1st post

This blog will be about, well, whatever I want to blog about.

However, as I'm turning over new leaves daily, I'll get us going with a few things I did today.

M. got his cast off. As you probably know, my 4 year old broke his arm in a most disturbing way 4 weeks or so ago. This morning, my beautiful wife C. and I drove to the outpatient center, where they removed the green cast that extended from his shoulder to his wrist. They moved us to radiology, just around the corner, and got the shots. Then, back to an exam room. The xray was up on the screen, and I was worried the cast would have to go back on. When the first images were taken, the break was barely visible; now, it was very clear. The doc indicated that was because the break was healing, and sent us on our way.

A few things really bothered me about the experience. As you also probably know, I work for the particular institution we visited. 1st: there was 1 book on the bin for kids my M.'s age. One. A standard one, but just one. Variety? None. If another 4 year old visited and wanted to read it? Guess what? There'd be none. 2nd: Xray techs, the kid is 4. If you need us to assist, say so up front, it's not his fault you put him in odd positions and he moves. 3rd: 45 minutes is a long time to be in an exam room @ 8am with a 4 year old, OK? Just, OK? God knows, I know how busy we are, but OK?

I picked up 3 pocket knives today, to sell. We'll see how the old ebaying thing goes. As you know, or should, I maintain a huge collection of Case Pocket Knives. I have 11, but at least 4 times that many are being maintained for me, care of whoever found them when I put them down wherever I put them down at. I know of one in particular, my favorite, that is being maintained, or was, by Michael Banks of, at that time, Goshen, Ohio. That was a nice, Damascus steel peanut Case. I'm looking forward to getting that back sometime; it's only been 15 years, I know, patience.

Garden is doing OK. 1st year for it here, because as you know we only moved to this place in March. This morning, as is my custom, I visited. A groundhog or some other rodent had significantly disturbed the mulch material I laid around the edge. I bet they were looking for worms, I only hope they were grabbing grubs. Though, after some thought, I consider the possibility that the disturbances were created by grubs as the matured into beetles, though I doubt that they could cause that much disturbance. Who knows.

Of particular garden interest to me are the pumpkins. I've read that the male flowers bloom quite a bit before the female flowers, so as to prime the pollinator pump, so to speak. They've been in bloom a couple of weeks now, and I've noticed the "female" flowers, which have a small base instead of the long stem of the male flowers. None have bloomed. I'm looking forward to watching the plants set fruit.

Also new to my garden this year are potatoes. I've grown them in tires this year, stacking the tires as the plants exceed the height and filling the void with straw. It has gone great. 2 stacks are 4, could probably take another, one is 3, and 1 (owing, I think, to lack of sun) is in need of a 2nd tire, but it's raining so bleh.

I'll be vermicomposting soon. I have the conventional compost structure (recycled pallets) that I've been putting everything on. However, I picked up a lawn sweeper thing for grass clippings, and will have plenty of leaves, so may start putting my kitchen scraps in the worm bin once it gets going. My major dilemma is that I want to buy a commercial bin, because of the aesthetics and ease of use/cleanup. However, I'm cheap. On the one hand, I've only recently convinced C. to accept the idea of 10,000 + worms in the house; on the other hand, I'm cheap. I think that if I do it my way (dresser drawer) she'll avoid it and we'll have CompostGate II (as you know, the idea of composting was a difficult sell in the 1st place), so I have to buy a composter. But, I'm cheap.

Most poker players, I think, are. At least ones with the $600 or so bankroll I have. More details on bankrolls, grubs, pocket knives and worms as events warrant.

Thanks for reading.