If you're like me, you get pretty amped up when company's coming. Grandpup Bonnie must have thought I'd lost my mind this past holiday weekend when I did some serious cleaning. She even got a professional cleaning Wednesday.
My robot vacuum cleaner, whom I've named Hal - for his pulsing mono-eye a la "2001, A Space Odyssey" - also got a workout across several days of sucking up Bonnie's white strands and what I've tracked in from the garden.
For this immediate weekend, my friends Rhonda and Pamela and I will make our annual pilgrimage to Saturday night's Elvis Tribute Artist Finals at the Lyric. This is one event which never disappoints.
Then, the next weekend, June 10, will be my sister's birthday and the Brice's Crossroads Civil War battle re-enactment and other such historical events.
After getting involved with a Civil War publication project here at the Journal, I've come to more fully appreciate our area's history with that great conflict, and especially of the significance at Brice's Crossroads on the Lee-Prentiss County line.
My sister's spouse is a Civil War buff, so it just seemed a good fit that we'll celebrate her birthday and get a dose of history at the same time, well, maybe two histories - hers and the battlefield's.
With any event planning, I always focus on the food.
I've already made a huge pot of red beans for home consumption, and this weekend I'll work on a coq au vin recipe for then, too.
I'm already thinking about a nice picnic lunch to take up there, with a cooler stocked with whatever it takes to keep us alive in the heat.
Of course, if you read about what happened at Brice's Crossroads, you'll find that the weather, indeed the heat, had a lot to do with the battle's outcome.
Can you imagine all those Union soldiers in their wool uniforms on a typical June day in Northeast Mississippi?
I think the grandpuppy, a Blenheim-and-white Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, may tell us more about how they felt.
Bonnie, my temporary house guest until daughter Margaret gets settled in Texas, is a happy camper at doggie day care. But when she's at home, she has these cooling needs.
She seeks out the coolest spots on the tile or hardwood floors, and her night-time pantings send me to the thermostat to give her some relief.
I feel like I'm living with a roommate who's going through The Change.
If it were just me at home, I'd rely on the ceiling fans and not worry about any of this.
But poor Bonnie is like having a baby around. I may have to add an energy surcharge to my doggie care expenses to Margaret.
Speaking of heat, has your garden gone into harvest mode before your very eyes?
I set a record this past weekend by putting up my first two jars of pickles.
The yellow squash are in high gear, the melon-butternut squash patch is going wild and I harvested my hops.
Go figure.
I'm just glad whatever's growing out there doesn't wear fur.
Contact Patsy R. Brumfield at (662) 678-1596 or patsy.brumfield@journalinc.com.
Patsy R. Brumfield/NEMS Daily Journal
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