Did more weeding and loaded up the truck again.

Finished drying out the last paint can and brought all of it to the transfer station.  Ron organized household trash.  Picked up the rest at Edgewater.

Did laundry, changed sheets.

Ron hurt my arm and shoulder at the transfer station.  I was trying to lift the tailgate, and he was holding it down.  It was a damned stupid move on his part.

He did make pancakes and cleaned a couple of window sills.  Showed me a slick way to cook corn, too: microwave in the hulls and peel afterwards.

We had a light supper of hummus and seeds.

Opinion

To 40B or not to 40B: That is the question

We got through hazardous waste collection and shredding pretty fast today at Mashpee HS.  Very well organized crew.

I participated in the MTR standouts in Falmouth and Sandwich.  Sandwich is full of haters and I lost it.  Will not be back.

On the way to Sandwich, stopped at the transfer station to unload a pile of recyclables and leavings from yesterday’s furrowing.  Quick stop at South Sandwich Stop & Shop on the way back; people were nice there.

Picked up scotch and vodka at Liberty; good prices!  Ron mixed two drinks for me.  I certainly needed them.  Paul phoned and we had a good conversation.

Pasta with mushrooms and pesto, with salad, for supper.  Gorged on candy afterwards.  Hard day.  I hate Cape Codders.

Weeds have started to flower and even seed, so I rented a cultivator from Taylor Rental late yesterday.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work – it kept stalling, and Ron noticed that some of the tines were broken – so Ron exchanged it for a killer machine with two sets of tines and a better motor: a Mantis.

He plowed deep furrows around four gardens.  I started raking out the grass and weeds and gave up after a while, but Ron worked three and a half to four hours straight until almost 4:30 in 95 degree heat.

He found another problem with the second machine.  The person at Taylor Rental was great, told Ron he appreciated the feedback.

Meanwhile, we installed the lamp harp, which arrived today.  Had to take the lamp apart and rewire it, but everything seems to be working.

After dropping off the cultivator, we stopped in North Falmouth for ice cream.  I bought a finial at North Falmouth Hardware.  Ron treated us to ice cream next door at Holy Cow.

I’m glad we got all that done.  Big day tomorrow: hazardous waste collection and standout/standouts for MTR.

Loathsome chore: drying out latex paint cans with cat litter.  I was able to toss most of them, but there are a few holdouts still drying in the yard.

Loathsome chore: weeding.  On the way back from getting the truck at Falmouth Toyota, I picked up a cultivator at Taylor Rental.  Ron, of course, was dubious and insistently rude even when I threatened to slug him.  He did show me how to start it, though.

Ron got the front mowed.  Hope to work on the back tomorrow.  Got him a bag of bulls eyes from the Country Store.

Ron took two of the cabinet doors off so I could scrub them with Murphy’s Oil Soap.

Dropped off cherry tomatoes and blueberry soda to Robert.  Listened for a while to a pop music band at the Commons.

350 newspapers around the country published “we are not your enemy” editorials today.  Good for the Globe for getting this going.

Saw signs that toxic waste disposal is happening at the high school this weekend, so we put old acrylic paint cans in the small shed and latex paint for drying in the big shed.

Dropped off the truck early for its appointment.  Am gobsmacked by Falmouth Toyota!  Far superior to Hyannis Toyota.  What a setup.  Mentioned that vH referred me.

Turns out it needs a fairly minor repair, under $300.  Asked them to add a stopper to the driver side seatbelt and check out the foldout window on the passenger side.  They say the fluids are fine: big relief.

We did a shop at Market Basket, needed cat litter for the paint disposal project and ended up buying coffee, cereal, broccoli/cheese soup, custard pie on sale, swiss cheese, yogurt, no-salt pasta sauce and vegetable broth that have become difficult to find, and one or two other things.  Dropped off a strawberry rhubarb pie on sale for Peter.

Soup and egg salad sandwiches for lunch.  Really hit the spot.  Rotini with pesto-enhanced tomato sauce and salad for supper.  Custard pie for dessert.

CSA day, which means extra work for me.

So, of course, I decided it was a good time to make pesto.

The 3 big basil plants have flowers.  I cut the top off one per a suggestion online to cut off half a basil plant once it flowered to encourage more leaves.

The leaves were in good shape for pesto, and I put the flowers in two arrangements, one with Sunflowers from the Farm.

Watered the corner garden.  Divvied up the CSA share and managed to get all of our produce in the frig.

Ron brought carrots, green peppers and a Yerba Mate to Robert.

He came back with a 1/4 cup package of pine nuts.  He ground up the basil (2 cups), pine nuts, 3 gloves of garlic and 1/2 cup of olive oil.

Superb!

Can’t wait until tomorrow, when it’ll be even better.

Put an invoice together for Jim with dates, times, hours and tasks.  Two months for RovingGM.

Sauteed carrots, onion, tomatoes, red and green peppers and zucchini.  Floated 4 beaten eggs on top, covered and cooked for about 3-4 minutes.  Next time, really need seasoning; it was good, but bland.

Turns out, the insignia for the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum looks a lot like Phyllis’ “X”s!

I’d dug up about a 1/4 barrel full of soil to plant the Rudbeckia and decided I could make room in one of the gardens if I weeded.  Wanted to get that done today in the event of rain.

I didn’t finish the weeding but did have enough cleared for the soil.

Ron was nice enough to shovel it out for me and load the weeds in the truck.  We put away the tools.

More weeding to do, but I’m worn out, and anyway, hoping to get a recommendation from the people at Soares for a weeding tool before continuing.  What we have – shovel, hoes, “claw” – really don’t work that while, especially on crabgrass.

Emailed Jim for help with Warranty:evo data mapping.  Hope to hear from him later today.

Set up the Android phone recharger in the den.

We’re not even half way through this wretched month, and I’m ready for it to be over.

Attended a meeting of the Mashpee Introverts yesterday.  Good group, bad fit.

I spent a good part of the day sorting through cables and small electronics to set up both smart phones as remotes to view Netflix and Prime in the den.  Getting Prime set up was a bitch.  Struggled with bad instructions for too long before finding the correct solution.

Also tried to connect the TV with the boom box speakers but that didn’t work at all.  Heard a “hum” but no sound, which feels like a config rather than a connection issue.

Backed up some files on the Seagate drive.

Had a yen for French fries so baked two generous servings along with kale.

Theory:  Ron and I agree on a lot of things because for both of us, authority is malevolent whereas for most people, it seems to be, well, good, or at least benign.  Like a non-cancerous tumor.

Ron cleaned and refilled the hummer feeders.  We both saw hummers taking a drink.

Still no sound from the Dynex to speakers, but at least I corrected the aspect ratio.

We did laundry, changed sheets and made a transfer station run.  Ron treated us to ice cream sundaes at Skippy’s!

Did a little weeding and watering.  Love the new Rudebeckias.

Less humid yesterday, so I watered like mad.  After seeing how well a spontaneous hole in the soaker for the roses worked, I skewered three more.

Lunch with Paul at Estia.  Rob stupidly brought up an incident from Cambridge about “a woman (he) wanted to get to know” that sent me into a rage.

The Chromecast arrived yesterday.  I set it up so we can use the old monitor as a TV.

First perennial Hibiscus flower.