Tomatoes, zucchini, pattypans, eggplants, beans, and us

We have canned 18 pints of tomato sauce and 10 pints of paste tomatoes so far, 21 ½ lbs of beans, 3 quarts of pureed pattypans and we are just beginning. I’ve also started reading the mss. for my returning poets workshop that will be held Columbus weekend in October here in Wellfleet. The participants are poets who took my juried intensive June poetry workshop over the past six years. I have 11 coming. Many more indicated interest. I drew names from a hat, to be fair to all of them.It’s going to be difficult doing it all over a weekend. It’s an experiment. Every year, poets have asked me for something similar, so I decided it was time to give it a try. This is a whole new workshop and I’m still trying to figure out exactly what to do during it. I’ve worked part of it out but one crucial segment is still up in the air. When people have paid for something, I don’t believe in winging it. I want to have a clear idea what I’ll be doing and to have created the paperwork for it. Xena is really something, an incredibly smart and strong cat. I give them 10 treats apiece [total of 20 calories to each cat] once a day. While we were at Omega from Friday to Sunday, of course Jay and Melenie did not give them treats. So Xena managed to open the door of the coffee table and helped herself. Then she went into the storeroom, climbed up on the shelves and ripped open two bags of treats she shared with the other two cats. Now I use a sharp scissors to open those bags. She used her teeth and claws quite successfully. I am waiting for her to learn how to use the can opener for the cans of wet food. She knows where they’re kept and has gone into the cabinet and knocked out what she wants but has [so far] been unable to open the cans. We got back from Omega and the shelter where our chosen kitten wasn’t, both totally exhausted. Of course, we returned to unopened bills and letters, 174 emails on my computer, I have no idea how many on Woody’s, too many beans and tomatoes to count, oversized eggplants and zucchini, gardens crying for water, and three needy cats. Wednesday I was scheduled to eat lunch with my friend Lois. Around 10:45, it started to rain. Hadn’t rained in weeks and weeks. Then as we were driving to the Bookstore Restaurant, the skies opened like a barn door and water came down in sheets. The parking lot was full. When we got in we were told there would be an hour wait. By the time we got back to the car, we were both soaked. It was raining so hard, I got wet through my summer raincoat.   We arrived at my house with our hair dripping, our clothes and shoes soaked through. I changed into dry clothes and gave Lois a bathrobe and slippers. We both used a hair dryer and gradually returned to a state that passed for normal.I was glad for the rain in spite of the mess it made of us.  I made a parmesan omelet and we ate some of our tomatoes. Mingus still misses his lifelong friend Sugar Ray but he has decided that Woody will do to cuddle with. He curls up with Woody, purrs, licks his hand and is content. He has returned to his ineffectual wooing of Willow. She likes him, likes to play with him and cuddle, but she does not appreciate when he is sexually aggressive and tries to bite her neck while she’s eating. Wrote a poem this week and revised it in spite of all the food processing and cat drama.