Another beautiful day the Lord has made! Hot summer time day. The mailman put someone else’s newspaper in my box and I worked up a sweat walking three houses down to put the paper in the correct mailbox. Even the breeze is warm today. The song birds are all happily singing and flitting around the feeders and bird baths. Everyone is happy except the pansies. The days are getting too hot for them. Need to find them a shady spot somewhere.

Guess I have porch paranoia now. Actually looked under the swing cushion before in I sat down in the swing. If oldest brother can have a snake on the porch swing chain, I can have one climb down the chain and burrow under the cushion. Y’all know I’m right. Things just happen around me. Was riding the monorail in Disney World years ago and it broke down for the first time in 13 years. My cousin stood up and yelled, “It’s okay, it’s just Lane’s on the train!” Don’t say it can’t around me, because it will!

Had to go to Wally World this morning because I left bird seed off my grocery pick up list yesterday. That trip involved washing my hair and makeup. Never saw anyone I knew so I dolled up for nothing. Decided to go through the automatic car wash on the way home. The dagnabbit machine stole my money and didn’t wash my car. Came home and fixed my bagel for breakfast. Went to the porch to bird watch while I ate breakfast and when I sat my plate down in the swing, somehow all my cantaloupe and blueberries just slid right off the plate onto the swing cushion. Three second rule, ate them anyway.

It’s seven o’clock now. All the birds are gone except for the cardinals flocking to the feeders. Just a quiet bird symphony is playing to end the day. The sun is almost down. So pleasant in the swing with my small garland of party lights coming on. Hope the mosquitoes don’t come to call on me.

Was sitting in my chair this afternoon after l had wrestled with the windows in my bedroom. Finally got two of them raised. Gave up on the third window after Stew wrestled with it, too. Old houses and their windows. That is a story for another day. Gonna hire my handyman couple friends to come and help me open the sunroom windows and secure the screens. My friend was visiting last year and we ran to town for just a short while. We had left her terrier here and came home to find him wandering down the middle of the street. He had jumped up in the dining room to look out the window and the screen fell out. He was having a good time being free. Thank goodness he didn’t run away.

While I was sitting down, I cleaned up the books beside my chair. I briefly flipped through my Emily Post etiquette book. This is a newer version. I love to read my great-grandmothers edition, published in 1922. The list of what needs to be in a groom’s suitcase for his wedding trip always makes me laugh. I know my grandmother followed all the bride rules when mama married. Roanoke is serious about etiquette! God help you if you forget to write a thank you note for a wedding present!

Even though we live in a fast paced world with cell phones attached to our ears, manners will never go out of style. Etiquette is not a set of rigid rules, not something for wealthy people, and definitely not a thing of the past. Research with Emily Post says manners include respect, consideration, honesty, graciousness, and deference.

I think respect is one trait that we need to instill back in our everyday life in America. Respect is nothing more than recognition of a person as a human being regardless of their background or beliefs. Self respect is just as important, too. Consideration is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Honesty, honestly don’t know what to say about that trait in manners. I guess honesty has more to do with being tactful and truthful. I think a person who is gracious helps put people at ease. Gracious people have an innate sense of being thoughtful towards others. Chief knew how to be gracious and put people at ease. He certainly had deference, a humble respectful for people’s accomplishments.

I think having good manners make us respectful and considerate of others.