So, I went out yesterday and took pictures of where my garden is at right now. First off:
Pedro Potato!
Next:
The Pepper Quartet
And then there's...
The Carrot Gang
I'll leave the pics of the trees for another day. Needless to say, there are a lot of pots on my deck right now. LOL
I've had an Instagram account for years, but I could never get it to work because it was expecting me to post from a smartphone (or some such nonsense). This morning I got one of those notifications that people were following me on Instagram. I went over there with the thought that I'd try using it again. Lo and behold, it actually let me post something. Wow.
So, anyway, if you're on Instagram, I'm at https://www.instagram.com/b.e.sanderson/
I can't guarantee I'll post anything with any regularity, but there it is.
B.E. Sanderson... slowly moving into this century. Heh.
As an aside, what ever happened to Pinterest? I had an account and deleted it when they turned into turds, but I never hear about it from anyone else anymore either. Are they even still a thing?
The book is written in a very conversational style - my conversational style - so don't come into this with your Strunk and White in hand. It's for fun. It's for escape. Oh, there is a deeper message behind it all, but I don't beat you over the head with it. If you get it, great. If not, I hope the ride is still enjoyable.
Anyway, enjoy. The books are free, so why not try them? What have you got to lose?
Marketing copy:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTFRD71
A MODEL CURSE - the entire series - is free for a limited time. Now through Friday, get the whole damn, fun, snarky, paranormal suspense story totally free. (They're always free with Kindle Unlimited. This is so everyone can play.)
Hello. I'm up obscenely early for a Sunday, but that's on the cats. They didn't like last night's food, so they're being turds.
I thought about writing and editing this week. That may be a sign that I'm jones'n for it. Shhh, don't frighten the gumption away. Marketing went crickets on me. I only moved 15 copies of UNEQUAL. :shrug: Tomorrow starts a 'series bonanza' - something different I'm trying - wherein all the books in the A Model Curse series will be free for 5 days. I've already set up tomorrow's post on that.
I started reading a book. Woot. I'm about a quarter of the way through Leadership by Rudy Giuliani.
No baking. I did make a really tasty sweet & sour chicken dish, even if the breading on the chicken did go pear-shaped* on me.
On the activity front, I was a little active this week. It was mostly garden work - removing detritus from the outside beds and working on the potted plants on the deck. We did walk once, though. Go us. I haven't weighed myself. Weight: Fat
The potted plants seem to be doing okay. I'm not sure if I mentioned that 3 out of my 4 pots worth of tiny carrot plants died, but the 4th pot is doing good. I will be thinning that this week and replanting the other pots with new carrot seeds. I have 1 tiny potato plant coming up, which thrills me no end. The repotted green peppers are all doing well. All six of my redbud trees have leaves. The redbud I thought was dead is trying, so yay. Both of my remaining dogwood trees have tiny leaves. The three mystery trees are all doing really well. I'm no longer sure that one is a black cherry, but I'm getting more sure that one is a buckthorn. We'll see.
I did try to do some carving this week. I was really getting into it when the gouge slipped and I perforated my thumb knuckle. That'll teach me. Of course, I wasn't wearing the safety gloves. I hate gloves when I have to actually do anything with my hands. Of course, I'll be wearing them the next time I carve, because while I am sometimes foolhardy, I'm not stupid. Live and learn. Thankfully, it wasn't a large perforation and I'm a good clotter. I'm just waiting to be 100% sure it won't open back up before I go back to strenuous hand activities.
Other than that? :shrug: I hope you had a good week last week and that this coming week is amazing for you.
*a British phrase that I appreciate, so I'm gonna use. What's English if not an opportunistic language that rummages through the pockets of other languages looking for spare phrases and shiny euphemisms?
The saga of Brightspeed still lives. In case you don't remember, we kicked Brightspeed to the curb last July and have since continued to receive information from them. I've called and called, to no avail. I finally gave up on them in October. I figured if they wanted to continue to waste money on me, more power to them. Well, I gave up on the giving up. You see, a few days ago, we started getting calls from Brightspeed, giving us updates on the service repair in our area. After the third time of one of us running across the house to make sure it wasn't family only to see it was Brightspeed, I went to their website, found a complaint email addy, and wrote them a stern missive. Lo and behold, yesterday afternoon, we got another call about the service repair and I was pissed. Minutes after that, the phone rang again and it was Brightspeed again. I picked up with every intention of shouting at the recorded message. Needless to say, I was shocked to find an actual person on the line. She was calling about the email I sent. I explained everything to her, reiterating what was in my email and adding additional info. She was nice - and American, I might add - and she vowed to get this cleared up. Fingers crossed it actually happens this time. No offense to her, but I've heard it before. :shrug:
I don't know about you, but I get tired of dealing with the same shit every day. And no, I don't want different shit. I want a cessation of shit. Is that too much to ask?
Speaking of dealing with shit, Facebook is intermittently preventing me from reacting to posts. There's no rhyme or reason to it. I just can't do it and get a snotty message when I try. Blerg.
From the tiny acorn grows the mighty oak. Well, yeah, but have you ever seen a sycamore seed? Those things aren't much bigger than dandelion seeds and from those suckers grows an even mightier sycamore. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of oaks, but sycamores are huge. (Says the woman who just watched her husband chainsaw a 50 ft sycamore that had fallen on our land.) For that matter, have you ever seen an elm seed? They look like tiny frisbees - smaller than a dime - with a lump in the center. From those grow the majestic elm. All I'm saying is trees are amazing.
I just started reading Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani. The first chapter is all about 9/11. It's a hard thing to read about, but I guess I'm finally ready to revisit that horrible day. I never realized how close we were to losing Rudy in all that. I wish he'd run for President in 2008 and beat what we ended up with. He would've been an amazing President. I wanted him to run with Connie Rice as his VP. They would've made an awesome duo for the leadership of this country.
Okay, well, I think that's enough out of me today. What's up with you?
One of my favorite pastimes in my pre-teen years was walking down the road to the horse barns near my house and standing in the road watching those magnificent beasts. Sometimes, if I was feeling especially brave, I'd cross the ditch to stand by the fence, hoping one of the horses would see me and come over for a pet. And hoping I wouldn't get caught trespassing.
One particular day, early in 1983 I think, I was engrossed enough in the horses to not notice I was being watched. A tall, dark man with an exotic accent called out to me waving for me come over to him. Being the rural kid I was, I didn't think anything of doing as he asked. It wasn't as if he was a total stranger. I knew him by sight. He was obviously the guy in charge of the facility.
He told me his name was Itzik and he was Israeli. Over the course of several such encounters, he suggested I take riding lessons, which my family could in no way afford. Then he proposed a way for me to pay for them. I could clean stalls - after school and on weekends - in exchange for which, he would give me riding lessons.
I learned to ride English - which is different from the riding you usually see on TV. Think more 'equestrian event' than 'cowboy' and you'll get the picture. It was also an amazing opportunity to interact with the horses. A couple years into it, he paid me to clean the little house he lived in on the property with another of the Israeli workers, Ophir. Every Thursday, after school, I would walk up to the house and start cleaning. Two single guys sure do make for a messy house, let me tell you.
While I worked for this man, I learned. Itzik told me all about his homeland. He spoke about his time in the military and his life on a kibbutz. He taught me some Hebrew. He showed me pictures of the beauty of Israel. He also talked to me about his studies and the classes he was taking at Michigan State to become a doctor.
Over the course of a few years, I spent a lot of time around Israelis. The owner of the stables was an American with ties to Israel and he would bring young people over so they could gain work experience. His own daughter went the other direction and emigrated to Israel. They were all very nice people. For a while, I considered emigrating there. I even looked into majoring in Hebrew and becoming a teacher in Israel.
Yes, I had a tremendous crush on Itzik. My first case of puppy-love, in fact. If he knew, he never let on. The Israelis I met were never anything but nice to me. Itzik himself was helpful and encouraging at a time when I needed it.
Eventually, life took me on past the experience. Life took him elsewhere, too. Last I knew, he was married and had reached his dream to become a doctor. Obviously, I didn't go to Israel or even become a teacher. Hell, the last time I was on a horse was in the 80s. The only thing that lasted from that series of encounters all those years ago was my love for Israel and the Israeli people.
Good morning. And welcome to Marketing Monday. Today's offering is UNEQUAL.
