This morning I decided to tackle some of the worst of the weeds in front of The Urban Porch. Although I’m not all that worried about neighborhood appearances (when you live across the street from a hoarder, everything looks better by comparison), there has been an explosion of somewhat unwelcome growth choking out everything I had worked hard to cultivate. So I was out there in the rapidly rising morning temps until reaching pre-heatstroke velocity, face a fiery tomato beacon, drippy with salty sweat. Finally heading into the coolness of the house, it was me into the shower, clothes into the wash.

I spaced out emptying my pockets and, while moving everything into the dryer, discovered my now very clean keys at the bottom of the washing machine. Luckily they were not the car keys.

Having cleaned up and currently relaxing with a glass of iced licorice-spice tea, the crimson blaze of exertion slowly fading from my face, I sit here unable to escape the incessant clang of overall buckles banging around in the dryer. I’ll take a minute to pause here, mid-typing, to do a Google search on how to remedy this. Suggestions:

1. Add towels to the dryer. This has been done (along with the rest of the laundry) and it made no difference.
2. Fasten the buckles to the button closures on the hips of the overalls. I just did that now. Ever so slightly better, but the noise continues………….hold on, I’m stopping here and moving on to another method.
3. Put them into a laundry bag. This is a vast improvement. I have also shut the door to the laundry area (which is in the bathroom). It remains to be seen if the overalls thoroughly dry while in a laundry bag. I suppose they could just be hung up to dry, but they are softer coming out of the dryer. I’ll report later if this was successful.

Lately it seems as if I am drifting through the days (and life) without purpose, idly floating through a sea, sans focus. While spending time with extended family last week, we took the grandkids to an aquarium. The jellies (one of my favorite things) are mesmerizing. I stood there for a while, transfixed and somewhat unmoored, gazing at those hypnotic blobs of gelatinous lace and gossamer.

Getting lost in jelly-land for an extended amount of time, I lost track of everyone else, drifting on to see the octopus. Right here I need to say I am a Great Fan of the octopus. They are intelligent, sentient beings. Seeing one in captivity, even in a large enclosure, feels uncomfortable. However, I don’t know the background of this one. There were a number of protected, recovering and rescued animals living there, as the focus has very much shifted to conservation, so I don’t want to jump to conclusions.

In any case, the octopus was not coming out of its hiding place, which resulted in a cluster of disappointed visitors moving on. So I stood there alone for a moment and decided to send some telepathic good wishes to the octopus. I silently commiserated with its situation (just in case it should it feel unhappy there) and thanked it for its understanding and patience, let it know how much people enjoyed seeing it, admired it for its exquisite grace. Slowly she (or he) came out and drifted over to check me out.

Most likely it was going to come out anyway, but it very much felt as if we were having a moment. And then it reached out an arm. Hello Beautiful!

Perhaps it’s just a case of anthropomorphism on my part, but it felt connective, the brief encounter leaving a curiously emotional glow. I finally pulled myself away, as it seemed prudent to locate the rest of the family which I had lost. The spacey grandmother gets separated from everyone else in the aquarium while talking to an octopus! Have to laugh at that one.

Further on during the week saw soaring gulls juxtaposed against billowing cloud formations, providing an ongoing distraction. As July closes out, the towering, dramatic, imagination-inducing cumulus clouds known to August are looked to with anticipation.

Leaving the ocean themes now, there’s just one more thing; a tiny sand crab exoskeleton. Childhood flashback – my older cousin using sand crabs for bait to catch what he called “sand sharks.” In retrospect, they were probably “dogfish sharks” – small, smooth and impressively shark-shaped. I would marvel at them and then he would throw them back into the waves.

Drifting off that and onward to just a few seasonal flora; Waterlilies afloat,

an eye-catching Hydrangea of spectacular hues,

a pop of Common Sneezeweed for texture,

and a Rose of Sharon by the Urban Porch that bloomed purple.

Days later, sitting high on a rock above a serene lake with my sister, we watched the clouds drift by while sharing sibling memories unique to us.

Below, two swimmers steadily approached from opposite directions…..when they cross paths, will they stop and drift long enough to greet each other? I fantasize they meet, become friends, become lovers. But they continue on by without pausing, no discernable acknowledgment, only concentric circles left in their wake.

Drifting back to weeding tales in the sweltering front yard this morning; while cutting back the spent floral spikes on the Hostas, I was thwarted by a hovering Cicada Wasp – just one (so far). Intense looking and tenacious, it lingered along the left side of the walkway, repeatedly circling, landing, bobbing about the wilting leaves. Perhaps it was looking for a place to nest – or actually on the hunt for cicadas? For some reason that one spot held dogged interest.

While supposedly non-aggressive (as long as you don’t mess with them), I gave it wide berth anyway, leaving the rest of the task at hand unfinished and allowing it do its thing as it drifted back and forth along the leaves. Having had some success in the past discouraging wasps by using a burst of water from the garden hose, I was able (from a distance) to chase it away with a steady stream – but it was persistent and kept returning. As of late afternoon it appears to have given up, but tomorrow may be another story.

An update: The clothes dryer cycle is completed, rendering the overalls mostly dry – only slightly damp inside the pockets. This experiment was a bit of a success then. To sum up – if you want to tumble dry your overalls without the buckles banging around, try fastening the buckles to the buttons on the hips and put them in a laundry bag to dry along with your other clothes.

It’s getting late so I’m going to drift off now….. see you in August, if not sooner….

~*~