radish freakshow

Step right up, folks:

A shiny quarter will get you a little closer:

That's not the only weird thing in the garden this year -- the massive amounts of rain have brought out some curious creatures that I definitely wasn't acquainted with last year. Giant orange slugs, which so far haven't done any damage I can see, and cucumber beetles, which most certainly have. The adults are eating lacy holes through my squash leaves, but the larvae are apparently the real concern. If they get into the roots and stem, you're toast. And not toast with delicious grilled squash on it, either. You are produce-less toast. I'm going to get some floating row covers, and those bugs had better float on by.

I have to say, I am feeling not so fine at the moment. Some bad and/or stressful and/or scary things are happening to some people in my life who don't deserve them, and I feel guilty over how whiny I am about my own lucky-ass life, because this is the first time that school is really changing my exceedingly comfortable existence here. A few times during this last year, I've felt stressed or out of time, but this is different. No vacations (unless you count a one-night family wedding in Chicago, a library conference also in Chicago, or a weeklong class in Syracuse)(and I do not count those things), no random weekend trips, turning down invitations to hang out on weeknights, skipping dance class to do schoolwork, neglecting the garden, not returning phone calls, forgetting birthdays, letting too many things slide. I am totally mystified at how people manage to go to school while working full-time and maintaining their sanity and also raising children and running marathons and solving crime and who knows what else. I've been trying it for four weeks now and am pretty much done with it already.