In Which I Try to Grow a Pair

Yep, it's time for me to put on the big-girl pants and grow a pair (and only in Asheville would that sort of mixed metaphor actually kind of make sense.) Because my tri swim group ends at the end of this month (as in, tomorrow), and I need to find another group to swim with. This swim group has been kind of like preschool - nurturing, with good education and low expectations. In other words, perfect. But now I've kind of gotten a feel for the process, and I think I might need to head off to elementary school (especially since preschool is closing down and kicking me out). But I can't find elementary school - all I can find is college, in the form of the Asheville Masters Swimmers, and to tell the truth I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that.

Ok, really there are two issues. The first is just that I'm not sure I'm ready to swim with them, even in their slow lane. And the second (and honestly probably the bigger impediment to me going and finding out if I can keep up) is that they meet at freaking 5:45 in the morning. In. the. morning. And yes, I get up earlier than that for market, and once the flowers are in full swing I'll get up earlier than that to go harvest. But still, the idea of that being my normal schedule is a little daunting. But I still think I'm going to suck it up. Will report back.

So yesterday my internet seemed to be running really sloooooow. It has been for days, but yesterday it finally got to the point that it bugged me enough to call Charter. So we do a speedtest, and it's full-on running slower that dial-up. And I'm supposed to be on a 3 Mbps connection. And Charter can't even tell that I'm online at all. Problem. So they offer to send a tech out today, and of course I say great, because I'm addicted to the internet. Problem being that I haven't done a thing at the farm in two days, because Clark and I were celebrating the holiday weekend with a whole lot of hanging out and doing not much productive (unless you count running and biking, which apparently we do.)

So I had planned on today being insanely productive, to counteract the weeds that are threatening to take over the farm. Instead I realized I had a 10:00 dentist appointment and a visit from the cable guy between 1-3. So my day looked like: (1) drag self out of bed. consider doing something productive. instead just curse slow internet. (2) go run. achilles feels good - yay! (3) go to dreaded dentist. hate going to dentist. escape with decent report and a small flossing lecture. (4) zip over to farm, figure I'll get some good work in since Charter's supposed to call an hour before they come. (5) work for 20 minutes until Charter calls at 12:37 to say they'll be here between 12:30 and 1:00. Take 4 minutes exactly to change clothes, load up dogs and exit farm. am home by 12:52. (6) wait on Charter until they show up at 2:10. rat bastards. except it turned out to be a no-charge call because their modem was dying, and the guy that replaced it was super nice, so I retract the rat bastard comment. (7) take Sam to swim class at YWCA. they have the best swim classes, but it's about 105 degrees sitting beside the pool and 98% humidity. I have now finally drug myself home from my swim-class-induced coma, but you'll notice a distinct lack of daily work in that schedule. Figure I'll try again tomorrow.

The farm work is definitely taking on a distinctly different flavor from last year. Last year it was all about watering. How do we water, when do we water, where do we actually get the water (the answer to that turned out to be giant rain barrels under the barn downspouts, and an electric pump in the pond.) But this year, since the answer to "where do we get the water" is "the sky", it's all about weeding. And trying to get things dry enough to put out more plants. All in all I'll definitely take this year's issue, but those weeds are getting a bit daunting out there. That'll teach me to take two days off for Memorial Day.