Catching Up

Three weeks since I announced that I was going to try to resuscitate the Boggy Thicket blog.  It hasn't been a resounding success, but not a complete failure.

I guess the most important thing that's happened lately is that the County finally got around to digging out our ditches.  

First, they dug out the big drainage ditch, all the way to Luce's Bayou.  That involves a couple miles of right-of-way that is in another County, but after some negotiation, Liberty County told them to go for it as long as they didn't have to pay for it.

Once that was done, crews came in an dug out the ditches along the roadway for the first time since we've lived here. 

Electric Tiller

 I borrowed my neighbor's Ryoobi tiller to get the flower bed ready for planting.  It is my first experience with an electric tiller and it was doing a great job until it started to Rain.

I guess I'm Getting Old

 

We are re-doing the flower beds along the front of our house, or at least we're having them done.  The bushes that were there for the last forty years were pulled our yesterday.  The next step is to till the soil and mix in some fresh nutrients.

Home Depot has a sale on the small (7.5 cu ft) bags of garden soil right now - less than half price - so I went to get a bunch today.

I had just started loading a cart when a large forty-ish fellow asked me how many I was buying.  I told him, and he said "Let me drop this one in my wife's cart and I'll load it for you." 

I was a little surprised - I wasn't even breathing hard - but I said OK, and that's what happened.

Once I got the cart out to the truck and had just started loading, I was stopped again by a slightly older man with his whole family.  He said "Let us load that for you." And he and his teen aged son put the rest of the load in the truck.

I think that either today I accidently became the subject of some local church's sermon, or I'm looking a lot older and weaker than I think I do.

A Lot of Gas

Back in 2006, a scientific report from the United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization claimed that methane from cow farts contributed to Global Warming. 

Methane is a "greenhouse gas" and the Earth supports about 1.5 billion cattle, but I chuckled and called B.S. I just didn't think it could possibly be enough to matter. 

Then last Monday, a huge explosion at a dairy farm in the Texas Panhandle killed 18,000 cows.  Investigators have determined that a spark from equipment in the milking barn set off methane being generated by the cows waiting to be milked.

Generic Complaint

 We spent most of the past week trying to get one of Honey's prescriptions filled.  She had a reaction to a drug she had been taking, and the doctor had sent in a prescription for something to replace it. She noted on the prescription that the generic version was acceptable.

It was not.

Medicare required the much more expensive Brand-Name version. 

Not only was it much more expensive, but our pharmacy (which did have the generic) didn't have it in stock.  After two days, we were able to locate the medication that Medicare would cover at another Walgreen's pharmacy, but getting it required a one hour round trip.

This was a relatively new medication, and I understand that Medicare only updates their formulary once a year, but wouldn't it be simpler if they had a rule that stated that once the FDA approved a generic drug it would be added automatically?

Cheryl's Award

 

There is a professional organization in Austin known as the Central Area Paralegal Association. 

At last week's meeting, one of Austin's top attorneys, our daughter, Cheryl's boss, addressed the group.  He told them how indispensable she had been to their organization for almost a quarter century.

Then he announced the creation of the Cheryl Ischy Professionalism Award. 

As you would expect, she is the first recipient, but he announced that award bearing her name has been funded (it comes with a monetary stipend) for the next twenty years.

Well, that didn't last long

 Just a couuple of days in, and I've already missed a post.  

I'm blaming it on my daughter.  I'd tell you why, but I should get at least one more post out of this - maybe more.

Cowbird

 We had a visitor on our bird feeder yesterday, and he's back again today.  I was able to confirm that he's a brown-headed cowbird.

Although we have only seen one - Honey just told me she saw two of them - they normally fly around in large flocks.

Another interesting fact is they lay their eggs in other bird's nests and let the adoptive parents deal with the chicks.

Tar Baby vs the Cost of Eggs

 

Lots of comments online about inflation and the cost of Easter Eggs this year.  

Could be worse - what if the Easter Bunny ran into the Tar Baby???

the Old Boggy Thicket

 On March 11, 2010, I started a blog I called the Boggy Thicket.  I intended to do daily posts - as I said then -" I plan to post photo's, commentary on whatever catches my attention, random thoughts and probably some jokes, limericks and similar stuff of questionable nature.

No promises, but I'll try to keep it PG, if not PC."

I never actually posted for a full year without missing a day here or there, but I had several years with well over 300, the most being 354 in 2014. For some reason things started to taper off about 2019, with only 132 posts in 2021, 55 in 2022, and before today only one in 2023.

I'm not sure why something that was so much fun for the first ten years got to be next to impossible, but I'm going to give it another try.