special gifts

I've had some special gifts lately. I am a lucky woman lately. The first gift I will mention is something I have been wanting for well over 15 years. Sarah gave me two splendid Chinese chestnut trees. Now my delimma...where to plant these beauties. They get big and fat (60 feet in diameter) and you have to plant two so they can cross-pollinate or there will never be nuts. They are messy trees. Chestnut hulls are prickly and large. Still, I am certain that squirrels would like chestnuts. Would rabbits and deer eat them? I wonder if Chewy would eat them? I don't want them to shade our little shrinking garden space. I picked a bouquet of dianthus from my little flower-bed in front of the garden. We reduced our garden by 1/3 last year because our trees are shading it too much. The hickory and tulip trees are still growing apparently. Anyway, I might ask Mr. Berry what he thinks about me planting them right on our property line. He usually doesn't cut to the line and if Someone cuts around them (and we clean up the mess), he will be agreeable. Someone and I talked about buying some of the side yard from him so we can expand our garden. My only other option is to cut down the dying maple on the south end and put them there. My concern is that the drainage may not be good enough. It is still rather damp back there, even though we had drain lines installed. The maple is dying because it's been wet too long. Sometimes I think we should turn that back corner into a pond. It would be very easy to do. Mr. Berry says our whole yard was part of a lake at one time.



OK, I'm rambling. The other gift was a chance to play 9 holes at Sandy Creek tonight. WOW. That was fun! Nobody behind us and only a single man playing a hole ahead..sometimes he got two holes ahead. I had a lot of fun, I was playing pretty well for me. I had some excellent drives, a very sweet 3-wood shot, and a couple of remarkable putts. I had a few decent chip shots too. My chipping has really gone to heck over the years. I really miss playing golf. I'm going to try to get out more, even though I have less time these days :-(Someone kept nagging me to get out and go, and I'm so glad he did. I finally gave in and had a blast. I played from the reds today and we played the front 9 at Sandy Creek. I shot bogie, par, par, bogie, bogie, bogie, par, double bogie, par. The front nine is tighter than the back 9, but the back 9 is longer. I'm not sure which I like best....I can score well on either one. Today, I was OK with my score. It was my first time out in over 8 months. I have been going to the driving range some, but it's not the same.



Also working on my papers this holiday weekend. I wrote about a problem area that I am interested in for my dissertation. I still need to add at least 280 more words to it. It makes me wonder if this is REALLY the topic I can be so interested in. I'm still thinking I'm interested in in the orchard industry in some way. I am writing about..basically, the lack of knowledge sharing in organizations and the loss of business information because it is not valued enough to be captured. If it were captured, it is more likely to be shared and used, right? Is that just my assumption and there is no validity to it? I could design a study "somehow..." to prove it. That would be my area to study. I think I am best suited for a quantitative study. Or perhaps a case study...I am not sure.

Other gifts today???? Many more, but I have written enough for now.

Graduation

Sarah graduated today - Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. I think I am happier for her than she is for herself in her achievement. I think one day she will see that this was a big deal after all. I felt a pang of regret that I didn't go through graduation the last time. Thinking about that today while a thousand names were being called, I remember that I had no desire to hire a sitter, drive to Morehead, and graduate with nobody I knew while nobody I knew watched. I got that degree and really only did it because it gave me a reason to get out of the house at night and Ashland Inc. was paying for it. It's good that I only had 9 hours to go when Sarah was born, or I might have dropped out.

Sarah's dad's parents hosted a party for her after graduation at Park Lake. I had forgotten how beautiful the landscape is in that part of Kentucky. Park Lake is what I wish heaven could be like. Indian Creek is one of my favorite places, and the Licking River Valley is breathtaking. It was wonderful to have a chance to visit the Wood family again.

Emily and Erin watched their sister graduate. Another thing I thought about today is that the next graduation I attend might be mine. :-)

I took some pictures of my beautiful apple trees. I was none too impressed with our two apple trees until last year. Our apple crop was outstanding last year. I had cut the trees back winter before last and that must have impacted production.

So, the first reading week of my class is nearly over and tomorrow I must read all day to make up for NOT reading today. I was gone all day and then Erin and Emily had their spring orchestra concert. It was quite good, I enjoyed it. Anyway, I have no pictures and I regret that. I could have taken my video camera but they always sound bad when I record them...but maybe I could have taken better pictures. My camera doesn't do dim light situations at all unless you are in flash range.

I've blown off the day so now that I've blogged, I'm going to play around with my guitar a bit. Then...I must hit the hay because I need to read 11 chapters tomorrow. I am getting a bit concerned with what I'm reading. I think I understand dependent and indepentent variables, but when I'm trying to figure out moderating, intervening, and extraneous variables....it's pretty confusing to me. I obviously don't grasp what the nature of these variables. Maybe tomorrow's reading will enlighten me.

Nothin' Could Be Finer......

This week has been unusual. I stepped outside and the full moon, the smell of the wild cherry blossoms (and they are so intoxicating the past few days), the clear sky - so clear you can see stars in the night sky with the full moon - it's a beautiful night. The wild cherry tree blooms are right up there with honey suckle, peonies, and daffodils as far as favorites; does anything smell sweeter? OK, maybe cotton candy. Melt-in-your-mouth sugar rush.

This afternoon, I was taking a stroll around the lake with Terry. Behind the old Petroleum building was Charlie and this beautiful bird in the picture below (please forgive the quality, it's the best my cell phone can do). He had flown into a window and Charlie had picked him up and set him in crotch of a flowering cherry tree (or maybe it was a flowering crab...there are several of both back there.) Anyway, I looked him up when I got back to the office. He is called a summer red bird or a red tanager. I have never seen one before so this was exciting for me. These beauties migrate north from Mexico and fly as far north as Lake Huron. He must be lost because he's on the wrong side of the river. He's commonly found in Ohio, but no mention of Kentucky (at least that's what I found on a couple of web sites.)

So I am well into reading week 1 of my new class, called Fundamental Principles of Sound Research. So far, the reading has been interesting to me. It's certainly better than the first half of philosophy I read. As a result of the readings this week so far, I have a much better understanding of the differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods. Now I am really torn because part of me really likes quantitative and part of me loves qualitative too. I think my talents lie more in qualitative.....hmmmmm.

I became a green belt in karate, 6th green, last Saturday. I am now working toward a 5th green. My new form is (sounds like) Pin Yon Som Don. We learned part of it tonight. I will get my first tip next week I think, for 8th code of ethic. The code is some pretty good mantra, except #9. I disagree with #9 which states "I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievments in the future." Personally, I will accept past mistakes but if I forget mistakes, I could repeat them. I have repeated mistakes so forgetting is not good for me. Maybe Chuck Norris prefers to forget his but I prefer to learn from mine. I will learn some one-step self-defense moves this time too. Vickie (in my class) is going to have her hair streaked green tomorrow morning to match her new green belt.

This Saturday, in just two more days, I will watch Sarah graduate from college. Wow, is this really happening so soon? I know it has been an eternity for her, but it seems like only months ago I was bringing her stuff to Butler Hall. Sarah fell in love with that area like I did. Morehead is a beautiful part of Kentucky. She fell in love with Kentucky and the country too and she is living her dream or, well, part of it anyway. If she is happy, I am happy. I couldn't be prouder. Erin and Emily will see their sister graduate just like they watched Katie graduate. I hope they follow in their sisters' footsteps.

I have been working on Emily's old room. It will become the spare room and/or Sarah's new room. We swapped Emily and Sarah so that Emily has the bigger of the two bedrooms. Hers was the smallest in our 4-bedroom house. I cleaned the carpet and it really cleaned up well. I have patched holes, treated and touched up the pink paint, and tomorrow I will repaint the entire closet. I need to revacuum and swap dressers..then start moving Sarah's stuff back into it. She is planning to move her stuff out this summer. Next up, clean the living room, then start on redoing Emily's room. Also, I need to find somebody to do repair work..it's going to be expensive :-(