Scraggly raggly
The best thing about today was the monthly EPA retiree luncheon. (Again, to be clear, I worked for 15 years at the EPA as a government contractor in my “childhood” job but I did not retire from there. But the GG did and I know all of these people.) We ate at Palm Palace, a middle eastern joint and it was great! I had been loosely planning chicken shawarma for tonight (the American Mom version) but when I remembered where we were going for lunch, I put the chicken in the freezer because I was gonna have chicken shawarma for lunch and I did and it was good.
The rest of the day was a little raggly until the GG FINALLY took a nap (or at least tried to). First… The local tornadoes last week made him panicky about the fact that our house insurance documents are online. How would he pull out “proof of insurance” paperwork if we had any damage? Well, aside from the fact that we did not have ANY damage, we can find the documents online. I was annoyed but after my “adult” career as a systems analyst in the online banking biz, I am a master at cracking the badly designed systems MANY websites have for logging in. This one wasn’t great and in the end, I had to use both my phone and laptop simultaneously to get there (you don’t wanna know). But everything we need IS online and accessible. I hate to store a bunch of paper documents and believe that online storage is arguably safer than throwing a bunch of stuff in a filing cabinet, which could get decimated by a falling tree. Or burn in a faaaar.
What would you do with these scraggly “bushes”? They are fugly, no? The GG proposed that he would tear them down and maybe (MAYBE?) they might re-grow. I am not a fan. I mean I think we need to get rid of them but what I really think we need to do is spend some money on a comprehensive yard re-do by someone else. I’m not talking about a manicured lawn at all but there are people who can advise and help plant and maintain native species. I got rid of any gardening bug years and years ago, probably after I eradicated a lily-of-the-valley takeover. It was a huge slog and I’m sorry but I don’t have time for or interest in gardening. The GG? He knows more about gardening than I do. But working on OUR yard requires more than an occasional desultory foray into some weeding or something. And in the summer, we are in the yooperland more often than not these days. I get tired any time the GG talks to me about the “garden”. We don’t have a garden. We have a mess!
April 22nd, 2026 at 8:28 am
What would I do with those “bushes” in front? The easiest solution, I think, is for GG to take his chain saw and hack them back to stubs. Then, depending on what they are, they might sprout new shoots. It’s hard to tell what they are but it looks like there are signs of life at the tips of the branches. If that’s what I’m seeing, I’m pretty sure they would survive a drastic pruning. If not, at least you would only have to look at stubs.
April 22nd, 2026 at 11:33 am
I’ve had my gingko taken down to the ground several times, but it keeps coming back. Some plants do! I hired a yard crew to re-do my front and back flower beds and although it was expensive, I’m very happy with it.