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No garden pics this week — I guess everybody else is out frantically transplanting / watering / mowing, too. So you get a TED talk, via Phil Plait, instead.
You are, of course, free to post your own gardening updates here. I need to get to the garden center again, pick up more potting mix (another dozen mail order tomatoes, several mail order rose bushes, two flats of lobelia and allysum), and hopefully a couple more sixpaks of annuals to fill in the remaining corners…
Apart from that, what’s on the agenda?
Botsplainer
I’m getting ready to head over to beyond the outer, outer exurbs of Carbondale IL to visit and check up on strange middle daughter and her much older fella. It’s going to be a 5 hour drive, and we’re bringing the dog.
He’s been on hour long rides with no carsick; wish me luck.
raven
I should be able to finish the garden walk today. The boss lady is headed to “The Growers Outlet” because, you know, she needs more plants!
JPL
When I took the dog out this morning, it was still dark and something spooked him. He decided that he didn’t need to go to the bathroom but instead ran back to the house. A few weeks ago, a fox was in the neighborhood and I hope it’s not back.
Does anyone have suggestions about flowers to plant that would add interest to an herb garden. I’ve tried lavender but the area is full sun and they don’t last.
OzarkHillbilly
Floating on the Meramec this morn. Hoping to snag a bass or 2 but I’ll settle for a mess of goggle eye. Then back into the garden.
Got rained out yesterday afternoon. Not a hard rain, just enuf to muck it up. Did manage to get my melons (3 types) and summer squash (3 types) in, also 4 types of pole beans. Would like to get my corn and bush beans in. We’ll see if it dries up enuf.
Flea beetles are already tearing up the eggplants. Gonna switch gears this year and try pyrethrin on them. Supposed to work. Nothing else ever has. Only a 30% chance of rain today so this is my best shot for at least a week. Die you little bstrds, DIE DIE DIE!!!!!
raven
@Botsplainer: Lil Egypt
Baud
Pulled my back this morning and I have to work today. Yay, me!
Botsplainer
@raven:
Within spitting distance of Cape Girardeau and Cairo.
They’re apt to spot the “hybrid” badge on my Fusion, drag me out of the car and beat me to death as a filthy hippy communist from that socialist hellhole of Kentucky. My wife will be brought into blissful domestic servitude under a proper man, and the dog given a job.
Tommy
I bitch about my local farmers market here. That in rural IL it should be better. Like tens time better ….
Happy, happy stories now.
I walked pass it yesterday going to the local hardware store to pick up a few small items.
Stopped and talk to this lady. We end up talking for like an hour. I told her all the things I have issues with (not with my veggie garden BTW) stuff in my house and underbrush and other issues.
I told her this and that. She explained things to me in detail that was staggering. Not a tech person, so her advice she wrote on paper. In a level of detail I am frankly stunned by. Told her I needed like at least 10 times what I was buying from her, again not in my vegetable garden, but this year want to run a test.
She is like exactly, do it that way. Test, test, test, and adjust.
It was a good Saturday.
Tommy
@Botsplainer: To say you are in my area of the country would be an understatement. Bet I could get to your daughter faster then you. SIU is close. Totally not my place to ask, but what is the age difference? Personally I am 43. When I was in my early or mid-30s and got hit on by somebody college age that always made me feel … well wrong to engage with that.
Johannes
Sorry to repeat a bleg, but–new job offered. Involves living (P/T) Albany, NY. Any thoughts about neighborhoods, finding an apartment, etc.? All feedback welcome–yesterday I posted, but that thread had an active discussion on a hot topic, so….one more try.
For this relief, much thanks.
NotMax
Think my landlady may be losing it.
Came home after the usual Sat. night gathering to find a care package from her on the front porch.
2 cans of Vienna sausage* and 8 kumquats.
*those are going to the food bank drop-off ASAP
Botsplainer
@Tommy:
He’s 35, her 20
Tommy
@NotMax: No clue your situation.
I once had a landlord after Andrew hit knocking on the door asking if I was a live and asking if I had water (I didn’t). Unless you are not paying your bills that a landlord would do something like this is bizarre beyond words!
OzarkHillbilly
What is this world coming to? Now they are jailing naked men playing violins at courthouses. But the question everybody asks remains unanswered: “The brand of the violin was unknown on Saturday morning.” (Really AP?)
RAVEN
@Botsplainer: Had lots of friends down there in the 70’s. We’d raise some serious hell there.
satby
@Johannes: Doesn’t one of the front pagers live in / near upstate NY? I’m thinking mmix, but maybe Dougj?
tybee
@NotMax:
you should hang on to the vienies in case of emergency. they have a longer shelf life than twinkies.
many moons ago, a friend of mine was chartering a small boat out of jekyll marina. on a fairly windy morning (east wind so the marina on the west side of the island appeared to be very calm but the seas were kicking it up on the ocean side) he had a family from new jersey on a charter to go out on the east side of the island and chase mackerel.
he explained the weather situation and offered to reschedule or return their money.
he got an earful from the dad about how them southern boys were afraid of a little wind and since it appeared to be so calm why wouldn’t the coward take them out?
so out they went. easy ride to the inlet to the ocean but it got right bumpy as they turned the corner. the family was looking a bit greenish about the gills so my friend reached into the console and pulled out a can of vienna sausages.
popped the top and offered them around.
no takers.
so he proceeded to pull each sausage out of that half gel half liquid and slurp them down, letting a bit of the juice dribble down his chin.
with each sausage, the family looked a bit worse.
after he finished the last one, he showed them the liquid in the bottom of the can, little slivers of sausage with chunks of gelled stuff sloshing around in it.
he then downed the contents, again letting some dribble down his chin…
two of the family chummed immediately and dad ordered an immediate return to port.
he tells the story much better than i do but every time i see a can of viennies, i think of him.
and, one more “tidbit” about vienna sausages: many years ago, the chief ingredient listed on the side of the can was “beef lips”.
now i think they just say “beef products”.
mmmmm. beef lips.
and now i’m off to the ocean myself.
dasvadanya.
Tommy
@Botsplainer: Ugh. I don’t know what to say. I only know what I know. Less of an age difference and it still didn’t feel right to me. At a time, at 16 she was hitting on me and I ran away. When she got to 20 or so came back. I was 35. I so wanted to have sex with her. Just didn’t seem right to me. I can’t explain why exactly, but just in your gut it says your “dick” isn’t thinking somebody here needs to!
I tried to date her to be honest. She could speak three languages. Educated. Going to get a PhD. But at 35 or so and her at 21 we didn’t have much to talk about. The relationship didn’t last more then a date or two when she was to be frank “legal.”
Johannes
@satby: Actually, I think that’s right–I think it’s DougJ. Will e-mail; Thx.
satby
So if we haven’t got garden pics, how about bird watching? I put jelly out for the orioles the last few years but only rarely saw one at the feeder. This year I had some fruit pancake syrup (got them for the ex) and since I didn’t have grape jelly I put the syrup out instead, in small shallow cups. Orioles all over the place. The syrup was strawberry and blueberry.
OzarkHillbilly
@RAVEN: Mid ’70’s? If it was the mid, maybe we partied together. (I was the short skinny teenager with a blond afro and jeans that looked like they came from the reject bin behind the Goodwill store looking completely lost and totally wasted. I was usually wondering where my ride went) (brain cells are wasted on the young and the restless)
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Ha! I might’ve been there too for a while, used to go visit and party with friends who went to Carbondale.
JPL
@tybee: That was hilarious. As a preteen, I enjoyed vienna sausages and now just yuk.
OzarkHillbilly
@tybee: A buddy of mine swore by them for cave food. I always preferred summer sausage. So did the caves.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: An older brother of a buddy of mine went there. Every now and again we went down and joined him and his friends for a wkend of debauchery. I really don’t remember very much.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Here are where my family members went to school starring with my grandfather:
Illinois, Illinois, Eastern, Northern, Illinois, Eastern, Eastern, Western, Western, Southern, Southern, Southern, Southern.
Those are ALL Illinois (state) schools just to be clear …
For grad schools other places, but all in-state schools for undergrad.
I have to step out for a second, but I will forward, want to ponder how I say it, but a secondary school, private in this area, is getting the rest of our money. 3 of the 3 last college students in my family, including my brothers MA.
geg6
Another day, more cleaning in the bonus room. Which actually is starting to look like a room and not the scene of a tornado. Will be doing laundry at the same time. But first, taking Koda out to her Uncle Gary’s for some frisbee catching and the grocery store for the dish I’m making for the family gathering tomorrow and some wine. Yes, you can get wine at a grocery store in PA. But only if your local grocery store has a state wine and spirit store inside the grocery store.
Botsplainer
@Tommy:
To his credit, he’s an overgrown man-child, and not a creep. Not a lot of ambition, but no pretension either. A gentle soul in search of a clue.
He had the courage to come and meet me, and it had to be hard; I respected that.
low-tech cyclist
@Botsplainer: It’s a stretch, but I’m a little less negative than Tommy. Probably it’s too big a difference, but not by definition, IMHO.
When I was 34 and newly back in grad school for my doctorate, I got to know a 23 year old woman, and we found that we had a lot in common. It helped that she was a mature 23 – had pretty much put herself through college, worked for a year, and was now finishing up her master’s.
That was in the fall of 1988. We celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary last week.
Tommy
@Botsplainer: @Botsplainer: Good for him. Who I am to say that age difference is wrong and there isn’t true love. I doubt it. I’d want to check it out. Of course you did. And well that is that …
HRA
@Botsplainer
My uncle was 37 and my aunt was 20. A few years back they celebrated their 50th anniversary. They had a relationship everyone should envy. Age is just a number.
OzarkHillbilly
@low-tech cyclist: Congratulations.
Tommy
@low-tech cyclist: Lets just be careful, age difference isn’t that much of an issue for me. My only sibling, by brother is almost seven younger then me. His wife is my age. My issue is plunking a college age women out when you are in your 30s.
Think what you thought when you were and 20 and then 35. Maybe the same. For me not even in the same ballpark.
The Dude
@Johannes:
I lived in Albany for a time. I learned that most people who work there don’t live there. So when they say “I live in Albany,” they really mean towns outside Albany, like Halfmoon and Clifton Park.
As for me, I had a killer apartment in a brownstone right on the park, near Lark Street. I literally walked around the neighborhood ringing doorbells wherever I saw “for rent” signs and closed the deal with a handshake. It was a decent place to live, with a few funky places to eat/drink/shop nearby, but the sketch factor is pretty intense in Albany proper no matter where you are. It’s desolate at night and on weekends, especially when school is on summer break. If I had to do it again I would have probably chosen the long commute from Saratoga. That place is great.
NotMax
@tybee
There is at least one Filipino cafeteria-style take-out joint here that has a steam table tray behind the sneeze guard labeled ‘Fried Cow Lips.’
Never tried them, but imagine one of the rotating celebrity chefs of the moment, somewhere, trying to foist them off by disguising them on the menu as as ‘Beef Kisses.’
Yatsuno
@NotMax: Some of the folks I went to class with went to dim sum the night before we left Fresno. I can now officially say I have had duck tongue. There really isn’t a lot to eat on a duck tongue, but it wasn’t too terrible.
Emptying out the old place today. Just waiting on my brother to get here.
OzarkHillbilly
@HRA: It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.
NotMax
@Yatsuno
It may be de rigueur now in some more casual locations to say “Aflac!” after each nibble on that.
geg6
@Botsplainer:
I’m 55 and my John is 67. I love him to death, we have so much in common and he makes me laugh all the time. What’s interesting about our age difference is how we view the same events of the past from different perspectives. I was small child in the 60s, for instance, and he lived out the whole 60s experience, what with having graduated high school in 1965 and college in 1969. I lived the whole 70s experience, while he spent that time teaching high school at the same time I was attending (a different) high school. We both lived through all those events, but see them very differently.
D58826
I was reading and article on the NRA and gun control and the writer made to following reference to one of our esteemed (snark) congress critters –
. what a totally appropriate description
Johannes
@The Dude: That’s very helpful, and I appreciate it. Thanks, Dude; long may you abide :)
ETA: The sketch factor meaning quiet/desolate or something worse….?
WereBear
@JPL: Cosmos love sun, have airy leaves that don’t shade anyone, and come in many wonderful colors. They tend to have a long tap root so they don’t interfere with spreading herbs.
And I love them.
Poopyman
@Botsplainer: One of my ex-bosses (and friend) met her then-35 yo husband when she was 20. That was 1990 and their son is just starting to drive.
So not all stories are bad.
Poopyman
BTW, to address Mr. Munroe’s story in the video about calculating Google’s data storage. Not only are they extremely secretive about what they do and what they’ve got, but a little bird told me that they’ve been poaching young NSA techies with certain networking skills. I’ve also been able to confirm that they’re certainly aggressively recruiting them.
I’m more ‘skeered of Google than the NSA, and every new piece of info I get confirms this.
low-tech cyclist
@Tommy:
True for me too, but I was a very immature 20; didn’t grow up for real until I was 27-28 years old.
And it’s a reasonable issue. But suppose I’d gone back for my doctorate 3 years earlier, and met my wife when she was a 20 year old college senior? (The meeting part coulda happened; there’s some overlap between the courses one can take as a college senior, and those you would take as a first-year PhD student.) Would she have been that much more immature than she was at 23 that it would have been too soon in her life for us to connect? I don’t know – maybe, but quite possibly not.
And it’s that ‘quite possibly not’ that is the basis of my response. Like I said, probably it’s too big an age difference for that age, but I wouldn’t exclude it as a matter of definition.
WereBear
@low-tech cyclist: It’s truly a matter of development and maturity. Age tends to be only a number… once people are adults, that is.
And spans that are too great can be a problem. I’ve known people with more than 20 years, and it can get too weird. When someone was in the cradle while the other was doing significant stuff… it takes some flexibility.
JoyfulA
@geg6: The Wegman’s around the corner has wine and beer, mostly rather fancy varieties. They went through hell and high water to get the license, though, and there’s a separate checkout station.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: a lot of the 70s is a blur. the whole decade. But damn, we had some fun!