Texting goes bad in WV drug deal

I don't know what Miss Manners would say about the etiquette of buying & dealing illegal substances with the aid of technology, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's probably wise to let your friends know you've changed cell phone numbers...

...especially if your friends are in the habit of texting you about buying reefer

...and, oh yeah, your old number could be assigned to a State Trooper!

Self-defeating Thoughts du Jour

You're crappy at your job.

You have no marketable skills.

You have accomplished nothing with your life.

Your cats don't even like you.

I realize that's probably over-stating it a bit. Sometimes the younger cat does show a hint of affection for me.

Yield

The garden is about gone, and it's just as well because my freezer is packed with yellow squash, zucchini, spaghetti sauce, salsa, and green beans (green beans not from my garden).

Best producers:

* 2 West Virginia '63 tomato plants = 60 tomatoes (still have several on the vine)

* 1 zucchini plant = 23 zucchini

Worst:

* 1 Ichiban eggplant = maybe 5 small eggplant...This was really disappointing. The last time I got an Ichiban eggplant, I grew it in a pot and had more eggplant than I knew what to do with. This year it did almost nothing.

* 1 Yellow Squash -- I didn't count the produce, but it was a disappointment. It did, however, live much longer than other yellow squash plants I saw in other gardens.

* Onions -- Over the winter, my brain erased all memory of a key part of gardening: working up the soil. After I planted the onions, trying to figure out why they didn't look quite right wedged in between big clumps of hard dirt, I remembered, "Oh, yeah...you're supposed to get the soil loose and crumbly. Um...oops." The onions suffered the worst from this dumb error, which was even more devastating because of the extensive dry spell in June and July. I now have a small collection of onions the size of ping pong balls.

9/11/01

What I remember most:

• Confusion
• The overpowering urge to get home, no matter what (I was in PA for the day)
• Pittsburgh TV reporters talking about missing planes, evacuated buildings, and, finally, a map showing the crash site in Shanksville, which at the time seemed very close
  
• Agonizing over what to do -- stay put or head south? Were the roads even open?
• Driving: normally busy highways were eerily vacant...police were stationed at the entrances to municipal airfields for reasons I didn't yet fully understand
• The weather: a glorious blend of low humidity, moderate temperature, and bright sun...just a hint of fall crispness...the kind of weather that makes colors appear brighter...to this day, this specific kind of weather makes me think of 9/11
  
• Collapsing in front of the TV, unable to stop flipping back and forth between 24-hour news channels, desperate for any new shred of info
• Feeling the need to call people on the phone, but not knowing what to say
  

Entertainment Marathon

I'd been pretty stressed in the days leading up to Labor Day weekend, so I took my mind off things by going on a sort of entertainment marathon:

a couple of hours of paddleboating



three hours of bluegrass music during a taping of Song of the Mountains

Awesome. I hope to return for the Oct. 6 show.

two games of bowling at what can only be described
as an extremely vintage alley (but in a cool kind of way)

mountain biking six miles in one hour

Famous last words: "It's called the Lake Trail, so it just goes around the shore of the lake, right?" Answer, six miles later: Yes, but this is Appalachia, so the shore is a series of steep climbs and mildly frightening descents.

one hour of flat water kayaking

My first time in a kayak. Loved it!

PLUS:

• Swimming in the motel pool
  
• Pinball
• One game of miniature golf at an evil course
• Lots and lots of eating, of course