I Guess I'm Bilingual.

I must be speaking a second language because everyone I called today just didn't understand what the heck I was talking about. I guess it is East meets West.

I thought everyone knew what sun shade screening is. You just take these things for granted. I thought it would be nice to be able to cover the pergola with a sun shade screen or shade cloth (as it is also called in the west). They make it with 50% shade or you can pick 70% shade. It is a mesh-like tarp, usually black, that you see everywhere in the west. You hang it over the dog pens, horse paddocks, picnic areas, garden areas where you may want shade loving plants to grow. It lets some light through but it doesn't burn the plants. It makes it tolerable to sit out on the patio yet lets air through which makes it better than just an ugly tarp.

I called Lowes, Home Depot and even that Custom Patio Rooms store that I see advertised on GoErie.com. They just couldn't understand what I was talking about. I got transferred to the paint department for heaven's sakes. Then they thought they knew what I was talking about and put me through to the shades and blinds department. NO, I said, give me the garden department, which tried to transfer me back to the paint department. Then the Custom Patio place said they didn't have the shade screens but they have retractable awnings (that would be really better but I wasn't looking to spend much). Oh, well, I can buy it online and have it shipped. But our summer, as short as it is, will be over by the time it gets here. But that isn't the only thing I had trouble locating today that I will probably have to buy online.

I have several potted plants that I keep on the front porch and back deck. To leave on vacation is troublesome because my plants need water if it doesn't rain at least every third day and I have a lot of money tied up in those plants. That's when I have my in-laws water. They already take care of the cats everyday and I hate to have them spend all that time watering. When I lived out west I had drip lines. Everyone has them. You almost can't live without it out west if you have any kind of landscaping. I told my husband I'd like to get some spaghetti line for my potted plants and he hadn't a clue what I was talking about. Well, neither do the stores. I'm sure someone has them somewhere, I mean surely they do. You get the pressure regulator and hook it to your outdoor faucet, then attach the pvc 1/2 flexible hosing to the regulator. You cap the end of the hose and bury it (or you can just run it above the surface of the dirt) and attach emitters to the trunk line hose at each plant. For potted plants you get the spaghetti 1/8 inch line that attaches to the emitter and hang it over your potted plant and clamp it onto the pot. It drips at a specific rate (gallons per hour) that you control by the size of the emitter that you attach the line to. You can even put them on timers so you never have to worry. It is FREEDOM in the west.

OK, I can see there isn't a big demand for that sort of thing here where it rains a lot and the sun doesn't shine much but when it does you really could use a sun shade screen.