is...wait, what was the question?
I had this brilliant idea for a post. Or at least a fairly good idea. So good, in fact, that I opened a new document in Word, so I could write it out with more than the usual effort. But before I could start I had to go answer a question. And I’ll have come back to is a blank page. I have no clue – not the single foggiest idea – what on earth struck my as so important (or interesting, maybe it was something interesting) that I had to blog about it.
With every minute that passes I have greater need for vacation. Seven hours from now I’ll be in the air. Or in an airplane, actually. The airplane will be in the air.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Is it me?
I seem to ask that a lot. There just seems to be a number of things that should be quite straightforward and yet pour moi they get complicated. Normally I'd say that weird things happen when I try to do normal things, but The Boy has pointed out that when unusual stuff happens to the same person all the time, at some point unusual becomes usual.
Anyway - I was given a way to track repeat phone calls. You know, a way to keep track of anyone who might be calling so often that the train has made a brief stop at irritation town but might be pulling out for harrasementville and stalkertown. And if that's the case it's good to have a record of how many calls there truly are, because saying "it feels like a million" is not useful in any practical way.
I got a chance right away - lucky me! - to try this system out. Both on my work phone and on my cell. All I got on the work phone (trying with dialing 9 first as well as without) was the robot voice telling me that there was trouble in completing my call. I suspect this is because we're on some sort of connected phone system here. The cell phone was a different story.
First, I wasn't sure how to do it. I mean, you can't just get a dial tone with a cell phone. Or perhaps I just don't know how to do that. All I know is entering a phone number and then hitting the talk button. When I realized a message had been left, I call voicemail (no, I didn't listen to the message. I deleted it after I was sure it was the number I wanted to keep track of) and decided that perhaps as I was in voicemail I could try the magic number trick. So I tried. And got the following message from the strangely cheerful recorded female voice:
Thanks - that was good for us, hope it was good for you!"
WHAT? What on earth are they trying to tell me? I think the babies are right - until I can remember to refer to messages sent on phones as texting (instead of emailing, which I keep saying accidentally) cell phone technology is not my friend.
Anyway - I was given a way to track repeat phone calls. You know, a way to keep track of anyone who might be calling so often that the train has made a brief stop at irritation town but might be pulling out for harrasementville and stalkertown. And if that's the case it's good to have a record of how many calls there truly are, because saying "it feels like a million" is not useful in any practical way.
I got a chance right away - lucky me! - to try this system out. Both on my work phone and on my cell. All I got on the work phone (trying with dialing 9 first as well as without) was the robot voice telling me that there was trouble in completing my call. I suspect this is because we're on some sort of connected phone system here. The cell phone was a different story.
First, I wasn't sure how to do it. I mean, you can't just get a dial tone with a cell phone. Or perhaps I just don't know how to do that. All I know is entering a phone number and then hitting the talk button. When I realized a message had been left, I call voicemail (no, I didn't listen to the message. I deleted it after I was sure it was the number I wanted to keep track of) and decided that perhaps as I was in voicemail I could try the magic number trick. So I tried. And got the following message from the strangely cheerful recorded female voice:
Thanks - that was good for us, hope it was good for you!"
WHAT? What on earth are they trying to tell me? I think the babies are right - until I can remember to refer to messages sent on phones as texting (instead of emailing, which I keep saying accidentally) cell phone technology is not my friend.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
What a Day
I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
I have my freedom. And sweet it is, too. And the only thing I have to say is that you can question a lot of things. I myself question things all the time: I have my doubts as to how good a friend I am, how good a sister, a daughter, an employee. I've doubted my faith and I've questioned my usefulness as a human being.
You know what I don't every question or worry about? My parenting. I'm not saying I've made no mistakes, I certainly have. There are things that I wish I'd done differently. But if my life were to end tonight, I'd still look back at my babies and be as amazed at how they turned out as I was that they were born in the first place. They're good kids. Good people. So if you're going to start on a list of all the things I've done wrong, starting with how poorly I've raised my children just means anything else you say is meaningless.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
I have my freedom. And sweet it is, too. And the only thing I have to say is that you can question a lot of things. I myself question things all the time: I have my doubts as to how good a friend I am, how good a sister, a daughter, an employee. I've doubted my faith and I've questioned my usefulness as a human being.
You know what I don't every question or worry about? My parenting. I'm not saying I've made no mistakes, I certainly have. There are things that I wish I'd done differently. But if my life were to end tonight, I'd still look back at my babies and be as amazed at how they turned out as I was that they were born in the first place. They're good kids. Good people. So if you're going to start on a list of all the things I've done wrong, starting with how poorly I've raised my children just means anything else you say is meaningless.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Power of Words
Words have power. More power than we think, sometimes. There are times when something we've said, quickly and without thought, have hurt someone. A hurt that remains long after the words have been forgotten.
The upside is that there are words that can heal. Words that make you glow with warmth and happiness. And again, sometimes they are things that some one has said without planning, or forethought. Something that just slips out, or something that doesn't seem to them terribly profound.
I had some of the latter this week. From my babies! First, I overhear The Boy on his phone (no, not purposely, I was cooking he was talking), talking to someone who wanted him to do something with him. And this is what I overheard "umm....not really. I want to hang out with mom tonight. But I can ask, if you want to come with us. She wouldnt' mind". How lucky am I? 18 years old and he WANTS to hang out with me? We went to a movie, Despicable Me. Go see it if you have a chance, we quite liked it.
The Girl is far away, working in BC. I haven't seen her since June 25th! That is a very long time. We talk on the phone, of course, and text but it isn't the same. She called me at work this morning. She was sick through the night. She said she didn't care that she was almost 16, she felt awful and wanted to hear my voice. Because when you're sick you just want your mom, no matter how old you are. Curse my inability to beam myself there for a few hours!
I am ok with them growing up and growing away. I am, however, extrememly grateful that we can still be close to each other. I'm a very lucky mom. Time to call my dad.
The upside is that there are words that can heal. Words that make you glow with warmth and happiness. And again, sometimes they are things that some one has said without planning, or forethought. Something that just slips out, or something that doesn't seem to them terribly profound.
I had some of the latter this week. From my babies! First, I overhear The Boy on his phone (no, not purposely, I was cooking he was talking), talking to someone who wanted him to do something with him. And this is what I overheard "umm....not really. I want to hang out with mom tonight. But I can ask, if you want to come with us. She wouldnt' mind". How lucky am I? 18 years old and he WANTS to hang out with me? We went to a movie, Despicable Me. Go see it if you have a chance, we quite liked it.
The Girl is far away, working in BC. I haven't seen her since June 25th! That is a very long time. We talk on the phone, of course, and text but it isn't the same. She called me at work this morning. She was sick through the night. She said she didn't care that she was almost 16, she felt awful and wanted to hear my voice. Because when you're sick you just want your mom, no matter how old you are. Curse my inability to beam myself there for a few hours!
I am ok with them growing up and growing away. I am, however, extrememly grateful that we can still be close to each other. I'm a very lucky mom. Time to call my dad.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Because it was worth the four bucks
I went past the plot the other day plotting out (ha!) how much weeding time I'm going to need. And checking to see what else might be poking up. Beets and Carrots are up, and that's the last of it. Or was the last!
When we were planting things we were also fighting off hordes of mosiquitoes. Large mosquitoes. Car sized, even. Or so it seemed. At any rate, halfway through the beet seeds we lost our minds. If the picture in your head is of me and The Girl flailing our arms like manic windmills, squealing like little girls (and in our heads, or mine at least, swearing like sailors) followed by dark clouds of insects with evil and sanguineous intent you'd be right on the money.
When I went to check on things I realized that we never did go back and plant more beets. We had a marker out at each end of the row, but nothing planted. What a waste! We already had a three foot space for no particular reason, so I wasn't happy with an eight foot empty row.
Unhappy enough, it turns out, that when I was at Safeway I bought a bag of spring onion bulbs at a vastly reduced price. I realize that July is not by any stretch spring but at four dollars I figured it was worth the risk. Better than more potatoes, as they would not likely have enough time to actually grow to a decent size before frost hits. Because much though we had to admit it, that can happen in September. August, even! July is the only month that has never had snow. June and August not often, but it happens.
Whether I'll have a dozen spring onions in a few weeks is hard to tell. The bulbs were pretty sad looking. But if nothing happens, well, let that be a four dollar lesson to me.
When we were planting things we were also fighting off hordes of mosiquitoes. Large mosquitoes. Car sized, even. Or so it seemed. At any rate, halfway through the beet seeds we lost our minds. If the picture in your head is of me and The Girl flailing our arms like manic windmills, squealing like little girls (and in our heads, or mine at least, swearing like sailors) followed by dark clouds of insects with evil and sanguineous intent you'd be right on the money.
When I went to check on things I realized that we never did go back and plant more beets. We had a marker out at each end of the row, but nothing planted. What a waste! We already had a three foot space for no particular reason, so I wasn't happy with an eight foot empty row.
Unhappy enough, it turns out, that when I was at Safeway I bought a bag of spring onion bulbs at a vastly reduced price. I realize that July is not by any stretch spring but at four dollars I figured it was worth the risk. Better than more potatoes, as they would not likely have enough time to actually grow to a decent size before frost hits. Because much though we had to admit it, that can happen in September. August, even! July is the only month that has never had snow. June and August not often, but it happens.
Whether I'll have a dozen spring onions in a few weeks is hard to tell. The bulbs were pretty sad looking. But if nothing happens, well, let that be a four dollar lesson to me.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Le Jardin
As you no doubt are aware if you live in Saskatchewan (and for some even if you don't, dad says our weather made the news where he is) it was a wet spring. Wetter than...well, wetter than any spring has ever been. And it hasn't stopped, by the by; we're having a truly wet summer as well.
Being deeply addicted* to thunderstorms there is a part of me that is happy with this situation. I have, however, lived long enough in a largely agrarian province to have the pleasure mainly lost in sorrow for farmers, many of whom were not able to plant anything. And for many of those that did get something planted, they are looking at partial seeding (one co-worker who farms figures they planted about a third of their ususal crop) or fields that will never be harvested as the plants rot in standing water. Instead of all the fields around the city being green and vibrant - or yellow, where there is canola - the green has a fair amount of sickly yellow and dull red.
It's one thing as a hobby gardener to have a bad year, but it's not my livelihood. It's a loss of money, but really just what seeds and plants cost if nothing works.
We have - for the second year in a row - a plot out in the community gardens. I got off to a very late start- nearly mid June, as it happens. The delay was partly stupidity, partly vacation and partly rain. So:
I was going to be away from May the 29th to June 4th. I had seed potatoes sprouted and ready to go, as well as seeds for beets, carrots and peas. Also bulbs for garlic (which I've never done before and have no idea if home grown will make a difference) and spring onions. I bought some plants - mainly onions, but some tomatoes too that The Girl would be watching over while I was away. I was going to plant before I left but there was the possibility of snow on the 30th.
Here's where stupidity comes in: snow is irrelevant to seeds. Because they go underground. I should have planted everything - they wouldn't have sprouted in the course of two days anyway. But I didn't. Lesson learned for next year!
I didn't get back from vacation until the fourth, and the rain didn't let up long enough to plant until mid-June. The plot next to mine had potatoes several inches high already as I was putting mine in. Sigh. Bet she planted in May!
The planting itself was quite a bit different from last year. The plot gets rototilled every fall, and last year we decided to not get it done again before planting in the spring. With the heavy clay base that we have here that lack of a second turning made a difference so we got it done this spring. Quite a big difference, as it happens. We (The Girl and I) couldn't believe how easy the digging was. Easy as far as getting into the soil that is. Doing it all one-handed was not easy at all!
One handed, you ask? Why would you not use both hands? Well...because acres of standing water + heat = mosquitoes. More than one would ever think possible. Little did we know then that it would get worse, as the weather got warmer. It was bad enough, however, that we kept one hand free for waving the clouds of little biters away.
We both planted at first, but then I had The Girl take notes. That's one of the lessons we learned last year; remember where you put things! Last year we put the onions where we'd planted squash. Not a big problem since the onions were long gone before the squash vines had done much travelling but it left us with an empty patch of nothing where we thought we'd planted squash.
Last year we seriously underestimated how much you can put into a 15x25 plot, and ended up running to a local garden centre to buy more plants. We started with much more this year but ended up with leftover space, again. Mainly because we didn't plant melons, cucumbers or squash this year. And all I replaced them with was beets and extra potatoes. All of the former take up great chunks of space, so again we had to run out and buy more. Plants, not seeds as it was far too late to hope to harvest anything from seed started in mid June.
All in all, this is what the plot has this year:
Potatoes: Deleketess Fingerling, German Butterball, Pacific Pontiac and two Purple Viking that a neighbour gave me. Everything seems to be coming up - as of July 2nd - except for one row of the Butterballs. I don't know if I planted them too close to the surface (someone finally explained depth and seed size to me: the bigger the seed the deeper it needs to be planted. Ergo, carrots on the surface, potatoes deep down), or if I cut the seed potatoes too small in my greed to get as many plants as possible. One other possibility is mould. I read that it is a good idea to cut your seed potatoes a day or two before you plant them to let them scar up first. Less pest problems. They did scar over, but with all the heat and humidity they were also looked a little bit mouldy. Maybe. I thought they looked fuzzy, the kids didn't.
Onions, both Walla Walla and Spanish sweet. I didn't think we had a long enough season for the former but they were locally grown plants so who knows? Some spring onions as well, from bulbs.
Garlic - no experience with this whatsoever. Serious gardeners would be seriously upset if they saw how we planted them. They were the last things in, so we'd reached out limit of dealing with the bugs. The bulbs were flung in willy nilly, some as single cloves and a few with cloves stuck together. They're coming up willy nilly too!
Peas, carrots and beets. The peas are up, clearly they love the wet. No sign at all of beets and carrots but I'm hoping to get out there tomorrow to have a peek.
Tomatoes, lots. We had bought a few but when we realized we had space to fill we bought more. Some Roma, some field tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes to make The Boy happy.
Celery. I've never tried celery before, but bought six seedlings. There were doing fine on the 2nd. I haven't read up on it or anything so I don't know if they prefere wet or dry.
Lettuce, which we bought as plants to fill empty space. Six each of romaine and iceberg. The Girl is quite excited about the iceberg. She's asked me to keep an eye on it to see if it goes into a head by itself. She doesn't seem to take my word for it. Then again she is 15, she doesn't take my word for much!
I can't decide what excites me more: eating the fresh produce or cooking with it.
*I think addiction is the right word if you have to listen to a cd of thunderstorms during the winter to be able to fall asleep.
Being deeply addicted* to thunderstorms there is a part of me that is happy with this situation. I have, however, lived long enough in a largely agrarian province to have the pleasure mainly lost in sorrow for farmers, many of whom were not able to plant anything. And for many of those that did get something planted, they are looking at partial seeding (one co-worker who farms figures they planted about a third of their ususal crop) or fields that will never be harvested as the plants rot in standing water. Instead of all the fields around the city being green and vibrant - or yellow, where there is canola - the green has a fair amount of sickly yellow and dull red.
It's one thing as a hobby gardener to have a bad year, but it's not my livelihood. It's a loss of money, but really just what seeds and plants cost if nothing works.
We have - for the second year in a row - a plot out in the community gardens. I got off to a very late start- nearly mid June, as it happens. The delay was partly stupidity, partly vacation and partly rain. So:
I was going to be away from May the 29th to June 4th. I had seed potatoes sprouted and ready to go, as well as seeds for beets, carrots and peas. Also bulbs for garlic (which I've never done before and have no idea if home grown will make a difference) and spring onions. I bought some plants - mainly onions, but some tomatoes too that The Girl would be watching over while I was away. I was going to plant before I left but there was the possibility of snow on the 30th.
Here's where stupidity comes in: snow is irrelevant to seeds. Because they go underground. I should have planted everything - they wouldn't have sprouted in the course of two days anyway. But I didn't. Lesson learned for next year!
I didn't get back from vacation until the fourth, and the rain didn't let up long enough to plant until mid-June. The plot next to mine had potatoes several inches high already as I was putting mine in. Sigh. Bet she planted in May!
The planting itself was quite a bit different from last year. The plot gets rototilled every fall, and last year we decided to not get it done again before planting in the spring. With the heavy clay base that we have here that lack of a second turning made a difference so we got it done this spring. Quite a big difference, as it happens. We (The Girl and I) couldn't believe how easy the digging was. Easy as far as getting into the soil that is. Doing it all one-handed was not easy at all!
One handed, you ask? Why would you not use both hands? Well...because acres of standing water + heat = mosquitoes. More than one would ever think possible. Little did we know then that it would get worse, as the weather got warmer. It was bad enough, however, that we kept one hand free for waving the clouds of little biters away.
We both planted at first, but then I had The Girl take notes. That's one of the lessons we learned last year; remember where you put things! Last year we put the onions where we'd planted squash. Not a big problem since the onions were long gone before the squash vines had done much travelling but it left us with an empty patch of nothing where we thought we'd planted squash.
Last year we seriously underestimated how much you can put into a 15x25 plot, and ended up running to a local garden centre to buy more plants. We started with much more this year but ended up with leftover space, again. Mainly because we didn't plant melons, cucumbers or squash this year. And all I replaced them with was beets and extra potatoes. All of the former take up great chunks of space, so again we had to run out and buy more. Plants, not seeds as it was far too late to hope to harvest anything from seed started in mid June.
All in all, this is what the plot has this year:
Potatoes: Deleketess Fingerling, German Butterball, Pacific Pontiac and two Purple Viking that a neighbour gave me. Everything seems to be coming up - as of July 2nd - except for one row of the Butterballs. I don't know if I planted them too close to the surface (someone finally explained depth and seed size to me: the bigger the seed the deeper it needs to be planted. Ergo, carrots on the surface, potatoes deep down), or if I cut the seed potatoes too small in my greed to get as many plants as possible. One other possibility is mould. I read that it is a good idea to cut your seed potatoes a day or two before you plant them to let them scar up first. Less pest problems. They did scar over, but with all the heat and humidity they were also looked a little bit mouldy. Maybe. I thought they looked fuzzy, the kids didn't.
Onions, both Walla Walla and Spanish sweet. I didn't think we had a long enough season for the former but they were locally grown plants so who knows? Some spring onions as well, from bulbs.
Garlic - no experience with this whatsoever. Serious gardeners would be seriously upset if they saw how we planted them. They were the last things in, so we'd reached out limit of dealing with the bugs. The bulbs were flung in willy nilly, some as single cloves and a few with cloves stuck together. They're coming up willy nilly too!
Peas, carrots and beets. The peas are up, clearly they love the wet. No sign at all of beets and carrots but I'm hoping to get out there tomorrow to have a peek.
Tomatoes, lots. We had bought a few but when we realized we had space to fill we bought more. Some Roma, some field tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes to make The Boy happy.
Celery. I've never tried celery before, but bought six seedlings. There were doing fine on the 2nd. I haven't read up on it or anything so I don't know if they prefere wet or dry.
Lettuce, which we bought as plants to fill empty space. Six each of romaine and iceberg. The Girl is quite excited about the iceberg. She's asked me to keep an eye on it to see if it goes into a head by itself. She doesn't seem to take my word for it. Then again she is 15, she doesn't take my word for much!
I can't decide what excites me more: eating the fresh produce or cooking with it.
*I think addiction is the right word if you have to listen to a cd of thunderstorms during the winter to be able to fall asleep.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Happy headline
There are times when I can't decide if a writer of a new article words a headline in a certain way because they know it's clever or funny, or if they are so immersed in the topic that they don't see how other people would see it. For this morning's smile, I'm going to assume the former:
Attack by Giant Harpy
Now, it turns out that what they mean is a type of eagle. The Giant Harpy Eagle. But first I pictured this, and then this.
Kinda disappointed it wasn't the first one, as video of the attack was included.
Attack by Giant Harpy
Now, it turns out that what they mean is a type of eagle. The Giant Harpy Eagle. But first I pictured this, and then this.
Kinda disappointed it wasn't the first one, as video of the attack was included.
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