Great weekend, busy week!

Wow, it’s been a busy week already. Productive, but busy. (That’s why I’m just posting about the weekend on Wednesday, and I am sure this will be my longest post to date.)

Last weekend was simply phenomenal. I arrived in Athens early Friday evening and Chintu and I went to eat at Casa Lopez...not the best Mexican, by any means, but it was made better by being with him. Then we went shopping at Wal Mart. Now, I know some of you are thinking, wow, what excitement...but, let me tell you that I’ve never shopped with anyone and enjoyed it any more than with him. It just feels good; it feels right.

Saturday, I worked on homework while he cleaned house. Then we fixed a wonderful Indian recipe that my friends Kathy, Molly, and Valerie gave us, but we found some things missing and fixed that by searching online. It is called Chicken Kandapuri (I won’t post here what Chintu said Kandapura means in his native tongue. His is not the area of India this dish hails from, so it probably means something different in the language of its home area.) The meal was good, spicy for me, but delicious.

Saturday night we went out to Casa Nueva with our beautiful gal pals Kathy and Reena. The band, The Royales, were as good as Kathy had said, and, let me tell you, I have not danced that much in over 25 years. It was a blast. I’m finally learning (still learning, but making progress) to dance like no one is watching!!!!!! It’s a good feeling. Amazingly, Chintu and I danced not only with the girls, as a group, but alone, as well, even slow dancing on one song.

Sunday afternoon, after again spending the morning working on homework, we went for a hike around Dow Lake, starting at Stroud’s Run park. It was wonderful, beautiful, invigorating, and EXHAUSTING! We weren’t sure how long Lake View Trail was, but I found out online late that night that the lake has 7 miles of shoreline. The trail follows pretty close, but when I realized that we had hiked a little over 7 miles, I really felt tired. Still it was amazingly wonderful. I grew up playing and walking in the woods, so I love it. And being with Chintu, pointing out various plants and trees that I knew, him talking about similar plants and trees they have in India, stopping to sit a spell and enjoy the sandwiches and macaroni salad we had made to bring with us, sitting and talking afterward, stealing an occasional kiss...all made for a wonderful day!

Here is one of the many streams that feed Dow Lake

Chintu in a bed of bluebells

Chintu on Lake View Trail

Looking at the lake

Monday brought me back to a more mundane reality though, as I headed back to Marietta and on to EVE. I was able to secure a location, thereby setting a time and date for the focus group I will be conducting for my project there. I cannot believe my final quarter is halfway over this week. The future is a bit scary, being uncertain and unknown, but I am happily looking forward to graduation. Friends Tanya and Patricia are planning a graduation party for me at the farm. It should be a blast! Speaking of the farm,

Monday evening I went out to run the tiller through the big garden (versus the several smaller garden beds T has around the barn and silo). I decided that I should mow it off first, so I got the tractor and started doing just that. However, something went awry, as it stopped about halfway through the first trip around the garden. I started it and it died. I started it again and it died again. Then it dawned on me...out of diesel? Sure enough, it was. Frustrated with myself for not checking that and filling it up before I left the garage with it, I trudged back up the hill to get the can of diesel T keeps for the tractor. I got back to the garage and picked it up...unfortunately I picked it up all too easily - it was empty! I went in the house and T figured out the problem from the look on my face. She suggested we fix dinner, eat, and then go get diesel, to which I hungrily and readily agreed. She made (and I helped...wow, just dated myself, and those of you who also heard that commercial in your head from some thirty or more years ago, did as well!) a wonderful vegetarian taco meal. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was...delicious, as a matter of fact! Off to get diesel we went after dinner. As we drove back onto the farm, T asked if I thought she could drive her car down to the garden. Knowing there were some really wet spots between the barn and the garden, I expressed some doubt. We came to the first of the really, really wet spots and we sat and surveyed the situation. T hopped out of the car and walked down to inspect the degree of wetness and muddiness. As she walked back toward the car, with her head down, grinning and slightly shaking her head, I knew what she was going to do. I told her I wouldn’t tell her to do it or not to do it, but I was there either way. She put the car in gear and hit the gas. Zoooooom! Through that mudhole we went...down through the field...and zooooooooom, through the second mudhole, through the fenceline and up through the second field Mario...uh I mean Tanya went. She shined the lights of the car on the tractor as I filled the tank and started it up. I decided since the tractor has headlights to go ahead and mow the garden off. I watched as she drove out of the field, through the fenceline and back UP the second field toward the second mudhole (oh, did I fail to mention that this all took place on a fairly steep grade?) I sat and watched, thinking that she had “more guts” than me...(ok, ok, I really thought she had bigger balls)...to drive her car through all that mud in the dark. I laughed and laughed to myself as I finished mowing. Then, when I finished, instead of going up and getting her to drive the tractor back up to the house while I took the tiller up, I operated in my typical “don’t want to bother someone to do something I can do myself” mindset that I am still trying to overcome. I would take the tiller a distance in the light from the headlights of the tractor, then go move the tractor closer and move the tiller farther. I realized that it was a fairly brightly moonlit night, so I took the tiller the rest of the way to the bottom of the barn and put it away. Then I walked back down to get the tractor.

This is where I learned (again) that I should indeed “impose” on others for help. As I walked back down the hill to get the tractor, suddenly my left ankle turned. It didn’t just turn a little. It turned completely sideway. Ouch! (That’s NOT what I said at the moment.) I was sure I had stepped on a rock and it threw me sideways. However, after limping my way to the tractor, as I drove it back up over the hill, I realized that I had actually hit the edge of a deep rut. It hurt like crazy, but as T and I both examined it, we felt safe nothing was broken. I wasn’t so sure when the pain woke me up at 2 in the morning, but now, as it continues to heal, I feel safe that it was just a sprain.

Yesterday afternoon, between my Introduction to Ethics class and my Strength Training class at the Y, I got over half of the garden tilled. The rest of it was too wet, and, as I sit here typing this and listening to the rain, having heard that the forecast promises rain today and tomorrow, I don’t know when I’ll get it finished. After I left to go to my class, Tanya planted some things in the smaller beds. That is soooo exciting. Soon, we’ll have greens, lettuce, and green onions! Gardening is so much fun.

It is already Wednesday morning, and I took the first part of the morning to rest and write this and catch up the dishes. Now I’m off to shower and trudge out through the rain. Strike that, I’m going to enjoy walking through the rain, not just get wet!

Peace and love to all who read here today!