The Buddhist monk Thicht Nat Han offers a mindfulness meditation using breathing. Like most things I've bastardized it to the point that I'd hate to have to tell him I got it from him as he might raise a skeptical eyebrow. While walking the dogs I try to take a deep breathes in and remind myself that I am receiving good from the world around me. Than I breathe out and try to remind myself that I give good to the world. Some days my sinuses are acting up and I don't breathe so well. Today is one of those days!
The weather is heavy gray with a steady wet spring snow coming down. We need the moisture so intellectually I'm happy but my mood is as gray as the clouds. The locus of the funk is politics but I'm smart enough to know that the root is firmly sprouted from a compost of life's little detritus. I'm surrounded by sickness and poor health. I love my dogs. Thus Callie's showing her age is a little nibble at my psyche. On Deb's recent trip to visit her family I managed to forget to give Callie her pills for two days and saw a quick degradation of her health. Thankfully she rebounded back as quickly. My neighbors Donnie and Francie have been trading visits to the hospital. She for a bad back that involves a whole Ace hardware department of rods, wedges and bolts. All of which keep working and than failing. Donnie's lung cancer came back and this week has been radiation treatments followed by what has to be a nervous wait to see. My gardening buddy Shawn fell and had to go to the hospital where they discovered liver cancer. He's decided that he doesn't want the chemotherapy. My niece as I mentioned in my last blog underwent surgery for breast cancer and is now looking at additional chemotherapy. My Father had a cancer removed from his vocal cords and is recovering his voice. Which at the time seemed quite serious. Serious till my 92 year old Mother the EverReady bunny of the geriatric set decided to get hit by a car while walking home from the grocery store. Broken leg, serious cuts, the whole schmear.
Deb painted a simple little picture that shows a dandelion's fluff blowing off the stem. She wrote on it "let go". It's a wise and deep thought. Smart gal that one. Will the storm's cold and snow kill the nectarines blossom and with it the hope of sweet juicy fruit this fall. Or will the the moisture be just the ticket to a bumper crop. It's really not mine to decide.
The music this morning is UB40, Bob Marley and Inner Circle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXt56MB-3vc
That was the other day! Deb and I escaped for two cold nights down to our cabin. Today, home, we woke up to a gorgeous bright sunny spring day. The lawn was deep green with grape hyacinth and red tulips (and a few dandelions) exploding throughout the yard. I'll be stopping in a few minutes to go visit my folks but in calling my Dad this morning he says my mother is feeling better. I dropped some lettuce, arugula, and garden greens (including dandelion greens - Shhh, actually quite tasty!) by to Shawn. Whatever his health is his attitude is great. Heck even Callie decided to chase some elk off our property while we were at the cabin. No real risk to the elk just an old border collie feeling the stirrings of DNA and spring.
If this blog is going to bend towards the garden it's going to have to start with dandelions. I believe I've read that dandelions are considered an invasive species. But hey tomatoes are immigrants too! My relationship with dandelions is, how do they say, - "evolving". When I first moved in with Deb the yard had it's share of dandelions and the previous homeowner had left a bag of weed and feed in the garage. It's the burbs and I was the new guy so I knew I would be judged by the dandelion count in my yard. So weed and feed it was. I would never consider using chemicals on my veggies but I tried to rationalize it for my lawn as different. The weed and feed bag ran out and the next year I dutifully donned gloves and pried the dandelions out by hand. Thankfully, the neighbor kids needed swimming pool money and for a few years saved me from having to do little more than supervise and pony up the cash. But kids grow up and our neighborhood wasn't sprouting any new ones so my old knees were getting nervous. The garden had grown by this point so I was more and more committed to no chemicals. A chance wander through Ace hardware brought some relief with a snazzy cane shaped (somehow appropriate) dandelion puller you use while standing. The dandelions didn't disappear but were kept well in check and I could gossip with neighbors about which neighbors "really needed to pull their weeds". Some time back I had heard that corn gluten sprinkled on the lawn would kill weeds. Thing is I could find plenty of gluten free bread (why bother!?) but corn gluten had people looking at me like I was very confused.
This winter my Youtube wanderings brought yet another evolution to my thinking about my little yellow friends. I'd heard about making a mock coffee by roasting the root, but the roots I'd seen were tiny. More importantly, coffee is sacred! It's my last decent vice. I don't need fancy but no Tasters Choice and the day just comes out sideways. But dandelion fritters - OK I'm listening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T29nfc0GRoE The warm winter brought a few early visitors to experiment with and I can give a full two thumbs up to dandelion tempura. I doubt any of the vitamins and minerals the plants are famous for survives a dunk in the hot oil, but tasty - yeah! I'm going a bit healthier with leaves and flowers on salads while the lettuce gets up to size in the garden.
Ah, almost forgot the gluten. The local garden shop sent me an online coupon for a bag of corn gluten. Send a cheap old Scotsman a coupon and you own him! I'd like to think my asking about it had some effect on them starting to carry it but with that asking comes an obligation to try some once they do carry it. Thus I bought a bag. No results to report yet but I gotta like a product that is natural and organic and has directions that read in part "the flowering of the lilacs in your neighborhood is the best indicator ... to apply"
Inner Circle's Bad Boys (the theme to COPS) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd68AthoNIw just came on and I'm trying to think of a dandelion parody with perhaps me as the dandelion police. Bad buds - bad buds what ya gonna do. Perhaps not quite as bad as my niece who came into my mother's hospital room singing Grandma got run over by a Tahoe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaGWYvZqhdw
I'll leave you with a jump back to my last blog in which I talked briefly about YouTube's use of algorithms to censor/remove inappropriate videos. The subject kinda blossomed after I wrote the piece with Facebook founder defending his privacy/content policies before Congress. Additionally a former YouTube employee ratted out the firms tricks to hook you into watching more. Than the stories and pieces started jumping my way. First a video calling for a YouTube content partners union, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7RfYt_p2mk over issues of censorship and money. (I have to add while watching the video I kept waiting for it to be revealed as a Monte Python joke but no...)
Next came a TED talk by Glenn Greenwald https://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters#t-902 (I'm not sure if the video will directly cue up or if it's within the full article - but it is worth the time!) He provides perhaps the best/simplest reply I've ever heard to those who question my concerns around privacy. The topper came with the local news announcers tisc tiscing about China's recently announced Social Credit System https://hackernoon.com/big-brother-meets-black-mirror-in-the-middle-kingdom-3febe4574467 (the announcers apparently felt free to disapprove when it happens in bad China!).
Much like dandelions I doubt my privacy concerns will ever disappear. I have a friend (Hey Joe) who sells tracking devices to the judicial system to monitor prisoners and the like. He also as a hobby abuses TSA agents on his many business flights for violating his Rights. Likewise a recent conversation with a librarian at a Jefferson County library revealed a woman proud of the library's stance to protect the privacy of John Hinckley's reading list from prying eyes. Yet somehow incredulous that I would be concerned that modern phones act as a tracking device better than my friends prisoner models. Drive a car? Try to buy one that doesn't merely track how you drive but where, and of course sells that information to private businesses and government if asked. My gym politely checks me in but would prefer that I provide my electronic fingerprint for their new check in system. My nieces limit their use of Facebook 'cause too many creepy people watching. and on and on perhaps I need to invest in some digital corn gluten and figure out a recipe for nosy fritters. Doug A.
And just for fun one more video to abuse you with and leave you with a smile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtk5Ej-xLsM
The weather is heavy gray with a steady wet spring snow coming down. We need the moisture so intellectually I'm happy but my mood is as gray as the clouds. The locus of the funk is politics but I'm smart enough to know that the root is firmly sprouted from a compost of life's little detritus. I'm surrounded by sickness and poor health. I love my dogs. Thus Callie's showing her age is a little nibble at my psyche. On Deb's recent trip to visit her family I managed to forget to give Callie her pills for two days and saw a quick degradation of her health. Thankfully she rebounded back as quickly. My neighbors Donnie and Francie have been trading visits to the hospital. She for a bad back that involves a whole Ace hardware department of rods, wedges and bolts. All of which keep working and than failing. Donnie's lung cancer came back and this week has been radiation treatments followed by what has to be a nervous wait to see. My gardening buddy Shawn fell and had to go to the hospital where they discovered liver cancer. He's decided that he doesn't want the chemotherapy. My niece as I mentioned in my last blog underwent surgery for breast cancer and is now looking at additional chemotherapy. My Father had a cancer removed from his vocal cords and is recovering his voice. Which at the time seemed quite serious. Serious till my 92 year old Mother the EverReady bunny of the geriatric set decided to get hit by a car while walking home from the grocery store. Broken leg, serious cuts, the whole schmear.
Deb painted a simple little picture that shows a dandelion's fluff blowing off the stem. She wrote on it "let go". It's a wise and deep thought. Smart gal that one. Will the storm's cold and snow kill the nectarines blossom and with it the hope of sweet juicy fruit this fall. Or will the the moisture be just the ticket to a bumper crop. It's really not mine to decide.
The music this morning is UB40, Bob Marley and Inner Circle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXt56MB-3vc
That was the other day! Deb and I escaped for two cold nights down to our cabin. Today, home, we woke up to a gorgeous bright sunny spring day. The lawn was deep green with grape hyacinth and red tulips (and a few dandelions) exploding throughout the yard. I'll be stopping in a few minutes to go visit my folks but in calling my Dad this morning he says my mother is feeling better. I dropped some lettuce, arugula, and garden greens (including dandelion greens - Shhh, actually quite tasty!) by to Shawn. Whatever his health is his attitude is great. Heck even Callie decided to chase some elk off our property while we were at the cabin. No real risk to the elk just an old border collie feeling the stirrings of DNA and spring.
If this blog is going to bend towards the garden it's going to have to start with dandelions. I believe I've read that dandelions are considered an invasive species. But hey tomatoes are immigrants too! My relationship with dandelions is, how do they say, - "evolving". When I first moved in with Deb the yard had it's share of dandelions and the previous homeowner had left a bag of weed and feed in the garage. It's the burbs and I was the new guy so I knew I would be judged by the dandelion count in my yard. So weed and feed it was. I would never consider using chemicals on my veggies but I tried to rationalize it for my lawn as different. The weed and feed bag ran out and the next year I dutifully donned gloves and pried the dandelions out by hand. Thankfully, the neighbor kids needed swimming pool money and for a few years saved me from having to do little more than supervise and pony up the cash. But kids grow up and our neighborhood wasn't sprouting any new ones so my old knees were getting nervous. The garden had grown by this point so I was more and more committed to no chemicals. A chance wander through Ace hardware brought some relief with a snazzy cane shaped (somehow appropriate) dandelion puller you use while standing. The dandelions didn't disappear but were kept well in check and I could gossip with neighbors about which neighbors "really needed to pull their weeds". Some time back I had heard that corn gluten sprinkled on the lawn would kill weeds. Thing is I could find plenty of gluten free bread (why bother!?) but corn gluten had people looking at me like I was very confused.
This winter my Youtube wanderings brought yet another evolution to my thinking about my little yellow friends. I'd heard about making a mock coffee by roasting the root, but the roots I'd seen were tiny. More importantly, coffee is sacred! It's my last decent vice. I don't need fancy but no Tasters Choice and the day just comes out sideways. But dandelion fritters - OK I'm listening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T29nfc0GRoE The warm winter brought a few early visitors to experiment with and I can give a full two thumbs up to dandelion tempura. I doubt any of the vitamins and minerals the plants are famous for survives a dunk in the hot oil, but tasty - yeah! I'm going a bit healthier with leaves and flowers on salads while the lettuce gets up to size in the garden.
Ah, almost forgot the gluten. The local garden shop sent me an online coupon for a bag of corn gluten. Send a cheap old Scotsman a coupon and you own him! I'd like to think my asking about it had some effect on them starting to carry it but with that asking comes an obligation to try some once they do carry it. Thus I bought a bag. No results to report yet but I gotta like a product that is natural and organic and has directions that read in part "the flowering of the lilacs in your neighborhood is the best indicator ... to apply"
Inner Circle's Bad Boys (the theme to COPS) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd68AthoNIw just came on and I'm trying to think of a dandelion parody with perhaps me as the dandelion police. Bad buds - bad buds what ya gonna do. Perhaps not quite as bad as my niece who came into my mother's hospital room singing Grandma got run over by a Tahoe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaGWYvZqhdw
I'll leave you with a jump back to my last blog in which I talked briefly about YouTube's use of algorithms to censor/remove inappropriate videos. The subject kinda blossomed after I wrote the piece with Facebook founder defending his privacy/content policies before Congress. Additionally a former YouTube employee ratted out the firms tricks to hook you into watching more. Than the stories and pieces started jumping my way. First a video calling for a YouTube content partners union, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7RfYt_p2mk over issues of censorship and money. (I have to add while watching the video I kept waiting for it to be revealed as a Monte Python joke but no...)
Next came a TED talk by Glenn Greenwald https://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters#t-902 (I'm not sure if the video will directly cue up or if it's within the full article - but it is worth the time!) He provides perhaps the best/simplest reply I've ever heard to those who question my concerns around privacy. The topper came with the local news announcers tisc tiscing about China's recently announced Social Credit System https://hackernoon.com/big-brother-meets-black-mirror-in-the-middle-kingdom-3febe4574467 (the announcers apparently felt free to disapprove when it happens in bad China!).
Much like dandelions I doubt my privacy concerns will ever disappear. I have a friend (Hey Joe) who sells tracking devices to the judicial system to monitor prisoners and the like. He also as a hobby abuses TSA agents on his many business flights for violating his Rights. Likewise a recent conversation with a librarian at a Jefferson County library revealed a woman proud of the library's stance to protect the privacy of John Hinckley's reading list from prying eyes. Yet somehow incredulous that I would be concerned that modern phones act as a tracking device better than my friends prisoner models. Drive a car? Try to buy one that doesn't merely track how you drive but where, and of course sells that information to private businesses and government if asked. My gym politely checks me in but would prefer that I provide my electronic fingerprint for their new check in system. My nieces limit their use of Facebook 'cause too many creepy people watching. and on and on perhaps I need to invest in some digital corn gluten and figure out a recipe for nosy fritters. Doug A.
And just for fun one more video to abuse you with and leave you with a smile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtk5Ej-xLsM
hey Doug, first I think that I get some kudos for the fact that I managed to find time to read the blog on the same day that you released it (the videos will take more time). Next, I do have to admit that you and I are on the same page with the privacy thing, and more than once have I wondered what will happen when the powers that be (those whose names we will never know) begin using this technology on "everyone else" besides those to whom they are marketed. But I suppose I figure it's better to be working on this side of things if for no other reason than to know how they REALLY work for when the day comes that we are all wearing them. But I digress...
ReplyDeleteThe reason that I am writing is to comment on the corn gluten. Please remember that it ONLY works to prevent germination. it does nothing at all for established weeds. I used to use the stuff all of the time. One year I spread it on one half of the lawn - just to see what would happen. It's not only effective at cutting down on the weeds (there were less weeds on the treated side than on the other, but more noticeable was how green the treated side was by comparison. It's a very good fertilizer.
The following year I spread it liberally on the flower garden, but didn't do the 'cover only one half' experiment, so I can only speak anecdotally, but it sure felt as if we had less weeds that year.
Hey Joe, yes I'm counting on you to have the bunk next to me when we get sent to the gulag and being my ankle bracelet consultant. Pay will be in dandelions the only true currency. (Travis will no doubt be touting crypto-dandelions!)
DeleteThanks for letting me know about the results of your corn gluten experiment. I'll adjust my thinking and expectations (and up my dandelion fritter consumption!).