I’m not complaining, but it seems awfully strange that it’s June 17th and it’s 65 degrees. I’m diggin’ on the fact that I can wear shorts and a long sleeved shirt or even a sweater in the evening, but this weather feels like Maine, not Maryland. I worry that this is part of climate change, as was the strange cool weather last summer in July and August…
I’m sure the heat and humidity that I’ve known and hated all my life will arrive sometime, and I’m sure I’ll regret this post when it does…
From: the grumpy guy next to you
Subject: Thanks
Your friendliness to the driver was refreshing and your lighthearted laugh was inspiring. Thanks for making my crazy day a bit better.
Neither does my watch.
I’m glad that some technologies are not connected. We spend too much time connected. (Seems odd to blog about that). I struggle with the juxtaposition of my career (IP networking) and my desire for a less connected, more intimate world, where people know each other personally, instead of via online connections and avitars.
I struggle with the fact that technology is the solution to and the cause of so many of the world’s problems. Take climate crisis for example. Technology is largely the cause of the climate crisis, starting with the industrial revolution. Over time our technological world has created more and more waste. We still do not have a good mechanism for dealing with waste. This is where my toaster comes into the picture.
At one point it was a highly advanced piece of technology. It obviated the need to toast your bread over an open fire. Originally, toasters were constructed primarily of metal parts, which could have been easily recycled (though they weren’t). Today they are made of metal and polymers. Now, the technology exists to recycle every component of the toaster. We can recycle plastic, vinyl, copper, tin, aluminum, steel, etc. But we cannot simply recycle the toaster. To do that I’d need to take it apart and even then it might not get recycled by my local authority.
Wow, life sometimes gets in the way of this here blog thing…I suppose that’s a good thing in some respects.
About a week ago, Mrs. TKD and I went to see Kenny Chesney in concert. A lot of folks have scoffed at me for going to see a country act, but to them I say, whatever. I like a lot of different kinds of music and country happens to be one of them. Currently, its what I’m listening to most frequently. This will likely change again, as my musical tastes seem to fluctuate in some sort of cyclical fashion. (A few months ago I couldn’t get enough of Van Halen 1984 for example.) But I’m digressing… this is supposed to be a story about going out with TKD.
So we bought lawn seats back in January when the tickets went on sale and it was a sold out show. Mom gratiously agreed to watch Mr. Grey for us and we headed out the door around 5:30 on Friday night. It was pure bliss to be alone in the car with my wife. We made our way to the concert and got ourselves situated on a patch of grass. I went for drinks. When I came back we ate the dinner we’d brought — Turkey and salami sandwiches with spinach. So as we’re sitting there on the lawn, this message pops up on the JumboTron – send KCUPGRADE to some number for a chance for vip tickets.
TKD told me we should do it. I was like no way, its a scam. But she persisted and shortly after I sent the text I got one back saying something to the effect of “congrats, you’ve been upgraded, go to the box office and show them this text.” I still figured it was a scam, but went to the box office. It wasn’t. We got fifth row floor seats for free. We had a great time.
Someone must have known we’d not been out on a date in 6 months.
It’s been a long road to the garden. I bought seeds back in March and hoped to get them in the ground by mid-April. I planned three beds and had bought wood to frame out two. During that wood purchase, I broke the window of my car, which put an end to the building exercise.
There were a series of setbacks after that including a torn tendon, needing to build the boxes, and getting some soil. I ordered soil for delivery on May 2nd. I’d ordered topsoil with the intention of amending it with compost and peat moss. The dirt delivered was littered with rocks and glass, as well as other construction debris. As mentioned in a previous post, I had some misgivings about this soil.
After the dirt had been rained on for about a week, it looked even worse. I fretted about what to do for an entire week, but finally decided that I needed to have a talk with the nursery. I took a shovel’s worth of the dirt to the nursery and they were SHOCKED. They apologized and offered to replace it. Since the first round was so awful, I was a little hesitant.
They recommended that I use Leafgro instead of topsoil and offered to send me 3 yards for free. I tried to pay the difference since this product was more expensive, but they wouldn’t take my money. When it arrived, it looked awesome. It’s black and loamy. Fantastic looking soil.
I filled my beds with it and actually got some plants in the ground yesterday. I’m very excited to see how things progress with the plants over the next few months.
