Another beautiful day. I got up on time, or I tried to but a bunch of dogs were standing on my chest and legs. The morning was crisp, and the bamboo was waving green and leafy in the breeze. One of the puppies spit up in the kitchen, but I didn't step in it. 

I've been a little lazy about my walking. I'm trying not to be. So far, so good. 

It's not cold enough to wear my coat, but hopefully it will be soon. It's a big grey coat with a hood. So cozy. 

I just squashed a massive mosquito that was flying wobbly away, having drunk her fill of my delicious O-Positive blood. I don't feel itchy anywhere yet, but in time the properties of the saliva will cause a violent itching and swelling. I mislike mosquitoes. I will admit they are an important food source, and pollinators, so I'll leave them be. For now.

I dreamed of a large, two-story house in between a triangular intersection. It was apart from other houses, in a little island of green space. It had no driveway, as it would have led right into one of the streets. I don't know what the dream real estate market it is like, but if it's like the waking world that house would still sell pretty easily, even if you couldn't park your car there.

Went out on Saturday night for Jake's bachelor party. It was great because we didn't do anything crazy. We went to a few bars, had craft beers and cigars, listened to some music, saw the city.

The worst thing that happened was some mild difficulty locating a speakeasy, which is rather the point of a speakeasy and is to be expected.

There's a mildew smell in the office. I wonder if that's something I should be concerned about.

"Hey!" I shout. "If there are any mind-controlling fungus back there, you better not try anything! If you take over my mind, you gotta take over all its problems, too! No take-backsies!"

 Rebuilding the habits time. Put on a groove, like "I Won't Be There" by Skinshape, and start thinking out loud. Talking to me, talking to that empty coffee mug, talking to that empty UPS box, and wondering what they would say. 

This last vacation was not particularly productive. Pleasant though. 

And perhaps only a little crazy. 

The weather is cool and I want to put on my long grey coat and walk around. Maybe I'll do that tonight. Try to walk all 3 dogs at once. If only I had a sled; they could pull me. 

Oh, I fertilized my bamboo. Little bit of composted steer manure. Good thing we have the puppy gates around the plants or the dogs would help themselves to a stinky snack. And the poor bamboo would get no nitrogen. 

I wonder how my nitrogen levels are? Probably pretty good. 

Here's bamboo clump Alpha in April:

And this was Alpha yesterday:

I'm pretty happy about it. Soon I will have a mighty bamboo forest. Perfect for dashing around mysteriously in.

I'm also experimenting with trying to bend the bamboo into a more vertical position. I'm only doing it on a few culms (aka shoots) to make sure I don't kill entire clumps. Seems to be working so far. 

What fun!

Sometimes life feels like a story. Especially when I start narrating everything. My friend D.C. said this is a normal writing thing. Well, not normal exactly, but common. He wrote a whole play about it. 

I've been busy, which is good. Something to occupy most moments. Walking, video games, reading. Also watching an actual television show. Tending to the bamboo.

I kind of want even more bamboo. I suppose the beauty of bamboo is that in time, I will have even more as long as I take care of it. 

Oh, I also need to decorate my house for Halloween. Put up some spooky tattered cloth. That would be pretty dang cool. 

It's a beautiful day. The morning was cloudy and cool; it felt like I was near an ocean. The bamboo I tied up to try to straighten is doing okay, and more shoots are coming up also. So much I don't know about these plants. 

When Kelly and I went to the zoo, we noticed many species of bamboo growing all over. It seems to be one of the dominant sources of plant life for our beloved desert zoo. I noticed that most of the time, it was growing in soil that looked, to me, like regular desert dirt, which is in most of my backyard. We got good soil and planted the bamboo in that, and I thought since the rest of our yard is dirt, the bamboo wouldn't really spread on its own. The zoo-grown bamboo leads me to believe otherwise. Our bamboo at home is clumping, so it should be easy to control. 

-Final entry, before the bamboo grew rampant and took over the world