Some Flowers - April 19, 2009
Is it the passing of time that changes a man, or is it just that alcohol and tobacco have gotten so expensive? It seems that not too long ago an evening of entertainment would have included a small bag of blow, a pack or two of Marlboro's, a bar fight, and a possible encounter with a strange women. Yet I now find myself completely content on this Saturday evening lying in a hammock reading a Western novel while watching wild birds as they feast from the five or six bird feeders that I have hung around my garden. Yes...I have a garden. A beautiful garden. In the constant quest to discover who I am I have discovered that I am a decent gardener. I grow flowers. I do not however grow vegetables. After spending a lifetime avoiding vegetables, I will be damed if I am going to allow them to breed and flourish in my own backyard. I have tried but have failed in a futile attempt to grow Marlboro's.
Besides playing music I work part time as a merchandise manager in a huge garden center. Basically what I do is make sure that the thousands of flowers we sell are stocked, priced, watered and displayed correctly. I also answer the many questions that customers ask about the flowers. I am amazed at how little most people know about simple gardening. “Does this flower need water? Um...yes. “What kind of dirt does this flower like?” Um...Earth dirt. “Will this flower come back next year?” Um...no. And neither will your husband. Okay. I made that one up but yesterday this really happened. An Asian woman came into the garden center and approached me as I stood watering the flowers. The woman looked at me and asked “Do you have some flowers?” I flashed a look of disbelief as to what I had just heard and said “Excuse me...” She repeated,“Do you have some flowers!?” I kind of raised my eyebrows and said “Yea lady...we have some flowers there, and there, and there's some more flowers over there...” She sort of stomped her foot and leaned forward and said, “Some flowers...some flowers!!” I stood there dumbfounded and shrugged my shoulders. She then began pointed up into the sky towards the sun and yelled “Some flowers...some flowers!!! Do you have some flowers!!!?” I said “Oh! Sunflowers! Yes mam. We have Sunflowers there, and there, and there's some more Sunflowers over there...” I'm just thankful that she didn't ask me if we had any lice!