I’ve been a slacker with my blogging, I know. I’m sorry.
I think of things to write about all the time but there’s a lot going on right now and I am trying hard (and succeeding!) to get at least 8 hours of sleep too.
Here are some highlights:
***watering the garden: OK, are you done guffawing? I know it shouldn’t be a big deal, but it takes 2 hours (at least) when you’re anal and have a lot to water and have uneven water pressure. The neighbors sometimes don’t even have to water their garden but uneven water pressure also means I’ve unknowingly just spent the last 15 min. with the sprinkler watering my bricks.
It’s time-consuming! TG for those recent hurricane remnants of rain. I just can’t take 2 hours to water the damn garden twice a week (and that doesn’t include special waterings for the recent transplants – see below).
***walking the dog: I have had to actually walk my own dog every single day for the past few weeks because my normal save – my – butt – but – I – have -more – on – my – butt – as – a – result – of – not – walking – my – own – dog – enough dog walker broke his toe.
Clearly he wasn’t putting my needs ahead of his and didn’t believe me when I suggested that walking might help make him heal faster. So there’s at least an hour gone every day.
***On the other hand, if I hadn’t been out walking a few weeks ago past someone’s house and known they kept bees, I couldn’t have asked how to get the wasps out of the birdhouse. Turns out she knew who I was from the pool even though I had no idea who she was.
That was a bit embarrassing but come on? Who (besides me apparently) looks the same in wet in their swimming suit as they do on dry land?! Anyway, if I hadn’t been walking my very own dog I wouldn’t have had her send her husband (the beekeeper) over.
***socializing with the neighbors: it’s been so nice out that all the peeps have been outside. This often turns a walk around the block into a “hell yes I’ll have a drink to delay my walk catch up with you.”
***This will be its own post soon (depending on how you define “soon”), but Extreme Makeover Home Edition has been in MY humble burg, about 3 blocks away. Since god forbid I should walk without the dog and you can’t bring dogs into their 3 block perimeter, I have only seen the actual site once (with the neighbor girls of course – see below).
But I have chatted with show security guards Fletch and Hulk Hogan look-alike-guy, and with the second female cop in our town (still waiting for a non-caucasian, but despite the diversity of the population, the administration is dragging behind a bit) and with a cop from the adjacent town (I knew he was from the adjacent town not just because of his different cop car, but also because he’s not caucasian. How sad is that.
I also talked to the nice cop who pulled me over and didn’t give me a ticket (versus the other 2 that did). So look back here soon’ish for the real scoop on how they do Extreme Makeover Home Edition. It’s pretty amazing really.
***Driving 15 miles (3 times) to dig up someone else’s garden (with their permission). Long story short, the garden had to be removed (which is akin to murder IMHO), so I went on 3 rescue missions. I would’ve gone on a 4th but they tore it up before I could get back.
I’d like to say I’ve also planted everything I got, but that’s not the case. Please don’t tell my mother that most of the plants I’m “temporarily planting” until her next bed is ready are still in the buckets 1 1/2 months after being dug up. Dear god it’s been all I can do to water, not to mention plant all this extra crap.
***The neighbor girls coming over: There’s an 7′ish year-old behind me and a 4 year-old next to HER, and they’re buddies. The 7 year-old, named Lydia (pictured in this post), has a “fort” in their yard. Whenever she (and her siblings before her) are bored or are just outside and I come out, she yells out (from the top of the fort where she’s been waiting to see me come out) “Hi Mawy Kafrine! What are you doooing?” which of course is quickly followed by “Can we come ovuh?”
So me being the sucker I am let her and/or Bella (the 4 year old) come over. Sometimes we “play” in the garden (they weed or dig a hole!), sometimes we have sherbet on the back porch, Bella has helped make pesto, and we all 3 walked over (with the dog) to deliver a gooey-butter cake to the security staff, since you can’t come to this city and NOT have one. It’s the only city that even has them.
Sometimes the girls come over and actually play, but when they look back later, they’ll realize how much free labor I got out of ‘em. Anyhoo, imagine going outside and having cute kids invite themselves over. I tell them no at least twice for every once, but they sure are outside a lot…
***J-o-b hunting: THAT’s the task that’s really eating up my time. Plus I have an added complication, which I’ll discuss at a future – but – soon date, but all those customized cover letters about why I would be such a great addition to your fabulous company are time-consuming.
I’ve been lucky and have made some headway (i.e.-interviews) but I don’t believe in waiting until you hear from one until you apply for the next one, so I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire. I started a spreadsheet, and even contemplated a database, but I’d rather use a chisel and stone spreadsheet than Access, so that’s how I’m doing it. Plus indeed.com, filters on my email and a folder on my hard drive. It’s simple, really.
***FINALLY finished reading the Secrets of the Sistine Chapel, (discussed here) which was fascinating, if a little tedious (maxed it out at 9 weeks checked out of the library). The authors present a compelling case that Michaelangelo’s work for the catholic church is actually a subversive eff-you that brings in the Talmud, Kabbalah, Midrash, and other non – church – sanctioned perspectives and symbolism that are illustrated in the chapel’s ceiling. fackinating.
***What I haven’t been doing: reading the Buddha book. My greatest failing this summer, besides not planting those plants yet. I maxed it out at 9 weeks, got a replacement from the other library for another 2 weeks, and then maxed out the city libarry copy again and still never got past page 59.
How am I supposed to learn more about calming and centering and philosophy and if I want to study this more, if I can’t even concentrate on a book about it?! Seems like a trick to me.
Well, if that’s my biggest failure this summer I think I can live with myself. I have a resin Lowe’s Buddha in the garden so that’s gotta count for something, right?
So bear with me while I sort through all these activities. OMG, I haven’t even posted the contest winner and my comments about the submissions, or the last 3 dead animals on the porch. Well, I also haven’t paid my bills for a couple of weeks now, so I’m betting that given a choice between the two, I will first post then pay. My priorities are in line…
