Why Tommy is Still Around

I often wondered why God had prevented Tommy from being killed. I knew it was God, that He had something planned for Tommy, I just didn’t quite know what it was until he told me a story.

You see, there were many a time when Tommy rightfully ought to have been snuffed out what with overpasses falling down narrowly missing him yet destroying the company van he had been driving, bridges falling down moments after he crossed, miraculously getting safely home from monster blizzards which had stranded hundreds of other motorists, and just barely getting away from a bullet from the Long Island Sniper* which broke through the window of his truck, whizzed passed his nose and went out the open driver side window.

That’s not to mention all his near misses as a renegade child; sword fighting with real steak knives with a younger brother, managing to escape being stung by hundreds of jelly fish, crossing busy 2-lane highways to and from elementary school on his own, surviving a catamaran outing during small craft warning on  Long Island Sound, and the usual mischief rambunctious kids often get into.

There had to be a reason after all for his surviving all that. Well, now I know and I’ll tell you all about it whether or not you want to know.

The other day Tom had been working in and around the Allentown area, making deliveries and pickups. Nothing unusual in that, except that at a very busy intersection, one in which pedestrians ought not be ever, no reason for them to be there and yet, there was an old man standing at a corner, looking confused and bewildered just watching the cars go by. Tom didn’t like the look of that, but he was on the other side of the road, as far from the man as you can get and going the opposite direction.

He saw that no one else was stopping to help the man so he made a left turn, turned around at a gas station and back down the road where he last saw the man who had never moved from the spot.

“Hey, how ya doing?” Tom asked. “Need some help?”

“Yes, I’m lost,” the man said.

“Do you know your address?” Tom asked.

The man gave the address which Tom put into his GPS.

“That’s just 3 minutes away. How about I bring you home?” Tom said and the man hopped in and Tom took him home.

When Tommy relayed this story to me I was aghast.

“Oh my gosh! What if you hadn’t stopped?” I shrieked. “It was maybe 20 minutes out of your busy life but you were definitely that man’s guardian angel for the day! Thank God you were there!”

Which got me to thinking… was it God’s plan all along?

In fact, when Tom missed getting stung by the swarm of a hundred jelly fish, his younger brother had not been so lucky and fell right in the middle of them an got stung all over his body, but lucky for David Tommy had been there to save him, pulling him out of the water and taking him back home where their mother took David to the hospital.

Then with the thrilling ride in the catamaran during small craft warning that ended up overturned and his best buddy was pinned under the sail. Had Tommy not been there to pull Steve out from under there and pulled him back to shore he would have drowned for certain.

There were other times Tommy saved complete strangers from minor and not so minor mishaps.

--The little boy who had been chasing a plastic bag at his harried mother’s beckoning in the supermarket parking and Tommy yanking the boy back just as a truck flew down the row of cars not even seeing the boy, passing right over the plastic bag, just missing the boy.

--The mentally challenged man whom Tommy had seen often walking down a certain winding, curvy and frankly dangerous dark road was stuck in a torrential rain and Tom offered him a ride back home. While talking to the man Tom discovered he always walked down to the bus stop and this particular night he had missed the bus because the Walmart in which he worked had kept him longer than usual. 

It was a good thing—though at the time Tom had NOT thought so—that he had been late getting home or he would have missed the chance to help the man out by taking him home.

Those were just two times Tommy told me about, but no doubt there are other times that simply went without telling. That could be why Tommy is still around…just to help out when God’s too busy with other things.

Nice thought, don’t you think?

*Wonder if the Long Island Sniper was ever caught.

©2019 Glory Lennon All Rights Reserved 

Checking off things on the Garden to-do list

So... this is what I did today...checking off a lot of items on my never ending garden do-to list:

#1. Cut the grass on my swampy lawn with the riding tractor. It might not sound like much but I was so afraid of getting the darn thing suck in the muck, and yes, it was a real fear and very likely. I did as much of it as I could without getting suck, but a lot of it was not done...just too, too wet and not worth the risk.

#2. Dug out some wonderful soil out of my finished compost pile. I was again afraid of getting suck in the unforgiving wet yard so I filled the cart only  one third of the way to ensure it could make it up the hill.

#3. While in the back-40-- that's where I have the major compost piles-- I dug out a few daylilies which I was not aware I had back there anymore because I had dug them all out years ago to fill in the hill at the back of the pole barn. What I think happened is that when I dug out the plants the first time I must have left a few stray roots behind and in the ensuing years hence, they grew another plant. Pretty wild huh?

#4. I planted about a dozen shrubs by the work shop in an area which needed something so it didn't look so homely. I also planted a French Pussy Willow tree on top of a boulder which nobody could move--even with Tommy's toy-- so I made it a place for a tree.

#5. I taught Justin how to use the weed whacker...not sure he did it any better than I did, but it got him outside which is always good. 

#6. I had Justin help me remove a massive entanglement of unwanted shrubs.* It's so much easier to do with a strong somebody. In truth I could not budge the darn things at all on my own! Justin was such a great helper.

#7. I replanted an ornamental Yoshino cheery tree which was growing somewhere it did NOT belong, into Tom's arboretum. Not sure it will survive as I do not believe I got all the roots out--it was tangled with two maple trees and a honeysuckle bush, but finger's crossed.

#8. I filled up a large pot with the shredded papers from my office and then topped it off with the lovely soil from the compost pile. I get rid of the paper, use less soil and have a lighter pot. Win-win-win.

#9. I planted several little rooted cuttings I had on my kitchen window sill. Then I added a few sunflower and zinnia seeds. It may look nice some day...hopefully before Jack Frost comes back.

#10. I did very little office work today, but I still had a few phone calls to take care of. In between garden chores I managed to set up two shipments with Fed Ex Freight, make the packing lists for both and even made an invoice for one and ran the credit card to boot.

Needless to say, I'm thoroughly exhausted and need to chill for a bit. It took all the energy I had left in me to write all this! 

*Yes, I know. I plant shrubs in one place and remove them from another. The contradiction is insane, but necessary since they never plant themselves where I want them. They insist on growing where I don't want them!

Nests everywhere

Nests, nests everywhere... and loads of birdies too. I see the birds coming and going all over the yard and garden and not just for the seed I put out for them. The build their nests everywhere...I've stumbled upon them here and there.

Who you may ask are building all these nests and where are they?

New Hedge in no time

Recall if you will, when I recently spoke to you about the virtues of the common Burning Bush aka Euonymus Alatus. Well, I figured since I liked it so much I should have more of them.

Why? Do you really have to ask? Just because, that's why.

Hidden Within

Burning bush...I'm sure everyone is familiar with this common garden plant. To look at it you wouldn't see much to recommend it. 

Nice little shrub...ho hum

That is to say, nothing special about it. Yes, it is green and holds its place, like so many other shrubs. So what?

Be Grateful for the Little Things

There I was pushing the lawn mower and stopping every few steps to pick up branches from my late lamented Lombardi Poplars*. I stacked the sticks and twigs when it suddenly occurred to me we ought to be extremely grateful that the colonies won the Revolutionary War against the English Monarchy.

Best Smelling time of year

I may have said this a dozen times already on this blog, but I'm willing to say it again and bore you all. Spring is the best smelling time of year...at least it is in my garden.

What is making it smell so great? Load of things.

Ode to My Late Lamented Lombardi Poplar

Ode to my Late Lamented Lombardi Poplar

Oh, my Late Lamented Lombardi Poplar, what has become of you? You were always so tall and full of life. Well, you're still tall--the ones which remain upright that is-- but you're as dead as a doornail now, all eight of you.

We have to stop meeting like this

Really, now, Mr. Snake! We have to stop meeting like this. Four times in the past week alone--and three of those days the rain kept me inside. This is too much. 

You're lucky I was NOT carrying a shovel or instinct would have kicked in and you'd be sliced in two. As it is, I let you go with a mere yelp. Ooh, how I hate the slither of you in the tall grass...creepy. I let you crawl back into the rock wall, I let you pass by me to disappear into the weeds untouched and barely acknowledged.

Can't you just stay away from me? If you continue to show yourself I will not be responsible for your demise if you scare me too much. 

So, go off and chase the moles, eat the field mice--as many as you can stomach, but leave the froggies. They eat the bugs, you know. 

And do watch out for the hawks and eagles...hard to hide from them and we wouldn't want you to end up anyone's dinner, now do we? Well, maybe.

Could things get any crazier

If you have been here at Glory's Garden long enough, you would know I don't always get to play around in my garden-- I know, shocking isn't it?-- and that I have to do--HORRORS-- office work. Well, as office work goes, it can be rather boring, tedious and hardly a  bit fun. Then there are times when it gets outright annoying, maddeningly stressful and utterly insane.

Case in point: Yesterday---oy, what a day.