Picks o' the day
Good day sunshine! or, What a difference a day makes. Crocuses don't like it when it's dark and cold. They opened up yesterday, when it was warm and sunny. This is the only patch of crocuses I could find in my whole yard.


Learn to read
It would be good if I could learn to read the clock. I kept dozing this morning after the alarm first went off at 6:15. I finally opened my eyes & glanced at the clock, sure that it said 6:30. Well, no, it said 7:15. Not good for someone who needs to leave at 7:20 at the latest. So I hustled the dogs out the door, in the door, fed them, kicked them out again, in again (second trip is the poop trip, first trip is just the pee trip, then they eat--hey, we all have our rituals). Got ready, left by 7:40. Not good, not good: new boss has a real thing about people who are late. She thinks they're dissing her. Well, it's sure nothing personal, I'm just one of those people who often has trouble being on time. I've been really good since she started, though, and have rarely been late. I snuck in the back door at 8:18 and she was none the wiser. One clerk is on vacation (the judgmental one) so it wasn't so bad after all. I more than make up that much time every day so it's not a question of giving the organization my pounds of flesh each day.

I just finished writing a personal recommendation for a friend. Those are hard to write. Who wants a personal recommendation, anyway? Those always sound fake. I did a good job, I thought. I came up with two examples of how this person was reliable, kind, supportive, blahblahblah. She desperately wants this job. This is a worthless recommendation anyway, she's supposed to bring it with her to the interview. Those are the ones you know don't count for anything. But it took me a long time to write, that's for sure.

A beautiful day today, sunny and warm. Yesterday was sunny and cool, only 50. It was 18 when I got up at 7. I built fires both Sat. and Sun. mornings. Not easy, my stove is smoking like crazy and doesn't get very hot. This is really a drag. I keep waiting for fire season to end, but that won't happen until May. I can't have the guy come to clean the stove pipe until mud season ends. One thing always depends on another, doesn't it. Anyway, Saturday was a wasted day except I cleaned the fish tank. That drove the fish into a frenzy and the snail into a death-like state. The fish recovered immediately, but the snail didn't recover for 24 hours.

Yesterday I was incredibly industrious. Spent an hour in the morning trimming the dead stalks from my rose bush, as well as cutting the blackberry brambles (my worst horticultural enemy) out of it. That was fun but I got stuck by lots of b.berry thorns. Bush looks skinny but better, really. I don't know how many blooms it will have this year. It's spreading out into the lawn now, which is better than having it die but is quite strange, really. After Sunday dinner (I was careful not to eat so much that I would be unable to function) Ken insisted I stay after Bill left, then he promptly fell asleep. I watched him sleep for about 5 minutes, then woke him to say goodbye. He insisted I stay and talk for another 10 minutes. I got home around 3 and worked on my driveway for an hour. I hate raking the driveway, but if you drive on it during mud season this is your penance. It's drying, which makes it hard to rake, and I'm not very strong anymore so it was real work. I did an ok job, not very good but better than nothing. Have repaired the major ruts, but it will not be a smooth driveway to drive on this summer. It will be dry in a couple of days.

After that I did a wonderful thing: I planted seeds. I planted tomatoes, cosmos (two kinds) and cleome. Tonight I'll plant 3 kinds of asters. I've got them in these mini-greenhouse flats and they'll take 1-2 weeks to germinate. Very exciting. Some of them will be up when I get back from RI next week. YAHOO!