Stuff is growing...I guess

Remember the garden plot? 'Cause I do, vaguely.

I have good cause to remember the beginning of July last year. At that point, I'd been in the garden three to four times a week, starting with the planting in May. This year? Five times.

Do I mean Five times a week? No, I mean five times altogether. Twice for planting, once (for thirty seconds) to see what had died, a fourth time to replace what had died (took two minutes) and once to weed.Which lasted perhaps a minute.

No, I'm not anti-weeding. I'm anti being bitten by thousands of mosquitoes. I pulled up one thistle, a thistle so tall it was mid-thigh on me. And for my pains received many many mosquito bites. So many it looked like I had the chicken pox.

I tried to go out last night. Honestly, I did. But...just getting out of the car and taking a couple of steps landed me in clouds of mosquitoes and a dozen new mosquito bites. So I got back in the car. And killed all the mosquitoes that had managed to get in the car. I guess I am partly to blame as I didn't get out there until early evening when they're at their worst.

I know from the minute I spent of taking out the thistle plant that some things are growing. Potatoes appear to be up; couldn't tell you if they all are, as I wasn't willing to stay and count. Not to mention taking the time to figure out what was a weed and what was a potato plant.

Peas are also up; I guess they really do like cool wet weather God bless them. There seemed to be some sort of green fuzz where carrots and parsnips were planted, but I didn't really check. Could be moss, given the weather. The onions? Yeah, they're there, but I couldn't tell the difference between onions and grass. And I won't be able to until I can get some weeding done. And I'm not going to do any weeding...unless. Hmmm. I have, on loan, a bee suit. No, not a costume. An apiarist's bee suit. Surely even Saskatchewan mosquitoes couldn't get through a bee suit? I can be crazy lady out in the garden lot in a bee suit. All I need is a hot sunny day, a light breeze and time off work to go to the garden in the middle of the day.

On a vaguely related note: I've met a number of people that mosquitoes don't bite. I've seen it with my own eyes, in fact. How does that happen? Is there some old wives tale? Eat lots of garlic and they won't bother you? Not that it would be garlic, of course. I eat a ton and mosquitoes love me. Maybe it's the other way around. Don't eat any garlic and the mosquitoes keep away!

A test that really isn't.

We have regular fire drills at this office. I am one of the red hat wearers, charged with making sure everyone is out of my assigned section of the building. This is not a difficult job. In fact, the test itself is hardly a test at all. Maybe all we're really drilling is out ability to walk. Because is sure ain't no test of how we respond to a possible fire.

The thing is, it is always planned. Fire alarm will go off on Day X at Y o'clock. Exit the building calmly. Not hard to do well when everyone is all primed and ready to go. I wanted a fire drill that arrived with no warning. Just the alarm going off unannounced some day. See how well we do, find out if there are things we could do better.

That isn't going to happen. Why not? Well...because if people thought there was a fire, they might panic. And someone might get hurt. I still think it's better to know now if there will be an all out panic instead of in the middle of an actual fire. Although, I don't know what we'd do about it. Can you fire someone for losing their cool during an unplanned fire drill?

Life gets Interesting.

So, there I was chatting with The Boy in the kitchen when it hit me. No, he didn't hit me. Nothing physical hit me, it was a coincidence, a strange sense of sort completing a circle. Here's the story:

A while ago...say 16 years ago, I had a birthday. Yup, I have one every year. That year, though, quite a bit happened. First of all, now that the family had increased and we had a baby and a toddler, my husband and I bought a house. Possession of the house took place the week of my birthday. Pretty awesome present eh?

I got some other things for my birthday though. I found out that the aforementioned husband was not going to be moving into the new house. And that he had been having an affair for ages. Since I was two months pregnant with the baby who was not even one at that point. So for my birthday I lost my marriage and gained a house I couldn't afford and single parent hood with a toddler and a nine month old baby. Yeah, not the best birthday I've had. In fact...yes, I can say that it was the second worst birthday ever.

In fact, that whole ugly situation is part of the reason I want to leave the house. And it is entirely the reason I have no regrets, no happy memories to say good-bye to when I leave.

At the time having a mortgage was horrible; I thought of how nice it would have been to have half of the down payment as a cushion for the hard times I knew were coming. I knew, as well, that I wouldn't be able to keep up with looking after the house. If you own a house, you need to be able to make repairs yourself or have the wherewithal to pay someone else to do it. I had neither, so it fell apart.

Now, this is not a feel sorry for me post. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The fact that it was a mortgage and not a rental means that even in the state that it is in I have a house with equity that I can and will be using. Indeed, that is what saved me when I nearly had a breakdown over worry about the house. The house will be sold to someone who wants a nice neighbourhood but can't afford a perfect house, and I will move somewhere that has a landlord who is responsible for maintenance. Yeah!

The big thing is, though...things appear to be coming together this week. The meeting with the bank, finding a place that suits and a way to make it happen, even if the house doesn't sell right away. So much happening this week that is good for me and my family. And what week is it? It's the week of my birthday. And what day am I making arrangements with the bank on? The same day that we took possession and everything fell apart 16 years ago. Full circle. It may have taken some time, but perhaps now when I think of birthdays that were somewhat overwhelming I'll think about this year, not that one.