Tuesday, August 15, 2006, 19:05
*Not* Fair!
"Come on, Charlie," I said. "Do you want to go for a walk?"
Our 70-pound Springer Spaniel jumped up from his resting spot in the shade and skipped out the driveway ahead of me, ears perked, eyes lit up with good humor.
Charlie has a few more days left of the clindamycin for the infection in his hip joints (he had 4 weeks of clindamycin all together), and then we start the doxycycline for three weeks for the tick diseases. He is feeling much better than he was only a few weeks ago and is happy to go for a walk again. It's a little cooler out now than it was, too -- or at least it's not been 100 degrees anyway.
"Maybe we can find a few blackberries, Charlie," I said as we headed up the dirt road.
Charlie trotted along happily. I knew if I did find some blackberries, Charlie would also eat blackberries. He loves to pick berries and eat them.
Unfortunately, this is an extremely poor year for blackberries. The canes blossomed and the blossoms did not get frozen in May, like they do sometimes, but it has been so dry that about 95 percent of the blackberries dried up and burned up on the vine. I see them everywhere, little black charred bits of berries.
We walked up the dirt road about a half mile. There's shade along the dirt road for a while in the morning. From 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., the sun is more directly overhead and shade is harder to find. Then after 2 p.m., the dirt road is shady again.
It was on the way back that I saw them.
A large blackberry bramble, as big around as my finger, curving over gracefully and glistening with ripe, plump blackberries. Sunshine filtered through the tree leaves overhead and lit up the blackberries like a spotlight. A nice big handful of juicy blackberries. And there were red berries on the cane, too, that will ripen in a few days.
I stepped over to the side of the road, staring at the beautiful blackberries that were only about five feet into the ditch in a small grove of trees beside the road.
I took another step closer.
And that's as far as I went.
I made the mistake -- or else I had the good fortune? -- to look down at the ground.
The blackberry cane was growing right in the middle of a nice, healthy patch of. . .poison ivy.
Of all the places that poison ivy grows around here, did it HAVE to grow right by that blackberry cane covered with ripe blackberries?
I reluctantly turned away from the ditch and continued on toward home.
I walked a little ways farther, and then I saw another blackberry cane heavy with ripe blackberries!
I stepped over to the side of the road, staring at the beautiful blackberries that were only about five feet into the ditch in a small grove of trees.
I took another step closer.
And once again, that's as far as I went.
Because once again, I made the mistake -- or else I had the good fortune? -- to look down at the ground.
The blackberry cane was growing right in the middle of -- you guessed it -- another nice, healthy patch of. . .poison ivy.
Reluctantly, for the second time, I turned away from the ditch and continued on toward home.
"Come on, Charlie," I said. "No blackberries for us today."
Charlie trotted along ahead of me, happy to be out and moving around. If we couldn't get at the blackberries, it was all the same to him. He was enjoying his walk and wondering, I would be willing to bet, if the hen turkeys with their babies would be in the neighbor's pasture again like they were one day last week.
I ask you, though -- what are the chances that I would find TWO canes with luscious ripe blackberries, but that the blackberries would be growing in the middle of poison ivy?
This morning, the chances were 100 percent, I guess I'd have to say.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Monday, August 14, 2006, 04:49
Busy Day
It's been a busy day here at Rural Route 2. I spent most of the afternoon and evening working on the roster list for the church pictorial directory. Plus, I made up some photo-shoot cards and put address labels on them and church labels so on the day the photos are taken (Friday and Saturday), there won't be as much to fill out on the cards.
The company (Olan Mills) was supposed to send me a stack of the photo-shoot cards, but of course, they didn't.
When we met with the company sales rep, he kept stressing that we had to have someone with "neat handwriting" to fill out the photo-shoot cards. I figured if I could print out labels and use those, it would cut down on the amount anyone had to hand write on the cards. It will be busy enough on the days when the photographs are taken without someone having to write, say, the contract number 100 times over.
The other thing is that today, the five kittens in the barn went home. A lady called (she was a year behind me in school) and wanted all five of the kittens because their barn and other buildings are being over-run with mice. She assured me she would give them a good home, and I believe she will! I'm going to miss them, though. I'm going to miss seeing them and petting them when I feed the barn kitties. And I am going to miss watching them play down by the garden in the evening.
Tomorrow will be busy, too. I have to interview a gentleman in the morning for a newspaper story. He's an older gentleman, and he wrote a book. The basic premise of his book is that our democracy is broken and that it is most likely beyond repair. He says the democracy is broken because people have been too busy accumulating wealth and worrying about only themselves that they have not taken the time to make sure our democracy is alive and healthy and functioning. On the other hand, that's what the politicians want and that's what the executives of large companies want. They want people to be so occupied with getting material things that they don't pay attention to what the politicians and the large companies are doing.
LeAnn R. Ralph