a plague of locusts

ok, so.....i dragged my self out of bed early to water what is left of my foundation plantings and landscaping...i have moved on from worrying about the wilting perennials to real concern over the well-being of the shrubs and smaller trees......when a hedge droops, the stress of the heat and drought is taking its toll......this day was marred by the presence of numerous grasshoppers.....bouncing in and out of my path and resembling an old testament plague......still only a few frogs in the pond....i suppose i should hold off on major panic until the frogs multiply and go on the march......while it would be a sight to see, it would be a terrifying sign of the end of the world as we know it........i sat for nearly 15 minutes holding the water hose in the pond...which has lost quite a lot of depth due to either a leak or evaporation from the waterfall, or both.....and as i sat there, in the midst of quite beauty, i struggled to think of happy thoughts, and not of a child's visa that has not yet come through.....quite frustrating to have no control over the slowness of the embassy visa-issuing process.....even my dreams were of frustration.....in my dream i was holding an umbrella, the cover having come unhooked from the braces at several points, and as i re-attached the cover it would come undone at another spot......and as the dream progressed, the manner of the reattachment would change....from snap-in assemblies to hooks to slots sewn into the fabric......the good news is that our farthest flung child will be home a week from today...flying at an amazingly low fare....which saves me 18 hours of driving.....yes, i do know that if we didn't have the visa to worry about there would be other things.....such is the nature of life on this earth....and things could always be worse....i have a friend who broke severals bones in her foot, wrenched her shoulder in the fall that caused the breaks, and is now home alone and unable to accompany her spouse to a major sporting competition that has become a traditional way for them to celebrate their wedding anniversary......listening to her tale on the phone yesterday briefly cleared my brain of my own troubles...it can always be worse....and it is not until things hit bottom that things tend to get better......