Traffic Cones and the garden

Hello,

I learned what those traffic cones were for. Not for directing traffic, but repurposed as funnels, with the top cut off, to get sand in bags at the museum. The city is a bee hive of activity as people prepare for the crest to come through. It is now predicted to be at 23 feet instead of 24, but that is still high enough to reach a lot of things precious to many people.

Leroy and I did not go help today. Leroy’s knee does not like all of the activity that he has subjected it to for the last two days. He did walk to church this morning, but a bit more slowly than usual. On the way home we walked past the community garden. I saw a big zucchini that I picked. While we were getting it in the backpack, the grounds keeper at Coe College saw us and stopped to vent about his need to do more than he had time to do. We just provided the listening ear. His storage building is low enough that it needed to be emptied. Yesterday was a day of visits from high school students so he was running around taking care of this and that most of the day. Then he commented that the police had just texted him that the city bridges were closed.

Later in the afternoon I went back to the garden and picked two more zucchini. Two men stopped by to pick some veggies for supper. It was great to visit with them. One was a close neighbor to the garden. I have seen him several times. The other told me, “I met you and your husband where I was living before (and he told me the address). You stopped and introduced yourselves. What is your name?”

I was impressed that he remembered me. I will say he looked vaguely familiar, but could not remember why. I am glad to see that he is using the garden. Life seems to have been a bit of a difficult journey. He also told me that he does a little weeding from time to time. I believe that Leroy and I are known around the neighborhood as that old couple that work in the garden.

Paula