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Tuesday, Jun. 18, 2002 - 8:35 p.m. Here is where things stand, 24 hours after I last took the time to sit in front of my computer keyboard: My truck is in the shop. Still. They thought it was fixed. The mechanic was pumping up the brake pedal, bleeding the air out of the line he just replaced, when another section of hose blew on the other side. Um�didn�t I ask you to check ALL the lines, and to change ALL that looked even a little suspect? My buddy (the shop manager) had to leave this morning with a family thing that came up, so the guys who do the work didn�t get around to working on the P.O.S. until after lunch. I figure they just ordered the one broken line, thinking that would solve the problem. I also asked them to check the radiator hoses and the parking brake (it is a little soft). I don�t think any of that was done, either. I told them to get all of it done before they called me to pick the truck up. I have been without personal wheels for 4 days. What�s one more day? Beavis dropped another big chunk of money on my desk. Now, if I could use it to replace my P.O.S. truck? That would be a good thing. But, since it�s the taxpayer�s money and not some slush fund belonging to our corrupt governor, I can�t. I spent most of the day trying to find a supplier who sells the lights we use on our barrels and barricades. I had success late in the day, finding a company inside our state with these lights at the low, low price of $19.68 each. I ordered 70 of them. That might last us a year or two. $1450 down, another $6000 or so more to spend tomorrow. I think this might be winding down. We have transferred all of our locally allotted money around, with very little uncommitted at this late date. The only thing left to throw a monkey wrench into this process? Headquarters still has money it needs to process. Rather that take part in this crazy distribution method, they generally just transfer whatever they have left over to us on the last week. That would be about 3 days from now�. I hope you aren�t getting the impression that we are wasting the taxpayer�s money. Not true. Last year our total budget was cut across-the-board by something like 3%. They think the same thing is coming this year, too. No, what is happening now is caused by the spending freeze we had slapped on is in January. We have bought nothing but emergency supplies since then, leaving our balances unusually high. Now? The hardest part is trying to remember what I put off buying for the last 6 months. I have been involved in this process (one way or another) for the last 10 years. I still think it�s a crazy way to get the supplies you need to run the run the storage�.. Enough bitching. Time for a photo and a quick description of what you are looking at :
This is the garlic I wrote about back in January. Remember that? When the neighbor had to have his water line dug up, and the backhoe operator picked up the entire bed and moved it? Now you don�t have to click on the link to the old story. I just told you most of it. Anyway�. The bed came back nicely from the shock of being dug up while dormant, and is now growing very well. When June 21st rolls around, garlic stops producing growth above ground and sends all of its energy into forming bulbs. The bigger the plant is above the ground at that point, the bigger the clove of garlic. The bed is made up of two different varieties. One is from garlic I saved from last year�s crop. It is a soft neck type, and it originally came from the Korean market in Champaign. Mildly spicy, this one stores very well. I had cloves to cook with in March, and most of them were of this cultivar. The one with the bizarre flower heads sticking up over the plants? On the left side of the photo? That is a Italian hard neck type that produces small �bulblets� on the top of those stalks. I get them from Nichols Garden seeds every fall. It is our favorite garlic, year after year. After I typed the above crap, the phone rang. The P.O.S. truck was ready to be picked up. Yippee! I didn�t get beck here to the keyboard until now, several hours later. I don�t think anybody out there noticed, anyway�� I still have to have the rear shocks replaced. Seems leaving the truck in a parking lot full of salt brine every winter tends to rust anything metal underneath the truck. That is what happened to the brake lines. They rusted at the ends, where the connections are located. The shocks are covered with rust, and the passenger-side one is ready to fall apart. After looking at it up close, I don�t know how it still works. At least that repair is a minor one. Unless, because it is a Dodge, I have to buy some �specialty� shock only available from the manufacturer. Wish me luck��
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