Vic’s Pic’s Jan 16 2009

Yep, it’s me again…..with my adventure into the world of blogging WEEK 2.

I’m a little more comfortable this week (somewhat) with what I’m doing. I started this week with reading the blogs of people who commented on my blog pic’s last week. Thanks for your kind words and encouragement.

Then I ventured off into the land of alltop gardening blogs….some aren’t really blogs….but I digress. It seems to me that there are a lot of very depressed gardeners out there……spring will come I promise. They’re all waiting for the planting season and have very little use for the winter weather…in this sense I must agree, I hate being cold, as I sit at my computer with socks, slippers, and a large sweater freezing to death. I too am thinking about the warmer weather and now of course stewing about the plants, seeds and bulbs that I will plant and enjoy this summer.

I still haven’t got myself a seed booky thing…maybe Doug can help me with this? I’ll have to ask him or maybe he will read this plea and send me something….

I learned this week about Garden Bloggers Bloom Day…..I have nothing blooming in the house or outside…I felt left out….does this occur every month? If so I can plan ahead…I hate not being ready for a party. If you have some pictures please share them with me so I know what I should be looking for.

There are 2 blog type pic’s this week that made me smile and of course laugh (which is good this time of year). The first was a post about men and gardening and the health advantages….you’ll see when you read it . Number 2 on my funny list….I got off track by just a bit and was roaming around in the alltop website and found a blog section for Bacon lovers…..not something you can grow in the garden, but did you know there is a Royal Society of Bacon People…..next week I’ll stay on track….so much information, so little time.

Talk to you next week (if Doug keeps me around that long)

Victoria

Depressing Exercise: Count the Roses You Killed

Most of them died due to freak climate smackdowns, but still. I changed my gardening practices a few years after moving to this windy prairie environment, and I have some crazy holdouts in my garden… if I grow a rose here it will survive just about anything. But loving roses, I tried valiantly for years to grow -and lose- so many lovely roses. Thinking about this…thus started my decline.

http://ilonagarden.blogspot.com/2009/01/depressing-exercise-count-roses-you.html

Quality vs. Quantity

I…um…have a reputation. While it may or may not be a bad one, having over 175 plants living in the house during the winter does give some people pause. I’ve seen my name mentioned in connection with this overabundance of house plants here and there across the blogosphere.

http://ourlittleacre.blogspot.com/2009/01/quality-vs-quantity.html

Five No-Work Annuals

I want to enlarge on the notion of organic gardening and making a no-work garden this week. We’ve already looked at the basics of compost and perennials so let’s take a quick look at annuals you’re going to consider.

http://ourlittleacre.blogspot.com/2009/01/quality-vs-quantity.html

The Impending Arrival of Seed Starting Season

Seed starting season is just around the corner. It happens every year and every year I yell to no one and everyone that I’m not ready and could I please just have another day or a week, but it comes anyways. Then again, am I ever ready for anything garden-related? From seed starting season to the first frost I am constantly begging for mercy and more time while simultaneously wishing for spring and summer to come sooner and end my winter misery.

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2009/01/14/the-impending-arrival-of-seed-starting-season/

Throw away the Viagra: Study shows gardening boosts men’s sex lives

Who needs the little blue pill?

Just head outdoors and pull some weeds, fellows, because a British study shows that gardening for as little as 30 minutes a week can improve a man’s sex life and reduce his romantical disappointments.

This could mean a whole new surge of interest in gardening. Just think of the potential for good.

Now, where’s my Gardening Honey Do list?

http://www.examiner.com/x-346-Gardening-Examiner

My First Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day

I can’t believe I finally remembered that it is GBBD and my internet has been down for most of the day. I am quickly attempting to get this post published while I still can before the internet gremlins decide to play some more tricks on my computer again.

http://brambleberriesintherain.com/2009/01/my-first-garden-bloggers-bloom-day/

There was a little island who swallowed a cat…….

This past week, there has been an interesting news story making the news rounds about Macquarie island (between Australia and Antarctica) and their apparent, well, balancing issue. Like many places on the map that have borders on the bright blue, they have a guest problem. Like many people with a guest problem, they figured that getting the guest to leave would fix the problem. Not so much, it seems.

http://www.thisgardenisillegal.com/2009/01/there-was-a-little-island-who-swallowed-a-cat.html

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day - January 2009

Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for January 2009.

Here at May Dreams Gardens, snow and very cold temperatures in the teens and single digits ruled out the last hope for finding even a tiny frozen bloom outside. I didn’t have that much hope anyway, after many icy cold days in December.

http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/2009/01/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-january-2009.html

More Cupcakes…with Bacon!

Here in the West, I think Sprinkles has become the cupcake standard. They make huge, beautiful cupcakes in lots of amazing flavors with every kind of colorful confetti topping you can imagine. Soon they’ll be expanding across the country and across the world, but they may have their competition cut out for them in Chicago.

http://www.royalbaconsociety.com/blog/bacon-reviews/more-cupcakeswith-bacon/

Bloom Day January 2009

This abutilon was featured in my first Bloom Day post almost a year ago. It is in bloom nearly every month of the year and a pleasure every day. I was so happy to discover May Dreams Gardens and Carol’s generous community of bloomers. I was a new blogger and it was my first experience of community and help with a new enterprise.

http://commonweeder.blogspot.com/2009/01/bloom-day.html

Vics Pics Jan 9

Well this is a first for me….I went wading through the blogs, reading, enjoying, and to be honest thinking some people are a little crazy. Not the gardening people though…….they’re a lovely bunch. I learned some interesting facts and tips on my blog quest……as a beginner gardener, I didn’t know that I was to be pursuing the seed catalogs this time of year…..not the T.V. guide . Who knew? I ‘m getting dirty nails just thinking about all the work I have this Spring….first the garden, then the patio……then it’s beer time with the neighbours. So enjoy this week picks and we’ll see what I can learn next week.

Wicked Plants: The Making of the Movie

It’s not enough to write a book anymore; you’ve got to have a video, too. I’m lucky to have a brother in the film industry, which makes this much easier. When The Earth Moved came out, Jason shot some footage of me out giving talks about worms; the result was a DVD that I could send to producers who were thinking of booking me on their show. We didn’t even think about putting it on the Internet way back in 2004.

http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2009/01/wicked-plants-t.html

Garden Magic

You see, we’re leaving the world of bug- spray-kill for the complex relational world of compost-soil building- plant health - increased biodiversity - reduced infestation.

http://blog.douggreensgarden.com/2008/12/20/garden-magic/

Easy Armchair Gardening, Dreaming of Summer

With snow covering most of Canada and the land sleeping beneath a white coat, you might think that no gardening can be done. Not so. Now is the time to plan what wonderful crops you’ll plant and harvest this summer. January is the busiest time of the year for seed suppliers.

http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/easy-armchair-gardening-dreaming-summer

Winter Gardening: Phase Four

The fourth and final phase of winter gardening will be upon us before we know it, if we can just hang on.

http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/2009/01/winter-gardening-phase-four.html

My New Favorite Garden Boots

From time to time I get to test garden products. I welcome the opportunity, because as an avid gardener, I’m always on the lookout for newer and better products. Oh, I have my old favorites, too, but sometimes Research & Development comes up with something better.

For the past several years, I’ve worn Ladybugs clogs in and around the garden, mainly because they’re inexpensive, comfortable, and easy to slip into. Last year, I happened upon a pair of lightweight garden clogs at Target made by Sloggers. I’d heard of them, but this was the first time I’d seen them in person. I won’t tell you what ridiculously low price I got them for at the end of the season, but it was cheap enough that I bought a pair a half-size too small for me, because no more were left in my size. (They aren’t uncomfortable, though.)

http://ourlittleacre.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-new-favorite-garden-boots.html

Gardening With Kids

Despite the cold weather outside, seed catalogs are starting to arrive in the mail and making promises of the spring to come. If you are like me the idea of getting outside and digging in the dirt makes you giddy with joy. Of course, you don’t have to hog all that fun for yourself. Getting dirty, digging holes, and watching new little plants bloom make gardening with kids double the fun.

http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/01/06/gardening-with-kids/

What I’ve Learned About Garden Blogging This Year #8

No form of publishing ever really dies. There’s a pathway that seems to exist and that all forms of media continue on and never really die.

Think about it.

Stained glass windows were among the first of modern mass reading. Thousands of illiterate pilgrims would “read” the stories told in these windows and understand them with no difficulty because that’s how the stories were told to them. The symbols in these windows (unknown to modern readers) were clear to the people in this culture. You can still obtain stained glass windows today even though most of us can’t read or understand them. They’re now an art form rather than a mass form of communication.

What about basic printing - wood block carving and distribution of small numbers of works. These were the first printing and mass distribution of books. You can still get wood-print works today but they have passed from the realm of the mass distribution to the realm of art.

Moveable type printing moved to the Net as fonts but you can still print that way and indeed there are art-forms that depend on this kind of work.

There are still ham-radio operators and morse-code addicts who operate and communicate in their own world.

Do you see the movement? From mass consumption to limited use and art form. There’s money to be made in the mass consumption and money to be made in the art form but the middle ground - the time of movement - is when there are problems at both ends. The mass consumption is dying, the financial model is broken - and it has yet to be reinvented in a smaller, more artistic, financially-viable format.

Our print magazines, books and newspapers are in this movement phase. They’re just not sure how it’s all going to shake out and the financial models aren’t in place yet.

At the same time, the Net has replaced some of the functions of these publications (the most profitable or time-sensitive ones). But the financial underpinnings of the old system haven’t totally adopted the new system either.

We as writers find ourselves living in interesting times. We too are a bit of an anachronism - a system in flux. As our publishing models change, as magazines disappear, publishers shut down and newspapers withdraw, we’re left with having to figure out how to adapt. There will always be writers. Writers of books, of magazines and other forms but that too will have to adapt and change to meet the markets and move towards an art form. Or towards the new publishing model. Or some hybrid based on the skill-set of the writer/communicator that we can’t see yet.

So nothing ever dies. It just moves from the mass consumption to the artistic consumption of the small market. But it changes along the way as does it’s market. The trick of course is to enjoy the ride and survive along the way.

I’ve chosen to survive (for the most part) in the new world of publishing. To develop a hybrid skill-set that allow me to survive and continue to do the things I want to do in this world. I’ll still write books, magazine articles, my newspaper column and radio show but I’m also drawn to the new technologies that are appearing, to video and Internet interaction - to harnessing the power of this new medium to meet our ever-changing goals of human interaction.

But I’m going to have to get back to you on all this - there’s still a lot to learn here.

And that last sentence pretty much sums up the way I see the publishing world, the Net and garden blogging. And it makes a nice ending to this series. Thankfully, there is indeed still a lot to learn here.

What I’ve Learned About Garden Blogging This Year #7

The Internet and the Networking of modern life is moving faster than I thought. I’m no visionary but rather a practical writer trying to fit the modern reality into a publishing or information-exchange kind of business.

It’s like trying to put a printing press on quick-sand. You just never know what part is going to sink next… or how fast.

So what would I bet on?

Human nature won’t change. We’ll still want our food, our friends and we’ll find out joys and sorrows much as we have in the past millennium or five.

Our needs to connect as human beings won’t change.

The technology and it’s impact is in its infancy. Of course it’s going to change. In unexpected ways.

If our modern life is about creating a working network, then we can expect advances in this area. We’ll network the printing process, we’ll network our food supply, our travel, our production methods - we’ll network every facet of our lives. We can see the beginning stages of this now as we line up the interfaces for Web 3.0 and the interconnectedness of all system.

This of course presents some serious opportunities and concerns for all.

But the biggest question at the end of next year will be to ask how’s your network? You’ll have an off-Net network and an on-Net network. And what are you doing to encourage that Network and keep it alive and well. Are you taking out of it or are you giving into it?

Bottom line on this post. I’m not sure where the Network is going. I’m not sure where the concept of publishing is going. But I know that it’s a darn exciting ride.

What I’ve Learned About Garden Blogging This Year #6

Life is often about the story you tell yourself. It’s the internal dialogue you have sorting out the words on a page, taking or leaving a job, a partner, a future path. Or taking stock of things, of taking in feedback and your view on the world. It’s all those things. I have a running story in my head about the world, about my place in the world and what I’d like that place to be. I suspect we all have our stories that we tell ourselves.

Blogging is about sharing that story - or not. And how much of the story you tell, how much you share - and even what that story is - is critical for good writing. Good writing is good story-telling.

No matter whether it is fiction or non-fiction. You tell a story with every sentence you write and how that story is told, how relevant it is to the reader, the resonance, is what makes or breaks the story.

I’m in love with telling stories. And the more mature I get as a writer, the more I’m willing to tell stories as part of my writing. And my readers tend to like those stories - particularly those that resonate - that touch them. I need to learn how to write more of those stories.

But it’s hard to be that personal in writing. As I said in an earlier post, I’m a solitary writerly kind of guy for the most part. I don’t “chat” much (according to a person who has reason to know) I tend to stay private and it’s hard to share. On the flip side, I love people but in measured doses. I need my privacy and thinking-space but I treasure my best friends beyond any measure. But it’s hard to share that and I sometimes find it hard to make new friends. Finding the measure between the private and public writer is an ongoing challenge as many a writer will tell you.

And yes, if you see a dichotomy, a contradiction in the above, then you understand. I don’t understand it all myself but it’s all there. Both sides of me seem to happily co-exist within one single story.

And the challenge is to find that story (for me) and to communicate it to you in a meaningful manner. That’s one of the things I’ve really learned and absorbed this year and one of the biggest challenges for next year.

What I’ve Learned About Garden Blogging This Year #5

Garden-only Blogs are a Limited Growth Opportunity.

I saw a recent stat that showed the growth of blogs was pretty much done. That the market penetration had hit saturation and the wild growth in blogging had plateaued. Now, whether this is true or not in a recession (laid-off folks have lots of time to blog and the real growth of blogging started in the last downturn with the dotcomboom) only time will tell.

So the question is whether this is all we have? Is there any serious growth potential in the garden writing blogging category?

Again, if you blog for yourself, for your own amusement, then you don’t care. If you blog as part of your professional writer’s life, then you have to sort it all out and decide if this is where you want to spend your energy and time. Or do you spend timet on Twitter, on Facebook, on Linkedin or on whatever social network comes along. Or do you want to spend time on any social network - spending time putting out query letters instead? Lots of questions there.

For me, the answers are a little vague.

I have a largish gardening website network (perhaps one of the largest operated by a single garden author) and earn most of my living on the Net. I’m not about to stop that. I know in order to grow my business, I need to do several things. One of those is find web-savvy partners who can push us both along and get a synergistic effect on our next project. I know this and I also have already seen the power of the social networks work for me in introducing me to people I wouldn’t have otherwise met. (Hello Savannah!) Where and how this will work is unclear to me but I’m sure it will. I’m not even clear that it will happen in gardening and am open to that as well.

The other thing I have to do is optimize the sites and improve overall network performance. It’s a quality versus quantity argument. I’m doing this in different ways and reporting on it and other Net issues on my new website www.edit-the-net.com I confess it’s a bit of a learning curve but something that’s quite exciting. I’m using real time stats to make my sites better for my readers and better for me. I love win-win situations. I’ve already learned a ton about how things are working and have made some improvements. I’m planning on spending the entire year improving the gardening web experience for my readers.

I have said in the past that garden bloggers blog for other garden bloggers. And that the garden media read blogs. So if you want to talk to editors and other garden writers, then you had better have a blog. That thought still rings true for me.

What I’ve Learned About Garden Blogging This Year #4

There are two kinds of garden bloggers. Those who do it for the heck of it - with no expectation of readers and income and those who do it as part of their garden-writer life and have some expectation of income and readership. You get to pick; I obviously write as a full time garden writer. If you write for yourself, then please ignore the rest of this post, it doesn’t apply to you at all.

There are three kinds of garden blogs. The authority blog - where a recognized garden expert writes about their plants and garden. The community blog where a group of gardeners congregate to share stories. And an entertainment blog where people read to get a laugh, an interesting thought or a car wreck, but aren’t particularly looking for one of the previous two blogs.

The interesting thing is that in order to excel at blogging you have to excel at one of these three areas. You have to pick one and make it your own. But - and it’s a big but - you can’t ignore the other two and have to foster them in some smaller scale of things. I know some great plantsmen that can’t write an entertaining blog to save their souls - but they know plants. And some of the most entertaining bloggers wouldn’t be allowed in my garden with a shovel in their hands. The worst of course are those who don’t know plants, are boring writers and can’t foster community, but who think they can do all of these things equally.

Want readers? Pick one. Excel at it. I confess I wander back and forth on this - mostly doing authority pieces with a bit of entertainment and far, less community-building. As a mostly-solitary writer, I’m not the person to sympathize with you when your flowers wilt but I mostly know how to fix that kind of thing.

Want to be wildly successful? Pick a car-crash style of writing and give us a window into your soul (and be a great gardener to boot). I’m not genetically suited for a car-crash style of writing so that takes care of that…

What I’ve Learned About Garden Blogging This Year #3

Blogging Isn’t an Immediate Road to Riches

I’m not getting rich writing my blog. And there are days when I wonder why I spend the time at it. It is an outlet for things that don’t fit anywhere else (like this post) so perhaps that’s as good a reason as any. When popular gardening-only blogs rate their yearly earnings in the hundreds of dollars, you know it’s not going to go very far. My blog is on either side of a hundred dollars/month depending on the season (December is a long way on one side).

Every straight-garden blogger I’ve talked to has pretty much the same story - sometimes a little more than I make, sometimes a little less. But they ain’t gettin’ rich.

If you want to make money as a blogger, then you had better pay attention to the previous post about NASCAR

What I’ve Learned About Garden Blogging This Year #2

Blogging as NASCAR

Why do people rubber-neck at car accidents (even taking a surreptitious peek) We all do. I watch NASCAR whenever I can. I love a good race but I particularly enjoy the beating and banging that goes on in short-track races (less than a mile around). There’s passion there - there’s excitement and sooner or later somebody is going to wreck somebody else and the tempers are going to fly at 140 mph. A good long-track race (over a mile) is a great thing of strategy and timing, but the guys try to stay out of trouble and cruise around the big tracks at 190 mph for the first 350 miles then they go racing for the last 50 miles. Watch the last 50, that’s where the excitement is.

So how’s that relate to blogging?

Who do you read - the boring blog about picking tomatoes or the one that slams big-hort and big-chemical? Sure you do. I read Garden Rant because I want to see what kind of car-wreck the ladies can cook up next. Most garden writers do if we admit it and I’m sure their stats-package would back me up. Their biggest posts are going to be the ones where they take on somebody and stir up controversy.

Check out the general blogs that are successful. We’re talking about people who lead or tell us stories about the last 50 miles in the race. We don’t read boring, mundane-life blogs. We read blogs that are so transparent, that are so lifelike that we can watch the writer dodge (or not) the crashes in their life. The successful writers write with a transparency on their personal lives that can’t be faked and that not many of us would emulate.

But those are the ones that make it. I’m not sure I’m prepared to do that - it’s a modern decision and one not taken lightly. But I am thinking about this in more than a passing way.

What I’ve Learned About Garden Blogging This Year #1

What have I learned about blogging this year? I’m about to write a series on the things I’ve learned this year in the blogging world. There are a few posts coming down about the major things I’m thinking of related to blogging and the Net. Of blogging and my approach to it. Of just general ‘stuff” that seems to fit into this end-of-year reflection.

Lesson #1 It’s an interesting world. The biggest fights are about the smallest of things.

Merry Christmas 2008

I want to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

May all the blessings of this season be yours along with my wish that the Simple Gifts of life will be yours in 2009.

Along with that of course goes my wish that your gardens be green, your weeds be few and your laughs be abundant.

Doug

p.s. the picture was taken in the studio of the radio station where I do my best to avoid using the computers and sound boards. Sit me down and let me talk is my motto.

Do You Know a Terrorist?

I’m flying to Portland this fall to the GWA conference so it was with a great deal of “satisfaction” that I learned that the U.S. authorities now have over 1 million people on their “watch-list” for flying. This is a list that compares your name to a list of people who are “suspects” and need to be watched for terrorism activities. If your name happens to be on the list - you get pulled over and searched rather thoroughly.

The amusing (?) thing about this is many people share the same name. For example, there’s Doug Green the Old Testament Prof, Doug Green the Singing Ranger, Doug Green the football star, Doug Green the gardener, Doug Green the real estate sales guy and Doug Green the physicist. Not to mention Doug Green the convicted felon. Now if Doug Green the convicted felon makes a threat somewhere or somebody thinks he made a threat - all Doug Greens get pulled over and “checked”. No appeal to going on the list and no way of getting off the list. Some faceless bureaucrat puts you on and that’s all she wrote friends.

So do you know a terrorist on the watch list?

Don’t be so quick to say no.

Think about it for a minute. There’s approximately 350 million people in the U.S. and 1 million people on the list. So 1 in 350 people in the U.S. need watching. Give or take a few, here and there, mostly there.

According to research done in the U.K. by Drs. Hill and Dunbar the average person has a social network of 150 people.

So between you - your neighbor to the right and the neighbor to the left you know 450 people. Let’s take 50 off that for overlaps and the three of you know around 400 people.

1 in 350 is on the terrorist watch list - the three of you know 400 people.

The odds say that you or your immediate neighbors know somebody the U.S. government says needs watching.

1 million people sounds like a bit of overkill to me but in a world where that bastion on honest reporting, Fox news, describes arsonists as “domestic terrorists” I guess it all makes bizarre sense that one in 350 should be suspected of something and all who share that name should be equally branded.

Surreal - this could be a scene from Kafka.

A tale of three guys

OK, so I’m sitting on the back porch after dinner last night. The birds are singing like mad, the sun is filtered by the vines over top of the deck and the air has the soft lilting fragrance of freshly mown hay. I have a beer in my hand, my feet are bare and I’m wearing one of my favorite t-shirts and oldest (hence most comfortable and disreputable) jeans. I didn’t shave this morning and I’m in guy-heaven.

Nole came over today and went to work laying in the foundation for the new garage with his backhoe, It was a pleasure to watch a man work with a tool that he knows how to handle; there’s artistry in those hands as he works his fingers deftly across the controls and handles that big shovel in the smallest and most graceful ballet of digging I’ve ever seen. The stumps came out. The hole was dug, the gravel laid and with any luck the forms and cement will be in by early next week. Then the builder can strut his stuff. But it bears repeating that working a backhoe is as much a wonderful thing as writing a garden article or taking a picture or just about anything else you can think of short of saving somebody’s else’ life. I admire folks with outstanding skill at what they do and Nole’s one of them.

The project is a 3-car garage with two bays for cars and one for my boat shop and somewhere close to garage heaven with a full 12×24 for the boat shop. I think I can fit the tools in there but it will be close. It will be the first real home they’ve had since half of them left the farm and the other half left my dad’s shop. I’m actually looking forward to unpacking the darn plastic tote bins and seeing just what tools I do own. I packed up dad’s shop (it took 2 weeks) and I never did see all the tools that went into those bins.

My dad was a mechanic by trade and in later life started teaching auto-shop and woodworking in high school. His tools aren’t fancy but they are good ones and I do believe I have enough tools there to both tear down and rebuild a car and construct a fully finished boat from the rough lumber. In his later years, he collected tools just for the activity of going out. His heart wouldn’t let him use them much so he’d just buy them. I think all the family guys now have at least one router (I think I still have three or four) and I’m not at all sure how many cordless drills I own but there’s a ton of chargers in one box I opened last week. One of my most prized possessions is a lawyer 4-part cabinet my dad made me out of oak. It’s a fine piece of furniture and sits, full of old books, in my office.

That’s my tale of three guys today - my dad, now passed away who believed if you were going to do something you just did it right - Nole who obviously knows how to do it right and me - who can appreciate both of them.

Joining the 21st Century.

It would seem that I have just joined the 21st century.

This particular blog post is being dictated through Dragon NaturallySpeaking and while I had some adventures getting the software installed, my first tiny baby steps are quite fun.

I run a Mac computer with Windows running inside a software program called Parallels and I head to convince both Parallels and Windows to play nicely together. A few trips to support, and the deed was done.

Now all I have to do is learn how to speak so the machine understands me, and teach it all the horticultural terms I use on a daily basis. But I am sure that once I learn how to do this, it will be easier and faster to write. All I have to say right now is that instead of typing on a keyboard, I’m sitting in my office, talking to myself.

I figure if I’m going to talk to myself anyway, I might just as well have somebody transcribe it.

photo credit: DigitalParadox

My Latest Air Canada Adventure

There are times that I wonder how Air Canada stays in business.

I need to travel to Portland in September to the garden writers conference (I’ve been threatened with the loss of back-of-the-bus party membership status if I don’t show up after a few years of absence).

I do the basic research and call the points folks - no availability on those flights in Sept on points. Nice to know the points really can work for you this far out. Foul Ball #1

So knowing that Air Canada has the feeder flights into the local airport, I get on the website and start filling out the online forms. Find the right flights and want to buy the package.

First problem. It won’t take my air miles card number and password. Foul Ball #2

OK - maybe it doesn’t like the password, maybe it’s old. Get referred to Aeroplan site to sign in and get proper password. Sign into Aeroplan on old password. Works fine. AC site messed up. Can’t use Aeroplan card. Foul ball #3

Say to self - to heck with points, I’ll have check-in people swipe card. Let’s sign out. Go through the checkout procedure twice finally discovering that AC and it’s Mastercard software doesn’t like my street address like 99% of the rest of the world accepts, it only accepts a RR number. Interesting. Tipped foul.

Finally get through to the point where AC is willing to take my money but then says that I have to pass some kind of card security check with Mastercard. But unfortunately, their software is offline and not working so to make sure my card is secure, they’re going to disable the card on their network. Foul ball #4 (getting very tired of swinging bat)

Thanks.

Phone customer service (misnamed). Wait 12 minutes. Get told I’m in wrong spot for making reservations. Yes, this is reservations but not for solving online website problems. Foul ball #5

If they make reservations, they’re going to charge me $25 for the privilege. Hmmm, get this straight - won’t take an order, disable card, charge $25 for solving problem or directing (now really irate but under control) caller to Internet problem solvers. Wait another 4 minutes .. hang up. Foul ball #6

Book flight on U.S. airlines - can drive to nearest US city and take flight for half the price of Canadian non-service. They’re out!

photo credit: law_keven

The Princess says

That you have to be careful, very careful this week. I’ve started a diet and given up coffee.

The caffeine burn was interesting although that seems to have disappeared tonight. But the desire for a bowl of vanilla ice cream and raspberries hasn’t gone anywhere. (insert huge sigh here)

On the other hand, lose 40 pounds and I’ll be able to move at competition squash speeds again.

But I may not be the easiest person to be around this week and I apologize in print. Ahead of time. To her.

Wanta make something of it?

Still Think Cell Phones are Fine

Update - apparently I’ve been “snoped”. Thanks Arythrina for pointing this out to me. Damn, normally I check this stuff out and I didn’t this time (color my face red);-) Check out the link in the comments folks.

Update #2 - (June 10/08) A new study hit the news today - a 10 year one that’s just being launched in Europe to get a handle on this question. You can read about it here in this CTV news announcement.

You know - every now and then something comes across my desk that I really want to share (even though it isn’t gardening).

So - the question is - where do you carry your cell phone? And what’s it doing to you if it does this to popcorn?

Lawn Mowing: Let’s Be Safe Out There People

The Consumer Products Safety Commission reported that 210,000 people were treated in doctor’s offices, clinics and emergency departments for lawn-mower related injuries in 2007. Of this number 16,200 were under the age of 19.

My kids all mowed the lawn at one time or other but my commercial grade mower had a kill-switch. You couldn’t get off the tractor to fix the plugged exit-chute without the power to the mower deck being turned off. This is not the case in home lawn mowers of the push variety. There’s nothing stopping these critters from keeping on turning at full power when the chute is plugged.

The deck on our machine would keep spinning and took a minute or so to slow down even when the power was removed. So, I gave them a lesson in hand safety by shoving a big fat stick into the chute and showing them the results as the stick was half-sucked in and chewed up in front of their eyes. The ruie was you don’t put your hand in there under any circumstances and we had a big stick to be used for cleaning out that chute. I sometimes think they shoved the stick in on purpose to see it get whacked but that was a lot better than their hands going in there and I don’t ever recall getting angry for them messing up big fat sticks. At least I knew they were using a stick.

Mowers aren’t toys and a person caught in one of them is going to spend a lot of time in surgery to correct the trauma. Fingers removed by one of these machines don’t go back on.

And oh yeah, if you mow the lawn in flip flops or soft shoes, you’re asking for trouble when that blade whacks a rock, a golf ball or other lawn debris and sends it out the back or under the mower deck. Or if you slip while pulling the machine backwards and it runs up and over your foot. Stranger things have happened to folks and it would be really nice if nothing happened to you.

Enough said.

Book Giveaway Contest - Backyard Giants

Update - we have a winner! Thanks to all who entered.

OK - I’ve had this book and read/reviewed it so now it’s time to give it away. This is the story of crazed giant pumpkin growers and what they go through to grow giant pumpkins. It’s a great gardening read for the story, even if you don’t grow this monster plant and live on a 30th-floor highrise. While you’ll learn something about growing giant pumpkins, it isn’t about how-to do this - it’s about the sweat, pain, surprise, trials and tribulations of achieving the growth of a 1000 pound pumpkin.

One big pumpkin! And one good story.

How to Enter

Simply make a comment below and make sure you include your email address in the comment section. I’ll have a friend give me a random number and we’ll count down (and around and around depending on the number of entrants and the number I’m given) to randomly pick the winner. You’ll have to answer a skill testing queston (like who’s the best looking garden writer you know) but that’s about it.

So - fire up the comments - get yourself a free gardening book.

Offer void where people can’t read blogs.

Free Container Gardening Seminar

I’m launching the container gardening seminar this coming week. Topics are being requested right here. So if you’re interested, drop in, sign up for the free series, reports etc.

There’s no charge for this seminar and reports for those participating.

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