Stress

Not a good week for internet, tv, or radio. I think I need to put myself into a media blackout until next week is over. Not just because I have no mother for the first time this coming Mother's Day weekend (she blew me off for the last two years of her life to have dinner with friends) but I feel like I am further disconnected from all the Mothers in family and friends this year. Every add is Mother's day. Every commercial website has a huge Mother's Day banner featuring gifts for the woman in honor or photos of fun gatherings of family.

I expect a good general media black-out of a week to improve my overall view of humanity as well. The world is so much better first-hand than it is at a distance. My ever-changing work schedule is causing me a great deal of anxiety this week as well. Social anxiety is hitting me more than usual as well when I have to speak with other humans in formal conversations over the phone. There are job interviews I want to try to get into but my schedule makes it nearly impossible with this dance I am trying so hard to do to stay active and employed at low-paying gigs that do not pay enough to support anyone. It's pocket change for my car and phone and nothing more.

I need new underwear. I need new glasses.

On top of that, I got news yesterday that my condo in Atlanta is now infested with what is probably bed-bugs that came in luggage from a business trip. I have my people (real estate agent & manager) on it. They've tried two exterminator visits from Orkin without success and now are trying diatomaceous earth.

Termites + Garden.

John came home from work today and was inspecting and weeding his planter in the back yard while I watched through the kitchen window. He pulled something out of the box and started inspecting it carefully and knocking dirt off the bottom and looking more closely at it. I came outside to see what was going on. “What kind of bug is this?” he said, handing me the rootless stem “It looks like white ants.” I looked at the shape of the insect coming out of the hollow of the stem. “Termites” I said. There was no doubt in my mind from the unique shape of the creature. He doubted my prognosis, believing termites only eat dead wood. I pointed out that termites are colony insects and there will me many more where those came from if he looked. Then he dug into the soil and found plenty of termites underground.

I've never seen this before in a garden. Just weird if he did not place it over a tree trunk or roots from a fallen tree. Ants would be a lot easier to deal with because they usually leave plants alone, just going after the insects, like aphids, around them. You can usually work around ants. But termites? I think his garden is a goner this year.

I am wondering what, if anything, he can do to save the rest of his work in the planter? They do not seem to be in the wood of the frame as far as we can tell. Don't know where they came from unless they were somehow already the cabbage seedlings he bought.