Not According To Plan

I'm a planner.  Let's just put that out there.  I make lists, and I expect to stick to the list.  Hell, I expect LIFE to stick to MY list.  Here's a for instance:  yesterday afternoon I started crocheting a baby flip flop at work intending to get it pretty near finished last night.  Well, I got home from work, started the charcoal, mowed the lawn while the coals heated up, grilled the pork steak, nuked the veggies & taters Durwood had prepped, ate, cleared, shared our nightly orange, cleared that, filled all the bird feeders, watered the backyard pots, watched some TV while doing 3 days' worth of crossword puzzles, and didn't manage to crochet even one more stitch.  See?  Not according to plan.  So in my innerHitler thinks that I didn't DO anything last night--because I didn't manage to pick up that scrap of yarn and a hook.  (what?  I have full-on Germanic heritage and I needed a Germanic dictator to name my inner Pain-In-The-Ass voice that irrationally bosses me around so Hitler was an easy choice.  I do not torture or maim or ethnic cleanse (except for weeds that grow in my patio and driveway) and I will listen to reason [if it pleases me and goes along with what's in my head])

Another for instance:  my knitting pal, MW, stopped at the dive shop on Monday and lent me his whiz bang camera to play with and take to Yellowstone.  I was very reluctant because it's a much nicer camera than mine and I really don't want to buy one only to have to give it to him if I bust his.  But then he told me he bought 2 years of "oops" insurance so I thought I'd give it a try this morning.  I went out in the early light to snap yard and garden pix as usual, and I got some good ones, but when I put the new SD card in the laptop it said I had to format it and all the data on the card would be erased.  OK?  I grudgingly clicked OK, and then went out to recreate my earlier pictures.  Grrr.  But that motivated me to download the User Guide (it's 198 pages, I put it on a jump drive) so I can read how to make all the buttons and dials work.  So, yay!  But I'll suffer self-recriminations at least for today because I didn't think to check if the card was formatted before I set out.  Bah.  Note to self:  find a wrist strap and figure out how to make the date stamp go away.


I was happy to see hot pink yarrow in the side yard and a lily that nearly matches the color of the siding (that was poorly planned).  I need to plant more of those red day lilies.  Don't you love the color?  And the blueberries, ah the blueberries are just berrying like crazy.  Oh, see the Sugary cherry tomatoes?  They're getting ready to be picked.  *claps hands*  And there'll be more than one so I'll get one too.

July 17--Fairfield Porter, Union Square, Looking up Park Avenue.  In the narrow spaces between the pricey stores and high-rent apartment buildings a shadow world thrives.  On the street fur-clad women wearing seven-hundred-dollar shoes walk their designer dogs.  Mere feet away in the dim spaces where deliveries are made people live hand to mouth on their rejects.  In the warren of alleys an entire civilization rises and falls, strong personalities lead then fade away, relationships grow, strong protects weak, and none of the Park Avenue haves even see the have-nots, not even when they wear their cast off clothing.  The only puzzle is which world is the real one.

 It's so gorgeous outside today I'd like to spend the day out there, but it's a work day and my public needs me.  Maybe someone will need an airfill.  Oh, it's a good thing I thought of that because I have tanks in my car that need dropping off.  Toodle-oo!
--Barbara