Thinking Out Loud...: Entry for July 23, 2006

Paved with good intentions.....

We all know that feeling... that feeling that we think we are doing something right, something helpful, something that we think we deserve a pat on the back for, but it ends up biting us on our hind quarters.

I have a christmas pointsettia... still alive... after all this time, despite my interventions.

I got it at the beginning of December of last year. It was in a drawing and I won it...I wanted it..I lusted for it... It was so big, so full, and it was a very unusual cream and red streaked pointsettia. I don't know why I wanted it so bad, I never have a good track record with indoor plants.

I brought it home on a warm winter's day and looked carefully where to place it to it's full advantage. I swore I would keep it alive till Christmas. Most pointsettias then loose their leaves and die shortly after, but I was going to keep my beautiful plant alive, so I could enjoy it every day. I finally settled on putting it on my dining room table where the light from a patio door would shine on it and yet be far from the draftiness of the door. Faithfully I poked my finger in the soil to check it's dryness every day. I would have my beautiful pointsettia for all to see over the holidays....if only the pointsettia would cooperate.

It started with one small leaf falling on the table....soon more followed...it wasn't quite so lush...so full...so pretty....I panicked. The soil was fine...the light was fine... the room temperature was fine, but my pointsettia wasn't.

Just when I thought for sure my plant would not make the holiday season,.... I realized that every time I had been opening up the freezer, a blast of artic air was hitting my poor plant. I moved my sad pointsettia to in front of the patio door on the floor. I thought if it was going to croak, I would not let anyone see, but myself....and I would give it a fond farewell.

Despite my best intentions....it decided to live,.... and live it did!..... It lived to see Christmas.... It lived to see January,.... February,.... March,..... and April. My giddines knew no bounds that I had kept a pointsettia not only for the holidays, but beyond. I soon realized it could live on it's own. I didn't need to poke it daily for moisture content. It liked the floor, ...it liked the door,.... so I let it stay..... I wouldn't argue with it any more,....and it was content.

My youngest brother and his wife bought a dog after they were first married. Their dog, was a beautiful,fluffy white terrier mix. She was pampered, she was bathed, she was clipped,and groomed, and treated like royalty....Well as life goes, and kids come....royalty gets dethroned. Oh it wasn't sudden. It was gradually. ..and despite their best intentions to have and keep their beautiful white fluffy dog the same as the day they brought it home., the dog liked dirt. The dog liked running thru brush and weeds and burrs. The dog, wasn't ever quite as white, and fluffy as she use to be. When she passed, she was a rolypoly, matted mess, blind in one eye.

A succession of pets has followed since then. Numerous cats, and dogs, and birds, and creatures galore. The kids just love their animals,... love them to death. Their newest dog, is another white dog....bigger this time, and three-legged.....No, it came with four legs in the beginning...but...um....things happen......

They had a bird....named Elvis.... that should have been their first clue not to name a bird after someone dead.

They had a hermit crab...two in fact. Being in a big glass aquarium it should be safe. But it didn't like it's big glass box and roamed....it was found three days later when grandpa saw a huge 'spider" come out from the refrigerator and he stomped on it to kill it......."oops"..... he only had the best of intentions....

My grandmother is a small bird like woman. Tiny and tough as nails. She lived thru the depression and learned the hard way the value of a dollar.

She loves to cook, she loves family....she loves to feed family. She deep fat fries meat, creams her vegetables in real cream. Makes enough desserts to fill a table. And she eats little but encourages all to partake....eat.....eat more......she has good intentions....

She had a dog....wasn't hers to begin with...someone dropped it off. The dog was in heaven....she fed him....leftovers...he got so he wouldn't eat regular dogfood... he got meat...potatoes whipped with real cream....cake...whatever she had that was going to waste...he lived well.... he died a couple weeks ago. It was during that hot, humid, heatwave....she thought it was from maybe old age... he looked old. He could have been. She had fed him well. Lots and lots of cheese she had going to waste... LOTS of cheese.

I looked at my aunt, my own mother and whispered..."cheese can be constipating....do you think?"... we won't ever know.....the poor thing.

Yesterday I happened to glance at my pointsettia.....I gasped... I guess even in an air conditioned house, being placed in front of a west facing window with 100 degree days with hot sun will eventually make you start to shrivel. I ran for the water, and today it looks better....it's still alive...

I am beginning to think...even with our best of intentions......I and my family shouldn't have plants we can't keep...........pets.....................and maybe cheese