Salsa and DST.

I feel so free! Not only did I finally submit my essay for the kind consideration of the judging panel, but I also sent in a 250 word travel story to a different publication (this, under the duress and unsolicited advice of Tall One). The essay provides a potential $3000. windfall, the paragraph, a trip to Tasmania. If I weren't already retired, I'd start making plans! Fortunately, I handle disappointment well.

The tomatoes are happening, in large quantities. I planted five tomato plants this summer, four different varieties. And they've all survived and thrived. I've cut up a couple for sandwiches and salads. The rest of the ripe ones, I've made into salsa...and canned. I haven't canned anything in 25 years. Preparing and canning dozens of quarts of peaches with three toddlers in the kitchen brought me dangerously close to collapse. And, Tall One became convinced, with minimal shrieking on my part, that even though the produce was truly delicious when home-canned, it wasn't worth the additional price of psycho-therapy.

Yesterday, alone in the kitchen with only Dr. Phil for company, preparing and canning the salsa was more fun than I remembered, and not nearly as difficult. So, now I'm on a roll. I'd like to do some "salsa verde" using green tomatoes, and one other "traditional" salsa recipe. Then I'll use some of the tomatoes (a whole huge bushel) for tomato sauce. All this has the built-in benefit of providing useful and appreciated Christmas gifts. I am the domestic goddess....if no one dies of botulism.

It's starting to get dark earlier. And, I should be thankful for "Daylight Savings Time", but I'm not. I'm actually quite bitter. DST has been obsolete since the invention of electricity, and now that they've lengthened the "switch" from March through November, why bother changing things back... or forward,.... oh, whatever? It's unnecessarily confusing, and nobody, NOBODY, gets up with the sun and goes to bed as it sets. Maybe we should, but we don't. Even our senior citizens get up at 4am, not dawn. The only place in the United States that's light at 4am is, 6 months out of the year, in Alaska. So, why do they have daylight savings time in the parts of Alaska where it's either 24 hours of daylight, or darkness? Or, do they? It's not even a proper reminder for changing the batteries in smoke detectors. The batteries die before the first Saturday in November and aren't even broken in by the second week in March. There's no consistency.

I would prefer my own lighted, climate controlled atmospheric bubble - since regulating the entire world to my preferences seems out of the question - that I could manage according to my whims. This has been a warm, dry summer. Usually, that suits me. However, I would like it to rain, at night, so that I don't have to water any plants, and occasionally all day, torrentially, so that I can sleep-in and read. I want it to be cool in the morning, and there should be a nice breeze in the afternoon when the sun is overhead. Now, that's just summer. I have definite opinions on the other seasons, as well.

Hawaii does not follow daylight savings time. They have a bubble.