It’s one of those years…I simply cannot get the pond to balance: we keep dropping into areas where biological function slows down. The flowers are blooming more or less on schedule. We’re still in peonies and iris and the cherries and rhodies are past. But in the pond, we have yet to see anything but leaves from the lilies.
And if this go round with the biofiltration stuff doesn’t work, I’m going to do another drain-down.
We’re talking, btw, about going to Chattanooga TN next year, which will be our closest pass to the east coast in a while. I think it’s likely a done deal.
Meanwhile—the diets are stuck on a sticking point, but we’re persisting. We were very excited that Atkins has put out a new frozen dinner, but they should send this one back to the drawing board. Smelled bad while cooking and tasted worse. There are two of the dinners neither of us can stand, one of which makes me sick: the turkey one is that one, and the new one, Chicken Marsala, is really quite strangely vile. The rest are all good, and we are back on those, just patiently slogging away in a determination to hold the line: we’ve got a convention upcoming, so we can’t regulate what we’re eating as well, as we kind of had to eat the toppings off pizzas and the middles out of sandwiches this last week. We haven’t really gained, but we’re hoping to drop a pound or two before we have to go on the road again. Bad marks to restaurants who simply will not ‘hold’ a bad (and attractive) item off the plate, like French fries. I have gotten curmudgeonly, and when they serve it with, I simply ask for an additional plate, slide the offending item onto it, and ask the waiter to carry it back to the kitchen. SO there.
Have you considered taking the trains?
The only train trips likely for us are the scenic ones; but as for getting where you’d like to go, nearly impossible. I’m not sure OKC even has a passenger platform, though I think there was (or may still be) a shuttle to Gainesville, but not Dallas. My only American train rides were, in about 1965, a trip home from college, from Baltimore in an (I swear) wooden carriage (at least the windows were…) to St. Louis, to OKC and back; and once in about 1983 when I took the train from Baltimore to Princeton—and got stuck in a derailment, then had to catch a spur line to Princeton itself which involved a train change nobody warned me about—a sprint on soft berm in spike heels with 70 lbs of luggage. I was so mad the conductor even dodged my scowl when he was taking up tickets. I used the 70 lbs of luggage to secure my place aboard, as the doors tried to shut, and I managed to climb up, windblown, out of breath, frazzled, and sweating: no, they did not want to ask me for my ticket. Everyone else in the car. Not me. Then in about 1985, when I took a train from Philadelphia to NYC, and the hike to get to the train involved wading a 6″ deep puddle of snow melt, again in good heels….
Trains and I do not have a good history…but I would like to go on one of the western scenic trips.
No passenger train service in Oklahoma AT ALL!. Some fools want to build a high speed rail link between Tulsa and Oklahoma City and it’s a really great idea but I don’t believe anyone here in TUL, particularly if you live in the south part of the city or over in Broken Arrow, is willing to go downtown, park, get train, and then have to taxi or have someone pick you up at the other end. It’s not that long a drive on I-44; boring, yes, but not that long.
Won’t work if they don’t do a passenger delivery system, including taxis, and Oklahomans have no expertise with taxis, except airport limos, and those barely function…the notion of paying to park, then paying train fare, then paying to get to your destination: you’d be out quite a bit, I fear, for, as you say, a 2 hour drive with the bennie of having your own car at the other end.
Now—if they did a bullet train from OKC center to the heart of Dallas, THAT could fly. That’s a brutal 3 hour drive, and the air time is ridiculous. 30 minutes taxiing about for a 20 minute ascent, a ten minute flight and a 20 minute descent, plus another 30 plus minutes taxiing, and then a hike to the other end of creation inside the terminal and THEN a long taxi ride, that’s where they could get takers.
I agree that a bullet between OKC and Dallas makes more sense. These days there are so many businesses clustered around the DFW airport that going straight into downtown Dallas may not make a lot of financial sense. We still have some flights into DAL (Love Field) rather than DFW but GSW at Fort Worth no longer has direct service.
I used to attend a lot of meetings that never left DFW. There are conference facilities at both the Hyatt’s and the Grand Hyatt is on the SkyLink trams.
You know the Dinky? The 2-car connector from Princeton to anywhere else?!?
A bullet train would be a nice alternative anywhere that the effort getting on and off the plane takes almost as long as the actual flight. I include the TSA theater, drive time, parking, checking/retrieving luggage and any other shenanigans that don’t actually involve flying in my computations. It would be worth it, by my estimations, for any flight under about 3 hours. Plus you can get up and move about without inconveniencing (or having to throw an elbow to move) your neighbor; the leg room factor on its own is worth it.
I spent 3 weeks on a train trip around the US once. This was about 2 weeks after 9/11; fortunately I had reserved our seats — and sleeper car! — in July. If time is not an issue, train travel is a strong alternative to flying.
I have fond memories of riding in a Pullman coach on what was then the AT&SF, from Lubbock to Houston, overnight, with my dad to stay with my aunt. That would have been in the early 1950’s. One of my earliest memories. That was back when they had the individual overnight compartments, and the black Pullman porters would come around and made up your berths. Our passenger depot closed in the early 1960’s I rode trains all over the place in Europe and Britain, and loved it. They have such a great public transportation system over there with their trains, subways and buses, and they have maintained and improved their infrastructure. America was stupid to let its rail infrastructure go to pot. Now it’s too costly to rebuild and restore what would have been a very energy efficient mode of passenger travel. Much more environmentally friendly than jets that gobble fossil fuels and cover up all that land in asphalt and concrete for runways and taxiways, and airport buildings.
One sees/hears this excuse “too costly to replace/build” a lot these days. One wonders how it was afforded the first time. Certainly costs were lower, but so were resources! Clearly it’s the ratio that’s important, but what is it that makes the ratio so different now?
Isn’t amazing what some people think tastes good in prepared food? We’ve had crackers that the dog wouldn’t eat, which is saying something. At least you have some good choices…..those weight plateaus are the pits. I like your method of dealing with restaurants….whatever happened to the customer is always right?
Speaking of pond balance, have you ever heard of Pond Magician? I haven’t used it, but a couple of northern friends swear by it. http://www.effens.com/ click on products then pond magician. Our water is brown from oak leaves but clear. I wish I could say the same for the pool which has been a PITA this year. I get it balanced and then it rains, gets warm and grows green algae. Before the rain from Andrea I super dosed it with algaecide and shock. The water is milky due to all the dead algae, but it slowly clearing. I’m changing the DE in the filter every day!
Thanks for the note. I’ll give Effens a look.
I still have rhodies in tight bud, a couple just at the peak of bloom, although many are past. Rhodies, westside [YMMV], will bloom from February to August. I’ve been trying for fragrance and a little hardiness, meaning I’ve been relying on R fortunei series, which tend to be late bloomers (mid-May through June). I think you’re doing well just to keep them through your summers!
Talking of tastes in frozen foods, I would be so happy if they would lay off the red bell peppers in frozen entreés and dinners. I swear they put them in everything! I get so tired of having to pick all the pepper pieces out before I nuke them. Yeah, it adds color, but yrs trly would rather not contribute to global warming by producing greenhouse gases . . .
I have a credit card from Chase that gets me Amtrak points. Last year my son and I took the California Zephyr from Iowa (our home state) to Denver to visit friends; this fall we are taking the same train all the way to San Francisco. Enough points for a roomette, and my son is slim and agile enough to scramble to the top bunk. Meals are included. I’ve been a train lover for years, and that stretch from Denver to San Francisco is supposed to be beautiful. Also, CJ, if you want a western scenic trip, the one down the coast (Coast Starlight, something like that) is supposed to be awesome.
I would so love to do this.
I’ve ridden trains in the U.S. twice, a trip as a Cub Scout to the Baltimore and Ohio terminal in Lima, OH (also famous for building steam locomotives), and a trip to New York City from Newport News, VA. (both were round trips)
Given a choice between a train trip in the States, and one in Europe, well, Europe wins hands down. They’ve gotten it down well, it seems. But then, it’s been 34 years since I left there, and as with anything, times change.
I had my first waterlily buds open this weekend (over here on the ‘wet side’).
I have spied a bud. I’m going to toss the two increasingly mangy hyacinth plants as a total lost cause and get the hyacinth ring out of the pond, since it keeps floating over the lilies. I could anchor it with fishing line, but I see no use for it except for confining fish food, and our koi are too efficient as it is.
I have never been able to overwinter water hyacinths but I haven’t really tried that hard. I think I like Pistia better….does well summering outside, gets large enough to manage easily(unlike Azolla, duckweed or Salvinia), provides a lot of root cover for fry or other small critters, and can be overwintered with a little fussing (better lights than most of my plants get).
Hmmmmm….I have feeding rings in my mini-ponds and they don’t override my waterlilies. But I think you have more current going on than I have which is probably part of that equation.
I am lusting for an in-ground or larger pond myself. It’s on the list (wink). I’ll probably do a larger above-ground enclosure in my planned solarium (talk’s cheap) before an in-ground.