Ron did a fantastic job with the back yard.

Hibiscus have started. I did some weeding around them.

Nice out today.

I’m making notes on setting up and running the .bat file to automate SQLExpress backups on Andi’s machine.

Changed sheets. Ron misplaced his glasses. We’ve looked for them for hours, everywhere but where they are.

I paid Home Depot for the Viburnum and sent $100 to IRS for self-employment tax.

Sent treat money to Bennett’s bank account, suggested using it for takeout.

Ordered a Wasp USB WCS3905 barcode scanner to use with Andi’s app.

Planted Borage seeds from the Library Seed Catalog in the corner garden next to the most recently transplanted Astilbe.

Someone has been eating the sunflower seeds!

Washed the spread.

Revived an old barcode reader project to work on this week.

Much frustration with using a .BAT file to backup a database. The file runs without errors but the backup doesn’t write. Feels like permissions but I don’t have a workaround yet.

Two deliveries from Walmart today, they separated my med from the groceries. Lots of frozen veggies and vitamins. The lady who put the order together must think we’re rabbits!

Watched stunning segment of MidasTouch in which Michael Popok lays out last week’s setbacks for Todd Blanch and the rest of the Trump DOJ including the tossing of the “Broadview Six” charges because of Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg’s prosecutorial misconduct.

Received a check from the good people at MRS.

Believe I’ve finally after many, many years found the elegant dance step performed in slow motion by an older lady at a lounge in San Francisco: the Toe Strut.

I gave the deck plants a decent watering this morning before 9. Then it rained this afternoon. So they should be good for this week.

One orange daylily is blooming in the garden by the driveway.

Have been working on a couple of projects, automating SQLExpress backups and RFID reading and writing to a database.

It had rained last night and was drizzly and on the cool side (50’s) today.

As we were leaving the house to attend a couple of big events in Town, a Walmart driver dropped off my new deck flower container.

We picked up a couple of six packs from Aubuchon to justify our parking there before attending the open house of the new fire station next door; it’s quite a building. We were given access to offices on the first floor and a gorgeous conference room on the second floor.

Volunteers from North Adams served burgers and hot dogs that were provided by the Station.

We got to see our friend Andi and her husband who is an Assistant Chief. It was a lovely, friendly crowd that evidently included people from Boston and other fire departments.

Afterwards we went to the Library for a multi-cultural fair with exhibits from a number of countries, community groups, Mount Greylock High School clubs and samples of Italian cookies. The library has a full seed catalog. I brought home Borage and Black Zucchini seeds.

Continued our travels with a grocery shop. Although we’d done a big shop earlier this week, it seems we can never remember everything we need.

Finally, we got soft serve at a new cafe/bakery occupying the old West End Market on West Main Street in North Adams.

Back home I planted flowers from the nursery in Bennington along with portulaca from Aubuchon in the new container. Also planted the six pack of cukes from Aubuchon in one of the raised beds.

I found the web page with the .bat script that I’d deleted yesterday. Back to it tomorrow.

I did get out this morning before 9 to briefly water the new plantings, including the Korean Spice Viburnum, seeds and red daylilies.

We visited an exhibit of artwork by one of our Harper Center acquaintances at the Congregational Church, then picked up a book on hold at the library, then did a grocery run at Stop & Shop.

I stupidly deleted a file with a SQL Server backup script.

For reasons I don’t understand, someone quite close to me thinks he’s of Italian background. He isn’t; his wife is. He is English, German, Scottish with a tinge of Irish and he looks it: tall, fair-skinned, blue-eyed.

I saw Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First, on Meet the Press. She is admirable and so are her organizations. I wrote to her about the struggles that those of us who weren’t born lucky in looks have in STEM fields. Hope she writes back.

Got a call around suppertime this evening from a T-Mobile representative who has issued me/us a credit for the Internet service I’d cancelled!

It’s still May and already the Town has placed a restriction on water usage between 9 am and 5 pm.

Glad I put off watering the front garden although I’m vexed that I haven’t done it yet.

Had a good conversation with someone at T-Mobile today who finally explained my last bill in a way that I could understand. As in unaccented English.

Gigantic row with Ron over his sadistic passive aggressive game claiming that he can’t hear. He – finally – made an appointment with the audiologist for next week.

I ordered a rail planter today. Gave up trying to find one like ours, settled for something close. Seems all our online stores have sold out. Our Aubuchon doesn’t carry planters of any type in-store, “no room”. Other hand, they seem to have everything else!

Was going to order a giant pizza special from BigY but they changed the menu to chicken and bacon instead of Margherita. Ron got Mexican. I had to drive him because he couldn’t figure out where the restaurant is. We have three of them in this town and he kept getting them mixed up.

I’ve been in sleep clothes all day. Haven’t wanted to shower or cook. I guess that’s why they call it the blues, burnout, depression. I went out after dark to spray deer and rabbit repellent on the daylily bed next to the driveway. The smell is horrendous.

Ron and Jett were out doing errands, including returnables. Ron mowed the front yard yesterday. I guess this is in lieu of helping me frame the new artwork, one of which I ended up doing myself today, or cleaning and rebaiting the mouse traps, one of which I did yesterday, or reconfiguring the front hose holder. Maybe I’ll do that one tomorrow.

Sometimes I hate my life.

Picked up some gorgeous frames at Goodwill. They are perfect for the collages we bought a couple of weeks ago.

Stopped in at the Liquor Mart to check out their deli.

Jett seems to be okay after his high fat snack yesterday. Fussy about his food, though, but that might be normal.

Ron has been complaining all day that he can’t hear me. Turns out there seems to be something wrong with one of his hearing aids, the right one, which has been trouble from jump.

I finished planting the new daylilies.

They are in Bennington only about 20 minutes away and well stocked with annuals and some perennials. Like a small Mahoney’s. Beautiful nursery.

I brought home some annuals for the deck planters and two red daylilies for the driveway garden. Unfortunately, something ate the blossoms from one of the daylilies I planted last year. Electric fence?

Jett and I shopped at the Tractor Supply in North Adams this morning. He didn’t like the Kong toys or for that matter anything else that was hard plastic or rubber, thus saving me an expense. So I got him some chews. Cashier could not have been nicer, gave us a heads up when two more dogs walked in with their owners.

Guess the chews weren’t enough: Jett ate a whole stick of butter this evening. I ate half a pint of Brigham’s Mocha Almond.

Dropped off a package of Andi’s favorite coffee and backed up the database and code. Need to figure out how to automate the backup. Shop looks great!

Have been cleaning up my laptop and phone, deleting files and applications.

Did laundry. Changed sheets.

It’s been raining off and on today.

Up early but went back to bed for about an hour. Jett kept me company. Dreamed about mashed potatoes. Ron did a white wash and is doing a short grocery run.

I planted the veggies and mint from yesterday and dropped sunflower seeds in the flower garden.

I put zuke seeds in the flower bed and one of the raised beds. Planted Kentucky Wonders in between the other climbing beans in the other raised bed.

No idea what will grow but it’ll be interesting.

Invoiced MRS.

The new plantings are doing well both in the ground and in containers.

The plantings from last year have also for the most part taken root. Two clumps have buds already.

Although I got a very late start, I got to the shredding event at the library before the truck left and to the plant sale at the Pine Cobble School before they packed up.

There was very little left but I was able to buy a tomato plant and three bean plants, the latter of which were sown by the Grade 3 students. They were half price.

Later I picked up a couple of bottles of French Sauvignon Blanc and some lemon squares.

Catch as catch can for lunch and “supper”.

A man came by to check out repairs to the deck and placement of the electric box in Ron’s “study”. He’s a local person and has been working with a crew who are building luxury homes on Sweet Farm Road.

We watched “Compass Points” and “Horizons” on PBS.

I think I’m done with MRS. Uploaded changes to web pages and database today.

Had to switch Backblaze to an internal drive, have run out of room on my laptop. Uninstalling apps now.