Wednesday, June 23

Up at 6:30 this morning to get ready for water aerobics. The water was deliciously cool this morning...so refreshing on such a sultry hot day. When I arrived on the parking lot, I was met by my friend who has a plum tree in her yard. She had a bag of the fruit for me. I had told her I was perfectly willing to go gather the plums myself to save her the trouble, but she said she just wanted to get them out of her yard.

Lots of ladies showed up for aerobics this morning. While swimming in the deep end before the session began, my friend and I overheard a couple of ladies talking about their veggie gardens. One of the ladies is getting lots of summer squash, but my friend isn't, and neither are we. The lady said a lack of bees for pollination is probably the problem, and we should just use a brush to hand pollinate the plants, transferring pollen from male flowers to female ones.

Okay, Friend asked, how can she tell which flowers are male, and which are female? Just as my Sis said, the female blooms will have a little squash at their base. Well, neither our plants nor Friend's have any little squashes. Sis says all of our plants are male. Apparently, so are Friends.

Which leaves us all baffled. What should we do? Friend suggested maybe she should flirt with her plants...and maybe bend over and wiggle her behind at them. Too late for that with ours, I'm afraid...they appear to be gasping a last breath.

Back home from aerobics, I checked on Mother (Hubbie had already visited her this morning to make sure she was okay). She said she was fine and was doing some laundry. So, since Mother isn't well, Hubbie put color in my hair in anticipation of a haircut appointment tomorrow.

Once I was ready for the day, I helped Mother come over to our house. She walked more slowly than usual, because she suffered a Charlie horse in her left leg when she tried to raise it over the rim of the bathtub to take a shower this morning.

It was around 11 a.m. when she came over, and she was hungry, so I heated some macaroni and cheese for her. Then I sorted the plums...some to eat, some to put in the freezer. We'll juice them later for making jelly. The plums are sweet and delicious. I don't know why my friend doesn't like them.

After lunch, Mother rested while Hubbie and I ran errands...to a jewelry store to have a bracelet repaired, to the newspaper office to pick up yesterday's issue (we'd had it held, because we thought we would be camping Tuesday through Thursday), to the pharmacy, to a roadside vendor, and finally to the WDCS.

Back home, Mother asked for a cup of pudding and some coffee. I joined her in her afternoon snack with a big glass of lemonade over ice. Around 4 p.m., she was ready to go to her house, so I accompanied her. I left the remainder of the chicken noodle soup with her to have for supper.

For Hubbie's and my supper, I fixed fajitas, which we had with a spring mix salad that included cucumbers from Son's garden, and the first of the grape tomatoes from our garden.

Later, Hubbie and I watched the movie, "Iris," a 2001, R-rated (for some nudity and language) film that recounts the story of John Bayley, a British literary critic, and his spirited wife, British novelist Iris Murdoch, who descends into Alzheimer's later in life. The movie stars Judi Dench (as the elder Iris), Jim Broadbent, and Kate Winslet (as the young Iris). A very good and touching story of devoted love.

Note: following my exam at the cardiologist's office yesterday, the doctor requested that my water aerobics group do a rain dance, since the gardens are getting so dry. The ladies laughed when I told them of the request, but nevertheless, we whooped through some of the routine. This evening, the TV weatherman predicted a 40% chance of rain for tomorrow. Hm-m-m.