Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

So much for a "week off". Well, that's not true. I am going to get one, but not until *after* the AV applications are mailed. Went in Tuesday to explain the Inspector list to BC/DC, and the ballot-proofing needed to be done. So BC and I did that. Yesterday, I went in around noon so I could monopolize the big printer without annoying anyone. The voter database was being more opaque than usual, so it took a few extra tries to get all the voters I needed. Then the ballot order form showed up "please return by noon Friday." JA, we didn't see this until Thursday afternoon! (not entirely zir fault - it was sent Wednesday AM, and BC/DC had spent Thursday morning meeting with the insurance appraiser and hadn't gotten to their email boxes yet.) So BC and I ordered ballots.

My mother called Wednesday morning -- her 95th birthday is June 9, and my sister said "I'm coming for a flying visit so we can have a Ladies' Tea Party". So Mum called to see if I could come down for it. hrm. Work activities are reminding people that they need to do their training and accepting AV applications; FCB has a rehearsal: LCCB has a concert; there's a Clerk's Association zoom, but I can skip that (not technically a clerk anymore). But the summer LCCB is free-form, and the sign-up sheet explicitly says that "you do not have to play every concert". So, yes, Mum, I can come down for your birthday party. A guest room at Pennybyrn was available, so I don't even have to find a hotel room! (Sis is crashing on Mum's sofa, or I'd do that.)

The strawberry plants that we moved last fall are very happy! They're tall with many stems and big leaves, and sending out many runners. The ones I moved last month are doing about as well as could be expected - they've gotten over the shock of being moved and are healthy but small. They will catch up. We put a fence around the strawberry bed because the neighbor's chickens had started to scratch in it. They've really started tearing up the ground next to the bricked flowerbed, and it's getting a little annoying. I've already mentioned it to A once, but apparently I need to do it again. I really shouldn't have to chase her chickens out of my yard multiple times a day.

This weekend, I'm going to go to the home improvement store and see what they have for my shady gardens. And maybe get some chicken wire.

The wrap up for the May election is just about done. I need to do the reimbursement forms, but I need to find out if County needs the actual timesheets or just a list of hours. If they need a timesheet, then I can't submit the forms until next month, as there's 24 hours for DC on her May timesheet that doesn't get paid until June. I will then be down to just a couple of hours a week until we start spinning up for the August election. In June. (should probably set up forwarding for election emails so I don't miss anything.)

I got half a dozen strawberry plants moved. I did not move the ones that had flowers on them. Maybe we'll get a few strawberries this year! (I will trim off any flowers on the new plants, as they should put their effort into growing roots/leaves rather than fruit.) I did weed around the ones I didn't move. Got another garden weeded, but I really need to get into the E garden this weekend -- I weeded the edge last week, where I could reach without stepping in, but that's only a couple of feet. There's a lot of weeds left in the middle of that bed, and it's now dry enough that I can step into it without packing the soil.

This afternoon is a trip into A2 for the UMS usher party. whee? Food will be good, conversation will be good, timing is kinda meh (mid afternoon on a spring Saturday?), but they have to work around when venues and/or catering are available. I can run a few errands on the way home, so it won't be a single purpose trip.

not very hard right now, but they tell us that it will continue for the next 12 hours or so. OTOH, it really hasn't rained since last week, and J and his band of helpers got the shed framed and sheathed before the rain started. This weekend, we get to shingle and paint and wait for it to settle enough to put the floor down.

I have ushered two UMS concerts since I last wrote -- a string quartet concert at Rackham Auditorium, and a solo pianist at Hill Auditorium, both very good. Now the UMS season is done. I missed most of the spring concerts due to my own performance schedule. The one concert that I was available to usher was cancelled by the performers. (OK, there were some shows that I had little-to-no interest in, and they'd have to actually pay me to usher.)

I have been working in the garden the last few days, and my right thumb hurts halfway up the forearm. I know why, and I also know that there's nothing to be done for it, other than to not weed. Which really isn't an option.

The neighbor's chickens have been wallowing in my strawberry bed. As long as that's all they do, and they continue to do it at the end where the plants died over the winter, I guess I'm OK with it. The chickens aren't supposed to get out, but they have three kids under 10, and one or more of them cannot/cannot remember to latch the chicken door.

Last Sunday morning it was 55F and sunny. We had snowflakes Sunday evening. Now they're telling us that we will probably have snow accumulating on Sunday morning before the temperature rises to around 60F. Today it's not quite 40F and very windy with occasional bursts of precipitation. The cushion box on the deck has been blowing around, and the freestanding fire pit is now in the pond. Lots of branches down, but I'm not going to deal with them until tomorrow when it's warmer and less windy. I was going to do laundry today, but the washer does not deal well with power flickers, so I think that, too, will wait until tomorrow.

We do have crocuses and snowdrops in the doorside garden. Wednesday morning I saw that the reticulated irises in the E garden had bloomed (they were green stems on Monday am). The crocuses close up when it gets cold/rainy/snowy, so they'll be fine tomorrow. The irises, on the other hand... The ones that have not been eaten by bunnies have been shredded by the wind and rain. :( The daffodil patches in the NW garden are about 4" tall green stems, but it's another couple of weeks before they usually bloom, and right now they're very sturdy.

I saw redwinged blackbirds in the yard Wednesday morning. I'd heard them carrying on earlier in the week, but hadn't seen them on the ground/at the feeders/bathing until Wednesday.

Monday, the township hall hosted an election 'equipment certification day' for the west side of the county. (and by hosted, I mean that someone at the county said "we'd like to do Thing at this Place on Thisdate. Any objections?") I had no idea what to expect, not having done Thing before (it's periodic, and the last one was before I started at the township), so we were somewhat unprepared. (Turns out that I needed to haul folding tables in from the shed and move tables and chairs in the boardroom, as well as prepare all of our equipment.) I was able to pull a lot of things out of storage and put them into the shredding bin, so that was nice. I got the storage area more organized, as well.

frost on Thursday morning when I went out to do morning chores. The soybean field behind the house has been harvested -- it's been brown for a few weeks, but there were lots of fields to do. The birdbath has been dry every morning for the last couple of weeks, and I suspect that the deer have been drinking out of it. (It's easier than drinking out of the pond, which they'll also do.) There's a lot of cruft left on the south side of the pond where J yanked an evergreen early in the summer, but much of it is too well established for me to pull.

I got strawberries moved last weekend. I need to water them again -- we did get some rain, but we're still way behind, and I want them to be established enough that they'll survive the winter.

I wrenched my back last Sunday yanking out a clover plant. Sigh. I should know better. In my defense, it probably would have been fine except that I'd spent Saturday afternoon moving other plants. Today, it's mostly better, so I need to go out with the garden scissors and cut back things in the East garden which is looking awfully overgrown at the moment.

I have decided that I'm going to wait to redeem my birthday plants until spring, when there is a better selection of shade tolerant perennials. (Discovered a new native plant nursery just up the road, so they'll probably get some business too.) I have a couple of gardens that have shifted to much more shade than expected, so I need to shift the plantings.

got the painted nettle moved. Did not get anything else moved, and probably won't until later in the week. Or maybe even next week. But it's raining now! not very hard (which means it'll soak in), but they say it may do this for the next few days. I'm OK with that. Maybe by next week, I can go pull weeds

I was in the office every day this week. Monday I covered for Treasurer so she could go home and check on sick teenager/get lunch. Tuesday was regular work day. Wednesday there was online training that I couldn't log into from home. Thursday was regular work day. Friday was keep poking at platform peeps so they'd get my account set up. [Got an email late Thursday "your account is set up" "no it's not. this is the error I get" "hrm. we'll have to call in techs from the other end." As of 5pm Thursday, I still didn't have access. Friday afternoon, there's another email "you should have access now" "nope. And when I click on the Help button on the error page, I get *this* error." But I think I have the necessary access now (I went in from a different direction). (not that it's strictly necessary for this election - it's for a process that we don't have, but at some point it will be good to have.)]

I did discover that I don't need to build a test spreadsheet! w00t! the Bureau of Elections now does that, and all I have to do is download a PDF. (I could download test decks, too, but it's only 14 ballots, and I think I can handle that.) Ballots should be mailed by next Friday (26), so that's what I'll be doing this week. (must stop by PO and get mailing flats on Monday.)

Sometime in my copious spare time next week, I need to wash the plexiglas sheets for FCB. Wonder if I can get J to do that? There is one piece that both bands are doing, and it's gonna be harder than usual, as the the styles and tempos are very different. All I can do is watch the conductor, I guess.

I guess that's how it's gotten to be almost three weeks since I've posted, right?

Lotsa not much going on, and then we went out of town, and then I had three days of work stuff.

I spent a good portion of a week weeding in the east garden, pulling milkweed and goldenrod from places I don't want it, and pulling *everything* out of the garden path (except the sedum, because it's low enough that you can see the path around). I also determined that we missed a couple of stems of hardy hibiscus when we moved it in the spring, so I need to move those later this month. Hopefully, we'll get some rain soon, because it's now too dry to pull weeds. I also weeded the flowerbeds up against the house, and discovered that one of the coral bells had died, as had one of the patterned nettles. The other patterned nettle is a bit lost behind the tall things in the other bed, so I'll move that later as well.

Labor Day weekend, we trundled off to Cheboygan for a weekend house party which included a pizza party, omelettes for breakfast, and meals at local restaurants and coffee shops and bakeries. Also two bridge walks and a community hot dog party, complete with Weinermobile and Hot Dog Princess. Then we came home Monday because I had to be in Lansing by 8:30 am Tuesday for a work conference. whee? Two days of that, then a longish day at work because of the things we didn't do on Tuesday because we were at a conference. Today is the first day I've not had to go anywhere since, um, two and a half weeks ago? (Of course, because I didn't run errands today I need to run them tomorrow, but it's been worth it!)

One band began rehearsing this week, but I missed that rehearsal because I was in Lansing until 4:30, and while theoretically I could have made it to rehearsal, I was really tired and decided that I just wanted to go home. I expect that it won't take me long to catch up.

nothing unexpected, just a lot of it.

- finished the "solo" portion of the basement reorg. BC and I still need to get downstairs and go through things in the fireproof cabinets so that the files that need to go into them will fit. and if not? Order another fireproof cabinet. (State law says that there are some things that must be kept "permanently", so they need fireproof cabinets. Other things only need to be kept for 7 years, and BC thinks that there's a lot of 7 year stuff that can be disposed of (via the shredder, natch).) All of the maps I could corral are in the Zoning/Assessor room, and are now their problem. The old computers are in the BBO space, and the IT guy knows both that they are there and that they are his responsibility. There is still some election stuff in the shed, but that's where it belongs....

- did my 5 minute training for taking tax and utility (sewer) payments. Treasurer will only be gone one working day, so she will do the actual deposits when she gets back.

- had two concerts, one in Howell and one in Farmington. Farmington's summer repertoire is about the level of Livingston's regular season, but they were both a lot of work. And of course, both on work nights, so I'd already spent a few hours of the day either working in the "sauna" (storage shed at 95F 95% humidity) or the damp 70F basement. There was a FCB gathering at the ice cream shop after the concert, but by the time J and I and the rest of the crew had everything packed (an hour after the concert was over), I just wanted to go home.

- took a long time Wednesday to run errands, much longer than usual. There were a couple of extra stops, true, but still....

On Tuesday, Sup asked BC and I if we wanted any tomato plants, as she had some extras. BC said she'd take a couple, and I said I'd take a cherry tomato plant. Sup came in on Thursday with six! plants. so now I have to figure out where to put four tomato plants. I'd put them in the new strawberry bed, but they won't be done bearing when I need to move the strawberries. Maybe I'll go digging through the shed here (not nearly as hot as the one at work!) and see if I can find a couple of big planters. And if not? The home improvement store isn't that far away.

The hummingbird feeder in the front garden is very popular. I don't see hummers at it very often, but they empty it in a couple of days. (The feeder is below window level, so I don't see them fly up to it. I do occasionally see dogfights, as one defends "his" feeder.)

but still some same ol' things.

LCCB is still far more freeform than I like. Every summer, I wonder why I play the summer schedule. DM is concerned about our stage comportment, but doesn't do a damn thing about the sprawling layouts with random people way far away from other people who mostly play the same part. But people seem to enjoy the concerts, so I guess that's why I keep playing....

Sup is doing the "why is this not done yet" queries, and my response is "because TW and HandymanDan haven't gotten back to me (or you) to schedule. *You* poke them...." BC is finally up to a trek into the basement to see the status down there, and OMG there's a lot of work to be done. No more than there was (less, actually, as I've taken the recycling in). Somebody else needs to take the rubbish. Other somebodies need to schedule TE and HD for a day of moving big stuff. OTOH, the AC is now working -- something in the compressor needed to be replaced, so it was and now it works. Just as well, as we are now in an "if you don't need to breathe outside, don't" portion of the summer. (Canadian prairies are on fire, and we get the smoke. yay?)

Early last week, I moved the main plants from the deckside garden to their new home. Then it got hot for a couple of days, and then it rained for about 18 hours, so they're well watered in. The East garden is very appreciative of the weather - everything is blooming! Peonies, Lupine, three shades of pink daisies, three very different irises (white, dark purple, yellow & bronze), and bright yellow paintbrush. And some scattered magenta & white & purple carnations.... It's been a few years since everything in that garden has flowered this profusely. There are some spring bulbs in there that I need to move, because they don't bloom before the shasta daisies around them get tall, so they're hard to see. If I move them to the new garden, we'll be able to see them!

The concert last Sunday went quite well. I had a bit of a moment when I walked in and realized the *shape* and size of the space I had to work with. (I did not *quite* swear in church.) It did not fit the shape of the band very well at all! [I don't think the actual shape of the space changed from the last time we played this venue, but the renovations had fixed some of the issues with the sound. (my mother said to J "these acoustics are dreadful" the last time we played there.)] BM was still out ill, so I had a list of numbers to work from for setup. I wound up doing the final setup (once we got the chairs into rows) pretty much solo, because I was making it up as I went along, and there just wasn't room for more than one person moving chairs. It was a very tight fit. It didn't feel as tight as some spaces, because the edges were defined by low things (altar steps, kneeler rail) so we didn't feel like we were up against the walls. The actual performance went well, too! I was very tired after that, though.

Still no external monitor at work - local IT thinks it's probably the cable, but he didn't look at it until Wednesday, so it'll be next week before I know. The IT company that does the system IT screwed up Treasurer's computer setup, and are being cagey about fixing it (too busy figuring out who did it, rather than how to fix it. To be fair, they may need to know who did it to know exactly what they did...). T is very irked by this, and is making noises about finding another IT provider. I think that's a bad idea, as this is the first time there's been any real issue with the IT provider....

I have not gotten into the garden at all this week. It's been chilly (highs in the 50s!) all week, and raining a lot. Today is supposed to be not rainy, so maybe I can get out there this afternoon and (carefully!) pull some of the very very happy weeds.