Peas planted - April 29, 2024

Yesterday morning the weatherman predicted rain for much of the coming week.  Our yard had not been mowed since the day before we left on our trip. After a few days of rain, the grass would be up to the roof.  Nanny's yard needed mowing, too.  Since we keep our riding lawnmower in the shed at Nanny's, I'd do her yard first, then ours.

When I got to Nanny's, The Brother-in-Law was already there, mowing with his big zero-turn monster mower and was already halfway done.  Woo-hooo!  I cranked up our mower and joined him, and the two of us knocked it out in nothing flat.  I came back to the house to do our yard while he did the weed-eating at Nanny's.  Bless him.

In our yard, we have a swing-set for the grandchildren.  Our lawnmower fits perfectly between the legs.  One end of the swing-set has a glider, the kind that seats 4 little butts.  The lawnmower fits through that space, as well, but you gotta push that glider with the nose of the lawnmower, then grab it and raise it up high enough to get under it.  It takes some doing not to get knocked out cold in the process.

I was ALMOST all the way under the glider when there was a terrible metallic noise, and the lawnmower just STOPPED.  Long story short (too late?), I had run over a mole trap that was hidden by a clump of clover.  

I thought, Ohshitohshitohshit....

So I'm sitting there on the lawnmower, holding the glider over my head, wondering how I'm going to get off the lawnmower without maiming myself, certain that I had killed the lawnmower.  When I finally disentangled myself from the seat, I managed to push the lawnmower back enough to get the mole trap.  It was mangled.  

But the lawnmower cranked right back up and cut grass.  Whew.

While I was mowing the yard, The Husband went to get a battery for my Wrangler.  It has been sitting in the driveway for months without being driven or even cranked.  Since we are thinking about driving it to a Jeep rally in Florida next month, we didn't want to tempt fate.  Once the battery was installed, we checked fluids and washed off the tree sap.  It's ready to roll.

Later that afternoon, I talked The Husband into tilling the garden one last time, and we planted the purple hull peas.  This week's rain ought to bring them right up.  We really should have gone on and planted squash, cucumbers, and okra, but by this time I was tired, covered in dust, and hungry, so we just put all the gardening equipment away and came home.

Tomorrow, if it's not raining, I need to stake the sweet peas in the community garden.  I haven't laid eyes on the plot for two weeks, but the plants were only 2" tall when we left on our trip.  By now, they may be a tangled mass.  I am thinking about planting tomatoes amongst them if they don't hurry up and produce.  When I planted them, I kind of expected them to have made peas - or at least bloomed - by now, but the seeds took a long time to sprout.  

Needlework - April 28, 2024

Before we left on our trip, I went to Hobby Lobby to get some little project to do in the car.  I was thinking of something like pillowcases or tea towels to embroider, but I ended up with a "punch needle" kit.  I'd never done this craft and still cannot do it; each stitch pulls out the previous one.  I put it aside.  Who needs this kind of frustration?  

At the end of the first leg of the trip, The Husband and I went "junkin'," where I came across an unopened bag of white 18" quilt squares stamped with hearts and flowers to cross-stitch and embroider.  $10.  The picture on the bag showed a drawing of a quilt - 12 squares with sashing between them.  Although my track record for finishing big needlework projects is not too great, I bought the quilt squares just to have something to do.  The next day, after taking our granddaughter to breakfast, we went to Hobby Lobby and bought the necessary embroidery thread and needles.  As we started toward our next destination, I opened the package and discovered that there were only 6 squares in the package.  In tiny print (which I did not read at the flea market), the package clearly stated that there were 6 squares inside, and that it would take 5 packages to make a queen-sized quilt.

THIRTY IDENTICAL SQUARES?

I might've had the gumption to finish 12 squares (might've taken a few years), but 30?  It didn't seem probable.  Nevertheless, I threaded a needle and got to work.  Maybe I could finish just one or two squares and make a pillow instead of a quilt.

Square #2 is almost finished, and the process has been enjoyable enough that I will probably make few more.

But 30?

Or even 24 (for a double bed quilt)?

I dunno . . . .  :-\

Oh, dear . . . April 27, 2024

After lunch yesterday, The Husband and I went down to Nanny's to check on the garden.  There's nothing planted in it yet, except for a few broccoli and cabbage seedlings that I planted before we left on our trip.  I was hoping that the ground would be dry enough to work, and that the tomato seedlings I left in Nanny's care would have grown enough to transplant to the garden.  

As soon as we drove up, I noticed that the mole trap I'd set in Nanny's yard two weeks ago had been sprung.  The Husband pulled it out of the ground and, sure enough, there was a mole in it.  The scissor-like blades had closed on its back end, and it was still alive and kicking.  Neither of us wanted to "off" it with a shovel.  I laid the trap on its side, with the mole dangling upside-down, hoping gravity would somehow do the trick, but it continued to squirm.  I left it where it was and went to check on the garden.

The broccoli and cabbage plants were doing fine.  The soil was dry enough to work in most places, but the low end was still a little damp.  If the tomatoes were ready, I intended to plant them.  I went in search of the seedlings.  They were not on the back porch.  They were not on the front porch.  They were not under a tree or anywhere else they should've been.  I thought, Oh, please, please, let them not be in the house.

They were in the house. 

Nanny had moved them inside one night when the temperature went down to 38 degrees, and never took them back outside.

They'd been on the dining room table since about the third day of our trip, more than a week. 

They'd barely grown a millimeter and were a sickly yellow color.  

On the bright side, three or four lavender seeds had sprouted (I wasn't expecting any of them to sprout).  They were leggy and pale, too.

I loaded the trays into the back of my car and brought them home.  Hopefully, they're not too far gone to perk up, but it's going to be a while before they're big enough to go in the ground. 

I wanted The Husband to fire up the tractor and run the tiller over the soil one more time, but we had some other things that we needed to do, so we put it off until today.

And it rained again last night.  

There's No Place LIke - April 26, 2024

HOME!

Made it here around 8 last night.

The best three days of the trip were the last three.  My BFF picked me up at the hotel at 10 Tuesday morning.  We spent the rest of that day and most of the next sitting on our butts and drinking margaritas on the patio.  The weather could not have been more pleasant.  

She has three retrieving dogs who initially tried to rope me into their little games.  Having once owned a retrieving dog, I knew what I'd be in for if I threw even one thing:  slobber, dog breath.  When the first one brought me a frisbee, I just said, "Nope, ain't gonna do it."  The dog nudged me with the frisbee:  Do you not see me standing here? Come on, throw it, throw it.  Same thing with the other two.  I held firm. By the time I left yesterday, there was only an occasional Maybe just once? before they'd take it to their "mama" to throw.  

Did I mention the puppy?  Eight-week-old ball of fur.  Cutest thing you ever saw.  BFF pretended that she wanted us to take him home with us, but we knew she was only kidding: we would not have made the cut as puppy-owners if we'd turned in a resume.  The Husband and I have been pet-free (except for occasional grand-pet-sitting) for a long time, but we've had pets over the years, none of whom have lived in the house, except for unusual circumstances such as bad weather or a surprise litter from a teenage hussy rescue kitten we'd thought was too young to bear offspring.  BFF knows how it is around here and wouldn't have sent the furball home with us if we'd begged her.  

We started for home around noon, avoiding highways, and canty-cornered our way across northwestern Georgia and into Alabama, some of the most beautiful scenery one could want.  Highway 72 runs straight across northern Alabama and Mississippi.  At Corinth, around 6 p.m., we stopped for dinner, then drove straight north into Tennessee from there, missing big towns all the way home.

My plan for today was to plant the vegetable garden, but it rained here yesterday and the soil will be too wet to work.  I am anxious to find out how my seedlings, which I left in Nanny's care, have fared.  I'm also anxious to see how the sugar snap peas are doing in the community garden.  They were about 2" tall when we left on our trip.  They'll need staking soon.  I will look for staking supplies this weekend and do the job Monday, if I can.

  

Greetings from Atlanta - April 21, 2024

Yesterday morning, we checked out of our hotel in Gatlinburg and headed to Knoxville to take Granddaughter #1 to lunch.  After we dropped her off at her dorm, we hit the road to Atlanta.  No more of that backroad stuff we'd been doing; we braved the interstate.  The traffic was ridiculous.

Tomorrow a friend who lives about an hour away is coming to rescue me.  I'll go home with her, and The Husband can pick me up on his way home when this conference is over.

The end of last week turned out to be productive to my archive plans.  I visited archives in two counties - one small historically-focused archive, and one "records center."  After viewing the records center, my sincere hope is that our archive will go the history route and not be a records center. Unfortunately, that decision is not mine to make.

Day 3 - April 17, 2024

After dropping off The Husband at his conference Monday, I hit the road in search of an embroidery hoop - not just any embroidery hoop, but a double-decker hoop suitable for punch-needle work.  I did not find one. Yesterday, I did some web-surfing and thought I could get one at JoAnn's.  Nope.  Hobby Lobby?  Nope.  Walmart?  Nope.  Looks like I'll have to order one from an online store once I get home.

But a funny thing did happen. While I was in Hobby Lobby, I encountered a lady who looked familiar. I smiled at her and she smiled at me, and we moved on.  Silly idea that I might know her, being 400 miles from home.  Last night, at The Husband's conference dinner/party, he dragged me over to meet a fellow conference attendee who had set up a table to sell jewelry and baked goods.  This lady also looked familiar.  I asked her, "Were you in Hobby Lobby today?"  She burst out laughing and said, "I was about to ask you the same thing!  I thought you looked familiar when I saw you in the store!"  Evidently, we've seen each other at these conferences often enough to recognize one another on the street.  

The plan for today was to visit the county archives for this and the surrounding counties.  Knowing that many archives are not open all day every day, I made some calls to line up some visits.  Haven't connected with anyone to visit today, but I'm set to visit one in the next county Friday morning.  

I'm not sure what I will do today.  This place is a shopper's paradise, but I am not a shopper.  I thought about hanging around with a book outside, but one of the hotel guests told me he encountered a bear yesterday in the very spot where I intended to read today.

I don't do bears.

Greetings from Gatlinburg - April 15, 2004

OMG!  Somebody come rescue me!  I hate Gatlinburg!

We drove part of the way here yesterday.  Spent the night in Cookeville.  Left the hotel at 8 this morning.  The Husband had a meeting in Gatlinburg today at noon.  We should've had plenty of time to get here by noon, only we were on Central time, and did not consider that Gatlinburg is on Eastern time. We made it here at 11:54, Eastern time.  I dropped him off at the convention center and went to our hotel. Of course, we couldn't check in yet, so I decided to drive around in search of something interesting.  

Big mistake.

This is the most awful place in which to drive. Pedestrians everywhere.  Bumper-to-bumper traffic (on a Monday!).  Crazy intersections.  I doubt I'll try that driving thing again.  If you're looking for me, I'll be holed up in the hotel until we leave.  

Cabbage and Broccoli - April 14, 2024

Yesterday was a busy day, with much to do before we leave for our road trip.

Mid-morning, I called Nanny to see if she would foster-parent my tomato (and other) seedlings while we're gone.  My plan was to take the seedlings to her back porch rather than asking her to tend to them here.  She said she would be happy to do it but suggested that I wait until late evening to bring them to her, since there would be carpenters (family members) coming to work on her porch after lunch.

For most of the morning, I did laundry and gathered up clothes for the trip while The Husband cleaned his truck.  After lunch, we both went to work in the yard, which we'd let grow tall for the sake of the bees.  With the yardwork done, The Husband went to Nanny's to help the carpenters while I gathered up the seedlings to move to Nanny's.

I went ahead and planted the broccoli and cabbages in the garden while The Husband helped the carpenters.  The seedlings should have been in the ground a month ago.  I only planted about a dozen of them and have a bunch more that will probably croak, left unattended while we're gone, but I didn't want to ask Nanny to tend them since I don't plan on planting them.  I'd like to drop them off at the community garden on our way out of town, but they are planted in plastic drawers that I would like to keep but would probably disappear if left at the garden for two weeks.

Somewhere between the laundry and the yardwork, I got out the kit that I'd bought from Hobby Lobby the previous day.  It's a punch needle kit.  I've never done that kind of craft.  It looked easy in some videos I watched.  After fooling with the kit for about an hour, I decided that punch needle is not a craft that should be done in a car, rolling at top speed down the interstate, even for an experienced puncher.  So far, I have yet to produce a line of stitching that did not immediately pull out of the fabric.  Once we get to our first destination, I will have time in the hotel room to try again while The Husband is at his meetings.

I am also taking my watercolor/drawing supplies.  We will be in the mountains, and I just might be inspired, if I can work up the gumption to fire up the truck and battle my way through tourist town traffic to get somewhere with a view worth painting.

It will be time to plant the garden when we come home.

Errands - April 12, 2024

Yesterday, I called a halt to the inventory of the courthouse basement, having reached a point where I need some guidance. But there's now a fairly informative spreadsheet listing all the documents in Administration's storage rooms, and where they are, and people should be able to find what they need without much trouble.

This morning, after I sent the spreadsheet up the chain, I took my car back to the body shop to have them look at one of the front flasher lights.  The car has been out of the shop for two weeks, but it wasn't until Monday morning, when I pulled up behind a shiny chrome bumper at Burger King, that I realized the light wasn't working.  It only took them about 10 minutes to fix it.

After that, I went to Big Lots and loaded up a tote bag full of road snacks.  $47 worth.  Don't judge; we'll be on the road a lot, and they're moderately healthy snacks.  ;)

After that, I went to the new Hobby Lobby to get some busy work for my hands while we're on the road.  Got a "punch needle" kit. Only spent $15.  I told the lady at the cash register, "This place may explode when I walk out of here having spent under $20."  A lady coming in the store said, "Girl, I hear ya."  

I'm taking my watercolor paints on the road trip, too, with visions of "plein air" painting dancing around in my head.  It probably won't happen.  We'll be staying smack in the middle of the towns we'll visit, and I hate driving in unfamiliar places.  On the other hand, we've got time for a state park visit between towns, so it could happen.  

Shoooo-WEEEE . . . - April 10, 2014

...I'm tired.

The past three days have been non-stop doing.

The Grandson spent the weekend and the past few days with us.  He's a sweet, bushy-headed, 6'3" munchkin.  Sixteen years old.  Grandmama's Boy.  I'm so proud of him and have been so happy to have him here.  I've fed him breakfast and taken him to school for the past three days.  (It's been a while since I've had to get a kid off to school!).  One of his friends, another bushy-headed munchkin, has been driving him home in the afternoons, which made me a little nervous, not knowing the kid.  

Yesterday afternoon, he asked if we could go to Walmart.  He wanted to buy some CDs to listen to in his truck, which he can't yet drive because he doesn't have a license.  I consented and took him to Walmart.  His music choices were Nirvana, Willie Nelson, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.  We tried to listen to one of the CDs on the way home, but there's a CD stuck in the player in my car.  When we got home, he went to his truck.

I said, "You want to drive it?"

His eyes lit up.

We drove for miles and miles and miles.  Backroads.  The highway.  He did fairly well, but he needs more practice, especially at coming to a stop then turning; he almost laid rubber a couple of times.  And he was a little too focused on the music.  

He went home to his mama this afternoon.  

We'll practice again soon.

What's got me so worn out is the inventory I'm doing at work.  Heavy boxes, heavy books.  Every time I think I'm about done, I discover more stuff.  I hope to get this basement room (which is actually 5 rooms) done this week, because we're leaving town Sunday and won't be back for nearly two weeks, and I hate picking up where I left off after a long break, regardless of what the job is.

Today I cleaned out a closet under a stairwell to get to some 30-year-old financial records that need to be disposed of, anyway, once we get proper authorization.  It was a nightmare of junk, tossed in haphazardly.  There were computer program manuals for computer programs that don't exist anymore. I pawned them off on the IT guy, who was stoked about their "historical value."  

At the bottom of the pile were half a dozen nasty, moldy rugs.  I called maintenance and asked them to come get them and some warped rubber chair mats that had turned brittle.  The guy who came to get them said he wasn't going to throw them away, that maybe somebody could use them to lie on while working on wet ground.  Whatever floats his boat, but there's no way I'd walk on them, much less lie on them.

Lavender Seeds Planted - April 7, 2024

About six weeks ago, I shook a package of lavender seeds onto a moist paper towel, sealed it in a ziploc bag, and put it in the refrigerator to "stratify" the seeds.  Today, I planted the seeds in dirt in a tray on the patio.  

Crossing my fingers that they come up.

Progress - April 7, 2024

Though I expected to be finished inventorying the records in the creepy courthouse basement room by the end of the week, I didn't make it.  There were three file cabinets that contained one series of documents, but they were all mixed up.  It seemed that when one file cabinet - A to Z - was full, they simply started a new A-Z file cabinet.  On top of that, it seems that at some point someone had taken handfulls of files and simply stuffed them in the cabinets wherever they would fit.  Thus, in order to make sense of what was there, I had to empty all three cabinets, alphabetize the contents, and put it all back in the cabinets in the correct order.  After that, I made a spreadsheet list of the files.  This took the better part of three days.  By Friday afternoon, I'd finished inventorying only one of the three rooms.  Hopefully, the next two won't take as long.

Each day, I came home TIRED.  After a long winter of sitting on my rear end, I am out of shape, and the work - lifting heavy boxes and ledgers - made me ache.  I would come home, shower off the mold and dust, and collapse until bedtime.  We ate Easter dinner leftovers and frozen pizzas for supper every night because I was too tired to cook.

I should truly be finished with the courthouse basement by the end of the coming week.  After that, I am not sure what to tackle next.  Some of the county departments have their acts together with regard to records management, but others have been somewhat haphazard. One of them generates mountains of paper that have been stored in every available nook and cranny in the county.  I don't know how I will make sense of this disaster.  One box at a time, I reckon.

* * * * * * * * * *

The Grandson came over Friday night and will be here through Tuesday night.  He is a good kid.  He had a bumpy road after his parents divorced, but he has turned himself around, is making good grades and has a sensible plan for his future education.  I am proud of him.  

* * * * * * * * * * 

Yesterday, the family on the hill convened to renovate Nanny's back porch.  The ceiling and the rafters suffered water damage and had to be replaced.  The Husband went to the lumber store yesterday morning to get the materials.  Construction started just after lunch time and was almost finished by dinner time.

I did not participate in the construction.  While The Husband went to get the lumber, I went to the grocery store - we were OUT of food in this house.  When I got home, I put red beans & rice in the slow cooker and went down to Nanny's to help, but the menfolk had it under control.  I ended up mowing Nanny's yard until supper time. I came home to get the beans & rice, and when I got back to Nanny's with the food, everyone was exhausted and preparing to leave.  The four of us who stayed barely put a dent in the pot.  The Husband and I may be eating beans & rice for the rest of the week.

Tuesday - April 2, 2024

I was just about to leave for work this morning when a storm hit, dumping buckets of rain.  I've swapped my crocs for rubber boots, but I am going to wait for the next round to pass by before heading out the door.  

Yesterday I worked in the courthouse basement, continuing the inventory I started last week.  The room is nasty and moldy and full of spiders and old building dust.  In the left-hand corner, just inside the door, there is a life-sized plywood cut-out of the mayor, complete with a suit, tie, shoes, and a picture of his face glued on top; he scared me Monday morning when I turned on the light, even though I'd known he was there.  Later, as I was trying to set up a table to work on, he fell over on me while I had my back turned to him - scared the tee-total PISS out of me, and I had to fight to get his dusty, spidery self off me. (I intend to take him to the archive if/when we get one.  Gonna set him right up front to welcome visitors.)  I wrote up inventory sheets by hand until about 2:00 - finished the north wall - then I came home to transfer the handwritten information to a spreadsheet.  

* * * * * * * * 

Twenty minutes after I started this post, it quit raining, and I went to my basement room.  (The Mayor did not startle me today.)  I attacked the creepy metal shelf on the east wall.  There were spider webs (still bearing spiders that must have died of old age) between me and the books/boxes on the shelf.  In another creepy room beyond my work room, I found a stir-stick in a dried-up paint can and used it to knock the webs away.  I was scared to reach in and grab anything, but I did it, and finished the east wall and most of the south wall.  Hopefully, I will finish the room tomorrow.  Only three more rooms (in that basement) to do after that.