5-16-03: In Bed with David Letterman

Friday, May 16, 2003

11:30 pm - If time flies when you're having fun, it's on a damn Leer Jet lately! Nothing big, by Hollywood standards, just small pleasures and lots of things to make me smile.

I love the chickens, love touching the mini horses, love playing with our dogs in the yard and now the "playfield" where I have a little agility equipment set up. Love playing in the garden, in the dirt, in the fields, checking on each & every tree and shrub we've planted.

When I was depressed, I remember trying very hard to think of things I loved or had a passion for, and it was difficult if not impossible to come up with a single thing or person.

We're in bed watching David Letterman. Today David bush-hogged the west field and misc other tasks, and I puttered around with plants and animals. Today was the first day the 4 chickens went outside on their own; they actually went in & out a few times. Won't have to put their water outside anymore.

The weather's been a little cloudy lately, but we can still get things done. I baked chocolate chip cookies last night, and decided to make the chocolate-chocolate chip by adding cocoa. Turned out good.

On Wednesday I gave 5 leftover poplar trees to [K & D] across the road. Later I boxed up several extra mock orange shrubs (root stock) and bicycled up the street. [P & A] weren't home, so I gave a few to *[G/H] and [R], with two slotted for [J] next door, and one to some of [R]'s visitors.
Then, [H] rode his ATV in front of me on my bike & led the way to the Mennonites next door. They have a large garden set up, 35 chickens, ducklings, rabbits & who knows what else. Super nice people from what I saw. They would be a good source for gardening advice.

Also Wednesday, David took the first load of scrap to the landfill that [P & A] told him about. This morning we took the 2nd and last load. Finally the space on the north side of the barn is clear. Tomorrow morning we're going to Malabar Farm for two reasons: 1) Draft Horse exhibition; 2) book signing the *Ellen Bromfield Geld of her new book "View from the Fazenda". After that we'll be stopping by Kingwood Center to buy mums and geraniums from a Garden Club sale. Hope they have plants left since I have a lot of pots to fill.

About the dog agility: Vince & Tessa took to the jumps and weave poles as if it had only been a few days and not more than six months since they last worked. Vince is still a total genius on the weaves, while Tessa is still the most energetic on the jumps. (see footnote on Entry #33 for background on their agility experience)

Today is the 2nd time I had them in the 'playfield' in the North field, and Tessa is so eager to do the agility stuff that I didn't have to have her on leash. She's actually pretty good about responding to commands in general, and not running off willy-nilly. Part training, part maturity.

*[G/H]: funny story... Turns out that[G], the nice old neighbor guy who was the first one I met before we moved into the house, got a bit flustered during that meeting and gave me his formal first name, not "[H]" which is what EVERYONE in the neighborhood called him. He was too embarassed to tell me any different, so I went for the first couple months calling him [G], and apparently caused quite a bit of background chatter in the 'hood. Finally someone told me he went by "[H]", so that's the initial you'll see when I refer to him herein. Poor guy!

*Ellen Bromfield Geld: daughter of Louis Bromfield, of Malabar Farm fame.

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