Nancy is whipping up a large batch of stuffed peppers. Green peppers are the last remaining crop of significance in the garden. The heat just doesn’t bother them and they keep putting out fruit until something gets them. There are two plants out there that made it through last winter making them almost a year old. I’ll start new plants from seeds next month.
Chris will be spending this coming week in Chicago house/apt hunting. It just so happens that Tom will also be there (on business) from mid week and, of course, little Tommy lives there so there will be more Carbone’s in Chicago than Florida. Something wrong with that picture!!! So far the one sure observation is that he won’t starve to death and has already found several exceptional feeding spots.
The rain continues with regular, heavy afternoon storms and the lake is rising fast. In the last couple of weeks we’ve logged 7-8” which is well above average. If you sit on the edge of the dock and hang your legs over, you’re ankle deep. Another measure – the water is half way between the top step and the next one down; If you’re in the water with a drink, you can just set it on the dock as a bar. That means we’re 2007 deep early in the hurricane season so there’s a decent chance the dock will be submerged before it’s over. George actually has standing water now in his yard up to the garden. In 2007 the garden was squishy and the plants died but I’ve built it up with compost since then and everything is still alive and looking good. My guess is that the pepper plants will not last much longer with their roots in the water. But the big impact is an explosion in the frog population – not down at the lake but in the jungle around the house. They start croaking right after dark and continue until sunrise. It literally sounds like they’re in the house, that’s how loud it is. Nancy doesn’t hear it but it drives me crazy.
I had a blood test the other day in advance of a routine annual physical. Usually everything turns out normal with one or two marginal exceptions- just slightly high or low – “nothing to worry about but something to watch”. They now post the results on a secure site and sent me an email telling me I could check there. As best I can tell, everything was “normal”. Nothing even close to the edge. I wonder if my ninja green drinks have had some impact or is it related to global warming. Maybe that new wine label we found – Low Hanging Fruit is the new factor. I’ve been doing more surf fishing and getting the Mocha Latte at McDonalds on those days. I’ve also been getting weekly fresh peach milk shakes from Chick Filet to go with the Spicy Chicken sandwich. I meet with the doc next week so I’ll get his opinion.
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