Marigold Thyme

Odds and ends on another unusually hot, dry day. Y'know, if global warming is gonna happen, why couldn't it affect my weather in the winter? I don't need any more heat in summer.

I had a leftover marigold, so I tossed it in a pot and plopped it into the middle of the herbs. It looks very nice next to the thyme and just behind some cilantro, doesn't it?

Wesley calls this my pot garden. If he keeps this up, the cops are going to come searching for illegal plants on a tip from an anonymous source. And then, oh, my some of my young neighbors are going to be very nervous. Not that they grow illegal substances. Oh, no. They just buy them and smoke them.

As the kids say, "WhatEV."

I miss steam locomotives. When Mama was still alive, every fall a steam engine would pass through Athens on its way to a foliage excursion. Whichever of us was the first to hear its lonesome whistle would call the other to warn her to open her windows and take a good listen. Mama loved that sound, and I grew to love it because she did. Steam engines were the norm in her childhood. Now they're so rare, you have to go to a theme park to hear one. That's almost as sad as the whistle itself sounds.

The other day, Woodrow -- who's fascinated with the Doppler effect -- declared that Hollywood has train whistles all wrong. What he doesn't understand is that the movies to which he refers are actually using period-appropriate steam whistles, while the trains that we hear passing our house are modern diesel locomotives.

On a completely different topic, I received a letter yesterday from someone who was having difficulty posting comments on the blog. Let me give everyone a little tip: If you're trying to post a comment and encounter the Evil Red X instead of the word verification letters, go ahead and hit "sign in and publish comment." The window will automatically refresh itself with brand-new, fresh, tasty word verification letters. The second time around, you should be able to post a comment if you like.

And as always, you are more than welcome to email me instead of posting a comment. I understand why some people want to remain anonymous. I happen to suck at being anonymous, but I'm more than happy to preserve someone else's anonymity.

Besides, it's nice to get mail from the blog readers. Y'all are a chatty lot, and you make me think of interesting stuff to post!