Spending a morning at Handy Capable is like being in the roots of the garden one tends all day, every day. They FIX computers. They fixed ours. Or made it work. Now, will Eric be content? He didn't want THIS one, he wanted another one. Can he live with this one? Ah, now that is another story.

On the way home from Barbara's, I stopped by the local Lowe's-- the hardware store. And garden. And instead of agonizing, I said, "I'll have one of those yellow ones, and that pink and purple looks good, and those blue shoot things are nice and oh, something with elephant red leaves." And I bought okra and four different herbs and a huge container of potting soil and some pine chips.

I tied the tomatoes up yesterday, and so today's foray into the world of gardening came as much of a surprise to me as to anyone. I'm floating these days, not trying to be "disciplined," and indeed not being disciplined much at all. Chocolate chips, sweet cranberries and pecans, indeed!

I learned how to fix the old clunky laptops we have, and now all I need to do is advertise that I'm giving them away. I'm thinking the first fifteen immigrants who apply for the movie class will get one. They are really out of date, but for someone who doesn't have a computer at all and wants to learn a little...this is perfect.

My fingernails are still lined with black. I put the herbs on the back stairs, on the landing. They smell so nice. Oregano, marjoram, thyme and cilantro.

The real triumph here is overcoming this weird reluctance just to BUY the damned plants. I walk through these huge garden centers and I feel overcome with the inability to act. There is so much I don't have a feeling I know how to choose. Today, I just went, one of those and one of those and hey, I'll take two of those! And came home and didn't even PREPARE the plot. I dug holes in the ground, filled them with potting soil and stuck the plants in, filled in and watered. Possibly I've killed them all.

It feels lovely.