Cactus

[fbhjr]

Today was clear and Sunny. And it is nice to see all the leaves on the trees.


So, my wife and I went to the senior center plant sale.


It was far more crowded than we expected.


But, they didn’t have the type of plant my wife wanted, so we went to the Home Despot.


I didn’t stick around the flowers because my allergies were really hitting me hard.

I was surprised at how they marked a large plastic box.

“Resin wicker”=molded plastic.

I then went to browse the cactus.


When I was a teenager, I grew cactus. Like so many other things, I started doing it because of my sister. She went to Arizona once and said how beautiful the cactus were, so I started collecting them. She got me a mail order cactus seed catalog and I started growing a few dozen.
Especially lithops, which my sister and I thought were really cool.
Cactus also grow very slow. So after 5 or so years of growing them, they were still pretty small.

I had a few dozen. They were small. Almost all of them fit under a grow light in a 5 foot by 3 foot area of the spare bedroom of my parent’s house.
And, they were cactus, so they didn’t need much care often.

When I left for college, my younger brother said he’d water them for me. They only needed it every other week and I’d be home more often than every 2 months.

So, I was unhappy when by October of that year my father threw them all away.
My mother told me this was because “they were all dying since I had left them behind and obviously didn’t want them.”
How my father came to this conclusion since they were in a room he never went into, about my plants that he had never shown the remotest amount of interest, was not clear to me.
But, it was about the same time that my mother said to me “you’re always welcome to come home, but I’ve turned your room into my office.”

I had spent almost a third of my life at that point growing them. And, as something I shared with my sister.
I wasn’t asked if I wanted them or not. The fact I had a plan for my brother to watch them was apparently not important.

But, when my sister left for college my father had her dog put to sleep.
So, maybe I should have seen it coming.

Anyhow, as I stood there thinking about all of this, my wife came up and said “why don’t you get one?”
“I don’t have a good place to put it where it would get enough light,” I said.
“Your window at work gets a huge amount of light. Put it in your office.”

So, I bought a cactus.


My wife often breaks me free of these mental log jams. It is one of her super powers.
I am always very happy to see it in action.

Then, we went to Willy’s Wild Burgers for lunch, and I got to see a train.


Later we bought gas for the trip tomorrow and I found my Prius had gotten more than 51 miles per gallon on the last tank of gas. And, my wife's car only needed $50 in repairs.

So, it turned out to be a pretty good day all around.

Comments

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

it was about the same time that my mother said to me “you’re always welcome to come home, but I’ve turned your room into my office.”

I know what that feels like. When I went away to school, my parents rented out my room to a college student. I had to sleep on the couch when I came home for school vacations.

But for some reason my mother couldn't understand why I didn't want to come home and "say goodbye to the house" when they were getting ready to sell it?

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

Wow...ouch to the story. YAY to the acquisition of a new cactus tale.

[chris-warrior.livejournal.com]

this.

i hope it's the start of a new prickly tribe.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Yes- ouch to the story. And putting your sister's dog to sleep? unforgiveable (not that i'd be inclined to forgive the cactuses).

[qlewkr.livejournal.com]

Ouch, indeed. I hope the cactus thrives in its new home.