All Hail Breaks Loose..........

Well, I'm at the painting stage on the arbor project and I have discovered that a quart of paint delivered via a Wagner Power Painter doesn't go very far. Plus, it's amazing how much of the surrounding landscape can get painted when you are simply trying to paint one particular project. That includes me. Go figure.

Today we harvested our first haul of green beans for dinner, and man, were they GOOD! We planted this garden, what, maybe a month ago, and already we are reaping what we sowed! The catnip bush is huge, and the cat gets a nice high every now and then. The cute little baby cucumbers are sprouting all over the place, and the herbs are doing quite well. The tomatoes, however, have suffered some casualties, and it remains to be seen if any of these surviving bushes will deliver a ripe fruit before this mysterious ailment strikes again. I hope to get some lady bugs ordered in the mail to head off any future infestations of veggie eating pests. If nano-tech wants a killer application, I suggest they design pinhead sized hunter-killers programmed specifically to eradicate whatever pest you program it too, then conveniently hibernate until the next growing season.

Then,they will mutate and kill us all, but, hey, it would have been cool while it lasted, at least for organic gardeners.

I continue to suffer this puzzling dryness in the left eye. I may have to resort to magik if this keeps up. Anyone out there have a supply of newts you can send me if I need that "special" ingredient? Wink........

THE Wife is still researching that perfect tattoo. Now she's focused on an owl, which she considers her familiar, or perhaps her "totem" animal. If anybody has any cool graphics or designs they would like to send for suggestions, we'd be pleased as pagan punch to entertain them. (pendragonhold@yahoo.com)

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This section of the post is next-day, and I went and done done it again! I have injured my back at work on numerous occasions over the years, and this time I somehow managed to pull the same shoulder muscle I injured this last time AGAIN, this time simply by holding up a paint sprayer........while attempting to finish painting the arbor.

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OK, next day again, and it seems I have injured a new muscle group, rather than the one I hurt last time at work. I'm off the rest of the week and will be getting physical therapy until Friday when the Dr. decides if I am able to return to full duty.


Meantime, we have been hit twice now by some kick-ass thunderstorms, complete with marble sized hail, which has done a number on our garden. The tomato bushes, sunflowers, and potatoes have been knocked over, and the leaves of our squash have been peppered by the hail stones. It remains to be seen as to wether or not these plants can overcome these physical insults.

AND, today while I was at work waiting to go to Company Care to check out my back injury, we had a staff meeting in which we were told that the unit was way over budget, and of course, who gets cut back.......of course, you got it; the PCT's. So now the staffing levels only give us one PCT instead of two when the unit is full and one Secretary, although they want to cross-train us to do both jobs (without any increase in pay, of course). How exactly this is going to impact me personally I don't know yet, but I have a bad feeling that things are going to get even tighter around here at the hold, as if sky-high gas and grocery prices weren't bad enough.

Well, that's the dirt that's fit to print, and then some. I'll keep you guys posted as things continue to deteriorate...........yep, that's me, always the optimist!