The 24-Hour News Cycle

I've often bemoaned the 24-hour news cycle...the fact that the media has so much time to fill up has resulted in the elevation of non-news...reality TV...etc.  In an NPR article, "Media Black Hole: So Much News That We'll Implode?" comes one of my favorite quotes of late - "people are intentionally filtering the information they consume through sources they agree with, or are turning instead to entertainment and idle-time activities, becoming less informed."

Really, I mean there is so much out there it's overwhelming.  It's easier to tune in to "America's Next Top Model" (the only non-staged reality show...I believe that even if you don't) or "Bad Girls".  So where does that leave us...uninformed, possibly entertained (depends on your ability to suspend disbelieve), and just overall dumber.

Not Everyone Should Garden

On a lighter note, not everyone is capable of gardening.  I have no desire to garden but we can't afford a landscaper and the yard's really killing me so I've had to give it a go from time to time. 

My farm-raised husband is much better at it and thank God for that...because he's the manual labor in this relationship.  Today we tried to finish pulling out bushes from the back yard.  He'd done most of the heavy lifting already when I joined him -- following a great breakfast of homemade pancakes courtesy of ME.

We started by pulling up paving bricks that weighed, by my estimation, 3 tons each.  I gave up trying to walk them to the porch and instead tossed them behind me...the plan was to pick them up later.  Later...I realized how dirty they were so I decided to hose them off.  I pulled the hose, we have literally 300 feet of hose (the yard is that big), and somehow it snagged.  Enter the farm boy.  He went to investigate and instructed me to keep pulling.  It was easier to walk backward and pull the hose toward me.  As I walked, I fell out of my comfy gardening clogs and stepped onto Derron's irresponsibly thrown to the side garden pick ripping a gash into the bottom of my foot.  Good thing I had a tetanus shot this year.  I limped into the house to clean my wound.

When I returned, Derron had finished hosing the bricks and put the hose away...good thing because that takes a lot of upper body strength and let's face it, I have none.  So the next job was to carry the bricks onto the porch.  That lasted about 10 bricks for me...I scratched my inner forearm, drawing blood.  So I had to stop to clean it up.  Okay...I'm good, what next?  Oh, there are still more bricks to move?  Ok...headed to the porch steps and immediately slipped off one, twisted my ankle and fell to the ground.  Derron didn't even come to my aide...he just said..."go inside."  He finished moving the bricks. 

I went to the drugstore to get some antiseptic for my wounds and brought him home a Cadbury's Caramel Egg.  He may be sore now from all the work he had to do for me but his tummy is happy.  Tomorrow I rake the front yard...should be a relatively safe job.