Someone clever needs to come up with a term for the cognitive dissonance we feel when a holiday occurs on a weekday. The Fourth of July fell on a Thursday this year, but it felt like a Saturday, so much so that I thought about driving to the Bakers at Red Lion for some bread (they were shut due to the heat, but that's beside the point). And the day after the Fourth was actually Friday but felt like some odd Saturday/Sunday hybrid. Was the post office open? the library? Was there going to be a crossword paper in the puzzle? Was I going to have my gym class? I missed "First Friday" in Kennett completely because it didn't seem like a Friday.
Monday is going to be very confusing.
(One clever person has already chimed in, suggesting that "Holidaze" is the term I'm looking for.)
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Friday, July 5, 2013
Sticking together
I really like the Saloio rolls that the Giant bakery makes. In fact, I've been known to eat one on the way home from the store as I'm driving.
The other day I was buying some, all warm and chewy, and a fellow customer simply could not get her little plastic roll bag to open -- you know, the clingy bags they supply at the bakery counter to put your baked goods in. She tried one side. She tried the other. She tried rubbing the sides of the plastic together. Absolutely nothing was working for her.
This happens to me often, so I offered to help her. Amazingly, I got it open on the first try. She was so grateful, I think she thanked me five times.
The other day I was buying some, all warm and chewy, and a fellow customer simply could not get her little plastic roll bag to open -- you know, the clingy bags they supply at the bakery counter to put your baked goods in. She tried one side. She tried the other. She tried rubbing the sides of the plastic together. Absolutely nothing was working for her.
This happens to me often, so I offered to help her. Amazingly, I got it open on the first try. She was so grateful, I think she thanked me five times.
It's got legs
A Kennett friend reports that he has a spider living in the earpiece of his phone.
"Too bizarre," he wrote. "I had a call and I felt this weird tickling, like a tiny electrical current, and I looked and saw legs waving."
He inserted a piece of cardboard in the relevant hole of the receiver, which seems to be a good stop-gap measure.
"It's always something," he says, with commendable equanimity. "It's just hardly ever this particular something."
"Too bizarre," he wrote. "I had a call and I felt this weird tickling, like a tiny electrical current, and I looked and saw legs waving."
He inserted a piece of cardboard in the relevant hole of the receiver, which seems to be a good stop-gap measure.
"It's always something," he says, with commendable equanimity. "It's just hardly ever this particular something."
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Snake
On our walk around Anson Nixon Park today, the Cranky Friend and I were bickering as is our wont when suddenly, on the edge of the woods near Walnut Road, I spotted a large snake beside the path. This was not one of those cute little garter snakes that I've been known to pick up and coo over. No. This guy had a thick body, bold markings and a mean-looking cocked head.
In an embarrassing show of cowardice I immediately clutched the CF's arm, hard, and cowered behind him. In contrast, he calmly assessed the creature's markings, estimated its length (about two feet) using his forearm as a guide, and snapped a few photos. The snake stayed still except when the CF got too close, at which point he moved his head in warning.
Our first guess, based on the colors and head shape, was that it was a poisonous copperhead, which considerably amped up the excitement level of our walk. As soon as we reached the Internet we Googled images of copperheads and held up the digital images for comparison.
Well, the markings were similar, but no matter how hard we tried -- and we really tried -- we just couldn't get them to match. Our guy's head was just not distinct enough from its body.
The PA Herp Identification website suggested checking out the Eastern Milk Snake and the Northern Water Snake. The latter, to our extreme disappointment, turned out to be an excellent match for our guy.
A harmless Northern Water Snake when you thought you'd had an encounter with a venomous reptile. Talk about a comedown.
The next morning I went out for a bird walk with an extremely nature-savvy young woman and started to tell her about the snake sighting.
"Let me guess," she said. "It was a Northern Water Snake."
Kindly, she added that they really do resemble copperheads.
(By the way, the Herp site has a popup ad for a site where you can check your arrest record. Do they think people accidentally typed in "herp" when they meant "perp"?)
In an embarrassing show of cowardice I immediately clutched the CF's arm, hard, and cowered behind him. In contrast, he calmly assessed the creature's markings, estimated its length (about two feet) using his forearm as a guide, and snapped a few photos. The snake stayed still except when the CF got too close, at which point he moved his head in warning.
Our first guess, based on the colors and head shape, was that it was a poisonous copperhead, which considerably amped up the excitement level of our walk. As soon as we reached the Internet we Googled images of copperheads and held up the digital images for comparison.
Well, the markings were similar, but no matter how hard we tried -- and we really tried -- we just couldn't get them to match. Our guy's head was just not distinct enough from its body.
The PA Herp Identification website suggested checking out the Eastern Milk Snake and the Northern Water Snake. The latter, to our extreme disappointment, turned out to be an excellent match for our guy.
A harmless Northern Water Snake when you thought you'd had an encounter with a venomous reptile. Talk about a comedown.
The next morning I went out for a bird walk with an extremely nature-savvy young woman and started to tell her about the snake sighting.
"Let me guess," she said. "It was a Northern Water Snake."
Kindly, she added that they really do resemble copperheads.
(By the way, the Herp site has a popup ad for a site where you can check your arrest record. Do they think people accidentally typed in "herp" when they meant "perp"?)
Bartonella
A friend from the Y who read my piece about my frequent tick-sightings a few weeks ago alerted me to an upcoming speaker who is going to be addressing the Lyme Disease Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Edward Breitschwerdt, DVM, will be discussing Bartonella. A professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at NC State University and an infectious diseases expert, according to the university website "He also finds himself on the front lines of a quiet but growing epidemic. Bartonella is a bacteria most commonly associated with cat scratch disease, which until recently was thought to be a short-lived (or self-limiting, in medical lingo) infection. Bartonella isn’t new – doctors have known about cat scratch disease for almost a century – but it’s only in the past couple of decades that researchers like Dr. Breitschwerdt have started to discover exactly how pervasive Bartonella infection is in animals and people."
The meeting is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 17, at the Kennett Friends Meetinghouse, 250 N. Union St., and is free and open to the public.
The meeting is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 17, at the Kennett Friends Meetinghouse, 250 N. Union St., and is free and open to the public.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
SunnyGirl Farm
For several weeks, I've seen the sign for the Wollaston Road farmers' market, but always too late. This week a friend texted me that she'd just purchased some arugula and Swiss chard and I needed to head over there. I did. The market is at SunnyGirl Farm, 750 Wollaston Road., and it's open from 2 to 7 p.m. Wednesday. I bought some wonderful beets (complete with the greens) and corn and an arugula-pesto spread. They also had turnips, salad greens (I have plenty of those from my garden), broccoli and olive oils. Worth a visit!
Memorial service
The memorial service for Michael Langer, son of Springdell residents Bernie and Claudette Langer, will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 27, at St. Michael Lutheran Church in Unionville. Michael died on June 20 at age 54 of complications from a stroke.
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