Good morning, Chas. I was here earlier, after today’s posts were all up, but I didn’t feel like being first; I wanted someone else to have it. So there you go — you get the honors. 🙂
Yes, Friday did arrive quickly. And this month is almost half gone. I guess I could say, if you have something to do in the first half of August, you’d better get to it. 🙂
Hi, Chas! And I hope everyone else will be around shortly.
I did an evening conference last night with Word Weavers. One of the leaders is also over Trail Life (that is the Christian version of the Boy Scouts). Trail Life has a great set up for doing conferences and if anyone needs something like that for a Christian group to use, contact them for a chance to utilize their good set up.
My very active little 6-year-old student had her lesson again last night. She’s made steady progress with good behavior since that first rather disastrous lesson last month, but last night she was slipping again. I had to tell her two or three times in the first ten minutes of her lesson that she should not be doing what she was. She did always stop the behavior, though, as soon as I told her to stop, so there is that.
Soon after I’d issued the last of those warnings, she exclaimed, “I wish I could stay here a million years. I wish the lesson would never be done and your next student wouldn’t come. I want to be here ALL THE TIME.”
Or something to that effect.
I don’t know, maybe she finds it a comfort to have boundaries in place. “We can’t put our feet up on the piano keys.” Etc. She needs someone who is in quiet control who isn’t angry. We don’t get as much accomplished musically as could be done in a half hour with a child who doesn’t need so many redirects, but something in her lessons is maybe soothing on some level?
I could use prayers for wisdom in working with this girl. I don’t know if she’ll learn more in musical lessons or more in life lessons from me. One of the very interesting challenges of working with youth, contemplating what they might derive from the experience.
Good Morning. I have been up since 5:30. I tried for a little longer but Master Amos can tell when I am awake and there is no ignoring a determined dog. Lulabelle decided to join him in his efforts so there were both of them needing to go out and wanting their breakfast. I’m thinking we don’t so much have pets as they have staff.
In another episode of “Oh how the Uppity Have Fallen”, The Frozen Toddler Bed and matching sheets have appeared in my house. This morning Mr. P got the side rails on and we put the sheets on it. Now it is awaiting a little girl who wanted an Anna bed. Never did I imagine having plastic furniture and character bedding in my house.
When BG moved to a big girl bed she got a single sleigh bed with a real mattress, throw pillows made from the leftover fabiric from her nursery, and a real bedspread and pretty tea cup sheets from Pottery Barn. Yep, I was a real piece of work. Now? Anything, as long as she will sleep in it.
Oh, and is Little Miss excited? She met me at the door yesterday holding her pillow in its case telling me she was getting an Anna Bed! She also played in the box yelling out, “Food Truck, Food Truck”. When asked what kind of food she had in the truck, she said, “Hot Dogs”. The funny things they say.
Morning! And it’s a turtle! Did he eat the dragonfly!?!
There is an eerie orange glow to the sunlight this morning from the fires in the west. And the air smells like smoke…we kind of don’t like waking up to such but pray the fires are controlled soon. Scary sight over in the Glenwood canyon area 😞
I am having soup with my friend today in a restaurant ! Because that is what I am eating as of late…soup, pudding, applesauce. Looking forward to a slice of “normal” today!
“Never did I imagine having plastic furniture and character bedding in my house.” — lol
I’m about to start work 2+ hours early because I am hopelessly behind and overwhelmed with stories I need to get done today. And I woke up feeling very discouraged again about the knee situation. Will I ever be able to take a long walk again? It seems to be a distinct and sad possibility to me that I won’t. 😦
Looks also like covid is here to stay for a really, good (bad), long while. Through 2021? Beyond? Seems like another distinct and grim possibility from everything I’m reading.
We’ll have another scorcher today, but I did sleep well.
Thanks, Kathaleena. We all need that reminder. We don’t need to try and get ahead of God and what He may decide to do. As long as we are all expecting the world to end during this calamitous time, it shouldn’t because it is suppose to end when it is least expected.
Kim, you’ve been totally commercialized! It won’t last for too long.
6 Arrows, my friend at church who teaches piano is around 70 y/o and will not teach online. She had a large number of students. She tries to always share her love of Jesus with each one. Maybe that girl needs to learn about the peace that Jesus offers if you are free to share that?
There is something so endearing about “piano girl.” 😉 (BTW, I like that name, and I think she would like it, too.) 🙂
There’s a page in one of her piano books that we keep returning to each week. It’s called “Be the Teacher!: Observing Technique.”
There are seven blank faces on the page, and piano girl gets to sit on my chair and watch me at the piano as I play something, after which time she is to draw a smiley face if I played with good technique on a certain technique she’s learned in the past. If my technique needs improvement, the directions are to draw a “frowny face” and then demonstrate correct technique to me.
The first week, she just ate this activity right up. She picked out which blank face she wanted to do first (the faces are different shades of skin tone with various hair colors/styles included). I had a box of 24 crayons with me, and she picked out which colors to use for the eyes and the nose and the smiling mouth. She also drew earrings and a headband with some jewels. 🙂 She was also very pleased that I used good technique!
All of this meticulous drawing takes a while, so we only do one face a week. I think she likes coming back to familiar, favorite pages for another round each week.
The very interesting thing I discovered with her, though, happened the second week we did this page. She picked out again which face would be the one to draw that week, but I played with poor technique — palms against the wood piece at the front of the piano, fingers pointing straight up when not being played. That was her cue to draw a frowning face and show me the correct hand position.
Well, she knew I wasn’t using proper technique, but she couldn’t bring herself to draw a face that was frowning. She looked at me, uncharacteristically silent for a bit, her big blue eyes staring into mine, and she almost whispered, “Now do it right.”
So I played the technique the correct way she’d learned, and *then* she happily went to work decorating her chosen face with a smile and other nice things.
Sometimes I think about that week, and it almost brings tears to my eyes — how much she wants things to be happy. Some kids would no doubt have great fun drawing frowning faces and would laugh at hilariously wrong technique and so on, but she wants things happy and (maybe?) “the way they should be.”
There was something about that lesson that really touched my heart and gave me a new glimpse into who this little girl is, though I can’t find the words to explain what she means to me. There’s some vulnerability under the surface that seemed to emerge ever so slightly that day.
Janice, sharing Jesus is something I think about as I work with my students. If I can do so in a natural way that flows out of something within the context of the teaching/learning environment, I do. I’ve found that situations like that, though they don’t often occur, work better with children I’ve known for quite a while. We’ve developed our relationship first, and have built up a sense of mutual trust and camaraderie. Hearing about Jesus from an adult one knows well, one who the child knows cares for and loves him or her, helps a child understand the love of Christ better, IMHO.
Some day I am confident a good opening for sharing Jesus with this girl will come. 🙂
Ah Kim when our youngest came to us it was “anything” to hear that giggle and see that smile. She wanted her Minnie Mouse bed set. So we purchased a metal toddler bed and dressed it up with Minnie! It’s worth the joy and memory. And yes…at 26 she still lives at home and is a complete joy. When and if she ever leaves home we will miss her but be blessed in knowing the Lord has His plan in it all….
I had a Davy Crockett bedspread that I recall, probably when I was 5-6 years old. We had a cat that slept with me and suckled on the puffy spots that made up the design, though, so there were a few bare spaces on Davy’s image.
I got up early and have done two miles already. The valley is supposed to get up to 108 today so I am fleeing to the cool coast after babysitting.
I am so excited that I have lost ten pounds. It has taken me months, but was worth it. Of course I can say that I lost 20 pounds because I didn’t gain the 10 that I always gain when I’m home.
6 Arrows, I totally understand what you are saying. Probably because my friend played piano for a gospel quartet maybe people would know up front that she would be mentioning Jesus to them. And she may have taught them hymns, too. She told me she had taught an older gentleman to play who later played for some group settings. We also had another member teaching in the past who was my co-teacher for children’s Sunday school, and the former pastor’s daughter taught, too. I think it is a really wonderful thing to do, and I love how you are teaching. I was just thinking how it would have been nice when I was a child if someone had talked to me about Jesus being with me all the time and that he and Father God were not just a Sunday thing.
Kim – When Nightingale and Boy moved in, I had to once again get used to seeing toys in my living room, and this time it was boys’ toys, not girls’ toys. I decided to suck it up, as long as things were picked up at the end of the day. So for a while, one of my bookshelf shelves was for storing some toys, and there was another place, too, with a large red container of Duplos (the bigger-sized Legos). I figured it was merely evidence that a happy child lives here.
Since they moved upstairs and Boy has his own room now, the bookshelf shelf has books again, but that red container (it looks almost like a vinyl cooler) is still down here, along with a small blue chair. Since he hasn’t played with the Duplos in quite a while, I guess I could move them, but I think I’ll wait a while longer.
My girls had Beauty and the Beast sheets on their beds. They and I loved that movie.
6 Arrows – Sounds like even if Piano Girl doesn’t progress musically as well as you might expect, she is still learning important lessons. Great job, Piano Lady! 🙂
Thanks, Janice (12:18) and Kizzie (1:16), for your kind words. I am pleased that God takes my blunders and my perpetual learning-curve status 😉 and works things according to His will and for His glory!
Changing the subject:
Does anyone buy couch and love seat sets anymore? It will be 20 years this fall — when I was pregnant with 4th Arrow — that we bought our living room set. The fabric has seen a lot of wear and tear over the years, and I’m thinking soon might be a good time to freshen the look of our living room with new and/or more vibrant-looking furniture upon which to sit.
I’ve tried adding various pillows, including a bright yellow one recently for a pop of color, but most of the ones I have were bought years ago and pretty much match the fading, tired-looking neutrals that fully comprise the couch and love seat color scheme — beige, grey, cream, pale turquoise.
I noticed last night how unbalanced a color scheme our living room has. The north half of the room is where the couch and love seat are. The long wall on the south side of the room, on the other hand, where there are no windows because our garage is attached to that side of the house, has a lot of dark stuff. The black grand piano of course being predominant. We have it on a navy blue rug, and behind the piano bench is a table with our turtle tank on it. The tank’s glass is bordered with black plastic, and the table cloth is medium/darkish blue.
I’d like to somehow have a more unified room, color-wise, or at least something more interesting than limp pastels that have hardly any oomph anymore. Maybe just getting a new rug for under the piano and a different-colored table cloth for under the turtle tank, would suffice. But there’s still the problem of the aging, lumpy couch and love seat.
As far as color balance, or the lack thereof, in the room, here is no other place to put the piano or the table with the turtle tank. Neither can be close to a window. So furniture can’t really be moved to different places to balance heavy colors and light colors throughout the room.
I’m thinking I might want to get more bold in my color choices — and design/shapes of couches, chairs, etc. — and have some black, some white, and some aesthetically-pleasing color intermingled throughout the room. Not such a stark contrast with pale blah on one side and almost all dark tones on the other.
I’ve lately been finding green (in various shades and saturations) to be a pleasing color. I was looking around online last night, reading up on color trends and living room designs, and I found a picture that about took my breath away. I don’t know if I can pull it off with our living room set-up, but take a look at this picture that stunned me. 🙂 (Scroll down about halfway, to the first picture in Section 3: Cultivate. If you heard a gasp emanating from the Midwest last night, that was me upon finding this picture.) 🙂
That explains why husband was hesitant to get a new blue chair because of our green walls. I was confused. If you like the blue chair and it is comfortable to you, why would you not get it?
6 Arrows, green is my favorite color and it’s supposed to be a calming color. God sure used a lot of it! It also pairs exquisitely with green (trees and sky). When we were moving in here, I wanted pale green walls and green carpet. Kim said it had to be neutral carpet, and my husband ended up agreeing (I’d have still chosen the green–I never stopped loving the beautiful, pamper-your-feet-plush burgundy carpet in my house in Nashville, and I really just don’t like dirt-colored carpet). We ended up choosing far too pale a shade of paint for the wall. In fact, I mentioned its being green when one of our friends was helping us paint. She said, “This is green? Looks white to me.” It does have a subtle hint of green, but we both wish we had gone just one level bolder. (We hadn’t chosen the bottom level, but the second from the bottom, and that was still just too subtle.)
Go bold with paint. If you don’t
Like it you can change it. Flooring is too expensive to change.
I looked at the photo. It is a lively living space. If you pull it off I will be jealous. 😉
6 Arrows, the first time I looked through them all without realizing the one you had picked, it was the one that gave me pause, too. I also liked the one before that on the second look through but not as much as Cultivate. Great choice!
Cheryl – You and I definitely have different tastes. 🙂 Green is my second-to-least favorite color (with orange being my least favorite).
You had previously mentioned that you think that blue and green go together because of skies and trees. But I have always marveled that two colors that don’t go together well to me (blue and green) look so nice in nature. 😀 (And I don’t agree that green is a “goes with everything” color, which you once said. But I still love you! 🙂 )
My living room, where I spend much of my time, is a light green. Hubby had chosen the paint and painted the room years ago when we didn’t know it would eventually be our living room. The year before he died, I finally asked him if we could repaint the room, because I don’t like this color. He said yes, but we never got around to it.
Nightingale and I will get around to it eventually, but there are other, more important projects waiting in line for the time being.
My living room furniture is leather, my tastes run to western/Mexican/early/old California/Southwest in colors and theme. I love a Mexican serape blanket throw or similarly colored ethnic throw pillows for some bright colors.
I lean toward the distressed or rustic looks and fabrics — no carpet anywhere, original wood floors, but I do have a few cheap throw rugs, usually in faded reds/burgandy and blues.
Big windows, cream-colored shears.
The living room and dining and hall walls were going to be painted but I haven’t gotten to that yet.
The bathroom, as you know, is black and white and cute. White fabric eyelet shower curtain. Girly.
But my towels are mostly blues and muted blue/green shades.
Our living room is definitely not color coordinated. The former owners liked bold, as Kim said. We have orange above the windows and some beams, as well as the dining room. The furniture is a mix also. An antique sofa and chair in a blue pattern (recovered 10 years ago) that originally belonged to Mrs L’s great-grandparents, a green chair that had been her grandfather’s, which we recovered 20 years ago, an antique writing table that belonged to her great aunt, as well as various mixed style bookshelves and end tables. Oh, well, we like it.
As for 6 arrow’s question- Yes, people still buy sofa and love seats together. At least my D1 and her husband did last year.
Love antique furniture, my dining table was my mom’s kitchen table as she was growing up in Iowa, she always loved it. I have a couple old bookcases I love, unmatched old wooden ‘dining’ chairs, one from Mexico, another that was my grandmother’s in Iowa, an old la city library chair. A couple old family cedar chests and my grandfather’s old traveling trunk, plus another ancestor’s trunk.
I recovered a club chair my mom always loved (came across a photo of my dad sitting in it and holding me as a baby) but that’s kind of piled high with paperwork in the office right now.
This seems an appropriate thread for me. I have been enjoying a nearly week long streak of off days and have been spending them a) going to appointments/lab tests, and b) working towards my room in the basement. The space for my room already has three walls, so I am making the fourth out of sliding barn doors. The doors are, of course, not really barn doors, only made in the style thereof. I got four well made ones for a reasonable price and have been finishing them carefully. I have also been helping my father clear away the accumulated stuff from over two decades of using the same space. He is, not to put too fine a point on it, a thorough clutter bug, so it requires ingenuity to help him make some sense of the chaos in which he works. He also is allergic to the idea of getting rid of things, as you never know when something might come in handy, so once again I have to walk a fine balance between purging obvious junk, and keeping his trust. I remarked to Second that one would think it was the 1800s and paper was a scarce and rare commodity the way he has written on the backs of envelopes, etc. He is valiantly trying to fit into the smaller space, but every once in a while, he breaks out in panic that there isn’t enough room. I think though, that I am setting him a good example, as like him, I like to save things in case they come in handy, but unlike him, I have always lived in small spaces, so I have never been able to save everything. So, when I bring out my tools and am able to accomplish a job just as well as he with the little I have, he sees he doesn’t need all the things he has saved.
Kizzie, with any colors it depends on “shades” of the colors whether they go together. My favorite color is an emerald green, and in general I like the jewel tones (which I think of as emerald green, royal blue, burgundy or magenta, and purple). The green and blue that are in a peacock’s tail are the shades I specifically think of as going super great together. I don’t like yellowish green and olive is also not a favorite, but I like the deeper colors and I like pastels. Earth tones are the colors I wear least, except paired with a color (e.g., khaki pants with a colored top).
Kim, I’m no more likely to change the colors of the walls once they have been painted than to change the flooring–too much furniture to move to do either one. And I suppose it’s possible to get tired of a particular color of carpet or type of flooring. Thing is, for me, I was “tired of” the neutral carpet the day it was laid. And I’ve liked green since I was a little girl, so that seems unlikely to change. But my husband didn’t really want the green (though he was willing to do it for my sake), and even though it was quite a subtle green, he decided not to go for it when he heard real-estate agents said no. (I think our own agent said green might show stains more, and she wasn’t in favor.) If I’d pressed him on it, he probably would have done it for my sake anyway, but he was willing enough to do things the way I like them that I let that one go. But I still think this carpet is ugly, and I would never choose “neutral” if I were the only one in the home. I’d never choose bold and flashy either, whether in paint or in flooring, but I would choose something I actually like if I could.
Kim, the only way I’d be able to pull off a look like that living room would be if you’d come up here and go shopping with me. 😉
OK, I went shopping this afternoon and found a bluish/turquoise tablecloth that is lighter-colored than the blue one under the tank. It will pull the same turquoise shade out of the couch and love seat pattern and lighten up the dark side of the room. (It also matches one of the throw pillows.) The tablecloth is cotton/poly rather than vinyl like the one we are using now, so it adds a bit more elegance. As elegant as a table with a 40-gallon turtle tank on it can be. 😉
The tablecloth was on clearance. The sticker said originally $49.99, which is a ridiculous price I would never pay, but got marked down 75% to $12.49, which is reasonable to me since it was a color, shape, and size I liked/wanted.
Then at the checkout register I found out that there was an extra 15% off the clearance price. Yay! Down to $8.49 + tax, and I walked out of the store with a tablecloth under 9 dollars. I like when happy surprises like that come along. 🙂
Oops, my math was wrong, ha ha. 15% off of $12.49 wouldn’t take the total all the way down to $8.49. The receipt says Item Price 49.99; Clearance 37.50-; Sale Price 9.99; Total Off Offer 15% 1.50-.
6 Arrows – I forgot to answer your question and say that I bought a matching couch and loveseat last fall. We’ve always had a couch and loveseat, except in our first apartment.
I have been giving orange a second chance. My mother gave me a set of orange mixing bowls at one point a long time ago. Orange was my least favorite color but I don’t think she knew that. So I suffered with that color for years. Finally orange came into style and I became more use to seeing it. It grew on me. Also, my color vision has changed so maybe that is why I like it better now. My feelings for those bowls are now in the range of very liked to loved.
I saw a cute couch (stand-alone, no love seat that goes with it) in a furniture store today. I am thinking about getting that couch. It is a solid blue shade, similar to your teapot, Kizzie, but not quite as deep blue. It was the only colorful couch in the whole place — all the rest are neutrals, which I’m tired of. There are two other color choices available for that style, but they’re gray and beige or something like that.
At the same place, I found a chair I like. It is super comfy and sits on a little platform and turns from side to side. I can picture myself sitting in that chair while teaching piano. Ah, luxury. 🙂
The fabric pattern on the chair is mainly grey and white, but there are several other color and fabric designs that can be substituted. There is a velvety wine one that looks absolutely lovely. How it would pair with the blue couch in the lighting conditions of our living room at various times of the day is something I’m not sure of.
I think the room would be too crowded, though, to add a love seat into the mix if I bought the chair and couch, which would mean we’d lose one extra seat by going from a couch and love seat (seating five) to a couch and chair (seating four). Though the padded artist bench at the grand piano provides extra seating, so there would be enough to seat five of us comfortably with a couch, the chair, and the artist bench. Seating for five is all we need, since hubby rarely sits in the living room, and when he does, he generally pulls a chair into the area from the dining room, which is all sort of the same room with the living room.
Possibly I could get 2 chairs to add to the couch. Hmmm…
All of that kind of shoots the idea of greens like in that picture I linked, though! There was hardly any vivid green to be found in the fabric swatches at the furniture store, except in a couple of bright multi-colored patterns, which I’m not sure I really liked.
I’m going to look around some more next Friday, and the next, and the next… and take my time with a decision. I’ll see if hubby wants to go shopping with me. We shopped together for the couch and love seat 20 years ago, but I don’t know if he’d be that interested in doing that now, especially because he’s hardly ever upstairs, let alone in the living room.
Third Arrow has a good eye for visual detail, and would be a fine consultant for me if Kim doesn’t get to my doorstep for a while. 🙂 Third isn’t afraid to shoot things down, either, if they just don’t work. She understands, probably better than I do, what I like / don’t like, would want / wouldn’t want, ultimately.
Janice, I saw an orange chair at the furniture store that rather grabbed my eye. It might be too much with the blue couch and wine-colored chair I described above, if I got the latter two, but maybe that orange chair might look very nice or splashy or … (?) with some furniture I have not seen yet in my shopping. 🙂 I’ve got some orange decor I put out in the fall in my dining room, so an orange chair visible in the living room — you can see that room well from the dining area — might look especially nice.
Maybe that’s the pop of color my living room needs. 🙂
Greens — I like the very muted shades, with a lot of gray/blue in them
Love barn doors, was thinking of those for the spare room closet which had no doors (but I’ve since added a curtain, which is fine).
I just made the mistake of going out for a quick backyard watering as everything was wilting in this 90+ degree weather and I’m totally bitten up by our little non-native mosquitoes. Argh! I’d put repellent on earlier but guess the cold shower I took to cool off diluted it too much. Now I’m miserable, I think I’ve dumped a whole tube of Benadryl gel on my legs.
Column: The latest threat to the Southern California dream: Mosquitoes
… But today, paradise is no more. The mosquitoes have arrived. And with them, a fundamental piece of the Southern California dream is going the way of Bullocks Wilshire, the Pacific Electric company’s Red Cars and, I don’t know… the Brown Derby. An Angeleno’s personal freedom to sit outdoors unmolested by bugs is under attack.
Seriously, this is a big deal.
… In July 1934, The Times said: “We have no mosquitoes in Southern California — or very darn few of them.”
On Aug. 24, 1989: “There are remarkably few mosquitoes in much of Los Angeles.”
Yeah, well, not anymore.
… There have been outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases over the years.
But the biting was never like this.
What’s changed is the arrival of several new species. First came the Aedes albopictus in the early 2000s. More recently, Aedes aegypti and Aedes notoscriptus. They are more aggressive with people than the region’s traditional mosquitoes, they bite all day long and they like to hover around the ankles — but somehow by the time you’re aware you’ve been bitten, they’re gone, often to your other ankle. These nasty little buggers can lay their eggs in the tiniest bit of stagnant water, even in a space as small as a bottle cap, making them difficult to eradicate.
And they can carry some very serious diseases.
What’s more, they’re spreading geographically, and growing denser where they already exist, according to Susanne Kluh, director of scientific and technical services for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. Kluh says that complaints from horrified Angelenos and the agency’s own scientific measurements suggest the mosquito population has increased dramatically again this year.
This is a lifestyle nightmare. But it’s also a serious potential health risk. …
… Amazingly, although mosquito-borne malaria is thousands of years old, scientists were unaware until the late 19th century of the relationship between mosquitoes and disease. In fact the two are murderously co-dependent: Mosquitoes are harmless unless they have bitten an infected person (or, often, an infected bird). And the diseases can’t spread without the mosquitoes.
The World Health Organization says that diseases transmitted by mosquitoes are responsible for “several million deaths” each year.
One big concern in our region is West Nile disease. The Culex mosquitoes that have long been established in Southern California have been carrying that virus since it arrived in the area in 2003.
“West Nile is a pernicious disease that in its acute form can attack your brain and create delirium, hallucinations,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, the former Los Angeles County supervisor whose wife, Barbara, died of complications during treatment for the disease in December 2018. She had been bitten by mosquitoes in her Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood.
“Every one of those little insects is like a missile flying toward you,” said Yaroslavsky. “And you have no idea which one carries the atom bomb.”
Only about 1 in 5 people infected with West Nile develop any fever or symptoms, and many fewer than that become seriously ill, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The newly arrived Aedes mosquitoes have the ability to carry and spread dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya and others.
So far, there have been no known, locally acquired transmissions of those diseases in our area. But there have been in Texas and Florida. …
… Kluh says her vector control district has changed its program dramatically in response to the Aedes mosquitoes, including adding 15 new staff positions, creating an entire sub-program to deal with “daytime biting” complaints, retraining staffers to identify different breeding sources and disseminating information about Zika, dengue and other viruses. Advice for residents is available here: https://www.glacvcd.org
___________________________
Of course, we/I wrote about it first a couple years ago — a story that continues to tick up in readership numbers every summer
Wandering Views 
How can I be first at 8:36?
Good morning everyone.
How did Friday get here so fast?
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Good morning, Chas. I was here earlier, after today’s posts were all up, but I didn’t feel like being first; I wanted someone else to have it. So there you go — you get the honors. 🙂
Yes, Friday did arrive quickly. And this month is almost half gone. I guess I could say, if you have something to do in the first half of August, you’d better get to it. 🙂
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Hi, Chas! And I hope everyone else will be around shortly.
I did an evening conference last night with Word Weavers. One of the leaders is also over Trail Life (that is the Christian version of the Boy Scouts). Trail Life has a great set up for doing conferences and if anyone needs something like that for a Christian group to use, contact them for a chance to utilize their good set up.
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My very active little 6-year-old student had her lesson again last night. She’s made steady progress with good behavior since that first rather disastrous lesson last month, but last night she was slipping again. I had to tell her two or three times in the first ten minutes of her lesson that she should not be doing what she was. She did always stop the behavior, though, as soon as I told her to stop, so there is that.
Soon after I’d issued the last of those warnings, she exclaimed, “I wish I could stay here a million years. I wish the lesson would never be done and your next student wouldn’t come. I want to be here ALL THE TIME.”
Or something to that effect.
I don’t know, maybe she finds it a comfort to have boundaries in place. “We can’t put our feet up on the piano keys.” Etc. She needs someone who is in quiet control who isn’t angry. We don’t get as much accomplished musically as could be done in a half hour with a child who doesn’t need so many redirects, but something in her lessons is maybe soothing on some level?
I could use prayers for wisdom in working with this girl. I don’t know if she’ll learn more in musical lessons or more in life lessons from me. One of the very interesting challenges of working with youth, contemplating what they might derive from the experience.
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This is long but worth the read.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/abe-greenwald/yes-this-is-a-revolution/
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Friday it is. Of course, that means it’s only 3 more days until Monday.
Oh, sorry for the negative comment. Here, these might put the smile back on your face. Or not.
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Good Morning. I have been up since 5:30. I tried for a little longer but Master Amos can tell when I am awake and there is no ignoring a determined dog. Lulabelle decided to join him in his efforts so there were both of them needing to go out and wanting their breakfast. I’m thinking we don’t so much have pets as they have staff.
In another episode of “Oh how the Uppity Have Fallen”, The Frozen Toddler Bed and matching sheets have appeared in my house. This morning Mr. P got the side rails on and we put the sheets on it. Now it is awaiting a little girl who wanted an Anna bed. Never did I imagine having plastic furniture and character bedding in my house.
When BG moved to a big girl bed she got a single sleigh bed with a real mattress, throw pillows made from the leftover fabiric from her nursery, and a real bedspread and pretty tea cup sheets from Pottery Barn. Yep, I was a real piece of work. Now? Anything, as long as she will sleep in it.
Oh, and is Little Miss excited? She met me at the door yesterday holding her pillow in its case telling me she was getting an Anna Bed! She also played in the box yelling out, “Food Truck, Food Truck”. When asked what kind of food she had in the truck, she said, “Hot Dogs”. The funny things they say.
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Because I’m just reading from the sidelines, there’s something endearing about a little girl so loved.
And then there’s the piano girl, 🙂
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Morning! And it’s a turtle! Did he eat the dragonfly!?!
There is an eerie orange glow to the sunlight this morning from the fires in the west. And the air smells like smoke…we kind of don’t like waking up to such but pray the fires are controlled soon. Scary sight over in the Glenwood canyon area 😞
I am having soup with my friend today in a restaurant ! Because that is what I am eating as of late…soup, pudding, applesauce. Looking forward to a slice of “normal” today!
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“Never did I imagine having plastic furniture and character bedding in my house.” — lol
I’m about to start work 2+ hours early because I am hopelessly behind and overwhelmed with stories I need to get done today. And I woke up feeling very discouraged again about the knee situation. Will I ever be able to take a long walk again? It seems to be a distinct and sad possibility to me that I won’t. 😦
Looks also like covid is here to stay for a really, good (bad), long while. Through 2021? Beyond? Seems like another distinct and grim possibility from everything I’m reading.
We’ll have another scorcher today, but I did sleep well.
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3 full stories to write, 1 brief, 1 copy block and photos to process. Good grief.
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One day at a time, DJ. Good advice from God’s word that we all need to remember.
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Good morning.
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Thanks, Kathaleena. We all need that reminder. We don’t need to try and get ahead of God and what He may decide to do. As long as we are all expecting the world to end during this calamitous time, it shouldn’t because it is suppose to end when it is least expected.
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Kim, you’ve been totally commercialized! It won’t last for too long.
6 Arrows, my friend at church who teaches piano is around 70 y/o and will not teach online. She had a large number of students. She tries to always share her love of Jesus with each one. Maybe that girl needs to learn about the peace that Jesus offers if you are free to share that?
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Oh I meant to tell you to laugh at me. I am.
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There is something so endearing about “piano girl.” 😉 (BTW, I like that name, and I think she would like it, too.) 🙂
There’s a page in one of her piano books that we keep returning to each week. It’s called “Be the Teacher!: Observing Technique.”
There are seven blank faces on the page, and piano girl gets to sit on my chair and watch me at the piano as I play something, after which time she is to draw a smiley face if I played with good technique on a certain technique she’s learned in the past. If my technique needs improvement, the directions are to draw a “frowny face” and then demonstrate correct technique to me.
The first week, she just ate this activity right up. She picked out which blank face she wanted to do first (the faces are different shades of skin tone with various hair colors/styles included). I had a box of 24 crayons with me, and she picked out which colors to use for the eyes and the nose and the smiling mouth. She also drew earrings and a headband with some jewels. 🙂 She was also very pleased that I used good technique!
All of this meticulous drawing takes a while, so we only do one face a week. I think she likes coming back to familiar, favorite pages for another round each week.
The very interesting thing I discovered with her, though, happened the second week we did this page. She picked out again which face would be the one to draw that week, but I played with poor technique — palms against the wood piece at the front of the piano, fingers pointing straight up when not being played. That was her cue to draw a frowning face and show me the correct hand position.
Well, she knew I wasn’t using proper technique, but she couldn’t bring herself to draw a face that was frowning. She looked at me, uncharacteristically silent for a bit, her big blue eyes staring into mine, and she almost whispered, “Now do it right.”
So I played the technique the correct way she’d learned, and *then* she happily went to work decorating her chosen face with a smile and other nice things.
Sometimes I think about that week, and it almost brings tears to my eyes — how much she wants things to be happy. Some kids would no doubt have great fun drawing frowning faces and would laugh at hilariously wrong technique and so on, but she wants things happy and (maybe?) “the way they should be.”
There was something about that lesson that really touched my heart and gave me a new glimpse into who this little girl is, though I can’t find the words to explain what she means to me. There’s some vulnerability under the surface that seemed to emerge ever so slightly that day.
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Janice, sharing Jesus is something I think about as I work with my students. If I can do so in a natural way that flows out of something within the context of the teaching/learning environment, I do. I’ve found that situations like that, though they don’t often occur, work better with children I’ve known for quite a while. We’ve developed our relationship first, and have built up a sense of mutual trust and camaraderie. Hearing about Jesus from an adult one knows well, one who the child knows cares for and loves him or her, helps a child understand the love of Christ better, IMHO.
Some day I am confident a good opening for sharing Jesus with this girl will come. 🙂
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Ah Kim when our youngest came to us it was “anything” to hear that giggle and see that smile. She wanted her Minnie Mouse bed set. So we purchased a metal toddler bed and dressed it up with Minnie! It’s worth the joy and memory. And yes…at 26 she still lives at home and is a complete joy. When and if she ever leaves home we will miss her but be blessed in knowing the Lord has His plan in it all….
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I had a Davy Crockett bedspread that I recall, probably when I was 5-6 years old. We had a cat that slept with me and suckled on the puffy spots that made up the design, though, so there were a few bare spaces on Davy’s image.
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I got up early and have done two miles already. The valley is supposed to get up to 108 today so I am fleeing to the cool coast after babysitting.
I am so excited that I have lost ten pounds. It has taken me months, but was worth it. Of course I can say that I lost 20 pounds because I didn’t gain the 10 that I always gain when I’m home.
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I’d go with that one, Jo! LOL
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6 Arrows, I totally understand what you are saying. Probably because my friend played piano for a gospel quartet maybe people would know up front that she would be mentioning Jesus to them. And she may have taught them hymns, too. She told me she had taught an older gentleman to play who later played for some group settings. We also had another member teaching in the past who was my co-teacher for children’s Sunday school, and the former pastor’s daughter taught, too. I think it is a really wonderful thing to do, and I love how you are teaching. I was just thinking how it would have been nice when I was a child if someone had talked to me about Jesus being with me all the time and that he and Father God were not just a Sunday thing.
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Thanks Janice.
I have a pet rock again.
🙂
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Kim – When Nightingale and Boy moved in, I had to once again get used to seeing toys in my living room, and this time it was boys’ toys, not girls’ toys. I decided to suck it up, as long as things were picked up at the end of the day. So for a while, one of my bookshelf shelves was for storing some toys, and there was another place, too, with a large red container of Duplos (the bigger-sized Legos). I figured it was merely evidence that a happy child lives here.
Since they moved upstairs and Boy has his own room now, the bookshelf shelf has books again, but that red container (it looks almost like a vinyl cooler) is still down here, along with a small blue chair. Since he hasn’t played with the Duplos in quite a while, I guess I could move them, but I think I’ll wait a while longer.
My girls had Beauty and the Beast sheets on their beds. They and I loved that movie.
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6 Arrows – Sounds like even if Piano Girl doesn’t progress musically as well as you might expect, she is still learning important lessons. Great job, Piano Lady! 🙂
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Thankful to know Tiny Turtle and his pet rocks arrived! He and they will be very happy with your care and to see Elvera♡
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Thanks, Janice (12:18) and Kizzie (1:16), for your kind words. I am pleased that God takes my blunders and my perpetual learning-curve status 😉 and works things according to His will and for His glory!
Changing the subject:
Does anyone buy couch and love seat sets anymore? It will be 20 years this fall — when I was pregnant with 4th Arrow — that we bought our living room set. The fabric has seen a lot of wear and tear over the years, and I’m thinking soon might be a good time to freshen the look of our living room with new and/or more vibrant-looking furniture upon which to sit.
I’ve tried adding various pillows, including a bright yellow one recently for a pop of color, but most of the ones I have were bought years ago and pretty much match the fading, tired-looking neutrals that fully comprise the couch and love seat color scheme — beige, grey, cream, pale turquoise.
I noticed last night how unbalanced a color scheme our living room has. The north half of the room is where the couch and love seat are. The long wall on the south side of the room, on the other hand, where there are no windows because our garage is attached to that side of the house, has a lot of dark stuff. The black grand piano of course being predominant. We have it on a navy blue rug, and behind the piano bench is a table with our turtle tank on it. The tank’s glass is bordered with black plastic, and the table cloth is medium/darkish blue.
I’d like to somehow have a more unified room, color-wise, or at least something more interesting than limp pastels that have hardly any oomph anymore. Maybe just getting a new rug for under the piano and a different-colored table cloth for under the turtle tank, would suffice. But there’s still the problem of the aging, lumpy couch and love seat.
As far as color balance, or the lack thereof, in the room, here is no other place to put the piano or the table with the turtle tank. Neither can be close to a window. So furniture can’t really be moved to different places to balance heavy colors and light colors throughout the room.
I’m thinking I might want to get more bold in my color choices — and design/shapes of couches, chairs, etc. — and have some black, some white, and some aesthetically-pleasing color intermingled throughout the room. Not such a stark contrast with pale blah on one side and almost all dark tones on the other.
I’ve lately been finding green (in various shades and saturations) to be a pleasing color. I was looking around online last night, reading up on color trends and living room designs, and I found a picture that about took my breath away. I don’t know if I can pull it off with our living room set-up, but take a look at this picture that stunned me. 🙂 (Scroll down about halfway, to the first picture in Section 3: Cultivate. If you heard a gasp emanating from the Midwest last night, that was me upon finding this picture.) 🙂
https://www.italianbark.com/2020-2021-color-trends-palette-interiors-decor-forecasting/
Any ideas for me?
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There are color schemes? Balance? What???
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That explains why husband was hesitant to get a new blue chair because of our green walls. I was confused. If you like the blue chair and it is comfortable to you, why would you not get it?
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6 Arrows, green is my favorite color and it’s supposed to be a calming color. God sure used a lot of it! It also pairs exquisitely with green (trees and sky). When we were moving in here, I wanted pale green walls and green carpet. Kim said it had to be neutral carpet, and my husband ended up agreeing (I’d have still chosen the green–I never stopped loving the beautiful, pamper-your-feet-plush burgundy carpet in my house in Nashville, and I really just don’t like dirt-colored carpet). We ended up choosing far too pale a shade of paint for the wall. In fact, I mentioned its being green when one of our friends was helping us paint. She said, “This is green? Looks white to me.” It does have a subtle hint of green, but we both wish we had gone just one level bolder. (We hadn’t chosen the bottom level, but the second from the bottom, and that was still just too subtle.)
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I can see why carpet would be neutral. It wouldn’t want to pick sides. However, why would carpet want to get involved with differences in any case.?
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Go bold with paint. If you don’t
Like it you can change it. Flooring is too expensive to change.
I looked at the photo. It is a lively living space. If you pull it off I will be jealous. 😉
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6 Arrows, the first time I looked through them all without realizing the one you had picked, it was the one that gave me pause, too. I also liked the one before that on the second look through but not as much as Cultivate. Great choice!
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I need to figure out how to send a pic to Kim, of the two daughter’s rooms. Bold it is.
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Chas, if you have a pet rock you’ll need this so you won’t lose it:
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Cheryl – You and I definitely have different tastes. 🙂 Green is my second-to-least favorite color (with orange being my least favorite).
You had previously mentioned that you think that blue and green go together because of skies and trees. But I have always marveled that two colors that don’t go together well to me (blue and green) look so nice in nature. 😀 (And I don’t agree that green is a “goes with everything” color, which you once said. But I still love you! 🙂 )
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I cannot believe I spent the time to watch that.
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My living room, where I spend much of my time, is a light green. Hubby had chosen the paint and painted the room years ago when we didn’t know it would eventually be our living room. The year before he died, I finally asked him if we could repaint the room, because I don’t like this color. He said yes, but we never got around to it.
Nightingale and I will get around to it eventually, but there are other, more important projects waiting in line for the time being.
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My living room furniture is leather, my tastes run to western/Mexican/early/old California/Southwest in colors and theme. I love a Mexican serape blanket throw or similarly colored ethnic throw pillows for some bright colors.
I lean toward the distressed or rustic looks and fabrics — no carpet anywhere, original wood floors, but I do have a few cheap throw rugs, usually in faded reds/burgandy and blues.
Big windows, cream-colored shears.
The living room and dining and hall walls were going to be painted but I haven’t gotten to that yet.
The bathroom, as you know, is black and white and cute. White fabric eyelet shower curtain. Girly.
But my towels are mostly blues and muted blue/green shades.
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Oh, turquoise, I do love turquoise accents here and there.
And striped western horse blankets. I’ve always wanted to get one of those as a wall hanging.
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Our living room is definitely not color coordinated. The former owners liked bold, as Kim said. We have orange above the windows and some beams, as well as the dining room. The furniture is a mix also. An antique sofa and chair in a blue pattern (recovered 10 years ago) that originally belonged to Mrs L’s great-grandparents, a green chair that had been her grandfather’s, which we recovered 20 years ago, an antique writing table that belonged to her great aunt, as well as various mixed style bookshelves and end tables. Oh, well, we like it.
As for 6 arrow’s question- Yes, people still buy sofa and love seats together. At least my D1 and her husband did last year.
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Love antique furniture, my dining table was my mom’s kitchen table as she was growing up in Iowa, she always loved it. I have a couple old bookcases I love, unmatched old wooden ‘dining’ chairs, one from Mexico, another that was my grandmother’s in Iowa, an old la city library chair. A couple old family cedar chests and my grandfather’s old traveling trunk, plus another ancestor’s trunk.
I recovered a club chair my mom always loved (came across a photo of my dad sitting in it and holding me as a baby) but that’s kind of piled high with paperwork in the office right now.
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This seems an appropriate thread for me. I have been enjoying a nearly week long streak of off days and have been spending them a) going to appointments/lab tests, and b) working towards my room in the basement. The space for my room already has three walls, so I am making the fourth out of sliding barn doors. The doors are, of course, not really barn doors, only made in the style thereof. I got four well made ones for a reasonable price and have been finishing them carefully. I have also been helping my father clear away the accumulated stuff from over two decades of using the same space. He is, not to put too fine a point on it, a thorough clutter bug, so it requires ingenuity to help him make some sense of the chaos in which he works. He also is allergic to the idea of getting rid of things, as you never know when something might come in handy, so once again I have to walk a fine balance between purging obvious junk, and keeping his trust. I remarked to Second that one would think it was the 1800s and paper was a scarce and rare commodity the way he has written on the backs of envelopes, etc. He is valiantly trying to fit into the smaller space, but every once in a while, he breaks out in panic that there isn’t enough room. I think though, that I am setting him a good example, as like him, I like to save things in case they come in handy, but unlike him, I have always lived in small spaces, so I have never been able to save everything. So, when I bring out my tools and am able to accomplish a job just as well as he with the little I have, he sees he doesn’t need all the things he has saved.
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Kizzie, with any colors it depends on “shades” of the colors whether they go together. My favorite color is an emerald green, and in general I like the jewel tones (which I think of as emerald green, royal blue, burgundy or magenta, and purple). The green and blue that are in a peacock’s tail are the shades I specifically think of as going super great together. I don’t like yellowish green and olive is also not a favorite, but I like the deeper colors and I like pastels. Earth tones are the colors I wear least, except paired with a color (e.g., khaki pants with a colored top).
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Kim, I’m no more likely to change the colors of the walls once they have been painted than to change the flooring–too much furniture to move to do either one. And I suppose it’s possible to get tired of a particular color of carpet or type of flooring. Thing is, for me, I was “tired of” the neutral carpet the day it was laid. And I’ve liked green since I was a little girl, so that seems unlikely to change. But my husband didn’t really want the green (though he was willing to do it for my sake), and even though it was quite a subtle green, he decided not to go for it when he heard real-estate agents said no. (I think our own agent said green might show stains more, and she wasn’t in favor.) If I’d pressed him on it, he probably would have done it for my sake anyway, but he was willing enough to do things the way I like them that I let that one go. But I still think this carpet is ugly, and I would never choose “neutral” if I were the only one in the home. I’d never choose bold and flashy either, whether in paint or in flooring, but I would choose something I actually like if I could.
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Kim, the only way I’d be able to pull off a look like that living room would be if you’d come up here and go shopping with me. 😉
OK, I went shopping this afternoon and found a bluish/turquoise tablecloth that is lighter-colored than the blue one under the tank. It will pull the same turquoise shade out of the couch and love seat pattern and lighten up the dark side of the room. (It also matches one of the throw pillows.) The tablecloth is cotton/poly rather than vinyl like the one we are using now, so it adds a bit more elegance. As elegant as a table with a 40-gallon turtle tank on it can be. 😉
The tablecloth was on clearance. The sticker said originally $49.99, which is a ridiculous price I would never pay, but got marked down 75% to $12.49, which is reasonable to me since it was a color, shape, and size I liked/wanted.
Then at the checkout register I found out that there was an extra 15% off the clearance price. Yay! Down to $8.49 + tax, and I walked out of the store with a tablecloth under 9 dollars. I like when happy surprises like that come along. 🙂
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Oops, my math was wrong, ha ha. 15% off of $12.49 wouldn’t take the total all the way down to $8.49. The receipt says Item Price 49.99; Clearance 37.50-; Sale Price 9.99; Total Off Offer 15% 1.50-.
For those of you math minds paying attention. 🙂
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6 Arrows – I forgot to answer your question and say that I bought a matching couch and loveseat last fall. We’ve always had a couch and loveseat, except in our first apartment.
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Cheryl – We do agree on something color-wise! I, too, love jewel tones, and although I dislike greens in general, I do like emerald green. 🙂
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I have been giving orange a second chance. My mother gave me a set of orange mixing bowls at one point a long time ago. Orange was my least favorite color but I don’t think she knew that. So I suffered with that color for years. Finally orange came into style and I became more use to seeing it. It grew on me. Also, my color vision has changed so maybe that is why I like it better now. My feelings for those bowls are now in the range of very liked to loved.
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I saw a cute couch (stand-alone, no love seat that goes with it) in a furniture store today. I am thinking about getting that couch. It is a solid blue shade, similar to your teapot, Kizzie, but not quite as deep blue. It was the only colorful couch in the whole place — all the rest are neutrals, which I’m tired of. There are two other color choices available for that style, but they’re gray and beige or something like that.
At the same place, I found a chair I like. It is super comfy and sits on a little platform and turns from side to side. I can picture myself sitting in that chair while teaching piano. Ah, luxury. 🙂
The fabric pattern on the chair is mainly grey and white, but there are several other color and fabric designs that can be substituted. There is a velvety wine one that looks absolutely lovely. How it would pair with the blue couch in the lighting conditions of our living room at various times of the day is something I’m not sure of.
I think the room would be too crowded, though, to add a love seat into the mix if I bought the chair and couch, which would mean we’d lose one extra seat by going from a couch and love seat (seating five) to a couch and chair (seating four). Though the padded artist bench at the grand piano provides extra seating, so there would be enough to seat five of us comfortably with a couch, the chair, and the artist bench. Seating for five is all we need, since hubby rarely sits in the living room, and when he does, he generally pulls a chair into the area from the dining room, which is all sort of the same room with the living room.
Possibly I could get 2 chairs to add to the couch. Hmmm…
All of that kind of shoots the idea of greens like in that picture I linked, though! There was hardly any vivid green to be found in the fabric swatches at the furniture store, except in a couple of bright multi-colored patterns, which I’m not sure I really liked.
I’m going to look around some more next Friday, and the next, and the next… and take my time with a decision. I’ll see if hubby wants to go shopping with me. We shopped together for the couch and love seat 20 years ago, but I don’t know if he’d be that interested in doing that now, especially because he’s hardly ever upstairs, let alone in the living room.
Third Arrow has a good eye for visual detail, and would be a fine consultant for me if Kim doesn’t get to my doorstep for a while. 🙂 Third isn’t afraid to shoot things down, either, if they just don’t work. She understands, probably better than I do, what I like / don’t like, would want / wouldn’t want, ultimately.
Always good to have people like that around. 🙂
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Janice, I saw an orange chair at the furniture store that rather grabbed my eye. It might be too much with the blue couch and wine-colored chair I described above, if I got the latter two, but maybe that orange chair might look very nice or splashy or … (?) with some furniture I have not seen yet in my shopping. 🙂 I’ve got some orange decor I put out in the fall in my dining room, so an orange chair visible in the living room — you can see that room well from the dining area — might look especially nice.
Maybe that’s the pop of color my living room needs. 🙂
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Greens — I like the very muted shades, with a lot of gray/blue in them
Love barn doors, was thinking of those for the spare room closet which had no doors (but I’ve since added a curtain, which is fine).
I just made the mistake of going out for a quick backyard watering as everything was wilting in this 90+ degree weather and I’m totally bitten up by our little non-native mosquitoes. Argh! I’d put repellent on earlier but guess the cold shower I took to cool off diluted it too much. Now I’m miserable, I think I’ve dumped a whole tube of Benadryl gel on my legs.
Why do people like summer??
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https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-08-13/southern-california-mosquitoes
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Column: The latest threat to the Southern California dream: Mosquitoes
… But today, paradise is no more. The mosquitoes have arrived. And with them, a fundamental piece of the Southern California dream is going the way of Bullocks Wilshire, the Pacific Electric company’s Red Cars and, I don’t know… the Brown Derby. An Angeleno’s personal freedom to sit outdoors unmolested by bugs is under attack.
Seriously, this is a big deal.
… In July 1934, The Times said: “We have no mosquitoes in Southern California — or very darn few of them.”
On Aug. 24, 1989: “There are remarkably few mosquitoes in much of Los Angeles.”
Yeah, well, not anymore.
… There have been outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases over the years.
But the biting was never like this.
What’s changed is the arrival of several new species. First came the Aedes albopictus in the early 2000s. More recently, Aedes aegypti and Aedes notoscriptus. They are more aggressive with people than the region’s traditional mosquitoes, they bite all day long and they like to hover around the ankles — but somehow by the time you’re aware you’ve been bitten, they’re gone, often to your other ankle. These nasty little buggers can lay their eggs in the tiniest bit of stagnant water, even in a space as small as a bottle cap, making them difficult to eradicate.
And they can carry some very serious diseases.
What’s more, they’re spreading geographically, and growing denser where they already exist, according to Susanne Kluh, director of scientific and technical services for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. Kluh says that complaints from horrified Angelenos and the agency’s own scientific measurements suggest the mosquito population has increased dramatically again this year.
This is a lifestyle nightmare. But it’s also a serious potential health risk. …
… Amazingly, although mosquito-borne malaria is thousands of years old, scientists were unaware until the late 19th century of the relationship between mosquitoes and disease. In fact the two are murderously co-dependent: Mosquitoes are harmless unless they have bitten an infected person (or, often, an infected bird). And the diseases can’t spread without the mosquitoes.
The World Health Organization says that diseases transmitted by mosquitoes are responsible for “several million deaths” each year.
One big concern in our region is West Nile disease. The Culex mosquitoes that have long been established in Southern California have been carrying that virus since it arrived in the area in 2003.
“West Nile is a pernicious disease that in its acute form can attack your brain and create delirium, hallucinations,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, the former Los Angeles County supervisor whose wife, Barbara, died of complications during treatment for the disease in December 2018. She had been bitten by mosquitoes in her Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood.
“Every one of those little insects is like a missile flying toward you,” said Yaroslavsky. “And you have no idea which one carries the atom bomb.”
Only about 1 in 5 people infected with West Nile develop any fever or symptoms, and many fewer than that become seriously ill, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The newly arrived Aedes mosquitoes have the ability to carry and spread dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya and others.
So far, there have been no known, locally acquired transmissions of those diseases in our area. But there have been in Texas and Florida. …
… Kluh says her vector control district has changed its program dramatically in response to the Aedes mosquitoes, including adding 15 new staff positions, creating an entire sub-program to deal with “daytime biting” complaints, retraining staffers to identify different breeding sources and disseminating information about Zika, dengue and other viruses. Advice for residents is available here: https://www.glacvcd.org
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Of course, we/I wrote about it first a couple years ago — a story that continues to tick up in readership numbers every summer
Evil incarnate.
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Butterflies, flowers, long days, and green trees.
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fifty seven
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