19. April, 2004 - aftermath
- How ’bout that weather? It hit 89 here yesterday (that’s 32 for you metric sorts). Hot! Then came the inevitable thunderstorms. The only real damage around the homestead is that my recycling bin is probably in North Oaks or some other inaccessible place north and east of here. Or maybe it’s in the neighbor’s yard. Hard to say with the gusts of over 40mph, but I’ll probably spend a few minutes today trying to track it down. Other than that, it was a good hard rain to wash the dirt off the sidewalks and lots of dire warnings on the TV, and that’s about it. But I enjoyed it, even the part of driving home through puddles more than 6″ deep. Update 1:30pm: While I came through the storm just fine, mom’s house got hit by hail that put holes right through the vinyl siding. Ouch. The insurance company has been called, and it should be fully covered, but I lost the morning to driving up there and making phone calls.
- I got a few comments about the post yesterday, asking if I wasn’t rushing things by planting this early, specifically the hops. The way I figure it, there’s a chance we’ll get a killing frost that will hurt the hops, but they were taking over my kitchen, and I feel better for having put them outside. If they do get killed off, I’ll put in replacements and figure it’s a lesson learned. If they don’t, they’re going to be monsters in the fall, since they got a couple-month head-start on the growing season. I’m also going to plant the peonies I bought on Saturday next weekend, which is also a little early, but will probably turn out fine. While all the gardening sites say we still have a chance of frost here until mid-May, I figure that I’m close enough to downtown that the heat-island effect means that’s closer to the start of May, or maybe into April, and I’m willing to roll the dice for a week or two.
- Steph and I went shopping yesterday. We hit Menards and Sears to look at paint colors (and I brought home about 300 chips of different shades of blue), and then it was to Bed Bath & Beyond for some bedding and perhaps a bit of beyond. The bath is okay, thank you. I had a 20% off everything coupon that they send to people who buy new homes and it worked. I “saved” something like $80, but I have pretty bedding that will help me eliminate ¾ of those shades of blue, so I can take the remaining ones to the carpet store and pick out some carpeting, reducing the paint choices to only a dozen or so, at which point I’ll buy a shade of paint that matches absolutely nothing within five miles of my house. Strangely enough, I’m enjoying the process.
- After the shopping, dinner with Steph & Tim was chicken breasts stuffed with provolone and capocollo on top of some pasta with an alfredo sauce. I’m pretty sure that’s a recipe that will make it onto the grill at least once this summer, except I won’t try to make sauce at the ballpark and will put much more cheese and ham inside the chicken (thereby guaranteeing a flare-up from cheese dripping onto the hot coals). Or maybe I’ll bring some prepared noodles and sauce. No matter what tweaks I make, it was a tasty first attempt.
- This morning, the buses return to the roads, ending the strike. This Daily editorial about the strike settlement and health care points out that this is not the first strike brought on by rising health-care costs, and suggests that the problem needs to be solved at the federal level. [daily]
- Meanwhile, in another conflict that’s biting Twins fans in our collective couch-potato keisters, Twins fans upset about lack of air time because Victory Sports One hasn’t been able to reach deals with the cable or satellite TV companies. But really, they care about us. Meanwhile, Twins fans are subjected to John Gordon on the radio. He’d be a fine TV commentator, but on radio his habit of never updating you on the score, count, or even what inning it is does not make for an enjoyable listening experience.
- Finally, in history today, nine years ago, eleven years ago, 143 years ago and 229 years ago. A bloody day, but I suppose you could probably make a case for any day of the year being bloody.
Copyright 2008, Dave Polaschek.
Last updated on Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:31:36.