First Frost

First Frost, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

This weekend we had our first frost and it was a killing one for the tomato plants and the basil. Which, considering how weedy they all looked, was not a bit surprising. The parsley, on the other hand, shook off the cold weather and is as green and vibrant as ever.

Interestingly the second of our two black swallowtail caterpillars has yet to form a chrysalis/pupa and I thought it was a goner from the cold. It warmed up enough today that the caterpillar was once again moving, just very slowly. I wonder if it will ever move on to the next stage or did it wait too long.

Rebel

Rebel, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

I like mowing the lawn. I end up doing the mowing since I'm able to during the week, resulting in one less thing during the weekend.

The worst part of the job is the push mower, which is used on the steep embankment alongside the road and tricky bits that are too awkward for the tractor. It's fortunately not a huge amount and I can get it done in under an hour. I prefer to get that part out of the way first, leaving the riding mower as a sort of reward for a hard job.

The tractor we have is an old beast, at least a 14 years old. We got it in Pennsylvania before Nate was born. Amusingly enough it was from a hardware store that also catered to the local Amish population. Horse and buggies tied to the provided fence were a common sight.

Anyhoo, it's a good tractor that does a great job. I view my time onboard as my thinking time. Free from distractions: it's just me, the tractor and the lawn. I get a real sense of accomplishment when the whole lawn is done. A beautiful green and even sward of grass greets my eyes after I tuck the mowers away in the shed.

So you can imagine how irksome this single blade of grass can be. It somehow evaded the mower blade and defiantly sticks out from the rest of the grass. When I find these rebel blades I go back and deal with them individually.

We Got the Power

After years of sitting on the fence, my in-laws pushed us off  and got us a generator.

We don't lose power very often and it generally comes back quickly. It takes a fairly major storm, ie a hurricane, to knock out the power for any significant length of time. And yet it is a concern when at any one time you have well over a $1000 worth of medications that must be kept refrigerated. Meryl is always happy to take us in and allow us to abuse her refrigerator, but it's a royal pain in the neck going back and forth.

So now we are the proud owners of a 4,400 watt generator that runs on either liquid propane or gas. I guess this means we won't be losing power for quite some time.

Really

An open letter to the rather grim faced woman driving the white Lexus SUV.

I get it, you are in a hurry to get your precious snowflake to school this morning. But really, do you need to crowd me so much that I can't see your front license plate? I dubbed you a proctologist, much to my 14 year old son's amusement.

You spent a good ten minutes riding the bumper of my minivan on a curvy narrow road that threads through the most rural part of the county. A road that I regularly see deer, chickens, guinea hens, wild turkeys, and pheasant dot the shoulder with the occasional fox and possum. I once had a hawk almost smack into my windshield as it flew up from some road kill. It's wing tips brushed against the windscreen as I slammed on the brakes to avoid it.

And yes, this is the same road that commonly has tractors puttering along from field to field, bringing traffic to a crawl in the early morning hours. A road that has a serious accident about once a month.

So I'm not sorry that I decided to maintain a safe distance from the car in front of me. You know in case either of us has to hit the brakes when the unexpected happens. In fact I widened the distance so
A) you might pass me
B) if the unexpected happens I have a bit more room to maneuver.

I was very happy when you turned off the main road. However the joy was tempered with the knowledge that you were just using an alternative route to bypass me. I told my son that odds are we were going to the same place and that your route was longer and had a lower speed limit. Theoretically I would arrive before you, assuming you went the posted speed limit.

Ha! You following the speed limit. Your only limit would be if you encountered another driver.

Okay I do admit you just got in front of me when our two routes converged, but that was only due to my not challenging the oncoming traffic at the intersection and cutting off the other drivers at the intersection. I did however tuck my minivan right behind you at a safe distance as you rode the bumper of your latest victim.

Big woo, you got in front of me.

The one positive aspect was tat you provided an excellent teaching moment for my 14 year old son. I explained how dangerous your actions were. I was not too concerned about our safety since we were in a minivan that roughly equals the mass of your Lexus. If you did rear end us we would survive. You, however, might not.