The Saturday Story

I slept in on Saturday until 6:30 AM. I watched the morning news shows while eating my usual breakfast, taking pills, doing tests and so on. I finally shaved and showered and left the house at 9:30.

First I went to Home Depot. I bought a pink azalea (a variety called “rosebud” on the tag), some marking paint, a brass hose nozzle (my old one seized up somehow over the winter) four bags of mulch and nine red 2x8x16 patio blocks.

On the way back, I stopped at CVS to enlarge those two photos. I was more than a little annoyed the stupid machine didn’t recognize a .png file!

So, I went home and converted mine to a .jpg file. I checked and it didn’t reduce in size. But, for some reason, Jake’s did, almost by half! So, I converted his to a .tif file, instead. That stayed the same size.

I went back to CVS and enlarged them to 8x10. They were cheaper than I thought. Both enlargements came to only $11.11! Since I have never enlarged a photo before, I was surprised and a little dismayed to see that the final prints had no border. This will mean some of Jake’s cool fade technique will be hidden by the mat. Had I known that, I would have asked him to fade it further in.

I stopped at the gas station and got some gas, then I drove home again. The cats were confused about not getting treats after the garage door opened and shut again. I unloaded everything and, after safely storing the enlargements (I’ll look at them later), I started on the new garden.

First I swept the patio in the affected area and laid down the patio blocks. I thought the gray patio blocks were sunk deep enough in the ground that they were below the level of the cement patio but, nay, nay. So, I’ll need another nine blocks to make the two sides even. You can see what I mean in the photo I took for you.

I used one of my hoses to outline the garden shape I wanted, and used the marking paint to, well, mark it. Then I started transplanting some things: one of the two hostas in the Jake’s patio garden (which will become a part of this garden), the day lily I already moved once this year and half of a day lily I split from the one in the front garden. Then I planted the azalea. I cut a piece of visqueen and put four leftover 2x8x16 gray patio blocks on top of the plastic. This will be the base for the hose reel box.

It really looked like rain, so I got all the tools in the house and checked the time. It was already after 2:00 PM! So, I cleaned up a bit and took the walker out of the car. I left for a run to ACO Hardware, as they have Rubbermaid trashcan (the kind with wheels) on sale. I used my cane so that I could fit the garbage can in the back seat. I’m going to try using a trash can instead of all these damn expensive trash bags. If it works for me, it will also eliminate all the monkeying around to get the bags out to the road every Monday night, too.

Since it was almost next door (it’s in the same strip mall) I went to Leda’s Coney Island to get a late lunch. I got a delicious bowl of French onion soup (no bread and broiled cheese, but delicious anyway) and a gyro. The gyro was great and, I don’t mean to sound disloyal, it was twice as good as the ones at the Newburgh Grill. I’ll have to remember that!

It still hadn’t rained by the time I got back, but I was beat and it was already 3:30 PM. So, I took off my sweaty work clothes and started a load of laundry. I took a pain pill and laid down for a rest.

I check the phone and I had a voicemail from Lu regarding Sadie’s granddaughter’s open heart surgery. It apparently went very well and I called her back for details. After that, we talked for a while about some of Lu’s current medical problems. When I asked her if there was anything else new and she said no, I wished her a happy Mother’s Day and asked her to relay that message to both Sadie and Stacey when they get back from the hospital. She said she would and I said goodbye.

Then I returned my daughter Melissa’s call. We talked for a great deal longer and the only reason I hung up was because I had to hang up my shirts and pants before they wrinkled.

After I got the laundry put away, I went out and got the mail. I also took another Virginia iris photo. I know I said I wouldn’t but this one is a completely different color. It’s not purple, like the ones I have, but almost a burgundy and yellow. Check it out in the Photo section.

While I was out there, I talked with my next door neighbor who was cutting his front lawn. He has a cement drive to his attached garage, but a gravel one from the front of his property all the way back to his storage garage at the back wall. So he understood when I complained about the grass growing in mine. He said the only real way to eliminate the problem would be to pour a cement driveway. But, he offered to spray Ortho Ground Clear on the driveway grass for me. He’s got a backpack pump sprayer and I told him I’d pay for the herbicide.

It was getting dark by the time I had everything buttoned up for the night. I warmed up the leftover sausage and potato mixture for my dinner. I watched a couple of taped shows, but turned in early.