Sailing Through Flower Storm

This Incredible Lady's Birthday Yesterday
My Wife's Older Sister Who Passed Away from Cancer Almost Ten Years Ago
She More than Any Other Person Insured My Wife and I Ended Up Together
We Love and Miss Her, A Lot.  Gone But Never Forgotten

Despite my wife’s annual, almost unearthly flower planting frenzy over the past week, she informed me we were still 9 pots short of a full load (flower pots for those of you with active imaginations).  This opened the very real chance of a sneaky trip up to New Hampshire and tax free flowers (not to mention a potential sports bar) since this was supposedly the Keene Friend’s Sunday off.  My morale was definitely peaking when we learned that his schedule had changed and he had to work.

Following that plummeting experience I resigned myself to actually accompanying my wife on a local flower buying expedition.  Early in our marriage we discovered that shopping together is not something we should attempt lightly.  I hate shopping with a white hot passion while my wife revels in the indecision that marks her shopping efforts and my attendant frustration. 

As we made our way towards the shopping destination the traffic on the other side (and our usual way home) was backed up for well over six miles.  I didn’t know if this was due to the Brimfield Fair or the weekly accident on the Mass Pike/I-84 interchange.  This wasn’t contributing to my enjoyment of the shopping experience.  The wife sensed my lack of enthusiasm (not exactly a closed book here) and made some (for her) timely decisions. 

My Wife with Yesterday's Flower Haul

We made our way home through some serious back roads that evoked Stephen King only the way truly rural New England can.  It’s kind of scary these places are only miles from where we live and seemingly unseen for the most part except for locals avoiding the main road backups.  I wonder how many never are heard from again (but I digress). 

I thought my work was done when we avoided the untold mysteries lurking in the abandoned dilapidated houses we passed and safely returned home.  My wife was of another mind as she commenced another planting frenzy.  I was sentenced to painting detail for my lack of shopping enthusiasm.  The white trim around the newly painted front door needed to be done.

I Used a Lot of Blue Tape

I tried to point out that my painting technique was not ideally suited to such delicate work (think of Peanuts’ Pigpen with a paint brush).  She decided this would be excellent training for me (Note to self:  tell son that wives never give up hope of reforming their husbands).  I kind of went overboard with the tape in hopes of avoiding disaster (painting over the new red door or the hardwood floors).  Buddy assisted by staying completely away and guarding the back deck against the birds and the occasional suicidal squirrel. 

The Final Product - Not a Complete Disaster

I’m not sure my efforts will meet the Good Housekeeping standard of excellence but everything I spilled or blotched was cleaned up prior to final inspection.  Thank God for an adequate supply of paint thinner.  We ended the day with the 9 pots filled and the door (as well as numerous exposed body parts) painted. 

Buddy Ready to Launch on Some Unsuspecting Robins

Over the weekend I finished off my latest John Ringo sci fi book, To Sail a Darkling Sea, which continued the story of a world consumed by a zombie like apocalypse.  I love Ringo’s work, especially when he deals with close combat scenarios which he brings to vivid life.  He also has a great sense of humor which is on full display here as the remnants of humanity gather on a flotilla of yachts in the mid-Atlantic and start to reclaim some form of society.  The stars of the book are the two teenaged daughters of the head guy.  One’s a zombie killing savant while the other is a cracker jack boat captain.  It’s exciting and a lot of fun.

I just hope Ringo stays with the series to completion.  He has a bad habit of building up a great story line and then getting bored with it and moving on to other things.  He’s so successful that the publishers obviously give him full say on direction.  While I am left a little frustrated at what happened to a bunch of great characters left in limbo in these other series; this also means I’m going to be enthralled by a bunch of new characters in whatever scenario he cooks up; a tradeoff I guess.

My Own Daughter Battling Some Sort of Metal Giant in New York Over the Weekend