especially annoying when their actually using the toilet and talking at the same time. 


I'm  better about it in my old age, but I've always been self conscious about going to the bathroom with other people around.  It's bad enough to have to use a public bathroom with other people constantly coming in and going out but to have to someone talking on a cell phone while trying to peeps or poops takes the discomfort to a whole new level.

Okay, so there I am  . . . er . . . doing my thing.  I know the sound of my thing is reverberating off the walls of the small room . . . and I know the person on the other end of the call can hear what I’m doing.    


To add a little fun into the mix I bring my phone into the stall with me.  No, not to make an annoying phone call.  There is a whoopee cushion app on my phone that makes some awesome nearly authentic arse muzak.  

Whoopee cushions are fun . . . and the fact that someone took the time and effort to invent one is proof that farts are funny.  And to develop an application to simulate the sounds of a whoopee cushions that emulates that sound of flatulence is further proof.

ANYhoo, so when I’m done doing my thing do I flush?  Do I not flush?  

You know what?  F^ck it . . . I gonna flush dammit.  Let the person on the other end of the phone no where exactly their phone call is made from.  Think about it . . . do YOU want to talk to someone while their pooping?  Ew . . .

Ssplooooooooosssssssssssssshhhhhhh gurgle gurgle gurgle.

Standing by the sink and talking is one thing, but still . . . 

If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive. ~American Quaker Saying

Harvestmen . . . AKA Daddy Longlegs . . .  are arachnids, but they are not spiders.  Kind of like ants are insects but not dragonflies. Harvestmen have one body section and spiders have two).  They have only two eyes and spiders have eight.  They have a segmented abdomen and spiders don't.  They don't make webs, silk, venom . . . and . . . surprise, surprise . . . . they don't all have long legs.  

These are some photos I took of one I happened by.  Cool beans!

How my garden grows - We have met the enemy and he is . . . a bug

Cucumber beetles . . . harmless looking but devastating.  The larvae look like hairy horse snots, the juveniles are a longer yellow bug with racing stripes and the adults look like large rust colored ladybugs. They may look a bit like lady bugs but they are in no way beneficial to your garden . . . especially your cucumber and squash plants.     

I wrote about these evil critters when they appeared in my garden last year  . . . see this post and that post.  Yeah . . . they're back.  I am not going to allow them the pleasure of munching on my plants.  I will take whatever action necessary to eradicate these little buggers from my garden.

Spotted cucumber beetles do not overwinter in northern areas but migrate in from southern states each year, arriving around June.  Look for them every couple of days . . .  since cucumber beetles like shade, examine the undersides of cotyledons, young leaves, and stems.

The good news is that they have natural predators: Tachnid flies, soldier beetles, parasitic nematodes and braconid wasps. Lacewings and ladybugs eat the eggs.  And, bats.

Some effective cultural controls are spreading any type of onion skins on the soil around the planted areas and deep mulch of straw or other organic materials tohelp prevent the larvae from emerging from the soil and keep immature insects from walking from plant to plant.  

They don’t like radishes so, plant radish seeds right in the hills with the cucumber or squash plants. Also, any type of beans are a deterrent.

Since they like the shade, trick them!  Flatten a square of aluminum foil around the base of plants to bounce light on the undersides of leaves. This also helps the plants in giving them more light!

I am going to try my homemade insecticide against them; which is completely organic.  However, chemical insecticides are also effective against all stages of the cucumber beetle life cycle . . . but, obviously, not organic.

A rose is a rose is a rose unless it's a daisy

A day in the garden - update

Hubby and I went away for a week for a much needed and well deserved vacation.  I was worried about the garden . . . was it getting enough water, would the weeds be taking over, did some beastie ravage the plants?


I was happily surprised . . . mostly.  The tomato plants looked a little wilted and there is A LOT of weeding to do, but overall the garden looks pretty darn good.


The pea plants vines are managing to find their way to the fencing we set up for them to climb.  There's purslane popping up all over, I can't wait for a yummy salad of the greens!  There are developments in the radish and jalapeño plants . . . they are starting to bear fruit!  An unexpected surprise was bean plants popping up miscellaneously all over the garden . . . we didn't plant them but there they are . . . I can't wait to see what kind of beans they turn into because I have no clue.  And, finally, I planted a couple of sunflower plants given to me by the innkeeper of the motel where we stayed (and always stay) on our vacation.


I love to see the progress that can be seen from day to day . . . stay tuned!

Worms are yucky . . .

Talk about being freaked out?  I went to go potty and there was a dark colored worm in my toilet.  It was all wriggly and squirming around the bottom.  I thought I was going to hurl . . . of course, my first reaction was to flush the toilet.  Number 1, because I didn’t want a worm in there while I was using the toilet and Number 2 . . . I had to do a number two.

Nobody had used that toilet for at least ten hours, it had been flushed, and it was clean.  So, where did the slimy did unwanted visitor come from?

Ironically, I hadn't been feeling well for some time so I broke down and went to the doctor.  I usually don’t go to the doctor unless I think I’m dying, so you know I was concerned.  Anyhoo, the doc did all kinds of tests, drew seven tubes of blood and sent me for x-rays.   Thankfully all of my tests came back normal and the doctor declared me healthy . . . although still unsure what was causing my symptoms.

So, the same day I get the results back I come home from work to find the worm swimming around in the toilet bowl. 

I immediately Googled “worm in my toilet” and came up with scads of hits on the subject.  I directly went to the sites that discussed human parasites.  Without getting too graphic, I think I can pretty safely say that the worm didn’t come out of my body.  Parasitic worms don’t look anything at all like earthworms and what I saw looked exactly like your standard garden wiggler. 

It didn’t come from me or hubby . . . I don’t think . . . and the cat is strictly indoors so I know she didn’t drag it in from outside.  So, how in the heck did it get there? 

We had been getting a lot of rain . . . like nine straight days worth . . . and much if it was solid downpours.  There is a possibility that the water levels in the sewers are so high that it made its way into my bathroom.    Apparently, it’s fairly common . . . it’s just a first for me. 

Okay . . . that’s a reasonable explanation.  But the thing was very much alive.  I thought worms drowned in water.  Further research uncovered that earthworms can survive for several weeks under water providing there is sufficient oxygen in the water to support them.

Earthworms don’t have lungs. Instead the blood flowing close to the worm's surface absorbs oxygen and releases carbon dioxide directly through the moist skin.  They can actually live for some time in water if the oxygen supply is adequate. They don't drown per se, but they may suffocate if the oxygen content is low.   But, they do need to eat, so if I had left it there it would have eventually starved to death.

I read one story where a guy had been feeding night crawlers to the Oscars in his fish tank.  Three months after he had stopped feeding the worms to his fish he unearthed a pair of them that had been living happily in the gravel and muck at the bottom of the tank.  They were, in fact, very healthy . . . that is until the Oscars spotted them.

 

As a side note . . . evidently, earthworms don’t come to the surface after a rainstorm to avoid drowning . . . as I had always thought.  But rather to find a mate since their mobility is much better on wet ground.

All of this yuckiness reminds me of a movie I saw at a drive-in as a kid.  It was a 1976 horror flick called Squirm.  Basically, the movie is about a storm that causes some power lines to break and touch the ground, drawing millions of man-eating worms out of the earth, and into a town where they quickly start munching on the locals . . . from the inside out.  Yep, pretty gross, I know.

I distinctly remember the shower scene . . . yeah; all good terror films gratuitous nudity inserted wherever possible . . . even if it’s not plausible or adds nothing to the plot line. Anyhoo . . . the hot babe was showering and earthworms were pouring out of the showerhead onto her unrealistically bodacious body.  I also remember a one particular “sex” scene.  The chick was sleeping in her bed when she feels what she thinks is her lover fondling her . . . uh . . . love muffin.  So she’s moaning and writhing around the bed in ecstasy until she realizes that it’s not her lover but the worms visiting her in her bed.  Uh huh . . . ew!  Who comes up with this crap?

Anyhoo . . . worms are gross.