Day #292 CPR stayin' alive

Well, after the computer fiasco on Friday, I was ready for a good relaxing weekend. Only trouble was, I’d already signed up for a First Aid and CPA course – all day Saturday, put on by the Gwinnett County Police Dept..

Wear comfortable clothes, the instructions said. Well, I could manage that much for sure. If I could live the rest of my life in loose jeans and baggy tee-shirts, that would suit me just fine, with maybe a muumuu thrown in for dressy occasions.

I took a CPR course – an unconscionably long time ago -- and I have to admit that, going into class Saturday morning, I was awfully vague about how many times per minute to push. The coolest thing was that the instructor pulled up the Bee Gees singing “Stayin’ Alive,” and we did our practice with inert practice dummies and jiving music that just happened to be about 100 beats per minute.

♫ Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother, ♫

            ♫ You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive, … ♫
♫ Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah, ♫
            ♫ I’m stayin’ alive…♫
                    --thanks to the BeeGees for these lyrics

Now, if I’m ever called on to perform CPR, don’t be surprised if you hear me singing while I’m saving a life. It sure will help me keep the beat!

BEEattitude for Day # 292:
       Blessed are those who teach what they know, for circles of joy shall spread out around them.

_______________________________ 

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my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #291 Whew!

Every time I step outside it’s like walking into a wave of thick mist. With the relative humidity at 97% or so, I think it would be smart if I’d just hang around--- kind of like my fuzzy friends here:

Want to join us?

I'm in the middle there somewhere.

I'm the one without wings.

BEEattitude for Day # 291:

       Blessed are those who know how to do practical things, for they shall live a life filled with accomplishment.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats):  http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Fran+Stewart

Day #290 Why the delay? - and my driver's ed teacher

I went on the computer last night (Thursday) to post this entry – and my WiFi connection wouldn’t work. I have no idea what I did, but this morning (after I got the oil changed in my car and bought a new gas cap to the tune of $25 because the one that was on EllieBug when I bought her was the wrong size and apparently I have been leaking gas fumes uncontrollably for the past year)… Anyway, I got on the phone with CLEAR WiFi and a wonderfully patient woman walked me through the process of uninstalling and reinstalling my CLEAR. Now it works! Now I can get caught up. So, here’s what I wrote last night that you should have been able to read right after your breakfast this morning. Sorry for the delay.

I was backing out of my garage yesterday, hoping that the bees taking sips of water from my leaky rain barrel would see me coming and get out of the way. So far, I think they’ve been pretty good about that. I haven’t seen any flattened bees in my driveway.

People could learn something from the bees.

A friend of mine was in a car accident recently. She was exiting from a grocery store parking lot, trying to turn left. Nothing was coming from the right. Several cars and a big SUV approached from her left. She waited for the cars to pass her. The SUV put on its turn signal, indicating it was ready to turn into the parking lot. Things were still clear on the right. The SUV did, in fact start its turn, at which point my friend pulled out and was rammed by the little car that had been tucked, unseen, behind the SUV.

She hadn’t seen the little car, and the driver of the little car didn’t see her. They both would have had a better day if they’d had my Driver’s Ed teacher at Wasson High School

W A Y  B A C K  W H E N.

He from used to say we had to drive constantly guarding against the impossibilities—the car, the fallen tree, the person walking on the pavement.

·        There can’t be a car behind that SUV. I would have seen it way down the road.

·        So what if I can’t see my way around this bend; there’s probably not a pedestrian there (or a stalled vehicle, or a boulder, or a fallen tree . . .)

Bees learning to drive, uh, I mean fly, would have to careful about saying:

·        There can’t be an enormous metal monster coming out of that cavern; we would have heard it before now.

The good news is that my friend is healing nicely. Her wrist is not broken; the bruises are lessening; and she had insurance. Her car is not healing nicely, but it could have been a lot worse.

 

Bumper Sticker:

“Don’t Drive Faster than Your Guardian Angel Can Fly”

BEEattitude for Day # 290:

       Blessed are those who avoid running over us bees, for they shall not have to put up with bee-guts on their tires.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.
my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats):  http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Fran+Stewart

Day #289 Two Leaky Rain Barrels

The bees are very happy with me, for the simple reason that I’ve now installed two leaky rain barrels. I have no idea what I did wrong—probably the caulking is askew somehow.

My fuzzy girls are delighted, though, as it means they don't have to risk drowning in the birdbath. They just congregate around the faucet and sip away.

I’ll try to remember to take a picture some time to share with you, but right now, as I write this, it’s 11:30 at night, and my camera has gone to sleep.

I’m up so late because I had to get my latest book ready to go to my three wonderful pre-readers. It's on its way as of a few minutes ago. My pre-readers are the ones who will tell me what I’m missing – Why is it chicken soup at the top of the page and vegetable beef soup at the bottom? – important things like that…

BEEattitude for Day # 289:

       Blessed are those who walk carefully through the grass, for they shall avoid squashing bees and butterflies.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
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my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #288 Grandma's Chickens

I think I’m finally brave enough to share my chicken story with you. Please don’t laugh at me.

When I was little, maybe five years old, my grandmother, who was a Mississippi farm wife, told me to go down to the chicken coop and gather her a mess of eggs.

The coop was a ghastly, ammonia-saturated hellhole, very different from the houses of chickens who are raised with love and tender care. There wasn’t anything tender about Grandma. She raised chickens for their eggs and, on Sundays mostly, for their meat. I can remember her wringing their necks, an activity that generally sent me scurrying to hide in the woodshed with the kittens of whatever barn cat happened to be feeding the gene pool at the time.

The coop was raised off the ground two or three steps. Inside the creaky door were rows of nesting boxes in a series of tiers. The only tier I could reach was the bottom one, but Grandma had said there were plenty of eggs close down.

Did I tell you my grandmother was seventeen and a half feet tall? When she went in the chicken coop, all she had to do was glare down on those hens, push them aside, grab their eggs, and leave.

I was less than four feet tall, which put my head BELOW the level of those mama hens on their nests. I reached up to try to put my hand under the first hen. PECK! I withdrew my hand and tried again. PECK! SQUAWK! This time she left blood on my wrist.

“Grandma! I couldn’t get any eggs. The hens wouldn’t let me.”

Muttering under her breath about soft city girls, Grandma set aside the biscuits she was working on, strode down to the coop with me in tow, and said, “This is how you do it.” One swipe and the hen moved aside, squawking a bit, but somehow not coming up with that bloodthirsty attitude she’d had with me. 

I may be 5’7” now, but when I think of chickens, I still see that hooded eye and that rapacious beak coming down from above. Chickens are at least seven feet tall, I know in my heart of hearts, and they’re just waiting for me to try something sneaky. I hate to be cowardly, but I know when I’ve met my match.

BEEattitude for Day # 288:

       Blessed are those who recognize their own courage, like beekeepers who willingly open hives filled with thousands of us bees. We have stingers, and that makes beekeepers brave.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
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my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #287 Leftovers

The bees were cleaning up the leftover hummingbird food this morning when a rain storm flooded in. They scurried for shelter only to reappear an hour or so later. The feeder had filled considerably with rainwater, but apparently the bees weren’t too concerned. They continued to collect the now-much-less-syrupy concoction.

It just means they’ll have to work extra hard to evaporate the moisture from it.

BEEattitude for Day # 287:

       Blessed are those birds who share their leftovers with us, for we shall join them in happy flight.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.
my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #286 Blurry Butterfly and Blurry Dogs

 

Well, as I was playing with my grand-dogs Sunday morning, I decided to give them one of those homemade treats I bought at the farmer’s market. And, I thought, I’ll take pictures so I can share them on my blog.

Right. Did you ever try to get two dogs to sit still while you take a picture of them with a VERY slow camera?

But I’m going to show you the disastrous photos anyway, including the one of the blurry butterfly who was waiting for me when I drove home. The butterfly herself wasn't blurry, mind you, but I blurried her up really well when I went click.

Then, did I open my beehives and check them out? No. I was so busy writing, I didn’t even think about the bees until after dark.

Sigh!

BEEattitude for Day # 286:

       Blessed are those who don’t worry about things like focus, for they shall, as a result, enjoy their blurry days anyway.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
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my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #285 Corn and Heirloom Tomatoes and Chickens and Dogs

Saturday I went to the farmer’s market in Lawrenceville as early as I could. The heat index was 102 degrees, and even that early I wilted. But when I came home with fresh-picked corn and heirloom Cherokee tomatoes, and a whole bunch of other stuff (like homemade treats for my two grand-dogs), I decided it was worth it.

Corn on the cob for lunch is my idea of heaven.

But the coolest thing about a farmer’s market, besides the food, is the conversations. One of the couples there live not too far from me, and they’ve invited me over to meet their chickens. I admitted to them that I was afraid of chickens (I’ll have to tell you my chicken story sometime), and Julie said they had the nicest chickens in the world. We’ll see about that. I’ll be sure to take pictures and share the adventure with you.

Now, why do I need to visit chickens? Well, in the book I’m writing, the 6^th in my Biscuit McKee mystery series, Bob gets some beehives…

Why are you not surprised about that?

… and Maggie, Biscuit’s nearby neighbor, tries to convince Biscuit that Elmyra, her lead hen (whom Biscuit privately calls Vampirah) is not out to get her.

I can research the getting-beehives-for-the-first-time just fine (by simply reading my own blog!), but the chickens I thought I needed some help with.

And of course, I spoke to everyone who had a dog there at the market, telling them that WAG (the Walton Animal Group) would be running a raffle soon. The winner gets their dog in my book, and WAG will get all the proceeds of the raffle. I had to laugh because I’m writing a generic dog into the manuscript. I’ll fill in the details once the winner is announced. But one dog I saw today must have weighed 100 pounds, and another stood about 7” high full grown. I may have to do a lot of re-writing depending on who wins.

I’ll let you know when the raffle is up and running.

BEEattitude for Day # 285:

       Blessed are those who buy locally from farmers who grow crops that we can gather pollen and nectar from, for they shall all win!

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.
my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #284 Mama Was Right

Don’t you love it (or hate it as the case may be) when one of those pithy sayings your mother was always coming out with turns out to be true?

The latest one for me is

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

She was right, doggone it. This all has to do with why bees are easier than other critters. Yesterday morning I’d just finished cleaning out the litter boxes and I was scurrying to put out the squirrel-proof (HA!) birdfeeders. I’ve been taking them in each night after dark to foil the possum who is very clever about getting around the squirrel-proof (so far) baffle on the pole. Then I put them out each dawn. Nowhere, by the way, did the squirrel-proof feeder advertisement claim to be possum-proof. There’s enough spilled seed on the ground for my resident possum to eat her fill from the mess the birds leave.

Now, I don’t really mind possums. In fact, I think they’d amazing creatures. Did you know that possums never get rabies? I learned that from a woman whose big and downright scary dogs mauled a possum in her fenced-in back yard one Friday just before she left to attend a weekend class. She quickly called a vet to see if she had to bring the dogs in to get rabies shots. The vet is the one who told her that possums can’t get rabies, so her dogs weren’t in any danger. Of course, the vet strongly recommended that she bring them in for the shots in case they ever ran into a rabid raccoon.

When she finally got out to the car (I’d waited there, having heard stories of her dogs before this), we took off for Tennessee. It wasn’t until we were on our back, two days later, that I asked, “What did you do with the possum?”

“I threw it in the garbage bin,” she said. “It was dead. I hope it’s not too stinky when I get back.”

I cleared my throat. “Denise, haven’t you ever heard the term playing possum?”

Turns out that possum had been thoroughly enjoying a regular feast in the garbage can. As soon as Denise opened the garage door (the bin was tipped over and garbage was EVERYWHERE!), the possum scooted out. I could have sworn I heard that critter say thank you, ma’am! over his/her shoulder as he/she ran around the corner of the house.

Anyway, to get back to my point, I was scurrying to fill the feeders (the hurrier I go) and I misjudged the angle of where I was pouring the seed. Hit the edge of the feeder with the scoop and ended up with (the behinder I get) this mess.

Bees are easier. All I do is plant shrubs and flowers.

BEEattitude for Day # 284:

       Blessed are those who learn from those who go before them, for they shall avoid many mistakes. Or maybe not. You folks are human, after all.



_______________________________ 
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my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #283 The Latest Bee Joke Answers

Well, three people sent in answers, two from Texas and one from here in Georgia.

The question was “What do you get when you cross a bee with a hairdresser?”

Petie from Texas:               “A Honey of a Comb-out”

Billy, also from Texas:       “A store-sign that says We Specialize in Beehives”

Marni from Georgia:         “Buzz-cuts for Men &Beehives for Women”

 

BEEattitude for Day # 283:

       Blessed are those (like Frannie) who have leaky rain barrels, for they shall get to watch us playing in the dribble.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
 http://www.franstewart.com Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.
my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #282 Teeccino

I have to get up pretty earlier nowadays to be able to enjoy a cup of tea on the back deck near the bees. The later I wait, the muggier it gets. By 7:00 or so it’s not worth it to try to relax outside.

I’ve always been a tea drinker. Hot tea any time of year. The British believe that drinking hot tea at the height of summer opens one’s pores and therefore cools one off. I suppose that’s true if the humidity is in the 40 or 50 percent range. But when it’s 97%, nothing much cools off, particularly when the temperature is in the 90s.

A couple of months ago I went to Grains ‘n’ More to pick up some food I’d ordered. This is the most amazing company. The owners, Dan and Fran, had been looking for a good source of bulk organic grains. They couldn’t get them easily and affordably, so they started their own company. http://www.grains-n-more.com

While I was there, Fran asked if I’d ever tried Teeccino, an organic herbal coffee. “I’m not a coffee-drinker,” I said.

“Give it a try,” she said. “It may change your life.”

I bought the Almond Amaretto blend. Yummy in the tummy! It changed my life. I am now a committed Teeccino-drinker. And at 5:30 in the morning, it opens my pores for sure.

BEEattitude for Day # 282:

       Blessed are those who follow their dreams, for they shall find exciting new directions in life.
 
_______________________________ 
The teeny details:
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my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #281 Holding Pattern

I’m in a holding pattern. Tommy couldn’t get by on Tuesday to check the hives, and I’m scared silly of squashing all sorts of bees if I try to open them up myself. The combs are stretched across between the frames – I know that from the last time I opened the hives a couple of weeks ago, and I’m sure it’s even worse now.

So—I feel like I really need a second set of hands to do this. Guess I’ll wait until Friday. I wish I were brave enough to do it on my own…

What this means is that we need another bee joke:

What do you get when you cross a bee with a hairdresser?

Email me your answers or post them here.

BEEattitude for Day # 281:

       Blessed are those who are brave enough to try something that is scary but necessary, for they (unlike Frannie) shall feel a sense of accomplishment.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com  Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.
my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
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Day #280 A Fun Day with Grannie

When you used to visit your grandmother years ago, I’ll bet you made cookies together, right? Or, if your grandma is of more recent vintage, maybe she took you to a water park.

And when you have grandchildren of your own, you’ll do the same for them, right?

Guess what my grandchildren and I did this past Monday? We were driving home from the grocery store (I’d run out of a couple of vital ingredients) when we drove past a dead deer.

Like any good grandma, I said, “Do you two want to stop and see some maggots?”

You see, I’m in the process of writing the 6^th book in my Biscuit McKee mystery series, and there’s a body in there that doesn’t get discovered for a few days. I’ve been wondering—as I wrote about the smell wafting over a back yard on a gentle breeze—whether or not I was getting it right.

The deer certainly gave us the answers. I am NOT going to share the photos I took. Suffice it to say that we learned a lot, and here are some of our conclusions. Please put your EEEWW response on hold. This is science at its most elemental:

1.       Time of death can be determined by the age of maggots on the corpse. There were lots of crawlies, and the man who lived nearby confirmed the deer was killed by a car last Tuesday.

2.      Smell is almost indistinguishable when we stand upwind.

3.      Smell is pretty awful when we stand downwind. Therefore, we stood mostly upwind!

4.      A neck bent that far back and around is most certainly broken.

5.      The grayish brown stain in the grass beside the body showed that it had been moved after death.

There were a bunch of other conclusions we came to, having to do with various internal organs, but I won’t relate those since there’s a good chance you’ve just finished eating breakfast. I will say, though, that we decided that coyotes and dogs and turkey vultures and possums and raccoons are simply doing their job as part of a very necessary natural cleanup crew. They are eating for survival. The very worst predator on the face of this planet, however, came upon this body and…

6.      Cut off the antlers and threw the body back in the ditch.

7.      This predator decimated the deer’s natural habitat to begin with, and smashed the deer with a moving vehicle.

The animal control facility in Gwinnett County has only three vehicles for the entire county, so dead animals frequently have to lie there for days before they’re disposed of. This just means there will be more chances for me to play the role of Good Grannie!

BEEattitude for Day # 280:

       Blessed are those who explore new ways of looking at life (and death), for their horizons shall be endlessly widened.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com  Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.
my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats):  http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Fran+Stewart

Day #279 Feeding Frenzy

I had absolutely no idea these bees could descend on a half-gallon jug and deplete it within moments.

I went out to the mailbox and heard the sound of a far-away chainsaw…or so I thought. It was actually the sound of a kazillion bees feasting on that sugar water I’d put out for them.

And to think I’d wondered if they’d be able to find it. HA!

Now I don’t dare put any more out there because I have some visitors coming tomorrow, and the bees are FILLING the air around this milk jug. Which means they are zipping along the walkway—right where my guests will be walking. But where can I move the feeding station to?

Who knew the world of beekeeping could be so fraught with difficult decisions?

BEEattitude for Day # 279:

       Blessed are those who draw maps, for they shall live in a world full of direction!

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com  Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.
my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats):  http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Fran+Stewart

Day #278 On the Absence of Fear

Remember when I told you about the energy-saving film I put on my front windows?

Aside from the wonderful way it cuts the heat from the morning sunshine, there’s been another major benefit. I don’t scare the birds!

I never realized how much I used to frighten them until all of a sudden I didn’t anymore. I can stand three inches from the glass (or even closer) and watch my cheeping, preening, eating, singing feathered friends without their being aware of me. They can’t see into my living room.

At times I’ve counted 20 goldfinches on my front porch feeder. Friday morning two Carolina wrens were starting a new nest in a basket on the porch railing. They didn’t know I was watching them, so they just went on doing their birdy things.

When I first moved to Atlanta almost 20 years ago, I met a woman who mentioned that her husband was a cross-dresser. He agreed to talk with me about what it was like, and he told me of a most interesting discovery.

Before he’d gotten married, he was dressed up once, waiting for a ride to a party. He was standing near the door of his apartment building on a downtown Atlanta street; it was late at night (“It takes me HOURS to get ready. How do you women do it so quickly?” he’d said. “For one thing,” I answered him, “I don’t have to shave before putting on makeup.”) While he waited, a lone woman walked down the sidewalk toward him. She walked past him. She kept going. And that was when he had his ah-ha! moment.

He had never noticed the fear before until he saw the absence of fear. That woman had thought she was walking past another woman. She didn’t pull her purse closer to her body. She didn’t hold her keys in a defensive posture. She didn’t move farther toward the street. She just walked past. No fear. No getting ready just in case.

The birds are the same way. I’d never before noticed how much I worried them until all of a sudden I wasn’t worrying them. What I see now when I look out my energy-filmed windows is an absence of fear.

Of course, all I have to do is open the door to get back to that old way of seeing things.

Bees are MUCH easier. They never get startled—ever. I don’t have to ease the back door open. I don’t have to creep up on their hives. I can just relax and BEE me.

BEEattitude for Day # 278:

       Blessed are those who are open to learning new ways of appreciating us bees, for they shall relax more around us.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.
my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats):  http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Fran+Stewart