The plants grew about a foot each! I rearranged the tomato plants - dragged the containers around to give them more space. Picked the first celebrity tomato. Today it is so hot outside! I did some emergency watering and will check again this evening. The bugs will probably be bad, though -- what with the humidity.

On Thursday, we stopped at Golden Harvest to buy fruit (the peaches are to die for this year), veggies and a pie for Samsonville. I forgot the pie, and once I realized it, it was too late to go back to the stand for it. I thought I'd call the next day from Samsonville. But that night I got an email from the owner -- he found me at the university. (My phone number is hard to locate because the Castleton number is in Bob's name. I've never added mine because I'd rather students don't easily find it.) The subject line was "Pie Time." It was very cleverly written. The punch line is...they had my pie! I arranged to pick up a replacement on the way back to Castleton yesterday. He said to contact him directly if ever I am not satisfied with anything in the future.

I got there shortly before they closed to get my pie (and more fruits and veggies). It was quite busy, and as I was waiting in line a woman next to me commented about the breeze going through the stand. It was remarkable, considering the heat. Suddenly she said, "that Gibson better get his facts straight." She had a sour look on her face and she was shaking her head. I didn't understand the reference, wondered if there was something in the news or popular culture that should be on my radar screen, but wasn't. Had Mel Gibson done something recently?

My face must have been blank. She didn't elaborate, just stared and seemed exasperated. Was she looking at me or over my shoulder?  I turned toward the table with those baskets of beautiful peaches behind me. On the wall nearby was a large framed photo of Chris Gibson with the farm's owner, both smiling broadly. I'd never noticed it before.  Oh. I turned back to her. She repeated the remark.

 I said, "I don't know, but I have seen him around and I like him." She repeated the remark for a third time, with the same unpleasant expression and irritated tone, adding something unintelligible about the Eddy in Greene County. So I said "he really is a good guy" and I turned to the woman at the counter. I was thinking about pie and peaches, not politics. She was no longer interested in talking at me anyway.

Although where I live has more in common with Valatie and Kinderhook than with Albany or Colonie, a tiny piece of western Rensselaer County was gerrymandered into the 21st district several years ago. The redistricting in 2012 reduced the size of that tiny piece -- but still where I live was not put into the new 19th district that Gibson will represent if re-elected. So it doesn't matter what I think since he's not my representative. However, I saw him at the Main Street Cafe in Valatie two winters ago when we had constant snow. It was hammering us that Sunday morning. He got up from the table with his family, grabbed the snow shovel near the door, went out and shoveled the sidewalk. It wasn't a photo op.  It made a favorable impression.

I think my and the owner of Golden Harvest's assessments are likely more accurate than that disagreeable woman's. Why would she try to engage me on the subject of politics, a stranger in line at a farm stand who had done nothing more than politely agree with her that the temperature inside was more pleasant than one might expect on such a hot day?