Under a Blue Moon

I’m starting out this post with a semi-cute picture of a bat because down below there is a decidedly NOT so cute picture.  Consider yourself warned.

We have been keeping Belle confined to the laundry room and garage at night (and she can also go outside if she wants) because of her predilection for bringing home night time guests and letting them go in our bedroom.  Like the occasional bird or rat or mouse.  Most of the time they are pretty much unscathed.  I think she is bringing them in because she likes all the excitement of us hopping around trying to rescue the poor creatures. 

So on Saturday morning I wake up around 6:15am and go to feed her.  I opened the laundry room door and there is this thing swooping about.  I screamed and ran outside.  The creature, now identified as a bat, was now hanging upside down just above the door to the deck (the laundry room has three doors – one to the kitchen, one to the garage and the one to the deck).  We closed off the access to the kitchen and opened the door to the deck so it could fly out.  Only it didn’t want to budge.  So Rick went to the garage door and opened it slightly and started throwing towels and sponges at it (you work with what you have in a laundry room).

It just kind of crawled about a bit but didn’t fly out, cooperatively, like we were hoping.   Rick then gets a long PVC pipe and gently nudged it which did make it fly around so Rick slammed the garage door shut and when we peeked back into the laundry room we didn’t see it anywhere.  I was watching the deck door from the safety of the kitchen window and I didn’t see it fly out so I made Rick check everywhere in the laundry room. 

So we hoped for the best and went about our business when about a half hour later it started swooping around the kitchen.  I ran back outside and asked Rick to toss my car keys because I was leaving.  For ever. 

The little bat landed on top of my cookbooks and seemed content to stay there.  Rick got out his shop vac and sucked it up and took it outside and let it go.  It flew out and landed on a post and we knew that Belle would just bring it back into the house.  So Rick put on some gloves and carried it out by the creek and let it go there. 

Okay now for the icky picture………

I was not that close to the bat – I stood as far back as I could and used the zoom lens to take the picture.  That is a face only a mother bat could love.

The book Stellaluna is a lovely read if you have small children.  We have a copy of it packed away somewhere.

Well I thought a little pin cushion project would be quick but it didn't really turn out that way. 

I've seen a number of posts lately showcasing lovely pin cushions.  My very own Nicki has a number of them (ignore her self-flagellation regarding sewing over pins.  She vows to do better).  I had none except for one of those magnetic dishes which, in my mind, doesn't classify as a cushion.  I decided I would make myself one. 

How hard could it be, anyway?

When I start out on little projects like this I always have this fantasy of cranking out a bunch of them and starting a little cottage industry.  About two hours in, wiping the sweat out of my eyes, I decide I am never, ever making another one again.

That simple little blanket stitch always flummoxes me to start with.  I have a couple of false starts before I finally get the hang of it again.  And I always wish my stitches were more even but no matter how careful I am, they never are.

I did some up with a pretty ingenious way of stuffing it – at least I thought so.  I cut a long strip of batting the same width as the height of the cushion.  Maybe a skosh wider.  Then I rolled it up, nice and tight and put it inside the felt covering and finished stitching it shut. 

I'm wondering if you are supposed to embellish these things BEFORE you stitch the covering compenents up.  It was kind of hard to get those felt flowers stiched on.

So this is my one and only home made pin cushion.  Although one of these would be kind of cute to make….

 

Are corner stores going extinct?  Slowly being pushed out by the super Wal-Marts and uber grocery stores (for crying out loud my Safeway carries Le Crueset)?   It seems to me that you just can't find smaller stores much any more.  Even liquor stores and bakeries (especially bakeries) seem to be a quaint relic from the past. 

When I was little my mother would hand me a dollar and have me run down to the little bakery around the corner to pick up four loaves of sandwich bread.  Yes I said four.  And just revealed that I am about 115 years old.

I would have to cut through the elementary school to get there.  I would always have to stop and play on the monkey bars first.  Maybe chat with Mr. Beeswax, the janitor (his real name was Mr. Billwax but everyone called him Mr. Beeswax) if he was there.   He was the janitor of the elementary school and watched four of us girls go through elementary school.  Nicki was in Jr. High when we moved here so he missed her formative years.  However, years after we had all grown and  the elementary school closed Nicki was walking into our grandparent's apartment complex when she heard someone ask "Are you one of the S(maiden name) girls?"  She said, yes indeed she was and he said "I thought so.  You walk just like the rest of them."

The little shopping center had a small grocery store, a bakery, an ice cream parlor, a barber shop and a bank.  A few other small shops that I can't quite remember.   Oh it had a donut shop/diner where you could get a burger and fries if you wanted.  Served in those little red plastic baskets lined with paper.  My younger sister Trish and I would love to go there for lunch and split an order of fries.  Once, when we a little short on cash, we packed our lunch and went in and sat at one of the tables and started to eat.  The owner came over and shooed us out when we explained we wouldn't be ordering anything.  It dumbfounded us that in order to eat there we had to actually buy the food from them.

The bakery later turned into a liquor store and remained a liquor store until a couple of years ago.  My dad used to buy his lottery tickets there.  He would always buy one ticket for every million dollars the jackpot was.  So if it was 15 million he would buy 15 tickets.  When he got sick I would go buy his tickets for him from the Chinese woman who owned the place.  She would always ask me how my father was doing and was quite relieved when he was able to get them himself again.

Once when I was in there I was standing in line behind a well dressed, young man who was probably in his mid-twenties. When he got to the head of the line she asked him how many he wanted and he said "two today, please." and she reached under the counter and handed him two cigarettes and he left.  When I got up to her she explained that he was trying to quit smoking and he would buy a pack and leave them with her and she would dole them out to him one or two at a time.

Do you think your Uber-Mart cashier would do that?