Wind. Blows.
Well, they promised us awful winds today…
It’s been a good day, mostly. After the usual cocoa and mobilizing exercises I headed off to the office, which is to say Village Inn, where I had breakfast (yeah, at 1:30 in the afternoon. Sue.) and wrote plenty on Annja.
Fortuitously, the battery capacity on my Toshiba notebook and my bladder’s ability to contain all the water and coffee I suck down both tend to run out about the same time. As usual when those things happen I called it quits.
I packed up and headed out. Went to the grocery store, to get some necessities such as fresh garlic. Can’t do without that.
As I parked I saw a stocky, red-faced woman wandering the lot carrying a clipboard. Never a good sign. After I turned off the car I hauled out my Pilot to write in the date and time for a cool Baroque trumpet piece they were playing on KHFM, so I could look it up later on their website.
She came right up to my window and, despite the fact I was doing something, said, “Are you registered to vote?”
“No.”
“Would you like to register to vote?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s a vile thing to do.”
She made a face and a dismissive gesture. Fortunately she didn’t argue. She turned and walked off toward Carlisle. I kind of hoped she’d wander into traffic but this didn’t happen, at least soon enough for me to see it.
When I was done getting the garlic and whatnot I remembered tonight was garbage night and I likely needed more cat litter. That indicated a possible trip to Wal-Mart, which is fortunately just across the street and a block or two down. Since their parking lot was not appallingly crowded I went ahead in.
After snagging the litter and sundry supplies I headed for the Garden section. I was hoping to find a compost thermometer, but not too surprisingly they didn’t have one. What they did have that I needed was a sprayer wand to fit on the hose. Appropriately, it’s a kind of scary looking one, all black and chrome, with a trigger. They had others but that, of course, was the one I had to have.
It’ll fit right in with the Scary Tools I got the other day. By the way, yesterday I found another use for the tetsubo, which proved to be just the thing for poking holes in the ostensible compost for aeration. I still may have to drill some holes in the sides.
Why the tetsubo doesn’t feature more in martial arts films, I don’t know. It usually only shows up used by Benkei, the giant warrior-monk who hung out with the legendary hero Yoshitsune, who was by way of one of your original bishounen. (Story short: it all ended in tears. Do I even have to say that? It’s Japanese!) The tetsubo is about the most phallic-looking weapon possible, unless you were to just go and flat out cast the thing to look like a giant Mr. Happy. In which case you’d have to call it Shiva’s Cosmic Lingam of Doom and it would be used in an Indian martial art by some dangerous Hindu sect.
Anyway … where was I? … Wal-Mart, of all places. As usual there wasn’t anybody in line at the Gardening section check-out, so I paid for my stuff there. Then I realized I had to pass through the register area to get to the external gardening area, which is a pretty goofy way to do things.
But I went on out to peruse the plants and equipment. In particular I was looking for some kind of trellis so I can plant my potted honeysuckle that I grew from a cutting - I love honeysuckle. They had various options. I decided to go for the 5′ x 8′ nylon mesh that you string between stakes. I also got two 6′ green stakes upon which to string the trellis. Then, annoyingly, I had to go back inside to the same checkout stand to pay for the new purchases.
Fortunately no one was in line. The big bearded college guy mentioned that the one form of weather he really can’t stand is high winds. I told him truthfully I’m the same way.
So I paid again and headed out into the wind. Which had really picked up. About the first thing that happened was it plucked the new receipt out of the bag and whipped it away. It wound up beneath some plats or whatever you call them of little potted plants. Fortunately I had a six-foot stick to fish it out with.
I forged out to the car with my shopping cart. And damned if, just as I reached the car, the wind didn’t whip the other receipt out of my pocket and away. Leaving the cart by the car, fingers crossed no one would steal my cat food or plastic hangers, I gave chase. The wind then carried the receipt over the parking lot wall toward Carlisle, now well clogged with early rush hour traffic. I gave up the chase.
Wouldn’t you know, it was the big receipt? So now I’m concerned about my sleek and lethal water wand. It’s Chinese, you see. And the PRC government has recently been publishing manufacturing-policy papers with titles like (I kid you not), “Pushing the Envelope of Shoddiness.” I was taking a calculated risk even buying the thing, based purely on my adolescent attraction to its appearance. Which, granted, is really cool. But now if they’ve pushed the damn shoddiness envelope too far and the thing only dribbles like … whoa, let’s just forgo a simile here, shall we? … anyway, if it’s junk, I’m stuck with it.
So anyway. The wind is really going mad out there. No puttering in the yard this evening for me. Nor are Emma and I going to get our walk, it seems. Not that she’s even going to want to go out in the backyard in this damn wind. She’ll probably make me feed her in the kitchen.
Ah, well. It’s been a productive day, anyway. I’ll write some more on Annja and some on dinosaurs, and see about getting started again on getting the house in order. That’ll be good.
Tags: annoyances, gardening, martial arts films, Pushing the Envelope of Shoddiness, Shiva's Cosmic Lingam of Doom, tetsubo, unsafe sects, wind