The morning after Cinco de Mayo

The weather forecast is finally looking more auspicious, at least at the moment!  Yesterday was mostly sunny. The yard is still rather squishy, but Tom managed to get about three quarters of the lawn mowed, while I did some weeding and tidying up in the flower gardens.

It's good to see life sprouting up from the ground again. The roses, except for the William Baffin,  needed a good deal of pruning after the harsh winter, but are all showing healthy new growth.  My mother  grew a variety of roses, and she seemed to do it so effortlessly, while I definitely haven't inherited the knack.  I'm finding that I have more success if I make careful selections based on cold weather hardiness and disease resistance. The Baffin rose is a beast in that regard!

The ridiculously cold and wet spring has not only kept the leaves shy about coming out this year, but has created a cavelike environment inside our little house. It's built on a slab, no basement,  and it's damp, probably a combination of condensation and seepage. We need to start addressing the drainage and insulation issues, and we've decided to start with a new floor in the bedroom--Pergo on top of a moisture barrier. Not the greenest choice, but at this point I'm afraid of waking up some morning to stalagmites. So I guess this is going to be our little weekend project.

After moving almost everything except the bed and dresser out of the room yesterday, we went downtown to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at the Taco Hut, a local fixture since 1972.  (One of the things I am really coming to appreciate about living here is the variety of homegrown restaurants, not chains, that have been around forever.) Seems like half the town had the same idea--good thing we went early and found a table. By the time we left, the line was out the door.  It was a good time, watching people at the bar taking pictures of each other in their sombreros, while we ate our burritos and fajitas.

Of course, one Corona and I'm ready for a nap.  We plugged in "Inside Job" last night and I fell asleep, so I will have to watch it again to see what I missed. It is actually a very well done (and very scary) documentary about the corruption that caused the financial crisis of 2008.  If you have any doubts about who is really in charge (and need another reason why we must look after ourselves, locally), watch this film. If you still think the conventional beliefs about our government and politics are in play--or that Democrats vs. Republicans  is even relevant--you are barking up the wrong tree entirely.I am pessimistic about the future of the country, but much more hopeful about our chances if we accept that politicians can't fix things for us and accept the responsibility for ourselves.

I'm about to start reading a book called Farewell, My Suburu: An Epic Adventure in local Living, and I'm hoping to gain some new insights into what accepting that responsibility means.

But now, I'm going to have Cinco de Mayo leftovers for breakfast and then get to work with Tom on that flooring project!