Now, this hardly makes sense, but this tune was banned! The spiciest thing about “Mambo Italiano” is the mention of “enchilada,” yet WABC in New York banned the song in 1954 for its supposedly suggestive lyrics.
As usual, we were up, but this time with the help of Scout, The Wonder Dog! He woke up at 5:00 am, so I took him out and left him out!
Off to get beat up! Mary did thirty minutes on the rack, and I managed to eke out 19 minutes on the treadmill; perhaps I should slow it down a bit, keeping the belt from overheating.
Off for our tri-weekly punishment.
Mary dreams of Ireland and when to cook up our corned beef and cabbage!
It’s time to dream about escape.
Me: (sobbing, eyes swollen, nose red) I can’t see you anymore. I am not going to let you hurt me like this again!
Trainer: It was a sit-up! You did one sit-up.
We finished and crawled to the car, barely able to wiggle. We went home and got the baby, who was looking forward to his trip to the groomers! His groomer is called “The Clip Joint,” and they love Scout!
We took the van because it was Tomatomania week at Roger’s. For the 13th year, the world’s largest (and most fun) tomato plant sale comes to Roger’s Gardens. Scott Daigre and his staff of Tomatomaniacs offer an astonishing selection of over 250 varieties of heirloom and hybrid tomato plants, including new varieties for 2024.
We preplanned our visit and knew we needed 24 individual tomato plants for the first planting, which must be done before vacation. Mary got the cart, and we went up and down every aisle, looking for the right mix of tomatoes.
After taking the baby to the groomers, we went to Roger’s.
Do you think that was easy? Look at the list of possibilities:
After all that work, we decided to go to the Farmhouse and have lunch! The entrance is being remodeled, so we had to go through the back door.
Easy to get lost.!
Our favorite barkeep was there, and we also waited tables in the bar area, so we chose the bar area!
Our favorite bartender!
More dreaming… corned beef is only days away!
More dreaaming.
They have a “pizza of the day,” which I can never pass up.
What kind of person doesn’t like pizza? A weirdough.
While having lunch, I had a brilliant idea! I’m going to open a restaurant that only serves crabs and pizza. I’ll call it the Crust Station.
The pizza was fantastic; my waistline, not so much!
It is indeed an old farmhouse with solid stone walls, but fortunately, they also have a gas heater about the bar area; otherwise, we would have frozen to death; it was in the 50s today at noon!
We are in our grubbies directly from the gym!
We finished lunch and headed to our collection of goodies to load the van and go home.
We had a glass of vino with lunch!
Zoom, the Grey Ghost was loaded with goodies, and it was time to go home and begin planting.
Mary unlocked the back door as I came around with the wheelbarrow loaded with our treasures. I began to work, first pulling out or transplanting Daikon radishes, beets, and kale.
I filled Mary’s cart with peat moss and topped that off with a tomato fertilizer.
Meet Peat Moss, our go-to additive.
After an hour, I realized Mary must have laid down after lunch; she had not felt terrific all morning. If she needed to rest, she should rest. Poor, overworked Paul (POP) would carry on with the intense farm work, adding a 1/4″ of calluses to the already heavily callused hands (vision of tiny violins playing in the background).
This was about half of what remained after some serious planting.
I totted the barge and lifted the bale with only a minor intense pain. Eight babies got their new homes, complete with cages on which to climb. In front are the Daikon radishes and Swiss chard that were transplanted.
Few people know these plants weigh 130 pounds each, but they got moved using levels, pulleys, and my once-strong back. (More violins, please.)
I got eight of the babies into their new homes.
It was hot, so I removed my sweatpants and jacket and let the cold winter breeze cool me off. OK, I feared getting my new sweatpants dirty, as Mary would beat me! Moving fast enough to keep the ice crystals from forming was a good idea.
Eek! In the distance, a human-like form stood and watched the work underway. I fell to the ground in pain when I did the mandatory salute. I heard tiny little violins playing!
Mary informed me that Scout needed to be picked up. I went back into the house, found some jeans and a shirt, and we raced off to the groomer to get the baby!
That dog is a beauty right after the groomers, and he smells pretty good, probably better than me!
After returning home and Mary telling me what else she wanted done in the garden, she went back to sleep, and I again felt the lash of my slave owner on my back and remembered her words, “No planting, no dinner!”
Z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z
It was getting dark, and my little hands were numb from the work. I carefully hid the plants that did not make it into the ground this afternoon so “the boss” would not see them; otherwise, I might be planting in the yard with a helmet-mounted flashlight to get my quota done.
Grow, baby, grow!
Accomplishing a week’s work in one afternoon without any help was difficult. All afternoon I felt abandoned, alienated, alone, apart, companionless, deserted, desolate, detached, forsaken, friendless, homeless, isolated, lonesome, outcast, reclusive, removed, secluded, separated, single, single-handed, sole, solitary, solo, unabetted, unaccompanied, unaided, unassisted, unattended, unescorted, uninhabited, unseconded, unsocial, unsupported, withdrawn and generally missing my partner.
My last official duty was to water the new babies.
Returning to the house, I tippy-toed into the bathroom to wash my callused hands and apply meds to the cuts and scrapes resulting from not being allowed to wear gloves because they are expensive.
Since we had a late lunch, we decided to skip dinner (even though I was starving after all that work) and go into the TV room to watch a movie. We saw Dr. Dolittle, and it was pretty good.
The movie was a financial flop. Dollars were Dolittle’s biggest enemy, as the 2020 financial statements reveal that “the estimated final cost of the film is over the budgeted cost due to additional photography and visual effects work undertaken.”
We thought the movie was pretty good.
I put Mary to bed at 9:00 pm because she was feeling poorly. I stayed up until midnight, making some website adjustments. Scout and I went outside just before the clock struck midnight.
