This was a very nice day

It started early, somewhere around 6am when I awoke from a pleasing dream. The light was strong outside and the sun was a tryin' to get here. As usual, the three boys were waiting at the bottom of the stairs, talking about their dreams and their excitement in starting a new day too. Of course they get fed first and then I washed up and dressed in the hallway. Good day to wear my new shirt I decided and as I get ready for bed, that was a great choice. It's one of those loggers pullover shirts with the zipper about half way down and heavy fabric and long tails. Leave it out of the jeans cause it is long enough to sit on.

Since I had bacon and eggs yesterday, today seemed like a yogurt, juice and pineapple morning with just a bite or two of that great meatloaf that Roth's makes. Nothing like cold meat loaf to help the day get going. It is good to chow it slowly though. Oh yea, needed a glass of water too.

The paper did not hold much interest for me this morning. I decided to read it later if there was time. The comics did catch my eye though and for once For Better Or Worse pulled my heart strings with thoughts of Karen. In this strip, the father comes into the room, says nothing, gives his wife a big kiss and then says "it is you I love" and leaves. Such a nice moment and in a cheesy comic strip.

Before much else could happen, I was outside looking for stuff to change. I weeded here and there, walked around the place and noticed the dew was leaving the grass and it was going to be a great day. Somewhere around noon, a neighbor's alarm went off and did not stop. Thinking it might be something I could help with, I left to investigate. It was Jensen's - Bill took off on a Sunday drive with Christine and no one knew their number. Talked to Keith and Joanie some - Joanie said it was my day for Aspargas! My first! Keith is doing fine and the visit reminded me of how much we are like them - similar tastes, similar values, similar chioces. Just can't seem to get close to them.

After eating a fine lunch of meatloaf sandwich stuffed with lettuce, it was off on the mower for a few hours only to be driven back to the barn around 4 or so. Gave me a chance to do some barn cleaning and sweeping - no limit to the work that shop can use - and some more pruning on that bird planted apple tree by the shop. Off to Joanie and Smitty's to get the Aspagas - it was all picked and everything. Such a treat. Smitty showed me where the patch was and how to get it in shape. He just bought a fork lift - such a convenient thing. Then the sun broke through again and back on the mower till 7pm. Such great fun although the grass is a little tall. It is so hard to keep up with five acres of mowing this time of year.

Dinner was excellent - best there was since K left. Aspargas cooked just right, a huge salad with mixed greens and carrots and all the stuff that makes a salad good, a little satchel of meatloaf (almost gone now) and a big bowl of tomato soup. Very pleasing dinner and then I watched "The Lake House " - kind of sappy and definitely a chic flick but still worth the hour. The best part of the evening is sitting on the couch with the three boys snoozing around me. They have learned how to get along here without complaining and ever so often have to be bad to get a little attention. Lately the 'badness' has been in emptying pieces of paper out of small waste baskets - something I find amusing and certainly tolerable. I mean, if that is as bad as they need to be, then I can certainly put up with it.

And now to bed.

Lets celebrate - the vineyard is planted

Well, it is almost all planted. There was quite a tussle when Karen remembered that Emmy Domes wanted tight bunched red grapes and set aside two plants for her. Ryan and I and Jaden thought she should just wait but knew Karen was right. Also you see, the row we were planted needed at least six more plants to get done and removing these two ... well, it just didn't seem right.

And when we were done, we had over 72 new young plants in the ground. What made it so much fun was that Karen was so into it, Ryan and Jaden made sure they were there with their shovels and can-do attitude, I was almost over my cold/flu thing, the day was wondrously beautiful, the ground was ready, it was about the last weekend we could plant without being crazy late with planting and, and, and - everything was a few degrees past fine!

We still have to do a lot of stuff this spring, like get wire and anchors and dig holes and put in the black locust posts we cut (more on that later), prune the old grapes so we have more stock for next spring planting, water in the plants, put straw on the last row, etc.

By taking this piece of ground in hand and changing it in 06-07, we created another set of stories, another family memory, another thing to take care of as much as we want and something for someone in the future to remove and renew or enjoy and maintain.

What were the blue things on his tie?

All during the "speech to the nation" tonight, I couldn't stop looking at George's blue tie and wondering what the symbols were. Could they be some symbol that only Republicans can understand - that everything is alright really - or some symbol that only terrorists can understand, some hidden message like "bring it on" in terrorist symbols. Or could they be symbols that only millionaires understand, one of the secret symbols of the millionaire club. I may never know.