Did you ever wonder why television characters' middle initials always seem to be J?

No, really. Homer J. Simpson, for example. Or his son, Bartholomew J. Simpson.

I don't know why I that occurred to me. It wasn't what I wanted to write about at all.

But it just goes to show you that sometimes you set out to do one thing and wind up doing something entirely different.

Like the other day.

I needed to trim that unruly privet hedge in the backyard.

So right after the dog's morning walk (he gets darned cranky if he doesn't get it, and heaven knows he's cranky enough), I went to the garage to round up my hedge trimming tools.

That's when I noticed how many spider webs had accumulated over the winter. Not to mention the drifts of crinkly leaves in the corners and the dried mud under the car's tires.

Well, the hedge trimming would take less than an hour, so I decided to back the car out and sweep the garage first.

Now, that meant I had to move the truck out of the driveway to make room for the car, but when I got in the truck, I noticed how grubby it had gotten over the winter. Gravel and dirt and still more crinkly leaves.

Well, I was going to need the shop vac for the garage anyway, so I figured I might as well vacuum out the truck first.

When I went out to the shop for the vac, I noticed the weeds I'd buried under the fresh wood chips had pulled through. A couple already were six inches tall.

As soon as I'd muscled the vac back to the garage, I rooted around in the garage storeroom and discovered I'd used up all the RoundUp last fall.

Now, being a careful planner, I went back for the shop shopping list (cute, huh?) I always keep of stuff I'm running low on so I can limit the number of trips I have to make to the home center.

Found the list, added RoundUp to it, went back to the house for my wallet, locked up and then took off across town.

It didn't take long to find the garden chemicals or the S hooks or the wood glue or the 4d galvanized nails, but as I was heading toward checkout I passed by the circular saw blades and stopped to see what carbides were selling for. My sharpener says one of my blades is pretty nearly done for.

Too much for what I had in my wallet, but I'll put it on the next shop shopping list.

On the way home I noticed the truck was down to half a tank, so I stopped for gas.

Then I remembered I was almost out of cream for my morning coffee, so I pulled in at the grocery store, too.

I had about a dozen things in my cart - and was headed toward ice cream - when I remembered I only had $5 left after the home center and gas station, so I had to put it all back.

I did get the cream - and the ice cream- but by the time I got home, it was too late to do much more than vacuum out the truck and spray the weeds.

I'll get to that dusty garage next week.

There may even be time for the hedge.

My own middle initial is an L, by the way. Not a J.

I just wanted to get that cleared up before I forgot.

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