: p

Briefly, the hose drama continued today. It wasn't there when I went to the garden. When I came back to the building, my key fob that opens the door didn't work. A regular lobby stalker told me I needed to go to the office to have it fixed. This has happened before - faulty system.
I called the manager at corporate to let her know the hose wasn't available. She seemed pretty interested. Then I went to the office to get my key fob fixed - normally it's either programmed into the system or swapped out.
They were expecting me. Before I had time to say it didn't work, the manager told me it was a loaner and I had to pay for it. I did pay for it. Back in 2010. I asked if she turned it off today she said no, she turned it off yesterday. So, she took time to go through my file to find any problems then she intentionally and manually locked me out of the building.
She locked me out of the building.
She went to the electronic ledger and found the payment in August 2010.
Fuss, fuss, fuss, blah, blah, blah, she couldn't fix it, blah, blah, "a guy coming in this afternoon to fix it, blah blah and she finally agreed to swap it instead of making me wait for the guy.
I called back that manager at corporate and left a voicemail. I haven't heard back.

What Character: Anatoli

Anatoli is my garden neighbor to the north. He is from Ukraine, like many of my neighbors.  

I had to get a picture of him watering his plants. Notice his watering can has a vodka bottle attached to the nozzle. We joke he will have fat, red, drunk tomatoes.

Garrison Keillor used to hint about secrets for gigantic, envious tomatoes in his summer stories. Vodka isn't Anatoli's secret for fantastic plants - I checked.

Just before garden season, Anatoli had a complete knee replacement. Ever since, he's been walking with a cane or a walker. Gardening has been a real challenge for him, especially setting up is plot and getting the seeds and plants in the ground. He wants to have as much in his garden this year that he had last year. Some days are pretty bad. Since he's not as mobile, he wanted to make his watering can longer instead of reaching for the plants and possibly loosing balance.
Ta Da! The vodka bottle is attached to the watering can with plumbers tape to keep it from leaking and holes in the bottom.

Watering systems vary in our community. We all share one 50 foot long hose. The hose isn't long enough to get to all of the garden plots, so watering needs to be creative. There are hose people, watering can people, and hybrid folk. 

Anatoli is a watering can person. He has a large covered garbage can at the west side of his garden that he fills when the hose is free. Since it sits in the sun all day, the water gets warm. Plants like warm water.

Katya is a hose person. Her plot is closest to the spigot, so she can use the hose for the full length of her plot on its own. Most hose people use some kind of sprayer on the hose to get the coverage and distance for their plots.

I am a hybrid user. I have a water container buried in my garden. It holds about 20 gallons. When I can use the hose, I use a sprayer to water my plot, but when I don't want to wait, I use my storage water and refill when no one else needs the hose.

You've got to think "community" when you have a community garden plot.

What Character: Hu and Li

Hu and Li - husband and wife

Hu nd Li have a garden plot a few spots to the south of me. I really got to know them when I was teaching English at the community center. I'm tutoring instead of teaching at the center, but Li still calls me "teacher" when she sees me - "hello, teacher, hello". Li is quiet. She comes and goes from the garden silently, so she appears and disappears if I'm not paying attention. Hu is pretty friendly and has a loud speaking voice. He's the fella who was criticizing my arbor that pushed me over the edge. Because he speaks so loudly, when he gets in a debate with anyone (as he did that day) it gets really loud. Out of the moment of my frustrating day, we've been able to chat and all is well.

What Character: Katya

Katya (aka Katie) has a garden plot at the far south end. She's very chatty, and spends a good amount of time in the garden. Since she's on the end, she's got to fence three sides of her plot. Her husband doesn't want a garden this year, but she went ahead anyway and he's not helping her.

Some of us have stepped in to help her out as much as we can, but her ambitions are high. Today is the first day she's accepted that she's going to have to stop planting and only keep what she can manage on her own. Her personality has drifted from humble, to needy, to emotional blackmail. She's been caught stealing things from other neighbors, claiming forgetfulness, then confiding to me she knew what she was doing all along. It turns out, she's the 'mean girl' of the garden.

Today I pointed out that she was insulting me (again). She responded with a spectrum of reasons why she was insulting, but eventually, she said she knew it bothered me. She promised she'd never do it again.

She's made me dread going to the garden. I think it will ease up now. We'll see.

What Character: Valentina

Valentina is also my garden neighbor to the south. Alexi is her husband. She was not too thrilled about this picture being taken because it was cold and windy. She'd been outside for quite a while working on rows and rows of her little tiny sprouts, and trying to save her larger plants from the cold wind. I think she looks great. She's teaching me the Ukrainian names of the vegetables I'm growing. I love my neighbors!

What Character: Alexi

Alexi is my next door garden neighbor to the south. He's from Ukraine, used to work in construction and is presently a Lutheran deacon. Alexi is the most fit and most fluent in English of the gardeners. Alexi is has tools, wood for walking paths, and stakes and miscellaneous bits to build with (ski poles, hockey sticks, etc) I love being his neighbor. He has 1.5 plots that he shares with his wife, Valentina.