MONDAY, Aug 14: Texas "Coffee" and Gardening Talk

Midnight is my bedtime when I have to be at school by 8:30! Starting next week, I'll have to make 11 bedtime, as I'll have to be there by 7:30!

connie you stil there?

got to work 46 min ago... woke up late so no way to say hi before.

Connie, you better start getting to bed earlier!! :)

Bryan and I go to bed at 8:30pm! He gets up at 4:30am and I get up at 5am. I don't usually get on the computer though until about 7.

How is everyone? Anyone tired of our 100+ temps? I have to report to jury duty today and am worried about parking far away and walking in the heat. It seems the older I get, the less tolerant my body is of the heat.

I'm about to go out and plant some of my fall tomato seedlings. I'm hoping they will live. we sure could use some rain!

Michelle

So a friend of mine emailed this to me...it is so very amusing....it is about a guy who just moved to Texas:

June 1: Just moved to Texas! Now this is a state that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! It is beautiful I've finally found my home. I love it here.

June 14th: Really heating up; got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I'm turning into a sun worshipper.

June 30th: Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today; lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing the lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th: The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least, it's kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th: Fell asleep by the pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body); missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though - got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th: I missed Lomita (my cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got to the hot car at noon, Lomita had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag, then popped like a water balloon. The car now smells like baked cat. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat. Good ol' Mr. Sun strikes again.

July 25th: The wind sucks. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!! And it's hot as hell. The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the A/C repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th: Been sleeping outside on the patio for 3 nights now, $200,000 house and I can't even go inside. Lomita is the lucky one. Why did I ever come here?

Aug. 4th: It's 105 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $5000 and gets the temperature down to 85. I hate this stupid state.

Aug. 8th: If another wise a-- cracks, 'Hot enough for you today?' I'm going to strangle him. Stupid heat. By the time I get to work, the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

Aug. 9th: Tried to run some errands after work - wore shorts, and when I sat on the seats in the car, I thought my rear was on fire. My skin melted to the seat. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs. Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried skin, and baked cat.

Aug 10th: The weather report might as well be a recording . . . Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do anything for two months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this state? Water rationing will be next, so my $1700 worth of cactus will just dry up and blow over. Even the cactus can't live in this heat.

Aug. 14th: Welcome to HELL! Temperature got to 115 today. Cactus are dead. Forgot to crack the window and blew the d@mn windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and guess what he asked me??? "Hot enough for you today?" My sister had to spend $1,500 to bail me out of jail. Freaking Texas. What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here??

Will write later to let you know how the trial goes.....

Hey Connie - I am just now getting back to DG and checking out your reply to my comment yesterday about me planting my tomato seedlings in EB's. If you really want to check it out you can go here.... http://www.earthbox.com/

However, if you want just the skinny on it...

It is a self watering planting box. It looks just like one of those square patio planters, but has a water reservoir at the bottom and a watering tube that goes down into that reservoir and up to the top so that you can pour water into it. It is a great solution for me to grow vegetables in this awful soil that I have. There are so many rocks and not enough dirt, that it takes a lot of labor to try to make a bed. So this is a lazy way for me. Michelle introduced me to them and she had her first one this spring. She raved about it so much that I had to get one. We both planted tomatoes out this spring and she put two out of her 21 plants into an EB and those that were in the EB grew so much faster and looked absolutely fabulous. I am so excited, I can't stand it. :-)

Renatelynne - I saw your post about a recommendation for house plants. Some of my favorites are....Diffenbachia, Corn Plant (Dracaena Fragrans), Red Cordyline. There is also this white and green leafed one with pink around the edges too. I do not know its name, but if you are close to a HD or Lowes, I see them there alot.

Michelle - I am crossing my fingers for you that you won't get picked. Stay careful in the heat and try to take a water bottle with you if you remember to. :-)

This message was edited Aug 14, 2006 9:54 AM

Hey Merae,

well, I got 5 tomato seedlings planted out. I am still waiting for one tomato on my BFT to start to ripen before I pull that bad boy out of the EB. The Red Brandywine was already spent and I pulled her out. I think I planted today: Brandywine, Aunt Ruby's Green, Sweet Million, Tigerella and 444. My Cherokee Purples and Black Krim look like they might make it thru this heat until fall. We will see. If so, I'll keep them. I'm waiting for Rutgers and Porters Pride to finish the few maters on it and I'll yank 'em out and put in a Sungold. In the EB, I'll put in Julia Child and the Creole, I think. Still not positive.

As far as jury duty, I called as they instructed before heading downtown and they said they wouldn't need us until tomorrow. So I am to call in at 11am. Hard to make plans for the week with them stringing me along. My step mom is in town and I'd like to see her sometime this week. She is babysitting my nieces while my sister is at training at the pre-school she works for. Nancy (my step mom) didn't get to go on the family reunion with us b/c she had to take care of the sheep and the cats. haha.

And I did forget to take water with me outside.

I better get the house clean with all of y'all coming over tomorrow for bible study. I can't do it tomorrow in case I'm in the JD all day.

Hope you are having fun at work! ;)

Michelle

Hey Michelle - good grief. Can they make it any more inconvenient? Sorry your life is in limbo right now, that is discouraging. I am glad to hear you got your seedlings planted. You are going to laugh so hard, but here is a pic of my tiny babies poking their heads out.

Connie - Did you start school today? I hope it went well and you had a good first day...that is if you started today!

Calvin - long time no talk... Hi to you! I hope you and your family are staying cool and doing well.

oops here is pic #1

and #2

Michelle. I have to call tomorrow night to see if I need to report to jury duty on wednesday.I hope i don't have the same runaround as you do. We have people out on vacation at work so things are hectic, and if i have to spend days running around the courthouse, my boss will work herself to death trying to keep up wth things

Merae...how do you know where to punch the holes? Or do you just let the little plant poke up on the covering and then punch the hole???


And...yes, I've started school, but it was last Thursday! We have students this Thursday...can't wait to see what they're like!

Last year I was called for jury duty and for the FIRST time I got to serve on a jury! I had been wanting to do that all my life...had been in the pool about 6 times, but never chosen. The case was a 22 yo girl who was accused of cocaine possession. She had driven her FRIEND home from a bar and then when she had a wreck (she admitted she was drinking) they found a cocaine baggie under the seat of her friend's car! Did you know if you drive someone's car and something like that happens,YOU will be charged!!! Anyhow, the police said she had cocaine under her findernails but they did not do a scraping, nor did they mention it on the film we saw that captured the entire thing! The sentence was going to be a felony one (just for a tiny bit of cocaine in the baggie) so --for lack of ANY evidence--we came back with a verdict of NOT guilty. I kept thinking --What if MY daughter had done that? Would I want her in PRISON for that? If it happened like that, which I doubt???