May 15...

I know, it is only Wednesday, May 12, but there is something about that date...May 15...that carries with it a cloud. Almost literally. We here in NJ are supposed to wait until May 15 to do any planting. I assumed I just jumped the gun this year out of boredom waiting for my shoulder to heal. But, having looked back in my gardening journal, I found out that, well suffice it to say that there MAY be a pattern with me here.

My sister says for sure. And she has only participated in this one growing season, but in her humble opinion, she thinks there is most definitely a pattern of early planting. OK, so I had my surgery Mar 15. Totally out of commission for a week, then slowly recouping. So let's say I made it to mid April before getting the itch. So Mid April, given the weather pattern thus far, seemed completely appropriate to put a FEW things around here. We had summerlike weather the entire month of April til this point. So I planted a few things here and there...oh....that's not completely true at all. In fact, I planted very little. It was my poor sister Terri who planted nearly everything the first time around. (Did that just pop out of my mouth like that! The FIRST time around...yes, there was a second time around). OK, so with that said, it got cold. Now, if I could have, I would have pulled all those plants in myself but because of my shoulder, I couldn't...so I got Terri. And she pulled them all in. Then in the beginning of May it got beautiful again and Terri put them all back outside.

And then I decided it was time to plant more things. So we went...that is...Terri and I. She says that I do the driving, she just pushes the petals and steers the wheel...But we came home and we planted more. This time petunias, herbs, tomatoes, lettuce...the hearty stuff. Then if you can even believe it, a frost came last week AGAIN.

What did I do? No, I didn't panic...I called Terri...and Terri brought all the plants that she planted the second time around in the house along with the plants that never had a chance to make it to a pot before the frost. This is where I started...

That May 15th date. I met a man recently. His name is Joe. He must be late seventies. I was grazing Buddy on what I thought was public property but apparently it wasn't. It is Joe's property. This very kind old man came over to me and said, "Oh, I thought you were my daughter Jill with her horse.". I said, "No, I'm just grazing my boy trying to beef him up and thought this was part of the high school". "Nah" Joe answered, "it's my property and I want you to bring him here ANY time to graze him. I'm going in to prepare the garden". "Oh, you garden?" I asked. "Are you planting anything fun?". "No," Joe answered, "I'm just going to weed and prepare the soil".

What a multitude of lessons there. I wasn't Jill (made me sad) but I did remind him of her and apparently that made him happy - which made me happy. Also, Joe was old and wise enough to know that he should only prepare the garden, not plant the garden, before May 15.

So, that is what the pictures are...the round of frost survivors...and some are questionable at that...

Next year, will I wait? I hope so, but given that I seemed to do the same thing in 2007 and 2008 (2009 is missing altogether) and 2010, I might....I just might not make the deadline (or early line) next year, either...

Until next time...

Ouch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All right. I have done some bizzarre things in my life...for real. I have darn near run myself over (I'll save that one for another time), I have been hit by a car, I have jumped out my window and nearly broke my ankle, I have walked around on a broken ankle for 9 days...I could go on and on. However, I do believe yesterday tops the list (lately anyway) of all time stupid things to do...even for me!

I went out to the barn to check things out. Make sure there are no critters (mice), check the traps, and of course check the plants I planted outside the barn (clematis) which were near dead by the time I got them IN the ground. I was sure they were totally dead by now, but much to my surprise, they were alive and well. Actually greening up and looking to climb something. When I prepared the garden outside the barn for planting (cleared away about three years of leaves, junk and decayed mulch) I found the mother of all cactus plants growing. AMAZING. A cactus (large I might add) growing in NJ...surviving winters. The thing is HUGE. Well, I decided to leave it at that time because I was just amazed. Well yesterday when I saw my two little plants struggling to survive the massive cactus, I decided to pull it...bare handed. Heck...there were NO visible prickers on it. NONE. So I grabbed all the way down near the root (apparently where the prickers are razor sharp and the size of hair) to pull and within seconds I was on my knees in pain with a hand full of razor sharp prickers that you literally could NOT see.

Now I know what you ALL are thinking because I thought the very same thing....IDIOT GIRL! What kind of an idiot grabs a cactus (visible or invisible prickers) by the base and pulls! Who on earth does that! IDIOT GIRL! So I stood there, staring at the deeply evil purpetrator who left me wounded and scarred...the damn cactus. I cannot even describe in words what was going through my head...it would be banned from Facebook for all the expletives! OK, now I needed to devise a plan to get these things out of my hand...which needed to be clever because I can not even see the damn (oops, darn) prickers, but boy oh boy could I feel them.

So I began feeling around with my other hand to find them. Man, as soon as I rubbed over one it was like a chard of glass pounding in my hand. HHHHHMMMMMM......OK, so I decided, since I can't see them but could feel them with my other hand (barely) but could not pull them out because they were like 1/8" long - AT BEST! So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to feel around with my tongue till I felt them and then use my teeth to pull them out. OK, plan seems reasonable. So I started feeling around....BINGO! Got one. Success. BINGO - got another. OH! WAIT! What is that! NO WAY! That pricker made its way from the tip of my tongue to my gums. ALL OF THEM! So now I am trying to pull prickers out of my tongue and gums AND the hand that is still loaded with hair like prickers.

To make a longer story short....I had no success with my nails so I went upstairs to get a tweezer to pull them out. Suffice it to say that if you cannot see them in your hand you surely cannot see them in your mouth on the roof of your mouth none the less. So after about 45 minutes of unsuccessful attempts, I decided to just let them take up residence there and hope for the best. This was yesterday...

Today my mouth is sore, but my ego is more sore. This definitely ranks up there with running myself over with my own car!

Until next time...

Have you seen your family?...

Yup. That is what my sister just said. As I sat here, I said, "Boy, I have nothing to blog about. I used to blog and blog and blog". Her reply? "There's plenty to blog about...have you seen your family?" OK, so what does that mean? I thought we were pretty normal. Well, I know "normal" is a relative term, but comparitively, I really did think we were normal. Well, having just asked Terri what she meant, the only name that came up (over and over mind you) was Adam. Fancy that.

He is our wild child. Always has been. His pendulum does NOT ever rest in the middle. He is either WAY happy or WAS upset. This morning...it was the latter. He went to bed late, which equates to whine and cry mornings. To the point where I actually took him into the office and spanked him. I haven't spanked him in like a year (hhhhmmmm....maybe there is a correlation....need to ponder that one). He can't find his belt, he hasn't eaten, we're gonna be late, he didn't take his medicine...he DID take his medicine. Now let me see if I can type it the way I hear it....(remember to raise your voice 3 octives when you read it)..."I caaaaaan't find my belttttttttttt...I haven't eeeeeaaaattttteeeeeeennnnn....wwweeeeeeee'rrrrrrrrreeee gonna be late...I diiiiiiiiidn't take my meeeeeedddddiiiiiccccciiiinnnnneeee....I DDDDDDIIIIIIIIDDDDDD take my mmmmeeeeddddiiiicccciiiinnnneeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And on and on it went. I was upstairs the whole time and could feel the reverbiration of the whine all the way up there. The more I write the more I realize this isn't even funny. In fact, it is annoying. Then after he composed himself, Terri told me on the way to school they had a talk. About the whining you ask? No...about a beach/boardwalk we found yesterday. I said it is too expensive to go. Even if we were conservative we would drop $200. So Terri came up with an idea. She suggested to the kids that they save their money and then we can go. Adam's response? "Where are YOU gonna get money". Terri said "Let me worry about that". Then Adam asked if Aunt Terri thought if he paid for his rides and games would I pay him back! There is the mindset of my wild child. Answer to that one.....a resounding NO!

Quite the car ride I would imagine. I just thankful I wasn't there. She is a kid like them and when I am in the car I have to reprimand them ALL....yes....that includes Aunt Terri. Living with extended family is quite unique...sister....mother....kids....husband in the middle of it all....Lord bless his soul!

Until next time...

Face. (huh?) FACE...You know, Face...Face (hhhmmm)

And that is where I started thinking I have to remember this conversation to blog when I get home because this one I can type. Typing what I hear come out of my cambodian sisters mouth is sometimes a tall order. You figure out how to type an american word that was hammered by her sweet cambodian mouth...it ain't easy! But this one...now this one I can type.

We were driving to the surgeon for a 6 week follow up with my shoulder...My doc. adores Victoria and so I thought it would be fun to go together. On the way, we were talking about stuff and she began to say how we just need to have "face" to go on with our lives. Getting old...wrinkles...kids growing (= growing problems)...husbands...illness...you name it. We aren't getting any younger. But for the life of me I could not understand why she thinks we need face. I mean, speaking for myself, I could do without that face that stares back at me in the mirror each day that I cannot even recognize. I mean, why so many wrinkles and grey hair and who's neck IS that anyway! I have been contimplating using that neck exerciser (as seen on tv - lol) to make that chicken neck go away and hope for the return of my OWN neck. Anyway, she kept saying we need "face". I would repeat her..."Face?". She would repeat it..."face". "Vic, why do we need face? I'm not getting it". She says, "No, FACE" as if I heard something different that time...Still hearing face. OK. "I don't think we need face. Afterall, Vic, face is the problem". She says, "No, face is NOT the problem. Face is the answer! Without it we are done!". Now at this point I am laughing out loud cause I KNOW she MUST be trying to say something other than face. And usually by this point in our conversation the word that she is trying to say is wrong (like OY for oil) and I finally get it because there IS no word "oy"...but not this time. She knows I am not getting it and she knows she cannot say it. And now we both are hysterical. She keeps saying face and I keep laughing. Finally she stopped and with the SLOWEST, most painful look on her face (ha! face - lol) she says, "FA......(and sticks her tongue between her teeth to make sure she doesn't mess this one up - as a Cambodian, that motion of the "th" sound is NOT native to her tongue. There is NO like sound in Cambodian, so imagine the effort it took to say this word) "TH". There. She said it. FAITH! I get it. We need FAITH!

....which is why when I cut her hair short and had sweeping bangs, she liked the back of her hair to "poo". "No, Vic, you do NOT want your hair to "poo". You want it to "Poof (emphasis on the f)". Again, no cambodian sound of "f". This ranks right up there with 'th". I gave her lesson after lesson how to say "poof" and she got it once. It was just as slow and just as painful as was "faith". But Victoria is my sweet cambodian sister who I sometimes have NO idea what she is saying...but in the end, if I keep "FAITH", I eventually get it. And she eventually makes it into my blog. Love ya Vic!

Until next time...

Anonymous Needs a name...

I was going to blog about a car ride I took with a friend, Victoria, but I will have to save that. I wanted to make sure I hadn't started a post and left it unfinished (how unlike me would that be!) but in fact, I hadn't. So I noticed that there were some comments on my blog....all signed anonymous. Now, not for nothing...but who is anonymous! One mentioned tootsie brennan (a friend's dog) but I am pretty sure Kristen doens't read my blogs...next? My school friend Dianne Lifrak. I was pretty sure that was it but the mention of Tootsie threw me. So I went thru a few blogs with comments and they are all anonymous. So, Anonymous. Here is the scoop on my shoulder. Much to my dismay, I have this sling ANOTHER 4-6 weeks and still NO driving. I can say that I am having to learn patience being driven everywhere but clearly need more practice. I have been obedient with this thing cuz I am sick and tired of wearing it and just want it off. Today it feels great, but that after three horrible days (for no reason)...doc says that is normal. OK, so Anon...I am slowing down. I am listening to doc. I AM wearing that stupid sling...I AM going back to PT this week and yes, anon, I am reading what you are writing, I just don't have a clue who you are.

Until next time...

And I was going to write about Victoria driving me to that doctor appointment...about a conversation we had about "face"...I mean, "faith"....depends on who you are talking to. Next time...