Well as you all know, about two years (?) ago I stated on the newsgroup that
during remodeling of my kitchen cabinets and counter top and installation of
new sink light fixture and kitchen impliment hanger, my Jewel orchid, the
orchid pot I had it in and the macrame hanger that my friend's grandmother
had made with the personalized and hand made ceramic sunflowers on the
macrame ropes disappeared in February and no amount of searching revealed
the plant/hanger/pot. I searched three out of five garbage bags on my way
to work (I was working at the knife warehouse at the time and had to be
there by 6:45) on a Tuesday and it being very cold, garbage day and running
late was the reason I never got to open the other two. Son thought I had
set it outside on the deck. I knew better. I asked politely if the girl that
was living with him/us at the time had "borrowed" it and taken it to work
with her, adn she said she hadn't.

The orchid was finally after 3 1/2 years blooming thanks to Zhan telling me
that I needed to FEED the orchid to get it to produce a blossom and that the
flowers despite their tiniest size were fragrant. I had fed it double
strength African Violet food since I didn't have orchid food and it had
immediately set a blossom stalk and buds. It was incredible. It had nine
more flowers to open up. I had attempted to take a picture up close and
failed. And it plum and completely disappeared off the face of the earth.
When I brought up the story, I was told I didnt' need to repeat it. That the
plant was gone and to forget about it. Apparently husband was unaware of my
frantic searches when it disappeared that night, and when I repeated the
story for him recently, showing him the replacement that sweet Iris had sent
me in the mails, he looked surprised at me and remarked "gee honey, I was
totally unaware you had looked for your plant. I know how much it meant to
you since Zhan had given it to you when you visited her in Florida at her
house. I would have helped you look for it if you'd said something to ME"

I was floored. How could he not see my hysteria?? My running about in a
frantic daze looking in stupid places. Even looking outside in the cold
despite the fact that I KNEW I hadn't taken it out into the cold, because it
was finally blooming and that would have killed it instantly or at least
horribly. But since the Jewel that Iris sent me is doing wonderfully and
has a bloom spike and blossom on it, I was happy and was just repeating the
story for him.

If any of you are paying attention, I remarked to John today thru Squire's
computer (under the title just for now) that he sent when my computer
started misbehaving and it's still not right) that Sugar had had an
incredibly destructive seperation anxiety attack Tuesday night at Mary
Emma's. I was in no mood. But despite the good and bad day I had had, I was
determined not to let it totally ruin my day.

Now for the REST of the story...................................

In Squire's attempt at coming up with a solution to the delemma of leaving
Sugar totally alone Friday when we're all going to be gone (Squire is on the
road, son goes to work at 6:30 and I'll leave at 8 and be gone for 9 hours
which will actually be 10 hours I'll be gone) he had decided we would block
off the hallway with two pieces of plywood, open up the side room we're
using as a pantry until one day we convert it to the extra bathroom/laundry
room, his logic was that she couldn't destroy anything in there anyway. Let
Rose stay in there with her, put a water dish in there for them and vola!
no destruction. Problem with that plan, Moe is, he forgot to cut the plywood
because he was tied up in three intensive days of orientation at his new job
at the trucking company. But Tuesday night during my hysteria at the dog
tearing up the armrest, he starts taking all the coats and jackets that were
hanging on the wooden peg hanger he'd installed in this room quite awhile
back for the extras.

Are you with me so far? As he's bringing out armloads of heavy jackets and
dumping them in the livingroom for me to put in the coat closet, I am
standing there asking him what on earth he's doing when I spot something on
the last peg near the metal shelves he's put up for the dry supplies for our
kitchen. I am blown away. I sat down on the floor and started laughing
hysterically. He thinks I've lost it. Well I HAVE............There on the
last peg is the macrame hanger, orchid pot, with the blue ice cream bowl I
had placed carefully under the orchid pot to catch the spill, and a very
dry, very dead orchid with three bloom spikes on it. THREE??? Whoever
moved it to keep it from getting broken when son and Squire were remodeling
the cabinets, countertops and installing the new iron light fixture/kitchen
tool hanger had hung it on a wooden peg in the side room and then someone
else had piled heavy coats over it and the thing had cranked out two more
bloom spikes and bloomed and finally over almost a year had dried up
completely.

Life is hilarious. So now I have a large pot to plant the new Jewel in when
I get some decent soil, the hanger is a bit dry so I am soaking it to see if
it's not dry rotted, and if it's alright, we're back in business. The
fairies have one hell of a sense of humor.

madgardener up on the ridge, back in fairy holler where we're waiting to see
if we'll get an ice storm, overlooking English Mountain in Eastern
Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36 (whose computer is working for now, and
probably won't again in the morning ??)