Kite Festival

Posted on 27 March 2010 by conrad reynolds

kiteA nice sunny spring day today and the city had their annual Kite Festival.  Not a lot of wind, but I was able to get my horse kite and my big dragon up in the air.  It was a popular event; lots of kids and some parents who don’t understand that three-year olds really can’t handle a dual control stunt kite.

Most of us had pretty basic kites, but there was this one dude who brought a special valise filled with those little square paper Indian kites like the kind you see in the movies.  Except this fellow could really fly; he made those kids in the movies look like little kids.  He was unbelievable fast with those little kites, darting them around my dragon – at times I thought for sure that he was going to slice off the tail of my kite, but he always darted it away just in the nick of time.  At one point he got six of his kites on one string.  That was a jaw-dropper; I commented that was the sort of thing that really separated the men from the boys!

I had to leave a little early, but there were between two and three dozen kites in the air, about a dozen on the ground, and three or four in the trees.

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The First Day of Spring

Posted on 20 March 2010 by conrad reynolds

SPRNG005The first day according to the calendar on the wall, anyway.  Partly sunny and in the 60s, not bad, but it will be at least another couple of weeks before it look really springy here, although our daffodils are in full bloom.

I’ve mulched the garden with corrugated cardboard boxes; not terribly attractive, but economical (I can get them at work for free), and surprisingly effective.  Just cut a hole where you want the plant.  Now I have (in containers) rosemary, thyme, and parsley out in the garden, and about a hundred onion sets in the ground.

Today I planted a buttercrunch lettuce and fear that I might just have well set up a neon sign and klieg lights announcing to all critters in the neighborhood that a mighty tasty treat has become available this evening (Is it just me, or do you just not see kleig light announcements like that anymore?).

Today’s garden tab: new water hose, $16.95, aforementioned buttercrunch plant and English thyme plant, $6.87.

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Rabbit Destiny

Posted on 16 March 2010 by conrad reynolds

We haven’t seen the big dark rabbit since last Thursday.  So I suppose either

  • Someone realized what a good deal this rabbit was and took it in
  • The Black Rabbit was right: all the world is his enemy, and as a house-fed hutch rabbit he fulfilled his destiny as a prey animal
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Garden tab

Posted on 15 March 2010 by conrad reynolds

seedlingsOnce again time to start totalling up the cost of the garden. So far:

Tiller rental……..$26.55
Edging, seed starter, potting soil, parsley plant, new pair of gloves, fertilizer………….$69.10
Seeds, onion sets from Bunton’s..$35.50
More seeds and seedling pots….$11.83
Hanging planters…..$31.77

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Calling El-ahrairah!

Posted on 12 March 2010 by conrad reynolds

RABBIT found Ad placed on 3/12/2010
»Enhanced from Great Deal Classifieds«
Large dark rabbit found near Hikes Lane & Goldsmith. 502-000-0000 or 502-000-0000 for details.
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The Black Rabbit of Inlé

Posted on 10 March 2010 by conrad reynolds

black.rabbit.of.inle2The aforementioned rabbit was hanging around the house again today.  It is clearly not a wild rabbit: it is too large and sleek, having a black pelt with a brindled streak; and it is too comfortable around people and houses.  This rabbit is a former pet.  So I expect he (or she) is used to good food (such as what I plan to grow in the garden) and a lot of it.  It is a dark presence over my garden, foreboding doom for my tender sprouting plants before they have even seen the light of day.

I’ll place a “found rabbit” ad in the paper tomorrow.

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It’s Tiller Time!

Posted on 8 March 2010 by conrad reynolds

gardeningToday, finally, the last of the snow melted away.  The sun came out, and it was about sixty degrees.  Time to till the garden.  Thank God for tool rental.  The gasoline tiller does in less than an hour what it would take me three weeks to do by hand.  And since you only need a tiller once a year, being able to pick one up at the rental center down the street allows you to avoid maintenance, storage, etc, etc, etc.  So I spent the afternoon spreading manure, tilling it in, resetting the edger blocks, and so forth.

Then, later that night, when I let the dog out to pee, she started barking at something in the darkness.  I know it’s that giant rabbit with the bent ear.  He was watching me the whole time I was working in the garden, and he’s just waiting, patiently waiting, for his chance at my lettuce.  I know he’s out there.  I can feel it.

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The Greatest Chapter of Living

Posted on 7 March 2010 by conrad reynolds
Bunbury Theater

Bunbury Theater

Tonight we went to see a play at the Bunbury Theater.  This is a small local group who performs in the historical Henry Clay building near downtown.

The play, “The Greatest Chapter of Living”, was about end of life issues and was a collaboration between the Bunbury and our local hospice organization, Hosparus.  The play dramatized a family coming to grips with one of their members facing an imminent death.  It was a bit of preaching to the faithful, as I think most of the audience was already familiar with hospice.

The story, not surprisingly, was a tear-jerker, but one of the actors was absolutely outstanding, even though she was only eight years old.  Here is a young person with a future in the theater for sure; however, I could find no mention of her name on their web site.  Issues with minors, I suppose.

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Back to the 60’s at my bank

Posted on 14 February 2010 by conrad reynolds

My wife says that anytime a company sends you a letter that starts with the phrase “In order to serve you better”, you can be certain that something is about to get much worse for you.

jump.thru.hoopCase in point: recently my bank notified me that, in order to serve me better,  their ATM machines would become “deposit-friendly”.  I cringed.  For years, I have been endorsing checks, filling out a deposit slip, putting it all in an envelope, and dropping it off in the night depository.  I could do this entirely at my leisure, any time, any day.  No more.  The night depository has been removed.  You have to go to the ATM machine, and you can’t just insert your envelope anymore, either.  You have to stick the checks in one at a time (and hope it’s not a windy day – There goes your deposit across the parking lot!), and you don’t use a deposit slip.  Instead the ATM machine slowly reads and processes each check while the traffic backs up behind you.  Then you get a receipt that shows where the machine misread the amount on one of the checks, so now you get to spend the next business day trying to get hold of someone to find the check and properly credit your account.  Needless to say, I only availed myself of this “deposit-friendliness” once.  Now I’m back to having to get to the bank during their regular branch hours every time I want to make a deposit.

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The Record That Could Not Be Broken

Posted on 9 February 2010 by conrad reynolds

TVIn case you missed the announcement: for many years the conventional wisdom said that the viewership record for the last episode of M*A*S*H (1983) would never be broken, as the number of available channels had greatly expanded and people’s viewing habits had changed too much.  Yet Neilsen reports that Sunday the record was broken by the Colts-Saints Super Bowl.  Unbelievable.

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