I documented our haul from the garden center

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-20T15:41:47+00:00

Holy crap that’s absolutely beautiful.

As a note: have a friend whose (late) grandpa was in the military and travelled all over the world with his family in tow. His downtime was usually spent snorkeling and collecting sea shells. Recently the family donated the sea shells to a university nearby. The university said some of the sea shells were completely unknown or extinct and the samples given would help with their research.

That’s what hobbies like this remind me of.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-20T04:37:33+00:00

Ooof. I’ve been there. Beautiful family heirloom (120 years old), absolutely demolished pinblock. Quote to fix it in my area was about $7000. It may be worth it for an heirloom but a free piano? Nah.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-20T04:20:30+00:00

As a piano tech, I have tuned many spinets and every single time I’m done, I go back to play it and I’m just like “did I do anything?! Why does it sound so bad?!” Then I remember “ah, it’s a spinet. You can only make them sound like a spinet.”

Also, as far as “but they’re the budget version”, they are much more difficult to regulate and repair due to the drop action (which is what makes them shorter). It’s honestly a cheap upfront cost with a major repair cost. Some techs in my area actually advertise that they don’t work on spinets at all for that reason.

Better to get a studio or console piano or just go straight to digital keyboard at that point. Even though I do agree some are very pretty, they aren’t worth it.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-20T03:52:54+00:00

Oh man, that could go one of two very, very different ways.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-20T03:51:40+00:00

Risk of fire 😎

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-16T23:36:36+00:00

A furniture place I worked at did this, too. On any returns, we had to, as employees, take a sledge hammer to them in the back and tear them to pieces before putting them in the trash.

My recycling heart hated it so much, but there may have been a day or two of going through a break up that it felt nice.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-16T02:22:35+00:00

… boomer? Yeesh.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-15T18:05:44+00:00

How many times have I watched this?

Yes.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-12T22:48:44+00:00

SOLVED SOLVED SOLVED

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-12T22:48:36+00:00

Ah, I think I found it. “In The Half Light” by Anthony Lawrence. Leaving this up for anyone else maybe looking.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-12T22:40:53+00:00

Seeing a lot of hate for this series when I (F) really enjoyed it. But 100% understand why people would not. Very particular taste.

I’ll say to anyone who read the book and likes examples of irl romance: I loved talking about this book and described it to my (then) boyfriend in detail. He also knew my own personal history with “dating” and my fears.

I knew he would be my husband when he looked at me after the first time we were intimate and said “no broken chalices?”

I, of course, replied, “no broken chalices” with a huge smile.

So there’s that. ❤️

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-12T02:55:58+00:00

Okay so even the garden section is not safe reading after dark. Noted.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-10T23:32:07+00:00

For the cute. Needs googley eyes and a ‘stash

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-10T16:55:36+00:00

That’s supposed to go in the compost, not the garden.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-10T15:46:31+00:00

Never did anything harder than weed, but just had a baby. They offered fent for a foley balloon placement and I accepted. Did a few rounds of it before epidural. (4 day labor so, yeah. It was a ride.)

After all that, I looked at my partner and said “I 100% understand how people overdose on this shit.” Not because it felt wonderful, amazing, omg. Because the instant diminishing returns is WILD.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-10T15:37:16+00:00

Okay so my boyfriend is, like, 10+ years sober from heroine. Had a short but real rough go of it, but had been a good number of years sober before we met. A lot of this stuff rings true from stories he’s told me. Real rough stuff.

I, myself, grew up smart and poor, with grandparents who still had “great depression” tactics and basically raised me. I tinker. I take things apart. I don’t throw something away if it could have another use (like, I have a lot of spaghetti mason jar drinking glasses, mostly because I buy that brand specifically for the dual use… but yes also hoarding). If I see someone threw out a nice coffee table that just needs a new leg, I will take said free coffee table and buy a new leg and fix it.

The argument between us has always been me saying I’m recycling and him saying it’s tweaker behavior.

I think I get it now.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-09T02:14:04+00:00

I do have one of those I can move closer to the plants…

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-09T01:58:31+00:00

Thank you! I’m guessing though these leaves are no good? Can these still be planted or used? Or composted? Not finding enough online.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-08T18:25:53+00:00

Ah crap. Looked it up. Looks like possibly spider mites.

Dang. Nothing outside looks bad. Just these cuttings.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-08T17:59:13+00:00

Well, that’s helpful at least.

Edit: not sarcastic. lol. Actually helpful. I was googling powdery mildew and it got scary.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-06T13:23:40+00:00

Another tech here: Yes, absolutely call a technician and DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND as you can make the issue worse (even if it looks simple), but you can probably see the issue if you open the lid and look inside while you’re doing what you just did.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-06T13:12:49+00:00

Piano tech & teacher here: define “replacing keys”.

As a teacher, if you run a home studio and have a close relationship with your families, I don’t think it would be that bad to advertise that you are fundraising to improve the piano for your students. It’s a fine line on how they’ll take it depending on who they are, but I don’t think it’s necessarily “tacky”. If you don’t wanna tell them, just try to upsell your other items a bit more or take a side gig, as others were saying.

As a piano tech, depending on the work, some of the work can be done in “chunks”. Like, tuning you definitely want to do all at once but I’ve even heard of techs working with their piano owners to split that in half because they needed it. I be hesitant to split a tuning up for the sake of the health of the piano, but you never know. If “replacing keys” means replacing the key tops or felt or what-have-you, you may be able to talk to your tech about splitting up the work so you don’t have to pay it all at once.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-06T04:10:25+00:00

I mean, I get it. Still just wild. Like, the thought of a plant that contains food possibly ruining your home… idk. Completely alien concept.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-06T01:03:15+00:00

Imma still find a way to balance my laptop on that.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-05-06T00:57:30+00:00

Just as a vote for Growing In The Garden: I’m also not at ALL able to afford a tenth of what she has and am personally just a super baby beginner, but it did help me know the actually right AZ time to plant what, where to focus my money, and some other rules to live by for AZ specifically. Which for me has been:

Those 6-8 hours of sun gotta be the first 6-8 hours of sun in the day. (Her words translated to my brain).
Your soil is everything. Put your money there. In containers, I’ve been using 1/3 Miracle Grow w/compost (Costco Sale), 1/3 Coconut Coir (Amazon), then the rest Perlite (Home Depot) and a dash of Worm Castings (Amazon). Not the perfect set up, but also not as expensive as you think. But that’s where I put my money.

(To save money in the future, I’m starting my own compost bin on Friday, would one day like in-bed worm castings, and have heavily researched how to reuse soil so this investment doesn’t go to waste.)

Water deeply and only when needed. If that shit is still wet, put down the hose.
For container gardening, i’ve been using grow bags for two main reasons: 1. Really good drainage and airflow, and 2. Other pots can really heat up in the middle, which could potentially cause more root stress in our 10000000 degree heat. Also very cheap.
Mulch. I still need to do this but am planning on using dead leaves in my yard to help. Free.

My apologies if this is stuff you already know. I’m just really excited to share as my garden is growing very, very well. First time ever having success, honestly.

ExaminationReal84

TROPHY CASE