And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, Editor Emeritus

... that it is kind of a nasty morning, windy, cold and damp, and normally I would not welcome such an April day.
But in yet another bow to advancing age, I am looking forward to a day off.
There are always lots of “chores” for a property owner when spring arrives. Each year, it takes me longer to get them done. Once upon a time (and that is not the start of a fairy tale) I used to be able to accomplish two or three of those things in a day. Now, it might take two or three days to accomplish one of them!
And some things never do get done.
For example, the care of perennial flower beds.
There was a time when they would get weeded and fed, and sometimes dug up and replanted to get rid of weeds.
Now, it’s survival of the fittest.
If a crocus or narcissus or tulip shows up, well and good. That means they have survived under benign neglect. But so very often also has invasive flora. Let ‘em fight it out, I say.
My garden got tilled one of those pleasant April days, when looking forward seemed appropriate. I intend to plant tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, but nothing more. While it was being tilled, I looked out over the “back forty” where I used to have three garden plots totaling perhaps 12 times as much space as the present little plot. And I planted and tended and harvested many things in addition to working 50 or more hours a week!
But I was younger then, obviously.
And despite the pitches of patent medicine salesmen, I don’t believe there is any “Texas miracle food” available.
Nor do I think a potion made from the Resurrection Plant will improve my aging skin, despite the fact that plant expands every day after collapsing every night. Heck! My Shamrock plant, which is healthy and blossoms often days, folds its leaves and shuts up at sundown. Which, by the way, has never been a trait of the Irish!
And I have seen jellyfish which have washed ashore and died in the tropical sun, so I can’t believe a protein they produce will improve my memory. If their memory is so good, they would have avoided on-shore waves!
I avoid any product which describes as part of its name the promised healthy result. For example, Ring-Away, or whatever it is, to cure a ringing in the ears. That name shows a lack of imagination if nothing else.
Even trees can’t survive the onset of disease. But it is not as bad in all cases as one radio announcer implied. He said ash trees were all in danger because of the emerald ash borer, which is “a tree-killing rodent.”
Rodent?