Jeremy Herndon Blog

For some reason the winter has gone by faster than ever, and it looks as if Easter is right around the corner. Yesterday my wife and I were grocery shopping, trying to use up all of the coupons that we had that were going to expire as of the end of the month and every where I looked I saw some kind of reference to Easter. There was a demonstrator there handing out samples of a particular brand of spiral ham. We did end up buying one of the hams, but it was only about two pounds worth. My wife said that she thought we would go ahead and have it for Easter, but when we got home and were unpacking all of our groceries it looked as if we did not buy very much meat so we might actually end up eating it sooner than planned.

As we were shopping I kept finding things that I thought we should buy and she kept saying “not today, not today, hurry up.” We were actually at the grocery store for two hours shopping, and spent around $400.00. All of the coupons we used saved us over $40, but I was still in shock that we spent as much money as we did. Of course we DID have two shopping carts full of food, so I suppose that I should not have been THAT shocked! But it did give me a greater understanding of just how much money we spend on groceries!

My aunt has been talking about wanting to hire me for installing artificial grass around her planned in-ground swimming pool. She explained that she was told that she has to let the swimming pool settle for several months before she can pour concrete around it and she does not want to have people running around on the bare dirt while the pool is settling. So her daughter suggested that artificial grass might be a good temporary thing to put down around the pool.

I was really surprised when she called me to talk to me about that because the last time I had heard any mention of her putting in an in-ground swimming pool no one else in the family wanted her to put one in. She said that she is putting it in for her own health, but she is putting in a very large 20′ by 40′ in-ground pool! Seems to me that if she was doing it for her health then just putting in a lap pool would be all she would need. But she has got a stubborn side to her and she has insisted that she wants the whole thing and since she is paying for it out of her own pocket then nobody but her has any say in it at all!

She has also mentioned that she wants me to take care of the landscape lighting installation around the swimming pool. I think that for lighting I will suggest some solar powered lamps, on both sides of the privacy fence that she will need to have installed. She sure is going to be spending a lot of money! I hope that she gets her money’s worth of excitement out of it! I just cannot imagine putting in a full-sized swimming pool after the kids have grown up and left home.

From time to time people tell me that the reason that the Irish celebrate St Patrick’s day is because St Patrick drove all of the snakes out/off of Ireland. One story tells that he had made a deal with the snakes that if they left Ireland he would give them poisonous venom as a reward. I was just reading an article that explains that the last Ice Age is what rid Ireland of snakes. So I wonder who is St Patrick REALLY and why is he supposed to be such a hero that his “day” is celebrated every year with green beer and parades and corned beef cabbage.

This weekend we are expected, once again, to have a great weather weekend, so I’ll be spending time out in the yard as much as possible getting things done that normally wouldn’t even been thought about for another month or so. It has been in the eighties all week long, crazy weather for the middle of March.

I have ordered some irrigation supplies that I need to get the yard ready for. I have wanted to get lawn sprinklers installed for some time now and when I got my tax refund check deposited into my checking account I went online and found just what I wanted and needed and put the order in in just a matter of minutes.

Working out in the yard is something that we take seriously around here. We like having a nice backyard that we can spend good quality time in all year round, which we have basically been able to do with this extreme warm winter weather that we have been blessed with this year. But during the summer we entertain a good bit and it always helps when people can relax and enjoy being out in the yard, front, side and/or back.

It amazes me to find out that the very famous doll the they call Barbie is turning 53 years old today. My sisters were total Barbie fans and they always wanted me to play with them, which I totally refused to do even when my mother caved in from their nagging and bought a Ken doll to try and entice me into joining in with them. Even a promise of a G.I. Joe wouldn’t do the trick, silly girls.

Anyway-  Happy Birthday to Ms. Barbie!  Hope my sisters read this.