Woof, it’s really a scorcher. My kitchen window thermometer topped out at 98° (it hit 94° yesterday). That’s about 25° above “normal” temps for this time of year. After freezing all winter, I’m not complaining, but I’m not going to do heavy yard work in this weather, either!
Yesterday was an oddly chatty day. I went to the bank to deposit a check (and got a handwritten deposit slip because the bank’s network was down). A local resident who had been involved with one of the most contentious issues at Town Meeting, which I got up and spoke on, introduced herself to me and raved about how well I spoke. I did get some applause, but my personal sense was that I rambled on for too long and was just “preaching to the choir” and probably didn’t influence the opponents at all. The resident yesterday seemed to think I did! She was effusive in her appreciation (the article passed), and that was nice to hear, anyway.
Then I went down to the Natural Market in Groton looking for unsalted nut butters, and chatted for a bit with the sales assistant there. I’d love to visit that store more often, but Groton center is really a pain to get into and park because of the traffic on Rte. 119, Groton’s Main Street. I should check and see if I can park in back of the store without getting onto 119.
After that I went down to the Groton Nursery for garden plants, seeds and sets. It’s funny…I turned at the place where I was pretty sure I should turn, even though I didn’t recognize it at all. I was correct, but I couldn’t figure out why the road looked so unfamiliar. Finally it struck me: I’ve only been to the Groton Nursery in the winter. I go there for greenery and decorations for my Solstice rituals. I had no idea that the road would look so different in the summer! (Yeah, I know…*doh*)
I didn’t chat quite so much at the nursery, but I did talk to several people. On the way back to Pepperell, I passed a serious accident–lots of emergency vehicles and police, and at least one car with its entire front end totally crushed, as though it had run straight head-on at high speed into something (just what wasn’t clear, it was in the middle of the road). I hope no one was killed, I haven’t found any news about it yet. So, I guess I shouldn’t whine so loudly about my book because clearly someone had a much worse day yesterday than I did. 🙁
My electric tiller works great! I got the entire front garden patch tilled on Monday. I did triple passes cross-ways, went and dug two brim-full garden carts of compost out of the compost pile, spread that over the garden and tilled again lengthwise to till it in. Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I planted seed potatoes and onion sets and put in the seven tomato plants I bought. I hope to plant a bit more today. I’m just not sure what to do with the peppers. I bought a little 4-pack of pepper plants, and they’re so tiny! Now I’m looking at them thinking, “these are too small to set out, what was I thinking?” (Except I swear they’ve grown an inch since yesterday.) I also need to decide on a permanent spot for the peppermint and catnip plants.
I’m not going to over-do the garden. I’m a very practical gardener, I only grow vegetables I eat a lot of and, for the most part, can put by for the winter. So I never grow snap beans or radishes or corn, for example, because I don’t like them. I don’t grow lettuce because I’m not a big salad eater. I like spinach and snap peas, but those need to go in very early (I’ve always wanted to try a fall planting of peas, though). The potatoes are an experiment (I’ve grown them successfully but not here). The last time I tried carrots they did very well, so I have a pack of carrot seeds. I’m going to try garlic again, although the fate of the garlic that all vanished without a trace in 2008 remains a complete mystery. It came up, it was growing, then, poof: every plant, gone, not even a stub or a hole like something came along and ate it. 🙁 But the past two summers, not only has the weather sucked, but I was just making impulsive feints at gardening and sticking random things into random spots in the back yard that weren’t properly prepped at all. Now I’m really putting serious prep and care into my gardening.
So, we shall see.
My LSI rep isn’t in this afternoon. I called the rep who’s covering for her and she told me that I should have said I wanted new proofs for The Longer the Fall when I uploaded the revisions last night. *sigh* I missed that option, wherever it was. So I sent my rep an email about that. The revisions–i.e. the corrected covers–have been put through, but Lightning Source doesn’t have a very informative interface. It’s like working with some huge faceless corporation…although come to think of it, that’s pretty much what they are! The Longer the Fall is still “Pending Approval” on Smashwords, where readers are “sampling” it nonetheless. And I sent another publisher’s “application” to Sony. I can’t find the snooty email they sent me a while back telling me to sign up with Smashwords, and I’m hoping they’ll “reject” me again so I have someplace to contact there.
I just got a rejection letter for the other grant I applied for, poop. Two grant rejections in three days! It was pretty stiff competition, there were 530 applicants in the “fiction/creative nonfiction” category, but then they awarded 17 grants, bringing the odds down to approximately 1:31. I wonder what the deciding criteria were? *sigh*
I’ve started putting things I want to get rid of down by the street with a sign saying “FREE.” One of the things I put out last night, an old weight bench, is already gone. It’s like Christmas in reverse. 🙂