05/31/01 - What's the price of getting back to nature these days? Well, it cost me $129, so far. And that was just for a tiny bit of nature at that. It all started with the really nice weather we are having and the urge I had to wash all my bedding, and possibly everything in my closet. Instead of wasting money and energy on the dryer, I'd make use of the clothes line in the back yard and air dry everything, sweet smell of the outdoors. Well, this turned out easier said than done. It's a great clothesline, sturdy, poles anchored in cement. However, there were weeds growing halfway up to where the line should be, and the line was broken. OK, $40 bucks for the weed whacker, $6 for clothesline and another $5 for clothespins. One can always use a weed whacker around here. Gee, how long had it been since I've been in one of these home improvement places. Let's just take a little look around. Ut oh, didn't I come here with The Child? Where has he gone? I find him. He's in the garden department, actually he's at the edge of the garden department. It's like he's afraid to make a move forward.
It's time for one of those flash backs ... It was probably six years ago, summer. The child was maybe 8 years old. He had always been a quiet child, but that summer he had even gotten quieter. There were unpleasant things happening around him, around all of us. We were getting ready to sell our house, the only house I had ever owned, the only house The Child had ever known. We had to sell the house, it wasn't by choice. We had no idea where we would go. We had no idea how long it would take. We didn't have much time. We were practically giving the house away, only asking enough to get our debt paid. Even then, it looked like it was going to be slow going. I was stressed, working two jobs, cleaning and painting and fixing in whatever time I had. The Ex would wake up each morning making a list of what he could accomplish that day, then head to the liquor store, return several hours later and banish himself to the bedroom. Enough said. I noticed how The Child was becoming withdrawn. I took him with me to the home improvement place. I kept trying to fix things around that house, more and more little things, as we waited for it to sell. The Child noticed the garden department. I told him he could go in there while I was getting what I needed. I went to gather him up when I was ready to leave. His hands were full of little vegetable plants. He wanted to plant a garden. I had never done much gardening. I didn't know much about it. The backyard had been made into a play area; we'd taken all the plants out. The realtor had said not to do anything with it, being such a large yard, the new owners would probably have their own ideas. I thought it over and told The Child to just pick one plant. We would start with that. He chose a six pack of cherry tomatoes. The Child and I shared a passion for those. I got busy doing something when we got home. A while later The Child came in to get a "glass" to water his tomatoes, we didn't even have a hose. He had planted those cherry tomatoes in the front yard, right under the front window. I was pretty sure they weren't going to be a big selling feature for the house, but what the hell, I didn't think it could hurt. The next day I went and got him a watering can to use in his garden. The garden was a wonderful idea. We added some cucumbers and zucchini. Whenever people would come to see the house, The Child and I would go outside and work in his garden. We would eat the tomatoes before we even got them into the house. We had a lot of fun and The Child was really proud of his accomplishment. Eventually the house sold. We moved to a rental with an even worse yard.
The Child is the only one here who spends any time at all in the back yard. But, he'd never mentioned anything about a garden again. Until now ... When I saw him eyeing the garden department, I knew what he was thinking. And here we are again, possibly faced with another move. Oh, what the hell, I told him to get whatever he wanted. He picked a few plants, including a six pack of cherry tomatoes. He insisted I pick out some flowers. That was easy, I'll take one of those pretty ones and one of those other pretty ones. I don't think the plants cost too much, but then there was the hose, the hose nozzle, a shovel, various cute little hand tools, snail bait ... and a new watering can. That brought our whole home improvement expense to $129. Oh well, he's going to need a project for this summer anyway, and there's a lot of weed whacking to do.
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