Results tagged “grapefruit” from Debi's Journal

Still sick and dealing with a runny nose and possibly bronchitis.
On Saturday I was in Palm Springs for Mel's haircut appointment, and it happened to be perfectly timed with the city's annual Black History Parade down Palm Canyon Drive, just outside the salon's front door. I'll admit that I enjoy watching parades! This one was pretty typical of small-town parades, with high school bands, various drill team clubs, children's clubs, local churches, local law enforcement, and at least one celebrity, Super Model [sic] Beverly Johnson.
Melody was very happy with her haircut.

On Friday I left the keys in the ignition while getting gas at Costco, and the car locked itself as I was messing with the gas pump. I had left the window open about 1", enough to fit most of my hand through, but only at the top. Of course I left my phone in the car as well. I spent about a minute trying to figure out how I was going to deal with the situation; my initial thought was to go searching for my mom, who was buying pizza at the snack bar, because she had an extra car key. Then I decided that leaving would piss off everyone who was behind me waiting for a pump. With great determination I shoved my hand in the window opening, forced my wrist down the side of the window where the opening was barely more than a half inch wide (pretty much nearly crushing my poor wristy), and flipped the lock with my fingertips. My mom later said, "You should always keep your keys in your pocket," but nooo, I'm just going to make sure I keep the window all the way down from now on. I spent the rest of the day with a bright red line across my wrist. NO I'M NOT A CUTTER!
The tree is still loaded with grapefruit, even though we picked a couple of bags full and my sister gave them away to her coworkers. We even had a stranger come to the door today asking if she could pick a few. If you're in the local area and want a bag of grapefruit, let me know. They are around 99 cents each at the grocery store, or so I heard, so you're getting a nice deal here.

Late afternoon on Labor Day (Sept. 1), my sister, The Nephew, and Mel were lounging around in the yard when Mel spotted a second orange globe high in the grapefruit tree. She insisted we pick them both, brought over some sort of fruit picking implement that her grandmother uses, and couldn't reach either one of them. Oh boy, I get to do the dirty work. So I bring them down, and we notice that these grapefruit are much bigger than the green guys still growing all over the tree.
After this photo, they were tossed in a plastic bag (the grapefruit, not the kids) and sat in the kitchen for a couple of days. Today, I decided to slice one of them up. Well, the grapefruit looked kind of dry and funky inside. It had almost no flavor.

That's when my mom explained the problem: These two grapefruit were leftovers from last season that managed to hide from getting picked from the tree last spring. A-ha! I'll just wait until the greenies ripen up.

Late afternoon, as the sun was sinking towards the west and the outdoor temperature was beginning to cool down, I sat on the front lawn with my sister as we watched The Nephew mow the lawn with his bubble-less Bubble Mower. We also did some people watching -- speed walkers, dog walkers, ice cream trucks, cars that parked on the opposite curb while the solitary driver never stepped out and then drove off 20 minutes later -- which is something I was able to do once again since I had bought a pair of prescription sunglasses earlier this morning. I had been glass-less for a week but I won't go into that bit of stupidity right now.

So I sat in a fold-up chair in the shade, surveyed my surroundings, and at some point looked up at the grapefruit tree. Yes, this was my exact point of view from my chair. Something distinctly orange in the center of the tree caught my eye.
The tree, which I'm told produces Ruby Reds, is currently chock-full of green spheres larger than my fist. Usually when they ripen they turn into various shades of pale yellow and pink.
I think this one is a freak. It might stand out even more if you click on "grapefruit" in the tag cloud on the upper left column.