Words on a Page

There are many different types of love stories.  Romantic ones might be the ones we focus on the most but it's the day to day love stories that give our lives meaning.  Family, friends, pets, and even objects make us unique.  What's the point of all this sentimental nonsense you ask?  Well I've been thinking a lot about the loves in my life,  the ones that I have and the ones I expected to have but don't.  Living so far away from my family is hard, it's more than hard, sometimes it's devastating and I've found that I deal with that through the nostalgia of objects, books to be more specific. 

I am not ashamed to admit that I own certain books that I haven't read, but I keep them on the shelf because they have always been there throughout my life.  The Elric Saga is a perfect example.  As a small child I was very comfortable with the imagery of this white haired brooding man, so when I found the books on a used shelf I bought them without thinking twice.  I will never read them, not because I haven't enjoyed the work of Michael Moorcock in the past, but because for me those books represent a connection to the idea of "home".  The definition of "home" as a state of mind rather than location was instilled in me very early, so I'm comfortable with the notion that wherever Paul and I are, we are home.  But I can see those books on my shelf and feel an instant connection to my mother and in that moment distance doesn't matter. 

A self described "tree hugger" I'm going to show what a hypocrite I am because I have not yet succumbed to the world of e-readers.  I acknowledge their worth and their convenience and I think that for a lot of people they are a wonderful option.  But as an aspiring writer they scare me.  I have a very realistic view of the publishing world, and I should considering how long I've been witness to the ups and downs within it if not directly than peripherally.  My friends that I consider extremely successful writers still struggle to pay their bills, that's just the truth of the industry but there are a lot of issues still up in the air regarding e-publishing. 

I love the feel of books, the smell of them.  I love to buy books with inscriptions to strangers and feel that strange yet exciting connection to these people I've never met but can touch pages that they've touched.  I like to create stories in my mind about how the book came to me and hope that I can live up to the expectations of those before me.  I also take bad writing personally and have been known to throw books across rooms.  As I get older, I find I do that more often.  Throwing an e-reader would not be wise I think, and I would like to have the option of throwing or hugging whatever the case may be.

I can't explain why I've been thinking about this so much lately.  Maybe it's because I do feel far away and need to explore the things near to me that I can take comfort in or maybe it's because at some point in my life I want to be able to live by my words alone and hope that I can.  Whatever my reasoning, for now I will just have to keep buying bookshelves and be thankful for the walls that support them.

Laying the Sod

We finally did it and looks spectacular...now if we can keep it alive we'll be in the clear.  To say yesterday was stressful would be an understatement but let me start at the beginning.

Friday night we decided to get all the supplies ready.  Our first stop was a local garden center to check out the sod.  Price wise, they had the lowest, but the sod looked awful and they only showed us a few pieces.  After measuring the yard, we found out at that we needed 225 pieces (actually 255 but we'll get to that).  So we thanked the garden center and went to Home Depot to rent the tiller.  While we were there we checked out their sod.  It was more expensive but they had a lot of it and it looked great.  One of the employees there suggested that we order it and then pick it up the next day.  We needed to pick it up in three trips because our truck is pretty small and he said that they could divide it for us.  That sounded like a great idea so we went to the service desk and ordered it.  Then we bought the dirt, twenty bags of organic top soil to try to make our soil presentable.  The tiller was really easy to rent and they showed us how to use it before we left which was helpful since neither of us had ever seen one before much less used it.

Saturday morning we got up early and started up the tiller.  The one step that we hadn't done was kill the weeds and grass already present in our yard so that took some time to deal with.  We pulled up a lot of it by hand and there were still a ton of roots in the ground from the tree that was removed.  While Paul tilled, my job was to pick up all the stuff we didn't want.  Paul tilled the yard twice then evened it out with a metal rake, by that point it was time to pick up the first load of sod.  We hadn't even put the top soil in yet, so we were behind.  When we arrived to pick up the sod though, it wasn't ready.  They were really nice though and got it ready right away.  I had a minor panic attack when they put the sod in my truck, theoretically I knew that sod was heavy but watching my truck lower under the weight was stressful.  We unloaded the sod into the driveway and then I went to pick up the second load while Paul stayed home to finish tilling in the top soil.

The drive home was hilarious and terrifying.  People stopped me at traffic lights to ask me questions about the sod.  By the time I got home though I figured it was better if Paul picked up the third load because I was getting way too antsy about blowing a tire.  While I was gone he had finished all the soil prep and we were ready to rock the sod.  Then I was blessed with a text message from a friend offering to help. 

So Paul went off to pick up the third load and we set to work.  Laying the sod was actually kind of fun and with two of us it went pretty fast.  We had the front walkway and half the lawn done before Paul came back.  We made sure to lay it out in a brick pattern so the seams were offset and then we walked on it to push it in (we didn't get a lawn roller).  We had a lot of visits from neighbors offering insight throughout the process, but we got a hatchet out of it which was way better than a knife for cutting the sod.  Once Paul got back he would heft the sod to us and then Melissa and I would lay it.  We would have been done in two hours flat, but we didn't have enough sod.  So off Paul went again to get 30 more pieces.  But that was no sweat to finish when he got back.  The end was a lot of cutting to fit strange spaces and then the watering began.  We did three sections for 45 minutes each and this morning when I checked the soil was still nice and wet.

The whole process took about nine hours.  I was amazed and pleased that we got it done in one day.  We certainly learned a lot, but hopefully that knowledge won't be needed for a long time.