Random 5 for April 8 – Tomato plants, avoiding exercise, phone calls, busy, research

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A healthy plant from a year or so back.

Requiem for tomato plants – I did the same thing I did last year. I used the heating pad for germination and a sun lamp to help them grow. I planted 4 varieties of tomatoes (multiple plants) and only one variety is left with only 2 plants sort of thriving. The others are dead. Deader than a doornail. I have replanted another batch and we’ll see. I’m blaming it on the weird weather patterns even though they are in a comfy bedroom. Sigh.

Gym folks are crazy – My gym has an odd parking lot. It angles out like a pie so there are many parking spots farther out with the closest marked for handicapped. The gym is not a rehab facility. I doubt whether a handicapped person could use it but businesses are required to have them. After months of going unused, this past week I’ve seen them full. On Friday I saw one of the users. He was a very buff young guy with pumped up shoulders the size of Alaska. I know you shouldn’t judge these things but I can’t help it. This old lady walked past his car to get to hers. If you are going for exercise why is it important to park right outside the door to avoid walking?

I hate phones – I much prefer to email or text a message. First there is the convenience of doing it anytime but most of all I don’t get trapped in a long phone call. It happened this week. I had to let someone know a date. She wasn’t a friend. I was passing on a message. It took a half hour and all the standard end of call moves didn’t work. I was ready to feign a heart attack! Desperate times, desperate measures!

Exhaling – It’s been a busy two weeks. Speaking for myself as an older person, I hate when a bunch of things clump together (especially a big dental one). When I was younger, I went from activity to activity without a thought. Some activities were rescheduled because of lousy March weather. I’ll be exhaling this week although it’s busy too. Just not as busy.

Ancestry update – My research work goes by the wayside when I’m busy. I did find someone born in 1778 this past week. I didn’t think that was possible because most of the records for my ancestors started around 1790. Although I am 30% British, I haven’t found a single Brit. I’m still betting on those crusaders in the middle ages poking around in the villages.

So how was your week?

 

56 thoughts on “Random 5 for April 8 – Tomato plants, avoiding exercise, phone calls, busy, research”

  2. What a shame about your tomato plants, Kate. How disappointing. My typical seed starting method is to hedge against failure is to plant dozens, and then when some fail I have all the extras. But then I have trouble discarding the extras and I end up with too many! I’m a little neurotic about the whole thing. 🙂 I hope you will now be able to smooth out the “clumps” in your schedule. I watch my daughter go from one thing to the next and I can recall when that was my norm, but like you, I really don’t enjoy that pace anymore. I think I can do it, but why would we want to? I like the idea of a nice long exhale!

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  3. I’ve got a black thumb (hubby agrees) so no guidance there!

    Before we moved, my Zumba class was less than a mile from the house. I felt guilty for driving to it… and only did when the weather was raining (class with sopping wet feet is no fun) or it would be dark walking home after class. Otherwise I walked…because it felt super silly to drive less than a mile to then work out.

    I recently got a FitBit step tracker… and now I know I will be parking in the back of the lot anywhere to get in my steps! I often did anyway as I always appreciated the extra steps…now I know how hard it is to truly achieve 10,000 a day.

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  4. I know better than to try to plant seeds. They are allergic to me. I have nursed plants through the winter, and they are getting petulant. That’s why Spring is important. If the season doesn’t hurry up and do what it’s supposed to do, all my plants are going to go on strike and die.

    I’m to the age where I limit activities to one a day. What is the next step? Do you plan only one activity a week???

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  5. I’m amazed that you have any tomatoes at all. That’s pretty good.

    I hate phones for a different reason. Cell phones do not have the clarity of sound that the old land lines had. Every conversation gets garbled for me at some point. Maybe it’s just that I need a more expensive phone, but I only use it for text messaging and phone calls. I don’t use it for the internet like so many others.

    How was my week. Eh, hubs and I have had some health issues, and now today, it’s snowing!! Two inches. I woke up this morning and got confused, thought it was Christmas. Ugh.

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  6. When I was a member of a gym, there were many odd behaviors that made me wonder. I attributed them to a lack of oxygen going to the brain due to exercising too intensely. In side the house I’ve got starts of herbs going right now– and a few zinnias. Considering I woke up to snow this morning AGAIN, I may never get the opportunity to plant these starts in pots outside. I usually have them all set by mid-April, but this year… who knows?

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  7. I don’t like calling on the phone either. I like texting. Mostly because I don’t hear very well on the phone. Bummer about the maters. Hope the new batch are hardier. I don’t understand the need to park at the door if you aren’t disabled or maybe have six kids you are herding.

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  8. We have a gym in our area that is on the second floor of a strip mall. The outdoor escalator leads directly to the front doors. There are stairs on each side of the escalator, but I never see anyone taking them. You certainly wouldn’t want to break a sweat before working out, would you?

    I like parking away from where I’m going. Less chance of door dings and a little bit of exercise.

    Oh, and you already know that I hate phone calls too. I finally broke down this morning and called a friend that I needed to thank for something… an hour later I was still trying to get off the damn phone.

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    • I will often walk a flight when the stairs are nearby. Last week I came in the front door of an office with two strangers. They went right for the elevator. I went for the stairs. We both got onto the second floor at the same time and I had a little exercise.

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  9. Hi, Kate – I also don’t understand the desire to park right beside the front door of a fitness center (unless the person in question does actually have a physical limitation). Last month, my Yoga Studio offered a 30 day challenge. The second place prize was to be able to use the parking stall closest to the studio’s front door. Seriously?! We live in a small town, This means that the yoga studio is a close walking distance for most of us….and…free, nearby parking is everywhere!

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  10. At least now I know there is a name for it: the CLUMP. gosh, I hate that. Too much stuff on the same week or even day totally overwhelms me. Younger people don’t get it so I don’t tend to mention it often except to the gardener who completely understands!
    Why are the tomatoes dead?! I don’t understand . . . .

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  11. My wife’s daughter HATES speaking on the phone, and that includes to her mother also. Of course, she’s also bad about email and texting too. So that leaves very few alternatives left — smoke signals perhaps?

    We have a screened-in porch, which you would think would be relatively easy for potted plants. But my wife has tossed out five since the beginning of the year for various ailments. I wish you well this year on the tomatoes. – Marty

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  13. Wow- those tomatoes from last year look luscious. Good luck this year! 🍅 I also dislike speaking on the phone for the same reasons, but most of my out-of-town friends don’t like to email. So I write them a long email and they call me and talk an hour. Lose/lose situation. 🤨

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    • Today (day 6) is the first day my mouth feels somewhat normal after the dental work. I forgot how uncomfortable those things are. No real pain. just a lot of aching. Hard to be nice to people when your mouth aches! 🙂

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  16. Big buff guy with the handicapped placard? Sounds like the UCLA quarterback. Had quite the scandal years back when it came out that the football team here was handing out placards to the football players so they could get good parking.

    I see plenty of placards at my local Y, but these are folks sometimes using walkers and canes to get to the pool. Like you, I’d probably look askance at a young guy striding into the gym like he owned the place. I resisted the temptation to use my husband’s placard this last year and so I cast a righteous, baleful glare on all those taking up stalls they don’t need.

    Though you never can tell if there’s a mental issue like a TBI.

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    • He didn’t have a placard. I looked. He stuck out because at the time I go, it’s more than 80% seniors (who do not use the handicapped parking). There is no pool nor is there any rehab equipment unless you want to do the ball. I got the feeling the guy didn’t want to walk an extra 20 ft. A football player with a card? Seriously? Really bad PR.

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  17. I hope your tomatoes do their thing for you, Kate. Summer and tomatoes just go together! I don’t think we will do tomatoes this year. I still like to hear a voice when I have something to say. I feel like I have had texts and emails misinterpreted lately. I had a good friend text me a picture of her four year old grand on a horse and while she looked cute with her pink boots and pink bow in her hair, after exchanging some funnies and short conversation I suggested that her grand needed a helmet… always. Haven’t heard from her since. Had we been on the phone I don’t think the whole thing would have come out the same.

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    • We still have one but we never answer it. Our cells are rarely on so it’s the best way to contact us although we only if the caller is identified or they talk in the answering machine. You are right about junk calls. We get several every day.

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  19. Good luck with the new batch of tomatoes.
    I’m not big on phone convos either. I’m just not a phone talker and unless It’s business, I find it awkward and artificial.
    The non-handicapped parking close to the gym door? They’re very busy, you know …

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    • Unlike us old folks who are running out of time! The walk is very short. I don’t get it. The call the other day was awkward. I barely knew her and she was trying to make conversation about stuff I had no interest in. Yikes! I save calls for emergencies or to a friend when the topic is too much to type.

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  21. I learned my lesson about handicapped spaces…I was using a handicapped stall in a Panera thinking it was no big deal when I came out and a woman in a wheelchair was waiting. I apologized but she snapped…cancha read? I was humbled.

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  22. I love tomatoes. My grandfather had huge plants he kept in crates he’d paint white every spring he took such great care of. There isn’t a time I see one when I don’t think of him, so thanks for the nudge in memory.

    I hate phones too. I prefer the written word since there’s usually more thought behind it.

    Yes, exhaling is a good idea when you consider the alternative…:)

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  23. Your comment about handicapped parking is one that makes me grind my teeth. The sense of entitlement of some people makes me insane. I’m seeing more parking spots now being allocated for parents with small children. Like the handicapped parking, they are larger spaces to accommodate the shuttling of small children in and out of back seats and the need for strollers.
    It makes me crazy when I see a family with kids in the 8 to 10 year old range piling out of vehicles occupying these spaces.
    I consider it a privilege to park far away from the entrance because I have good, strong legs and I’m eternally grateful I can use them.

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