Just Another Day

The forecast mentions snow for the weekend. I doubt that it will happen. Weather forecasters like to whip us up into an emotional frenzy about what's-to-come. Snow lovers (me) get all excited at the prospect of a new venue out the window, and snow haters (you?) get in a worrisome frenzy about shoveling and driving and survival tactics.

Even though I don't believe the weekend forecast, I did commence the Banana Tree Transference Program yesterday afternoon.

But, wait - let me backtrack to yesterday morning's activities, after which yesterday afternoon's goings-on dovetailed in what seems to be a typical day for me.

Yesterday morning my friend Mary called and beckoned me to join her in a quick hike up our local mountain, Mt. Mitchell. (Keep in mind we live in Kansas, and the highest point of elevation in our state is Mt. Sunflower, at 4039'.) Mt. Mitchell is a teeny hill. But off we went, in search of adventure. And how we managed to climb the wrong hill still escapes me. It's not like we have that many to choose from. When we got to the top of Not Mt. Mitchell, I remarked to Mary, "Mary, we've climbed the wrong hill!" I wonder how many times Lewis uttered similar words to Clark.

We hiked down that hill and chose another one to scale. It seemed odd to us that there was no sign or path to guide us. We fumbled through sumac and brambles and rocks and a bit of barbed wire (this was where I tried to make a joke about maybe we might come upon a bull and Mary-who-actually-owns bulls did not laugh...). As we ascended in elevation (? 50' ?), we DID come to a path, and it led us the final 50 yards to the summit of Mt. Mitchell. And it was a very pretty view up there, watching all the farmers below in the valley harvesting their soybean and corn the day before the rain.

I came home from that jaunt full of mountain-air energy, and that was when I decided it was time to haul in my banana trees for the winter. Step one, I planned mentally, would be to take the window a/c unit out of the upstairs window, to allow for more window room for my grove of tropicals. Upstairs I went, opened the window, and WHO KNEW the thing would just fall out?! By some luck or other, the electrical cord caught on something inside the window, and was dangling. I braced myself (maybe after an expletive or two; yes, I do think I opened my mouth and one flew out...) and tried to hoist the air conditioner up the side of the house. I got it to the window sill but suddenly felt like I was losing control (and I was), so I dropped it again. But this time it knocked into some scaffolding That Spouse o' Mine had nailed/screwed onto the roof during some household painting and repair tasks. The scaffolding knocked loose from its holding and slid down to the gutters on that part of the roof, and as I type this morning it has not moved. I wrenched and groaned and pulled and tugged and I did manage to get the air conditioner back up to the sill, and back into the house. You may ask, why didn't I just let the thing drop? I might have, but we have a very dear and geriatric old dog whom I love a lot, and old Bear was asleep just near where my calculations told me the a/c might land. I did not want that story handed down through the generations, that dear old Bear met his demise when I let the window unit fall on him from 2 stories above.

(I should mention That Spouse o' Mine's reaction when he came home from work and I gave him my Welcome Home briefing. He rolled his eyes and asked, "How do you do these things, Trish?")

After that fiasco, I moved on to the task at hand: Dig up my 12' banana trees and replant them indoors. Well! I got 4 of the 8 done last night, and plan to finish up tomorrow. After my body rests...