The tooth extraction was so much easier than tooth #18, which was pulled in 2009. It was so problem-free, in fact, that I probably could have done it with Novocaine only, no twilight sleep. I guess how would I know, since I can't remember the procedure -- I did opt for twilight sleep. But last time I had bad pain for several days afterwards. This time, after taking one hydrocodone when I got home and sleeping off all the drugs and trauma, I don't even need Advil. The only remaining hassle is not being able to drink hot liquids or eat food that requires much chewing for a few days. But that's OK, because I take my coffee very light, and I love my diet of yogurt, tomatoes, and fruit.

So as a result, I was able to finish the grades with no sweat!

It also made me feel "Yes" on the question of an implant, so I have an appointment for a consult after it heals in November.

Oral surgery tomorrow! The university's systems did come back online last night, and I did put in a couple of hours, but of course I am not finished with grades! I refuse to burn the midnight oil tonight, because I want to be well rested (and I can't eat or drink after midnight since I am having twilight sleep). So I hope I feel good enough on Tuesday to get it done.

I still can't access Blackboard or other university services, although my work email seems to be working. I'm not having any other problems with my Internet connection -- AOL, gmail, facebook, blogger all fine so it has to be a problem on the university's end. Maybe because of the extreme heat? IT Services says to allow up to two business days for response to the online help request, and I called the help desk, but they are closed weekends and evenings. Trying not to panic...

Bob is making (what he alleges) will be a quick stop at the tower -- the governor is no joke. (Enough said, as it is not my story.) We have an ozone advisory -- and it is just so freakin' hot out there. Weed whacking can wait. I'd allocated today to working on grades. So now is as good a time as any to share a couple of stories that are mine. Let's call the following a travelogue gully brook press style.

1) TMI on the West Bound Train:

I originally drafted this post on July 29 while on the train. I love to write on the train, so I located an old journal book (August 1, 2001 - June 5, 2002) that still had some blank pages and took it along. I get motion sickness if I try to read in a car, but this doesn't happen on the train so I also brought my Kindle.

I am taking the train to Buffalo for a few days. Name censored's court date (one of many) for her divorce is tomorrow and I am going with her for "moral support." We are just now pulling into Utica so there are about 3 1/2 hours to go. The train is fairly crowded though not as bad for me since Amsterdam (when my seatmate got off). It has been a lot more pleasant since then, not because of my seatmate (who was fine -- unobtrusive, she even complimented my Kindle cover and asked me where I got it [I responded "amazon" and thought "duh"]) but because the woman sitting behind me talked nonstop to the unfortunate soul who was sitting beside her. He is still aboard. I am not sure where he is coming from or going to, but she acted as if he was completely lacking in knowledge about NYS -- all parts of it. She kept pointing out landmarks, such as the State Capitol.

She'd grown up "downstate" (as she called it), had lived in Syracuse because of a now ex-boyfriend and currently lives in Dallas where she owns a house and the standard of living is marvelous. She was on vacation, visiting a friend in Amsterdam. She told him more details about her life than I know about some people I've known for years. I learned all this in a span of one hour -- imagine how much she told the guy who I assume was sitting with her since NYC. He told her he was single -- although he is wearing a wedding band (?), which she noted.When I got up to get my water bottle out of my suitcase, I was surprised to see a balding middle aged man. His voice sounded younger. I assumed the same of her just based on her immature conversation, but she'd already disembarked by then so I didn't get a look.

He remarked to her that he can't stand small cities, sneering at Schenectady in particular. That led to motor mouth telling him all about the culture of Dallas -- opera houses and symphonies and the like. What came into my mind was cultural deprivation v. cultural difference: That this pinky-in-the-air definition of culture is inherently classist and racist.

The guy has been silent since she left the train, thankfully. It is wonderful that texting has made audio cell phone chatter disappear!

Later: There is an incredibly needy young woman in the seat across the aisle, going from Amsterdam to Syracuse. She has done nothing but ask the conductors for assistance -- even to use their phones (yet she does have some sort of tablet). Everyone on the train has about 20 devices each: smartphones, tablets, ereaders, laptops, mp3 players. We are more connected than the borg in STNG (dating me? It is not a reference I'd ever make to students).

2) How My Ameribag Almost Turned the Case from Civil Into Criminal:

I went with my friend (of 46 years) to a court date. I was reluctant to bring my pocket book -- I am always afraid I will leave it somewhere, I was wearing a suit, my pocket book is heavy, it was hot and I didn't feel like carrying it. Also, once when I was at the airport seeing a friend off I was permitted to accompany him into the passengers only area. This meant I had to go through the scanners. My pocket book caused all sorts of problems and eventually security had to go through the contents. I don't remember what triggered the problem but I do recall what an ordeal it was. I have been carrying an Ameribag from LL Bean for many years. I am on my second one. I stuff it full of crap until I can't take it any more, and then I (sort of) go through it and weed it out. This airport scanner incident was at the point where it was full -- could spark a new television show, "pocket book hoarders."

I should have gone with that feeling of reluctance and left my trusty Ameribag in the car, but I had a journal with me for taking notes and would need a pen, plus I was uncertain whether I'd have to show ID -- so I didn't. Entering the court house, my pocket book went through the scanner once, twice, three times. After the third failure, the officer said, "ma'am, do you have a change purse in here?" "I have a wallet that probably has change in it," I responded. "Can you take it out and we'll run it through separately?" "Sure," I said, and I removed my wallet -- which is a miniature Ameribag, in the same condition as the big version. I had to jam my cash, IDs, plastic, haircut appointment cards and some stray ATM receipts back in to zip it. Baby Ameribag went through the scanner, no problem. Mama Ameribag still did not.

He handed me the bag and said, "do you have a lot of keys in here?" "Yes, I do. Probably a couple rings." (In addition to many that are worthy of carrying, I have several that unlock things I no longer own and some that I have no clue what they unlock.) I pawed around in the bottom of my pocket book and grabbed the key rings. He took the bag and ran it through the scanner again. Still no dice. There was a long line of people impatiently waiting at this point. Employees? Lawsuits and divorces? Criminals? Who knows.

He held up my bag. "Do you have something like a Swiss Army Knife or multi-tool in here?" Suddenly I remembered. Gulp. "Yes, I do." My brother gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago and that's where I keep it. Where else would I keep it? I laughed, tried to make light of it. My friend was laughing hysterically. I dug around in there some more and produced it. He told me that I would have to surrender it and could have it back when I left. I had to fill out a form (and that was the only time I needed my ID). Luckily, on the way out, I didn't forget to retrieve it and return it to Mama.

3) Calling Bloomberg to Police the East Bound Train:

The train on the way home was packed. I'd expected to have two seats to myself for part of the way so I could sleep -- I was so sleep deprived I planned to relax my standard of always being on high alert and in control of all situations and steal a few Zees. Well, that wasn't the case at all. There was a woman with a boy who looked about 10 and his teenage brother, and I ended up sitting next to the teenager for the whole ride. He was polite enough -- we exchanged a few words here and there and a sentence when we got to Albany and I was getting off, but he was a fat kid who spilled over into my seat and he was eating something constantly. His mother alternated between rummaging around in a bag at her feet and reaching across me to hand him a stream of pudding cups and soda, and reaching across me to retrieve her coffee from his tray when it was his turn to hit the cafe car for a hotdog and cheese board.

Along with sleeping, writing in my journal was out of the question, so I finished Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I'd read quite a bit on the west bound train, and had about half left for the return ride. It was OK, but only OK. It started out strong (except for the repetitive sentence fragment writing style) but became more ridiculous and less engaging over time, and I really disliked the ending.

Beautiful Lake Erie

4) I Just Hope It Didn't Contaminate My Tomatoes:

Once I got home from my trip, I was so tired! I planned to sleep in on Thursday, but Bob woke me up early in the morning because there was a news report that we were under a "shelter at home" advisory. That means stay inside, turn off A/C and fans that take in outside air, close windows and don't exert yourself. That reason was because of this fire at a factory near 9H in Ghent that recycles transformers. It's pretty far away in Columbia County, but the advisory was for a 15 mile radius around the plant. I did stay inside all day, sweating (figuratively and literally) with the windows closed until they lifted the advisory at 2. I watched the press conference and I have no idea whether to believe them that no PCBs were detectable in the sampling. I didn't sense any smoke when I went outside for about five minutes with the dogs, but have I mentioned how freakin' hot and humid it has been? It was hard to tell if there was a slight odor or if I was being suggestible. I'd say one thing is for certain, the burned site is a brownfield, and if I lived closer and drank well water I'd be worried.

I am not sure if this is the longest stretch I've gone without posting, but it has to be close. I did have a bunch of things to write, including some funny anecdotes -- but I had no time while I was away and then was exhausted upon my return. Thursday I could hardly be in my office because the A/C had to be off and windows closed (I will explain eventually). Now that all is resolved and I am rested, the grading deadline is looming in my class (it ended yesterday). I have until Tuesday night, but I'm having oral surgery on Monday so I don't want to leave much unfinished work -- I want to be done Sunday night. The only reason I am posting this now is that the university's various online systems are glitchy today -- can't access the registration database and blackboard just kicked me out while I was evaluating discussion. I hope that it is fixed soon -- but sometimes the best plan goes awry!

Picked and ate the first green beans of the 2012 garden season!

A sense of melancholy arrives with August. Not because of the looming end of the growing season (since August is a month full of produce -- anticipated all year). Not because closing the pool is on the horizon. No, it's those back-to-school ads. From childhood I remember the annual August assault, although my feature that some say is a bug has kicked in* and I can't remember the specific retailers. (My heart is thumping with pride over the alliteration of that sentence.) I do remember the products in this instance -- school supplies and school clothes.

I haven't heard the ads for 2012 on the radio (I don't listen to the radio) or on television (I don't watch programs with commercials). This morning I received an email from a retailer I do remember (and often patronize)...amazon: "Back to school: Dorm and K-12 essentials."

The television and radio versions that I remember from childhood were a repetitious bombardment. Amazon emails don't annoy me in the same way, but the melancholy isn't caused by the tiresome nature of the ads anyway. No, it is the reminder of going back to school, the dread that evoked even for a good student.  Funny that I have chosen to live my adult life on the school schedule, with the workload of semester's end and depressing countdown to the first day of classes every academic year.

That surely seems lame when the charms of the schedule -- a winter break and a long, leisurely summer -- more than makes up for sleepless December and May and bittersweet August.

This morning's view from the kitchen window

*I can't perceive in any way -- hear, see or remember advertisemens unless they feature a cute animal and even then I don't usually remember the product or retailer afterwards.

 JES asks:

I am interested in why you blog, and why I (and the other writers on the websites I administer) should continue to do so, especially if our online neighborhood becomes increasingly polluted and/or pedestrian, which seems to be the case. Care to share?

 I think it always good to do some reflecting on "why" whether it is about blogging or anything else in life. I won't expand upon my comment at the linked post, but it got me thinking about what my pre-blogging journal was like.

Here's a sample, dated October 10, 1996: I don't know whether Rudy loves computer diskettes, or hates them. I do believe he has diskette radar, though. Last spring he chewed up several which belonged to my husband. One contained both the text and data analysis for his thesis. I awakened on a Saturday morning to pieces of diskettes scattered all over the bed. Bob is generally as easy-going as the day is long, but at that moment, he looked as if he would like to murder someone. Me, I think. Under normal circumstances I would have found it amusing, but since Bob didn't snap out of it for the entire day, I thought it best not to laugh. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Rudy got one of my disks. It contained a lot of personal writing, my resume, a few history term papers, invoices from my computer business, etc. Rudy matters more to me than any computer disk, so I wasn't too upset. And it made me think about technology, and how if it had been paper he couldn't have destroyed that many documents in just a couple of minutes. I can hear the whiny voice of some computer nerd saying, "none of this would have happened if you had only backed up your files."

Added July 2012: diskettes, CD Roms, zip drives, flash drives were not much improvement over ephemera. The 'net has trumped them all.

This chair is part of the set that I got for Christmas in 1966, when I was five. A notable memory from that year is that Santa left this wonderful set for me, but boxes of coal
for several others!

The finish on the two chairs isn’t in very good shape, and the table has some childish letters on top written in magic marker by a second cousin's daughter when they stayed with us. (I still remember how blazing mad I was when this happened since it is something I would never have done but after all these years they are kind of charming in a way.)

In late 2010 I gave the set to my niece as a baby shower gift. Her son was born in February 2011 and at the time they were living in New Mexico. Since last August they have been in Maine. I've kept the table and chairs in Samsonville, waiting for the baby to be big enough to enjoy the set, and for them to be living close enough to transport it. Next month they are moving to western Connecticut (yay), so on August 6 the set will begin a new chapter. I hope her precious little one gets as much joy from it as I did

 Some of the others are gaining on it, but they are still dwarfed by Little Shop of Horrors

 The marigolds are finally thriving -- rain helped tremendously!

We had rain and thunderstorms yesterday and in the night -- the first truly "beneficial rain" we've had in quite a while. Hail was predicted in some places, and the lightening was terrific at times (almost had forgotten what it is like! See here) but we didn't sustain any damage and the plants loved it. I ventured out this morning and took the top two pictures of the tomato patch. It's a little soggy (not as much as it would be if we were not in such a dry spell otherwise).  Assuming it is a dry day, later I will check to see if there are any green beans to be picked. They were on the cusp of being ready Sunday night.

I am reading Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. A friend gave me the book for Christmas (I didn't see him until early July so that's when he actually gave it to me). I had to sit in the waiting room at Albany Med yesterday while Bob was having a test (he's fine) so I took my Kindle and started it.  So far it is an easy read, almost a page turner. My only criticism is that there are too many sentence fragments. They are intentional; that's the style. I follow that form myself sometimes in creative writing, but in this book it is excessive, and the fragments often come in a string, such as: "He stared into the dark. Squinted his eyes. Searching for movement. Turned slowly. Blinked." (This is not an actual quote, btw -- it is my approximation, but not that much of an exaggeration.) I am taking the train to Buffalo for a few days next week, and I plan to finish or at least make a dent in it then, so I'll have more to say after that trip.

Something I have been intending to share here but keep forgetting, a few weeks ago I received an email at my university account* about this blog post from 2003. Myrtle's great grandnephew was doing genealogy research on his paternal ancestors, and all he could find about her was my blog post. One piece of information I got from him is that her maiden name was Pemberton.

I wanted to help out, so my mother and I talked about Mimmie's stories, went through old pictures, and checked census records, and found that Lawrence McSpirit is listed as 13 years old in the 1910 Census (the page is dated May 11). Myrtle McSpirit's dates are March 9, 1905 - February 8, 2003. This is from the Social Security Death Index.

Ma said that Lawrence had moved from Hurley to Albany for work. This was at some point after the Ashokan Reservoir was constructed. He met his wife Myrtle in Albany. She also remembers that Mimmie said Lawrence disappeared after being paid on a Friday. His body was found sometime later in the Hudson River. The speculation was that he had been robbed, murdered, and thrown in the river. His father came up to Albany to identify the body and make the funeral arrangements.

The picture is of Alice McSpirit Krom (Mimmie's younger sister). The little girl on the left is her daughter Frances. The little girl on the right (blond hair) is Myrtle, daughter of Lawrence McSpirit and his wife Myrtle. Frances was born in October 1927. Our guess is that this picture was taken in the early '30s; Frances was probably 4 or 5. Myrtle looks to be about the same age. My mother remembers Mimmie telling her that this photo was taken after Lawrence's death. Little Myrtle stayed in Hurley for a while with her grandparents and Aunt Alice.

I wonder what happened to little Myrtle; all we know is Mimmie's note, where she wrote "married and living in Albany." This summer I will try to do something I have been thinking about since 2003, which is go to the Albany Rural Cemetery and visit the mother Myrtle's grave.  Perhaps Lawrence is there too.

*It's interesting that when strangers email me because of this ejournal or the Gully Brook Press website, they nearly always google my name and choose to contact me through the university, rather than the AOL or gmail email addresses I have listed here -- and this is true not just of academic and consulting inquiries, where it might be expected, but of correspondence of a more personal nature as well.

Later: I decided to do another knotweed assault. But the guy who cuts the steep part of the hill behind our house already did it!  He's awesome. So I just had to pull the stray ones that were coming up in the curcurbit patch. It was a humid 90 degrees, so I especially appreciated not having to weed whack the rest of the battlefield.

And: the weird round bruise on my shoulder from July 4 that turned into an itchy insect bite after a day and eventually went away has returned! Not the bruise but the itchy welt, exactly the same size and in exactly the same spot. What is it with me and freakin' bugs?

Bob was sorting a box he took out of the shed in Samsonville and came across this from 18 years ago. He did not find the continuation, and it is possible I never drew it -- or maybe I did and it will appear someday. I am always delighted when I run across an old Nileston News. I decided to censor identifiers out -- never dreamed of online journaling in 1994 (although of course I was routinely using email, listservs etc.).

It is taking all my self-control to refrain from writing something incredibly mean and snarky about this post. Really -- he's practically begging for it and almost deserves it -- what an opening! Also there is so much material...(stop me). Inviting people to complain about locally grown summer produce? Are you kidding me? And naturally -- in a crowd of horse race loving neanderthals who believe Olive Garden is quality Italian food, a bunch of people pile on. Oh yeah, fresh local in-season tomatoes, zucchini, rhubarb, cantaloupe, corn, peaches -- way more disgusting than a hunk of prime rib, leg of lamb or foie gras. What a world we live in!

This was in yesterday's Times Union. I didn't read it on the web, but a paper copy was in the waiting area while I was getting my haircut.

From the story: "Gallo said he could recall only one death of a horse in the event's prior 31 years. "I can't emphasize enough how rare this is," Gallo said in a phone interview." Also "Last year, there were 0.93 breakdowns per thousand starts at Saratoga," NYRA officials said. "The industry average was two. Saratoga is perennially well under the industry average in this category."

How about a little context for those abstract statistics on "breakdowns?" (What a pathetic euphemism!) Check out this disturbing story from the New York Times if you dare:

"On average, 24 horses die each week at racetracks across America. Many are inexpensive horses racing with little regulatory protection in pursuit of bigger and bigger prizes. These deaths often go unexamined, the bodies shipped to rendering plants and landfills rather than to pathologists who might have discovered why the horses broke down."

The Capital District will now succumb to its five-week hysteria over the Saratoga season. I say, Screw you to all the participants, owners, trainers, riders, officials and patrons alike, all the pretentious hat-wearers who purport that this cruelty is glamorous. 

Over 100 years from his death -- still routinely quoted and relevant. Yesterday, John Gray's column on aging quoted him, and this image was posted by writing.com on facebook and has been shared 279 times in the past 20 hours. I think he is a cultural example that someone middle aged or old can quote to a 20 year old and they would "get it." Remarkable!

The scarlet runner beans have blossoms and are true to their name!

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?

Back in Samsonville; the wedding was nice. There were sad and bittersweet moments amidst the happy ones, of course, when the absence of Bob's mom was noted. She had a big aura.

The trip itself was OK -- traffic in the NYC-metro area is always heavy, and on the way back after leaving the ferry we got caught in a parking lot on I-84 headed toward Danbury. So we got off the highway and I consulted a map. We took Route 7, then 22, then 343, avoiding 84 and the thruway entirely! It took somewhat longer than the highways would have if there was no traffic, but we traveled through a beautiful part of Connecticut (overall a really nice state once you get away from the wealth and congestion of the coast anyway). The animals were fine but they missed us so much -- this morning upon awakening, all three were staring at us. Did they sleep at all? Or did they just watch us all night as we slept to be sure we weren't going anywhere?

Big news: General Joe's Barbecue took second place in the people's choice of the Troy Pig Out for the second year in a row! They also got a photo in the Record. You go, guys! Next year, nothing will keep me away.

More big news: The pool is finally looking good and I took my first swim on Friday. 

The last big news: it rained yesterday! At least in CT and Samsonville...hope the same is true of Castleton. Today it is going to be 90 plus. Hang in there, plants!

Buying pool chemicals, major watering, then off to Samsonville for a few days. We'll go from there to Long Island for an overnight on Saturday. Bob's youngest cousin is getting married. We'll take the ferry back to Connecticut and go back to Samsonville on Sunday, then back here to Castleton on Monday. I am very anxious about my plants, since if it doesn't rain they really should be watered on Saturday. But, I assume they will be OK. I'm also not crazy about leaving Sam, Rosie and TB/TC for a night. They are well-taken care of but they are not crazy about being left, especially at that house. You'd think animals would glory in being in "the country" but that hasn't been true for any of my pets. They are creatures of routine. At least I will get to swim and check the Samsonville plants -- I hear kale is ready and the scarlet runner beans are blossoming. Keeping my fingers crossed that no bugs get me -- and that the snake leaves me alone too.

I can't go to this on Saturday (have to attend wedding), but General Joe's will be competing again this year. Vote for them!

This will make up for the awkwardness of the prior internally censored post.

Fourth of July tomatoes about a week late

Cherry tomatoes are giving 4th of July a run for its money (both beat by a mile by Tomacchio, aka Little Shop of Horrors)

Here's the one that came up from a seed -- grown a lot!

This doesn't have anything to do with my current students. And it also doesn't have anything to do with the majority of students. However, there is a proportion who are selectively disrespectful. What I mean is that they behave differently with certain faculty. The disrespect takes a few forms; using the faculty member's first name, obnoxious test-like emails with demands, and pushing to be the exception to the rule, then checking with a dozen others to see if they can root out conflicting answers to take "up the line."

This wouldn't be as disrespectful if the student behaved this way with everyone, then they would just be a pushy and presumptuous jerk. But most don't. They do it to 1) women and 2) those whom they perceive to be less prestigious. Since I have two strikes in that game, I am often on the receiving end of the disrespect.

It seems petty to care about the name thing, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't irritate me. More the assumption that it is OK without asking first, than the act itself of using my first name -- but I have to admit that even the use annoys me. Call me pretentious. I guess I am a proponent of Domain Theory.

Now I know that I seem approachable (if weird) to students, and I want to be that way (even the weird part is OK). So not every instance of this overstep is disrespectful -- some students just don't understand the norms. They do not intend rudeness.

And the same can be true of others -- let's call these folks the non-students. Discerning whether it is cultural, cluelessness, or condescending can be challenging.

This is just a long introduction to something that has been bothering me today, and it isn't about students. I'd like to write more specifically, but my censorship filter has triggered. There is someone I've tangled with on occasion over the years. Early disputes made me opt out of too much buy-in. This is one of the reasons I like being an adjunct. Others might be in a panic over the lack of job security compared to tenure track, but that concerns me not a bit (admittedly I have a pretty secure deal compared to a lot of adjuncts).

Anyway, a couple of months ago we had another minor interaction. I was asked to give input about something that is somewhat in my span of control and also very much in an area of expertise. There are few (no) experienced others besides me. (I don't mean in the universe, just in our corner.) It's a minor, thing, really, but it is like fingernails on the blackboard -- it has to do with word choice and what is the industry standard. It would be as if you had worked in a day care and served it every day for snack, then freelanced reviewing ad copy directed at preschoolers and changed the product description from "powdered-additive cow-produced beverage" to "chocolate milk." (Full disclosure is that in my former life colleagues often had major disagreements about whether punctuation on form letters should be a colon or period, so in that corner this would qualify as a WW III - level issue.)

Anyway the proper word choice in this case is accepted by authorities in the universe, and so this was perhaps the most important suggestion of expert but low-status me, one that I thought would be accepted without question. You guessed it, it wasn't.  In response to questions about the term, I explained the convention, and it seemed this individual was mollified.

Today while I was accessing various databases, I noticed that the text I'd reviewed has made it to the homepage...without my revision. And he's wondering why powdered-additive cow-produced beverage isn't selling?

Graded the first essay assignment in my summer online class. It wasn't that many, but I am tired from it and glad to be done. I want to go out and groove with my plants!

The enrollment this summer is small -- 17 students at this point. That isn't my smallest summer class ever, but it is second. In '07 I taught it as a 12 Week all summer rather than as a 6 Week 2, and although I loved that format, it only resulted in 12 (serious) students registering. It was awesome. Also awesome but in a very different way, last summer I had over 40 (which I would never allow during the academic year, but since there are incentives in the summer, and even I (gasp) respond to incentives...).

Generally I get around 30. So I am not sure what is up this year. Winter session tamped down summer demand? The economy --who wants to fork over a grand for a summer class?

Today I had my appointment for root canal re-treatment, and as a result of the procedure, learned that I am one of the unlucky 20% -- my tooth can't be saved.  So now an oral surgeon will extract it on August 6. It's basically already gone, since the crown came off during the drilling and the endodontist didn't put it back on. (I didn't ask him for it, but he gave it to me in a little baggie -- a rather macabre souvenir.) It's tooth #3 so it can't be seen, but it will take some time to adjust. Also to once again wrestle with the implant decision. The joys of aging! It feels like such a first world problem to be too upset, though. But still! 2012 has kind of sucked...

Speaking of "sucks," check out this link from MSNBC, written by someone from Forbes. The content of the story is just common sense, but the headline! Is this already Idiocracy or what? I realized I just used that word so who am I to comment -- but then again, I am writing a casual ejournal for my own amusement with a handful of people looking over my shoulder, not something under the MSNBC and Forbes banner. Shortly after noticing that article, Bob was watching a clip from a show called Morning Joe that seems to exist solely to promote Starbucks.  Haley Barbour and Terry McAuliffe were being interviewed by the snarky host, something about an electric car company for which they managed to land support, I think enormous tax breaks or something. I'm not sure, I wasn't listening closely or more precisely, hardly at all. But I couldn't resist joking a la Idiocracy "Two A-sholes are Interviewed about Bullsh-t by a B-tch." I thought Bob would spill his tea cup into the laptop.

In a contrast with today, yesterday I had a really good day. At Golden Harvest I discovered a table of leftover spring plants. They still had some tomatoes, basil, rosemary, zucchini and cucumbers. I couldn't resist -- I got a four pack of both of the latter to put where the seeds didn't germinate. Bob felt I have enough basil (how can that ever be true? But I conceded) and I restrained myself from buying any of the gorgeous begonias and dahlias.The minute we got home, I planted my new friends, and deeply watered everything. Today the cucumbers look OK, but most of the zucchini plants are only iffy.  Fingers crossed that my luck is better with squash than tooth procedures!

The miniature red roses are blooming again. And the tiger lily is nice this year too.

That leaf near his face is catnip!
How crispy the grass is -- no need for weed whacking at present.

I call this plant "Little Shop of Horrors." (I suppose it should be Audrey Two instead, but that would be reification.)  It's not a perfectly apt descriptor though, regardless, since LSH gives me food, not the other way around.

Later: Novocaine wore off...all of the pain with none of the benefit of the procedure. :-(

Roku brings a whole host of movie choices in an instant. This can be wonderful, or it can border on too much choice -- the myriad of icons, descriptions and previews are even more dizzying than channel surfing as Bob flips through. Add to that our having only partial overlap in our preferences, and we could wind up watching movie trailers all night.

If you suspect he likes action while I prefer chick flix, you would be mistaken. While it's true that I don't care for spy movies, I really hate all movies of the You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle variety. I'm into documentaries, with historical being my favorite. He likes some documentaries, but not as a steady diet. And though he doesn't dislike action and adventure, his taste runs more to science fiction. I appreciate science fiction if it leans toward sociological themes rather than to violence.  We both enjoy some comedies, but my taste is pretty narrow. I don't like just anything put out by whomever is the current flavor of the day, such as someone recently on SNL (a show that I don't like very much in general).

Neither of us enjoys horror movies. So our usual pick is an indie drama, though recently it has seemed as if we've seen all the promising new releases in that category. Maybe that's not possible -- the selection seems infinite. But see paragraph #1, above. My feature that some say is a bug switches on. It is the characteristic that makes me not see, hear or remember commercials unless a cute animal is in them. When I am overloaded, the surfing becomes a blur and I can't absorb the movie icons and titles. I need to re-boot and start over.

Anyway, since we both like old movies a lot, last night we landed on Sunset Boulevard. Surprisingly, neither of us had seen it before. What a great movie! However...it was extremely hard to put Carol Burnett's spoof of the characters out of my mind!  Afterwards, I just had to google it and watch a few clips. Hilarious!! Have to see if that show is on Roku. That's one comedy we can agree on.

Unrelated: bite on my shoulder seems a tiny bit better. What a relief!

Bugs hate me, summer 2012 edition. On Wednesday, I noticed a small round bruise on my shoulder -- very dark and just a tiny bit larger than a pencil eraser. It didn't hurt or itch and I didn't notice when it happened. It almost looked as if I had been poked with a stick or wire although there was no cut or puncture. There may have been a tiny pin prick in the center, but I am not positive on that point. Today it looks like my usual reaction to an insect bite: larger (maybe the size of an asymmetrical quarter), angry red, very itchy. This isn't my only bug bite reaction this summer (I've had at least two others).  Despite the tag, I don't believe it is a BRS bite or Lyme rash, I just always categorize these bug bite posts that way. However, I'm watching it very carefully...

Took a little hiatus! It was too hot in Samsonville to sit inside. However outdoors had its issues as well...

The jungle creatures in Samsonville clearly believe the house is theirs -- not ours. On Saturday, I was sitting on my deck, about two feet from the kitchen window. Over my left shoulder, out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement...a brown creature. I thought it was a chipmunk, and turned, thinking "how nervy they are!"

But the movement wasn't a chipmunk; it was a snake! Slithering up the wall of the log house, in serpentine fashion. It went behind the molding near the kitchen window, in the void that is created by the rounded logs. About a foot of the snake was sticking out. My mother inspected it and said it was a milk snake.

I wasn't happy about the idea of a snake climbing the wall near the kitchen window, so after contemplating it, decided I would ask my brother to relocate it, assuming he was coming over. As I was examining the wall to determine why a snake would be crawling up it (ewww) -- I found the reason. On the opposite side of the window, also half under the molding, the back end (tail and legs) of a mouse were sticking out. It was trembling in fear.

Both the snake and mouse eventually completely disappeared under the molding. I know it is the cycle of nature and all, but I was not eager to witness a snake devour a mouse -- even given that the rodent was probably a white-footed mouse that carries Lyme Disease. After we sat there for about five minutes, the mouse must have decided that humans were a lower risk than the snake, jumped, flew through the air, landed on the deck near our feet, scampered as if a cartoon mouse to get traction, then shot across the yard, behind the fuel tank, out of the fence and under the shed.

A few minutes later, the snake's head popped out from behind the window. It shot back in when we tried to get a closer look, but after a while it came out, slithered down the wall to the deck railing, then down to the ground near the fuel tank, under the deck, and out the fence in the opposite direction from the mouse. Better than TV!
 
The plants there were very thirsty, but they perked up as soon as they were watered.

 My new hydrangea:

 I love bee balm!

 These lilies are given away in church every year a few weeks after Easter

 Have Basil Will Travel at its vacation home

Back in Castleton, my first tomatoes! Wow!

Latest planting, some impatiens

It's so hot! And dry. Very different from recent summers. Dropped in at Becker's to take advantage of the sale on annuals; got some shopworn pale yellow marigolds for the triangle in front of the house (because only one zinnia seed out of two plantings of three packages sprouted) and promptly got them in the ground the second we got home. Also got two impatiens and some catnip. The catnip is shopworn too -- but I couldn't find any earlier in the season. (TB/TC loves it.) The impatiens are still beautiful, will plant them tomorrow.

Had soft ice cream for only the second time this season. If eggplant is the Giuliano family vegetable, then soft ice cream is our official dessert.

I mulched the main vegetable garden -- and discovered that while it is not as humid as last week, it is just as hot. Those conditions meant the soil was dry, so with watering it turned into being more daily yard work than I anticipated.
 
The other problem was finding enough newspapers. I've written before that I stopped subscribing to delivery over a year ago. I'd received two morning newspapers for years, and at least one for my entire life. I expected to miss it and was sure I'd pick up a copy at Stewarts' occasionally, but as it turns out I didn't miss it at all after about a week.

Newspapers are hard to beat for mulching, so I intended to grab a few Metrolands and save them, but of course I didn't (loser). Every Thursday a packet of advertisements come in the mail, and I have been saving those since about April (somewhat redeeming myself). I pulled out the non-shiny circulars but I could see the stack was not going to be enough, even with skimping. It wouldn't have been enough in past years either, but it is worse this year because the seed germination rate was not that high (from two plantings!) so there is more bare ground than usual.

I lugged the bale of straw over to the garden, wondering if that will be the closest I get to haying this year. I only need a few flakes, probably about half a bale, so that's not a problem. But where to get enough newspaper? The Internet may be better than dead trees for some things, but mulching is not one of them!

I went in and somehow managed to locate an old, and complete, Times Union that must have been hanging out in the parallel universe. I didn't bother to look it over to see why I'd saved it but it couldn't have been a birth, death or wedding announcement, because I would have clipped those out rather than saving the entire issue. But if it was just a newspaper that had been overlooked for recycling, the sports section would have definitely been gone because I always used that section first as a pee pad for Sophie. So it must have been for historic event reasons -- the election of Obama? The resignation of Spitzer? I know it wasn't 9/11 because it wasn't that old-looking. Why would I save newspapers? I suppose because I love history and take such interest when I run across something about the Titanic or WWII.

I was in the zone -- meaning I was suited up with my smock, hat, gloves, sunglasses -- itching to dive in and start sweating. I paused for just a second when I found the newspaper, undecided about whether to get going and use it. Archivist or Gardener?

Here's the hint for which I chose.

I call this planter "Have Basil Will Travel" because it goes back and forth with me from Castleton to Samsonville.

The hanging baskets are splendid this year.

2.5 hours of yard work and I am caught up from not deadheading flowers, hacking down knotweed or watering over the weekend. No rain means more watering but less lawn mowing! I'm hoping to get to mulching the garden before week's end. Class is going fine so far.

What a weekend (which for me, just ended). My class started yesterday, but I had it ready last week so I didn't have to work on it.  The Castleton yard was in good shape too, so no effort needed there either. We went to Samsonville Friday night and attended "Deanstock," a large party all weekend at my nephew's (who lives in the house where I grew up). My childhood and lifelong friend -- met her on the first day of kindergarten 46 years ago --  took Amtrak from Western New York. She went to the party too and then came back to Castleton with us Sunday night (which was her birthday). We went out last night in Albany. She left this morning. I may need to sleep for a week...

Saturday night

I spent several hours watering and working on the plants. It was an iota less hot and humid, but it was still oppressive. About half-way through, I finished watering outside the fenced area of the yard and came 'round the bend to relocate the hose to the other side of the house. I was streaked with mud, hair wild (as much as it can be, since it is super short),  drenched with sweat -- running down my face into my eyes. I'm wearing mismatched clothes, a worn out UAlbany tee-shirt, and no bra. So in other words -- quite a sight! A woman is walking by, spots me and calls out from the sidewalk: "your garden is lovely!" That made my day. Suddenly that it was so freaking hot and that the job was only half done didn't seem so bad.

Everything is doing really well. It IS lovely. Here's a sample:

They are so fleeting -- and much anticipated, just like strawberry season.

Below, fresh herbs daily!

 This came up from seed on its own in the yard! I have been lovingly nurturing it.

 This is not long for this world! Friday is usually weed whacking day, and it would be gone already, but with no rain, the grass has not grown. Still, knotweed sprout, don't get too comfortable.

This vinca came up on its own too. I always have it in pots with petunias and other annuals (I have it in two hanging baskets this year) and it has been coming up for the past couple years either because it seeds or some roots didn't make it into the compost bin when I cleaned up in the fall. At this point there is a nice vine. Bob favored ripping it out -- he was worried it would damage the foundation. But I inspected it and discovered that it doesn't grip the cement. So I won...

Can hardly wait for the tomatoes.

I had a really good day yesterday -- and that includes finding out that I need root canal re-treatment. The reason that is good, despite the expense and unpleasant procedure, is because I was sure I would have to lose the tooth. So now there is an 80 percent chance that I won't.

Hotter than blazes. No yard work for me on days like this, aside from maybe giving an especially needy plant a pitcher of water. Luckily, because it is so humid -- that isn't necessary except in one or two instances. The second and third plantings of cucumber and zucchini sprouted and are loving the weather. Yay! Of course, haying is taking place in Samsonville today -- it is always 90 degrees plus when they are doing that! Our pool isn't clear yet, but it also isn't green. We did an awesome job getting the leaves off the cover a few weeks ago, so the water didn't have far to go to be blue. I've no doubt there will be swimming after haying today.

See below -- the things one can find on craigslist! I am almost tempted to respond to this, just because I could then find out the information about the institution...then I could contact the "nice guy" and report the academic dishonesty. Oh yeah, I'm sure "open book" = paying someone to take the exams., not a problem at all! LOL. 

I've written before that Rosie has to be crated when the dogs (or we) eat. In Samsonville, Sam has always needed to be crated when he eats when we are away, and someone else is feeding the animals, because he would take Sophie's food if we were not around to guard it for her. But he hasn't needed to be crated since he was a puppy otherwise. So we generally have a crate set up in Samsonville for him during his meals when he are traveling (he is never fed by anyone but us in Castleton).

Now that Rosie has to be crated for all meals in both houses, I planned to have her use the crate (above) in Samsonville. The one in Castleton is set up now as well, but since Sam hasn't used that one in years, he has no interest in going in it -- it's Rosie's. The Samsonville crate is a different story -- that's his. So it turns out he's decided that he's the one who goes in the crate to eat when we are there. It is just as well since Rosie does not like the Samsonville crate. (She doesn't mind the Castleton crate, which is wire and seems less isolated, I guess.) Here he is waiting for his dinner on Saturday. He's not zipped in, btw -- he is choosing to wait inside.

Later: Some of my cucumber seeds are up! Finally! Yay.

As promised! A picture of my gorgeous pink roses.

Today it was yard work, course prep and then a church picnic (first time attending; it was very nice -- a banjo and washtub bass was played during the music that followed the blessing -- a treat!). If I am not more fit at the end of the summer I will be mad! Tomorrow it's off to Samsonville, but first I will take and post a picture of my beautiful roses in Castleton! They are incredible this year.

When I didn't hear from Verizon after emailing the CEO, I forwarded the message to three members of the top management team -- and today I received an email and then a phone call. I'll be getting a credit for the webspace going back to February 2011, and she apologized for the lack of follow-up by the tech agents, and also the behavior of the one during the chat. So I'm happy about this outcome, and I like my new website a lot more than the old one anyway.

Later: finished another knotweed assault. My current plan is to dose it with lime and then water it. It should be covered so that it can't get light but I doubt that I can manage that. But the lime will make conditions unfavorable, I think. Tomorrow's yard work agenda includes weed whacking, fertilizing the tomatoes (with manure, in case you're wondering -- no round up or miracle gro in my yard), and replanting the cucumbers and zucchini, if the original bed doesn't sprout by then. Otherwise it is getting my class ready. And watering!

I planted zucchini and cucumbers in my new re-claimed bed. Fingers crossed that they thrive!

 A slightly better picture; at least in this one you can tell the one on the right is a cat!

Good John Gray column today.

And, my Verizon saga continues: Bob switched us from a landline in Castleton to Home Phone Connect in February 2011. They convert your landline to a cell phone -- but unlike a regular cell, you use your landline equipment. They give you a box that connects the regular phone to go over the cell line. You can't tell the difference -- seems just like your landline. Works great, and it is $20 per month with unlimited long distance. There was a charge of $100 or $150 for the box, but he signed us up during a promotion and the fee was waived.

That switch made us have to get a separate number for our DSL, which we did. But the bill was ridiculous -- we were being charged for a landline plus DSL, made switching to home phone connect a waste, just an extra expense even though the sales rep said it would be much cheaper. In trying to figure out this problem, I discovered the new landline phone never worked -- the DSL is fine but the phone part isn't. They sent a tech out to fix it and he couldn't figure it out, said it is on Verizon's end. After many phone calls, hours on hold, and shouting fights with tech support, they decided they couldn't fix it, and finally credited me from February 2011 to August 2011 and are only charging me for the DSL part. Problem solved and I was happy. 

 Bob loved home phone connect so much he also switched us in Samsonville. They promised it would work even though the cell tower is too far,. Well, it doesn't work, and after many phone calls, hours on hold, and shouting fights with tech support, they gave me a femocell (very cool technololgy, it creates a mini-cell tower in the house), didn't charge me $250 for the equipment if I was willing to extend my cell phone contract and get a new phone, which I agreed. It now works great and our cell phones work in Samsonville too. Problem solved again to my satisfaction.

Latest opera: Since April 2009, I have had 500 MB of personal webspace from Verizon for $9.95 per month added to my DSL account. In 2010, I was not able to update it, and technical support advised me that I needed to use Internet Explorer to edit with Site Builder, rather than my preferred browser (Firefox). That worked for a while, and then that too stopped working.  At the time (2011) I had an old computer and I did not invest any more time in trying to fix the problem. In January 2012, I got a new PC. In March 2012, I decided to see if Site Builder would work and I tried to make revisions again. I still was not able to edit the site using Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome. I have not been able to update it since February 9, 2011. On March 30, 2012, I contacted Verizon for technical support about the issue. I used the chat feature.

The support person viewed my screen and tried many tweaks, including deleting my internet history, turning off my virus protection, etc. During the course of that chat, when nothing the agent did worked, I was given a telephone number to call for Site Builder support. The person who answered the telephone told me that the company has not supported Verizon Site Builder in four years!!

The support agent tried to get me to end the chat numerous times by insisting I would get a call back and telling me that if I did not end it, they could not help me. When I took screen shots of the chat, the agent, who was viewing my screen, attempted to prevent me from saving the JPEG files by overriding my keystrokes! The chat session ended without resolving anything. However I did receive three follow up emails that were generic and totally unhelpful. I then spoke to technical support on the telephone, and was finally told it was a high level problem on Verizon’s end and I would receive a call back with the solution. But that call never came.

One April 7, I emailed technical support with my concerns. I was assigned a tracking number but never received a response to my message.  Finally, I decided to cut my losses. I created a new website with Google. When I finished (June 6), I tried to cancel my personal website from Verizon. My bill was paid through June 12, so I wanted to be sure I canceled by that date. I was not able to cancel the service (the radio button for the free 10MB of space is not able to be selected -- no way to cancel the 500 MB). I called Verizon twice and never got a person. I was on hold for 90 minutes, hung up, tried again, was on hold 30 minutes before I hung up for good.

I called again in June 7. This time I did get through after a long time. The billing department said it was a technical problem and transferred me. The support person could not figure out how to cancel my webspace and said I would get a call back. When I insisted that I receive a tracking number, after being on hold numerous times, I was transferred to a guy who seemed more competent and he told me that I would receive a call back with the solution by June 13, and he gave me the trouble ticket #.

It is now June 13, no call back and the problem still exists, so I called Verizon again. First, the agent tried to pitch me FIOS (which I would love to have but I know is not available in my area, and this is not good timing for a sales pitch). Then, he said there is no new information; that’s why no call back. His next claim, when I pressed him, was that the  issue has been resolved and it will take a few days for the system to update. Then, they will call me back by June 30. When I protested that I wanted to speak with a supervisor, I was put on hold – then told that the ticket closed today, and I will be called back, is there anything else I can help you with?

I threatened them with the Attorney General and Public Service Commission, but what I actually did was write to the CEO, Lowell McAdam. I googled, found his name and email address. I sent a note with attachments earlier today. I told him I want that webspace canceled and I want a credit going back to February 2011. We'll see! It is so aggravating though. Is no one at all competent? Forget being able to fix the problem (which they should), how can canceling an account be this hard?

Today I continued my quest to re-take the yard from invasives -- this time it was Virginia Creeper that was growing on our fence. There is usually a little poison ivy that grows in one spot but I didn't encounter any. It wasn't a great day for yard work, though, so after cutting down the vine I worked on my class. I also worked on the genealogy and immigrant roots virtual museum pages of my Gully Brook Press website. Which reminds me, tomorrow I am going to follow up with Verizon. Have to prepare myself to go berserk on the phone!

 Finally planted the window boxes! It was a very worthwhile project -- can't believe it has been more than three years, since the street was re-done, the door was restored, and Bob's surgeries, since we were able to plant them.

Too bad it isn't a great picture (aside from the subject matter, of course), but it is rare to be able to get one of all three of them together.

We had a good weekend in Samsonville -- the first of three in a row. Goal is to get the pool in shape and it will take at least that long to make a dent in the green. But we got our gas grill, the twin of the one we got for Castleton. Then beans and zucchini are up there. And it is ground zero for ticks -- ugh. I don't know how I am going to handle it. Sam got a dog tick on Saturday, and I found a deer tick on the couch Saturday night.

I've been having tooth issues again -- my original crown. Or so I thought. And I had made peace that I am probably going to wind up losing another molar. But my dentist isn't sure whether the problem is coming from my crown or from the tooth in front of it (which is strange since there is no pain and the nearby tooth has no crown and has not had a root canal; I expect it is the crowned tooth), so rather than referring me to an oral surgeon for an extraction, he referred me to an endodontist. My consult is June 20. So maybe something can be done and it won't have to be pulled? I am not optimistic, but there is a glimmer of hope. I don't know which of the minor annoyances of aging sucks more -- teeth problems or needing to wear glasses.

Here's an interesting article that calls into question whether one of the Titanic survivors featured in a Times Union article was not the survivor (who had the same name).  This is a good example of something one often encounters when doing genealogy research. Now that I have a website that can be edited, I am going to finish the virtual museums that have been under construction since my old AOL site went dead (thinking specifically of the Genealogy and Immigrant Roots pages.)

Painted the window boxes -- they came out like new! (I''ll take a photo once they are installed and planted.) Also did a little resin table that is very faded. And I spent about 2 hours on the phone with Verizon. That's after I couldn't get through at all last night. Get this, they can't figure out how to cancel the extra service. Wound up  with me devolving into nutjob, as usual. Yelled that I will contact the Attorney General's office and that I have complete documentation saved. No resolution yet (have been promised a solution by 6/12, but I am not holding my breath). The last tech said to not pay for it any more, and that they will give me a refund for the past 15 months. But, my new website is up and running. I needs a lot of work, but it is already better than my old site. Once I have my class ready to go live, I will spend more time on it.

Took advantage of the sunshine, ran outside and finally got all my vegetable seeds planted! I planted more zinnias too Also pulled bamboo grass (knotweed). A losing battle, but at least it tamps it down. I am worn out -- not from the planting, from the bamboo. Tomorrow's project will be painting the window boxes. Weed whacking on Friday? I have to wait until Saturday morning to plant the window boxes, because Bob needs to be here to install them on the shelves. (I don't do power tools.) But maybe on Thursday or Friday I will  plant some vegetable seeds in the reclaimed bamboo area and fence it.

I've been working on moving my website from Verizon to Google. It's free, for one thing, and site builder on the Verizon site hasn't worked for me in 14 months so I can't make revisions. I've wasted all kinds of time with tech support. They know absolutely nothing. The story is an opera, don't feel like writing the details now. Once I finish, I plan to demand half the money I spent as a credit to my account. Stay tuned.

This overcast, cold weather is driving me crazy! I want to be outside, working in the garden. I still could, because it hasn't been raining steadily (or even that much), but it is too risky to plant seeds when it is cold and wet. I don't want them to rot. So I am carefully watching the forecast, and planning to run outside the moment things are favorable -- it looks like it is going to gradually warm up starting tomorrow. So the seeds go in either tomorrow or Thursday. I also want to rip out the knotweed that, of course has already started to pop up. I want to plan zucchini it its territory -- just to give me the incentive to keep pulling it out. I have to plant the window boxes, which I already would have done since I have the wave petunias, but I need to spray paint the outside of the boxes. They are very shabby looking after a few years of no use. And there is the never-ending weed whacking. (A neighbor's lawn mower is droning on as I type this.)

Instead I started to get ready for summer session. My class goes live on June 11 and begins on June 25. I also spent considerable time on the Samsonville network problem...again. A while ago I mentioned that I had a poem inspiration (which I thought might not keep, and didn't) and that I wanted to detail the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of trying to find a solution for the computers being routinely fried by lightening. My latest efforts have resulted in the purchase of two serious surge protectors from L-Com. I've been unable to easily locate a grounding kit, so today I did some reading on how to ground Superior Essex N 2006 6 x 22 BR BFW cable. I made progress, but it's very confusing and I am not certain I can accomplish it. So I turned to researching (again) extending the range of the wireless signal (on the theory that technology improves a lot in a year). Now my brain is tired!

The weekend wasn't a total rain-out. It was quite nice yesterday late afternoon until early afternoon today. I did get to the nursery for the deer fence and window box plants, and today I recruited Bob to help me put up the fence. It started raining during the job, but we soldiered on and finished. Yesterday we got a new gas grill - it must be five years since we had one in Castleton - and so we could barbecue last night! Visions of grilled zucchini dance in my head. I spent the afternoon reading the consultant report about merging the Schodack and Ichabod Crane Central School Districts. It badly needs an executive summary, because the salient information could be presented in two pages. I slogged through all 72 pages, and went to the district's website to read supplementary information, but who will bother? FWIW, the partners hail from Western New York. The "study" is a strange blend of neutrality and advocacy. The assertion is that it doesn't take a POV, but in some places it definitely does, while in others the tone is distant, lacking even low-level analysis. More on the report another time, I think!

Gorgeous day -- perfect for yard work. I raked the garden, spread the manure, put up the fence poles. Just as I was about to plant the seeds, it occurred to me that rain is predicted starting tonight and for several days, with temperatures in the 60s. I don't want to seeds to rot, so I decided to wait on planting until next week, when hopefully it will be warmer and it won't be so rainy. The only seeds I planted were zinnias, near the sidewalk. I also put the extra time to good use and weed whacked. It is overcast now, and I think our beautiful weather is over. I hope to get to the nursery this weekend, since I need deer netting (more to protect against rabbits) and window box plants.