Woke Up To Go To Sleep

Between itching from all of the fire ant bites and a bout of restless leg syndrome, I only got about three hours sleep Friday night. When I was a youngster I thought nothing of getting by on that little sleep, and would still go to work the next day and do my job. But I’m an official old fart now and I don’t have that stamina anymore. So when I woke up yesterday morning my head was so foggy I couldn’t think straight. I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then sat down in my recliner and went right back to sleep for a couple of hours. I’m sure glad my boss understands when I get lazy like that.

Thank you to everybody who sent emails or text messages, or left comments on the blog and Facebook about my encounter with the ants. Most of the big welts have gone down, but I have bites all up and down my left leg and a few on other extremities. Thanks to Terry wiping me down with ammonia right after the bites happened, then again with witch hazel after my shower before I went to bed, and some Benadryl, I felt a lot better yesterday after my nap.

It was in the 80s yesterday and Terry was feeling wiped out from working in the garden the day before, so we didn’t do anything outside. Of course, that didn’t stop her from being productive. Besides doing laundry, she also replaced the window blind in the master bathroom, did some paperwork logging in expenses, and made dinner. I’m sure she did more than that, but I slept through part of it. As for me, I wrote another 4,000 words in my new Tinder Street book.

It’s supposed to be a little cooler today so we may get out in the garden again. We also have a raised garden bed to put together. Terry ordered two of them but only one has come so far. She wants to use them to grow herbs and some vegetables in addition to what goes into the garden.

As I’ve shared with you before, our son Travis and his wife Geli are avid gardeners. When we were at their house last week, I saw some raised beds that they had made from used pallets. Then today he sent me a picture of a trellis he had made to go between them for growing beans and other climbing plants.

Travis and Geli are worried about us overdoing it, and he said they want to come by one day next week to help us get the garden planted. That kid of mine is never happier than when he’s playing in the dirt.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Big Lake Lynching, the second book in my bestselling Big Lake mystery series. When a young Apache man is found hanging from a tree on Cat Mountain, Sheriff Jim Weber and FBI agent Larry Parks go on the hunt for the killers, and by the time their investigation is over, the idealistic cover is ripped from the little mountain town of Big Lake, revealing old prejudices, resentments, and hatred. In their search for justice, Sheriff Weber and Parks encounter Native American activists, a kinky couple whose passion burns as hot as their tempers, a teenager with excess baggage, and a father and son team of small town bullies, to name just a few.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Life’s biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.