RED WHITE AND BLUE

 HAPPY HAPPY Fourth of July!!!  Time to celebrate the Red White and Blue!!  Another month just sailed by like a ghost ship.  I guess that's what happens when you are otherwise occupied.  We had a lovely overnight low of 81 degrees.  Feels like Arizona!!  You only go outside to go to your air conditioned car, and then to the air conditioned store and back.  High yesterday was 104 on my shady patio.

It's been weird, to say the least.  There were NO fireworks last night.  Not even one tiny little BOOM.  Did I get transported to another planet?  It's a miracle, to say the least.  It's been sixteen years since that happened, and that's because I had the only occupied house among the bankruptcies.

So there I was, sitting in front of my fan sipping a cup-o-joe when the phone rang.  "We have a CONTROLLER".  You're kidding ... overnight?  Lucky me, the exact one required was just 60 short miles away.  They showed up at 8:30.  I can't sing their praises enough!!

Here she is ... the new fancy dancy "electronic" controller.  She hums like a purring kitten.  Did you notice anything else Nancy?  Why yes I did ... for whatever reason, the check valve that has not been working for the past two years, is now doing its job.  No more banging pipes in the house every time you turn on a faucet ... or start the washing machine.  No wall vibration, no weird humming and no clunking.  It's so quiet, it's amazing!  OH THE RELIEF!

No idea of the price yet ... but whatever it is, it will be worth it.

I celebrated by going to the grocery store.  This is just so weird.  It was empty.  You would think the day before the Fourth of July, it would be packed.  Nope ... I saw maybe 5 folks.  I was in and out in a flash.

Lunch was an experiment.  I keep seeing my Canadian friends eating pork and beans.  That was an old staple around the ranch ... you just put the can on the fire and heated it up.  I thought to try adding some of my pulled pork to it.  Sounded good to me .... but it went all wrong.

First up ... what happened to Campbells Pork 'n Beans?  The beans are bigger, the liquid not near as thick as it used to be and there's no smoky sweet flavor.  When did they change the recipe?  Bland, watery ... nothing at all like I remember.  Oh I ate it, but I was highly disappointed, especially since it was $3.99 for that can.  

To make it all better, I baked some Red Lobster biscuits.  Nothing beats these garlicy buttery beauties.

I packed a few more things in the van, trying to figure out where to put stuff.  I've got two huge bags of camera gear, a small barbecue, an EMS surge protector and no place to put them.  I'll get it sorted out eventually ... probably after I've been on the road for a couple of weeks.

It was just too darn hot to do anything, so I sat with Mr. Cooper and tried to work on this quilt.  It's hard when someone is in your face nose to nose wanting to play the ball game.  

Poor guy ... he was as hot as I was.  And so the clippers came out.  This is his LEAST favorite pastime ... getting a haircut.  

I persisted, chopping and hacking away until he was much less fluffy.  Hard to tell the difference, but he's much happier being much cooler.  I know that because we then had to play on the floor for an hour!!!

My plan for smoked ribs and potato salad went out the window when I saw the price of ribs, so I'm having a Hello Fresh kind of day.  I guarantee there will be NO pork 'n beans, and hopefully NO fireworks.  We'll see how that goes!!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!  I'm celebrating with a shower and a big glass of cold water!!!