Around OakMeadows

Around OakMeadows

What a crabby old lady I am if a couple of words will annoy me. But there it is, two words much in use today that make me gnash my teeth.  What are they? First is "hack" as in "50 Life Hacks to Make You Perpetually Happy."  Why not use the word, "Advice," or "Rules," or "Nonsense?" I think of Hacking as breaking into something that you are not supposed to get into.  Anyway, it annoys me.  The other word is "Trending."  That's how we ended up with Donald Trump. Everyone was so busy trending that they had no time or interest in thinking. I'm making a point of not reading or listening past the words Hack or Trending.  I think I'm a less irritated person by doing so.  

I read in yesterday's NYT about the nightmare situation in the hospitals in Venezuela.  It seems to me that someone must have stashed a whole lot of money in a Swiss bank account.  I don't know enough to speculate but I'd start with Chavez family and whoever was running the oil ministry.  Those poor people. Perhaps Doctors Without Borders or Partners in Health could set up clinics.  

I've finished reading The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner and Becoming Queen Victoria by Kate Williams.  Both were very interesting. I'll have a review of Williams' book later this week.  JMM and I finished our read out loud book, SPQR by Mary Beard and seldom have I ever been so glad to finish a book. What a disappointment!  We've started Basin and Range by John McPhee and it looks like it will be much better.  I've also started One True Thing by Anna Quindlen. So far so good. 

Making progress of my scrap 9-Patch quilt top. I'll finish all 25 blocks this evening and then start on making the 50 corner patches.  No progress at all on Starz. 

Rain and more rain. What a shame we can't send part of it to parched California.  The rice farmers are about the happiest people around these wet rainy days.  

We are having a bumper crop of baby barn swallows this year.  So far we have fledged 16 and at least one nest has a second brood. Everyone is very well fed. With all the rain come all the mosquitos.  When I'm washing all the baby bird poop off the porch, at least I know that all that poop used to be mosquitos. 

My elder cat, Bandit, is a the vet this morning.  I noticed last night a swelling on his lower right front leg and it was tender to any pressure.  So sure enough he had a wound that had healed over externally but formed an abscess underneath.  He is the best cat at the vet. He assumes everyone there just loves him and he eats up the attention. Listening to his heart and lungs is difficult because he won't stop purring.   They are going to put him under anesthesia and clean and drain the abscess.   He should be home by late this afternoon. 

Lots of good cooking going on today. I made a big bowl of tuna salad and this afternoon I plan to make peanut butter cookies.  Tomorrow I want to try a new recipe, Slow Cooker Turkey Meatball and Escarole Soup.  My grocer didn't have escarole so I am substituting spinach instead.  We will see how it turns out.  

When I was in school many years ago I took Spanish as my foreign language.  I've not been particularly diligent about keeping it up but I'm not a complete blank slate about it either.  My daughter took French as her foreign language and is using the Rosetta Stone program to bolster her facility with it.  Well, this inspired me to start the Program to refresh my Spanish. I am thoroughly enjoying it. 

Well, that's all the news from OakMeadows where the cats are all spoiled rotten and so are the people.