Life of Wry

Oh hells bells. I hate getting to the end of the day and realizing I have no pic to post. How is one to provide commentary on no posted picture?

These are the problems to have, I guess. 

I will have blog reader mutiny if I post one more backyard garden project shot (especially as the project continues and there are more photos, no doubt, to come), or another baseball shot (that well will never run dry).  But, have I worn out my welcome on Peter guitar shots? If not, here’s one from a few days ago:

Obviously, I love this picture. He wasn’t even aware I’d taken it. Low light produces terrible iPhone pictures, but the photo is clear enough and speaks for itself: kid on bed (not his), playing guitar. No caption needed. 

Were there a good way to document my day’s highlight through pictures, I may have uploaded one, but no pictures.. the highlight of my day was a meeting.  The meeting was with a guy named Dave who asked me a few months ago to be a reader on the second draft of his third novel.  While the first two have not (yet) been published, he feels his third might be a breakthrough. I have no literary credentials, but I was pretty blown away by this book and agree that it just may get some legs. I was especially flattered to be asked to weigh in. I get so much out of reading others’ writing, it inspires me no end.

Anyway, the highlight of the day was what Dave told me about my review. The short of it, he found it incredibly valuable, insightful, thorough.. and he went on and on about it. I even believed him. I felt like I had done a good job on my comments and it felt great that he appreciated them. 

That’s it. Genuine gratitude for a job well done.    

So, recall, that after the plumbers put back all the dirt they’d dug out of the sewer trench, we were actually short sufficient dirt. You can see the trench running vertically.. about 6-8″ short of the top, over about a 40′ trench:

We got 3 yards of top soil to fill it in, a process made difficult by the rain which turned a lot of heavy dirt into heavier mud. But fill and spread we did:

It sat there like that through a couple more major rain storms, and today, a week and a half later, we were able to press on. First step, re-lay the irrigation:

Then re-planted 50+ grasses (that’d been removed so the plumbers could get access to the sewer line, and gathered into a sad huddle along the north side of the yard for 5+ weeks) and, finally, scattered the mulch.

WE ARE BACK IN BUSINESS!

Back to where we were before sewer line failure.

Derek, Frances and I added up to 21 person hours to do the job.

And BONUS: The 5 yards of mulch not only covered the mound, but nearly every other bed in both the front and back yards.

Next step: the flagstone path.  Grading begins tomorrow… off to order 3 more yards of top soil…Oh, and flagstone.

Big doings on A Street.  This pile of mulch–delivered today for a project tomorrow–signifies progress in the backyard.  That is, if all goes well, Frances, her young/strong/fast-working friend Derek, and I will 1) re-lay a few hundred feet of irrigation (the newly-laid irrigation we had to move so the plumbers could dig a trench down the center of our backyard last month; 2) re-plant 50-75 plants, mostly various varieties of grasses, native and otherwise (which also had to get out of harm’s way during the sewer replacement project); and then 3) scatter the above mulch throughout. 

By the end of the day we should be 1) done, 2) tired.  

Check back in tomorrow for an update.  

I didn’t take any pictures today; it was one of those get a million things done days, and more besides. Love when that happens, especially when unplanned. I am looking at a very clean desk, literally and metaphorically, as they say. I’m going to try and appreciate this feeling. It can’t last.

I can say this about today: it was a two black widow day.  Not a metaphor.

i’d gotten a hankering to deal with a bunch of plastic bins I’d long ago emptied and left to collect dust (and spiders, apparently) on the back porch. I suspected I might find one or two black widows, and I did, in fact, find one. It freaked me out, because I’d been careful to look, and just missed her. I’d been handling the bin a lot, moving it here and there. I’d even power-hosed the bins and felt confident I’d dislodged anything that might be hiding. But, she was cagy, and remained perfectly hidden… unbeknownst to me.. until it was knownst. The only way to eliminate her, I guess, was to stab her with a very large screwdriver. It was brutal. Jim did it. Yay Jim.

A little bit later, I was clearing out a box of ping pong paraphernalia and found another black widow. Jim was unavailable this time, so I disposed of it myself. My chosen weapon was a hammer which I used totally hastily and recklessly, nervous as I was. The hammer head was not much larger than the spider. It was extremely unsettling; I’m not at all cut out for this sort of thing.

I could also talk about how I splashed a large amount of standing-water scum (very smelly) on myself (it was quite the move), but I’d rather talk about this guy:

Love him so, so much.  Every day he warms my heart; he can be incredibly endearing. While I wish things would just s l o w down, I am impressed with the young man he is becoming. He’ll kill me if I say much more than that (no screwdrivers or hammers, however, I’m sure), so I’ll save the details for a less public place.

Thanks to Wes Young for this cute picture. No, I have no idea what he’s doing with his fingers.. but I do love the expression.

No particular rise time, a morning walk with Sabrina and Bella dog, great talk with David at farmer’s market then some leisurely time on a bench in the gardens of Central Park with Jim. A bit of writing, a couple phone calls this early afternoon, followed by a hopefully fierce workout at the gym, and then a walk downtown with Paul and Janet and Jim for dinner.  Jim’s takin’ a nap, Peter’s at a baseball practice.  The sun is shining bright. All is well.  

If there’s a hair out of place, it was the unfortunate fact that the pastry vendor ran out of Elephant Ears and we had to deliver a cherry turnover instead to the boy who would be served. He’s got us well trained.  

These are some kinda posies growing in an urn on our front porch.  

Here is yet another photo of the ditch (really big ditch). It’s really called the Pacific Flyway, or the Yolo Bypass.  But neither works as well with my title.

Just being lazy; it’s quarter to midnight, I’m pooped, I took only one photo today, and this is it.. again from a moving vehicle. Again on our way to a baseball game.

This was the one day this week we expected no rain threat, and yet…   rained liked crazy.  By the time the game started, the rain had stopped, however.  Only a few sprinkles here and there.

Lost a well fought game to a powerhouse team.  It was largely a pitcher’s duel.  No shame in a 3-1 defeat.  Not used to Peter being a DH. But he did a good job: managed to come up with one of only three Davis hits. But it came in an otherwise unproductive inning. Our only score came later in the game when, with bases loaded, our batter got hit by a pitch. Goofy… a HBP RBI.

Anyway.  Storm clouds.

… another baseball game under jaw-dropping skies.

This one’s looking east while waiting for the boys to take the home field; Community Park and the bicycle overcrossing just beyond. 

This one’s looking west and shows the super saturated infield, only barely playable, given the storms earlier in the week. Yesterday, there was standing water everywhere; nobody thought we’d play today, but the boys went to work with pumps, bucket brigades, and rakes.

Coach Creely is exchanging line-ups with the coach from Monterey Trail High School, players in/around dugout.

Today’s game was the second of three games this week (one more tomorrow).  It was also their third mercy-decision game in a row. They are playing well and having a good time.  All you can ask for.

It was this kind of day…

Perfect for this…

That is Peter in his wind-up on the mound for Davis.  The JV team won its game 11-1, second mercy decision in a row.  They are on a roll!

THAT’s what I’m talking about!

Rain. Backyard. Bridge.

As I write this, it’s raining like a sonofagun. Not exactly how I would have planned it, but I spent a fair amount of time today out IN the rain … wet on my walk with Vicki, wet on my walk downtown for lunch with Jim, wet as I ran a couple of errands, wet as I met outside with Ruben to talk about laying a new flagstone path around the backyard…  I’d have far preferred staying inside and listening to the rain while drinking tea..

But I’m just so grateful for the rain, even on April 1st.