Trouble in Paradise

Beautiful as this country is, we have two major problems. First, and most distressing to me, is that we seem to be in the tick capital of the known world! We have speckled ticks, ticks with a single spot on their back, and worst of all, little ticks about the size of a pinhead, which I understand are the ones that carry lyme disease. And although you can understand picking them up in the woods, the clever things have figured out where the WINs gather to have circle at 4 o'clock. We carefully position our chairs on pavement away from any bushes or grass and they just appear out of nowhere. I'm going to suggest that we move circle and try to outsmart them. After all, they only have teenie, tiny brains.


Then there is this. . .

The flood stage of the Current River at Van Buren is 5 feet. Last Friday, due to rain before we even arrived here, the river rose to over 7 1/2 feet. We got the link to the official USGS site so we can monitor the water level, but unfortunately it doesn't recede as quickly as it rises. We are very hopeful for tomorrow since it only has to drop about three more inches. I bet the USGS is wondering why they're getting so many hits on their site.


So to cheer us up, Ellie (in the pink hat) made us an authentic Italian spaghetti meal. Here she is feeding the masses.

She made the sauce from scratch (you mean you can DO that?) and gave very specific directions to her helpers who cooked the pasta. (Do you know the proper way to cook spaghetti? Well, thanks to Ellie, we all do now.) Some other helpers heated the garlic bread or made the salad. Some of us brought dessert - I made chocolate chip cookies, because, heaven knows, I don't cook.


It was delicious and everyone even forgot about the ticks for a short time.