Accessible Gardening: #19 Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners , 3 by Agavegirl1

Agavegirl1 wrote:
Hi gang,
O.K. have a better sense of the demographics. I think (chuckle). Half the time don't know where I'm at. I'm sure Boston is nice. Never been there or that particular area but always wanted to visit the New England area. I was born in Westerly, R.I. Don't know anything about it. We moved to OH (why?) when I was a baby. Much rather have stayed where there was an ocean. Texas is an interesting choice. Don't blame you for moving back. From what I understand of the place I have no desire to reside there. But then again, you can not fully appreciate or despise some place unless you've been there personally. You were lucky to get the same house back after 3 years. How nice. Didn't have to buy new furniture to fit, knew how to arrange everything, knew where everything went. Must have made unpacking a breeze! I'm still going in my living room and saying, "I hate where the couch is. I want to move it again." Husband is still saying, "I'm feeling the urge to choke you....again." (LOL)

As for "neat" I give my husband more credit than I. He is the "tidier", "straightener", and picker upper". I'll come home and kick my shoes off at the door and leave them there a day before putting them away. I'll leave my sweater on the back of the chair. We won't discuss the desk. NOT TROLLZ but the multitude of papers, books,magazine articles, pens, etc. I HAVE TO daily go around and corral stuff or it can easily get out of hand. Thank God for recycling.
We will not discuss the bedroom closet although it is greatly improved. Shoes...what to do with shoes! I tell my husband I don't have enough or the "right ones", he opens the door and points and tells me to go find them. (red face)

As for clean...well let's just say the military did not come up to my standards.
I was actually surprised at how dirty everyone and everything was. The barracks were nasty, the bathrooms worse. (Ewwww. Yucky! ). After basic training when you go to AIT (advanced individual training) to learn your "job" you live with a room mate or maybe 2 at the most.The only time these younger adults cleaned was when they were forced to for an inspection. Otherwise their area of the room (I shoved everything that was not mine onto their side) was horrendous. Mine was the only oasis of neat and clean in the whole room. I'm talking Oscar Madison disgusting with clothes on the floor, food on the table/desk, papers everywhere, etc..
Used to privately toss the Drill Sergeants hints about inspecting my room just so my room mates would get forced to clean.
I mean some of them were real pigs and these were women! (Of course room mates never knew it was me.) I always escaped punishment because I kept my area the way it should be. You think they'd learn? NOPE. I probably did the least amount of push ups of anyone I knew in the place. Good. I really hate push ups. Haven't done one since. I only run when I'm being chased or late getting somewhere (shoe sale!). :D

O.K. so I can't help my self. There's worse things to be. Consider the alternatives. We have friends whose house we rarely go over because it is soooooo nasty! You need a chisel and hammer to get the...I dunno..."stuff" out of and off of their microwave. They've got a dishwasher but the stuff is sprawled out all over the counter, stove and in the sink on the rare occasions when somebody cooks. 90% of the time it's prepackaged convenience food, but their kitchen STILL looks like that. We won't talk about the carpet or bathrooms. We stay long enough until our bladders are ready to burst and then go to the Circle-K about 3 blocks away to use the public restroom. It's 10 times cleaner.
Me being the smart alec that I am actually wrote "dust me" and put a smiley face by it with my finger on their entertainment center. That was 3 months ago. They never responded back about my smarty pants comment jokingly or otherwise. YIKES!!! Their youngest kid is 17. The 19 year old is out of the house. The 20 soon to be 21 year old...well...we'll skip him but he's capable of pushing a vacuum cleaner.
They have a Siberian Husky. It's Arizona. It's 112 degrees. The dog sheds. The dog just doesn't shed it sheds massive tumble weeds of fur that blow across the floor and the carpet as it bounces around the house. Looks like a blanket of snow in their place. I really don't like eating there due to all the hair flying around.
They both work with DH so I know they've got time to clean something...anything! Seriously? I could let my house go for 4 months and it wouldn't get that bad. I would have to make a consecrated effort!
Don't judge me too harshly though. No I don't expect everyone (except those in the military that ARE actually enlisted) to be at my standards of clean. Mine are unusual and A-typical. But somewhere in the ball park of relatively presentable and definitely clean in this day and age of modern appliances and where you can get stuff to clean with at the .99 cent store isn't a reach for the impossible. If you can't afford a vacuum they still make little push broom-sweeper things like you see at the movie theatres.

Now my husband has a tendency to go, "What? Oh that. I didn't see it." when we're at the mall or I start yammering about the bills, stock market, investing or told him to read something in the news! He does have a tendency to notice every nice new piece of technology and stupid sci-fi movie or action flick (could be ogling worse stuff I suppose).

O.K. so did you get your morning chuckle in about my compulsive disorder. Like everything I blame it on the meds. (LOL) See isn't that convenient?

BetNC your comment about grass in AZ kind of made me laugh a bit. Uhm..no grass in AZ unless far up north. Rocks. We've got rock for yards that covers dirt so it doesn't blow away. In that you pretty much grow cacti of various types, shrubs, and some trees. Grass is nice but it would be dead in 3 days. Either it would get cooked from the heat and fry to a nice crispy golden brown of you would have a $400.00 water bill to keep a 12 foot square patch alive and then it would probably die of root rot. Rocks. We've got rocks.

Here's some of my bubble garden plants. I've added a whole bunch more. I just haven't downloaded the pictures yet. The new ones are much more exciting and far more unusual! :D