“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”
The rain started a bit earlier then stopped but has since started again. That will be the weather pattern for today, on and off rain. The humidity is so thick you can cut with a knife. My father used to say that. There is a breeze but it doesn’t help much. I can hear the birds. I can hear the tapping of the drops as they hit the metal barrel on my deck. The sound brings me back to Ghana and the rain on my metal roof. Those drops are the best things about the morning.
I have lists: errands, house chores and deck planting. Henry should be bald for all the hair he leaves everywhere. I need to vacuum. I need to switch my clothes to summer. The plants are gasping for water. I need bread. I need more plants. I need outside screws and c clamps for a deck project. Before I sound handy, it was my friend Bill who told me what I needed. I had never heard of c clamps.
When I was a kid, the kitchen junk drawer was a magic drawer, always overflowing, sometimes even difficult to open, but almost anything we needed was stuffed inside. A hammer? A screwdriver? Nails? Screws? Pens? Elastics? The list goes on. Some of the stuff couldn’t be identified, but it couldn’t be thrown away. We might need it, whatever it is, later. I have a junk drawer in an old table, an old wooden kitchen table in the living room, one with two drawers. It too is magical. When I bought that kitchen table at an auction, its destiny was foretold. Tools I use often are there, a couple of old frames, Christmas ornament hooks, a book about birds, nails and screws and a few mystery items I’ll never throw away.
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July 5, 2024 at 11:37 pm
Hi Kat,
101° yesterday and today a high today of 88° with rain on and off most of this cloudy day. We accumulated about a half of an inch of rain.
Today the humidity was so thick your father’s knife analogy is spot on. I have used that phrase myself.
Every kitchen has a junk drawer. It’s the place where things that don’t have an obvious use or place wind up. Whenever I think about junk my uncle Harry comes to mind. He made a modest living as a junk man. He had a pickup truck and offered to clean out people’s basements and attics and he kept anything of value and disposed of the rest. Today a company called 1 800-Junk will for a fee clean out your stuff and still keep anything of value. My uncle retired to north Miami Beach. He would go for a morning walk and he picked up stuff along the way. He would find scrap metal and he proudly told me how valuable were his daily scrap finds. 🙂
July 6, 2024 at 3:00 am
Hi Bob,
It is nearly 3 am, and it is still humid. There is a breeze from the south, from my back door, but I’m upstairs, and there is no breeze. It is supposed to rain today so the humidity has decided to stay around and make life miserable.
88° almost sounds cool compared to 101°.
I’d like your Uncle Harry. He saw quality when no one else could. My cellar looks as if a hoarder lives here. I have decided to call that 1-800-Junk company sometime this summer.
The traffic is horrendous. The cars have surpassed the pre-Covid days. I was warned to stay home, but I did stop at the hardware shop and the small grocery. The parking lot at the hardware store was full except for the handicap space, and I have a handicap permit. It was the same at the grocery. Today I will hunker down.