Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

I suppose Iowans will be glad that the storm moved on. Here’s our lawn today:

The university email system has been down since Sunday morning.  After spending lunch with a number of administrators, I can see that they are absolutely at a loss for things to do at work without it.  Me, I’m not terribly worried: it’s a great excuse to do something else for once!

Erin

Our housemate, Christi, recently got six chickens, so now this is a house of 3 cats (all confined to the house), 6 chickens (which roam the yard in the day), and 3 people. I am the only one of the house who didn’t grow up with chickens, so it’s been an interesting time around here. I’m disappointed to find they don’t seem to appreciate petting (my cat is much better for that), but I’m having a lot of fun chasing them around the yard. The eggs are, of course, quite welcome. And it’s always interesting hearing a low buuuu-wack! outside your bedroom window. The hens seem to fill their day with frequent muttering; they’re quite the old biddies. They are appropriately named Dorothy, Ethel, Ruth, Gladys, Martha, and Clara.

Erin

It continues to be a scorcher in these parts, with today’s high at 94 degrees.  To take a break from oozing into the couch cushions, Sydney and I went to campus, where the coolest spot I found happened to be at the gym . . . where I proceeded to get good and sweaty before I descended into the basement and realized the women’s showers were the same temperature as outside.  That’s the coldest shower I’ve taken in a good long while . . .

While we were on campus Sydney and I got to observe others making do in the heat.  Some looked like this weather was not for them, but there were plenty of young college girls skipping by with their hair down and not a glint of sweat on them.  We even saw some of the tight-shirt, tight-jean crowd.  Wearing Saran Wrap on a day like this?  Did you not check the weather?  Oh yes, and there appeared to be a sorority banquet going on this evening in a hall that doesn’t have air conditioning.  In our more charitable moments we pitied the girls as they waltzed in, wearing their best silk and satin.  Don’t ask about our less-charitable moments.

Erin

It’s currently 90 degrees, a temperature we’ve seen every day for the last few days, and the forecast shows the temperature will only go up this coming week.  Gross.  Neither Sydney nor I is a hot-weather kind of person, so we’re getting sticky, crabby, and sloth-inclined.  We’ve been doing some pretty heavy work in the garden yesterday and today, and our house is currently 88 degrees, so the college library is the only place left where we can hope to find it relatively cool.  But today we’re home and expecting company for dinner, so we finally turned on the air conditioner (we have a small one in the wall).  But it’s still in the high eighties.

And, oh yes, we have a major ant problem.  Not only did the ants make their way through our kitchen, but they seem to have made their home in our hollow front door (two feet away from our kitchen and pantry).  It’s war on ants and heat today!

Erin

I was trying to be really on-the-ball this year and had my taxes done before March, since I didn’t want to be doing taxes when Sydney got home from England. Cornell, however, had other plans for me, and sent me some paperwork quite late in the game that meant I had to redo the paperwork and figure in the new info before sending the forms in. Now, two-and-a-half months after submitting my taxes and after no word from the IRS, I call and find out that not only did they not send me a refund check, but they have no record of my having ever submitted a 1040 form for this year. I have a return receipt from the post office that shows that someone at the IRS signed for it, so I know it got to their office, but they apparently can’t find it. So I’ll be filling out my taxes for the third time this year. And oh yes, this is the one month of the year when Cornell doesn’t intend to pay us anything. Lovely all around . . .

Erin

I just got back from my visit to Iowa, where I saw my best friend from high school get married.  Way to go, Heidi and Mark!

Erin

Now that I’m home from Iowa and the conference is over, I can finally turn my attention back to the garden. It needs it. Today I decided to empty the coldframe. At least almost. I transplanted sixty tomato plants of nineteen varieties and fifty-two pepper plants of five varieties.

I think last year I put a picture of green tomatoes up. How about I feature a pepper this year? Here’s a picture of Ventura chile peppers from Johnny’s seed catalogue:

Sydney

This morning we dropped Sydney off at the airport so that he could return to Ithaca.  He made it in safely later this afternoon, and has been kept busy laying in the groceries, petting the cat, and setting house and garden to rights before the medieval-philosophy conference he’ll be attending begins tomorrow.

I have to say, I had great fun “hosting” my husband in my home community.  Iowa cooperated, with lovely nature trails, interesting birds for him to spy through his binoculars, and good weather for biking and exploring the Cedar Valley.

In my remaining days here I’m looking forward to more family time, reading a couple of good books, and helping Heidi prepare for her wedding.  I’ve got a good start: Mom and I did some shopping later today (can you believe I look forward to shopping in Iowa, even though I live in New York?), and the family sat out roasting s’mores over a fire late this evening.  The warmth from the fire made me too sleepy for reading, but I thought I would dash this off before heading to sleep.

Erin

The weather hasn’t improved since our arrival here, but that hasn’t kept us from getting outside. We’ve gone hiking at two parks and Erin and I have biked a good twenty miles in the last couple of days. There are great trails around here, especially for biking, that put to shame anything we have at home. From my perspective, of course, all these outings were essentially birdwatching expeditions. It’s still migrating season, so there are lots of birds around. I’ve even managed to add a few species to my list (e.g., Great Egret, Eastern Meadowlark, and Canada Warbler) even though upstate New York and Iowa share most species.

I don’t think my father-in-law was terribly impressed when I decided that the muddy trails with branches strewn across them from the recent flooding were great places to find birds. Oh, and there were hordes of mosquitoes. But it was also the best warbler watching that I’ve had in a long time.

Last night we sat on the porch for quite a while watching quite a spectacular lightning show. I’m quite sure that I’ve never seen that much lightning before in one night. Finding out later that the storm caused six deaths in the area added a more sobering perspective to the experience. We got some pretty gusty wind for a while and saw a great deal of lightning; Parkersburg got devastated by a tornado. It’s only about half an hour from here.

Sydney