The Damp Air Was Heavy…

The Damp Air Was Heavy….

The Damp Air Was Heavy…

And the white lion roars!

The world is wet today.
El Nino has come for an extended visit.
My world is wet today.
There are puddles on the manicured lawns.
There is not enough drainage for the streets to be dry.
I’m walking in the rain
when I notice that scent. Heavier, but similar to the honeysuckle that I love.
Where is that coming from?
When did magnolias become so popular?
I take a drive,
I suddenly notice magnolias everywhere.
Covered with new blooms.
The leaves on the trees are every magnified, intensified shade of green
And the stark, bright red of male cardinals against the charcoal gray clouds.

Is Ignorance Curable?

Is Ignorance Curable?.

Is Ignorance Curable?

And the white lion roars!

Well, how about this! It sometimes takes me a month or more to post, and here we have two in one day. This one started out to be a Facebook post to entertain my friends with my ignorance and ineffectuality as a pioneer woman. My husband and I bought our first house at the end of 2013. The builders put sod down in all the front yards, but left the backyard to us. This subdivision was built on an old riverbed, and so is full of rocks, sandy dirt, and it grows native weeds gloriously. My husband and I have, not fought, but strongly disagreed about how to take care of this. He used to work for a division of the worst of all ECG’s (my term for evil corporate giants,) and Roundup is his weed remover of choice. He also wants to hire someone to put in a yard and garden. I argue that it would be a great point of pride for us to do the work ourselves. But every time I think I’m going to spend some time doing that I want to cry because it is so overwhelming that I just can’t figure out where to start. Once last year our grandson came for a visit from Illinois, and he and I were playing in the front yard. He kept going to front flower beds, picking up rocks and bringing them to our yard. Kind of like Tom Sawyer, I got the brilliant idea that if he enjoyed picking up rocks…I took him to the backyard and showed him how we could put rocks into the wheelbarrow. He lost interest very quickly. I guess Mark Twain was only half right.

So, at the end of winter I had wonderful hopes for getting this yard/garden started. We had some extra money coming in, we were going to be able to hire someone to put the yard in, and we were going to start the garden, saving money on both food and the chemicals on the produce we buy at the grocery store. I was going to start baking my own bread, making my own ketchup, tomato sauce, mayo, pickles, etc. Big pioneer woman dreams. Now, last year I did plant sunflowers, and it was a huge thrill for me. They were beautiful, and I got thousands of seeds that I need to get planted soon (it is May now, after all!) So began today’s adventure. I had been putting coffee grounds, egg shells, and fruit into a plastic tub with a lid to be used for fertilizing all those delicious, organic vegetables we would be growing. But somehow, this fabulous wet spring we’ve had this year, the lid got blown off the tub and it was full of rainwater. But first, I had bigger things to tackle; I’d found some rocks that are GINORMOUS. So much so that I had a hard time finding the bottom of one of them. But today I finally got there and discovered that the rock, though loosened, was too big to move. So I called a neighbor (hubby’s working) and asked for some muscle. He came over, but since we’ve both had surgically repaired shoulders, and he has a back so bad that he’s permanently on opioids, he wouldn’t help me with the rock. We walked over to that revolting, loathsome, disgusting compost tub full of black water with maggots and who knows what floating in it. He couldn’t move it by himself, nor could the two of us together move it. We stood there trying to figure out what to do. I decided to take the hose and flush the dirty water out of it, then dump it. The neighbor left and I got to work, but before he did he mentioned that with coffee grounds and tea bags in the bucket, the water might never get clear. So I tried the flushing thing for a bit, and he was right, nothing was clarified. So I came inside and got a pot to start dipping the water out, taking every precaution to keep from being touched by any of the grotesqueries away. Needless to say, it smelled like a disgusting, rotting swamp. In short order I got to the bottom of the water and decided to get that famous wheelbarrow, shovel out the actual compost and then finish the job of getting that rot-water out. So, job done, overwhelming feelings winning out-I came back into the house, my hands and legs splattered with that foul smelling water. The house is a mess, by the way. But I only have one question to answer right now. Should I take a nap, or start drinking early?

Just Do Your Job!

And the white lion roars!

This one makes me roar with laughter, but why do sleep medications have a warning label that says, “May Cause Drowsiness?” Isn’t that the point?

I’m also curious if any of my conservative friends can hypothesize for me what Ayn Rand would have thought of four way stops. I mean, would she have acquiesced to everyone taking a turn? Or would she have been, “Fuck that, I’m going! Every man for himself!”

I have complained before about the term “invasive species,” as evolutionary biology tells us that a species looking for a place to safely pass their genes on to their young, find a place to do that, and do it. It’s called a ‘niche.’ Humans, as always, have been the worst about it-willing to throw entire ecosystems out of balance to the point of extermination, and forcing themselves as square pegs into the proverbial round hole. And that’s how species invade a niche, and it is completely natural to do so. So until we figure out that there are things that can be done with kudzu, and zebra mussels make a good snack, we should really stop complaining about invasive species, admit to ourselves that it is probably man’s fault that some species are moving in and harming certain environments because no species can do that if there are predators that keep them from reproducing there. As odd as it is, humans (the nastiest of all predators) seem to always root for the prey in these conflicts. So we destroy predators, think everything is nice and Zen, and then species we don’t like move in and takeover by reproducing exponentially. We need to remember that the lower an animal is on the food chain, the more they reproduce. Think rabbits. Oh, and zebra mussels. But who is eating zebra mussels?

I have a business/religion question. First, I was raised fundamentalist baptist. I am an atheist, as in , I do not believe that god exists. I have a dear friend who has told me on more than one occasion that she does not believe I am an atheist, but that I am just angry at “The Church” because I feel I was sold a bill of goods. Now, while she is right about the bill of goods part, I do think these are separate questions, I truly do not believe that god exists-at least as I was taught him. All that aside, one of the things that disturbs me the most in contemporary Christianity is the “prosperity gospel.” The massive churches, led by multimillionaires, telling breathless believers that if they have god’s favor they will be rich, god WANTS them to be rich. I won’t even bother to mention the quotes in the bible regarding money being a substitute for god, and camels through needle’s eyes, etc. This is my question: If your god wants you to be rich, and you own a “Christian” business, why would you turn away ANY paying customer? “Not gonna serve gays?” I was taught that the only reason Christians are left on earth after they are ‘saved’ is to witness to non-believers and bring them to Jesus. So aren’t these Christian business owners failing at their job? I sent a Facebook message to Mike Huckabee asking him this question. He didn’t bother to respond. #huckabeeforpresident