One Day

I had to laugh. Jilda and I got up and got at it fairly early. I'd bought some more tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and five pounds of bermuda grass seed.
We finally got the tractor fixed, and the sun gods had smiled on us. Our nephew Haven finally managed to level our back yard enough so that I could plant grass.
After the storms and field line work, the back yard has been a muddy mess, but things were looking up.
Jilda and I planted the plants, she sowed two rows of flowers, I reseeded the back yard, and we kicked back on the deck mid afternoon to enjoy a glass of lemonade.
As we sat there, we heard something off in the distance. Mid swallow, Jilda said, "Is that thunder?" We hadn't checked the weather radar.
When we did, green globs were headed in our direction. As it turns out we got five inches of rain within about eight hours. We should have put lifejackets on the plants we planted.
I'm sure the grass seed is close to Mobile, Alabama by now. Maybe one day our yard will be back to normal.

I guess it take all kinds

An Alabama Power inspector came by yesterday afternoon to check behind the work crews that repaired all the storm damage from March.
I heard him drive up and met him at the door. It's rare that we have unannounced visitors that aren't passing out religious tracts or selling vinyl siding.
He asked me about the work the crews had completed after the storm. I gave him a glowing report. 
I always do this. I've worked on storm damage cleanup crews back in the day when I worked with the phone company. It's grueling work and I feel a kinship to these guys.
They work their butts off to get the lights and phones on, and pencil pushers come by weeks later when the suns out to critique their work. Don't get me started.
But, I digress.
The guy walked up to verify that he was at the right place, and asked if the work had been completed to my satisfaction.
I assured him it was, and I told him that some of his guys actually walked on water.
He scrunched up his nose as if he'd just realized he'd stepped in excrement. He asked, "What's that I smell?"
I did a quick check of my armpits, but remembered I'd taken a shower after a hard afternoon seeding the back yard.  I was confident it wasn't me.
I told him I had spread lime in the back yard earlier in the day to adjust the pH of my soil. He said, "No, it smells........like morning glories." 
I put my nose to the sky and got a whiff of jasmine hanging from the arbor at our front door. I started to tell him what he was smelling, but he'd already lost interest.
He asked a few more terse questions and then headed back to the truck. I thought to myself, this guys should retire. He's out in the country, no traffic, no random gunfire, the aroma of jasmine so thick you could spread it on a sandwich, and this guy's acting like he'd rather be in hades shoveling coal for the horny guy.
I guess it takes all kinds.

The blueberries are coming in

Back in my past life when I had a day gig, I had to eek out garden time after work and before bed, or on weekends.

That first year when our young blueberries began producing, I shot a picture and showed off the bounty at work.

A guy from south of town that lived in a 5000 square foot house and drove a Beamer chuckled and said, these would probably cost you less if you bought them at Publics. He went on to say, why one earth would you bother growing things you can buy at the store?

I didn't know how to respond.

There's no way to tell someone who has never grown their own food, the joys of eating things you've grown yourself.

I elected not to debate the gentleman about the joys of gardening because it would probably been a waste of breath. 

Now where was I? Oh yes, we were late getting tomatoes in the ground, but a few of them are blooming so before you can say pass the mayo, we'll be having BLT's.

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Enjoying the beautiful spring day

I know I've whined about the weather a good bit this year, but that's because I'm used to

planting our garden in early March.  And usually by this time of spring, I'm walking around outside half naked. Perhaps that's a little more information than you bargained for, but I'm just putting it out there so to speak.
This year, it occasionally hinted a warm weather, but then the rain comes and it turns off cold as December.
But today was my kind of day. Jilda and I had appointments in Birmingham and we headed out early. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
After our appointments, Jilda wanted to run by the mall to pick up an Urban Nomad skirt (you'll have to ask her about it) and we decided to have lunch at a Mexican place we'd never tried. 
The restaurant was too cold inside for Jilda so we opted to sit at a sidewalk table. By that time, the sun was high in the sky and the air was crisp. 
She ordered fish tacos and I ordered shrimp tacos -- a first for both of us. The waiter scurried off to fetch our chips and tea.
Tiny birds scampered at our feet looking for pieces of food from the tables, and off in the distance I could hear Reggae music playing on expensive speakers. I found myself swaying to the gentle beat.
The food was excellent, and we ate in silence, lost in the moment, enjoying the beautiful spring day.

Why is the Rickster Smiling

I've been unusually productive today. This morning before breakfast, I did yoga on the deck. It was a little cool, but still nice.
When I stepped out to feed the chickens, I realized that I still hadn't raked up the small debris from the pen left by the storms back in March. The chickens didn't seem to mind because red worms often lurk beneath the straw, but it had been bugging me.
I put it on the infamous ToDo list several weeks ago and would have done it sooner, but the rain over the past month made it messy in there. Today, I cleaned out the pen and smiled to myself as I mentally marked it off my list.
I wrote my column for Sunday as the coffee perked. All in all, I completed, every priority item on my list.
I was feeling a little smug. I checked my email before Jilda called me to lunch and I saw something interesting from one of my co-workers at the paper. The subject line read -- Read This ---- No, Seriously, Read it Now. 
I thought, Oh Crap, I've been fired. But when I opened the email, I realized the editor had forwarded me a copy of the results from the Alabama Press Association's Newspaper Awards.
Our papers had won a total of 13 awards, three of which had my name by them. I had a first-place award, and two third-place awards for work that the editor had submitted in the contest. I was blown away. 
I have a conflict so I won't get to attend the ceremony, but I plan to do a photo op with my awards after the event. WooHoo.

Dealing with procrastination

As we drank coffee yesterday morning, Jilda was scanning one of her women's magazines. I was looking at my vision board when I heard her say hmmmm.  She doesn't do that often, and when she does, it usually means that something interesting is coming.
She was reading a piece in Real Simple about the books that renowned authors said changed their lives.
The books were all over the board. I'd read some of them but many of them I'd never heard of.
The book that elicited the hmmmm, was a book entitled The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield, and it's about why creative people resist doing what they should be doing.
I immediately picked up my iPhone from the coffee table and searched Audible to see if they had it.
They did, and I ordered it on the spot. It just sounded like something I needed to read.
I know I'm creative, but I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time doing unproductive things. I felt like it was time to get a grip.
I started to listen to it today so it's too early to do a book report, but it feels like it contains a message that I need to hear.
I hope you all have a remarkable week.

Happy Mother's Day

Having lost my mom last year in February, Mother's Day 2012 was a blur to me. I'd spent some part of Mother's Day with my mom since I was born in 1951. Well, the two years I was in the Army and out of the country were an exception, but every other year I was there.
Then in the blink of an eye she was gone, and I had no where to go on Mother's Day.
Jilda, who lost her mom in 2005 warned me that it would be strange, but I didn't fully understand until after my mom was gone.
Not a day goes by that I don't miss her.
Jilda's sister Pat invited us down to her house today. All her kids and grandkids were there to help celebrate the occasion.
She has three grandkids younger than five and they were in rare form today.
I looked around at one point and all three of them were wearing sunglasses. I'm not sure if they were new, or what prompted them to be wearing shades indoors, but they all looked like celebrities incognito.
Obviously I realize a photo op when I see one, so I put my shades on, got all the kids together and shot a picture with my iPhone.
I must have moved when I snapped the photo because it was blurry. All I could do was make photo art out of it. It's not what I had in mind, but you play the cards that are dealt to you.
Happy Mother's Day all.