E:\LETTERS\AprBan10.txt This file is posted at http://davebeeson.home.comcast.net/LETTERS/APRBAN10.TXT April 2, 2010 The cottonwoods are shedding their superglue-coated bud covers. 5 April 2010 I think I'm suffering from post-party depression. 7 April 2010 Not much more ambitious Tuesday, but I got the wash washed. Dried the last batch on the rack, which I put in front of Dave's air filter. This morning I put it all away, and ironed two shirts, a blouse, my linen gown, and the two strips of muslin I mean to make banner facings out of. Also loaded the sewing machine into the car -- I'm going to shock everybody's socks off and drive to Banner Making tonight. I should go to Lowery's more often, and watch for one of those cute little-bitty machines to appear in the used- machine department. But I don't recall seeing more than one in the last ten years. I don't go to Pretty Pillow often enough, either. I'm making no effort to keep the cottonwood gunk off my feet. I give them a quick scrub with a brush, then everything that's still on just stays there. 8 April 2010 Also re-sewed the loose hooks on my damask linen-cotton suit pants Tuesday, during Handwork Circle. Everything but Banner Making and Prayer Meeting was cancelled yesterday, because of spring break. So I parked right by the door. I carried the stuff in through the handicapped entrance, but when it was time to go home, I carried the machine down the steps and one of the brothers carried the table. Lost my balance going down the steps, and thought how lucky it was that I was holding the machine with one arm around its throat and the other arm on the handrail, but this morning I think I wrenched something -- I don't much like sweeping and picking up. When we moved in, I thought I'd be rolling the machine out onto the patio every nice day, but this is the first time it's moved from its place by the window. When Dave saw me carrying it, he reminisced about how we hauled it to Hawaii. The machine has come pretty close to both edges of the nation east and west, but I don't think it's ever travelled north or south. And it hasn't crossed a border since it was shipped here from Italy. 10 April 2010 The redbuds are in full bloom, and there are two leaves showing on our baby redbud. We ate the last of the grape tomatoes that I forgot to put into the chopped-lettuce salad for Easter. The surplus tulips in the raised flower bed are showing a hint of color along the seams of the buds. I planted two square feet of onions in the herb bed around the raised flower bed. Martha picked up the little press, which she plans to restore and put back to work. We need a bunch of stuff from Aldi, we need bread that I prefer to buy at Aunt Millie's, and we're out of the plain yogurt that I buy at Owen's, but I'm going to the dentist on Monday, so any shopping I do will be at Marsh. We are running out of vegetable cocktail, and I like Marsh's "Food Club" cocktail best. 13 April 2010 Bought so much stuff I couldn't lift the bike over a curb. Came home utterly exhausted even though I spent most of my time lying around waiting. There was a poster of a cat and a goldfish nose-to-nose on the ceiling; I was somewhat disturbed that it was in perfect focus without my glasses on. Came home to find a birthday card from Nancy -- featuring a cat looking at a goldfish. My cheek still feels a little funny. I didn't feel numb, I felt stiffened or hardened or maybe swollen. This was the first time that I noticed parts of my ear going numb -- perhaps I'd never before felt the urge to scratch my ear while in the chair. I thought it odd that I felt the pain of holding my mouth open only on the numb side. Noticed in the night that the muscles on that side were sore, so there must somehow have been more strain on it. The temporary crown feels exactly like the broken tooth -- the hygienist took a mold of it. 15 April 2010 I know that cottonwood-budcover glue isn't biodegradable, and it doesn't dry up in the sun or wash off in the rain -- but shouldn't it be covered with dirt by now? Went to Aldi's yesterday, and didn't get much else done. But we're pretty well stocked up. Didn't think to look to see whether they have omeprazole, but I don't think they do. I did get fish oil and calcium with D. Went to Aunt Millie's afterward and also stocked up on bread and buns. Also went to Big R on the way there. The herbs are in, so I bought plain parsley, moss-curled parsley, "boxwood" basil -- it was called "spicy globe basil" the year before last -- and a strawberry plant with three fruits and two runners. I set the strawberry in the raised bed where I failed to exterminate the tulips -- we have our web cam trained on that bed now, as the tulips are in full bloom -- and set the parsleys in the herb bed in front of the raised tulip bed. There were three basil plants, so I broke them apart and put one in the corner of the raised bed, one down with the parsleys, and one in the pot of rosemary. Then I pushed my fingers into the dirt by the moss-curled parsley and broke off one of its four plants and put that in the rosemary pot too. The Joe Rickets strawberries are in bloom. I'd better finish making the bed and get on with my nap -- we are going to El Arreiro about five tonight. Meant to sew this morning, but dithered around about which project to pick up. I really must get the stuff that's cut out sewn together so I can start on my new linen jersey -- the old one isn't going to hold together very long once it gets warm enough to wear it. And I need the black silk shirt and the linen-print jeans-kameezish. 16 April 2010 Well, I went so far as to take the linen suit off the shelf, and found the collar pattern I need to cut out my black raw-silk overshirt. Ate altogether too much at El Arreiro. It was delicious. Fast service, and the prices are not at all extravagant. Nice view of Center Lake. 23 April 2010 This morning, I basted interlining to one of the collar pieces for my raw-silk shirt, which I cut out a while back. Having looked "Gordita" up in Wikipedia, I want to have lunch at Taco Bell. I went riding yesterday, and stopped at Mexican Supermarket on Lake Street to look for jicama and mayonesa. Found both, and also got a bag of *real* tortilla chips. I'm going to have to go back to get more, and also a bag of tostadas. And I threw a bag of three "gorditas" in while checking out. Looked like English muffins, flatter and a tad bigger around. Turned out to be sweet, dense, fine- grained, and subtly spiced. Gone have to get some more of those, too! Very good split, toasted, and buttered. But Wikipedia and Google both described something more like pita, and suggested that "gordita" means a sandwich. I did get one hit on "dessert gordita". When I was almost ready to go, I said to Dave "I have everything I need except a destination." (Which was a lie; a few hours later I realized that I didn't have my bike key.) So I decided (yawn) to ride to Chinworth Bridge and back. When it was time to turn toward 200S I realized that I wouldn't be able to see the dam -- which is still a little bit open; they want to bring the lake up very slowly this year and have it full by May 1st, so the water has been rising for some time. Well, duh, I can go out by the Greenway and come back by Crystal Lake Road as easy as the other way around. Well, not quite as easy -- I'd forgotten the repair work on the railroad crossing. Well, if I'd remembered it I'd have thought it was on Winona, as Dave did. He says that he diverted onto Smith Street and then had to divert back onto Winona. Plenty of room for a pedestrian to get through, but I'd intended to nip into town and straight out again, so I hadn't changed out of my country shoes -- not to mention that there hadn't been a place to change yet. I was taking such teeny careful steps that one of the railroad workers thought I was crippled and lifted my bike over the ditch they had just dug across the road. West Center Street isn't near as straight on the earth as it is on the map. I wandered around considerably in the Zimmer parking lots. Should I go that way again, I'll leave town on Winona like everybody else. Lunch at Chinworth, being very careful not to cut my finger on the chicken-salad can. There are redbuds on Parks-Schram road. Crystal Lake is still a good road. The pavement isn't perfectly smooth, but no major flaws, and it looks *really* good if you've been riding on Center Street which has better pavement in the middle, but has lots and lots of bike-dumping flaws along the curb. I didn't want to return to town by Crystal Lake Road/Winona Avenue yet again, and though there are signs pointing to Center Street from this end of the parking lots, I'd *been* that way today. So I decided to take the first east-leading street north of Zimmer. Turns out that all streets north of Zimmer either dead end or come out on Old 30, which is how I found Mexican Supermarket on Lake street. I also stopped at the nursery; didn't find any herbs, but while writing this, I realized that I had overlooked four whole greenhouses. By then the day had gotten a trifle warm for the thick wool jersey I put on in the cool of the morning and I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about exploring hothouses, but I think that the four greenhouses that I forgot are at ambient. The usual, coming through town. No tooth powder at Zales; bought a bag of sunflower seeds at Warsaw Health Foods. I was going to say, "Hey, I didn't get any bud covers glued to my feet today!" Then I realized that I haven't been outside barefoot today. Why aren't they biodegradable? Is there any commercial glue maker investigating cottonwood? 24 April 2010 Went outside barefoot to scrub the rims of my bike wheels, got cottonwood gunk on my feet. At time to walk, I gave my feet a token cleaning and put on an old worn-out pair of socks. When we got back, I changed shoes, put on my half gaiter, and rode to Roy Street and back. Front brake works fine; I don't think I got the back rim quite clean enough. Machine-sewed the interlining to the collar of my new shirt, then sewed the two collar pieces together. I hope I can get the facings of the fronts pressed in time to sew snaps on Tuesday night. Some of the persistent tulips in the strawberry bed have lost their flowers, so I went out to cut the seed pods off. Turned out that the flowers hadn't fallen off, they had been bitten off. Didn't see any hoof prints in the herb bed, but it's *way* past time for DNR to take the bag limit off urban deer. I quit hunting for a flower pot and punched holes in a Gladware-style semi-disposable food container that I didn't like, and planted wheat for Al. I was starting to think it wouldn't sprout, but it shot up once it got started. There are white roots all over the inside of the transparent container -- rather neat. I'll set it on the floor as soon as there are leaves to nibble. Redbuds are still spectacular, but the leaves are well out. On our after-supper walk, I stopped to check on our redbud, and remarked that it's pretty sad when you worry about a dandelion shading out your tree. Everything it had last summer winterkilled, and it's starting over. We haven't pruned off the dead wood. Probably won't, since it marks where the tree is, and pokes deer in the snout. 25 April 2010 I think I'll put the wheat on the floor in the morning. The sprouts have unrolled. 27 April 2010 Al isn't showing all that much interest in the wheat. I guess it's outsideness that makes grass so attractive. Laundry day. Only one load of colors and half a load of whites. Not enough bleachables to run a load, but bleach isn't the only disinfectant in the world. I poured a good bait of Pinesol into the bleach dispenser, then followed it up with a saucepan of boiling water. Might not whiten the pink bacteria colonizing the bleach dispenser, but it sure ought to kill them. Urgh. I'd better rinse *real good*. I just remembered that pine-tar soap makes Dave itch, and all his socks are in this load. If I wash again in washing soda, that ought to do it. The socks still smelled faintly of pine when I hung them on the line, but not when I brought them in. Either I got the pink stains from last time out of my bras, or I'm wearing the stained one. Not only didn't press my sewing, I forgot entirely that today was Tuesday until I looked at the paper just before suppertime. With nothing useful prepared, I took an old linen-blend shirt that I intend to make into spectacle- cleaning cloths, and ripped out the side seams. Not much cottonwood gunk on my feet, and merely scrubbing got most of it off. Perhaps the season is nearly over! 29 April 2010 On the one hand I did press a few creases into my raw- silk shirt today. On the other hand, my dry iron exploded. While I was ironing, sparks and flames suddenly began to shoot from the top of the sheath that keeps the power cord from straining its connection to the iron. After standing frozen for a while, I remembered that the outlet is on a wall switch and turned it off, then blew out the fire. Burned some holes in the pressing cloth, but the shirt was undamaged. On the first hand again, several years before we moved I found a dry iron in a garage sale and bought it for just such an emergency. Moreover, it was in the attic exactly where I thought it was, neatly labeled "back-up dry iron". And Dave thinks that he can repair the other one. He has already bought a new power cord. Meanwhile, back at the second hand, I forgot to press Dave's shirt and my damask slacks, which have been waiting for several days -- and I can't even blame it on the excitement of the exploding iron. We had pizza for supper tonight. I calculated that it would take twenty minutes, and I was exactly right. Unfortunately, I wandered off and left it in the oven twenty-five minutes. Still edible, and I was quite pleased with substituting Kroger's frozen "three-pepper and onion blend" for fresh peppers and onions; I like the softer texture better. For sauce, I used a very small amount of canned salsa mixed with a large amount of freshly-picked basil, oregano, and thyme. My thyme plant has spread enough that I could pick only terminal buds and get out of picking teeny little leaves off wire-like stems. Piled all the herbs on the cutting board and chopped them together. Then I completely covered the pizza with pepperoni and buried the pepperoni in mozzarella. I made the dough last night -- one cup red-wheat flour, four cups white-wheat flour, a pint of water, and a teaspoon each of salt and yeast. Chilled it overnight, then put half into the freezer and patted the other half out on my cast- iron pizza pan and left it in the garage all day. It came out very crunchy. 29 April 2010 I suspect that I forgot to take my pills yesterday. The "Wednesday" compartment of my pill box was empty, but so were all the other compartments. In refilling it, I noticed that I still have a few Simvastatin 20mg pills, and they haven't expired yet. Anybody on Simvastatin? 30 April 2010 Probably just as well that I chickened out of my bike ride today, since I've got the trots and the corn isn't up, but I haven't done anything else either, if you don't count fooling around with the computer. Did pick the asparagus and make gravy for breakfast. And pulled a few weeds out of the rhubarb while I was out there. Yesterday I stitched two miters on my silk shirt. They will have to be picked out and done over. The redbuds are fading, but still made the dirt lane leading to Miller's field a beautiful avenue when we took our walk yesterday. Should be a lot of people driving down that lane this weekend for the Fat and Skinny Tire Festival. Hey! I went out to the asparagus bed barefoot, and there's just regular dirt on my feet! And one tiny glued-on fleck. Al doesn't like his wheat very much, but some of the leaves have been nibbled. The lid of the container makes a good saucer, but hasn't caught anything yet because I water the wheat with my laundry mister, so all the water soaks in. I dumped the garbage can that had been on the patio all winter. It was pretty foul. We're going to Alice's for Mothers'-Day pizza the Sunday after next, which is what inspired me to pizza Wednesday. Pulled my first log out of the lake this year, and scared my first clutch of ducklings out of the yard while dragging it to the gazebo pad. Left two more logs in the lake; I'll have to change into shorts before going after those.