The Key, Back to planting, Watch one not the other

I had a great long weekend up in Siesta Key. I got to relive my volleyball days when I got to play some ball on Saturday morning. Siesta Key was always my favorite beach to play on not only because it’s beautiful. It’s extremely wide, flat and firm, the ultra-fine white sand compacts easily. Although I am not at the level of play I was in my younger days, I did ok and enjoyed every moment of it. I also got to play some pickleball on the new courts that are on the outskirts of the beach parking lot. I again had a great time playing with a nice group of people.

The best thing about a trip like this is it pulls me out of my normal mindset which typically revolves around getting things done. Instead time was of minimal concern and I just got to enjoy myself doing whatever I felt like doing.

I got back in town around noon on Sunday after picking up Elsa from Ali. Ali and Shugs love spending time with her and surely wished I was away longer. It didn’t take long for me to fall back into a task mentality which is pretty normal following a trip, no matter how short.

Sunday night I watched the Eagles take care of the Dolphins. I fell asleep for most of the fourth quarter so I had to ask Alexa who won in the morning. What I saw looked pretty solid and it was a nice bounce back from losing to the Jets the week prior. It was cool seeing the team in their old Kelly green uniforms.

I am not sure why but I have seen next to none of the Phillies playoff run. My guess is since I have more or less checked out of major league baseball as a fan it’s hard to stoke that fire for the playoffs since I know very little about the team. I feel badly for not being more excited about their success.

I took Monday off and again tried to keep relatively busy. The biggest task was filling the 8′ x 4′ raised bed with 40 cubic feet of garden soil and then planting a nice little variety of vegetables and herbs. I’m hoping to have some mild success growing here. I haven’t made any serious attempts to grow my own food in quite awhile.

I spent some time testing out the sprinkler system again. I had my lawn guy take a look at it and he said all was well, it wasn’t. The one zone would turn on but never would turn off. I had to manually turn the valve to stop it. It turns out the solenoid for that zone was bad. I should now be good to resume regular watering shortly now that consistent rain is not all that consistent. With the garden in place this becomes more important. Significantly higher water bills here we come.