Today was my 1st of 6 Summer Fridays....

Last night after getting home, i gazed upon the long and overgrown front lawn and wondered what was going on with the bluebirds, as i hadn't seen any activity for 2 days. I decided to venture a look. I was a little anxious about doing so. Those babies which are born first have a better survival rate than eggs that hatch a day or two later, as the biggest gaping mouth gets the most worms.

Sometimes,sadly, a baby bird will starve to death. I found that to be the case once with a wren nest that had been built in a hanging flower basket by my front door. When they finally vacated, i took the pot down and sadly discovered one dead baby bird.

Another problem that can affect the mortality rate of baby songbirds is blowfly larvae. The blowfly lays its eggs in the bottom of the box, underneath the nest, and the larvae crawl up and attach themselves to the legs of the baby birds. They are parasitic and can weaken or even kill the babies. My bluebird guide, written by a local bluebird fan, instructs you to dust the box with Rototene within 2 days after the eggs hatch; this will kill the larvae. I just couldn't bring myself to disturb the nest at all.

But...here's the good news....I stepped to the side of the nestbox just in case something flew out suddenly. Then i gingerly lifted up the front door of the box and was very relieved to find nothing there. Everyone had successfully fledged. In fact, the white pine needle nest was so clean and tidy, you might think no birds were ever there; not an eggshell to be found. They were there, though, becus you could hear the babies chirping all at once when the parents brought food. And, there was quite a lot of white bird poop on the side walls of the nest box, leading me to think it must've gotten very crowded in there as the birds grew.

Although i had hoped to see a bevy of bluebirds in the yard learning how to catch insects from their parents, I'm glad they all made it out alive. Just wondering where they went, is all.

So last night i mowed about half the lawn, and i finished it up this afternoon. Now i can spend as much time in my veggie garden as i want, and i don't have to worry when the neighbor's cat comes to greet me. However, i did promptly clean out the box and clean out that poop; sometimes, bluebirds will nest a 2nd time in a season, and if they return, they will be welcomed with plenty of meal worms from the bait and tackle shop.

I had a nice visit this morning with my friend R., who after years of biopsies that indicated nothing, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He is 60. He had a bunch of tests that showed the cancer has not spread elsewhere in his body, so that is very heartening news. He still has to have radiation, and wants to go with a new technique of delivering radiation, but the insurance company is balking at paying for it (why the f*** do we pay for insurance if we can't count on it when we need it?)so his treatment will be DELAYED until the hospital and insurer come to terms. IDIOTS.

R. has invited me to join him for a 6-day trip to southern Utah in October. Well, sort of invited me. You see, he'd gotten the tickets (earned thru rewards and frequent flyer miles) and scheduled the trip while he was still with his wife. Now, they're divorcing, for the 2nd time. Becus he still cares about her, he's asked her to go 1st, and let me know that; i guess she hasn't given a definitive answer yet but i don't know why she has to think about it. It's sort of messing with his head when she comes to visit and play with the dog they bought jointly. He still has feelings for her; she'll give him a hug but clearly she wants out of the marriage. Meanwhile, she's wracked up $18K in credit card debt.

But anyway, I'm thinking, i would like to go on this trip. I've known R. for over 20 years now; we dated seriously when we 1st met. It's strictly platonic now; we'd have separate rooms. He can be very difficult to get along with becus he has a very controlling nature. But i have wanted to go to the string of nat'l parks in southern Utah for many years...Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park, Zion.... I was there when i was about 5 years old.

I was just wondering the other day, after hearing on the news how expensive flying has become, if i would ever travel again as i did in my 30s. It's something i've really wanted to do but i haven't always had someone to go with.

R. offered me a ticket for $100; when i said i thought that was a very, very reasonable price, he explained he didn't actually have to buy the tickets and said maybe he would charge me $200! (Well, i'm sure i can get him to agree to $150 and it'd still be a good deal for me.) We'd split all other costs down the middle.

If i did the trip my way, i'd hike and photograph every day. But R. is not a hiker and it's partly his sedentary lifestyle and poor diet that contributed to his prostate cancer, IMO. So traveling with him could be very frustrating for me, Ms. Outdoorswoman, becus i know i wouldn't be able to do all the things i'd want to do on that kind of vacation. It would be an exercise in patience and compromise, that's for sure. I know R. pretty well. We are fast friends, but polar opposites in many ways. He is a diehard Republican; I will always be a liberal. We are both frugal, but he is too extreme to the point of exasperation. I like to physically challenge myself on my vacations, eat good meals (mostly vegetarian) and stay at a nice inn; he would rather drive through a park in a car, only eats pizza and burgers and would rather save $ by staying at a Motel 6. Sigh.

But i'm feeling a little perturbed to be sort of put in a waiting pattern. I don't mind him telling me i'm his "backup" person in case his ex-to-be says no. But i don't think it's fair to keep me waiting all summer and not being able to plan on it or not. I have a feeling he would just keep it open with her in the hope she'd eventually say yes, and i have a feeling she'd delay telling him anything becus I don't know, that's just the way she is, not cutting the cord completely and continuing to string him along.

So i think i'm going to ask him to give her a month, say, end of July, to make up up her mind and that i would like to know by that time whether i'm going or not. I think that's a reasonable thing to ask. If he can't agree to that, i don't think i'll consider it anymore.

On an entirely different note, my mother has had a string of successes lately with her art. I think i mentioned here before she's exhibiting now at the company I work for, and several of my coworkers have complimented her work. Tonight she told me she won Best in Show at the local Arts Society in my town. It's a $500 cash prize. Nice going, Mom.

Here's some of her work. She works in a LOT of different genres, though all contemporary.






This a mural on my living room wall.



So when R. visited with me today, he took pity on the "assembly required" cabinet that lay in a hundred pieces on my living room floor. It sat like that for over 2 months now; i got stuck early on trying to figure out how to attach a metal slider to a drawer in the cabinet. He helped me finish the drawer and that alone took an hour. I'm eternally grateful for that. He had the dog with him in his car, so we went to Starbucks and then just sat in the car and talked.

Afterwards, i made a trip to the dump (with yet another pile of sticks and cut up branches), Stop N Shop and ok i spent about $55 on 3 summer tops and a pair of shorts at TJ Maxx. The guys at my office are already wearing shorts, so while i often freeze there with the super-efficient AC, i want to wear shorts too!

My best friend at work is a real sweetheart of a guy who went out of his way to help me get settled when i first started the job, and how i sit next to him. We have the same job so we talk all the time and commiserate. I was so surprised to learn he's a former actor; he freelanced, and stopped doing it when he got married and started a family, but as recently as 2006 he was in a variety of shows including Law and Order and a number of movies. He mostly played cops and detectives. He's got that kind of 'look.'

After my success selling a refrigerator, I've re-posted an Indian drum (still no luck) and a sleeping bag used once in Alaska as well as a women's set of golf clubs. Just things around here i really have no use for. I had a few people who tried to talk me down in $ for the drum but i know i had a fair price on a very unique item already, so i'd just as soon keep if i don't get the $ i wanted.

Had to go back to the doctor Wednesday as my pretty much daily headaches are still with me, after 4.5 weeks on antibiotics. They were a little concerned i was still having headaches, as they said that Doxycyclin is the "gold standard" in treatment for Lyme Disease. But they said some people take a little longer than 3 weeks. So I'm continuing for 2 more weeks on them. If i still have headaches after that, they're going to send me to a neurologist. Uh-oh. I really hope these meds work.

Tomorrow i'm seeing a new optometrist and am anxious to get new lenses for my glasses, whether i need a new prescription or not. Both lenses somehow got major scratches right smack in the center, and i'm tired of viewing the world in a slightly blurry manner. I really liked my other optometrist, but he is no longer accepting the vision plan i got with the new job. I've checked out the benefits of both my vision plan and the dental plan and for the small $4 per paycheck deduction taken every 2 weeks, it's really worth the cost. A dental visit and cleaning here runs about $125, which is more than my annual payments. There's no deductible on routine cleanings, so the whole thing should be free.