No, Not for the Faint of Heart in Everyday Ramblings

Okay, I admit took this in 2005. Same exact time of year, same light, same fascination with other people’s gardens. All this time I have been looking and absorbing and thinking about garden design. Mrs. Sherlock said when she brought me home from lunch on Sunday that I need my own year-round space to play with. For now, I am happy with what I have. It would be nice to be able to plant bulbs for the spring though.

The secateurs (pruning shears) for small hands came on Saturday! I am so excited. The right tools can make such a difference and their sharpening advice is similar to the guy in the Australian how-to video.

Walking up to the hospital today, there are these logs from all the tree damage in the ice storm last winter that are now bleached almost white if they fell in a sunny spot from the drought. The white grained wood goes so beautifully with the short chicory growing wild in the dead grass.

We finally had 2 inches of rain pretty much all in one day. The earth just sucked it up so fast it was amazing. The air quality has been so much better afterwards.

I went up to the hospital to get my hearing checked, my hearing aids looked after. My beloved audiologist in her black scrubs and black fingernails is a wizard with the technology. She said, a bit surprised that my was hearing was slightly better in a few ranges than last year. It makes sense. Stable is good though in hearing land.

It has been an incredibly quiet year. And my focus is better. More yoga, less stress, except for all the pandemic inconveniences.

Anyway, one maintenance job done. Next stop, flu shot.

I talked to Kes on Saturday about the two business consultant guys, and thought about what Zipster said in her useful note on my last post. Their behavior did piss me off, as it seemed so immature and unprofessional.

I composed an email to them on Sunday, keeping to I statements but expressing my concerns, and expressing ideas for going forward. I used to both work with and train groups of male stockbrokers and I have found that both directness and humor are helpful there. A little crudeness doesn’t hurt if it is added sparingly by the plain middle aged (now older) woman. These two guys are missing the greed gene so I wasn’t sure it would work.

I sent the email. And then I was like oh heck, why did I do that? Do I care, what is the big deal, they are assholes, etc. etc. for the churning not very equanimous mind. In the end I stayed up late distracting myself by reading almost half of the new Louise Penny mystery.

My mind was so churned up that I was finally able to get over the fact that she presents a world in which there was no Delta variant, and the majority of Canadians got the vaccine and people are gathering without masks. Ha!

In the end I made myself get on the call with the guys the next day. It turned out it was only me. And I was very frank with them. Zipster, I even used your line about brothers talking over each other at the dinner table, which got a knowing laugh.

It was a productive and useful conversation. The fact that both these men, and they are men, both grown fathers, practice yoga and believe in the principals of yoga made all the difference.

They are still assholes, but they heard me loud and clear. The net result is there is only one more session, which I will watch on replay and then going forward if I have any specific questions relating to business or technical stuff, they have committed to responding to me to help (without charge).

And I think, weirdly, I may have a couple of new friends. I will still check in with one of them as I am continuing with the teacher’s call for another year.

This communication stuff is not for the faint of heart.

Now, if the late box of wet and dry cat food I ordered shows up, we’ll be on our way.

Last updated September 21, 2021