Yes, I’m what they call a “back slider”,  I said I wasn’t listening to NPR any more, or any news station, it’s too depressing.  I was listening the other day when they were talking to Professor Andrew Ferguson, after being a Federal prosecutor for years, he now teaches law at a college, I don’t recall which.  Professor Ferguson, an African American, said part of the reason for racial divide in our court system, is the method used in jury selection.  The jury selection process uses property tax records and driver’s license records.  He said people of color have a lower percentage of home ownership and drivers licenses than white citizens.  He said the jury pool should include persons signed up for housing assistance, food assistance, etc.  Makes sense to me.

The Humane Society is having a fund raiser this Friday from noon – 3, April 7 at the location right down the street from me on Western Avenue.  And then at their East End location Sunday April 9 from 10 am till 1 pm.  They’ve partnered with Goodwill to accept donations of small stuff (no furniture).  Goodwill will be making a monetary donation to the Humane Society for items donated.

Last post I spoke about some new retails in Downtown.  I’ve spoken to the Downtown Partnership and they have spaces available, contact them if you want to open a brick and mortar store, they are looking for start ups.  And good luck.  And let me know so I can include you in a future post.

Spring has finally sprung, the tulips, daffodils and hyacinths have all started to spring.  The trees are budding out.  My playground mulch came in so I pulled the bins of elephant ears up from their hibernation in the basement.  They were so eager to be planted they had the lids on their containers pushed up.  It’s warm enough that I planted the elephant ears, they are the sickly white sprouts you see.

The playground mulch came in and Dragun dumped it in the back of my parking lot. I had to get it out of the parking lot because Pittsburgh Asphalt should be replacing my parking lot Monday.  I got all 10 yards spread around, and the Courtyard is looking so pretty.  All my other perennials are pushing their cute little heads out.

Here’s da kidz enjoying their freshly mulched yard and on squirrel patrol:

Speaking of da kidz, da gerl is showing a waist now, she’s lost a little more weight and the two to three walks a day are building lean muscles on her (and me).  🙂

I went out to Lumber Liquidators to get some more of the floor cleaner and when I walked in a guy was behind the counter and I pointed at the gallon jug and said “Can I HAVE one of those?”.  He then asked for my credit card and I said “No, you said I could HAVE it”.  He then apologized and said he was sorry but English is his second language and I said well, what is you primary language and responded “Sarcasm.”  I loved it and asked if I could use it and he sarcastically said sure.  🙂

Saturday I’m going to a Pennsylvania Resource Council class on rain barrels at fern hollow in Sewickly.  They have a whole series of them scheduled in the area for the next several months, see the link on their site.  It costs $80 and that includes a rain barrel.  This year I would like to take out four downspouts and put rain barrels on them.  It should be fairly easy where I want to start in the Courtyard.  If it goes as I hope, I should be able to remove 3/4 of the run off from my roofs and be able to water my gardens without using city water, lower water bills 🙂

That’s it for today,

ed