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notes from the bunker - a thought on freezes in spring

The snow from yesterday is mostly melted as I write. The only thing left to be figured out is was there any serious damage. It was really little more than a simple spring storm with a bit of a hard freeze or near hard freeze last night. Possibly again tonight. The mizuna and arugula I had put out last week under a little row cover of plastic got an added bit of fleece for protection.  I'm sure they'll be fine, pretty cold hardy stuff. A bit more of a worry is some spinach and lettuce which I'd also put out. It was being killed off by some unknown thing on my window ledges indoors and thus was at least as safe outside. I had, knowing that the storm was coming, covered these with Wall O Waters. Wall O Waters are kind of the PPEs for plants in spring. A brilliant little invention which adds a good measure of protection from temporary light freezes. Hard freezes are something again and this is a bit early for my normal sowing of spinach and lettuce, so I'll hope. If I'm crossing my fingers for anything with this freeze it's our peach and nectarine trees out front. They had just barely started to bloom. Again, these blooms can handle a light freeze, and this was borderline. My bigger hope is that the warmth of this week will bring on the rest of the blossoms and a crop of fruit to replace last years which we're just now finishing up (from the freezer - Mmmm!). We'll see!
 With a cool day outside and no desire to work in the garden, I've put on some music from a simpler time. The time itself was likely every bit as complicated as today but it's music of my childhood and thus for me from a simpler time. THE MONKEES:  Daydream Believer, Simon & Garfunkel Live 1969, The Best of THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS, and a special favorite THE WEAVERS ALMANAC. Comfort food for the ears for these 'interesting times'.
 THE WEAVERS ALMANAC in particular is evocative for me. My father, perhaps before we six kids had sucked all the youth out of him, owned a very snazzy reel to reel tape recorder and player. I think it appealed to the young techie engineer in him. The Weavers was one of the few tapes he had. I'm sure I wasn't supposed to touch it but I just loved sneaking downstairs and playing that tape over and over. Hooking the tape into the pickup reel, pressing the big white buttons, and singing along. Simpler times!  

 I feel I should say before I stray off on all things viral - I know nothing. If you asked me today what I think the future will hold, I could only honestly answer I really really don't know. I've never been particularly good at reacting 'right' in a serious situations. I've tried to compensate, in my adulthood, by considering how I could prepare for contingencies. The hardest part of preparing is it's a thankless task. Especially if the possibility your preparing for is (as it usually is!) a low probability event. How much of your energy should you invest in the bet?
  I mean imagine growing up during the Spanish Flu pandemic. You survive and learn the lessons well. As your friends are blowing off steam and enjoying the roaring 20's. You are hunkered down hiding from some past reality. As the stock market crashes and the Great Depression drag on perhaps you find some solace that some of your preparations are useful and adaptable if not spot on for the hard times. Unless you live to the most remarkable old age you don't live to see today's pandemic, let alone benefit from any preparations you made. Near zero positive feedback. Thus, preparations always tend to be a half heart affair full of compromise. I've got tons of pasta, anyone got any sauce?  So I really can't be too hard on my Republican President or my Democratic Governor for their missteps. I'll just have to hope they figure out a good recipe for macaroni salad.

 Ironically as I type this Simon and Garfunkel are singing "I am a rock I am an island" ;~)

  For a greater irony I would offer a life lesson I learned through a video game I am slightly obsessed with. (Deb might drop the "slightly" but those therapists are always looking for trouble so...) God loves you and wants you to succeed. OK, OK, those of you who know me personally know I'm and old heathen who can barely handle agnosticism so hear me out.
 I played this game for years with some reasonable skill but made a giant leap in skills from a simple midnight epiphany. The creator of this game really has no benefit to seeing me lose. More exactly he (I'll use the male pronoun as I don't know!~) wants me to win. He is happy to give me little 'clues' and 'tricks' to use in order to win. He just wants me to find the game and the process fascinating, and I do. Now I look for clues everywhere and likely see more than he ever intended. The game has evolved into me asking myself is this a clue or do I just want it to be a clue. I will leave it to the theologians among you to argue, quietly, somewhere over there.
  In past years I've put seeds out for sale and gotten virtually no takers. I did so again this past week and sold a noticeable few. People are scared. They've seen the runs on the grocery stores and 'know' food is important. For most people the mental gap between a seed and food is a bit too great for their 'normal' reality. I think tomato plants will be a little more able to bridge that gap for potential gardeners. As I don't want to waste the crisis - I mean chance for more of my neighbors to become gardeners, I've started a few more than my normal number of plants in my window sills. In order to do that and fit them in the limited window space, I started them in smaller pots and week later. I know gardeners are used to seeing large robust plant ready to fruit on Mothers Day. I'm hoping true gardeners will know that the minimal difference in growth at that point is almost inconsequential to first fruit or yield. With the further hope that a few more folks will start perhaps for the first time a garden. It's a great and very old school game and the creator wants you to win, so do the seeds!
  Hmmm, this 'stack' on the CD player is full of irony. The Weavers have just started singing When The Stars Begin To Fall. Take a moment and enjoy the words and imagine me howling along.
   I realize more than a few of you reading this see the pandemic as an event of concern but not panic. (and again I really really don't know!) I also recognize that government edicts to do this or not do that are anathema to my libertarian principles of self-government. Yes, if you are in a high risk category you should be taking the most extreme care of your own health that you can. It is incumbent that those with the highest risk should have made the greatest preparations. It's also a simple fact that such is not likely the case. Most if not all the libertarians I've met have always bridged this philosophical gap with a combination of personal charity and a willingness to accept temporary 'emergency measures'. I leave the political philosophers among you to argue quietly somewhere over there.
 That said, I do not accept (and I hope you won't either!) that emergency measures should be allowed to drag on to a new permanent normal. At some point it is - give me liberty or give me death. Sadly, former President Obama's Chief of Staff updated and put into words what has long been the operating mantra of government. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." . If this is a serious crisis it is only one. Parallel, and hardly hidden, has been a long crisis of a profligate way of life for us in America and throughout a good portion of the world. Our economies are morbidly obese stuffed with debt and other sure killers which I'll let the economist among you again argue, quietly, over there. The crisis of the economy has been described as a bubble in search of a pin. Whether, the crisis of this virus was man made, bat-made, just one of those things, or perhaps even avoidable really doesn't matter in terms of it's ability to do it's job as a pin. Hell it's a shotgun blast.
 There are too many serious 'temporary' abridgements of civil liberties , too many clear dangers to our economic liberties, too many thieves lining up to permanently steal our liberties. When this storm ends I don't know if it will be a hard killing frost or merely a spring storm. So protect yourself and protect the herd's liberties. To eat a tree ripened peach in the fall is a kindness the creator doesn't give every year.

Comments

  1. My wife tells me I have the comma virus but it's better than the bad case of parentheses I used to have!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Doug! That was a refreshing read as a break from managing pandemic finances and mask manufacturing.

    ReplyDelete

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