Joe Pye with Bumblebee
And, with that, I really have to go clean my house. Or, at least, I have to put a loaf of bread on to bake and clean the living room. And vacuum. And maybe clean the bathroom. It wouldn’t hurt to do a couple of loads of laundry, either. I should also start thinking about what I’m going to make for supper, but before I can do that, I need to wash the dishes and sweep the kitchen floor.
I can think of about a million things I’d rather do than any of the above.
Full Moon
Stone
These are all (or mostly) previously posted photos that I’ve re-worked, now that I have a little bit of a clue how to go about it. My Photoshop skills are still pretty minimal, but hey, there’s a steep learning curve!
Skiff Moth Caterpillar (Prolimacodes badia)
Grasshopper
I pulled both of these out of the archive and re-edited them.
Joe Pye with Bumblebee
Thistle with Bumblebee
Cosmos with Bumblebee
I have another cat sitting job, starting Saturday and lasting until October 1st. It’s not fun to have to get up even earlier than I normally do, but it’ll pay for new brakes and tires, so, um, yay. And the cats are awfully sweet, which helps.
And speaking of cats…
Paws
Ms. Lea mentioned expiration dates, and I suspect that Pandora is nearing hers. She’s gotten increasingly frail and wobbly in the past year, and she sleeps about 23 hours a day. Basically, she’s finally looking and acting like an old cat. Her attitude is just as wonderful as it’s always been, though, so I’m not concerned. She’s had a good and long life, so as long as she stays happy, I won’t feel bad when she goes.
On a happier note, I pulled out some old flower photos and played around with them last night. I like the way this one turned out.
Spiderwort, Owen County, Indiana
Wheelbarrow and Bricks
Fall is starting in earnest! There are yellow patches beginning to peek through the trees. While walking Harriet last night, there were leaves crunching under my feet, and this morning, it was so chilly that I had to run back inside for a jacket. And the sky! It’s been the most spectacular pure blue color.
I love this time of year.
I found this photo in the heaps of junk we cleared away last weekend. It was probably taken in the last year or two at the Owen County fair. I liked the scratches and the messed up exposure, so I picked it up, intending to use it in a collage. But, first, I decided that it requires faux lomo-ization.
Mossy and Chaste
Did I mention that I renewed my lease? Well, I did, and not two days later, new tenants moved in across the hall from Mr. Upstairs. They are stompers, so every time they go up or down the stairs, the entire building knows about it. They are also stinky. Saturday evening and Sunday morning, the hallway reeked of really, really skunky pot. Then, Monday afternoon, it smelled like rancid garlic. This morning, it smelled like cheap-assed incense. I wonder if the incense had anything to do with the sneezing fit I had after returning from walking Miss Brown?
I just hope that our hallway doesn’t end up smelling like the main hall did after the Bumpasses moved in. It used to smell like clean laundry, but now it smells like rancid cigarette smoke. Someone keeps leaving the main door open, which makes me laugh. I’d want to air it out, too, if I lived over there.
I joked that, after removing the doll from beneath the skeleton of the broken dresser, we should have made a chalk outline. I think her arm finally turned up somewhere across the room, in yet another pile of junk.
This was taken after most of the worst debris was picked up. The book adds a nice touch of irony.
Stump, Owen County, Indiana
Clean up, as I said, was kind of a bitch. More like friggin’ unbelievable, actually. The place was flea infested (and so is my apartment, now, thankyouverymuch) and filthy. More of a toxic waste site than a home. Dirty clothes, used dishes, and toys lay in an ankle-deep, wall-to-wall carpet on the floor. The beds reeked of urine and were covered with cigarette butts and ashes. The sinks and toilets were encrusted with a thick layer of grime that, in at least one case, had sprouted a colony of maggots. The electricity was shut off in early June, which meant there was no pump for water. The family–including three small children–was bathing in pond water. Thankfully, CPS stepped in when the kids got staph infections and told them they had to move out immediately.
It was like something out of a horror film. I think my skin is going to be crawling for the next few days.
As I was was bagging up trash, I came across a cache of used Pampers that had been tossed into a corner of the bathroom. I caught myself thinking, for the umpteenth time, that these people were disgusting pigs. And then I immediately felt horrible. No one–and I mean no one–deserves to live like that. These people desperately needed help. They were in over their heads and didn’t have the resources or skills to get out. Every time I hear someone complain about lazy welfare mothers getting pregnant just so they can scam the system, I’m going to think of this family, and about the stingy, judgmental assholes who insist that being poor is a moral failing.
red paper boat 