And now for something completely different...Bipolar Stereo Equipment!

Before I get going, take a look at this:

OK, cue the camel:  Guess what stuff this is, guess what stuff this is.....

That's right! Bipolar Stereo equipment!  Now someone in some marketing office somewhere came up with this, or maybe it is just really niche marketing, but the fact that a company like Best Buy would cater to the manic depressives makes me proud that I turned to them to debug myWindows machine. And here I was telling the cashier about how I only use Macs, but I have a few files on the Dell (like all my MRIs, and also Chapter 9 of my mystery novel) that I should have backed up, feeling the invisible face slap of techies everywhere.  I'll have it back in a week or so (the Dell, not the face slap).

Anyway, back to the picture.  The cashier  and I did a few riffs on what was piled behind up there. Would you buy a product that would:

1. Might work or might not, depending on its mood.  May just stay in bed.
2. Play Helter Skelter over and over, no matter how many times you click Forward. "Wassa matter man? that is a great frackin song!
2.a Yeah, I dropped the base line! What of it? Lots of stereos dropped their bass and they're fine. What's wrong with you? Why don't you come to a meeting sometime?
3. Cry at the insertion of any Michael Bolton CD, for plenty of reasons.
4. Call its mother if every Frank Zappa is played and its JUST FINE, thanks for not checking in more, Mom.  Its in Zappa denial.
5. Refuse to turn off, even if you swear you will unplug it.  That's you being mean to me.
6. Do all kind of things you won't understand, but gotta accept.
7. May leave at any time for rehab, not that you care. But do not look for any other equipment while I'm gone! I'm sorry!

So you know, there are challenges, but on good days the music is truly amazing.  The cashier and I had a laugh over it, and then she said "I should not make fun of them." I told her that I do it all the time.

So while you're pondering the bipolar stereo, I'll move on the MS decision.  It involves this:

and this:

The lawnmower died today.  It didn't have the decency to wait until October when all things Martin dies.  The mower hung in for seventeen years, and had been ecstatic, I'm sure, when selected by me to complete the grass cutting of our tiny yard AND had been selected over the electric start auto drive super duper baby one that my in-laws had for their yard which was the size of South Dakota.  I thought the little Sears one could handle it and it did until this morning.  I'll take it in to be serviced at Sears and hope for the best.

Jackie was about to go for a walk this afternoon when she strolled into the front hall and saw the front door covered with ants. Flying ants.  This is the second invasion in the last month and I haven't heard a word from Vladimir Putin about getting weapons.  The invasion was thwarted, and we cleaned as we did before.  Half way through the pickup, Jackie just looked at me with her deep eyes and said "That's it. We need to go."

The ant invasion happens every year only it happened further out in the yard and I would do what I can and let nature take its course (they're flying ants - they'll fly away).  Further lawn upkeep would hold things at bay.  More trips to Home Depot, more stuff to lift and spread and dig, and I loved it.  I fall into my chair exhausted after a good day outside.  I now fall exhausted into my chair after brushing my teeth.  I can do a few things (see my recent blog on my first walker) but relax time is built in for everything.  Friday I ran some errands and wrapped up at three o'clock.  I was walking around the bookstore and at 3 PM just felt the energy go right down the MS drain.  So home I went.

This is the the world as it is now, and Jackie and I are starting the preliminary negotiations to prepare to move that world someplace else.  No worries, you can come too.  I hope you do.

5000 hits. Thank you. More soon.

I fought the lawn, and the lawn won....

When we moved here to Malta, NY, the housing development was just being finished, with fresh paint, concrete steps to your door, and nice driveways.  As far as the exterior land was concerned, you got a few bushes and plants the same as every other house.  By the time we got here, the previous owners had been so embroiled in their divorce that they forgot a few other things, like maintenance of the property.

The yard looked something like this:

We're near a lovely lake and we've got a sandy soil here (thanks, glaciers!). The only way  the place can hold any sense of green are to plant seeds and root stalks that don't mind the conditions which is also while you just keep watering.  Its taken quite a while, near 25 years, but I've think the yard has gone as far as it can go.  There are home movies of family tossing a baseball around and poofing up sand each time.  Now it looks like this:

It can also mean that the family is grown and gone, but I gradually adjusted for the temperature, added stuff where I needed, and the grass began to grow as fewer people were around to see it, except me.  When family members passed on, I added a perennial bush in their name. I have run out of space because be cause people just keep dying on me.

The guy next door has a  bird feeder all rigged up so that we get birds all year round, especially cardinals and chickadees.  I help out with the bird bath.  Our area is also home to two chipmunks and a bunny that keep their distance but seem comfortable just hanging around (the chipmunks live under my deck).  The nicest days are when the animals are out chirping and singing and calling to each other "Free Food at Dave's!"

Right now, this minute, it is a beautiful morning.  In a little while, I'll get outside and continue the yardwork, still trimming, and cutting and preparing.

But what used to take a day or two, even when I was working, now takes a week.  My legs are throbbing from doing yesterday's raking, and it took two days to mow the lawn.  There are places that need seeding, and just straightening up and the thought of that drains me now.   But last week, I came home from writing and saw how the yard needed a good mowing (and the neighbors had done theirs, of course) so I got it done.  I've told me wife that I can still work the yard, just at my own pace now which I can really see it as slowing down.

So now it looks more like this:

There are some places grass will grow, and some places it won't.  I no longer care.  I will shape it up the best I can, with help from my wife, and then I'll get the lemonade and a good book, and sit on the deck.  The bunny will stop by later on and see what I'm doing in his garden.

New York has ice and snow, rainy springs, and humid summers. But every now and then you get these magnificent days in May, June, and September.  Those few weeks are worth all the others, and amkes me glad I live here.

Sometime the MS will stop the gardening totally, and I'll get someone else to do it, or not bother and move along.  I ask this guy, sometimes: 

As I clean up his area "How am I doing?"  He just keeps on with his quiet smile. And so do I, because I got up this morning to a wonderful day.  I might mow the lawn, next week.

Over 3600 reads.  Thanks for taking the time. More soon.