plants and things

[solarbird]

This is actually pretty funny, which is surprising given the source. G'wan, clickie, you know you wanna.


Pseudoflowers

I filled the new garden bed with topsoil and mixed it in with some of the clay that was previously there and the usual soil prep stuff (aged/fully composted chicken manure and mineral goodness). I should really let it rest for a week now before planting, but I may try to cheat and plant some on Wednesday, since I'm sooooo late.

While I had the truck out getting topsoil, I stopped to get more Finale at McLendon's, but they told me the company that makes it has gone bankrupt and I'm stuck with Roundup. However, they also told me that Roundup is the same active ingredient, which I told them was wrong, but they insisted; getting home, I found that no, I was right. It's similar chemically, but not identical. Well, hopefully high-concentrate Roundup will work - it's supposed to, applied as I do, so here's hoping.

I also heard Ciscoe say on the radio this morning that if you keep completely up with it, two years of cutting horsetail fronds off at the ground level will cause it to die off. I certainly hope that's true.

Monday-Thursday tokens: 0.4
Friday's miles: 2.2
Saturday's miles: 2.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 864.8
Miles out of Rivendell: 405
Miles to Lothlórien: 61.4

The truck needs a bunch of maintenance work - an oil change, a clutch spring, and the turn signal is broken in the sense that I was using it to signal that I was turning left and the lever came out of the steering wheel. I now keep it in the seat beside me when driving so that if Officer Friendly decides to bother me about using hand-signaling I can tell him that it's broken, and when he asks why I haven't fixed it yet, I can show it off and say, "no, really, it's broken" and escape in the confusion.

Something about the truck attracts attention. Possibly it's the fact that it's a 1969 Chevy C-20 that has clearly been a working truck. Possibly it's the contrast between my size (not very large) and that of the truck (hugemongeous). Possibly it's that it sounds like a small propeller aircraft. (A subtle vehicle it is not.) Today's attention was a guy who does tree removal (Something Nye the Tree Guy) coming over while I was at the gas station and talking about how much he loved my truck. Apparently he has a lot of old trucks at home, and he was driving a Ford of similar vintage at the time. He approved of my using it to go pick up topsoil.


I dunno what this one was

Tomorrow, we should do some Folklife, and it should be tasty. I look forward to fruit dipped in chocolate!

Comments

[cow.livejournal.com]

Wait, Folklife tomorrow, but you said Monday morning in comments?

(Also, the EMP crack at the end of Nickels's video was great. Heee.)

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

We can't take away the Space Needle's trophy collection!

[cow.livejournal.com]

Oh, but we so can. With bulldozers.

(Next on the list: the downtown library. Ra'ar.)

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

But, but... then it wouldn't have the incentive it needs to keep shooting down invading spaceships! We need to let it know how proud we are of its kills!

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

(I do wish I knew who to credit for this description of EMP as "recycling the spaceships the Space Needle brought down, allowing it to keep its collection while still getting a building out of it" that was part of a reader letter in the Times shortly after it was built, because it really stuck with me).

[cow.livejournal.com]

Ha! I missed the original reference. That's hilarious. :)

[wrog]

I seem to recall it being one of the female Seattle Weekly columnists, possibly Nina Shapiro, but it may be somebody else who's moved on, since this was back in the last millenium. Naturally, googling for "space needle" "trophy collection" yields nothing.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Naturally, googling for "space needle" "trophy collection" yields nothing.

Damn you, Intarwebs, you've failed us again! *shakes fist*

[solarbird]

The weather is miserable up here. Is it better eight miles south?

[cow.livejournal.com]

It's not bad here. Grey clouds, occasional drizzle, just like yesterday. :) Perfect Folklife weather.

[solarbird]

So no steady, occasionally driving rain all morning, then. Ah, joys of the convergence zone.

[cow.livejournal.com]

Nah, that was last night. I got to watch the Ave completely flood out and two different pubs close early because they were leaking heavily in scary ways.

So that could happen at any moment here, although the clouds have lightened to be heavy white instead of heavy grey...

[solarbird]

Yeah, the north end started getting flooding last night - at least, that's when the flood warnings went out. (We're fine. Top of the hill is a good place to be.) But there's flooding all over the place now this morning, too, because up here, it didn't actually stop.

I just heard on the radio that there's 8" or so of standing water on parts of 405 and they're going to be closing lanes at 116th and 85th.

[solarbird]

We're going to lame for today and go back to the original plan of being there only one day, that day being Monday. But that'll be RAIN OR SHINE, dammit. MUST HAVE FAIR FOOD. Also, must see cool drumming on Monday.

[cow.livejournal.com]

Ok, sounds good. I don't know if I'm going to make it there today either--my coworker is late getting started with stuff, and I have another thing at 7.

Tomorrow may end up being paper writing and Folklife. Yay hippies!

Enjoy being at the top of the hill, and good luck with building the ark!

[(Anonymous)]

The second pic looks like a cherry tree.

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

I think it looks more like apple blossoms. Could be wrong though. The shape of the petals isn't quite right for cherry.

*giggles at the video*

[solarbird]

I don't think it's a cherry either. It doesn't really look like one. It might be an apple, but I don't really think that's right either. It's a conundrum.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Looks like something in the prunus family, though... hmm. Plum, peach, apricot? The leaves don't look quite right for apple.

[adularia.livejournal.com]

Loved the video. Now I want to know what the Queen Anne Blob was all about.

[solarbird]

Yeah, me too.

[ellerisse.livejournal.com]

Casoron (dichlobenil) is indicated as effective on horsetail and is apparently pretty popular around here (not that I've ever had horsetail problems... knock on wood!).

[(Anonymous)]

That video was hilarious, and surprising considering it's propaganda from the Nickels people.

Of course, it's possible to get rid of the viaduct and have the nice waterfront park without building a hugely expensive tunnel. If they can find the money under the couch cushions for it, and still leave money for mass transit projects, I'm OK with a tunnel. I'm just not sure that's going to happen.

[dpawtows.livejournal.com]

So am I the only one who thinks that Safeco Field is far uglier than the Kingdome ever was?

[solarbird]

The Kingdome was pretty fuckin' ugly. And while I opposed tearing it down and replacing it with Safeco, there's no way to avoid how fugly it was. However, I do think it could have been remodeled and made much better. I actually do think Safeco is at least more interesting to look at than the old layer cake.

It was also a terrible baseball stadium. But it was a perfectly good football stadium.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

No, I'd agree. The Kingdome was ugly but had a certain individuality, Safeco is ugly and looks pretty much like a whole pile of other baseball stadia.

[mattsnaps.livejournal.com]

!!!

1969 3/4 ton Chevy? That rules! I have a 1959 half-ton longbed. We are both officially "classic truck" owners.

Does yours have the 235 inline 6, or a 283 or 327 or something?

I don't have an "old cars" icon. Clearly I need one.

[solarbird]

1969 3/4 ton Chevy? That rules! I have a 1959 half-ton longbed. We are both officially "classic truck" owners.
muah! Mine's not exactly in what anyone would call showroom condition. (And it wasn't when I got it, either. It's really in about the same shape it was, except for the turn signal.) It's clearly seen a lot of working days.

It's also the kind of truck in which you stick strictly to the speed limit on curves and going down hills. I have to stand on the brake to stop the thing going down to 522.

Does yours have the 235 inline 6, or a 283 or 327 or something?
V8 350, I think? I'm not even sure. I don't even know that it's the original engine; I know it does not have the original carb. It gets eight (8) miles per gallon, which is why I only drive it when I've got stuff to haul. ^_^ (On the good side, that's eight fully loaded. Or empty! It doesn't seem to care. One mile per gallon per cylinder!)

If you want, feel free to come look at it sometime. I got it because I wanted a cheap but reliable full-sized-bed truck. It's been great for that!

[mattsnaps.livejournal.com]

That's cool. I imagine with a 350 you could tune for better fuel economy, but messing with carbs is definitely outside my area of expertise. Why, with 3.90 gears on a 350 with a single 4-barrel carb, you might get as much as 13mpg!

We should have a co-truck photo op sometime. Once I get mine running again, that is.

[solarbird]

We should have a co-truck photo op sometime. Once I get mine running again, that is.
Ah, you actually work on yours? I totally don't. I let people who know what they're doing screw with it instead.

If I drove it more than a few hundred miles a year, that'd probably be a bad plan, but since I don't, it works out okay. When I filled it up at the gas station yesterday? I think that was the first time I'd filled the tank in 2006. ^_^