20% Chance

It's pouring rain - gully washin', run in the ditches, overwhelm the streams pouring rain - complete with Rip Van Winkle rolling thunder. Ordinarily I would love it, but not tonight.

After spending every afternoon this week stripping the old finish and stain off the deck, I finally started putting down the new finish this afternoon. It's one board short of half done, and now it's raining. I was going to wait until tomorrow to start, but we checked the weather and there was only 20% chance of rain tonight - scattered thunder storms actually - but only 20%. It was a hot dry afternoon with not a cloud in the sky, so I started.

I wonder what you do when new stain/sealer gets wet? Guess I will learn tomorrow.

You know, some projects go that way. Nothing I can do now except to hope that it was dry enough to not be damaged. We'll look in the morning. Meanwhile, I'll open some wine!

What is it About Winning?

There are lots of advantages to growing up in a neighborhood where the boys outnumbered the girls at least five to one. I sure learned to get along with boys, to be friends [not a girlfriend] with boys, to work together and to be "one of the boys" - all skills that were useful in later life.

But one of the disadvantages was that there were always enough boys around for two teams of anything, so they didn't need to let me play to have a full team. Being more interested in books anyway, that never bothered me and I could happily retreat to my world of far-off places and interesting times while they played softball or kick the can, or whatever.



The real downside was that whatever competitive spirit I had never really developed much. In some ways it turned inward - striving to make the best grades, to have perfect attendance, and generally to be a Miss Goody-Two-Shoes pain in the ass. Not bad goals, but all internal.

Then about ten years ago I started to play tennis - badly. Lessons at county parks and recreation led to joining a community tennis club, followed by a weekly clinic and my tennis skills had improved markedly. I was up to "advanced beginner" and loved the game.

You know, you have to love a system that has "advanced beginners". Encouragement and brutal honesty in two words.


I've played for at least five years now on various lower level USTA club teams - always enjoying the play, but mostly losing, losing, losing. But that really hasn't bothered me. How much can an Advanced Beginner [see how I capitalized it and made it a title, not a condition!] expect to win? A couple of years ago I got ranked up from 2.5 to 3.0 and was thrilled, especially since I wasn't playing all that much better. But now I had a tennis - no, an athletic - goal: to be a solid 3.0 and hold my own.

Sadly, when USTA revised player ranking last December I was down-graded back to the 2.5 level. But I was not deterred. At an excellent clinic in November I had picked up a couple of new skills - ones that I was actually able to employ on the court. [I know a ton, but executing is a totally different ball game.]

And now suddenly this spring I am winning. In my "social" league I have won two of four matches, and in my USTA league I've won two of three matches. (You do realize these are doubles, not singles, don't you?)

Which brings me to yesterday. It was a hot, sunny afternoon [and I forgot both my hat and my visor] and incredibly windy - literally gusting to 40 mph. We were playing on old clay courts that had been dressed, but were like dust pits. Between the heat and the wind it was like being a sponge in the Sahara. I kept drinking all the water I could and still felt like I had a mouth full of sand. But Marni and I prevailed.

They were younger and one was probably a tad better than either of us - but we prevailed. They lost the first set and so changed places for the second and won that one. But we kept our heads in the game, figured out how to play around their new set up and won the tie-breaker finishing strong with the last four points. We prevailed.


It felt so good. Lying in bed last night I realized that I have found my competitive gene!

House Guests....

of the Finch Variety.

So, I'm a little late doing some things this year. It was the middle of March before I was ready to take down the holiday wreaths from the front porch. It was still cold and I was feeling festive, so what's an extra six weeks or so?

Unfortunately, by the time I got around to taking them down, I discovered that neighborhood finches had built in the wreath. Actually, it's a great location, location, location - protection on two sides and a roof, railing for parental perching, and good sight lines to nearby trees. Perhaps as importantly, it had been recently redecorated (in November), so nothing needed to be done, except to bring in a twig or two.

If I were a finch, I would have given it serious thought. Not being a finch, I was a bit excited to see that we would have feathered babes to watch over the spring months. But then... nothing. As quickly as it appeared, the parents left. I assumed that their financing had fallen thru, or that Fannie Mae had rejected their application, or one of them lost his/her job. You know how it is in the housing market these days.

Today a workman commented on my bird's nest. Guess I need to point out that two more months have passed and I still have not taken down that wreath... but I am planning to.... soon!

"Yeah. They built it and then never used it."

"No. I mean the one in the top." The one in the top??

And, there it is. Too high for me to see without a step stool. A nest and four little ones. How could I not have heard them? Now that I know they are there, I hear them a lot! I keep the door open most of the time for light in my office, and so that I can see the outside, and yet they were a complete surprise.

There are four of them. Look hard. Number four is right in the center of the pile, with his eye half closed, but you can see the yellow on his bill. They are nearly ready to fly, so but for a 6'3" visitor I would have missed them completely. They are nothing special - just house finches, but what a nice surprise to enjoy for a few days. Mom and dad are none too happy about our discovery either!

And, I have made myself a promise to take down the wreath just as soon as they are gone!

Way to End the Week!

What a perfect day! Low 80's, low humidity and enough breeze and cloud cover to make for a classic spring day. I managed to finish two work projects by early afternoon so I could adjourn to the garden for a while, but things never work out the way you plan, do they? As much as I craved diggin' in the dirt, real work was calling my name. In the form of sealing the deck.

Mitchell bought a power washer several years ago and finally got it working this spring, so has started deep cleaning the decks - we have three. Only the smallest was ready to re-seal, but it had been "naked" for a couple of weeks and we don't have rain in the forecast for a few more days, so sealing was the name of the game. It really wasn't hard, didn't take too much time, and I was outside enjoying the day, so all in all not really a bad alternative.

Then, you know of course that the required activity after sealing any deck is sitting on another deck with a Friday libation. Hopefully it's champagne, but a good margarita will fill the bill if that's all you can round up! And of course, time to enjoy the garden.

The peonies are in full bloom now with more coming every day.

New iris open daily, and the current delight is the evening primrose. I planted it as a filler two years ago and it has come into its own this spring. Taller than I expected it has filled every nook and cranny with pale pink blossoms. If you look hard you can see the mini rose that is blooming just beyond the primroses, as well as a couple of geraniums and some Japanese iris.

There is also a stray yellow iris that came from.... well, somewhere. I will move it in July when I create an iris bed. We removed a shrub last fall and have a "bare"spot this time of year - just to the right of the bird bath. Serendipitously, I have a bunch of iris spread all around the garden and a neighbor who has offered to trade for some different colors, so I plan to pull them all together into a bed of mixed colors. It will fill the void before the hibiscus grow up and fill the space later in the summer.

So much accomplished and the weekend hasn't even begun!