Well…you know I’ve been disappointed that I have had flower drop syndrome on my tomato plants and I have lost probably 20 blossoms or so over the 4 oldest plants…that are all of the same strain called celebration and I was getting to the point that I didn’t expect to get any tomatoes at all off them…but just today, finally, I have three small tomatoes on blossoms that didn’t turn yellow and fall off…so I’ll get at least three tomatoes for all the work on the garden so far…yeah, that’s a little bit defeatist but starting them early downstairs and all the work that entailed hasn’t done what I expected it to do…and that is give me ripe tomatoes by the end of July….oh,well…but, I do have tiny little jalpenos on a few of the plants and my beans flowered today so that is cool…and I have one green pepper plant that is flowering but those have turned out to be the hardest plants to get to make fruit…I do have a green pepper that I am using to make pizza that I am going to take the seeds and plant them this weekend in the only remaining place in the garden…oh, my cukes are also starting to flower so it looks like I may have some veggies by the end of next month….and I have the other strain called better boy that are also full sized tomatoes that have finally taken off and have started to flower…they don’t look like the blossom stems are yellowing so I may get quite a few off those plants…and I got frustrated with getting my cherry tomatoes to grow after I transplanted them outside so I dumped a bunch of seeds in a hole and now I have another 10 plants that have come up but I’m not sure if any of them will grow big enough to give me fruit…but, I should get a few with almost 15 plants out there…I may be driving people nuts in August with way too many veggies but that is a good thing…my neighbors will probably get sick of me giving them away…all this is a trial run for when I buy my own house and put in a garden there…I did forget to plant herbs so that will be part of the plan for the next garden…and sunflowers, lots of sunflowers…the 19 I have in the back yard just don’t seem to be enough…and some of them are over 3 feet tall now and it is cool to watch them follow the sun…so, it looks like I am going to have some fresh veggies this year and that makes me happy…
All posts by James DeVol
There’s going to be a new hotspot…
Well….I think I bitched about this before but it came back to me riding through the parking lot for John Ball park this morning…I really think the park is going to be a new hotspot for the coronavirus looking at the hundred or so people who were in the parking lot today and none of them were wearing masks…and the lots were full to overflow so how are they doing social distancing? I was going to write about how well the people of Michigan have done with wearing masks and doing everything else to help control the virus they have been asked…enough to where Michigan is one of three states who are in the green for new infections and deaths…but I think this has made people complacent…especially in this very red portion of the state that still supports the idiot trump and have sent reps to the state government who have done everything they can to keep our governor from protecting the people of this state under the guise of “freedum” or some such nonsense….I surely hope I’m wrong and there is not enough virus here to cause a spike…but, all across the country we are seeing cases explode when things “open” so I think that is probably wishful thinking….
June 19th
Well….another 5:20 morning today but I crashed out at 10 last night so that was okay…and I got my back to start cracking yesterday which I hope will help the swelling in my foot as it has before…..it’s looking better but the price of 5 days with no cocktails and lots of boredom is a pretty high price to pay…okay, that made me laugh…no, it’s not…it’s saved me money and I feel a lot better so it’s a win to be smart for a change….I’m still trying to figure out my fly infestation from Wed…had more than a hundred flies that I killed in here but only 2 yesterday and that is a relief…we’ll see about today….looks like I’m going to be out on the bike early today with getting up early and I kind of like that…but there are more and more people out on the trail and that is getting annoying…I see many more bikers out there and I guess there is a bike shortage along with tires and tubes since no one saw this pandemic coming and with the trails being one of the only places that you can get out of the house safely people are making them less safe…oh, well…didn’t get much done yesterday but work on the lawn and the garden but I am going to start on the front door today…found out that the 4 inch flap discs that I got for 99 cents at HF fit my 4 1/2 in grinder so that will make short work of the peeling paint….there are some chunks out of the door that need to be repaired too, but I’m not sure what to use yet…might get a small can of waterproof wood filler to use since I think the plaster I have been using indoors won’t hold up even when painted…but it is protected by the porch so maybe it will…I do need to pay bills today and try to get my address changed for my license plates which I don’t understand since I changed the address on my driver’s license and you would think that it would propagate through the system…oh, well…more later….
“I guess the supreme court doesn’t like me”
Well….that statement just about sums up how the idiot trump sees the entire world…whether people like him or not is the only important thing to him, not that DACA recipients can now stay in the US, not that California can declare itself a sanctuary state, not that the second amendment can be restricted just like every other amendment to the constitution, and not that our LGBTQ friends and neighbors have the same rights as the rest of us…all things that trump and his racist cronies argued against that were just ruled by the court…but the takeaway that trump gets from this smackdown is that “the supreme court doesn’t like me”….typical narcissist thinking and revealing that everything is about trump…not the law, not rights of LBGTQ Americans, not the racist bullshit that spews out of trump every day…but it is just about if people like him or not…and shows how frickin needy this asshole is….and lays bare his worldview that everything revolves around him…not the 800,000 DACA recipients who now can breathe a sigh of relief after wondering for months if today is the day that ICE is going to show up and put them on a plane for a country they have never lived in. I am really surprised that the court ruled that trump can’t deport DACA recipients today…I expected that they would side with trump and his racist cronies and allow all of these people to be rounded up and arrested….but trump losing 4 cases this week made me so damn happy…not that trump lost, but that the right decisions were handed down and it made this country better…something that idiot boy can never say…
June 18th
Well…I guess I should have expected that I would have a crappy night of sleep again at some time and last night was it…was up so many times I wonder why I even went to bed…and I am sore everywhere again from all the tossing and turning…but, I have an ankle on my right leg again and that is small progress but progress and I’ll take it…and my foot is not too sore so I’m going to stop the medication today and just go with ibuprofen and that will help the pain everywhere….the poison oak on my left arm seems to have plateaued and it still looks pretty ugly but it doesn’t itch right now so I am hoping for some healing to start soon…cripes…I guess this is what it looks like when you get old…didn’t get a lot done yesterday with trying to nurse the foot but I am going to get back at it today and start working on the front of the house…have an idea what I want to do with the overgrown shrubs out there but I just need to get on it…and I think I may need to mow today too, but I’m not going to start on that until after a bike ride…and some more coffee first….my beans started to flower yesterday so at least I’ll have beans and jalapenos out of the gardens….I had one of the sunflowers out back propped up with a stick and some braided string but the sparrows really wanted that string and shredded it for nesting I guess….I wonder if I should just cut some string and spread it across the back yard for them to use? More later….
Darn….
Well…I am a little frustrated with the progress that my foot is making…it’s been 4 days without and cocktails or any salt and it is still swollen…but, the red color is going away so I guess that’s something…and I haven’t been able to do much around here since being on my feet makes my toe hurt and swells the foot even more so that just adds to the frustration….I have to get out to depot to get the paint I need to do the dormer and I need to figure out how to get the awning over the side door down so I can get the ladder up to get to the front of it and the trim around the windows…I think I’ll try the new sprayer on the side of the garage first so I can fine tune it before I go climbing up on the roof….had to take the screen door on the side of the house apart today since I noticed that the screen and the storm glass that opens and closes were bent all to hell and the spring loaded latches had stopped working…wonder why I never noticed it before? I think that may have been the way all of the damn flies were getting in…have been fighting them for the past couple of days and must have killed a hundred of them in here…and I also sealed up the air intake for the furnace and water heater since it is open without a flap to close it off and flies always find a way in…did I say I was frustrated? At least the bike rides went well today and I got the grocery runs in….only spent 30 bucks…it’s amazing how cheap it is when you don’t buy cocktail materials….
Bolton’s book has started to drop…
Well….even with the idiot trump’s totally corrupt justice department and Bill Barr suing him to prevent the release of excerpts from John Bolton’s tell all book on the inside workings of the trump crime administration, I’m not sure how I feel about Bolton snubbing the congress during impeachment to keep his info close so he could profit off it instead of protecting the country. I am going to relish the dribs and drabs that are going to continue to come out from now until the election…like the first revelation that idiot boy asked XI of China to help him in his 2020 re-election campaign…yep, having Russia install him in 2016 worked so well that now he is asking China to do the same thing…and what do we hear from the repubs in the senate after the sham trial where they didn’t even look into any of the evidence? Nothing but the biggest crickets you’ve ever heard…and them actually running away from reporters so they don’t have to answer why the kept this criminal in office. Oh, and the quid pro quo from the Ukraine corruption? It seems that it is trump’s go to ask since he did the same thing with Xi, asking him to buy American crops to help him win our farm states again…I wonder what he was willing to give Xi for this help? Look, I hate John Bolton with a passion since he could have faithfully executed the oath he took to protect the constitution but he didn’t do one damn thing other than set himself up to profit from his dereliction of duty…and saddled us with trump and his other minions who have killed 117,000 Americans…all he had to do was go to the congress and testify…but I guess making millions for himself is worth more than a gutted economy and hundreds of thousands of Americans dead…so FU Bolton….you fit right in with the rest of the repubs…
June 17th
Well….running about on time this morning with another night of of okay sleep and some pretty weird dreams about college projects and I haven’t had one of those in a while….my foot is gradually getting better and the swelling is going down but I’m wondering if I should continue to treat it or keep the last three days worth of medicine in reserve…we’ll see after the bike ride in a few…..had the third no cocktail night last night and that is helping with the swelling but it looks like it will take a couple of weeks at least to get it back to normal…and not being able to use any salt at all makes the food a little boring…but I did that for years and years so I just need to activate the old habits….got through two rides yesterday with no problems but I throttled back to about 80% on both rides and I’m not sure I like that too much…going hard is my thing, after all, and I would hate to think that I can’t do that anymore…I know I’m old but damn, I need to have my hard rides…I did get out to HF yesterday to get some tools that I need and got myself a new hedge trimmer that I used immediately to start to clean up the bushes out front and it works great…don’t think I’ve ever had a new one before…especially with padded handles and I like it a bunch for only 12 bucks….and I got my electric sprayer so I need to get out to depot to get the paint to do the siding on the garage and the dormer….I am a little excited that the premier league starts back up today and I am going to veg all afternoon and watch the two matches that are on…it has been a long time coming….so I won’t be doing much other than that and the grocery run this morning…..more later….
But wait, there’s more…
Well…with all of the attention given to the miraculous supreme court decision announced yesterday that yes, LGBTQ people here in the US have the same rights as everyone else and can’t be fired or discriminated against for who they are, there were two more cases that were also decided that put the old advertising hook in my head..”but wait, there’s more!” The first one dealt with California passing legislation declaring itself a “sanctuary state” that would not cooperate with the thugs from ICE who were terrorizing the undocumented population there…some with deep roots in the state and most who are contributing members of California society…doing jobs that no one else wants to do at the pay that farm owners want to pay. After the law was passed, trump and his racist cronies sued California for not spending their tax dollars to help them carry out their racist policies of putting children in cages and separating them from their families. Every damn court upheld California’s right to determine how their state will be run and how it’s tax money will be spent…but even after losing in every court, Barr kept up appealing the ruling, thinking that their cronies on the supreme court would certainly allow them to force states to be as racist as they are…but he and the rest of trump’s racist cronies got slapped down when the court told them to go away, that California has the right to control their state. The second case is more about what the court didn’t do…they declined to take 10 cases on gun control that the second amendment nuts had shopped around to right wing trumpist judges who ignored the law to rule in their favor…but after the appeals courts ruled that reasonable restrictions on the second amendment are allowed…as with every other damn amendment, the court declined to take the cases, essentially saying the appeals courts got it right in what they ruled…so now trump is even a bigger loser today than yesterday….he has lost 99% of the cases his crooked justice department under Barr has brought but that won’t stop them for wasting more of the court’s time for the next 6 months….losers all…
June 16th
Well…okay, that was a little strange…had a good night of sleep and dreams again with a solid 6 hours and I’ll take that any day of the week….and the miracle drug that I am taking for my foot has worked it’s magic after only one day of treatment and I am walking around here with no pain at all this morning…but, I think me being good has something to do with that since the swelling in my foot is down by half at least and I can move my toes almost normally today…I think I’ll do another day of treatment and then save the rest of the medicine for the next flare…I could barely get my shoe on to ride yesterday and it hurt the whole 30 miles…yeah, I’m still doing 30 miles but I have throttled back to about 75% and that seemed to help how I felt all day…and I’m trying to eat more since I don’t have empty calories to think about anymore but as I have said before, I find it hard to eat more after years of calorie restriction…again, I didn’t get much done yesterday but work on the garden but today I am going to get out to HF to get the hedge trimmer I need to clean up the bushes out front and the paint sprayer I need to do the garage and the siding on the dormer….I have to remember that I have all day to get this done so I don’t need to rush to get the rides in and the errands run….I need to just relax about this stuff and treat it not as tasks but as life to be enjoyed…but to go against a lifetime of running as fast as I can is another thing that is going take some work….like right now, I’m going as fast as I can to get out on the bike by 7:30 but there is no reason to have to rush…I want to enjoy my coffee and reading the news before I get out so I need to take a deep breath and just relax for a few minutes…cripes, everything takes work these days….more later….