Small Victory

My first memory of "gardening" was when I was in 7th grade and I threw some morning glory seeds into the ground.  To my surprise, they grew.  I even needed to construct a trellis for them.  My experience was that they were an easy thing to grow.
Needless to say, that was the last time morning glories were easy to grow.  Living in the deer path and virtual nature preserve where I am has been quite peaceful and frustrating as a gardener.  I can't even count the money I have spent on plants only to have them eaten by the wildlife.  And it's not as though I plant things that deer love.  Quite the contrary:  I have limited my choices to plants deer generally don't eat.  Ha!  They've even nibbled daffodils!
So, I have a fenced garden now.  All should grow, right?
Wrong!
What the deer don't eat, the ground hogs do (woodchuck?  whatever).
This year I was determined to get some morning glories growing.  Perhaps I was spurned on by the beauty of my clematis blooming or the fact that the hollyhock seeds from last year actually gave me blooming plants.  In any event, I was not going to allow the critters to get me down.  I wrapped deer netting around the trellis where the seeds were planted.  And my efforts were rewarded:

This is what keeps a gardener's hopes alive.  Small victories!

Communication

Days away from my return to work after a long vacation and I learn through the grapevine that there is a meeting at work tomorrow at 10 am.

So, if I did not ask a co-worker earlier in the week about being let in the building to set up my room, I doubt he'd have told me that this session is going on.  When I called the school to confirm, I was told that I did not need to come because it is not part of my contract time, but I was obviously allowed to be there.

?????

WHY HAVE A MEETING IF NOT ALL THE PLAYERS ARE PRESENT?

Or, perhaps this is just a way to determine who is willing to be a part of the crap system that is in place?

My biggest complaint about where I work is that there is no communication.  How could I expect my students to do the work if I were not able to communicate with them?  Shouldn't the same be true of my boss??

So, what to do?  Ignore the place because no one communicated with me or go in to hopefully get some information that would not otherwise be communicated.......

Good bye summer.

The end (of summer) is near

Well, in less than two weeks it's back to school.  Where has the summer gone??

And, what did I do?

There is still a mile long list of things I wanted to get done but didn't.  Still, I feel rested and ready to return to the treadmill.

The biggest issue:  I build my house 18 years ago and it looks it.  Time for some updating:  painting the interior, gutting the family room/ mud room in the basement, building a front porch and redoing the entry walk plus doing new front landscaping.  Oh, I also want new flooring in the three bedrooms and in the bathroom and kitchen.

Lots to do.

But not impossible.

Today I made some baby steps.  I left messages for two people for the painting.  (I'm keeping it local if I can.)

Progress comes s-l-o-w-l-y at my house.