I’ve told you before that I have trouble letting things go. I’ll fix/patch/repair something to make it extend far past its stated useful life. Sometimes it works well, and many times it just delays the inevitable. One of my attempts to keep something going backfired a bit on me, and made my siblings laugh to no end.
We were celebrating my mom and stepfather’s 25th wedding anniversary. We were all dressed in our best, and to go with my navy suit, I had these brown shoes that were super-comfortable, but also had some years on them. I think I had gotten them back in 2006 or 2007. But as I am always trying to extend the life of my things, I’d taken some strong superglue to the soles of one of the shoes when it started to get a little loose.
Towards the end of dinner, my siblings and I were going to go out to have our photo taken together. As I popped up from my seat and started walking, my shoe felt like it had fallen apart. I tried to cover it by changing my step a little, and then the entire sole just came completely off of the shoe. I looked around, figured no one saw me and grabbed the remnant of my shoe and put it in my coat pocket. Of course, my siblings saw me and couldn’t stop laughing at the fact that part of my shoe had just disintegrated.
Fortunately, the main part of the shoe was still intact, so to anyone else, they wouldn’t have noticed a difference, although I might have seemed like I was a little lopsided if they had looked closely at me. And so, I took some pictures, and spent the rest of the evening with part of my shoe in my pocket. I sadly had to say goodbye to those shoes, but they had a good run. What have you kept around beyond its typical lifespan?
I think maybe this is a trait of all gardeners. We don’t like to throw things out. No matter how sad a plant is, we always think we can breathe new life into it. It’s a spirit of optimism and hope that we bring to our gardens and that our gardens bring to us.
P.S. Happy Independence Day! We’ll be open our normal store hours on Saturday and Sunday, and we will be open from 9am to 2pm on the 4th of July.
P.P.S. We hope you are looking forward to our upcoming Plants and Pets event, scheduled for 9am to 1pm on August 20th. To celebrate the dog days of summer, bring your pets to the nursery, and we’ll have a pet photo booth for taking pictures, some refreshment stations for them, as well as learning stations for you about which plants are pet-friendly, both indoors and outdoors. Plus, we’ll have our Summer Yard Sale going on. We’re hoping it will be lots of fun for you and your furry friends.
