Life as a Spectator Sport

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Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Spring showers--err, thunderstorms and tornados

We didn't get anything like the destruction that hit Tennessee and Kentucky, though there were limbs on the ground and some power outages. The worst of it, from my point of view, was the loss of my little greenhouse. Sunday night's storm tore the stakes out of the ground, bent most of the tubing into pretzel shapes and ripped the cover off what was left of the frame. The cover can be repaired with clear duct tape, I think, and I sent off an email to the company I bought it from to see whether replacement pieces were available for the damaged tubing and broken connectors. I hadn't been paying attention to the weather forecasts for our area, and had no idea we were expected to have 50 mile an hour gusts. Fortunately, I hadn't put any of the flats or pots of seedlings in it yet. So the seedlings will have to stay inside on the days I'm gone, until they are big enough to put in the ground, or I can rebuild the greenhouse.

This seems to be my week to break things--I was driving back from Lowe's with a load of rail fencing in the back of the truck, and the tailgate fell off! Fortunately, it happened at a point where I could pull over quickly, haul it up out of the road and shove it into the bed of the truck. I still don't see why it came off, but one of the hinges is bent double, so it isn't something I can fix myself. If I didn't tend to carry large heavy objects in the truck, like welded boilerplate wood-burning stoves, I'd just get one of the mesh tailgates that you used to see on everyone's trucks.

Next weekend's project is to put up the rail fence, whose pieces are now lying on the ground more or less where they will be in use. More sessions with the post-hole digger, sigh. By the time I'm finished digging holes around here, I should have arms like Popeye.

Good news: Tom DeLay isn't going to run for Congress again. Bad news: he says he's going to move to Virginia. He seems to be forgetting that his next move is likely to be to the Big House with the bars on the windows. That's three down (DeLay, Cunningham, Ney) and a whole bunch to go.
posted by Liz @ 9:28 PM     |


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