Float like a butterfly; sting like a bee.

I’ve learned a lot about Muhammad Ali since his passing, and, I have found myself wondering, on more than one occasion, where I was during all the actual events in the audio clips and video snippets that have memorialized him these past few days. Was I busy with school, work, life – how did I miss the importance of this man, besides his boxing prowess? I heard that he was the most-recognizable person in the world. Wow! I watched a moving video where Ali awkwardly lit the torch at the 1986 Olympics while his other hand, seemingly with a mind of its own, shook with tremors from Parkinson’s Disease. That particular video spotlighted President Clinton watching the stage at that moment, face turned upward, just as spellbound as the multitude of athletes and onlookers in the crowd. I now know that Ali was much more than just a boxer and I apologize for my faux pas and am happy social media supplemented what I DID know about “The Greatest”. I had, of course, heard the quote that I used for the title of today’s blog many times before.

It was a little too cold this morning for seeing any butterflies or bees. Those beautiful butterflies disappear until they may alight, ever so delicately, to sun themselves. When I had my butterfly garden, I learned a lot about these beautiful creatures and I used to cater to them to cajole them to visit my yard. I made sand puddle dishes for them to drink and flat rocks where they might sit in the sun, plus I placed ornate butterfly houses where they could slide through the skinny slots to tuck themselves away until it was warm enough for them to float through the air to the butterfly bushes I planted for them. As to the bees, I think they are still dormant as I’ve not seen any of them making a beeline to what flowers are already out and flourishing – the peonies are beautiful and I am surprised how many roses and clematis I have in the yard, but no bees busying themselves deep in the blooms. These photos are from my backyard when butterflies and bees visited more often.

Today I saw a happy hummingbird hovering around one of the many feeders that Marge sets out for them. Its tiny wings were whirring at seemingly the speed of sound as it honed in closer and closer to sip that sweet nectar. I watched, fascinated, then when it was done, in the blink of an eye, it blitzed over to the next feeder to sample that treat as well.

It sure was nippy this morning, and I’d have been happy to extend my journey longer … nothing like a cool and crisp trek the first week in June, but it was just a wee walk for me as I had the tech coming to do the air conditioning check. I was pretty sure that Flame would cancel the appointment, given the cold temps, but we hiked the furnace up pretty high, then switched to the A/C and dropped the temps to the 60s so he could check out the unit. You could hang meat in here by the time he was done, and, all the while, Buddy, my canary, who was tucked away in his room snoozing under his big blankets, was alternately sweating and freezing, but he didn’t complain – at least I didn’t hear him grumbling anyway.

But, I’m lovin’ this cooler weather. I felt especially energized Tuesday morning. I turned on the water at the outside spigot, after attaching the hose and hose reel to spray down the A/C from all the clingy, cottony poplar tree fibers. The hose reel self-destructed before my very eyes. The reel collapsed, and icy-cold water sprayed up like Old Faithful. After getting soaking wet, that kind of killed the walk, especially since the temps were in the low 50s. Brrrrrr.

Back to Summerlike temps next week – sigh.

You can catch up on my blog posts before I started blogging at Patch in August 2013 by going here: http://lindaschaubblog.net/