Garden Dreams

Hello,

“Are we going to start seeds inside?” Leroy asked. He has a habit of asking questions in the plural; seldom does he want to know, “Are you…” Is this because he does not want a share in the decision? Does he want to appear polite? Or is it perhaps the royal we with a hint of an answer to come? After 41 years I have become impatient with this line of questioning. So frequently I now reply, “Just what are WE going to do? Do WE have any ideas?”

As for the garden question, I finally did say yes that I had thought about starting some seeds inside. The problem is that most of our windows are already occupied by vigorous house plants who might not want to cede space for any usurpers. There are just two windows in the apartment that have no green residents. One window is in the hall stairwell and not accommodating to any type of sunbathing. The other is in the kitchen with the dryer sitting in front of it. I do not especially want to use that space because I use the dryer for a sort of cooking landing pad. Then when I use the dryer, because it gets so hot, I must move anything delicate to another space. However spring is coming and soon I will hang clothes outside once again. Although that hanging might need to wait until the trees get leaves to protect the clothes from random bird poop.

I am dreaming of a garden that produces wonderful flavor without work or marauding squirrels. For sure, I will not plant tomatoes close to the house as I know those critters just helped themselves at will. I say, “Eat walnuts for heaven’s sake.”

 There is a neighborhood garden spot that is a good possibility. Or I wondered about helping out an older man in Ely. Are my three times weekly trips good enough to make it work? Perhaps when it is nice Leroy and I could both ride down on our bikes and weed. Dreams, dreams!

Paula

Taxes and walking

Hello,

Leroy and I do not do taxes together even though that is how we started the first year we were married. He had been taking his taxes someplace to be done. I could not see doing that since it was the simple form and I had always done my own. It was simple at that point. I could not see paying anyone to do this easy job. So we tried doing them together. I rather quickly felt that this was not a good togetherness project. I believe Leroy felt he should do them, maybe some kind of male thing after I had declared them easy. When he was in the parish it was not so easy, but he steamed and snorted through them most years. I few years he did have some help getting the job done. Now I declared it should be much easier since he was no longer in the ministry.

Last weekend he worked on them, but it would have been hair-raising if he had had enough hair to raise. He mostly stormed around and declared that I should do them. “I will do them, but at this point in time I no longer have the slightest idea of how to do them so you will have to tell me what to do,” I told him.

He called his daughters, can’t remember why son was not included in this talk. The recommendation was that he should look for some free help. Later in the week he finished the federal forms. Today we went up to H&R block for their free second look. All was good except for one small thing that cost us another $100. Today those forms have been sent off. Now it will be on to the state taxes. If those had been done the kind person would have looked at them too. Leroy had the idea that they would only check the federal forms. What a relief to get to this less intense point in life. The young woman who helped us commented that she loved doing the tax help because she so likes helping people. I had not realized this was a helping profession.

In addition to walking the mile to and from church we walked the half mile to this tax help office. So I logged three miles today. It was a great day for walking, cool but pleasant temperatures with the cheery sun.

Paula

Skis On

Hello,

This afternoon was the perfect time to put on the cross country skis. Rather it was the perfect time to drive to the nearby park and put on the skis. Leroy thought we could just walk there. It is easy enough with regular shoes on, but I thought I remembered that we should not walk so much in these ski boots. Driving worked as well. Someone else had been there ahead of us so we followed their tracks as that makes it so much easier. I did not go up the hill because I did not want to come back down, fall, and break a bone. As you can see I am just a scardy cat. It was not the best snow conditions as it tended to stick causing a difficult slide. Leroy said he did not even move so fast going downhill. He thought I could have handled it.

I wore my pedometer, but it would appear that I had hardly moved. I am still going to count it as a mile since I think it was really farther than that. I have already walked more than a mile so I am counting it all. One thing about the skiing it certainly is more of a work out than walking. I got quite hot and needed to shed some layers.

I sometimes feel worry that we bought those skis because we so seldom use them, but when I get out on such a gorgeous sunny day I am happy. Surely it is now under ten dollars per use.

When we came home from church on Wednesday night I lost my favorite black scarf. Leroy looked a bit on his way to work Thursday morning, but did not see it. I just hope that one of the homeless people or very poor people in our area found it and decided to use it. They would have it with my blessing. I have three other scarves that I use as outdoor scarves so it is not like I am lacking anything. I just liked the black because it was soft and complimented all of my coats.

Paula

Playing in the snow

Hello,

Last night when we went to bed it was quite light in the room from the reflection of the lights on the fluffy snow. This morning when the sun was hiding somewhere behind the clouds it seemed almost dimmer. Leroy used the shovel on his way out to the garage so he did not track in the pristine snow. In spite of no bright sun it was beautiful.

I thought about using the cross country skis, making snow angels, snow bunnies, and snow people. None of that fun stuff happened, but I did manage to shovel snow for half an hour, walk over a mile, buy some produce, walk home with the pounds on my back, wash two loads of clothes, and clean up a honey spill that was the result of carelessly pushing a cart into the plastic bottle causing honey to ooze out the top. It seems to me, at age 65, I should have already learned about such things.

It lifts my spirits to look out on all the beauty. I am certainly not ready to move to a snowless area. I would miss all of this. In spite of about five inches of snow Leroy’s drive to work was not difficult as it is in the city and flat.

Last night Leroy and I took a walk as the snow was coming down. Had the kids been at home we would have been out there playing in the snow. I guess I need some kids to prod me along for fun.

As I was shoveling a guy came up and wanted to know if I would hire him to shovel. I declined and proceeded to ask him how he was doing. He replied, “No one wants to hire a 16 year old.” I suspect it is not his age that is stopping people. I actually like to shovel. It is part of our rent agreement except for the area by our garage. So I am going above and beyond what is necessary. Our land lord was gone much of the day. He thanked me for making a path and making him legal with cleared walks. There is always something good that we can do in this world. I must remember to look for the opportunities. There are different ways of playing in the snow.

Paula

Warm

Hello,

The apartment heat was higher when I came home last night. Our landlords were home. What a difference it made from the morning. It has been so toasty all day today. It almost seems like a different place. The outside temperature was one degree when we got up, but who could tell from inside? The sun has been shinning, raising the temperature, and brightening the day. I like it so much. I am noticing that the sun pattern is getting close to what it was when we moved in. Even though I have seen the sun position change for over 60 years it still amazes and impresses me. I like it. Our Christmas cactus must also like it because it has quite a few buds on it. I look forward to seeing them bloom.

There is a computer expert who takes care of the library computers. He may be an expert, but for some reason every time he is in and does something to “my” computer it creates problems. Monday I could not open the library email on that machine. So I just moved to the front desk for that. It was also very slow bringing up the internet site that I use to determine just what number a series book is. Yesterday our boss tried to use my computer for email and of course it did not work. She just turned it off. The turn off is password protected so she did that shut down by pushing and holding the on button. Following that I was unable to get the label printer to open. That made my work day significantly different. I did not want to enter any books in the catalog because I could not print the call numbers. That would create a lot of duplicate work later. Instead I just stamped the library name on books as well as affixed barcodes. My arm even got tired from stamping. Usually I vary my work a bit so nothing is too stilting. I hope the expert has been back and able to fix all the problems on my computer. I work tomorrow. Hopefully I will be home before the predicted snow gets to be very much.

Paula

Changes

Hello,

Sometimes it seems that there aren’t so many changes, but then the weather states otherwise. I walked my two Lenten miles yesterday in the pleasant warmth. It was almost too warm in the layers I had on, but I did not want to carry anything so kept them on. As I drove into Ely for work, I noticed the bank clock/thermometer flashed 48 degrees. Wow, that is higher than I had realized. After about half of my work day people started to come in and tell me how windy and cold it was becoming. By the time I went home the bank could only muster up 24 degrees. I wasn’t surprised as there was a smattering of ice on the car from the light afternoon rain. The roads were dry so that was not a problem, but I noticed the wind pushing at me as I drove around the curve up on the interstate. It was windy by the house, but we are not in a wind tunnel here. This morning when we woke Leroy commented on the roar outside in the distance and declared, “That is the wind.” It is odd because the wind does not rattle the windows, but apparently is rattling someone else’s.

Our landlords have been gone for the weekend. We wonder if they had set the temperature on hold with the overnight temperature rather than run program as it has gotten quite cool, especially in the evenings. I suppose I could have gone down and checked the temp. Even without a key we can always go down there with the second set of stairs being our emergency escape route into their living space. I did not want to do that so we used our space heaters, added clothes, throws, and sighed blissfully when we got under the down comforter to sleep.

The kitchen has always been the coolest spot in the house or if summer, the warmest. I put all the thermometers in there and learned that it is at least 63 or possibly 60 in there. Later this morning I noticed that the heat register had accidently been closed. It will be better now. Our landlords were to have returned late last night, but I have not heard a sound down there so I do wonder if that had happened. We will know by the heat this evening.

Paula

Being a Tourist

Hello,

There are some perks because Leroy works at the museum. He gets a free family membership. It is perhaps ironic that even if he earned more at some other job we might not have bought this membership. With it in hand and paid for we are inclined to go to all of the opportunities that are available. Yesterday it was to listen to talks from two guys who were are about our ages. One of them managed to get art out of Czechoslovakia. Most of it is modern or abstract art. I have to confess that I am not especially tuned into this type of art, but I am glad that some are aware of the value of it. Apparently the communist government was very much against any art that did not show their system working well at that time. It was also more realistic in nature. At first this guy smuggled out quite a lot of the pieces, but later he was given permission, just why, he was not sure. He also managed to help many of the artists.

The second talk and display was of photographs taken during Prague Spring uprising or confrontation. His camera was taken at one point by a Soviet soldier, but in the confusion he was able to snatch it back. Some of his pictures were sold to the news services so you might have seen them. It has only been in the last few years that he has many of these printed up to be displayed in various venues.

Both of their adventures make me so aware that I lived such a quiet young life. I thought going to college was quite a lot of adventure. It was about all I could handle.

On a totally different subject: At church a girl, whom I do not know, complimented me on my skirt telling me how pretty it was. Both of Miriam’s girls also liked this skirt. Now I would have thought it was an old lady skirt. Maybe it appeals to the old and the young?

Paula