My Armor Is Destroyed

Last week, Pete and I mapped out a bicycle route to the new office and I started commuting to work via back roads and bike paths. This morning, Pete checked the new round trip for mileage: 3.88 miles to the office. The ride to the old office was 2.2 miles, so 3.88 driveway to driveway was great news. His round trip measured 8.4 miles, but, he said, it involved a wrong turn and a 100-yard backtracking.

In the new office, my co-workers find my cycling glee at least perplexing and at most dangerous. There’s a whiff of Ladies simply do not do this. Ten minutes before I left work, I called Pete.

Tata: How’s the weather?
Pete: Clear. You should be fine.
Tata: I dunno. It’s pretty dark out.
Pete: I’ll see you at home.

I hung up the phone. The skies opened and a torrential downpour pounded the building’s metal roof. At their desks, dozens of people stood up to figure what that roaring noise was. Everyone looked at me. Annoyed, I shut off my PC, gathered my stuff and made the long walk to the front door, where I discovered the rain had stopped so suddenly the ground wasn’t even completely wet. My ride home along the river, in fresh air and sunshine, was so lovely I forgot to be mad.

It’s a freaking miracle.

Mushroom! Mushroom!

Mushroom! Mushroom!

Hey Where Did We Go

This morning, the temperature was cool and the sky cloudy. After midday, the sun burned off cloud cover and humidity moved in. People complained about the heat and dense air. But you know what I don’t miss? Freaking snow.

Don't miss this a bit.

Don’t miss this a bit.

Sorry, winter people. The worst day of summer is better than the best day of winter.

As I Waved And Went

The Urban Dictionary defines Seedbombing as:

when an individual or group who throws, shoots, or slingshots pellets of dirt filled with seeds, often into empty or abandoned lots; usually part of an urban renewal project or event

Larry: Let’s throw an awesome event where we eat, drink, and mingle in between seedbombing expeditions around the neighborhood!

Jim: Cool! Let’s go buy some seed pellets and slingshots!

Previously on Poor Impulse Control:

We dismantled Dad’s kitchen and I ended up with a bigass container of dried black beans; by bigass, I mean a 7-quart Sysco restaurant container, and by beans, I mean of indeterminate age and/or magical power. For many long months, I stared at this container and waited for inspiration, which means breath of the gods and there’s just not enough Gas-Ex, thank you. One day, a plan came to me. Pete laughed out loud, uncertain I’d do it. Two nights ago, we filled a quart bag with beans and went for a walk. The plan:

1. On a rainy night, fling beans near chain link fences everywhere.
2. Wait.
3. Watch out for falling giants.

The possible results:
1. Planting.
2. Composting.
3. Feeding outdoor critters.

We enjoyed furtively peppering lawns, alleys, empty planters and scrubby gardens with prospective beanstalks, which process became more entertaining the closer we walked to the center of town and spectators. No one asked us what we were doing. No one said, “You’ve literally beaned me.” No. People watched as Pete and I walked by and I exhorted our little legumes to grow toward the sun, be free, be free! This public art project memorializing my father is called the Beany Benediction.

No cows will be harmed in the making of it.

Not to mention this and this and that. Essentially, seedbombing is one of my favorite things and recently, a thing happened.

Ammo, art supplies or weapon of vengeance, but also seeds.

Ammo, art supplies or weapon of vengeance, but also seeds.

Two of my dear friends are retiring, packing up and moving out. They offered me their seeds. I was kind of heartbroken for them, being without a garden for the year or two in which they assemble their new life, but they are joyful. My friends brought me four approximately shoebox-size containers filled with carefully alphabetized and labeled seed envelopes. I started feeling like I’d taken decongestants in a room full of black light posters.

Last Saturday, I sat down with the boxes and discovered my friends had brought me a problem and a solution. More than half of the envelopes were dated three years or older. Once I’d pulled out envelopes for 2011 or earlier and poured the outdated seeds into five pint containers, the project of plantable seeds looked much more manageable.

Yesterday would have been my dad’s 74th birthday and, over the weekend, my youngest sister Dara had her first child, a little boy. For the past three days, I’ve been flinging seeds everywhere while I waited for someone to stop me or say anything at all. No one does.

Everyone fears a random giant.