I cannot believe it’s August already!

It’s the final month of summer. Time flies when one’s having a good time, isn’t that the saying?

I’m currently working on planting out a fall garden but it’s been difficult – it’s still far too hot for the cool-weather crop to germinate and I can’t bring it in the house because of, you know, mom. Meanwhile, the plants that did germinate are being ravaged by insects in the night. Those tiny critters are eating whatever’s coming up from the ground and it angers me.

As we’re approaching another end to another gardening season, I’m once again thinking about expanding my garden. I really want to add a raised garden bed to put in some asparagus next year and it turned out, raised beds are on sale. I brought it up to mom last night, hoping for her blessing so she wouldn’t be surprised when the box shows up at the door.

Just as I thought, no blessing from her. She’s saying it would block the pathway, which would make mowing the lawn difficult. She didn’t even hear where I would put it. The place I would place the new bed would no way block the path and if she would just let me mow the damn lawn instead of having her brother do it, I would mow the lawn if there’s any grass left to mow.

Gah, it’s so frustrating.

In the meantime, let’s recap July…

I have been more or less going through a frustration and anger phase in July. I haven’t been able to get out much because of my exhaustion and, of course, mom’s insistence I shall not go out. I’m once again feeling like a bird trapped in a cage.

Garden-wise, I think I harvested the largest tomato of 2023 in July – a Cherokee Purple Heirloom tomato weighing 12.2-ounces. Almost everything has been under shade cloth during the month of July but it looks like the heat is temporarily taking a pause this week. Anyway, here are my favorite garden pictures of July 2023.

Meanwhile, I finish 12 units of Japanese in Duolingo in 24 days. I am hoping now that I know a little bit, I can start expanding my vocabulary by watching Japanese movies or TV shows. That was how I learned English back when – by watching movies and TV shows. Okay, why does watching Japanese movies and TV shows suddenly sound like a terrifying endeavor?

Started yesterday, I removed the English pronunciations in Duolingo to solely focus on reading the characters. It’s quite difficult at first but I think I’m getting the hang of it. This way is letting me learn the grammar and new vocabulary without truly ever needing to memorize it because by the time I get it, it would be like an earworm.

Things I’m Looking Forward to in August…

First of all, I hope to come up with a story to contribute for Story Chat – a story challenge hosted by Marsha of Always Write. It’s been a few years since I’ve written a story that’s not a flash fiction and I’m quite nervous. I thought about contributing one of the stories I wrote a few years back that was never published on my blogs but editing those stories would most likely result in a whole new story world, one I probably don’t want to be down at the moment.

I do have a story floating in my head at the moment, just need to sit down at a proper desk and flush it out.

The other thing I’m looking forward to in August is another department event. This time, we are heading into the mountains of Park City, Utah. When my co-workers told me about it last week, I thought it sounded fun – a slide to go from the top of the mountain to the bottom – until I heard I have to ride a chair lift up the mountain.

I’ve only ever ridden a chair lift once – in 2019 – and nearly had my heart jump out of my chest. I’m terrified of heights when I’m not in a box of some kind. I think it’s more like I’m terrified of falling than heights. Mostly though, I blamed the operator for not pulling the bar down. Holding onto a bar in front of me would’ve made me feel a tiny bit more secured than being dangling mid-air on a chair.

Lastly, I’m thinking about learning to knit. I have yarn and all I need is a set of knitting needles. I learned to knit eons ago and most likely have forgotten how. I want to know whether I like crochet or knitting. Now, if I can just get out of the house to buy some knitting needles.