I put yet another ad on Craigslist to give away some of my fish. My ponds have had far too many fish in them for quite a while now. The filtering systems get saturated quickly and I find I have to clean them out and replace filtering media in them more often than I would like.
Well, a guy finally came over today and took 8 large goldfish off of my hands. I could probably let go of another 8 or 10, but we were having difficulty catching them out of the larger pond. I need a much larger, larger-gapped net to catch them. We just took them out of the pond that is above ground and thinned that out quite a lot. It's probably good at the number of fish it's at right now.
I also was able to thin my plants back considerably in breaking off plant and root systems from the main plant and giving them to him to replant. One of the Umbrella plants had grown FAR too large for even the large pot I had it in. I took that thing down by half, it looks MUCH better now. I also gave him a sampling of the other plants, just break pieces of them off an replant them. The great thing about these water plants is that you really don't have to have a green thumb. Pluck them in whatever kind of container you can find, put some dirt in it and cover with rocks, stick it in the pond, you're done.
He didn't have a clue what he was doing, I was able to help him out quite a lot in the information department. I was in the same boat some, what, 8, 10 months ago? Less? When I started out on this little pond venture and didn't have a clue and also wasn't getting very good, complete information. I think I am going to write an entry up about ponds/ponding again so that Googlers can find it and perhaps glean a bit of help from my experiences.
Time to call an AC person out to clean the coil. It is dirty and that reduces the efficiency of the AC system. The time is now to do it while the prices are low - waiting until summer? Pay double.
So, I was talking to my neighbor over the wall - he is working on his burnt property, salvaging whatever is salvagable (not much, either). I forgot that I was next to the tree that has the hummingbird, next and 2 eggs in it, grabbed the tree to balance myself and - it flew off. I could have hit myself for doing something so absent-minded. I immediately moved off and watched her. She flew to the next tree and perched on the top of it - about 15 feet off the ground. She sat there for about 5 minutes, then did her helicopter hovering trick and slowly descended back down to the nest. Relief.
Some neighborhood kids occasionally come over and walk the dogs. They think it a prestigious thing, I guess, to walk dogs that are the size of miniature horses. Well, the neighbors behind me got yet another notice from the city of Phoenix: clean up the property or get slapped with a $2,500.00 fine. About TIME, frankly, though I had nothing to do with it. They don't come out unless someone complains, I didn't do the complaining.
Well, the kids came in the house to get the leashes. One of them pulls out a can of tomato sauce and some cheese and asks if I have any chips. He proceeds to dump the can of sauce over the chips, cheese on top of that, sits down and starts eating it. Not exactly appealing to me, I declined when offered. I do like tomato sauce, even plain - just a taste I acquired as a kid and never really let go of along with eating raw hamburger meat - but that did NOT look good at all. I dunno. He gets done with that, we walk out back and there is this man, looking over my back fence, giving one of the kids a rather stern warning.
This kid's dad, hired by the neighbor whose property has looking like a landfill since the time I moved into this neighborhood. He was cool, though, that dad that is. I decided to get into whatever conversation with the man - I'm always curious as to the parenthood of kids in this neighborhood considering some of the stuff that goes on. He wasn't letting go of any information. Nice enough person, just couldn't get anywhere with it.
Oh, last night!! ROCK ON, baby! I went to the first concert I have been to since I was a teenager in high school. A roomie scored some tickets to a small venue where a band was going to be playing, his GF apparently wagged out on him at the last minute, asked if I wanted to go. I really debated that one in my head. WHAT kind of place is this going to be and what kind of people were going to be there? But, it was something different to do, the worst that could happen is that I would hate it and never go to anything like it again. Actually, the worst that could happen is someone would start crap with me and .......... then what? I won't just stand there if someone is hauling back to hit me, I can assure you of that.
I decided to go and NOT expect some s*** would happen. When we go there, it was EXACTLY what my mind envisioned it to be, a hell-hole type of place with ALL kinds of strange people talking all kinds of junk walking all over the place. I found a "place" to stand until the concert started. This place was the size of a Denny's or something. Not very big. Maybe 15 chairs in the whole place, the rest - stand up.
However, I am not ashamed to say that I still love rock. And the band that started was awesome - they played the songs I grew up with and knew the words to. I was right up there at the front, ignoring the sexual innuendo, sexual overtones and the obvious fact that this was more of a place to hook up for a one-night stand than anything else. The band - I don't even remember the name of it - was excellent. Good music, great performance. Of course, it WAS interesting to have young ladies up there rubbing more than just elbows. I'm not saying anything sexual, but they weren't being bashful. I guess I can say that in my 47 years of living, I have figured out how to go with the flow - without giving in. No, I didn't give in, even with several "requests", if you want to call them that.
I had completely forgotten the experience it is to be at a live concert. Regardless of their appearance, these are professional musicians. If they get anywhere with it, they pay the price to get there, and I am not referring to drugs and sex, I am referring to exhaustingly long, arduous hours of practicing the same thing, over and over and over, getting the music down to the point they don't even have to think about it. They put an act together to make it entertaining. I don't believe it is an "easy" life, I believe it is probably no different in some respects than me going to work every morning, Monday through Friday, clocking in and clocking out, giving my heart to whatever it is that I am engaging myself with.
It was a good show. The second band was okay, not great but not bad. I would have been happy to leave after the first band was done, but, my roomie wanted to stay so, we stayed. No biggies excepting I am not normally used to getting home at 2:00 am. The only other thing I do in that department - and rarely at this point - is going to the casino. Which is going on quite a while since my last visit, a prosperous one at that. I'm sure the bug will bite soon enough and I will be writing an entry about the latest visit I might have made.
As for today, it is over. Productive day, too. I got quite a lot done outside. I had no plans, whatsoever, this morning in doing anything because I went to bed late and got up around 9:00am, not feeling very good. Around noon, though, I was feeling better, the weather is gorgeous and isn't going to stay that way forever, I took advantage of it. I'm a creature of habit - I like to go to bed around the same time, every night whether I have to work in the morning or not, and I like to get up at the same time in the morning, again, whether I'm getting up for work or not.
Anyway, that's enough for one entry. There is plenty going on in the news - but - I don't care to go into my views on that right now. I'm sure tomorrow morning that will change : )
G'nite.
ben
