"P-Day" Approaches, with an Assist from Kum and Go

Last year we got the cups for free, but that store manager was apparently feeling more confident in his position - or was perhaps flexing a stronger ”customer service” muscle.  Of course it could just as well have been a fluster at such an odd request. 

Having started our tomatoes from seed, the bristly stems had outgrown their starter cells and it was time to move them to taller, more capacious containers.  Steve had taught me about such progressive transference as a way of encouraging better, more extensive root development, but when we scouted the options at the store, none seemed exactly right. 

”What about those large fountain drink cups at Kum and Go?” one of us wondered aloud.  Finding merit in the idea - or perhaps absent any better idea - we pulled into the next convenience store we happened upon and asked what a sleeve of empties would cost us.  The young clerk was, of course, flummoxed.  They hadn't covered this question in her training.  They had, however, taught her to consult someone higher up.  Sizing us up and weighing our horticultural story, the manager evidently determined that we weren't likely to be lying with a real intent to use the logo-emblazoned cups for any nefarious or salacious purpose, and simply made a gift of them. 

Not so this year.  We had saved, of course, our soda fountain harvest from last year, but our needs had escalated.  We needed more; lots more.  Nine different tomato varieties were stretching out of their cubes, with varying multiples of each.  We have high aspirations for canning and consumption, so things have gotten a little out of hand in the growing department.  Duty, however, calls and so into a different Kum and Go, closer to our new home.   

As with last year, the teenage clerk didn't know what to make of our request. Like last year she summoned a higher up from the back room.  Unlike last year, however, this store manager picked up the phone and called Inventory Central or whoever makes such momentous decisions and reported back that she could sell us the empties for 20-cents apiece.  "Fine," we said, and after paying our due we exited with the requested number of sleeves, plus an extra one thrown in as an expression of managerial largesse. 

Now a few days later, with the tomato seedlings successfully relocated and waiting for a still larger "coming out," I am hurrying to finish the preparation of the garden site.  In fact, one more good day of excavation ought to do it; and then there is a manure delivery to arrange and a protective fence to erect.  And then soon -- the weather being friendly and my vertebrae holding themselves together -- "P-day" will finally arrive.  Planting Day.  Seeds, seedlings, asparagus crowns, transplants and all. 

Wow.