In spite of feeling the aches and pains this morning from yesterday’s workout, I managed to get myself re-charged and then plug myself into another eight hour workout, but before even thinking about where to start and stop, my first and foremost duty, was to get my Sunday morning spiritual duties fulfilled, and for whatever reason, this morning’s experience continued to lift me up the entire time I was out working in my garden and while I was mowing.
You can be sure during my extended hours of working alone, the mental ‘newsreels’ were on the spin, and one of my deep-thought subjects, had to do with the many empty buildings we have in our downtown which with some grant help from our State, we’d have a number of rock-solid buildings re-purposed for either downtown condominiums or affordable apartments.
Please don’t think I’m bashing those ticky-tacky apartment build-outs again, but you have to admit that we’ve got some really solid-built structures which with some updating, would far out last those which have been recently built. I still keep insisting the old Marshall and Swift building would make a great community multi-use center similar to Cedar Rapids’ ‘Newbo City Market’, because having been there only once, I was totally wowed by its design, function and appeal. Of course there are those in our city who’re nay-sayers unless it’s something they’ve thought of, and unfortunately most of what they come up with, doesn’t make the grade.
I’ll be the first to prophesy that once there’s a changing of the guard in departments of all levels of our government which in our community will begin this year, we’ll start seeing more accountability, reliability, forward-thinking, and above all, zero tolerance for any sort of cronyism in ALL forms of government, because in my book, it decreases productivity while increases ill will within departments. Yes, I could go on for hours regarding the cronyism I’ve seen and had to deal with over these many years. What I’ve found so sick about it all, is most don’t even realize they’re doing it because they’d grown accustomed to it over the years to where they’ll insist it’s simply business as usual.
With all of this recent rain, I spent three hours this morning in my garden pulling weeds, and after I had all the garlic, potatoes and onions weeded, I stepped back and gave it a good looking over, and if those three crops continue to do as well as they have been, I’ll end up with a bumper crop. Without a doubt, those German Fingerlings are the healthiest looking potato plants I’ve grown in years.
After my mowing was done, I spent a good hour pulling small volunteer trees out of flower beds, and since the soil was well-soaked from yesterday’s rain, I was able to get most of them out, roots and all. I always laugh to myself whenever I see people cutting those volunteer trees off at the ground, because they don’t realize that most of them will send new shoots back up, and in time, they’re bigger and stronger than the ones that were cut off, and only because their root systems are expanded and all the deeper. I couldn’t help noticing our street department cut a huge number of volunteer trees on the west ‘bank’ of S. Carolina hill, and already one can see new growth starting from those stumps. In spite of my hating to use chemicals, they’re gonna have to spray that area with a brush killer. Oh, and of course I also noticed some new growth of Virginia Creeper which is my most hated vine in North Iowa.
I had another memorial service to attend this afternoon which I almost missed because I’d not been watching the time. Gosh, I’m sure glad I went because there were family members of the decedent who were very happy to see me, and as chance would have it, I have another one to attend tomorrow, so after I’ve been there, I will have attended three in a row. Isn’t it interesting how all of a sudden there are noticeably more deaths than normal?
Before heading home, I returned a call that came in from my long-time friend. We always end up having a nice chat, and since we’ve both traveled similar life-paths, our conversations are always pretty much filterless and meaningful.
Having had a two-day physical workout, I’ll be glad to be back at office in the Morning where I’ll be putting my brain to work instead of my body.
Tonight’s One-liner is: If there’s something to pardon in everything, there’s also something to condemn.
