Congratulations to Autistic Youth on the release of their first CD, “Lost Boys.”

Go to autisticyouth.com for ordering info and downloadable mp3’s.

Mama always used white cotton sheets. I have no idea what the thread count was on them. Probably 200 or less. I’m sure she bought whatever was on sale at the I D Store. I once asked her why always white? She said it was easier to match them up. (C’mon, mama, is it really that hard to match blue to blue, stripes to stripes?)

Sometimes she would hang our sheets to dry in the sun. Oh… they smelled so good. There was nothing like sliding between a pair of crisp, white sheets with that delicious scent at the end of a hard day of play. I don’t care what perfumes the fabric softener companies use, they don’t even come close.

Always white, always cotton. Cotton was the best, Mama said. It occurs to me now that white cotton sheets can be bleached, and that was probably the reason. But Mama was right about the cotton and now I know why.

Like Mama I’ve always purchased cotton sheet. Unlike Mama, I’ve always purchased cotton sheets in colors. I never paid that much attention to thread count. I just bought what I liked that was on sale. I haven’t bought any new sheets for a long time. The other night I crawled into bed and stretched out… and put my foot through the sheet. OK, the sheets have been around awhile. I lay very still, hoping that it was only a small tear that would somehow mend itself during the night. But every time I rolled over, the sound of tearing woke me up. By morning, the sheet had turned itself into rags. Time for new ones.

We don’t have an I D Store in Portland, but we have Fred Meyer, which is relatively similar. So off to Freddy’s I went. It was not a good day to shop. I didn’t feel good, and my mind was mostly on getting home. I grabbed some sheets that had a nice blue pattern and that promised to fit extra tall mattresses.

When I got home, I threw them in the wash. I noticed that they didn’t have a very nice “hand,” but I assumed that washing and softening would cure that. But they came out of the dryer feeling just the same. So I looked at the lable: 40% cotton, 60% polyester. Ugh. But I put them on the bed. I mean, how bad could they be? Would you believe they were just like crawling into bed with a leisure suit? A very stiff, scratchy leisure suit. Blech.

So today I went down to Bed Bath & Beyond, where I thought there would be a fairly large selection of 100% cotton sheets. And there was. It was almost overwhelming. And they have samples out, so I could actually feel what the sheets were like. I felt everything from 200 thread count to 1000 thread count. That’s right — 1000 threads/inch. I didn’t even know that was possible!

I looked very hard at sheets woven of a natural fiber made from birch. They were very soft, but I’m not familiar with the fiber, and they were very expensive. I decided to stick to cotton.

I was very tempted by the 1000 thread count sheets. Very tempted. But then prudence, and pocketbook, won out and I picked out some nice 300 thread count sheets in a nice taupe. Then I saw the 600 thread count sheets that were on sale. They were cheaper than the 300 thread count sets. A lot cheaper. And 600 is more than 300 (if not as much as 1000). So I picked up a set in a nice sage and put the 300 thread count set back.

These felt a lot better going in the washer, and even better coming out of the dryer. I can’t wait to slide between them. No more leisure suited bed for me! But I will be in the lap of luxury.

Mama was right. Cotton is best.

I’ve been busy, and that’s why I haven’t written anything for awhile. Plus I don’t want this to turn into just another political blog.

I took Friday afternoon off and spent that and most of the weekend clearing out the back yard, which was getting a bit overgrown. #1 Son and several of the lost boys came over and helped. All of the boys worked really hard. And I really appreciate Alex hauling it all away to the recycling yard.

I’d hire Alex in a New York minute. He was really good about pulling only the weeds and leaving the non-weeds. #1 Son yanked up one of my roses that I’d asked him to preserve. It made me sad.

When I bought that rose, it was only about 6″ tall, and it had only one cane. It was on sale, for obvious reasons. I bought it from Oregon Heirloom Roses. All of their roses are grown on their own roots, so they tend to be hardier and you don’t have to worry about suckers. I nurtured that little rose when I planted it. I was surprised it made it through the first winter, but it bloomed the first spring. It was a single blossom: red with a white and yellow center and white reverse.

I know my yard doesn’t look nearly as good as I’d like to have it. I just haven’t been able to keep up on it, for various reasons. But I’d look out my window and see that cheerful little rose blooming, and it sort of gave me hope. It became a symbol of me getting my shit back together and getting the yard in shape — of my life not sucking any more. So when #1 Son pulled it out, it just felt like one more dream that bit the dust. I know he didn’t understand why I was so upset.

After that I told him to take all of the roses out. It made it easier to get to the weeds.

But I told him if he pulled out the marsh mallow I’d kill him.

The mallow still stands. 🙂

I wrote to Heirloom Roses, but they don’t carry Eyepaint any more. They have one called Dark Eyes. It has more petals than Eyepaint had, it’s darker red and doesn’t have as much white in the middle. But it has a white reverse. So maybe it will be reasonably the same. I need to get down there and see if they have one blooming.

I was at a garden center the other day looking for something else when I happened on a spray that promised to rid my garden of all sorts of unwanted 4-footed critters. Including my friend Rocky Raccoon.

I was getting a bit tired of chasing him out of the grapes every night with a broom, but I don’t like using poisons of any kind in my yard. For one thing, I don’t want to flush them into our sewers and thence to the streams and rivers. And I like all (most) of the wildlife in my yard. I’m visited by 4 or 5 different species of native bees — the bumble bees in my yard actually outnumber the interloper honey bees. I have mantids and lady bugs and other aphid-eaters; toads and frogs to eat the slugs; butterflies and hummingbirds to delight me. It’s a nice, albeit currently weedy little ecosystem. I would even welcome the coons if they didn’t eat the grapes. So, no pesticides or herbicides, thank you very much.

I looked at the label on this spray and the ingredients were capsaicin and water. Ah ha! I said to myself. I wonder how Rocky will like a snoot-full of habanero? Certainly unpleasant, but not necessarily deadly.

#1 Son wanted to do the actual spraying, so with mom directing, he sprayed the bases of the grape vines, the pergola supports, the branch of the silk tree that overhangs the pergola, the base of the silk tree, the top of the pergola on the silk-tree side, and the top of the fence.

That night I heard some rustling out vine-ward. But not for very long. In the week since, there have been no signs of nocturnal visitations.

Everything seems to be about 2 weeks early this year, which means we may have ripe grapes while we’re out of town. I’m going to spray again just before we go.

I still have my fingers crossed, but this year we may actually have enough grapes to can juice. If all goes as planned, we’re going to have way too many grapes. 😀

Well, it looks like today it going to be overcast — but not cool. The current forecast is for 88 degrees, which is cooler, I guess, than the original prediction of 92. But not by much. Our hightest temperature is usually around 5:00 PM, so hopefully it will be cooler during the afternoon.

The truth is, this is Oregon, and the weather people don’t have a clue what’s going to happen. I’ve heard this is one of the hardest areas to predict. I’m betting they just have a big roulette wheel that they spin every hour or so. One time I heard a guy on TV say, “Highs from 35 to 55. Cloudy with periods of clearing and sunshine. Chance of rain, snow, sleet or hail.” I thought to myself, what kind of forecast is that? “There’s going to be some weather today. Take your own best guess.”

At least he pretty well covered all the bases.

Ronald Reagan, the great communicator, died yesterday.

I didn’t vote for him. And I still believe that supply-side Reaganomics is probably one of the worst things that every hit this country’s economy.

But I believe him to be a warm, generous and funny man who loved life, his wife, his family and his country. My heart goes out to his family.