This has to be the wettest spring yet.  It pours, storms, and floods every day.  A dry sunny day is unusual.  The garden is literally drowning.  Every so often I run out there and do some soggy work before the clouds open up again.  That, along with the mass suicide of cicadas by the millions, and the happy mosquitoes, makes for a unique plaguey experience!

Yesterday I did manage to get a lot done in a brief rain intermission.  I prepped the tomato areas along the outside front of the veg garden, and transplanted the tiny seedlings.  I did the same with the peppers wherever onions are missing in their rows.  I weeded along the peas and cucumbers.  Hopefully all the rain will boost their growth.

Pretty much all the herbs and veggies are now planted (or replanted) outdoors, and just require constant tweaking and maintenance to make up for challenging conditions.  I’m using hydroponics and soil germination at home to replace a few of the casualties.

This is the one year anniversary (yahrzeit) of my mother’s death.

Sunday was a highly successful B&B.  I kicked it off with “Space Dentist” IPA!  Familiar friends and new ones showed up and we all had a blast.  Lots of stimulating intergenerational conversations.  Avdi and the kids worked hard on cleaning and opening the pool.  E baked amazing brownie cupcakes.  We watched the mommy robin feed her babies.  It was a fun way to spend M-Day.  Even the historic cicada invasion made for some entertainment.  I was glad to be there.  Poor Avdi was exhausted.

In the evening a friend let me try one of her large edible gummies (wink, nod).  It was one of my first, and supposed to be mild.  Wow, it was almost like tripping.  Everyone assured me I was acting and talking normally, but I was somewhere off in the outer belt!  Time slowed down.  At one point I got so lightheaded, I was worried, but mostly sleepy.  My mouth got super-dry; in fact all my senses were heightened.  I didn’t get the munchies because I’d already done that.  I’m such a lightweight these days, I may have to refrain in the future, it was so intense.

I spent the night so Avdi could take Y to get their school award, while I made sure S did his school checklist and got on the bus.  Then I walked home and fell asleep for hours.  I was still slightly under the influence.  Then I ate more of my food delivery.  I feel like I experienced an actual weekend.

I opted for the full Food Outreach delivery this time, just to see if I could handle it.  It was literally enough to feed a village!  And it will, because in order to fit it into my apartment, I “have to” share half of it with the [extended] family.  After all, I prepare and eat most of my meals at Avdi’s, so it works out for everyone that I’m a poor old cancer patient and qualify for nonprofit food assistance, if nothing else!

I did erev preps and the usual garden puttering.  Later I spent the night, so Avdi could get a much-needed evening out, then take E to a school award event in the morning.  I couldn’t sleep most of the night, so I was pretty tired, and limped home late morning to go back to bed.  But not before eating a healthy meal of veggies, fresh fruits, and tortellini.  Watch and learn, stupid fascist state that thinks I don’t deserve to eat!

Lately I’m being held together by essentially duct tape (athletic braces and tape) but I muddle through and get stuff done.  The walking round trip is getting harder, but at least the scenery is gorgeous, and I’m seriously losing weight now (made it to 121).  All the gardening and housework helps.  Speaking of which…

We actually got a break in the soggy weather yesterday; it was a cool, breezy, sunny day.  I transplanted the basils into the herb garden: Tulsi/holy, dark opal, Thai, Genovese, and sweet Italian.  That made A happy.  I moved the tiny tomato/pepper seedlings into the sun to hopefully get some growth on.  I weeded half the veg garden again, to find my reseeded rows coming up.  All the potatoes, corn, and beans are showing!  I cleaned up more areas of the jungly yard to reveal yet more beneficial perennials.  And lots of other misc. I can’t remember.

After my free food delivery this morning, much of which I’ll be able to share with the family, I’ll walk back over to do erev preps.  I don’t mind being tired, because I feel useful, and I owe Avdi big time.  And the benefits make it all worthwhile.

It may or may not be strong t-storms with possible T-word, but how is one to know around here when even the Weather hasn’t a clue?  Be that as it may, I didn’t want to risk being swept away or drowned, plus I was legit exhausted from my “job”, so I was very grateful for the day “off”.  I needed one.  (Apologies to Avdi, who never gets one and needs it way more.)

A day off means: resting my injured body parts; taking care of neglected banking and business; figuring out finances to pay off personal loans; actually sorting/cooking some of the free food handouts I’ve stockpiled; starting a family food care package;  potting/transplanting plants; answering letters I’ve put off; filing; and other procrastinations.  Again, thankful to recharge, and cognizant of those who don’t get that privilege.

I hope to be back on my feet (literally) and on the job tomorrow.  [cue loud thundery noises]

The middle of the night seems to be my writing time.  May as well use insomnia for something pseudo-creative.

Yesterday I eventually hobbled tiredly over to Avdi’s (with a minor knee injury from doing yard work) and did more work!  Everyone was sleep-deprived after those fun tornado sirens.  I brought the last of the seedling flats outside to harden off, and turned out the grow-lights downstairs.  With it pouring every day, I don’t have to worry much about watering.

E and I teamed up to make dinner.  Their air-fries are amazing.  Then I dragged myself home again.  The hundreds-of-years-old trees in Webster Groves are astounding.  I missed trees in Ohio.

I was so exhausted, I went to bed early, then couldn’t sleep!  So here I am.  It’s threatening to rain all afternoon and evening, so I may have to take a day off!

OMG these gd@#$%f-ing tornado sirens in the middle of the night!!  How do these people live like this?!  I was just trying to go back to sleep after one of my nightly “long dark teatimes of the soul”, when multiple sirens howled on incessantly.  There wasn’t even a storm in sight at the moment.  When I realized the warning area wasn’t even local, I just crawled under the covers and tried to ignore it.  I wonder who’s behind the curtain diabolically pressing siren buttons at random hours to torture us.

In better news, we had our first greens harvest of the season for dinner yesterday!  And not just any micro-greens; these were large and substantial!  As it turned out, they may have been our only dinner, as Avdi’s main course was disappointingly not quite…right!   We all appear to have survived.  Between that and the maddening sirens in the middle of the night, it takes intestinal fortitude to make it to another day sometimes!  (JK, or am I?)  Avdi would concur.

Speaking of intestinal fortitude, I finally got up the nerve to clean up the downstairs bathroom.  For one moment it at least looked clean!  Being mechanically challenged, I didn’t go so far as to fix all the hardware, like the toilet seat falling off the toilet or the fixtures that have fallen off the walls; I leave that to whoever eventually gets to it.  I can’t do everything!  I can make a mean margarita, though.  Also, note the pride curtain for my little cubicle in the “dungeon”.

Well, back to it.

Almost every day this week, Avdi’s back yard has been underwater, with the pump struggling to keep up.  The runoff channel behind the houses, usually just a shallow trickle, was a high, rushing river.  Masses of wetland-loving jewelweed have taken over the edges of the yard.  The garden is soaked, but not drowned.  It’s like a tropical jungle out there.

I spent the night so Avdi could get a chance to go out late, and then take E to a Jewish event this morning.  I planted melon and watermelon, seedlings and direct-sown, on the other side of the garden from the squashes and pumpkins.  I brought out the tomato and pepper seedlings to harden off and hopefully gain some size.  That just leaves the basils, and a few other misc. plants.  I created a sunflower bed for S.  (Now all the kids have their own gardens.)  I continued to weed and clean up other raised areas, and planted the horseradish root from Pesach.  Y and I have been discussing bushes and perennials they’d like to plant around the yard.  In fact, they and I seem to be on good terms now.

This afternoon S had his friend and her mother over, so while they played, we all hung out on the patio with drinks and snacks, and talked.  K sat with us doing his homework and talking about his writing, and Y came out and joined us.  It was too wet for a B&B, but it was the next best thing.  I couldn’t stay for our charcuterie meeting because I had to walk home before dark.

If I was metaphorically indebted to my son before, now I’m literally so in debt to him, I can never pay it off in full, even without interest.  So while I figure out how to scrape up thousands from nothing, I’ll try to work even harder to help out in any way I can.  I hate being one more problem for him when he’s overloaded to the breaking point already.  He can’t even spare a minute to talk about it.  I hate seeing him this way–underwater, just like his backyard.  Just as it starts to subside, another big rain drowns the yard again, even with the sump pump running full time.  There’s no chance to breathe.

But life, and work, and kids, and gardening, and Shabbat go on.  I walk there and back every day, and find plenty to do.  I’ve been working to plant, cultivate, and create new areas for veggies, herbs, and flowers.  The sweet potato slips arrived, and I hurriedly got them in.  The other potatoes, and even corn, are starting to show.  I planted a whole section of all the squash and pumpkins.  At least I can try to improve the garden and landscape, plus housekeeping.  I don’t think twice about sticking around to watch kids while Avdi runs errands.  I practically live there anyway.  The kids and I seem to have found a good rapport.

This post will take a different turn than usual, because life suddenly got too real yesterday.  My dentist was working on the final stages of the implant process, which is very complex, and unexpectedly hit me with a huge bill that I couldn’t possibly pay now or ever.  (I had already run out of even enhanced dental insurance coverage for the year on stage one of the procedure.)  Long story short, my son came to the rescue on short notice and let me use his credit card.  I had never expected or intended for it to come to that.

I’ll save my tirade about how on earth can anyone, especially older people on a fixed income, afford dental care in this country, for another time.  I’m still too in shock, and trying to find a way to repay Avdi, which will take years on my income, while still managing to pay my basic bills.  Maybe I’ll have a few dollars left per month for routine medical or necessities.  I’m not exaggerating!  I’ll put off other procedures I need until next year, with new insurance.  Now would be a great time for a windfall, but we’re talking reality here.

Anyway, life happens and moves on.  I’m one of the fortunate ones.  I’ll just try even harder to earn my keep and not let this latest setback discourage me.  I just hate that it’s also another setback for my son, who has too many already.  This is not who I want to be.

OK, enough self-pity; here are photos, including E’s birthday, their penguins, and my chipmunk friend sitting for his photo just inches away.