i really don’t like the “new” school schedule—-it feels like i’ve been back to school for weeks now and it’s not even september. wait, i have. anyway, i’ve had lots of politically incorrect thoughts that i would never blog in order to keep the extremists from judging my judgment of them (you know who you are), so there’s not much to write about. i will say that i think the whole country is in a bit of shock as we watch the news careen wildly from wars to perverts to liars/thieves. i’m glad that the Sonnystone Force Field is holding, though we were invaded by squash bugs (thousands, no kidding) in the garden and had to pull out the zucchini just as it was putting out its second crop. that’s the extent of our complaints today and i’m grateful for that.
the week’s been busy, but mundane. a friend’s mom needed 4 injections prior to placement of a pacemaker, so we set it up for 7-ish a.m. and 7-ish p.m. last sunday & monday. she’s 86-or-so and a real character. i’ve continued to walk every morning and went to the zoo for my walk on wednesday–them’s some hills, buddy. i watched the same episode of power rangers 4 times and was begging the kids to watch ice age or even honey, i shrunk the kids to no avail; a small miracle occurred when i “discovered” another tape of power rangers (the first ones) on friday! note to self: tape some power rangers. i had my mammogram friday morning and all is well. today’s rummage yielded a real find: bookshelves for the office/library, 2 for $25. oddly, the sale was at the latest home of some of moon’s patrons: i can call you betty, and betty, when you call me you can call me al. that was code, pretty cool, huh? the purchase meant moving the cabinet that was in the room to the kitchen, moving the cabinet in the kitchen to the porch. it looks pretty good already, but i’ve got to paint the aunt bea cabinet in the kitchen and do more arranging of the books.
best news of all, boy-child and his lovely wife will be visiting us next week-end for a birthday celebration–he’ll be a quarter-of-a-century. we’ll head out to the track, and i’ll make a mashed potato cake with gravy icing. or something like that.
i’ve so enjoyed being back at school. i always have more boys than girls in after-school care and honestly, they’ve all grown 3-4 inches over the summer. heat and sweat must fertilize them. i’ve been handing out icey-pops by 4 pm and bringing them inside now that i don’t have to answer to anyone but myself.
this morning at 8am there was a regular meeting of the master gardeners who take care of the reitz home gardens. this committee is chaired by a docent of the home and she took us on an informal tour! i’ve never toured the place before, though i’m obviously pretty familiar with their plants, and was so pleased and interested in it. i love victoriana—weren’t they a baroque sort of folk?
oh, by the way, yesterday i checked out something else all new: the new central library!!! i nearly had a big O!! (michael, don’t read that) it is so cool, modern, large….i was totally unable to process the experience even though i had a small list of books to look for. really. it has a cafe with healthier food than barnes & noble, a ton of cd’s, dvd’s, and audio books, a special room for current periodicals, and (this was the most stimulating part) the non-fiction section is so well marked with the dewey decimal system!!!!! i will be taking pix and spending many happy hours there.
i’ll leave you with a few images from asc. that’s patrick and blake, my best buds; that’s trey, blake’s little bro–he’s only 4 and new this year—at about 4:30 he put on his back pack and told me, “it’s taking my mom too long to get here.” 
today husband and i celebrate 26 years of marriage. it’s been said that a wedding anniversary is a celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance, and tenacity. the order varies for any given year. two imperfect people got married and it’s the promises that made the marriage. we’ve argued ferociously, still disagree on many things, but we’ve stayed true to those promises. sometimes it’s not how compatible you are, but how you deal with the incompatibility. today we’ll put aside all the differences and think of the history we’ve made, remember the folks who were there and who are no longer with us, the folks who were not there and now are with us, and look down the road and say: thank-you, Lord, for bringing us together and for keeping us together. bless us always.
amen! 
today’s the day, really, i swear….i’m going to start walking daily, eating less (that means less drinking, too), and smiling so big that people think i’m up to something. the plan has been changed somewhat since i didn’t leap out of bed on time this morning with a smile on my face and a song in my heart…everything takes time. if i never mention this new plan again, you know i went back to bed……
when i woke up this a.m. it was dark and rainy. after an inspiring sing-along at pinehaven i went out to the track to meet lana and charlie and sister d. the rain had dried up and by the 5th race there was sweat pouring off of me, or pore-ing off of me—–it was a river. i headed home with a little jingle in my pocket and couldn’t help but wish the weather were as nice as monday, when i went swimming with elliot & the twins. it’s ethan above, ian next, then elliot. but if i let the weather dictate my mood, i’ll be a slave to the radar.
husband and i traveled down to nashville tn last week to visit our favorite live musicians at robert’s western world. if you feel like you’re having a deja vu’ don’t worry: you really have been there before. this time the bass player was a sit-in who had been one of the tennessee three with johnny cash….i said tennessee three, not tennessee tuxedo. 
after an evening of foot-stomping bar-hopping we cruised back home, stopping by the beach haven winery in clarksville. i bought a bottle of their cumberland white and admired their vineyard. i’m going to try to plant some vines here at sonnystone next year and this place is a wonderful example of how it should be done.
my vegetable garden is producing a fair amount of fruit, begun by the cherry tomatoes that i’ve been harvesting for a couple of weeks. this year i put them in containers and they’ve gotten top-heavy, so i was at first just curious when i went out in the morning and found them knocked over, cages and all. it was clear that a varmint had wandered in, but i wasn’t sure what kind until the next a.m. i had left a tomato on my workbench and it had been eaten like an apple, part of the rind thrown on the ground; the cherry tomato plants were picked clean of green and red. that screams raccoon. it’s an every evening occurrence now and i’m tempted to just pull in the cherries, but hate to. i harvested my green beans and am still getting plenty of squash. the eggplant has a couple of fruits and my sweet banana peppers are coming on strong, but the bell peppers are lagging behind, as usual. i haven’t had to water too much until this week and am now covered with chigger bites from the effort.
the flower/rose garden was invaded by a mole last night—-right through the lavender and sedum. it looks bad, but really the plants are fine. 9 out of the 10 rosebushes are flourishing, but the honeydew sage has grown too big for its spot and i’m ready to harvest and hang it out to dry. i’ve been conscientiously drowning the japanese beetles and spraying sevin regularly. ferns and flowers on the porch and east garden are fine and have been relatively little work.
i’ve re-upped to work the after-school-care job up at the lutheran school in darmstadt, after negotiating a pay-raise and sam’s card. we’ll start back 8/16, so i’m squeezing any summertime travel/activities into the next couple of weeks. it’s been so hot (news to you, huh?) that i’ve been doing very little and am actually looking forward to having a more structured day.
oh, obviously our sgt. wink feels a little let-down that the garden was still invaded, but he thought that masked man was the lone ranger…..and that the mole was tonto. he’s really more concerned about the gorillas as his expertise is in gorilla warfare.