What happens when a thunderstorm collides with a volcanic plume? Look at the first thirteen photos in this set. Be prepared to be amazed.

My plan this afternoon had been to go out and plant some flower seeds under the little tree in the front yard. I grabbed my garden tools and headed out there to do battle with the Bermuda Grass currently growing under said tree. Well, I chopped and chopped and chopped, and I tried to pull that grass up, but I got nowhere with it. I gave up. I hate Bermuda Grass, but it makes up about 50% of the grass in the yard, so we can’t exactly kill it all. Replacing all the sod in the front yard is not in the budget.

I then moved on to the end of the flowerbed that Lin had started removing the grass and weeds from. I cleaned it up some more and planted a whole bunch of old seeds there: sunflowers, marigolds, and two others whose names I can’t recall. These seeds are really old and past their use-by date. I have no idea if anything will actually come up. I’ll just water it and keep the weeds out, and we’ll see what happens. Something is bound to come up.

Then the stupid rabbits will probably eat it.

I might try again under that tree tomorrow, depending on how I feel. I’m all hormonal, crampy and unhappy, and chopping around, even the little I did, didn’t make that any better. In fact, my neck is killing me from the chopping and pulling. My back isn’t too happy either. But I really want something other than Bermuda Grass under that tree, and I have a bunch more seeds, both old and new, to use up. I want some more flowers in my yard!

Puttering in the yard was the only thing of note I did all day.

Tomorrow I’d like to putter in the yard some more and do an hour in the Box Room, now that the trash bin is empty again. I can finally throw more stuff away! Yippee!

This is a different plant from the one I posted the photo of the other day. This Sugar Snack tomato had no tomatoes at all on it yesterday morning, and by yesterday evening, it had tiny tomatoes popping out all over the place … and more blooms!

I have no idea how long it takes these cherry tomatoes to ripen. I have never grown cherry tomatoes before. All I know is I am so impatient to eat one!

Grow tiny tomatoes! Grow!

When I wasn’t being bothered by Annoying Boy yesterday afternoon, I spent a good long time sitting out on the porch watching my plants grow and reading. It was a beautiful day, and I didn’t want to miss the chance to welcome each tiny tomato as it popped into existence. You may think I am joking, but I am not. Over the course of an afternoon spent on my porch, I saw tiny tomatoes popping into existence.

I’d read a chapter of my book, and then take a break from the sitting still to hover over the plants like a doting mother. Every time I did that, I noticed a new tiny tomato on one of the plants. When I noticed the first one, I thought maybe I had just not noticed it before. By the time I saw a second new tomato that hadn’t been there earlier in the day, I’d already been staring at those plants for so long, there was no mistaking the fact I was seeing a new tomato where there had been no tomato just an hour before. It was crazy!

All three Sugar Snack plants have four or more little tomatoes on them, and more flowers popping out almost as I watch. Also, Mr. Stripey just gets more and more blooms every day too. While Mr. Stripey is large enough to be getting tomatoes, I do worry that I should have removed the blooms off the Sugar Snacks to let them get a little larger first. They are all still so small. It’s a little late now. I guess whatever happens … happens.

To be honest, I have been regretting getting all those extra plants. Or rather, I have been regretting getting all those plants from the place I got them. The quality of the seedlings was somewhat poor, but I hadn’t seen the TAMU jalepenos anywhere else, and every other place was totally out of any sort of cherry tomatoes. I really didn’t need any of them though, and I should have just stuck to the original plan to have the two Earthboxes with a couple of plants in them.

It’s lucky for the potted tomatoes that the Sugar Snacks have attracted my attention with tomatoes, because all those plantings have been growing so little and looking so poorly, no matter what I do for them, I had begun considering taking them out of the pots and sticking them in the front flowerbed … to be left to their own survival devices. Then I could use those pots for something a little more productive, like the cucumbers I have yet to get started. I may still put some of those tomato plants out to pasture in the flowerbed, but they all earned another week or two of being doted on, thanks to the appearance of some tiny tomatoes.

The Best Boy plants are probably cheering on the Sugar Snacks wildly. I was very close to just ripping them out of their pots and tossing them two days ago. They refuse to grow, they continue to look awful, and I hold out little hope they will ever produce even one tomato. Since I didn’t buy them, they were extras others couldn’t use and were going to toss, I don’t have to feel guilt about abandoning them to the flowerbed or just throwing them away. I never wanted the Best Boys anyway, but it’s hard to say no to little old ladies when they want to give you something. But I am willing to give them a little more time now, thanks to the Sugar Snacks … and being too lazy to dig holes in the flowerbed and move plants. It’s hot as hell out there today.

So, aside from having an encounter with Annoying Boy, I had a blast all afternoon reading and watching my plants grow, and boy are they doing just that! I wish I could do that every afternoon, but alas, I don’t have that much leisure time. Somebody has to do the housework around here and feed the inhabitants. I do think I will plan my day tomorrow to allow for more time sitting on the porch watching plants grow and reading. It made for a wonderful day.

NOTE: It’s getting late, I am incredibly tired from goofing off most of the day watching my plants grow and puttering around the yard, I have a serious headache, and I need a shower before bed. Once again, I am not going to bother proofreading this, so if it sounds insane, it just sounds insane. I’m posting it anyway.

It’s long, so it’s going behind the cut.
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Just posted this at Metafilter, so of course, I have to share it here too.

“What the autistic 12-year-old can’t express verbally or in social interaction he can show through his carefully cut out geometric shapes assembled into characters in a paper collage.”

Where did that tomato come from? I stick my nose on those plants every day, sometimes more than once a day, and I would swear there was no tomato on that plant yesterday. What a pleasant surprise to start my dreary and potentially rainy day!

I think this is the Super 100 Cherry Tomato. I say I think that’s what it is, because I don’t know which is which anymore. When I re-potted them, I put the little plastic tabs back into the pots, and sometime between Sunday and yesterday, every last one of them has gone missing. I doubt it can be blamed on critters, because they might knock them out of the pots, but they don’t usually run off with them. I suspect a two-legged critter by the name of Annoying Boy. I’ll have to compare the unlabeled pots with the labeled ones and try to figure out which is which, I guess.

I guess adding the composted manure on Sunday, and the last few days of coffee grounds and leftover coffee have done that plant some good. I have been particularly focusing on that one, because it looked really bad on Sunday with yellow leaves that were starting to curl up and fall off, and generally just bad color to the whole plant. I thought it was on the way to an early death. This morning, it’s green and perky … and it has a tomato on it!

The photo makes it look huge. I assure you, it isn’t. Right now my precious first tomato is about the size of a dime. It better not fall off or get eaten. I would be so heartbroken. I can’t wait to eat my own tomatoes.

There are also three peppers that have set on the Banana Pepper plant. Woo hoo! I am so excited!

Also, I am somewhat pleased with the above photo, so I uploaded a larger version so you can see the detail. Considering how dark and windy it is outside, and the fact I can’t use a flash when using the macro settings, I was surprised by how well it turned out … and how you can see the dew on the little hairs. I love my camera.

I have to take my tomato happy self to Walgreens, and then I have to attempt to restore the kitchen to some kind of order. I have totally ignored the dishes for far too long, as I almost always do.

But I have a tomato and some peppers! On top of the ice dispenser on the fridge being repaired yesterday, this week is going pretty damn well so far. Just wish I felt better, but I guess I can’t have everything my way.

I’m having continuing stress-like feelings about one of my friends. It’s that feeling which informs me I am having inner conversations about whether or not I want this person in my life. That’s a harsh thing to be considering, but there you have it. I’m not angry. I’m not even upset. I guess I’m just disappointed. That happens in interpersonal relationships.

While I believe that even the best among us are capable of doing and saying and thinking stupid, evil things, I believe in forgiveness. I have forgiven people for things that … well … many other people wouldn’t, and I meant it. That doesn’t mean I don’t reserve the right to be angry or upset. I do. I am fully capable of knowing why someone did what they did and understanding their rationale for it. I can forgive them for doing it. They did the best they could in the situation, for their own reasons, and they failed to live up to my (or society’s) standards and expectations. We all fail at things … do the wrong thing … at least a few times in life.

Now for the parable:

When I drove a ratty old car, banged up and barely chugging along, large trucks that took up two parking spaces used to make the blood vessels in my temples pop. Selfish bastards! Assholes! Even though it made me angry, because I needed a parking space too, I was capable of understanding a few important points from their view: parking spaces are made way the hell too small in order to cram more cars in, large trucks are not easy to maneuver in a cramped parking lot, and many people in ratty old cars don’t take care not to leave dings and scratches on other people’s car doors (which they can’t really help too much, owing to the smallness of the parking lots). It still made me angry, and I still thought it was an asshole-like thing to do, but I forgave them. After all, I was generally driving rather large ratty old cars, and they are no joy in the parking lot department either.

Then I started driving a new and large truck, and I personally got to see the other side of the story. My hypothesis about the reasons that so many large trucks take up two parking spaces was correct. Not all people who take up two parking spaces are selfish assholes. I feel fairly certain I am not a selfish asshole, and yet, even I occasionally park the truck like crap, and I leave it like that. I did it today. I am certain it pissed someone off. I’m sorry. My reasons for leaving my truck parked like crap? The only parking spot available where there where two together, which is almost required in some parts of the lot in order to even get the truck into a spot (due to those tight parking spaces), is located in such a way that it requires me to turn sharper than my vehicle is able and no amount of point turning is going to make a difference. The truck just can’t get fully into either open space.

I gave it a try, and there was nowhere else to park where the truck would fit. I didn’t really want to waste a bunch of gas driving in circles or going home and coming back, and I didn’t want to walk a block with all my groceries. So … I got out and went and did my shopping. I felt bad about the fact that second space was going to be unusable by any type of automobile, but what to do? I have a life I am trying to get through too.

When I came out, the store had emptied dramatically. I must have arrived right at the end of the morning rush. The parking lot was growing bare, and there, all by itself, sat my truck … obviously parked like crap. It looked stupid sitting there badly parked, without all the other cars that had been around earlier making the proper parking impossible. I feel certain someone driving through that parking lot at that time called me an ass, or made a comment about people who drive large trucks. I might have.

I forgive them for hating me, as they haven’t had to park the thing in a cramped and crowded parking lot that barely accommodates large vehicles. After they walk a mile in my shoes, we can talk about it again. Though I do believe I have to amend my original theories as to why people who drive large trucks sometimes park like crap. It had absolutely nothing at all to do with keeping people from dinging my truck, and I suspect that might be the case for a lot of the others as well. This does not, of course, apply to people who consciously and willfully take up two entire parking spaces, as though they didn’t even TRY to park correctly, repeatedly and all the time. Those people are assholes.

Which brings me to my next point:

My forgiveness is not endless and bottomless. I am not perfect. If I were capable of forgiving everyone for everything, I’d be walking on water right about now … just for the fun of it. When a behavior that I feel is “bad” is repeated over, and over, and over with no growth, change or improvement, my patience and forgiveness runs out. I’ll still eventually forgive the person, but I won’t necessarily have that person in my life anymore. No animosity or anger are involved in that decision. That’s just the way it is. That person is doing/saying/thinking something that doesn’t sit well with me, and I may understand why, but I don’t have to keep being exposed to it and being made upset by it.

Go forth and be happy, but please be happy somewhere else. Or be unhappy. Your choice.

I have so much going on in my head these days. There’s more I’d like to say about this, but it’s getting so late. The situation is on-going, so it is bound to come up again soon. Eventually, I will have to decide whether or not I am seeing a pattern of behavior I can’t move past. Have my friend and I really grown so far apart? I hate that feeling. It always brings up additional questions, like … were they always like that and I never noticed before? I hate that feeling too.

This is probably a strange and rambling post, but I’m too tired to be bothered to proofread it. Forgive me?

Lin and I have been amusing ourselves by watching the fuss on CNN over the late arriving Lake County, Indiana primary results. We are amused because those are the stomping grounds of our northern family members. Lin was born in Hammond and grew up all over that area. I got my tattoo in Gary. We have friends and family members sprinkled there like salt and pepper on a steak. It doesn’t make the national news often, if ever, so that’s been interesting.

I’ve had a rotten headache all evening, and I just ache all over. I think I’ll go take a nice hot shower and get ready for bed. Maybe by the time I am done, the primaries for today will be over. If not, at least I can pass out while waiting with nice clean hair.

Even though nothing much got done around here today, it’s been a long day. I am so, so tired.

I love my man.

My man looked at the plans for the fridge today, and then with only a plastic fork, a mirror, and his finger, he has restored the in-from-the-door functionality to my freezer door. Tonight, I shall have crushed ice in my Dr Pepper once again!

I do love my man.

The cats aren’t too sure they like this new whirring and grinding noise in the kitchen. Every time I use it, they fly around the house … tails looking like bottle brushes and ears laid back … as though they were being chased by a large and angry dog. It’s very hilarious.

Ronin will eventually mourn the fixing of the ice crusher. Why? One of his favorite things in the world is to stand at my feet as soon as I open the freezer door, waiting patiently for me to drop the one or two ice cubes I always drop when getting ice out of the inner bin. Yes, to Ronin, few things are more exciting and fun that batting an ice cube across the room into some unseen corner to melt, thereby leaving a small, cold puddle for some bare human foot to step in later when it’s dark. Yes, indeed, that is very, very fun (for Ronin).

I can’t believe I finally have crushed ice again. I feel so civilized!

I made it to the grocery store this morning. Nothing eventful happened, other than I noticed the prices have gone up again.

While nothing exciting or particularly interesting happened while I was shopping, I did have a fun little experience at the checkout. I was standing in one of the many long, long lines looking forward to being there for at least 20 or 30 minutes, considering how slowly the cashiers were moving. I don’t really mind. Standing by my basket is easy compared to pushing the thing around.

So I was just standing there watching people, taking sneaky phone photos, and reading the headlines on magazines, when a very sweet looking young, male employee walks up and suggests I use the self-check, which I was standing right beside and which wasn’t being used by anyone. I don’t do self-check. My reason being that with food prices the way they are, the store can pay someone to check my goods through, put them in bags for me, and offer to help me out with them. I didn’t feel like trying to explain to the nice young man why I refuse to use the self-check and didn’t mind standing in a long line, so I just told him that I had never used it.

He offered to help me. I was bored, and I saw an opportunity to play my dumb blond role, so I took it. Without any promoting for me, he checked all my goods through the self-check for me while explaining how it worked, and he put them in bags, and he put them back in my basket for me … and offered to get someone to help me out with them. Yes, playing my Dumb Blond role got me out of the store at least 20 minutes faster, and I still got full service!

In exchange, I taught him the meaning of the word Luddite, which I claimed to be. He was actually bright enough and inquisitive enough to have a conversation with, and so I asked him if he wasn’t concerned that the jobs of unskilled workers are being replaced by machines and electronics more and more often. He replied that he had thought about it, but that there would be other jobs that would be created, and after all, even though he wasn’t standing at a register, he still had a job. I then asked him what would happen to that job when self-check is everywhere and everyone knows how to use them and aren’t afraid of them? Did he think they would still pay him to stand there doing nothing? “I hadn’t thought about that.”

He thanked me for teaching him a new word and for the chat, and my hope for the future of American youth has been restored. He was a bright kid, and I don’t expect he will be standing around teaching people how to use the self-check for long, if he plays his cards right. I think I’ll make sure to chat with him whenever I see him there. Maybe I can teach him some more new words and keep him thinking about things. If he seems interested enough, I might even give him some books to read.

I sure hope that one gets to college. Young people who think and want to learn seem so rare these days.

In a recent interview on Trinity Broadcasting Network, Ben Stein had this to say:

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Crouch: Good word, good word.

Really, Ben?? Really?! Science may make it more efficient or easier to kill people, thanks to newer technologies than rocks and tree branches, but I’ve read a good bit of history. Seems to me that people had no problems killing other people long before science was anything more than alchemists trying to turn lead into gold, and sometimes they even did it all in the name of God and religion.

Ben Stein is a disgusting piece of work. I’ve never thought much of him, but lately my apathy has been turning to loathing.