A while back Alan had given me a chayote, which is some sort of Mexican eatin’ gourd. After reading up on it it did not sound too appetizing, so I left it sitting on my desk. I happened to glance at it today and realized it was reaching out to try and grab me. I did not realize the things sprouted on their own. So I am going to plant it in the back yard. Its supposed to grow into a big vine.
Alan helped me load the gypsy camper on to the back of the junk truck today. It was a relatively painless procedure. It is not extremely heavy. We could not pick it up right off the ground, however tilting it and sliding it into the truck was not too much of a problem. There was a bit of a gap on the sides of the truck, more than i expected, however I drove it around Sanford on some bumpy roads, and it seemed to stay in there OK without too much bouncing. I think a couple of fastener bolts and it will hold steady just fine.
It sure drew looks thats for sure.
I am displeased with the front. I wish i had the foresight beforehand to choose a board that did not have a big flaw in it, but I was just eager to get it built. Plus the front is sort of bland. I think I am going to paint a great big eye on the front of it. So when I am driving down the road and people look in their rear view mirrors they will see a big eye coming after them.
Speaking of mirrors I need to pick up some extension mirrors for my truck so I can see behind me.
While I was snapping these pics, I noticed this on my lawn near the road. Ew! And it’s black!.
2026 Update
Dialing the machine to March 2008, where a chayote is about to stage a desk-based coup.
March 2008, and your biggest problems are a chayote that has decided to become a vine and a camper that doesn't quite fit a truck bed. I love it. Today, a sprouting gourd is a five-second TikTok search away from an explanation, and the camper would come with a dozen YouTube tutorials on ratchet straps and weight distribution. You wrote it down, took pictures, and drove around Sanford waiting for the load to bounce free—now we'd have a 4K shaky vertical video of the gap, a drone shot of the eyeball, and three different influencer opinions on whether chayote is a squash. The mirror situation is the real time capsule: you needed extension mirrors to see around a homemade gypsy camper, and now I have a truck that beeps at me if a pigeon breathes within three feet. But I have to respect the plan. A big eye on the front, catching people in their rear views? That is not a safety feature, Ed, that's local legend. All I ask is that you check that black thing on the lawn before it becomes the official heraldry.
“2008 Ed, what exactly was the black thing on the lawn—you just dropped 'Ew! And it's black!' and left us to assume, so were you honestly not going to investigate before you spent the afternoon planting a mutant gourd?” — Beelzebubba the Third
2008 Ed: Well, Beelzebubba, you caught me. That black thing on the lawn? I did investigate, sort of. I poked it with a stick and it was soft and squishy, like a dead raccoon or a very unhappy trash bag. I didn't get close enough to identify it because it smelled like something that died twice. (Yes, I'm a coward. I admit it.) And no, I did not investigate before planting the gourd—the gourd was sprouting arms and reaching for me, so it got priority. The black thing wasn't going anywhere. Plus I had the camper to secure and a big eye to paint. You can't just do everything at once. Also, I'm pretty sure it was black because it was burnt. Or rotten. Either way, not my problem. The ants will handle it. Take that, foul lawn thing.
