Dear diary
Jun. 10th, 2009 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lblanchardAmaryllis seedling total looks to be 27, not 29. I've counted them several times. I must have double counted a couple of them last time. No matter, there are several that are standing tall, so I'll probably come in at 50% germination, which is heap plenty hippeastrum.
Yesterday's weather report threatened us with mega thunderstorms, winds 60 mph and potential hail the size of pennies, in the morning. Roy and I scampered around getting tender plants out of harm's way, getting soaked in the process. The storm passed directly overhead and it's one of the few times I was unnerved by thunder and lightning. I powered down just to be on the safe side. Quite a show. No hail, though, but my bargain basement rain gauge (a bucket with near-horizontal sides) thought we got about 2" of rain. I collected lots of rain water to pour over the plants that are under the little roof and don't get any.
Yesterday I fell off my bike, something I seem fated to do every six months or so. This time I just hit the front brake wrong and lost speed before I had my foot down. So down I went on my left side. I fall sideways more safely, though, and except for cut on my elbow that keeps opening up and oozing I'm in pretty good shape. A couple of bruises, but my sensitive knees don't appear to have noticed that I put them at risk. That's good. And my hands are fine, so I can do various types of keyboarding...
Much work time this past week is being lost to being part of The Body Politic. My next door neighbor is trying to get approval for sidewalk seating for his bar and grill (more grill than bar, and good food, too), the next block over. Certain drama divas and grievance exploiters are trying to stop it, and our convoluted permit process means hearing after hearing after hearing. I've been testifying on his behalf. I have the street cred to counter the grievance divas. I've lived here 13 years, and I'm a block captain (which argues a certain amount of civic activism). So when I talk about the protective effect of eyes and ears on that corner, how it discourages the drug dealers and results in my block being safer and quieter, it helps.
Tomorrow is the last hearing. It's supposed to be cut and dried, and the public doesn't get to testify, but we've been advised that City Council does pay attention to community support or opposition as shown by attendance, so I will go and stay as long as I can before I absolutely must leave for a meeting.
Now that Mr. Darcy is no longer with us, we're ready to take up the carpets and also paint in the living room. There's a guy in our neighborhood who is reputed to do fabulous painting at reasonable prices. We've asked for a quotation that includes stripping and finishing the wooden door from the vestibule to the hall. It's lovely wood (walnut, I think) covered with layers of nassssty paint. Rather than stripping and refinishing the floor, we'll probably either lay down hardwood over the yellow pine or simply paint. We can wrap the piano in plastic but I wouldn't want it here while we were sanding and creating all that dust, and I don't feel like adding $2K or so to the budget to move it to storage.
I have come to the end of my white size 10 crochet cotton and I have yet to finish this year's crop of snowflakes. And there's a road trip in our future next week, to Charlottesville. Perhaps I will try pearl cotton; I have some of that. Or step down to size 20 (which is a finer cotton, like gauges of wire or shotgun shells). Funny...when I swore to myself I wouldn't buy any more crochet cotton until I finished off my stash, it never occurred to me that I'd run out of the basic color and size.
Yesterday's weather report threatened us with mega thunderstorms, winds 60 mph and potential hail the size of pennies, in the morning. Roy and I scampered around getting tender plants out of harm's way, getting soaked in the process. The storm passed directly overhead and it's one of the few times I was unnerved by thunder and lightning. I powered down just to be on the safe side. Quite a show. No hail, though, but my bargain basement rain gauge (a bucket with near-horizontal sides) thought we got about 2" of rain. I collected lots of rain water to pour over the plants that are under the little roof and don't get any.
Yesterday I fell off my bike, something I seem fated to do every six months or so. This time I just hit the front brake wrong and lost speed before I had my foot down. So down I went on my left side. I fall sideways more safely, though, and except for cut on my elbow that keeps opening up and oozing I'm in pretty good shape. A couple of bruises, but my sensitive knees don't appear to have noticed that I put them at risk. That's good. And my hands are fine, so I can do various types of keyboarding...
Much work time this past week is being lost to being part of The Body Politic. My next door neighbor is trying to get approval for sidewalk seating for his bar and grill (more grill than bar, and good food, too), the next block over. Certain drama divas and grievance exploiters are trying to stop it, and our convoluted permit process means hearing after hearing after hearing. I've been testifying on his behalf. I have the street cred to counter the grievance divas. I've lived here 13 years, and I'm a block captain (which argues a certain amount of civic activism). So when I talk about the protective effect of eyes and ears on that corner, how it discourages the drug dealers and results in my block being safer and quieter, it helps.
Tomorrow is the last hearing. It's supposed to be cut and dried, and the public doesn't get to testify, but we've been advised that City Council does pay attention to community support or opposition as shown by attendance, so I will go and stay as long as I can before I absolutely must leave for a meeting.
Now that Mr. Darcy is no longer with us, we're ready to take up the carpets and also paint in the living room. There's a guy in our neighborhood who is reputed to do fabulous painting at reasonable prices. We've asked for a quotation that includes stripping and finishing the wooden door from the vestibule to the hall. It's lovely wood (walnut, I think) covered with layers of nassssty paint. Rather than stripping and refinishing the floor, we'll probably either lay down hardwood over the yellow pine or simply paint. We can wrap the piano in plastic but I wouldn't want it here while we were sanding and creating all that dust, and I don't feel like adding $2K or so to the budget to move it to storage.
I have come to the end of my white size 10 crochet cotton and I have yet to finish this year's crop of snowflakes. And there's a road trip in our future next week, to Charlottesville. Perhaps I will try pearl cotton; I have some of that. Or step down to size 20 (which is a finer cotton, like gauges of wire or shotgun shells). Funny...when I swore to myself I wouldn't buy any more crochet cotton until I finished off my stash, it never occurred to me that I'd run out of the basic color and size.
