As I write this, right this minute, it is not raining. It's 9:30 am and there has been no rain for at least two hours. The forecast is for scattered showers during the day and serious rain beginning around 7 pm. At that time, the rain will intensify with Storm Ciaran's visit to SE Ireland en route to creating even more havoc in England. No problem though, as the winds won't be howling until the next morning when the rain abates.
There is serious flooding around the country and specially in Newry, in Co Down in Northern Ireland. We are not near a river or the sea and are on high ground here in Minmore Mews.
My adventures in the last couple of days have been few. There was a brief standoff with a giant slug that I saw crawling around the edge of the bathroom. Seeing that disgusting antennae-equipped moving blob made me temporarily forget the large snail on the tiled wall above the WC.
It was bedtime and I wasn't certain whether or not the slug would disappear and how I would feel about that. Where would he disappear to? Would I inadvertently make contact by stepping on it? That was unlikely because it was almost 3" long and had antennae that twitched and by this time my gaze was almost constantly on the floor. How fast can that little sucker move? Would I find him in the shower? Perish the thought.
I went to bed only to lie awake thinking about that disgusting thing. So, I got up to check on its progress. The little sucker had moved about 6 feet so it was just on the outside of the kitchen door, fortunately near the hinged corner. Now what? I was not going to invite it to join me for a cuppa.
Then I remembered hearing somewhere that a dose of salt poured on such a bug would take care of the problem. The salt shaker was handy so I ground a good amount and dumped it on said slug. Bingo! Instant satisfaction on my part. The problem was being solved, er dissolved, before my eyes. I could use my powers of description here but I'll spare you the details. Let us just say that the salt is no longer visible, the size of the beast has been substantially reduced and the "spot" is still there. I've yet to determine how to get rid of the mess. If I use the broom that will finish it for further use. I have a good supply of paper towels but no interest in that close a mop-up operation. I'm still thinking about it. It's not smelly.
Back to the snail. It has moved location to unseen places. Its good and smaller friend, has appeared just about above the shower on the top of the wall. No longer moving around, I'm hoping it's insanely happy there and will just stay put. I can only see the shell, not the occupant. And I still wonder what happened to the big one.
There was a break in the rain for most of the day yesterday and I took advantage to go out and renew my supply of brown bread. I was also looking for ground coffee, but they don't have any in Shillelagh. I forgot to stop at Centra when I got to Carnew. Candy's Costcutter also stocked only instant coffee. Bleah!
But, a visit with Mary Harte was in order. She was in good form but declined to go for a drive. Her hearing aids must have new batteries because she could hear me and we chatted for a while. I persevered with the position that having had my lunch, I needed neither food nor drink.
We made plans for me to pick her up on Sunday to go to the "month mind" mass for Mike Byrne in Askamore.
It's now threatening to be sunny for a bit so I'll get myself in gear and drive to Bunclody for some coffee. I have enough for a couple of days but don't want to run out of it when the weather is really foul.
The rest of today should be spent doing some writing as per my original plans. The cottage is fine. To control the heat there is a timer for times on and off. There is no thermostat. Generally it's not freezing even when off and it doesn't take long to warm up when it's on. The bathroom should be warm enough now for a shower.
This has really been much ado about nothing but I didn't want anyone to think I'd floated away. The rain is not affecting me as much as the farmers. Their situation is pretty bad. The ground has no chance to dry up at all before the next downpour comes along.
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