Some days just start out wrong, you know? And then they just go downhill from there. I got up this morning determined to get my flower beds weeded and the mums pruned back. I have been so busy trying to keep the 4-H garden going I have totally ignored the flower beds, which are as a result totally overgrown with weeds.
It took longer to get up than usual, though. Even though there was no cold front approaching and no rain in the forecast, the old joints were screaming rain at me from the time I woke up. Those of you out there who have a close relationship with our buddy Arther-itis know what I am talking about.
After working through that, getting the dogs fed and dealing with emails and various messages, I headed outside to start the yard work, only to find a catastrophe had occurred. My granny gardening stool, which has withstood windstorms that blew it all the way across the road and a mad motorist who slammed into our carport earlier this year, was in pieces that were broken and non-fixable. This was a result of an accident that left hubby sitting on the ground and the stool broken, but the end result is the same. Unless I find a replacement for it, my gardening is pretty much done for the year.
After that, I was really feeling sorry for my creaky old self, so I decided to just go inside and watch a movie. We don't stay up late enough at night to watch the movies when they run, so I record the ones I want to watch and just watch them during the day. Last night I recorded one that ran on BBC America called "The Martian Wars." Being an ardent sci-fi fan, this looked like it might be a good movie.
Wrong.
And the worst part about it was, I sat there and watched it all the way to the end. I mean, this was terrible. The plot line involved the entire world going to war against an alien attack that started in Germany. It took old news reels and superimposed the War of the Worlds war machines into them. Interviews were conducted with a lot of old geezers and made to look dated so we would be fooled into thinking folks who fought in a war in 1912 actually were speaking in those interviews. Please, take my advice on this: unless you are drunk or high or otherwise in an altered state that might make this movie look sort of good, don't waste your time. I can't believe I did.
This is not the only bad television stuff I have been watching, either. I have watched a series called "Crossbones" ever since it premiered earlier this summer, and the last show for this season is on my DVR waiting for me to sit and watch it. All the way through. John Malkovich starring in the leading role as Blackbeard could not even make this one worth watching, and I have no doubt it will not be coming back next year. But if it does, I will probably sit there and watch every single episode all the way to the end once again. Way too much time on my hands here.
The week is going to get better, though. We have grandkids coming to make the mad dash toward finishing up the fair projects, and one or more of them will be here for the whole week. And in the middle of all that, our 4-H science club will be taking a trip to Memphis to the Pink Palace Planetarium and Museum. And during that week, I am confident another granny stool will turn up somewhere. Positive thinking and grandkids visiting always make everything turn out OK.
plen@rittermail.com