Another Coneflower

Thoughts on a Day:

Complications:  I need to have someone from the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control's Coastal and Resource Management office come out and flag my properties 'critical area line'.  After faxing a completed form 3902 and a copy of my survey to their office, I found out that it will take two to four weeks for someone to come out to my place and do this.  After this is done, this line needs to be included on the survey - so the surveyor will need to come back out and complete this.

Further Complications:  I have a utility pole dilemma (first, let me just say that I think they all need to be underground for just about a dozen or more good reasons - but I know, it costs money).  So - it means that based on current plans, the location of my existing utility pole might need to change - which means the current one will need to be removed and then the same pole or a new one placed elsewhere.  Elsewhere.  Which is really no where else, because there is no where else it can go because of trees.  Hmmm.  Gotta discuss this one with my architherapist in this week's session.  The whole utility pole thing is complicated a bit by the whole Airstream thing:  I want to hook up the Airstream to electricity to enhance my land yacht living experience. 

To Buy Appliances Now or to Not Buy Appliances Now Perplexity:  So, the local 'where you should go to buy your appliances' store is having a sale where if you buy three or more appliances at once, you get a 20% discount.  That sounds okay to me - except I'd have to get them delivered now.  Today I did decide on a storage facility - a 10' x 20' climate-controlled unit that is pretty close to my place (~2 miles away).  So I could get them delivered there.  I was ready to do this, and had researched the whole warming drawer thing and built-in microwave and convection oven and dishwasher capacity thing (translation:  I basically chose the one that I thought looked best - I'm just being honest here.  That's not totally true, but it's a little true).  But then someone talked to me today about contractor discounts and additional discounts if one is building a potential 'model' home (the whole LEED thing) and so I'm not sure what to do now.  I have until Saturday for the 20% off thing, and Thursday will probably go and look with a friend.

Decisions, Decisions:  On top of the whole appliance thing and the utility pole and the critical area mess, my architherapist sent me two more rough drawings today.  These plans are designed to accomodate the boat.  Which brings me to something my brother said tonight on the phone:  'You seem to always take the most complicated route.'  Which made me think, while I was mowing grass this evening - grass that grew at least six inches today after yesterday's wonderful rain - exactly why is that?  I think he's right.  But what I question is whether it is anything I can truly change. 

Feeding a Wonder Beagle:  So it's probably something I can't change (the whole complicated route thing), which is why I am now feeding the Ancient Wonder Beagle a diet that she seems to be, three months shy of the grand old age of 18, responding to.  She ate her evening meal, took a short nap, went for an even shorter walk, and then came inside and started barking for an after dinner...dinner.  Ground up eggshells (the calcium helps bind the phosphorus), one 10 mg pepcid a day, then a mixture of KD (Science Diet) with lots and lots of water and chicken and barley and sweet potatoes.  Plus a little bit of this great brand of canned food (Wellness) - in venison, etc.  I think the trick is small meals with lots and lots of water.   I don't know how long she will respond to this diet, or how long her kidneys will put up with it, but I have to say that a month ago I didn't think that she would be around for the first day of August.  Yet here she is, snoring at my feet.  Undeniably, she's the world's sweetest beagle.

Never-Ending Treatments:  The first edition to my Mother's etiquette book on 'Living with Terminal Lung Cancer' (hmmm...that sounds like an oxymoron):  Do not ask the person 'How many more treatments do you have?'.  The reality is that there will always be treatments.  Always, until they say there is nothing they can do.  Treatments aren't something that you want to have end.   

Laboratory Richness:  The lab was rich - simply rich - in glimpses of interesting data today.  Baby steps, pieces - possibilities.  The possibility that the bacterial diversity associated with Montastrea faveolata could be as high as 2,200 different operational taxonomic units (OTUs).  The discovery that a coral pathogen isolated in the Indian Ocean has the same antibiotic resistance profile as one isolated off the southern coast of Puerto Rico.  The finding that the production of membrane vesicles by our favorite Gram negative bacterium is influenced by pH, and also by the presence of metals (the latter is a maybe).  (Important) Baby steps.

Much Needed Stress Relief:  I'm really glad that my order from Lazy S'S has been shipped, and that it should arrive this week.  Their customer service has been excellent (in case you were wondering).  Now we'll see what their plants look like (I've been to their nursery before, when they had a retail operation - but I've never ordered from them and had anything shipped.  I'm optimistic though.).  Knowing that these plants are coming will keep me from heading out and buying one of these.   

~~~~~

It's time to walk the beagle for awhile, to carry her down the stairs and to the good grass under the six live oaks where it's dark and cool and where she can wander easily and smell the history of the day.

 

Comments

[Pam/Digging]

That's a gorgeous photo.

I'm so sorry about your mom's diagnosis, Pam.

[Pam]

Thanks Pam. She was diagnosed about four months ago now, and it's definitely a day by day, week by week thing - and a learning experience like no other.

Regarding the photo - I just put photoshop on my computer a few weeks ago, and am just playing some with the grayscale and contrast.