Good stuff, and a few things to think about: Garden and Church Readings Edition

Hey, how about that? The Red Sox won two in a row. The Knicks did their job and all of NYC is excited and pleased. It's good to see a couple of good things in the news feed. 

This morning, there were two huge spiders in the bathroom. I did not save them. Squished and flushed, they will not be stalking the toothbrushes or the shower any more. And as the old wives' tale goes, it'll likely rain. Which, truth be told, would be okay, if it washed off the pollen that has coated everything solid. I'm not necessarily allergic to flower pollen (it's probably my roses anyhow), but it does make everything yellow, gritty, and a little itchy. It's tree pollen that gets me going in the spring. 

Today, with a little help, we'll get the pool up (I hope it's still okay), and move the damaged glider off the deck. A huge ice chunk fell on it this winter, and it's dented pretty badly. It's also seen better days in the general sense, so it'll be moved down by the garden boxes to give me/us a place to sit for a minute while weeding and so on. And that will give me a little more room on the deck for the table/chairs, etc. We have a lot of deck stuff, and not a lot of deck, so it works out. The Adirondack chairs (yeah, the cheapie plastic/resin/whatever petrochemical byproduct type) will go live on the grass by the pool. Then, I'll sweep the deck a bit, and if it rains, I won't have to hose it down. Nature is often a good helper like that. 

The garden is doing well, except some rogue critter ate my two Persian cucumber plants. I ordered them special, so that is irritating. G brought home a couple of replacement bush cukes, general type, so they'll go in the dirt today, too. Dang critter best not eat these, too. I was not even going to do cukes this year, because I can't seem to get anything going except spiky little cuke balls. But hope springs eternal. 

The tomato plants are loving the heat/humidity, and the soaker hose is a blessing. Before the hose, I had an oscillating sprinkler, which did an okayish job, but also made the grass grow faster where it hit. This way, I can target where the water goes, and it's a lot more efficient. See? I am learning, even at this late a date. 

I am the lector at church today, and the readings are from Exodus (Moses goes up to Sinai and gets God's official "you are my chosen people" talk), and of course, from Paul (the reading about it not being easy to die for a just person, but yeah, you have to)-- short readings, and pretty familiar. We can/ are supposed to take heart, I think, from the first one-- God being on our side, as long as we are not rejecting him. And even then, he might not be happy, but still loves us. The second one is more of a challenge: who would we be willing to sacrifice ourselves for? That's a tough one. Most of us would say for a loved one, but that's too easy, isn't it? Who are we willing to put ourselves out there for, who is being bullied, marginalized, traumatized by another force? 

Lots to think about. Hold your loved ones close, folks. The crazy train is pulling into the station today, and it's been heralded by a spectacle that looks like a run-down midway at a tired country fair. 

C