Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #231

THIS WEEK IN REFLECTION

I’m just going to start by saying this week was 82 years long. On Sunday and Monday we were still at Biscuit and Dad’s house because of the long 4th of July weekend. Dad was looking for a very specific screw for his dragline, and I decided to help search the shop.

The dragline inside the shop without the boom.

I felt kind of left out because Dad didn’t give me gloves like he had, so I figured I would steal his shoes and fit in better. Everything is quite dirty in the shop!

It is very hard to ignore someone making clompy noises.
Remember this phone from the 90’s?

We were also wheeling and dealing plants, me exchanging Rose of Sharon and rhubarb for Phlox and Trumpet Vines. Right now, it looks like both our yards are growing dead sticks, but these plants come back in spring (I hope).

As we drove home on Monday, zipping along a Michigan freeway we could see fireworks going off all over the place. I wonder if fairgrounds and baseball parks, two known places for fireworks, are mostly located along the freeway. Pretty!

Then, we arrived home around 11:30PM, in Indiana, and you’d swear my house was on fire.

Welcome to Indiana, where fireworks have pretty much no restrictions, be they the giant professional kind, or the giant professional kind set off in the neighbor’s yard. All this after the Canadian wildfire smoke just started clearing out, when I was thrilled that air quality improved to “poor” from “very unhealthy.” As I write this post, 10:38PM on Saturday, July 7th, the fireworks are still going off. They will continue through all of July and much of August.

The absolute best part of returning from the long weekend is Frogerick Toadman, animal attorney, has returned in a big way. Yes, I found him in a dirt hole last month, but now he’s owning the place. For those who are new here, Toadman was in the flower garden in front of my house last summer, which is when we bought the place, and our introduction was me screaming because I thought he was a snake about to grab me when I was weeding.

Then, I found him in our garage, and I thought he got stuck in there, so I carried him all the way back to the flower garden, which is not close. But again, he was in the garage, and again I took him back to the garden.

But one night I saw him bopping down the driveway, like he was trying to beat me to the garage, which is where I saw him go under the door where a bit of lining had worn away. Toadman claimed the garage as his own! All last summer I provided updates about Toadman, and folks got IN. VEST. ED. People ask about Toadman, people get texts about Toadman, I blog about Toadman. I even bought him furniture. To see him hibernating this spring was amazing and a relief to many. Here’s what Toadman has been up to this week.

I see Toadman July 3rd and freak out.
Welcome to summer, lil buddy!
Toadman ignoring the fireworks.
I place Toadman here to remind him where HIS garage door is.
He learns the joys of the garage again.
Toadman wondering why I have not dusted his apartment over the winter.
Toadman takes a liking to sitting right where the garage door closes. Nick took this photo and reported back to me.
So I had to go out in my pjs to move Toadman so we could close the garage door for the night.
Toadman has decided sitting right where the garage door closes is totally his jam, so now when I pull my car in, I get out first and hold him so I don’t run him over.

More Toadman reports sure to come.

It go humid in Indiana for the first time this year, so I said I would chase Nick around with the hose, and he didn’t seem to believe me. It’s like he doesn’t even know me! We had our A/C on for one day, July 5th. Unfortunately, the cause of the severe humidity was an approaching storm. 80% of my home work in two challenging classes are due Wednesdays at 11:59PM. Hahahaha, you know, July 5th. The night with the severe storm.

I’m sitting in my home office, trying to finish a video, and the lights start flickering. I need to finish these videos to do a discussion post. And then, the power goes out. No internet. No A/C. Nick, whose love language is doing things for other people, suggests I finish the videos on my phone. I try that but forget we just got new cell phones that don’t have a headphone jack, which I need (I can’t do wireless bluetooth earbuds). So, Nick gets a mobile bluetooth speaker so I can connect my phone to the speaker to watch the videos. We discover my professor’s recording is so soft, I can’t hear it, and I end up holding this speaker to my ear like a house phone from the 90’s while typing notes in some janky free app on my computer that doesn’t require the internet.

Meanwhile, I’m starting to feel like a human arm pit, it’s so hot and humid in the house. I open the window, and the air isn’t even moving outside, despite the storm, which is weird. I just keep going, frantically taking notes and then formulating a discussion post on said janky free app. This is philosophy class, a subject that is not conducive to a) hurrying, b) being sweaty, or c) impatient people like me who don’t want to argue that I exist. I sweat, therefore I exist.

Suddenly, I feel air blowing on me. Nick has connected my small desk fan to some adapter thing, which he hooked to a portable battery. OMG. I get a second wind, maybe literally. Time is ticking; it 11:20PM, and I have 39 minutes until the entire module closes. Then, Nick turns my phone into a hotspot, which I did not know it could do, and the computer has internet! The problem is the discussion post page will not load completely — namely the submit button. Talk about a clown show. Finally, after several minutes the page fully loads, including the submit button, and I get my discussion in on time and head to bed…. Where I couldn’t sleep because the power company was wandering around the neighbor’s yard with heavy duty flashlights.

This all gets me to Wednesday, and you know what? This week, being 82 years long, is too long to share in completion.

Bonus: a brief post about volunteering in America that I wrote.

#20BOOKSOFSUMMER

Since not all of my books are appropriate to review on Grab the Lapels (i.e., I have several authors who identify as men on my list), I’ll give you a couple of sentences of each that I read.

This week: I did not have What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Bird by Jennifer Ackerman on my 20 Books of Summer list (now it’s #8), but I didn’t know this book was going to come out. It’s brand new and by the author who got me to stop being petrified of birds. I’m not reviewing this one because I don’t have time, but if you’re into natural sciences books that read more like a narrative, What an Owl Knows is worth checking out. I listened to the audiobook while driving and doing chores. Ackerman reads it herself and makes bird noises.

THIS WEEK’S BLOG POST

All the comments about Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray made me realize that when an author mixes nature writing with a memoir whose focus is not nature, the different approaches leave me wanting two separate books. the set up was SO THERE in Ray’s book; you can even see the opposite worlds in the cover image. But she doesn’t explore her life like that. Can you think of any nature memoirs that you enjoyed for their cohesion?

NEXT WEEK’S BLOG POST

There have been a couple of books whose titles make me really feel the occasional dyslexia I experience, and What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage is one of them. What Looks Ordinary? What Crazy Looks Like? Review on Wednesday.

BOOKS I BOUGHT

Books I paid for (that are not textbooks) since January 2023:

  • True-Biz by Sara Novic ($1) — READ
  • Rants from the Hill by Michael P. Branch ($1) — READ
  • The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories, edited by Peter Haining ($1.50)
  • What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage ($0.79) — READ
  • Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray ($0.79)
  • All of Me by Venise Berry ($0.99)
  • Planet Earth books from Time Life ($4.00 for 7 books) — READING
  • North American Wildlife by Susan J. Wernert ($0.50) — READING
  • Your Dog is in The Bar by Celia Rensch Day ($o.79) — READING
  • Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber ($0.50) — RECYCLED
  • Witches’ Brew, edited by Alfred Hitchcock ($0.50)
  • At Wit’s End by Erma Bombeck ($0.50)
  • To Be Honest by Maggie Anne Martin ($0.50)
  • The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding ($0.50)
  • Young Matriarch by Karen Patterson ($10.69)

Running Cost: $24.55

BOOKS ADDED TO THE TBR PILE

Thanks to Biscuit, and Nikki and Charlene from the Huntsville Horror book club, for their recommendations!

29 comments

  1. Re your question absolutely I can, Helen McDonald’s H is for hawk, an absolute ripper nature memoir. (I had forgotten all about this when I read your post. Your question prompted my brain!)

    I love this post. You are such an entertaining writer, but I particularly love your description of Nick “whose love language is doing things for other people”. Mr Gums is the same … he will do anything for me.

    And Toadman. My he’s handsome. ( But I forgotten. Do we know he’s male?)

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    • I’ll add McDonald’s memoir to my TBR; thanks! I remember that book was all the rage when it came out.

      Nick is just such a lovely man. I think he gets embarrassed (or maybe chuffed, as the Brits say) when I tell him that. Mr. Gums sounds lovely, too. I don’t know much about him! If you’re willing, send me an email update about how both of you are doing.

      I have no clue how you check the gender of a toad, but Toadman has been Toadman since we found Toadman, lol.

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      • I think it is a great read, though it had mixed feelings in my reading group – more for the memoir part than the nature part! But I thought they were harsh about the memoir.

        We love the word chuffed, and use it a lot, largely I think because Mr Gums lived in England for a year. I’ll try to email soon … we are fine, and almost there, but a bit frazzled.

        Fair enough re Toadman! I just wondered.

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  2. I enjoyed reading about Toadman’s exploits! I’m glad he’s back safe and sound. He is a very lucky toad to have his own kitchen diner!

    I think The Fat of the Land by John Seymour is a fairly cohesive book, though I didn’t love it – it was very snobbish and patronising of the rural working class. I do have a few nature memoirs on my TBR – I’m really looking forward to The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane, which is about walking in Britain.

    Sorry I missed your post on Wednesday – I’m behind on everything because of Wimbledon! I probably should have taken a blogging holiday to accommodate it, since I remember the same thing happening last year as well. I’ll try to remember this next year!

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    • I looked up John Seymour, and while I did not find the book you referenced (there is another one from 2018 about living a self-sufficient life), I did find Irish Witchcraft and Demonology by John Drelincourt Seymour, which made the search totally worth it!

      I used to know when Wimbledon was thanks to another blogger whom I no longer follow being obsessed with it. I hope you’ve enjoyed the games!

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  3. The older I get, the less entertained I am by fireworks. I also had to deal with people lighting them off in my neighborhood last night! When does it end??

    Toadman looks like he’s having a good summer! I look forward to seeing more of him!

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  4. Sorry you had a such a long week! I’m glad you were able to get your assignment done just in time, but jeesh, the stress!!!

    Toadman!!!! I’m so happy to see him and hear how well he is doing. Also, super surprised he allows you to pick him up and hold him. That is so cool. Y’all are becoming such good neighbors 🙂

    I haven’t had a chance to read you Janisses Ray post ye, but I will because I am super interested since I read her book on seed saving.

    I hope this coming week is less stressful and uneventful.

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    • I think the week was long not so much because it was stressful catching up with school but because the 4th was on Tuesday, so it straddled two weeks (if you started vacation on the Friday, like I did).

      I dunno why Toadman let’s me pick him up. He’s just a good dude that way. In fact, he’s out and visible more this year than he was last year.

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  5. The Toadman Chronicles continue! I love how he’s practically part of the family now. What a neat interaction.

    Your husband is so sweet with all the ways he helped you do your schoolwork!

    I’m sorry your week was so long and stressful. Here’s hoping this week is smooth sailing!

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  6. Your Chuck Palahniuk book at the end just reminded me I have the new Palahniuk book on my shelf – I think it is officially released in a few months? I’ll write a review on it for sure.

    Love the Toadman chronicles! and I am currently connecting to the internet via a hotspot right now, because the wifi is non existent at my cottage.

    I sweat – therefore I exist! You should have just submitted that phrase as your next essay in that class, it’s very hard to dispute.

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  7. I’m home, after a week away. As usual I read Sunday Lowdown at 6pm Sunday Western Aust. time but it always takes me a while to think of something to say. So will you forgive me if I just say I’ve been waiting for years for a photo of your dad’s dragline, and there’s a cute chick in it as a bonus!

    Fireworks were banned in Oz years ago when surgeons here got sick of treating kids with lost eyes, lost fingers. But we all know America is different.

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    • That’s just one dragline! He has several because some are used for parts, some stay where they are for years (at a pit), and some move around to different projects, though that last one on the list will be done with here soon. Didn’t I send you pics before? I’ll email you more.

      I think fireworks should be banned for reasons that are out of other people’s control: the negative impact on domestic and wild animals, the smoke, and the trash that falls to the ground into my yard. If adults want to slim down to 8 fingers and no thumbs, have at it. Children, on the other hand, are vulnerable. I’m sure I’ve shared the story of how my grandfather got drunk and set off a firework upside down, which careened off, hit me, and set me on fire.

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    • I’ve read Limber! And I loved it! I’ve never met anyone who has heard of it, let alone read it, Jeanne. I got a reviewer’s copy way back in the day, and it came with a book mark made out of paper you could plant and grow flowers.

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  9. Your mentions of fireworks made me realize that that’s really not a thing here anymore. Not a single firework set off around here for Canada Day. They’ve been steadily phased out due to wildfire risk over the past few years though Vancouver still has a big show every summer (not Canada Day related).

    I had instant anxiety when you said Toadman hangs out where the garage door closes and then it made me so happy that you make sure to hold him when you pull out of the garage! Is he easy to catch? He seems super chill.

    What a champ Nick is for making sure you got your work done!

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    • He IS ready to catch, and we are both VERY cautious about him, though Nick will not touch Toadman. Last night Nick was doing stuff in the garage and wanted to come in, but Toadmam was sitting right where the garage door closes. So this fool gets a stick and is prompting Toadman to move. Toadman did not move. I guess Nick stood out there kinda panicky, not sure what to do, until a FREAKING AIRPLANE flew by and scared Toadman back inside. I’m like duuude, just come get me! No need to poke anyone with a stick!

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      • There was no poking. There was merely a friendly pat on the back so as to say “This door gonna come down and you don’t look like you’re waiting in line for froggy limbo. Scoot.” … But yeah, it took a low flying sky monster to convince Toadman that hop skipping inside was the right play.

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      • The visual of Nick cautiously poking a toad with a stick is hilarious! I have to sympathize with him though – I don’t enjoy picking up animals, especially wild ones, so I would probably be there clapping my hands and asking Toadman to move, if it were me!

        (Catching up on blogs and comments so you might get a few from me. I’m very behind!)

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