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Schrodinger's tomato

Hi all, I'm starting the music off today with The Beach Boys - California Girlshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8yph3rb27o The Beach Boys are kinda the musical equivalent of the bag of Oreos I had for dinner last night.  I know I'll enjoy it, but is it really good for you? 
  The weird thing is I scored a 6 CD Beach Boys set at the Friends sale. I didn't know the Beach Boys had that many songs.  It could be the equivalent of finding a da Vinci codex or alternatively the collected blogs of Doug A. This is certainly a we'll see.
  Deb is taking some garden goodies to a couple of friends who live down by our cabin (Hi Sandy & Bob).  Sadly, the tomatoes I'm sending are small and could use another day on the vine. I had some big ripe ones but Elvis (see last blog for translation) ate the bottom half of them.  Who knew Elvis even liked tomatoes.
  While I'm talking tomatoes I haven't mentioned the Silver Fir.  Silver Fir was one of the Siberians that Travis gave me.  I was expecting another big red early tomato and was frankly just humoring Travis's kindness by planting one and sold off the rest. The plant was struggling due no doubt to the barely composted soil I gave it. I cut off a few early tomatoes with blossom end rot and trimmed some diseased leaves and the plant seems to be well - we'll see.  But none of that is the point.  The thing is they are a uniquely sweet yellow Roma type. I say uniquely sweet 'cause it's more than just sugar sweet, subtle but something more. I've been sampling them as fast as the plant can kick them out.  Thus I've not been saving the few seeds in each tomato.  I'd hate to let this gem slip into memory.
  I was able to bring my Dad a couple of tomatoes yesterday along with a birthday cake for my Mom who turns 92 this Friday.  On the other end of the family tree my oldest niece is expecting her second child (Zeb???) any day now. It's beyond interesting to gaze into the past and future through their eyes. My tomatoes might have almost met my lettuce this spring but here we have 1925 giving a kiss to the 22nd century. One of my earliest memories is sitting on my Grandaunt Bell's lap in a rocking chair on the porch in Boston. The absolute love Aunt Bell radiated into me I'm tearing up thinking of the beauty of it.
  The Beach Boys are off on some weird stuff oddly good but weird.  I had heard about the album Pet Sounds, Brian's decent into insanity, and all that on some documentary.  I had only ever listened to the top 40 stuff and thus I'll broaden my horizons a bit by listening but won't throw a link at you. If the writing takes an odd turn might be just me or could be the music dragging me into the madness. The music made me do it Your Honor!  
  At the risk of turning this into the family newsletter my brother suggested I do a blog on Schrödinger's lottery ticket. I guess I can do requests. (Sorry Pat not comfortable enough in this skin to do articles!)   As we all know (most of us courtesy of the show Big Bang Theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCOE__N6v4o) Schrödinger had a cat.  The cat may be alive, let's not go all future serial killer and just say he may be alive. Little known is Schrödinger was also a big Power Ball fan and always bought a ticket to the lottery.  Oddly, he never checked the numbers just threw away the tickets and bought another ticket. Except for those times when he heard someone had claimed the big prize he could reasonable think "I might be rich".
  I think most of us can readily understand the the beauty of this insanity. Sure the money is nice or would be but it's the possibility that is the actual value of the ticket.  For a wee moment we can sneak away from life and daydream about how good we would be if we were really rich. OK a few folks might have to get their comeuppance but mostly we're generous if only to not jinx the chance of the win.  My Mother shared that she had thought long and hard about how to give just the right amount to each child, grandchild, and great-grandchild.  Just right so as to not screw them up but enough to make a difference.  She concluded anything less than  a $100 million really wouldn't work. With that ticket in your pocket you could be, well....
  As fate would have it while pondering Schrödinger's lottery ticket Youtube offered up Thiel's cat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZM_JmZdqCwI'll hope you can watch the talk but to keep the flow here I'll jump ahead. The cat didn't make it!
  Peter Thiel is to say the least an interesting person.  A gay man, Trump supporter, Libertarian, Co founder of Pay Pal and hyper early investor in Facebook to just skim the surface.  He clearly has the money to not need a lottery ticket in his pocket and in the video he lays the case out in his way very well. I'll offer a gardeners Buddhist lite version.
  Plants really don't have the inside edge to enlightenment. If you're born as a Tomato seed you're dropped or planted with not much choice. Conditions, rain, shade, temperature, simply are again not much choice. Tough road to jump from tomato to enlightened being. Gardeners choose what to plant where to plant it and what to do to promote growth.  There is not a one to one correlation sometimes you do everything you know and nada.  Sometimes things you have no control over like weather smack you square upside the head. And sometimes you are just stupid lucky and things you didn't have but the littlest bit to do with grow spectacularly. Everybody likes when things go their way but that's not the way to bet. I recall in the book Snake Lake http://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/snake-lake/ the lama describing being born human as the equivalent of a seal happening to pop up in the Pacific ocean directly into a life preserver ring. He then commented that to be born human is precious. Enlightenment, determinate and indeterminate tomatoes (;~), me I just know my Powerball numbers this week are 01, 11, 19, 46, 57, & 23 don't call me if I lose nobody wants to hear that. If I win - hmm - yes definitely call!
  I can't quit today without throwing one more Youtube video at you all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1aJOz3mEHI This guy does a very good job of explaining the similarities and differences of the Ruth Stout gardening method and Back to Eden. I'm waiting till the end of summer to get some more wood chips for my garden, mostly because my wheelbarrow is down at the cabin. OK and a bit of laziness. Experiments in gardening are frankly part of what makes life not only precious but fun. You may not be likely to go from tomato to enlightened being but if you grow the perfect tomato.  See where I'm going here - hmmm!? See if you can guess the final Beach Boy song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2kOexjzY3I   - Doug A. 

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