Rain or no rain

You know, the people in cyberspace are so nice. Susan came over yesterday to help me with my blog even though she really didn't feel like it. Jim helped me set up so I could tell whether I had comments or not. Shelly, the prayerful knitter told me all about an site I could get a counter on to see if anybody is really reading this thing. And Kay told me about spambots. Well, here I was getting a little vain about all the hot girls reading my profile and falling in love with me immediately and it turns out that it's just a computer somewhere falling in love with me. Of course Kay also suggested I start up a nuclear needle buildup against Susan. If I do that I know what will happen, I'll lose. First of all, the Knitters outnumber me by millions to one, even my wife for heaven's sake. And second, I'm a little worried about Susan on the roids, ya know? Sometimes she's mean to me just because, if I ever really ticked her off, watch out! You know how those pointy stick people get.

Well, my CADD class started last night, finally. Yes, I know, I'm computer semi-illiterate and I'm taking a computer aided design class. Well, everybody else is doing it. And besides my wife is starting to get worried with me home every night. Ever since I started back to school (3 years ago) I've been gone 3 or 4 nights a week. She's used to that. Not that I'm boring or anything, as a matter of fact she tells me that all the time, "Oh no dear, you're not boring." she says. Sometimes she says that when I don't even ask. Sometimes just out of the blue she says, "Oh no dear, you're not boring." Hmmmmm.... I wonder why she keeps saying that? Speaking of that, we were watching Family Feud the other night and one of the questions was how many times a wife hears her husband's gfavorite joke in a year. One of the women answered something like 30 and she said, "Way too low." Ok, maybe I do need to get a new joke book.

You know, after proofreading that last paragraph I realize what people are saying about the stream of consciousness thing. I would take it out, but it takes me so long to type and then run spell check ya'll can just suffer.

We went to Our Lord's Community church last Sunday. It was missions awareness Sunday and they had representatives from the missions they support. Amazing. The people there are friendly, almost too friendly, you know what I mean? I can shake hands and smile just so many times a day. Anyway, my friend Pastor Mark says that we should take at least six months or so to find a new church home. I don't know if I can stand it. I'm not used being in different churches anyway and doing it for six or eight months, EEEEEKKKKK! If anybody out there has any suggestions about Oklahoma City churches, Bible teaching, financially solvent, people in their 40's, 50's, and 60's, comment please. We've gone to Council Road Baptist, Northwest Baptist, and liked both of them. Yes I can hear some of you out there now, ooohhh Baptist. Well, my dad was a Baptist minister of music and I was raised in Baptist churches. I don't have to have a Baptist church but I agree with at least most of the published beliefs. Of course, as with any group of people, the published list of beliefs and the real list of beliefs aren't always the same thing.

It is supposed to rain here in OKC tonight. At least that's what they're claiming. It has been cloudy and then clear and then cloudy all day. My mom wanted me to come over and mow her lawn and then put pre-emergent weed-killer on her lawn (I know, I know, I don't believe in weed killers. Digging weeds, or even just leaving the bloody things alone is better for the environment. But my mother does believe in weed killer, and she's my mother. And I also know you aren't supposed to mow before you lay down the weed killer so it has as much leaf surface as possible to stick to. But again, my mother!) Anyway, so I went over there and mowed her lawn and then I had to rake under her magnolia and get all the seed pods up and then she decided that it was too windy to put down pre-emergent. Just as well, you're really not supposed to water or have rain right after putting down pre-emergent either, but I still can't get that through to her.

Speaking of horticulture, this blog is supposed to be at least semi-educational, that's how Susan is advertising it anyway, so here is some suggestions for March in Zone 7b, which is what Oklahoma City is in.



March
Prepare lawn mower; install clean filters.
Cultivate annual flower beds to destroy winter weeds.
Apply organic mulch to control weeds in beds. Landscape
fabric barrier can reduce the amount of mulch but
care should be taken to ensure proper water penetration
to plants roots.
Remove excessive thatch from warm season lawns.
Dethatching, if necessary, should precede crabgrass
control treatment.
March is the second best time of the year to seed coolseason
turfgrass; however, fall is the best time to plant.
Cool-season lawns such as bluegrass, fescue, and
ryegrass may be fertilized now with the first application of
the season. Usually, four applications of fertilizer are
required per year, in March, May, October, and November.
Broadleaf weeds can easily be controlled in cool-season
lawns at this time with post-emergent broadleaf herbicides.
Begin mowing cool season grasses at 1 1/2 to 3 1/2
inches high.
Chemical and physical control of galls (swellings) on
stems and foliage of trees should begin now.
Dormant oil can still be applied to control mites, galls,
overwintering aphids, etc.
The 1st generation of Nantucket Pine Tip Moth appears at
this time. Begin pesticide applications in late March
based on pheremone catches.
Anthracnose control on sycamore, maple, and oak should
begin at bud swell.
Prune roses just before growth starts and begin a regular
disease spray program as the foliage appears. Check
with garden center personnel for roses that don't require
chemical applications.
Divide and replant summer and fall blooming perennials.
Mow or cut back old liriope and other ornamental grass
foliage.

This is from a checklist I gave to my clients, a lot of whom do believe in chemical controls, some of it I wrote some I cribbed from the year checklist from the Oklahoma County Extention Office.

Hope everybody is having a good day. Be good to yourself today.

Wayne