Pumpkins and Weenies

There’s been a mild panic going on here about the pumpkins.

Normally I would have had pumpkin vines all over the place by now, but between the long wet spring and then World Cup I never got around to planting much.

I had the front spot all ready to go and I finally threw a bunch of seeds in there and then nothing happened.

I had a spot in the back all ready to go and planted both pumpkin and lemon cucumber seeds.

Plus I had a few volunteers which is where this photo comes in.

I’ve finally got sproutage, but it’s so late, we’ll see how we do.

This the main garden patch which is mostly sunflowers, all volunteers. I did plant sunflowers once but the squirrels and birds make sure there are always lots of sunflowers.

There’s even a cluster of sunflowers on the other side of the yard now.

The garden is pretty pitiful this year. I’ve got 3 tomato plants and they’re doing okay but I don’t have high hopes.

Mostly the garden seems to be prime habitat for slugs and snails. There are a few greens and beets. Most everything has bolted.

I did pick another bowl of raspberries today.

I’m too tired now to do this story justice so here is the short-ish version.

The worst time to talk to me is the first 15 minutes when I get home from work. I need some time with no talking to look at the mail, or email, or empty my backpack, or change clothes or whatever I need to do to transition.

Today I was thinking about watering, trying to set up my laptop, pulling dirty Tupperware out of my backpack and changing out of my work clothes when the doorbell rang.

I went to the peep hole and it was a guy with shiny hair and a clipboard together with a girl with shiny hair and a clipboard. AWESOME! My favorite.

I don’t know why I just didn’t ignore them.

Turns out they are from a security company — he pointed to a logo on his shirt — and their company was going to be doing work on the land lines in the neighborhood and they needed someone to do them a favor and keep a small sign advertising the company in the yard to help them out. They were only picking three houses on my block to do this and they picked mine! And in return for this terrible inconvenience they would compensate me by putting a FREE security system in my house. Free.

I told him to take a hike. But he wasn’t finished. He went on and on, the story making less and less sense as he went along. And he was one of those humorless wanker guys with lots of teeth, I hate to use this term because it’s overused these days, but he was a textbook douche bag.

I finally said if he had information I’d look at it and see if I was interested and he said before he could leave anything he needed to make sure I was the actual homeowner and make sure the home wasn’t in foreclosure or anything. I had to take three calming breaths so I didn’t punch my fist through the screendoor and rip his face off.

I had to close the door on his face because he wouldn’t stop talking. That guy made me mad.