March 24, 2006
Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM)
A good, productive Friday at home today, despite the fact that it started off poorly when the four year old and I went for the draw on each other.
After bundling everybody off, I headed out for Home Despot for the first time this season (Motto: Don't Like The Way We Do Things? Drive The Thirty Miles To The Nearest Lowe's. Yeah, We Didn't Think So."), there to pick up a trellis for the clematis by the garage door. I swear the people at that place are getting more surly by the year. The woman manning the garden center checkout wouldn't even come out of her booth, only extending her arm and scanner gun far enough through a crack in the door to record the purchase, before slamming it shut and leaving me to do the credit card swipey thing on my side. It's like buying garden supplies from the East German Speztsnaz.
Having found the one trellis that would actually fit around the garage light and tacked the clem up to it, I then helped our handyman take down a half-dead fir on the west side of the house, together with a large maple branch that was hanging across the sidewalk out front and crowding out the crepe myrtle by the driveway. (The change in the amount of light that is going to get into the side yard was instantly noticeable.) What is is about stacking logs and hauling off brush that appeals at such a fundamental level of being? I can well understand why Dubya likes to head off to Crawford when he can.
Speaking of such things, I have a forsythia question for anybody who might be knowledgeable: For the second year in a row, mine is blooming very anemically, only throwing out a few flowers right on the ends of its branches. I thought I was good about pruning it at the right time last year (forsythia only flower on new growth), so I'm not sure this has anything to do with it. It's a very large and old plant (or set of plants) and appears otherwise quite healthy. I've done nothing to feed it, so I'm wondering if maybe it has simply worn out the soil and needs some yum-yums?
Robbo - if you really love stacking logs and clearing brush, come to my house. You'll be in heaven.
No, really - it's so much fun I'd hate to let you take any of the thrill away from me. But if ya ask real purty, maybe I'll share ...
Posted by: Chai-rista at March 24, 2006 04:13 PMI have only been into Home Despot once, in an emergency, since they screwed my late father over when he worked there. I hate that place. HATE. And when I say hate, I mean loath to my core wish the entire corporation ill hate.
Posted by: Brian B at March 24, 2006 04:29 PMUgh...brush-clearing is almost as bad as clearing out tumbleweeds.
What is with you people and Home Depot? Every time I have been to Lowes, they have not had what I wanted. Home Depot, while sometimes hard to navigate, always has everything I need, and cheaper too. So the teller was bad. They are mostly women in a HARDWARE STORE. Think on that for a moment.
Posted by: TheRoyalFamily at March 24, 2006 05:16 PMI can't speak for anyone else, but I'll tell you what's wrong with ME and Home Despot:
My father, a good and honorable man, was working in a Home Despot store in San Diego in his later years. One day, just before he went on vacation, someone attempted to make a large credit card purchase of some high end power tools. The transaction made my father suspicious, and so he averred. The individual called for a manager, who ordered my father to process the transaction. When my father returned from vacation, the store informed him that the credit card had been stolen, and because he had processed the transaction, he was fired.
THAT is what it is with me and Home Fucking Depot.
Posted by: Brian B at March 24, 2006 05:22 PMI'd be thrilled if you would do my yard, Rob. Sir Mugley doesn't even like to mow the yard, let alone anything more strenuous. As far as the forsythia bush goes, I'd love to be able to help. Mine blooms every single year, and each year it's getting prettier. Problem is, I've not done a thing to it. It's in the darkest part of the back yard and totally ignored. Hmmm, maybe that's the trick...
Posted by: Denise at March 25, 2006 08:13 AM
Image courtesy of the lovely and talented 