Ground-breaking News

Wednesday afternoon, when I had come home from work and was about to walk across the road to the mailbox, Uncle B. came motoring toward me on his riding lawnmower, cutting the grass along the road bank.  I waved at him, got the mail, and started back toward my driveway.  By this time, he'd mowed past me and made a U-turn and was coming back.  I heard the blades shut down as he approached.  He eased to a stop at the end of my driveway and shut off the motor.

"You doing all right?" he asked.

"Yes, sir.  You?"

"I'm getting along pretty good, I reckon, for an old man.  I want to ask you something.  Are you going to raise a garden this year?"

(He's got his garden in, already.)

I said, "Well, yes, sir, I intend to."

He said, "I saw you out there putting down hay way back in the winter, and I thought maybe you were going to plant an early garden, but I don't see nothin' out there but a few cabbages."

I explained what happened:  I was going to try the "no-till" method; I planted cabbages, and later some tomatoes, but a freak late frost took out the tomatoes; then I got sick with a sinus infection and felt too bad to work in the garden; then it rained; and rained; and, yeah, well, I'm just late.

He nodded, asked after my mother, cranked up, and drove away, leaving me with a big guilt trip.

You see, I'd toyed with the idea of not raising a garden this year.  When I said that to The Husband later that evening, he gave me THE LOOK - the one that silently shouts HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?  I knew what he was thinking:  All that time and effort and money to put down newspaper and hay, and she's thinking about not having a garden....

So, between Uncle B. and The Husband, the guilt forced me to the garden center today to buy plants and seeds.  I got 48 tomato plants, a dozen or more pepper plants, and squash and zucchini plants.  Got purple-hull pea and Fordhook lima bean seeds.  Meant to get some cucumbers.

I came home and played a mean trick on The Husband.  He usually mows our yard and Nanny's on the weekends.  I need him in the garden tomorrow, so I mowed our yard yesterday and Nanny's yard today, to take away his excuse. 

Yeah, I'm mean that way.