Wednesday's Problems

The temperature and humidity were even worse on Wednesday. They said on the morning news that a cold front would be coming through in the early afternoon, bringing with it a good possibility of severe thunderstorms. Great, I thought, my gardens and especially my lawn really need it!

I started off the day in grand fashion. Something had ripped open the one (very full) garbage bag I had put out to the road on Tuesday night. So I spent a good 10 minutes picking up a week’s worth of smelly garbage and putting it into a new bag. Then I washed my hands and went to work.

I called ahead and picked up a pint of wonton soup and a quart of chicken fried rice from Chins (near my house) for lunch and dinner. I guess I was spoiled after eating at the Rainbow, a Chinese restaurant I found in Farmington when I worked up there. This just didn’t measure up (especially the soup). But, I ate half the soup and 1/3 the rice for lunch.

I waited all day for the rain, but it never came, which is bad as my gardens and especially my lawns are suffering. The lawn (especially out front and around the patio) is burning up!

So, after work and after changing my clothes, I went out and over-watered the container gardens. While I was at it, I dead-headed the wave petunias I’d planted. This consists of pulling off all the dead flowers and encourages the plants to bloom more. However, with petunias, it’s a bit of a pain as they are sticky.

Then I hooked up the square-head sprinkler and watered the raised bed garden. It was impressive enough that I went inside, grabbed the camera and took a picture of it. The picture wasn’t as impressive as the actual view, though, as you didn’t see the rainbow.

I went back inside and posted the picture as well as the one I’d scanned and sent Leon’s daughter, Erin. If you remember, she didn’t know that B___ and I had sung at her parents wedding.

I went back outside around 7:30 PM and dragged the hose out front to save my lawn. I hooked up the oscillating sprinkler. But when I turned it on, the water just dribbled out of a few of the holes! Damn!

Figuring it was plugged up; I turned off the water and disconnected it. I checked to make sure there were no kinks in the hose (there wasn’t) and that the water was flowing freely (it was). Then I took the sprinkler into the garage and tried to clean out the holes with a thin wire. I took it back outside, hooked it all back up and got the same result!

It was already well after 8:00 PM and so I figured using the square-head sprinkler would take me all night (it throws out a lot of water, but only in a very small area). Staying up until midnight and moving the sprinkler over and over didn’t seem like an option, so I gave up. I dragged the hose out back and buttoned the house back up.

I ate another third of the fried rice for dinner (I couldn’t face the soup again) watching some TV. I went to bed just before 11:00 PM.