Wait August, slow down!

 One of the signs that summer is coming to a close for us, is a heavy dew at night. I noticed it this morning along with the other usual signs of nature preparing for the big sleep.

 Tomorrow will be the tenth of August already! Slow down August! To be honest, I found July went by slowly so I didn't feel like summer was whizzing past, until now that is. I see it's still dark at five in the morning, the birds stopped singing in the morning as well. At night it's silent, no frogs, no tree toads just silence. I imagine the crickets will take over soon. Last night I walked outside barefoot and was surprised by how cold the ground felt. Lately the ground has been warm, even hot in some places. The inevitable is coming, no use denying it.

 I have been reading about the events happening at pride. I suddenly feel too old to be gay lol, everything seems geared towards youth. In fairness, they are much more likely to come and take part. Most of the older gay people I know who are forty plus, don't bother going anymore. I can understand the reasons but I feel this year maybe people better speak out again because the bigots have found their voices!

 I was going to try and get James to go with me but I changed my mind, I think it would be like taking a grandparent with me. He has lived thirty minutes from the parade all his life and never went once, it's not my duty to make him go. Nobody I know is going, that's upsetting because nothing is worse than standing there alone. I'm thinking of putting a sign on my back, "husband wanted" if nothing else, it will sure get attention. This is so typical of me to show up alone, I've been doing this my whole life. There are some people that would probably go with me but they're boring. I can just hear them, "oh that music is too loud" or "oh no I never dance", "I'm not interested in seeing drag Queens, watching gay dj's spin records, sitting around all day waiting for a parade, having fun, oh heavens no... I'm totally against that", so I will probably end up going alone. However I am not so shy anymore, I will speak to strangers, maybe I will meet people. I'm also interested in seeing if anyone from work will be there, that would be funny, I have a whole string of smart ass comments to use. My strange life however will be the following, I will go and see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of total strangers... but that's ok, I'm used to it.

Random photos & thoughts

 Did you know that onions flower? They will if you leave them a second year. I didn't pull all the onions out before the ground froze last fall, some came back up. They will divide and flower but you are supposed to stop it. I let someone flower, just because they have cool flowers.

 Washing machine massacre!!! I posted before about not wanting to throw out comfy clothes items, this includes hats. I decided to try washing one of my favorite caps. I have washed it in the past but this cap is really old. It was my Dad's special cap, he would only wear it to go to a country fair or something along those lines. When he died, I took it and wore it to work every day until it turned yellow and became worn out looking. It didn't survive the wash. :(

 Thanks to everyone's tips, I made perfect bacon! Crispy and delicious, I am a master at making bacon. All the years of burning it and nobody told me the secret! Anyway now I can do a breakfast and not be worried about my bacon.

 Speaking of onions, my garden is doing well, I didn't really plan on having one, maybe just a few tomatoes and spinach etc; however vegetables are so expensive here lately and they are tasteless. I decided to scale back and often "less is more". There is not a lot of up keep with the way I planned it. I try to have at least one meal a day that is 95% from the garden.

 I miss not having cows but I just don't have the time, my neighbour keeps some of his here for the summer. They keep the place clipped down so it's good to have them around.

 "Be sure to get my good side darling".

 A few days ago, after a hot muggy heatwave, the air turned cool and dry, that cool dry air hit a cold front and before my eyes in a matter of minutes, created this line of clouds in the sky, the sun was setting which made it even prettier.

 That's when this heavenly being appeared to me and told me that God loves his little  LGBTQ children and that's why he made them so fabulous!

 The End.

Dance?

 The question of the day is easy, do you like to dance? Yes or no, do you like to shake a little booty, wiggle a little jiggle, twerk a little tushie? Weather you are shy and only do it in small groups or expressive and jump around at a mega party.  I used to love dancing, one of the things I was excited about when I first started to know gay men, was the idea of having guys I could go out dancing with. Gay friends who would dance, unlike my straight friends who wouldn't and couldn't dance to save their lives... boy was I wrong! Lucky me, I became friends with every gay man that hates dancing, they nervously wanted to hug the walls at every party or dance club. If I did manage to get one up, they moved like a robot who's joints have rusted, like most white guys older than thirty.

 To be completely honest, my high school in the city had a positive dance culture among the guys, it was great, I never knew such a thing existed, guys just didn't seem to dance anywhere else in Canada. My buddies would actually peel shy little me off the wall and pull me out onto the floor, fortunately I have the gay dance genes and I would have a blast! Sometimes it was all the guys together, the jocks, the preps, the casual guys in one large group, very homoerotic and I wasn't about to complain!

 Unfortunately when I was dating Dan, he hated dancing and to be honest.. that was a good thing, he used to draw attention to himself on the dance floor and not in a good way if you catch my meaning. I remember one fall, four of us went to Montreal, one of the guys was from England and actually liked to have fun, we went to a dance club and I finally had someone to shake it up with. I remember the awesome feeling of looking out over a large dance floor with a sea of gay men dancing. It gave me a sense of belonging.

 It's my opinion that, whether you dance or not says something about your personality, at least with regards to men, gay or straight. I don't mean that in a negative or positive way, I just notice patterns in people's behaviors. I have a feeling I can already guess who does and doesn't like to dance in the blogosphere but I'm curious. Now back to my question, do you like to dance?

The bean harvest & other exciting news!

 One of the things I love about summer is having a vegetable garden, I love fresh veggies, unlike in the stores they have... what's that word.. oh yes.. flavor! On that list of fresh vegetables is burgundy Bush beans. Like yellow beans but less woody, slightly better flavor and they keep producing from mid summer until frost. This spring it was an adventure finding the seeds. Most stores didn't carry them this year for some reason and by the time I found some, it was getting late in the year. After running around from store to store, making a garden bed for them and sowing the seeds, I came inside to put the extra seeds in the cupboard for a second planting in two weeks. When I opened the cupboard door, there was a full packet of seeds already sitting there. I apparently bought extra last year and never thought to check d'oh!

 One of my friends asked me if I had planted my purple beans, (they actually look more purple than burgundy) I answered yes and took this photo of my little bean plants growing.

 I was so happy with my little bean-e-babies. UNTIL!!! Da da dummm! Here's the dramatic part.

 Something wicked comes our way!!!

 What is that! It looks bad! Run for your lives! Thunder! Lightening! Heavy winds that destroy trees and... hail, lots and lots of hail!

 Where's my beans! There was no joy in beanville that day, only sadness, call a veg-terinarian! Look at my poor spinach in the following picture, can you even see any!

 Anyway, I didn't touch anything for about two days, by then the plant will begin to either recover or it will have died. It looked like the cast of Riverdance did a scene run.. through my garden. :(...

After about two weeks you would never know something happened to them.

Now they are a little bean forest and doing well, the second group I sowed is almost as big as the first group but best of all, I was able to eat fresh burgundy beans yesterday, yum.

  My happy ending to the bean saga.. and as an added bonus, with these beans there's no tooting! The end.

Sci Fi Horror or Reality?

 I heard something the other day that made my stomach feel sick. Apparently they created a monkey/human hybrid. It was created by western doctors but they had to go to China  because ethical countries wouldn't allow it. I fear what that country will do as they increase their technology. I'm all for research but they need to be cautious, we can't start playing god. The reason they did this is to create mankey farms where we can harvest the organs of the little mankeys to be transplanted into humans.  I felt that was sick beyond belief.

 I'm not totally sure how this is supposed to work, they were saying that they would alter the human/animal so that it wouldn't develop thinking capabilities like a human. I feel that they will secretly do this anyway, just to see the results because those people (mad scientists) always pull these kinds of stunts. I wonder when they start slaughtering them, is that harvesting the organs or murder.

 I can see the other side, your loved one is dying, they just need a new kidney, heart or lungs and you would do anything for them. The doctors tell you that there is only one chance left, he says they have mankeys with human organs growing inside, genetically engineered to be a perfect match. Do you let someone you love die or do they have the surgery. Same for yourself, are you ready to die or do you have the surgery. The article pointed out that there are already pigs growing human organs so it's not something new. The Chinese doctors said it's a win, win already with the pigs, you get human organs for surgery and then after really tasty bacon. I made that last part up, they never said "tasty bacon", it was "pork stir fry". That's also not true.

 Maybe not in western countries but who can tell the future, I just have this fear that someday they will have large cages of human-ish creatures, which have been altered to have a basic brain that only lets them survive... and we keep cutting chunks out of them until we have used up everything and they die. It was reported that after proving it could be done, they terminated the fetus. As if that is supposed to reassure us, the only reason you try to see if something came be done, is so you can do it repeatedly. Like some sci fi story from an old twilight zone episode, horror becomes reality.

No coffee for me thanks. : (

 I quit drinking coffee about three weeks ago and I find that I don't miss it. Nope, just kidding, that's a pile of bull bleep, man oh man would I ever enjoy a cup right now! I was never a big coffee drinker, I actually only started drinking coffee regularly about fifteen years ago, with breakfast. It was during the hour earlier spring time change, I couldn't snap out of feeling sleepy at work. My friend and coworker suggested I try a cup of coffee, "HELLO" it worked great! After that I started having a cup of coffee in the morning before work. Mostly just the instant stuff which is supposed to be milder on the system. Sometimes I would enjoy a "real" coffee from a coffee shop.

 When I started working where I am now, I was told the coffee was free and so I would sometimes enjoy a cup with lunch or one in the afternoon if I felt sleepy. That changed this year, I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or I have developed some type of intolerance towards it but coffee makes me feel crazy. I feel terrible after having a cup, I feel hyper, I feel anxious like something bad is about to happen, my hands shake, I sweat like I ran upstairs and some days I feel dizzy. I decided no more.

 I guess that I shouldn't be surprised by the addiction to it because it is a type of drug. I certainly miss it and in the morning I am constantly thinking about how much I would love a cup. I have tried having tea instead but that's just a cup of disappointment, there's nothing wrong with tea, I like it as well but when you are wanting a cup of coffee, it just won't do. I read that growing coffee is bad for the environment, so I guess I'm saving the planet, at least there's that. Steve want coffee. : (

The End is Nigh! Ugh.

 August first or as we say in Canada, "ahhh crap! It's the first of August, summer will soon be over, bleep "! I already noticed last night as I was driving home  along the river, the land is lower there and even though it was only 7:40 p.m. the sun was not able to shine there, it was already blocked by the hills to the west. Fall is coming, everyone look busy! For us in this area, September is completely unpredictable, it could be hot and humid like summer or cold with frost at night.

 I always have a "hurry up and get things done feeling" when August comes. Any outdoor painting etc, only has about four weeks left to be done. Anyway today is a beautiful sunny day, no humidity, gorgeous actually so I'm going to get my butt in gear.

 I know it's silly but I always feel sad for the garden plants and flowers that no one bought in the stores. I hate walking by and seeing them there, like a sad puppy, hoping that someone will give them a home. Especially for the ones abused by the people taking care of them that don't know or care about them, half dead, half dried out and a sick yellow/green colour. Sometimes I buy last minute plants on sale just to give them a happy home. It's too late now and I have enough this year. Sorry little tomato plants and flowers, you will never know love, you are headed for the garbage. :(... poor little girls. Seriously I'm way too empathetic!