is it the equinox?

there are two things that i have a very hard time dealing with when regular occurences: wind, especially cold wind, and disorganization that is not my own. both have been featured at the farm stand for almost a week, and had the mass disorganization not come under control today i think i might've tried to strangle something. this afternoon a trailer piled with pumpkins arrived, but we didn't have our tent roof replaced yet and there was already a mass of winter squash piled in disarray all along the north side of the not-a-tent, which i had been digging through in an attempt to put into like-squash piles, but then the whole thing was fucked by the arrival of still more squash. i was noticably irritated and my boss offered to buy me some gelato as appeasement, but i declined and started to unload pumpkins and bitch with rachel instead. i'm not sure what happened- maybe lightheadedness as a result of picking up and putting down pumpkins, or the inherent beauty in a big pile of orange, but by the time we were done i was in a much better mood. until i ran my leg into the trailer fender where the metal was split and sticking out in a dangerous rusty way, and ripped open my pants. i got a hammer and bashed the hell out of it so as not to injure anyone else. had i not been wearing long johns today i would certainly have problems, but as it is i'm developing a bruise that will no doubt reign supreme as the most bad-ass bruise i've ever had, far and above the dagger-shaped one elsey gave me int he river this summer. after the unloading of the pumpkins we mustered eight people from the farm and engaged in the colossal task of raising a 300lb tent canopy, thus making our farmstand look a little less ghetto. till today we had the former canopy wrapped around a corner pole in a red and white tumorous bulge and disgruntled employees, in silent protest of the continued lack of overhead protection from sun and rain, had temporarily given up on making things look tidy. boxes of compost were piling high and, since we lost a lot of nice, artful, laminated price signs in the wind, most things had torn pieces of cardboard clipped to them with not so artful writing. we tore the cardboard because the damn scissors handles broke in the wind (flying scissors- bad), so instead of throwing them away we;ve been trying to cut things with a bit less leverage and therefore pissing ourselves off needlessly. the circus-like quality of raising a new farmstand tent did not go unnoticed. oh, but then we got to stick around till 7:30 to wait for a truckload of straw bales to arrive. i mentioned before that moving straw bales is not the first thing you want to do in the morning- it's also not the last thing you want to do at night.

the wind came back strong today and tomorrow will bring cold weather and rain, possibly snow. i keep looking at the forecast in disbelief- the high tomorrow will be 48.

i think someday i'll write a tribute to great missourians.

oh, and jenny, i pickled the beets with you in mind, so prepare for nine pints of beets. the tomatoes, on the other hand, might be frozen. i'll see tomorrow.