Summer is not without rants

It is definitely summer. It's been warm again -- 26°C give or take; the house feels even warmer -- and leading up to my niece, nephew and sister-in-law visiting, I sucked it up and mowed the back lawn. I knew the kids would want to play in the back yard and I figured I should clear up the remaining cake.

...Ah, yes. The cake. Lunch time today, I witnessed a raccoon wander into the back yard (just after noon) and partake of the leftovers. Said raccoon was then harassed by crows (who nest in the Douglas Fir) for about two hours. Before mowing the lawn, I had a look at the remaining mess. It was decidedly cake-like; still spongy and fresh in appearance which, frankly, frightens me. Later, I found a stash of maraschino cherries in my lettuce patch. I wonder which creature was saving them?

Anyway, I was successful in cleaning up the lawn, helping to set up dinner and so forth. We had a good visit, the kids had a good tear through the place and everyone enjoyed dinner and dessert. After everyone had gone home/back to hotels I went out to grab a few groceries and therein lies the rant.

See, I decided to use the self-serve checkouts at Save-on-Foods, just to see how they worked. Right off the bat they got a low grade because, like a good citizen, the first thing I did was put my reusable bag in the bagging area and the first thing the checkout told me was that there was an "unexpected item in the bagging area." I tried again and got the same result. I looked at the bored staffer left to oversee the six self-checkouts and she informed me that she had to "key that in." Really? Shouldn't eco-bags be the rule and not the exception? Sigh. So, anyway. Aside from that, it worked out OK but I don't think I will use it again until they phase out the full serve completely.

On my return, I watered the front garden and beds and then, because it was impossibly stuffy inside, Hubby and I took one of the laptops out to the back deck and watched a movie. Ahhh, technology.

A girl on a swing

new_swing
Originally uploaded by triviaqueen

This makes me smile for many reasons, not the least of which is the joy Kiddo finds in just swinging. When I was her age, I did the same thing on the swing my Dad attached to our apple tree (this one is on a hazelnut tree in my sister-in-law's yard).

Just watching her for a few minutes last night brought back a flood of memories, including one fairly traumatic one (which in hindsight probably looked pretty funny and might have won some bucks on AFV) -- when I was about her age, I lost my grip on the up-swing and fell backwards. However, my knees still had a good grip on the seat as I leaned back and the height of the swing was such that I dragged my head back and forth a few times before coming to a stop. Ouch.

I think I escaped with a scrape on my forehead and bruised pride, but there was no lasting damage. I was back on the swing after a few days... I just held on a little tighter.