Start of NASCAR Season

It seems that everyone special to me is excited about NASCAR season starting today. The first race of the year is in Daytona tomorrow and there are viewing parties at all the sports bars Sunday.

I guess I will go and pretend to be interested. But frankly, watching a handful of cars run around in circles for a couple of hours, waiting for a wreck, is both morbid and boring.

Starting My Garden Seeds

This is a big day for me. I am starting the seeds for my vegetable garden. There are new seed packets at all the stores here and I bought a packet of Big Boy tomatoes and a packet of early peas. In a couple of weeks I will be able to set out the peas and start even more vegetables from seed.

This year I want to have several rows of fresh green beans and also summer squash and zucchini. I’m not sure anything else will grow easily in this soil, but I’ll try a few more things if I see something intriguing at the store.

Love is in the Air with Roses

happy VD roses

There is nothing like getting a bouquet of roses on Valentine’s Day. The candy is nice, jewelry is nice, but roses are just the most special. It may be silly to others, but I love getting roses for any reason. My own mother does not like fresh flowers because she say that they just die. I tell her that is their purpose and if they make someone happy then they have achieved a fulfilling life.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Sad Movies

Do you ever go to the movies and end up crying in the sad parts? I cry readily. I can’t help it. Anything that is really sad, especially when a main character dies, just chokes me up something awful.

I remember the first time I watched the movie, Steel Magnolias. It was such a great movie with a lot of very popular actresses. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but then when the main character collapsed at home, alone with her little boy, I just lost it. Oh my goodness – that movie made everyone in the theater cry. But it was a great movie and I try to watch it every couple of years – and I cry every time.

Pesky Old Groundhogs

My first memories of groundhogs are probably unusual unless you grew up on a farm. I did not grown up on my grandparent’s farm, but we did spend a lot of time up there visiting my mom’s parents. I believe that my sister and I were left on the farm for a couple of weeks when she gave birth to my youngest sister. I was not yet in school, so being gone from home for 2 weeks in October was not a big deal to anyone.

My grandparents had bought a huge property when he retired from the Navy. They had cows, pigs, dozens of cats who lived in the big barn, and two hunting dogs. My grandfather would often take the shotgun out to the fields and kill groundhogs. He said they were bigger pests than roaches and needed killing or they would destroy his crops.

So my experience with groundhogs is that they must be killed – not celebrated and expected to guide us on the next 6 weeks worth of weather conditions.