The bad day actually began Wednesday night. The ATM at the grocery store was out of order. (I live in a town so small that when I refer to "the ATM at the grocery store," there is only one location to which I could be referring.) That required us to drive to the ATM at the bank, which would not have been a problem except that we had ten minutes until my son's golf banquet began, and we needed to get cash, buy a card, get a gift certificate and get to the banquet because it was discovered that no one had gotten the coach a card and a gift, and it somehow became our responsibility to correct this oversight.
It didn't seem like that big a deal. Things happen. In the middle of the night, one of the cats jumped up on a shelf she has never jumped up on and knocked off a sugar bowl. Annoying, but it could have been worse. Thursday morning, with the kids out the door to their finals and my husband off to work, I started on my to-do list. Just as I was about to put in a load of laundry, the power went out. It would be hours before it was back on, the power company said.
No problem. I decided to mow the grass. But the lawn mower wouldn't start. It showed no indication of ever starting again. Undaunted, I decided to mow our ginormous yard with the push mower.
The push mower wouldn't start. My son called to let me know his final was over and it was time to pick him up. I had not accomplished a single thing in the two hours he had been gone. When I started the car, the low-fuel light came on. I drove to the gas station. Every pump was out of order. Instead of buying gas at the bargain price of $4.12 a gallon, I had to drive across town, praying I didn't run out of gas, to the only other gas station in town, the Mobil station where gas is $4.36 a gallon. Because I was very cranky in general, and specifically about forking over even a penny to Mobil, I got $6 worth of gas. It took two-tenths of a second to pump that amount.
Because we had no power, and frankly nothing very interesting to eat, I offered to grill something for lunch. Naturally, the grill was out of propane. Absolutely nothing in our town was working. Apparently aliens had landed and somehow knocked out the power grid, sucked the cash out of the ATMs, drained the fuel supply and perhaps stolen the batteries from my lawn mower to power their spaceship. That was the most logical explanation I could find for all of these random failures.
And so I went outside and weeded, because as long as you're frustrated and in a bad mood, you might as pull some weeds while you're at it. I weeded for hours. I found some sunflowers sprouting in the herb bed...
the first spears of asparagus poking through in the bed we started this spring ...
and a little jungle of snapdragons that sprouted from the ones I planted last year.
I worked in the gardens a good two or three hours. They looked pretty good by the time I was done. My spirits were pretty good, too. A bad day that ends in the garden isn't that bad a day at all.
this post made me laugh...only because just this morning i drove out of town to a you-pick farm that didn't exist and then, since i was already on the right side of town, i went to the library branch on that side of the county to get a book that is in no other branch, only to discover that it didn't open until 12, and it was 11. but it was just as well i guess, as i didn't have my library card!
Posted by: amy | June 20, 2008 at 03:27 PM
Thank goodness you didn't disturb a nest of yellowjackets in the garden! xo, suzy
Posted by: suzy | June 20, 2008 at 04:04 PM
Oh my word. Sounds like us! LOL
Hey, at least tomorrow is garage sale day, right? :-)
Posted by: Sarah | June 20, 2008 at 04:25 PM
Oh, gardening is so good for the soul, I always feel so good after a day with my hands
in the earth...take care Pinkie Denise
Posted by: Pinkie Denise | June 20, 2008 at 04:29 PM
Phew so much in so little time you make me tired just reading all this activity!
Have a good weekend,
Diane
Posted by: Diane ( Crafty Passions) | June 20, 2008 at 04:32 PM
You have a beautiful garden!
My progress on the etsy shop is going slow. I'm waiting until I get back from my trip to seriously start getting into it but my problem is by the time I get home with all my goodies I decide that I can't possibly part with any of it! I need to work on that!
Have a good weekend!
Posted by: two crazy crafters | June 20, 2008 at 04:52 PM
What a day you had! I hope everything is looking much better for you now!! At least you had your beautiful garden to potter in!! Fuel is horrendous isn't it? Although I just did the conversion and here is Australia we are paying $5.30 a gallon (that's US dollars too!!)
Posted by: Leisa | June 20, 2008 at 06:07 PM
Your day reminds me of the children's book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; by Judith Viorst.
I like the "Alien" theory. :)
I believe all things happen for a reason!
Your gardens are beautiful and weed free as a result of your terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. See... that's not so bad.
Posted by: mona | June 20, 2008 at 08:52 PM
oh my! what a bad day! and great way to turn it around. your garden looks gorgeous and i am amazed at how big everything is. my little lettuces pale in comparison.
have the aliens moved on??
Posted by: susan | June 22, 2008 at 03:02 AM
Those aliens must have been heading east to me because Friday like that! I was out the door to appt., realized I locked myself out. At appt, my doc scheduled me wrong which ended up not mattering because somehow I had forgot to renew my insurance and it ended the day before. Now I have to find a way to borrow 1000$, yep you read it right, 1000$ to fill my prescriptions this month so I don't end up in the hospital for 10,000$.
The good news? I received 3 packages in the mail from swaps and giveaways to bring a tiny bit of sunshine into my muggy stormy day. Maybe I'll come to your house and garden next time. I hope things are looking up. Without those bad days, we could never really appreciate the good ones, right?
Barbara, could you email me your address, I have a little trinket I want to send you at some point.
Love Stacy
Posted by: Stacy A | June 22, 2008 at 03:38 PM
I'm sorry you had such a lousy day but your garden is beautiful. I see tomatoes and I am so jealous.
Posted by: Patty | June 22, 2008 at 05:02 PM
So sorry you had such a bad run of luck! I'm so envious of your beautiful plants. I love the corner grouping - nice contrasting colors against the red. My goat climbed up the steps to our second story deck and ate my potted sunflowers. We might be trying goat as BBQ one of these days.
Posted by: Jayme L. | June 22, 2008 at 08:17 PM
Your garden is wonderful! I can see why working in it would lift your mood. I find that nature often has a way of doing that for me too.
Best wishes!
P.S.
I love the sweet bluebird in your previous post! Thank you.
Posted by: Lena | June 23, 2008 at 06:05 PM