Thank you, rain gods

I was expecting to do more transplanting today, but it is raining. Yippee! I have the day off.

Spring came very late to Minnesota, and we are pushing to get plants into the ground. (I'm kneeling in the foreground setting in melon plants. Behind me are rows of zucchini, peppers, eggplants and slicing cucumbers.)

People who work in agriculture keep schedules that baffle people I've met. We work around the weather, not by the clock or a 5-on, 2-off calendar.  The old expression, "Make hay when the sun shines," is literal, even on Sunday and holidays, or after nine, ten, eleven days straight.

Other professions and situations are similar. Clean-up after disasters. Motherhood. Broadway and film actors. Mom and Pop businesses in seasonal tourist areas. These require an acceptance of a reality that doesn't fit into a 9 to 5 Monday through Friday work world.

Take family dairy farmers. Cows need to be milked twice a day, seven days a week. We did that for eighteen years, then switched to beef cows and veggies--not because we were tired of the schedule, but because the milk plant refused to pick up our milk unless we milked a lot more cows.

For me, the downside of this kind of schedule is not having the fortitude to adhere to a consistent writing schedule. I satisfy my craving to write in this blog, and by other small efforts. I think about my WIP, and dream of the day when writing will be my day job.