I finally got my last houseplant out of the house yesterday. I used to have tons of them that I’d drag in during the winter and drag back out in the summer. I’m down to five: a tree fern, an arabian jasmine, a calamondin orange, a bird of paradise, and a non-vining philodendron. I usually put all of these plants on the back porch, but this year I’ve decided to try some of them in the front.
The bird of paradise will get the sun it likes by putting it against the railing. I have to keep the philodendron away from the sun, so it’s against the wall. It looks a little strange to me… a little forlorn.. but I will leave it there for now and ponder what can be done with it.
Maybe the plants will distract people from how terrible my porch looks. The boards are all warping and popping off their nails… stupid previous owner using stupid cheap materials…
I’ve gotten some shopping done this weekend. I got new toilet guts for the downstairs toilet and installed them. No more taking off the lid and lifting the little thingy to make the water stop running! I also needed to get a new handle for the upstairs toilet. The old one was hanging loosely from the tank. They sell fancy handles at the home improvement store, so I got one. It’s white porcelain to match my sink and tub handles.
Lately it seems like I run out of clean underwear too quickly, so I also got some new underwear. My favorite brand is Hanes with the ComfortSoft waistband. It’s like wearing a cloud. There was a new sticker on the package this time. It made me giggle, but I guess I’m glad they’re taking the problem seriously.
I worked in my garden yesterday. It was glorious! I was going to clean out the area under my back porch. It was quite messy. Once I started piling trash into the back of my truck, I realized that I could do some pruning while I was at it. I clipped the deutzia, the butterfly bushes, the cherry tree, and the holly bush. I noticed after clipping the holly bush that I’m starting to make it into an informal espalier.
When I got all the trash and garden waste loaded into my truck, I went to the dumping site. The man there greeted me by saying “We don’t got no room.” I said, “Do you have more bins coming?” He said, “No.” (awkward silence) I didn’t know what to say next. It was 12:30 and apparently they were done for the day. He said, “Don’t go to Sisson street. They’re full, too.” (awkward silence) I was still confused. Then he said, “Your best bet is to go to the landfill.”
So I called Lloyd and got the location of the landfill. I had to drive over the crazy high Francis Scott Key bridge. I prayed that all my trash wouldn’t blow out while I was on the bridge. I found the landfill with no difficulty at all. Once I got there, the guy said, “I’m not supposed to take branches, but I’ll let you in anyway.” I guess the employees at all locations are trained to give you a hard time about some kind of imaginary rule.
Speaking of cuts, I also cut my hair yesterday. I guess the “extra volume” shampoo has been working!
But the most exciting news from yesterday is that my tadpoles have legs. Yay!
The eighth graders had an end-of-year skating party yesterday during the school day. It was really a lot of fun. In the morning they signed autograph books and had some breakfast foods and hung out. Then they went to the skating rink. No one else was there, so it was pretty cool. I was also excited to have a reason to wear my “skeletons who are skating and also on fire” tie. It was a gift from a student a couple years ago.
I decided to skate with them. I think the last time I roller-skated was when I myself was in eighth grade. I was a little wobbly at first, but after a while, it all seemed to come back to me. I ended up skating most of the time. It was quite fun. I still can’t skate backwards though. I just couldn’t figure it out.
Ever since I got sick, I’ve been wasting beautiful days. …Days I could’ve been out in the garden, but instead was on the couch. My pattern had settled into: leave school quickly after classes were over, eat something when I got home, fall asleep on the couch, wake up and stumble around the house, go back to watching TV because prime time was on, then go to bed. I didn’t like it. It felt like I was depressed or something, when really I was just feeling sick still.
Yesterday changed all that. When I got home yesterday, I mixed up some plant poison so I could kill weeds. When I found out my sprayer was broken, even that didn’t stop me. I went out and got a replacement. I went out! I must be feeling better.
This is just the first poisoning of the season. I will need to do subsequent poisonings to kill everything that needs killing.
