Sunday, 13 November 2016
Monday, 14 November 2016
At 1:30 AM on Monday morning, before sleep time, something gave me the only moment of pure joy I have felt in the past week. Allan is ever so good to the cats and is the one who gives them their dinner, but he has never bonded with one of them before, till now:
I have had to resort of just a bite of a benadryl to get at least six hours of sleep. I’d been trying to avoid it because of a tenuous and debatable link between benadryl use and Alzheimers. Right now, I need sleep more than future sanity (and melatonin does not work for me).Monday began slowly with the reading of news and getting choked up, for the sixth day in a row, about hate crimes across the nation, including against people in Washington State. Meanwhile, because I had taken very seriously the rhetoric and the “dog whistles” of DT’s campaign, I was horrified but not surprised to see white supremacist and anti-Semite Bannon entering a high level of government.
Despite this gloom, we did manage to get out to work only slightly later than usual. During the day, as has been true of every day, we encountered friends who felt as we did and were able to commiserate.
Our work day began with dry weather so that we could go to Peninsula Landscape Supply and get a yard of Soil Energy Mulch for the Anchorage. As soon as I learned that the supply yard might be closed tomorrow, I wished I had gotten my arse in gear earlier in the day. PLS closes at 1 o clock during these autumn months and it is difficult to mulch all day with that schedule. With a sense of urgency, I said we would go to the Anchorage, dump off the soil really quickly, and return for a second load (for a different job) by 1:30; owner Mike readily and kindly agreed to stay open a bit longer for our sake.
At Anchorage Cottages, we offloaded as fast as possible and just left the mulch in piles.Then we rushed back to Peninsula Landscape Supply and got there at 12:45, making it less than a one hour turnaround. I thought “We Are The Champions” should have been playing for us.
Back at the Anchorage by 1:05, we got the pavers removed from a circular patio that manager Beth had decided should be turned into garden. It was cute but its benches never got used and it was terribly hard to weed among the small pavers. She had already removed half of them. Anchorage is now off the fall clean up and projects work list and relegated to the post-frost list.We departed with our second load of mulch, designated for the Ilwaco Community Building, with a pause at the Depot to deadhead the barrel of Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ and water the window boxes under the eaves.
The Ilwaco Community Building houses the Library, CCAO (which provides low cost lunches for seniors), and a meeting room for the city council, local Toastmasters, and other groups.
At home, a late rose blossom:
On the work board, the only project left is to apply a yard of mulch where needed in Long Beach. We will get to that on the next nice weekday that Peninsula Landscape Supply is open. All other jobs are relegated to post-frost (or pre-holiday) clean up which means that we are one work day away from semi-staycation. (The purest staycation feeling only begins when the work board is empty, probably in mid December.)In the evening, we went out to the local Democrat meeting. Being to the left of Democrats, I did not feel I fit in well. I probably did not endear myself by saying I’d appreciate talk about “working people” rather than “the workin’ man”. Only one attendee, a member of the Chinook Nation, brought up the issue of how racism affected the vote. I am not giving up and am attending, on Monday, a meeting of a different, although overlapping, group of local liberals.
I took to heart the realization (not mentioned in the meeting) that shopping local is key now. More important than ever. I think we working poor and children and schools and the non-affluent elderly will be counting more on our dear blue Washington State for social services, so it is crucial to not succumb to “buy with one click” online but instead to get out to our local shops for holiday shopping.
Meanwhile, I ran across words from a friend, the great Paul Bonine of Xera Plants: While we fight we will make the world beautiful. That hasn’t gone away.
1997 (age 73):
Nov 14: 11:00-1:00 2 hours at the dentist for crown. I have to go back in 2 weeks.
I spent the afternoon puttering with plants in the Floralight. I repotted some violets. and cut off bad leaves, added systemic insecticide to soil etc. I tossed a few dead plants. I ran out of potting soil and was too lazy to go get more from garage.
1998 (age 74):
Nov 15: At about 4 o’clock when I brought in some wood I was stung by a bee. It hurt as bad as any migraine I’ve ever had. It continued hurting terribly. I considered calling 911 or St Peters but felt silly calling about a bee sting. I used a package of frozen veggies as an ice pack. Then when I was going to have some toast at about 11 there was a bee on the side of the table!
Next week:
- clean out the containers
- turn on shop hot water tank
- while water in on clean out the BBQ
- start planting container bulbs
- rake and bag the fallen leaves
- set strawberry flats in garden and cover with leaves and Reemay
Nov 14: 7 pails of apples today! I picked up all those before it started raining. I got the houseplants watered. The apples in the 6 trays were almost dry. I pared more and was then able to empty the trays and fill them up again.
One heck of a day of hard work, and you managed to do it ahead of schedule in spite of the slightly late start. Getting that soil energy mulch off-loaded and back to Peninsula Landscape Supply before their quitting deadline was quite an accomplishment. But even more spectacular is the photo of all four of the feline side of the family. I noticed they quietly complied with Allen’s nudging them (well, Scooter being the main culprit) to stop swatting the fishing pole wall hanging. Only one quick pfffffft threat by gray cat towards Scooter for his bit of aggression. Then all was peace and purring. The garden changes at the Anchorage are exactly right and subtle to the less discerning gardener (that would be moi). There is a whole lesson in just looking at the photos and seeing how right the change is. You make the fall garden look so inviting. So often it is a drab time of year when we head into even darker days (outside the garden too). I was cheered up seeing the plantings in your entry way and the photo record of your next day’s efforts) an–especially– visiting with you and Allan.
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It was wonderful to see you. Thanks for your nice long comment.
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Our political equivalent is ‘hard working families’. I sometimes wonder whether single people can be hard working too.
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Great point! Reminds me of this countries “family values” schtick.
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