Outside My Window ~ 8.29.10

Outside My Window…is a sunshine, blue skies with a few white puffy clouds.  The temperature at 10:45 is 82ºF with about 60% humidity.  It feels pretty warm when you walk outside.  Forecast today is for the upper 80’s with no rain.  That seems to have been the mantra for most of our summer…..no rain.  We have managed to squeeze a few drops here and there to keep things from completely dying….but the ground is quite dusty and could use a few days of water.  But…..be careful what you wish for this time of year because we are heading into the heart of the tropical and hurricane season right now and there are some storms a-brewin’ in the Atlantic.  Hurricane Danielle missed the States completely by staying well off shore to our east.  I understand we are in the area of the greatest risk for large waves and rip currents from that storm, but no other issues for us here.  Hurricane Earl could be another story.  The projected path is showing him staying off coast at the moment, but because it is at least five days away, that is subject to change.  I did notice that on the projected path map it noted that Earl, right now a Category 1 storm, would be a Category 3 storm with winds at 120 mph when it is off our coast.  For those of you unfamiliar with hurricane categories….an example of a Category 3 storm is Katrina, a storm that made landfall in southern Louisiana 5 years ago with winds of 125 mph.  It destroyed the gulf coast of Mississippi and Louisiana.  Hopefully Earl will stay well off the coast.  I will be tuning in frequently to The Weather Channel this coming week.

I am thinking…about how fast this past summer seemed to go by.  I have to admit, as hot as it has been ~ I’m a bit grateful it did go by quickly.  I couldn’t have stood a slow summer and baking like we were.  I had hoped to do several things during the summer and have not been able to.  I guess it is a cautionary tale for putting things off…..wait too long and time will have passed you by before you know it.  One thing I have wanted to do was take the ferry from Jamestown to Surry and back.  Nothing extraordinary….just something I wanted to do.  I kept putting it off because it was so hot when I could go….it may be a better adventure for the fall. 

From the kitchen…is my cup of French Vanilla coffee at the moment.  I’m craving something delicious, but I don’t know what it is….I just know I want it to be delicious.  🙂

I am creating…a mess in my room.  I was looking for something the other day and couldn’t find it……and that started me cleaning out one cabinet of things I haven’t used in forever….which lead to another…..then another…..then the linen closet.  You see where this is going don’t you?  I have everything torn up as I resume my quest to eliminate clutter and non-essentials from my life.  For the life of me I can’t figure out why I have hung on to some of this stuff for so long!?!?  Of course I realize as soon as I throw or give some of this stuff away, I will have a need for it ~ but I’m not even thinking about that and fighting my OCD urge to keep it “just in case”.   I think if I’m finding stuff I didn’t even realize I had in the cabinet….I don’t really need it.  I think I have a fear of becoming one of those people I have seen on the show “Hoarders”.  I have only seen it once or twice but has anyone seen that program? Just amazing ~ and disturbing ~ homes where there is rotten food everywhere….critters running through your house of garbage….no place to sit, eat or sleep….Hello!! ~ it is time to through some stuff away folks!!

I am going…to finish this little cleaning project before the television crews show up ~ just kidding…not even close to camera crews being interested in my place.  🙂  I am going to finish up my room and move on to other projects I have rambling around in my head.

I am hoping…that Hurricane Earl stays far, far away from our coast. 

I am hearing…the ticking of my many clocks…..the drying tumbling clothes dry…..an otherwise quiet house.

Around the house…a bedroom in shambles….a few dishes in the kitchen that need to be washed….some clothes hanging outside to dry.

Plans for the week include…finally seeing the light at the end of the paperwork tunnel at work ~ I’m never really caught up because the nature of my job means a constant flow of work, but there is a point when I can actually see my desk and I’m almost there.  As far as home life goes….starting to work on a few more journals I do believe.  I also need to figure out if I can repair my sliding glass door….I think it needs adjusting because it seems to be lower on one side than the other.  Now the trick is to see if I can figure out how to do this ~ I will let you know if I succeed.  🙂

One of my favorite things…is sitting quietly in my backyard and enjoying the sounds and sights.  I did just that yesterday for about 30 minutes…..just sat quietly, me and my camera.  I have discovered some very little birds are quite brave when there is fresh seed in the feeder.  I also noticed another hummingbird…and felt a bit sad for the fact that I couldn’t have a feeder out there for him/her to enjoy.  Who knows, maybe I will try again next year with a feeder.  I have been reading about hummingbird gardens so I will also try planting some of their favorite flowers.  I took some photos of my visitors yesterday and will post soon…need to find the time to sit down and process the images.

A picture I’d like to share with you…remember the blooming morning glories from the section I cut off ~ they are still blooming.  I’m not even kidding….

This is the first summer I have had the opportunity to get so many images of butterflies….and another presented itself to me one afternoon on a blooming zinnia in my garden….