Things have settled down over the past few days – sort of. I’m still concerned about my sister, for a number of reasons, but can’t fix the things that concern me the most. I can’t make her choices, nor live her life for her.
Last week was rough for different reasons. It was a loooong week – several days straight without a day off, among other things. On the days I did have off, I ended up working sporadically throughout the day. My boss was off for her son’s wedding, and I filled in to the best of my ability.
Summary: I am officially too old for this shit.
For a couple of those days, I also had to make a 100 mile round trip after work. My oldest daughter’s car broke down, leaving her stranded at a medical facility halfway across the planet. I picked her up initially when she had no idea what she was going to do. Her income is $800 a month for the three of them. I’m helping with groceries, but a car repair for her was over my limit. Then her estranged spouse grew a temporary conscience and sent her half of their tax refund, which was enough to pay for repairs.
We drove back Wednesday night to get the car towed to a nearby shop. The tow truck Wednesday didn’t show up until after 9pm. I’d already worked 7am-3:30pm. So yeah…. extremely long day.
Someone from the repair shop picked her up Friday night to go get it, so thankfully I didn’t have to make yet another drive across the planet after work. She’s got her car back and it’s running well, which makes one less thing to worry about.
My photography for the last several months has been limited to phone snaps inside the house.
Such excitement, I know.
Health and family issues have ruled out any serious photo runs for a long while.
The previous round of coleus planting didn’t survive my stay with my sister.
It was a question mark whether the seedlings were going to make it anyway, considering my hackneyed approach to planting them. (In a foil baking pan, for the record.) I replanted a few days ago, into actual seedling trays this time, as shown above right. I meticulously used tweezers to drop exactly three coleus seeds into the individual planter cups. (Each cup is about an inch across – definitely no more than 1.5 inch.) The mature version of the three varieties I planted are at the top of the page.
Welp… So much for exactly three seeds per cup.
The photo directly above right was taken 5 days after planting. (Also – so much for taking 10 to 14 days to germinate. These popped up three days later, just like my earlier planting did.)
My entries are boring these days. I work, sleep cook, and futz around with plants. Those quiet aspects are interspersed by various tiers of family crises.
C’est la vie.