Fragments From Floyd

__THE GARDEN__ Yesterday, I drove to Christiansburg solely for the purpose of picking up bell pepper sets and the usual bulk seeds (Kentucky Wonder, Silver Queen, Yellow Straight Neck, etc) from Southern States so we could get the garden going. Nada. Sold out. Zippo. I did find what I'd come to town for at a new nursery near Kroger, and when I got home, my seed from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange was in the mail. So I was on my knees in the dirt last night until after 9:00, and will be back out there through the weekend working frantically against our short growing season. I have this feeling we're in for a dry summer, so I'm lightly trenching my paths between rows so I can use my little battery-powered pump to pull creek water (as long as it lasts: it dried up completely the summer of '02) to irrigate.

__THE COMPUTER__ No, not yet. Watching the ship date jump between May 25 and June 7 and everywhere in between, I called yesterday to find out what's going on (assuming someone there actually would know.) No one knew. Until finally, they figured out that the memory upgrade I ordered, well, that part had been given a new number that the computer couldn't see, so it kept kicking it into the DUH pile. I'm told to expect a call today and a $50 reduction the price and overnight shipping. Not holding my breath.

__THE WORK__ I agreed to be a scorer for some reading comprehension studies in which Biology majors at Radford have been given articles to critique, both early and late in their academic careers, to measure any improvement. I have somewhere between 120 and 160 of them to score according to a 9-element rubric. I figure if I can score 10 a day (about 2 hrs worth) I'll make the deadline easily. This is a paid endeavor I can do from home, no driving, no prep. I took it on to pay for my laptop. What laptop?

__SMALL WORLD__ Turns out (thanks for the heads-up from Andy) that Chris Corrigan was waiting for the ferry, delayed almost an hour by the rescue at sea I blogged this morning. He was waiting to get on the ferry we got off of. I would have loved to have gotten in touch with Chris, who lives on Bowen, to at least have him point out some don't-miss places on the island. But our stay was to be so short, and I didn't know what other obligations there might be, traveling with son and wife. I do certainly have a greater appreciation for Chris's environment now, and should we ever go back, I'm hoping for the grand tour.

__BLOGGER MEETUP__ We're looking forward next week to a sighting, and new species to add to our life list. Blogger-birders Pica and Numenius from Feathers of Hope (California) will be spending Monday night with us. We met first over two years ago, drawn together over the site for place blogging that ultimately came to have the name, Ecotone--a term I borrowed from ecology, meaning "a place where habitats come together." Ecotone is in a state of reorganization, soon, perhaps, to live a second life with a new front end and modified focus. I'm sure, in addition to birding, we'll have a chance to discuss this future in which the group of twenty or more 'regulars' from Ecotone past will have a chance to share our thoughts, and our places, once again. Many Fragments' newer readers would feel at home there as well.