…Temporarily, anyway. Actually got some work done this weekend, for the first time since the Healthcare Fiasco from Hell started. And that has been months: it began last June.
In the paying work department:
• Met with the respected bank CEO client on Friday. Received instructions, heard update on his activities. Good.
• Read lawyer/novelist’s copy; sent off a slab of his latest iteration.
• Received more from the same; read about a half of that. Should be working on that right now, instead of blogging over coffee.
• Worked frantically on a book of my own, which I want to enter in a low-stakes local contest within the next few days.
In the puttering around the Funny Farm department:
• Drove to Home Depot; purchased plants and four bags of potting soil.
• Drove to a Mexican import/kitsch store and purchased a fake agave metal sculpture (therein lies a tale!).*
• Dragged bags of potting soil out of car.
• Dollied a heavy potted plant out of the front courtyard and placed it decoratively in the perennially moribund, failed flowerbed in front, getting it out my way and also, by serendipity, making the mess I made out there look a little better.
• Deconstructed huge, leaky, ugly, eroded old strawberry pot; rescued its few survivng plants, dollied strawberry pot out of sight and mind.
• Filled the new Talavera pots with potting soil; planted survivors and new stuff in them.
• Cleaned up the mess.
• Moved old coffee table out of the way to make room for gorgeous new Thos Moser table, delivered Saturday afternoon.
* Tale! So, I wanted to put a plant that would grow sort of tall but not too tall in the $29.99 pot I got the other day, by sheer luck. The courtyard is way too hot for sanseveria, at least in the spot where I crave to see this bargain pot. A real agave would get too big. Aloe vera might work, but it’s invasive and kinda ugly. Idea: use one of those kitschy metal garden sculptures of an agave scuplted in rust.
Whitfill’s Nursery, home of the accidental bargain pot, did not have any left — they’ve carried them in the past, but apparently others in North Central have suffered the same lapse in taste I’m undergoing. But I happen to know of a down-at-the-heels shop in a scruffy area of North Phoenix, tucked into the river of blight that is Cave Creek Road. They carry a motley collection of anything they imagine might sell, including the self-same Talavera pots that Whitfill’s trucks in from Mexico. And they have a lot of rusted kitsch.
Yea verily, they did have the kitsch agave. And they had big signs up all over the place: 60% OFF! EVERYTHING MUST GO!!
So I took a look at their Talavera, because for sure if I could get another steal on one, I’d grab it in an instant.
They happen to have the very same style of pot that Whitfill’s normally sells for $59.99. Dang! Sixty percent off $60 would be $36, making the sale price an incredible $24.
Uh, no.
The junk store’s price tag? $139.99!!
$140 x 60% = $84
$140 – $84 = $56
Heee! Their “sale” price is about the same as Whitfill’s full price.
How do people get away with that kind of thing?
Many, many years ago I figured out that those “50% off, we’re going out of business sales” were &^%$#.
I never believe them.
Update on Ruby’s retraining?????
She’s doing good! She’s actually a very nice little dog, and pretty compliant compared to what some folks at the Corgi forum describe. She’s trotting right along on doggy walks, and she and Cassie have quit quarreling. Cassie has desisted in her campaign to remove Ruby’s head.
So, apparently something’s working.