Saturday, May 08, 2004
Downs and Ups
Kind of a bumpy ride this week. I have been torn between posting so that I don't fall further behind with share-worthy news, or NOT posting, so I don't sink even deeper into never-answer-my-email hell....
You can tell what won out by the fact that I sitting here in my hand-basket typing to you.
Downs: Mike had several fairly impressive tantrums, raging against our unreasonableness in setting up expectations for school and personal behavior. Last night I was informed he was going to PUT AWAY the present he made at school, and instead put up a sign: "No Mothers Day!" Ouch.
Also ouch, I slipped in some mud yesterday. I guess some places mud is soft, but here it's just a thin slippery clay layer (hose run-off, in this case). So when I fell, all the little gravel bits and poky last-year weed ends interacted with the skin of my lower leg in much the same way a cheese grater interacts with a nice hunk of aged cheddar.
In a fit of mine-mine, I recently bought a clock on eBay which has a glowing circle of neon AND a Route 66 shield as the face. It came yesterday, but when we hung it and turned it on, the light ring glowed for about 30 seconds, then shorted out. Yep, the magic smoke came out from inside and it didn't work pretty no more. The seller is willing to replace it, but it's still a pain.
The piece of resistance, though, was when I sat down to my MS Money program last night to suss out our current financial picture. Sadly, no matter how much I shook that Polaroid, it stayed black. A combo of errors and stupid situations (long eBay rant snipped here to spare your patience and sanity) have dumped us unceremoniously into Overdraft Lake.
I hate when that happens.
But it's not all gloom and doom and dark despair, or even most. At least we have TONS (literally) of items sitting around here which have a very good potential for turning into quick cash on our assorted internet venues. We virtuously stayed home from the yard sales today, and I've been listing away like a little worker ant on crack.
I had to retrofit the Garden of Art, Science and Technology because I did the plastic sheeting/added topsoil thing wrong, and maybe a quarter of the bedding plants quietly expired. But that means 3/4 did not (yet), and might now thrive and grow.
The ten 'free' flowering trees from arborday.org arrived this week, with no hindrance whatsoever from the PO. Some of them were kinda puny-looking...but some were not. Most of the other trees from the same source are looking reasonably perky--one forsythia seems to be an ex-parrot, but the other is popping out leaves like the current administration is tossing out lame excuses. And the weeping willow is making AMAZING progress!
The much better pump for the fishpond arrived too, so now the filter is actually WORKING, and the waterfall as well. Also I had an STUNNINGLY clever idea which is working a treat. Because I am about as good at waiting patiently as your average 2 year old, I put fish (and water) in the pond before we had a filter in place. So yeah, the algae got a good head start.
BUT while I was looking for something else in the basement, I found our old sump pump, from the (3) basement floods. It still had the hose on and everything. So I've put that down into the little pond. When I want to water the Garden of A, S & T, I just plug it in and use the nutrient rich FISH WATER! Then I fill the pond back up again with nice clean well water. So the clarity is improving daily. I am also getting some *algae eating snails* , which will help.
This year the fancy irises I bought and (more or less kind of going by my usual standards) coddled have bloomed! They are very frilly and fun! I think more may be in the works, but so far we have these:
http://www.neonnurse.net/Blogs/laviris.jpg
http://www.neonnurse.net/Blogs/whiteiris.jpg
Here's the total best thing that has been going on, though. Our oldest boy, Ken, had a little mishap recently. To no one's surprise who knows him, he was having fun doing something mildly risky--in this case, riding a bike while his wife Melissa skated along with him. He lost control going down a hill and was thrown off. Since he wasn't wearing a helmet, which he will NEVER DO AGAIN (or face the Wrath of Melissa), this resulted in a concussion severe enough to warrant hospitalization, surgery, and now a stint of rehabilitation fun.
Melissa came through like the champ she is, sending out updates every evening, keeping Kenny as cheered up as possible, and now helping him with the day to day stuff at home. He was incredibly lucky, first that the injury was treatable, and second, that they actually have good insurance. There may be a few minor changes and challenges, but it looks like most of his non-inconsiderable brain power is still intact.
Which he WILL be using from now on in re protective gear....
(An old pic from their wedding)
http://www.neonnurse.net/Pagepics/Kwk&mlsa.jpg
You can tell what won out by the fact that I sitting here in my hand-basket typing to you.
Downs: Mike had several fairly impressive tantrums, raging against our unreasonableness in setting up expectations for school and personal behavior. Last night I was informed he was going to PUT AWAY the present he made at school, and instead put up a sign: "No Mothers Day!" Ouch.
Also ouch, I slipped in some mud yesterday. I guess some places mud is soft, but here it's just a thin slippery clay layer (hose run-off, in this case). So when I fell, all the little gravel bits and poky last-year weed ends interacted with the skin of my lower leg in much the same way a cheese grater interacts with a nice hunk of aged cheddar.
In a fit of mine-mine, I recently bought a clock on eBay which has a glowing circle of neon AND a Route 66 shield as the face. It came yesterday, but when we hung it and turned it on, the light ring glowed for about 30 seconds, then shorted out. Yep, the magic smoke came out from inside and it didn't work pretty no more. The seller is willing to replace it, but it's still a pain.
The piece of resistance, though, was when I sat down to my MS Money program last night to suss out our current financial picture. Sadly, no matter how much I shook that Polaroid, it stayed black. A combo of errors and stupid situations (long eBay rant snipped here to spare your patience and sanity) have dumped us unceremoniously into Overdraft Lake.
I hate when that happens.
But it's not all gloom and doom and dark despair, or even most. At least we have TONS (literally) of items sitting around here which have a very good potential for turning into quick cash on our assorted internet venues. We virtuously stayed home from the yard sales today, and I've been listing away like a little worker ant on crack.
I had to retrofit the Garden of Art, Science and Technology because I did the plastic sheeting/added topsoil thing wrong, and maybe a quarter of the bedding plants quietly expired. But that means 3/4 did not (yet), and might now thrive and grow.
The ten 'free' flowering trees from arborday.org arrived this week, with no hindrance whatsoever from the PO. Some of them were kinda puny-looking...but some were not. Most of the other trees from the same source are looking reasonably perky--one forsythia seems to be an ex-parrot, but the other is popping out leaves like the current administration is tossing out lame excuses. And the weeping willow is making AMAZING progress!
The much better pump for the fishpond arrived too, so now the filter is actually WORKING, and the waterfall as well. Also I had an STUNNINGLY clever idea which is working a treat. Because I am about as good at waiting patiently as your average 2 year old, I put fish (and water) in the pond before we had a filter in place. So yeah, the algae got a good head start.
BUT while I was looking for something else in the basement, I found our old sump pump, from the (3) basement floods. It still had the hose on and everything. So I've put that down into the little pond. When I want to water the Garden of A, S & T, I just plug it in and use the nutrient rich FISH WATER! Then I fill the pond back up again with nice clean well water. So the clarity is improving daily. I am also getting some *algae eating snails* , which will help.
This year the fancy irises I bought and (more or less kind of going by my usual standards) coddled have bloomed! They are very frilly and fun! I think more may be in the works, but so far we have these:
http://www.neonnurse.net/Blogs/laviris.jpg
http://www.neonnurse.net/Blogs/whiteiris.jpg
Here's the total best thing that has been going on, though. Our oldest boy, Ken, had a little mishap recently. To no one's surprise who knows him, he was having fun doing something mildly risky--in this case, riding a bike while his wife Melissa skated along with him. He lost control going down a hill and was thrown off. Since he wasn't wearing a helmet, which he will NEVER DO AGAIN (or face the Wrath of Melissa), this resulted in a concussion severe enough to warrant hospitalization, surgery, and now a stint of rehabilitation fun.
Melissa came through like the champ she is, sending out updates every evening, keeping Kenny as cheered up as possible, and now helping him with the day to day stuff at home. He was incredibly lucky, first that the injury was treatable, and second, that they actually have good insurance. There may be a few minor changes and challenges, but it looks like most of his non-inconsiderable brain power is still intact.
Which he WILL be using from now on in re protective gear....
(An old pic from their wedding)
http://www.neonnurse.net/Pagepics/Kwk&mlsa.jpg
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