Friday, November 10, 2023
Update
Here’s an update before I forget too much recent history.
It’s lunch time on Friday. I’m sitting here in my space where I can hear my wife and son discuss the finer points of product development..
Not too long ago I returned from a morning breakfast for Veterans at a family-owned chain of grocery stores. Plenty of vets were there, the food was nothing to write home about. I paid for my meal as I had no way to prove my bona fides. They weren’t asking for money but I paid anyway.
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I started the week by taking the puppers for a looong walk at Vander Veer. I was in no hurry to get home and they sure were enjoying themselves. Then it turned cooler and stayed that way for the rest of the week.
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Two days ago Kim and Ellen went over to the church to clean. Lots to do there and not a lot of volunteers. I stayed home and after a light breakfast decided to do some yard work. My goal was to convert the remaining twenty or so dead and dying sunflower plants on the property into neatly packaged yard waste, then drive them out to the composting facility at the edge of town.
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I chopped up everything but the short stalks sticking out of the ground. I didn’t want to dig the root balls out with a shovel so I thought why not till ‘em out. I wrestled the tiller across the basement and up the Bilco stairs, then wheeled it across the yard where I soon learned it wouldn’t pull start..
I figgered the spark plug was probably wet so I went back into the basement and soon returned with a bunch of sockets to pull the plug. Then I stood there staring at the usually-reliable tiller and thought for a bit.
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The light bulb above my head eventually lit up as I realized that I hadn’t primed the thing. Three pumps and one pull later it was purring like a kitten with laryngitis. I commenced to tillin’ which brought two Jack Russells within a few feet of the spinning tines. The smell of fresh dirt and worms was just what they didn’t know they needed.
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Fifteen minutes after I started Kim and Ellen returned from the church. Ellen was soon pulling up Cannas while I finished tilling sunflowers then moved on to the garden plot. Ellen and I teamed up, finished the Cannas and moved on to the wildflower patch that wrapped around the back porch.
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We finished when it started sprinkling out, just in time, right around 2:00. Willow and I brought six bags of yard waste to composting where she received an obligatory Milk Bone and roughly 30 seconds of pets from the lady at the drive up window who told me she had two Goldens of her own at home.
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I got home and I was beat. And cold. Wobbly and needin’ a snooze. I dithered between nappin’ in bed or somewhere else, finally dragged a heavy blanket off the bed and into the living room. I swaddled in that, settled into the recliner, pulled the handle to “landscape” and promptly entered snooze mode. I eventually woke to find Ellen sitting there with us, she and Kim were visiting.
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Kim has proposed that I do something with the stuff in the basement, possibly clearing some space for up-sizing her crafting space. More to follow…
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