Words of Truth

Ok, so it’s been a while since I posted here. I had one more flower bed area (a square one made by the “L” shape of our front concrete walkway)….this is where a picture is worth a thousand words, I think. Anyway, I put the same kind of stones around that 4 foot square area, planted some kind of bush in the middle (hydrangea, I think….all I remember is that it said the flowers would be red or blue depending on the acidity/alkalinity of the soil), and some “Labrador Violets” around the edge. I think these are annuals, so they die every year, right? This is what we plan on happening, anyway, since the center bush is supposed to grow 3-5 foot square and high, which would block out the flowers. I guess even if they do come back each year, they will probably die eventually.

We spent about an hour hand-painting four trellises for the rose bushes we bought. I haven’t planted them, given the fact that my six year old daughter turned the sprinkler on that section of the yard (against the east side of the house) and it was as wet as (insert appropriate simile here)! So I will be planting those when I have another day off and the ground isn’t saturated.

My wife wants to plant a Hosta (whatever that is) on the NE corner of the house, but I pointed out to her that this is where most of our utilities come into the house (cable, phone, electric), and we need to call first. They are supposed to come out today (Thursday) and mark the lines where we can’t dig. So that too is on hold.

The trees are doing ok. The Braeburn is maintaining (looks the same as it did in the pot), but the Gala looks like it’s in shock, given the fact that the leaves are drooping and all the blossom petals fell off. Well, if it doesn’t make it, we’ll just have to try again, I mean, I didn’t dig that steenkin’ hole for nothing!

I went to Lowes and bought a pickaxe (or whatever they are called). Brought that home and went to work on the holes. This helped immensely, as did the three days of rain that we have gotten. Found out that we have 2 inches of topsoil, ten inches of hard clay, and then it’s rocky sandy clay under that. Both trees are in the ground, and we will see how they do.

Off to work for two days now. Arr!

So, the softball game didn’t go so well overall, although it was good in other ways. Let me explain: We lost 25-9. But we didn’t lose 25-0. There were several good plays that we had, and some of the people on our team (myself included) looked like they just need a little practice and they could be solid players.

I was up to bat three times. First time I hit an infield grounder and was thrown out at first. Second time I hit a single, the next guy hit a double (so I was then on third). Sprinting from first to third is the most sprinting that I have done since high school, I think. I got 3/4 of the way to third and my feet quit working, so I went down, but I think I managed to make it look like I was sliding into third, since I was able to grab the base and was safe. The next batter hit a flyball to the outfield, and I ran home after it was caught. So I scored. Yeah!

My third at bat I got thrown out at first again. An inauspicious beginning, but with promise shown by several on our team.

Well, it’s almost time for the first church softball game of the year. I haven’t played softball since 1998, I believe. This coupled with the fact that I am out of shape from being sick for the past month….should be an interesting game. If we don’t get rained out, that is. It has been raining for the past three days so the ground is nice and muddy.

Today is “national immigrant sit on our butt day”. Hmmm. Interesting that I worked at the hospital last night and, rumor has it, one of my patients was an illegal immigrant. Wonder if it was the 79 year old white woman who speaks English. Nope. The 60 year old black woman who speaks English? Nope. Go figure, it was the 49 year old Hispanic woman who DOESN’T speak English. There is something seriously wrong when these people (“illegal immigrants”, that is) can just walk around and flaunt the fact that they are breaking the law. Grrrr.