Remember no man is a failure who has friends.
The vegetables continue to come in… I picked half a dozen zucchini, 13 cucumbers, and a couple of eggplants and tomatoes on Saturday, and then another dozen cucumbers and some more zucchini today.
The Giant Marconi peppers are just starting to get a tinge of orange to them, so hopefully they will turn red soon.
I’m starting to feel like Bill Murray.
I was out watering the garden yesterday afternoon, when once again I saw massive evidence of yet another groundhog invading the vegetable garden. Since I am becoming quite handy with the trap, I quickly obtained it from the garage, baited it with the vanilla extract and broccoli mix, and set it up right next to the hole under the neighbors fence. Within an hour or two, the critter had been caught.
I decided not to try and relocate the rodent while on my way to work this morning, so I left it inside the cage until I returned home this evening, then loaded the trap into the car after dinner, and went for a ride to the same spot I had relocated the first groundhog, not far from my in-laws’ house.
Why do I get the feeling this saga isn’t over just yet?
I received the following forwarded e-mail the other day:
Those of You Born 1930 – 1979
At the end of this e-mail is a quote of the month by Jay Leno… If you don’t read anything else, please read what he said. Very well stated, Mr. Leno.
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, Tuna from a can and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, Locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren’t overweight. WHY? Because we were always outside playing… that’s why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, As long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OK.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have PlayStations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no internet and no chat rooms. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it ?
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
“With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of swine flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’
For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us.. ..Go ahead and delete this.
For the rest of us… pass this on.
A Small Prayer!
God determines who walks into your life… it’s up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go.
I need this back. If you’ll do this for me, I’ll do it for you.
When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this.
Father,
God bless my friend in whatever it is that You know they may need this day! And may their life be full of your peace, prosperity, and power as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with you.
Amen.Then send it on to five other people, including the one who sent it to you Within hours you will have caused a multitude of people to pray for other people. Then sit back and watch the power of God work in your life.
P. S… Five is good, but more is better.
For what it’s worth, I did not delete this message, but I’ve got some major issues with it.
The note seems to imply that individuals between the ages of 31-80 have managed to survive through their formative years without benefit of generally accepted safety practices, healthy and nutritious diets, proper pre-natal care, and as a result of this negligence are great leaders in new and innovative ideas. I would argue that those of us who have been fortunate to avoid serious harm have done so not because of these unsafe practices, but in spite of them. Would this note propose that practices such as the regular use of seat belts, child car seats, and bike helmets have been entirely without benefit and their usage somehow results in children who grow up to be less innovative or responsible adults? Would anyone argue that today’s children are better served by the archaic safety practices of our parents 30 to 80 years ago? I hardly think that the children of that time were more brave or lucky than those today; no one as a kid ever said “forget that car seat, Dad, I’m brave enough to not need it!” or “go ahead. Mom. and light up another Lucky – it will make that fetus in your belly a natural born leader when it grows up.” We are all victims of circumstances in the time we grow up, that is all.
The note further posits that the blame for the seemingly sad shape of today’s children can be laid at the feet of lawyers and government regulators. Hmmm, seems to me there have been plenty of lawyers around since I can remember, so how is it they have messed things up now, and not when we were kids? As for government regulation, I am plenty supportive of laws that create safer environments for kids and adults alike; apparently years ago, the simple use of a seat belt was just not important enough for our parents to use whenever we went for a ride in the car, but it took regulation and enforcement before adults habitually strapped them themselves and their kids in before they took off down the interstate, and I’m pretty sure that traffic fatalities have been reduced significantly since those good old days. Sure, lead paint chips will lead to permanent brain damage if ingested, but that never happened to anyone we know, so do we really need regulations that help not just us but other people in situations different from our own?
I think this leads to my final issue with the piece: the implication that there is some correlation between the “good old days” and the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a believer, with faith in the promise the Lord has made to us, but I just have a hard time understanding how folks ever survived prior to 1954, which was when the words “under God” had been ADDED to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Lastly, the “quote of the month” (um, which month, exactly?) is incorrectly stated; he actually said in his September 2005 monologue “As you know Hurricane Rita is headed toward Florida, Texas and Louisiana. Another hurricane! It’s like the ninth hurricane this season. Maybe this is not a good time to take God of the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Generally, I truly avoid reading these types of e-mails, and I would never consider forwarding it to anyone, but I do agree with the closing sentiment, that God gives us the tools, and what we do with them is up to us, so I said the little prayer for the sender and filed the note away, until I had been thinking about it again that I needed to get on my soapbox just this once.
Another day, another groundhog.
I came home from work on Monday and found evidence of another groundhog: a hole had been dug under the fence from our neighbor’s back yard, so I decided to set up the trap again, baiting it with broccoli doused with vanilla extract. Tuesday night the trap and bait had been untouched, so I moved the trap closer to where the hole had been dug, and sure enough when I came home Wednesday there was another groundhog peering out at me from the trap. Instead of throwing the cage into the back of the car to “go for a ride” with the varmint, I took it with me for the 35+ mile trip to work at the Hopewell site and let it loose there. I could almost hear the strains of Born Free playing as I watched it run away from the cage and into the wild; well, maybe not, but I did learn something from the experience: if you leave your formerly groundhog occupied trap in the back of your car in the hot sun while you are at work all day, leave the windows open. A lot.
We’ve been battling for the past two weeks with a groundhog in the back yard. It’s been nibbling on Edith’s petunias and daisies, but mostly leaving the vegetable garden alone. That is, until Friday night.
I noticed Friday evening while checking on the garden that something had managed to get inside the fence and nibble on the lettuce and broccoli; the perpetrator had chewed a hole through the plastic fencing. On Saturday morning while walking downstairs, Edith spied the groundhog out the back window, which she chased with a broom until it scurried under the back fence and into the next yard. This morning, I again saw signs of visitation from the groundhog, and I took the Hav-a-Hart trap out of the garage and set it up, waiting for Edith to come home with some bait. Later, while I was in the back yard mending a garden hose, I thought I heard our little friend trying to dig into our yard from next door, but in actuality the little rodent was inside our garden fence! I quickly grabbed the broom and placed the trap inside the garden perimeter, so that it might run inside the trap while trying to get away from me. Edith heard the commotion from the kitchen window, and joined me in prodding and poking the groundhog as it ran and hid among our vegetables. I could tell it was getting frustrated and scared, trying desperately to escape, and it did eventually run inside the trap. I placed the trapped animal into the back of the car and drove it across Route 22 and up the hill about 7 miles to Berkeley Heights, where I released it into a wooded area.
I feel good that this pest has been captured and removed, but I’m really hoping that there are not more of them.
From The Writer’s Almanac:
Fifty years ago today, Harper Lee’s (books by this author) only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was published, the story narrated by six-year-old Scout Finch in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. It was an immediate best-seller, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and an instant American classic. It continues to sell incredibly well, with 30 million copies still in print.
The book’s title appears in a scene in chapter 10, where Scout remembers something her dad, Atticus, has said and asks her neighbor Miss Maudie about it.
“I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
Although I’ve already planned my summer reading (Last Night In Twister River and On The Road) I started re-reading To Kill A Mockingbord last night, for the first time since 1993. My brother and I had been discussing only yesterday recent pieces on NPR about Harper Lee, noting the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication, and we agreed that were both planning to re-read the story. The story is incredibly complex, on so many levels, yet so basic and simple. Although Will is a voracious reader, he’s probably still a year or two away from attempting to read and comprehend the story; however, I have at least introduced the book title to him, and he *does* know and like the Elmer Bernstein score (To Kill a Mocking Bird Suite) which we’ve listened to in the car many times…
Steamed zucchini… Stir-fried zucchini… Zucchini pie… Zucchini Bread… and there are still dozens of flowers and fruits out in the garden just waiting to be picked, growing bigger and bigger and bigger…
Edith has already shared some zucchini with her mom and with her co-workers. Time to start distributing to the neighbors.
In no particular order… inspired by a book I came across while browsing through the recent copy of Book Page from the local library:
The vegetable garden is starting to come into its own.
I don’t want to be counting any chickens, but I am really impressed with the way the garden looks this year (despite my Sweet Treat carrots and Eureka beans not doing well at all.) The Big Mama tomatoes are already yielding fruit, as are the Giant Marconi peppers; today I cut three Sure Thing zucchini and a head of lettuce for the first harvest of the year. The Streamliner cucumbers however are late (lots of flowers and very small fruit, but normally by this time I would have harvested several already) but they are growing steadily, so I’m not concerned. The Japanese eggplants, broccoli and cauliflower are are coming along as expected, too. I’ll be planting the Oregon Sugar Pod II snow peas later in the summer, for an autumn harvest.
I mentioned in my post from back in February that Susan is dealing with a personal crisis; her sister, Gail, has cervical cancer, for the past two years, but she has been in remission.
I received a note from Susan this past weekend that her sister’s cancer has spread to her right lung and her entire abdomen.
Gail is Susan’s last living family member; her mom and dad died a few years back, as did her brother.
They are both in my prayers.
From The Writer’s Almanac:
Tonight is Midsummer Night’s Eve, also called St. John’s Eve. St. John is the patron saint of beekeepers. It’s a time when the hives are full of honey. The full moon that occurs this month was called the Mead Moon, because honey was fermented to make mead. That’s where the word “honeymoon” comes from, because it’s also a time for lovers. An old Swedish proverb says, “Midsummer Night is not long but it sets many cradles rocking.” Midsummer dew was said to have special healing powers. In Mexico, people decorate wells and fountains with flowers, candles, and paper garlands. They go out at midnight and bathe in the lakes and streams. Midsummer Eve is also known as Herb Evening. Legend says that this is the best night for gathering magical herbs. Supposedly, a special plant flowers only on this night, and the person who picks it can understand the language of the trees. Flowers were placed under a pillow with the hope of important dreams about future lovers.
I truly love this night, as it makes me want to revel and enjoy the warmth and relaxation of a summer evening. I always feel like something magical is just waiting to happen tonight, and that there really are fairies in my backyard dancing in the moonlight.
I noticed that Bruce Springsteen is releasing a new DVD, recorded live in Hyde Park, UK, entitled London Calling… he covers the classic Clash song:
It is not bad version, per se, but it doesn’t match the energy of the version performed by Bruce, Steve Van Zandt, Elvis Costello and Dave Grohl, all on guitar, at the 2004 Grammy awards.
10 years of toiling for a next-generation bio-pharma company and what do I get? Well, a major award, of course!
It’s not quite as sexy as a leg lamp for the front window, but a telescope is pretty cool in itself.
Celebrating our nation’s flag at the Betsy Ross House, Philadelphia, October 2007.
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