The Wonder Pets Save the Clematis

June is such a busy and frantic month, and it seems like everyone is off their game just the teeniest bit.  Or is that just my house?  Hoo boy, the number of ridiculous arguments that have been going on around here is epic.  Epic, I tell you.  The children have been disagreeing about everything from, unseasonably enough, the appropriate way to carve a pumpkin to the question are haunted houses actually scary?  And if you think that seems relatively benign, I invite you to listen in on these conversations and the intensity of feeling that they generate.  I am all for letting them figure these things out for themselves – I mean, really, should I be intervening on the haunted house issue?  NO. – and so after one such intense disagreement I went into my bedroom with a giant basket of to-be-folded laundry, and not-so-quietly shut the door.  This in turn generated some commentary: “Is Mom in her room?  With the DOOR CLOSED?”  “I think she’s mad at us”.  By the time I emerged, the two of them were sitting together on the couch, watching Scooby Doo and discussing in a happier, more rational way, the role that ghosts play in our lives and in those who reside in haunted houses.  

I seem to be intent on making it busier by doing things that I want to avoid during the summer – like Costco shopping with children.  So yesterday I headed to Costco and found myself in my usual Costco-induced state of loathing and desperation about the state of society, but also excitement due to the availability of a giant box of ice cream sandwiches for $11.99.  Now to avoid eating the ice cream sandwiches. 

There is also much excitement on my street right now as we are all having our gas meters moved to the outside of our houses.  My own meter is being moved on Friday and I keep eyeing my neighbour’s houses to see what I can expect in terms of garden and yard damage.  I mean, they have to drill a hole in the foundation of my house.  I cannot imagine that my garden is going to escape unscathed.  I keep wondering if there is any way I can keep the garden intact, especially my clematis which is only three inches tall right now, thanks to the very long winter and very late and cold spring.  I suggested to my husband that I tearfully and with much eyelash batting talk to the workers to see if I could get them to be careful around the clematis.  I even started planning an appropriate outfit when my husband suggested that perhaps my methodology would seem more creepy and crazy flower lady, rather than the much more appealing damsel in distress.  I suppose I will just wait and see what happens.

The upside to having the meter moved is no more doorbell-ringing meter guys.  The guy that reads my meter has a habit of ringing my doorbell either just before I’m rushing out the door to get the kids to school OR just as I’m out of the shower and in my robe, at which point he asks me to please put the dog in another room, as I try not to flash him while collaring my fifty pound hysterical dog.  This has happened more times than I would like to admit and I didn’t even get any BEADS for it, for goodness’ sake.  No matter what happens, garden wise, I am looking forward to not having those awkward moments anymore.