Garden Harvest Starts

I finally got some garden harvest a few days ago,  Not much.  1 zucchini an 1 small tomato.  But they were good steamed together with some red onion!

I HAVE started getting italian flat pole beans and a few small cucumbers, but I forgot to take pictures (I had dinner on my mind).  My first main season heirloom tomatoes are getting large enough to start developing color soon.  The corn is sad again.  I JUST don't get enough sunlight for them.  They are tasseling at 3' high with 4" ears.  The celery is actually growing.  I've never successfully grown celery before. 

The flowerbed is doing OK.  I've kept the weeds clear better than usual, and the annuals are finally flowering.  They are in one large patch where I had some runner grass invade.  I kept digging it out and got rid of most, but I decided to just plant annual flowers there this year and dig it all up in Fall to get and the last of the runners.  I basically just used up all my annual seed packets, so there are marigolds, carnations, salvia, forget-me-not and wave petunias in small groups.  It will do for one year.

I need more sunlight.  Over the 25 years here, the neighbors' trees have grown huge and I get 6 hours sun at best.  I'm amazed I can still grow decent tomatoes (and they are getting leggier each year).

Kitty Litter and Trash Bags

I think I set a new personal record.  18 buckets of kitty litter, 5 bags of trash (and they didn't smell a bit),  and various non-recyclable stuff.  And a 30 gallon aquarium that refused to be re-sealed.  Old tape drives, a single CD player that was broken,   Old fluorescent bulbs...  Took 6 months. About 300 pounds,  $5  flat rate because it all fit in the SUV.

See those small trash bags?  Each is a whole month here.  I recycle or compost EVERYTHING possible.  Some stuff ISN'T possible.  I wish I could have NO trash bags.  But I do my best.

But it was a good day at the landfill.  I  resent leaving the litter buckets, but I ran out of space to store them and I can't find a use.   I have used all I can as growing containers.

Any suggestions?

Weird Neighbors

I had the strangest experience with some neighbors last night!  Basically, my side of the street are homeowners, the other side are renters.  The house across the street was rented by some nice quiet guy for 5 years.  Last year, two couples rented it.  They have been nutso from day one.

Right off the bat, there was a screamng late night fight between a guy and gal involving the guy trying to drive away and the gal standing in front of the car pounding on the hood.  Good start.  They generally sit outside on the side steps smoking, so I guess they are forbidden from smoking in the house.  They also seem to love having screaming yelling arguements.

Did I mention they also love to work on cars with outstandingly loud bass stereos?  At night and early morning?  Yes.  Yes they do.

They went at it again last night.  Screaming hateful arguements.  It penetrates my double glass windows and is louder than my radio plays.  I lost it.

I went out and yelled at them to keep the noise down or I would call the police.  I knew that was an empty threat.  The police have better things to do than worry about domestic noise complaints.  But one of the guys threatened to come over an beat me.  THAT was interesting!!!  But I was more worried about the threat to the woman there, so I went inside and got my cordless phone, flashlight, and camera and came back out to sit quietly on the front steps putting my flashlight on them.  They especially didn't like THAT, but quite frankly, I didn't care!

There ARE times I am willing to sit in quiet evidence.  I expected violence.  I told them they were better than most "reality TV shows and I had 911 on speed-dial".  THAT got some attention.

The guy got mad and said he could destroy a car.  He got in his and peeled into the street, then into the driveway.  I thought he was going to ram the car there, but he changed his mind and peeled off down the street out of the area.

The woman went and knocked on the neighbor's door.  Several times over many minutes.  With no reply.  I know that that neighbor and they seem close in some way.  But with no reply, I went to the street and again asked her if she needed any help.  I was prepared to call the police, but she said NO!

Here is where it gets strange....

I ended up talking to her for an hour.  She is the mother of the guy she had the screaming arguement with.  And the (she says) ex-wife of the neighbor who refused to answer the door she was pounding on.  I regretted getting involved immediately, but she had ahold of my wrist and wasn't letting go.

And she was drunk as hell!  I suspect they all were.  I drink a bit myself (I do like wine with dinner), but good lord, nothing like THAT!  On my worst day, I was better off then them on their best day.  You know what I mean?  As far as I can tell, they are all permanently drunk.  Or high (there were "druggie" accusations flying).  It seems that it takes all 4 (5?) of them to manage to work enough to pay the rent on a 1 bedroom ranch house that I think goes for $500 a month..

But as I said, I talked to her for an hour (wrist freed).  Such a sad story poured out.  Bad marriage, cheating, divorce, hateful (and hated?) children.  She had a cat she loved SO much, but lost it (I can't IMAGINE why it left, ahem). Ex living next door...

I pointed to the house next to mine ) on the "owner" side of the street) and mentioned that the guy there had an affair with HIS neighbor and that when it was  revealed, she killed herself and he has become an absentee owner.  She didn't even blink.

I think I need to move.

I can hardly conceive such a life.   And I didn't USED to live in the wrong part of town, but I've been here 25 years and things have been changing. There was the first gang war here 2 months ago 2 houses away.   A dozen kids with baseball bats going at each other and several police cars.  Adults screaming at the police who were trying to stop the fights.  Several cars (2 abreast sometimes) screaming down our dead end street to try to escape the police.  I sure never saw THAT before!  I guess I didn't notice what was going on.  My current home is no longer my sanctuary.

   

Groundhogs, and a Rant

I have a long-standing relationship with groundhogs.  Most people have never seen one.  I've seen too many.

I may have mentioned some of this before, but it started when my Dad was teaching my younger brother and I how to hunt.  We had been to "marksman classes" at a local shooting range and shown that we could handle guns safely and hit a target with some skill.  Visiting my paternal grandparents in NH when I was 13 (14?) Dad brought us to a field where groundhogs lived.  We sat around for a few hours waiting to see one to shoot at.

This was before I was old enough to stop killing animals for sport.  We saw none.  But just before we left, Dad whistled in a way he had learned to attract attention from groundhogs.  And one stood up a long way away.  I aimed carefully and shot my .22 rifle.  It dropped.  Dad said I missed it,  But I insisted we go find out.  I WAS a good shot.  But Dad never thought I could do anything well, s he laughed and said I missed it.

To his complete surprise, I nailed the groundhog right between the eyes.  To my comfort these days, it probably never knew what happened.  But I remember it mostly because Dad never even said "good shot".  I expect he assumed it was luck.  And besides, he thought I would miss it, so he SHOULDN'T be wrong.  Had to be luck, then.  No children were ever "competent" in Dad's eyes.  He always made it quite clear.

A sad metaphor for our relationship the rest of our lives.  His message to me was always "you are not as good at anything as I am".  I could defend his attitude as challenging me to be as good at everything as I could possibly be.  But I won't.  He was just a mean son of a bitch!

Golf was another problem.  He made me play it.  At 5'6", I am not a natural golfer.  I lettered in golf twice and soccer once in high school through sheer force of will (barely).  Soccer was more natural for me, but I got no support for that.  I was good enough at golf.  But I didn't have the same swing as Dad and he was always on me about it.  He had a classic swing, and I had a baseball bat-grip swing.  It worked for me.  In high school, I broke 90 often.  Not impressive, but good enough for the last slot on the team.  Dad kept messing with my swing.  When I went to college, I got down to 85.

Now, I have to say, Dad was a really good golfer.  When I was young and only caddying, I admired the way his tee drives started out low and rose to land straight down the fairway.  He had a handicap of "0" at one point.  He what what he was doing!  But I couldn't do that with my proper swing on the best day.  So I developed my own.

It worked for me.  A good swing is whatever works for you.  I once got an "eagle"  on the hardest hole on the army base course.  And Dad started messing with my swing again.  I should have ignored him, but, hey, he was my DAD!

I started driving up to NH to participate in the Member/Guest tourneys in the early 1980s.  It had a quota system.  Something about every score below your handicap per hole, you gained a point.  We lost every year.  Dad had me using nothing but 5 irons on every shot through some idea he had.  It was horrible!  His game was about consistency; mine was "go for broke".

It ended when I was facing a pond out in the fairway and pulled out my 4 iron.  Dad said to use the driver because I couldn't possibly reach the edge of the pond.  I stayed with the 4 iron.  And landed in the pond on the fly.  He gaped.  The pond was 250 yards away.  When I hit the ball right, it is awesome, and I knew that.

From that moment on, I ignored everything he told me.  I was pissed!  And guess what?  We won.  He played his exact usual good game precisely meeting his quota, but I obliterated my quota by like 10 strokes.

That was the last time I played golf with him and the last time I played golf period!  I was so tired of all the demanding pressurring crap that I had no interest in the game afterwards.  I proved my point.  I could play the game NOT his way.

End of angry rant.

Time is Relative

What do you do when you don't fit a 24 hour clock?  I was an early bird as a child, a reluctant waker as a college student.  I managed to keep a schedule that got me up at 5 a.m., home at 6 p.m. and to bed by 9 p.m. for 35 years in a successful career.  But now that I am retired and have no requirements or obligations, I can't keep a 24 hour waking/sleeping schedule.  I mentioned recently that I was on a 25 hour clock.  I understated it.  Its worse than that.

Its more like a 28 hour clock.  I go to bed and can't sleep for hours, then finally sleep for  8 hours on and off.  I end up in bed for 12 hours.  And then I don't feel tired for at least 16 hours.  That's just not normal!

I have, at times, engaged in computer games or discussion boards way too late at night.  I used to think it was because I loved the games or discussion.  But I am realizing that I just wasn't tired.  And who can go to bed when they aren't tired?  What's the point of going to bed when you aren't tired?  You can't sleep.  You just lay there aware and awake.

Its nice to have the cats there to scratch.  They aren't keeping me awake, but they are nice to have something to give attention to while I lay in bed frustrated that I can't sleep. 

So I finally get tired of layin in bed and get up at 4 p.m. one day and 8 p.m. the next and dress to get the mail and the newspaper.  I check the email.  I check the cat blogs.  I would say "depression", but I don't feel depressed.  I enjoy doing things in the yard/garden and playing with the cats.  I enjoy preparing meals.  I enjoy listening to political and news TV.  I feel fine physically.  I'm just OFF the clock and not sleeping well!

There is a reason I am writing this at 4:30 a.m.  I'm fully awake and not tired.  I can't blame the cats.  Iza sleeps peacefully in the corner of the bed.  Ayla sleeps quietly on the top of the shoe shelf or on a pillow on a chair.  Marley doesn't even sleep in the room.  He likes the computer chair or a platform on the kitty condo.  My personal clock is just all wrong....

It is really messing things up.  I am NOT going to try and then get stuck on sleeping pills.  That is not a road I want to travel.  Well, thanks for just letting me complain...  My Mom always said that "getting old isn't for sissies" and maybe all this is normal.  But all the old people in my life just got up EARLY each day.  I don't know what is going on. 

An Idea

Hey, I'm over 60, living alone..  And it occurred to me that it would be a great idea to have some telephone or USB device that ya could just plug in and punch a button every day to say "I'm Still Alive" to some company who would visit if you didn't punch the button for 2 days.. 

I can't find one.  Does anyone know of one?