I had to make a return to Walmart today. I don't use Amazon anymore (tbh,once, lately, because I needed a part for something I'd bought a while ago and couldn't find it anywhere else), and I try to stay away from Walmart. But I want a power pack I could afford (cheap) for the bird water fountains. But I got my karma because the one I bought didn't even work.  Hence the trip. I'm trying ebay next.

I have to say that many customers at WM give off a meth vibe.

While I was there I looked over the refrigerated biscuits because I'd seen some advertised with marshmallow icing. So, why not? I don't like the powdered sugar icing, but marshmallow sounded like a walk on the wild side. Well, didn't find them and didn't buy anything else.

The mobile home park is having yard inspections in about 3 weeks. My front yard is suddenly naught but weeds. I've planted some ground cover and while they continue to be alive, it'll take a while to see if it'll actually take over.

Front yard: Weeds, and bushes that look like they're threatening the house.

The back yard is a jungle. I've weed wacked it and still, every time I go back there, it's like I've done nothing. Nothing.

Today's ADVENTURE: It was Spring Cleanup Day in my town. I got rid of a dead tv and a printer that always hated me. This involved going to a place I'd never been so that was fraught with fraughtness. But now I know where the city dump is and where the garbage trucks go at night to sleep. Check that off the list.

They check your ID to ensure you're from this town and not some charlatan sneak from Sweet Home or Tangent trying to unload refuse on US.

In my dvd watching, I finished <I>Community</i> and decided to give the dvds to the library. Only have about half the series. I don't like Chevy Chase and I can't stand his character. I just made a face every time he came on screen and really, I only enjoyed one episode on the rewatch. I'm about to start <i>Deadwood</i> but the show is intense and I have to be able to handle it.

I saw a hummingbird for the first time at the feeder I put out. I've had it out for about a week and changed the food a couple of times. The schedule for change is Weds/Sun. The plan! I hope she/he tells her/his friends. Sugar water for all!!

I've put in two tomato plants in the raised planter and flower seeds from last year in pots. We had some surprise! rain and I noticed today the blackberry vines are looking dapper and upright and have put all that cutting down trauma behind them.

I finished the Empress book and started Platform Decay. I stop myself from just rushing right through it.  Speaking of Prussia, I have a yen to read about Kaiser Wilhelm  during the Great War. And see how much he continues to be a knobhead.

I have one of those machines that cut grass with plastic string. I call it the "weed wacker" for convenience sake, though it's not that really.  So, anyway, the string seemed to be stuck and was very short and wouldn't put out anymore. I thought, well, I'll have to fix it.

It was a struggle. I looked on several YT videos and I made the job much harder than it had to be as I learned what to do.  The  manufacturers do try to make these things idiot proof but we find a way to complicate things. After about an hour and half of struggling with it and drenched in flop sweat, I got the string wound back on the machine and I think it's fixed. 

In other news, I voted.

I've ordered the new Murderbot book.

Guys have been building a new fence around part of the mobile park. They finished at my place yesterday. It needed it, part of the old fence was hanging down leaving a gap. The blackberry vine that was clinging to the fence is just a small stump.

I really wanted to grow blackberries. They have some weird pattern of growing berries on the second year growth. I've tried to understand it by watching YT.  Anyway, I cut a lot  of it down previously and I think there were going to be flowers this year, then berries. Now nothing. But you can't kill blackberries, not without a nuclear option. So that plant will rise again. With its wicked, wicked thorns. <i>You want berries, well berries cost. And  right here is where you start paying…</i>

I'm reading this bio of Empress Frederic, the mother of Kaiser Wilhelm who was in charge during WWI. It occurs to me that all those people who want to time travel back and kill Hitler would be better off stretching the trip and go back and kill Bismarck. You could probably prevent two world wars.

I made an appointment to change the oil in the car and give it a little loving maintenance. It's always a fraught decision to go to a new car place in a new town. It's a trust issue.