Tuesday - 2008-0826-2200 - Rain - Sengakuji Temple in Rain (Minato-ku, Tokyo); Plants from Friday, August 15; Aliment - Prostate / Urinary; Laudanum and Ether; Friday and the Mystery of the Dead Lawnmower

Rain - Sengakuji Temple in Rain (Minato-ku, Tokyo) Larger Image A Japanese wood block by Takeji Asano from Ohmi Gallery - Personal Ukiyo-e Collection of Ross Walker. The spiderweb delicacy of Japanese wood blocks always fascinates me.

On the day that I traveled to the Ridgeland / Madison area, my last stop was at a nursery which I've found to have a large selection of plants at very reasonable prices. I wound up with six two - three-foot high shrubs: two leyland cypress, two variegated privet and two eleganus.

The two cypresses were planted Saturday morning; the privet, Sunday morning. As you can see, the eleganus are next on the schedule.

Sunday I felt very tired, as I did again on Monday. Tuesday, when I woke up, I knew I was having prostate/urinary problems - AGAIN.

Another fun-filled trip to the clinic. Another prescription.

Another five days or so of feeling useless, achy with severe headaches. And lots of dipping into my stash of prescription drugs.

Alas, that I was out of Laudanum and Ether - a combination mentioned in the early chapters of Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep".

"A couple of fragile gold-veined glasses rested on a red lacquer tray on the end of the black desk, beside a potbellied flagon of brown liquid. I took the stopper out and sniffed at it. It smelled of ether and something else, possibly laudanum. I had never tried the mixture but it seemed to go pretty well with the Geiger menage."

Leland Cypress (center) Variegated Privet (left and right) Larger Image	Eleganus (left) Larger Image

Friday, I had to make a trip out for that most important household item - canned cat food.

Slightly later, in a moment of sheer insanity, I thought I'd mow part of the front yard. I mowed left and right, and suddenly the mower stopped after I hit a root. No amount of jiggling would bring it back to life. My thought was that a wire had come loose.

As I soon discovered there no easy way to access the top covering. There are slots for four screws, but the heads did not match any screw driver I had. I finally cut away two part of the covering and found the inside to be totally clogged with solidified clippings

I've always used the mower in the mulch mode, which I now see may have been a major mistake. I cleaned, vacuumed and cleaned some more to no avail. I was never able to remove all the debris. Which makes me wonder where is it suppose to go. As is all it does is to clog the interior. So my guess, it reached a certain point and burned out the mower.

So now I need to grab a new electric mower before they go out of season. I checked Lowe's, and they have two models in stock. WalMart had none. HomeDepot had a slot for a model but was sold out. (Gads, I hate that HD store. It is dirty, disorganized, dimly lit. It's difficult to get to. The entrance is always surrounded by weird-ass "specials." And they have yet to have what I need. The fiasco with the washer should have told me never to return. See contours provocations journal - 2008-0615-0730-sun.)

(In Tuesday - 2008-0826-2200 / Out - 2008-0826-0800) This entry was written in multiple settings.

Pax! Erin go braugh! Je accuse...