The Kudzu Files

I never buy bananas at Walmart. Almost never, anyway. Sometimes I forget, and I buy bananas at Walmart. I did that earlier this week. The bananas looked so happy and bananish sitting there on the display. So I bought some, and the next morning when I peeled one to add to my Grape Nuts, I remembered why I never buy bananas at Walmart. How is it that Kroger (and other grocery stores) can sell bananas that are unbruised, and not terminally mushy, but Walmart seemingly can’t? Is there a Banana Reference Manual somewhere that Walmart never saw? What do they do to the bananas before setting them out for sale? Are they used as packing materials for televisions or something? Of the four I bought, two were so bruised and mushy that I just threw them away, one was about half-salvageable; the other sits waiting for tomorrow morning, when I have no doubt I’ll discover it will look like Mike Tyson used it for a sparring partner. In the old days, when Mike had a punch and an attitude. The amazing thing is, this happens almost every time I buy bananas at Walmart, and yet, every few months, I’ll be at Walmart, need bananas, and think “surely they’ve improved”. Nope.

Walmart - Banana Muggers. Somewhere there are banana mothers telling their banana babies that they’d better be good or they’ll be sent to Walmart. Which is why I never buy bananas at Walmart. Almost never.

Daylilies blooming in my garden this morning.

Not the one that’s currently spewing 50,000 barrels or more each day into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  It’s too late to prevent that one.  We made those decisions 20 and 30 years ago, when we chose to drive cars that got 15 mpg instead of 30.  We made that decision when we decided that in the United States of America, “conservation” and “fuel efficiency” and “alternative energy sources” would be obscenities that were anathema to the American way of life.  So now, in 2010, we have to drill everywhere we can think of, at whatever potential cost;  we have to send hundreds of thousands of our military men and women to the Middle East to ensure we can continue to be held hostage by nations and societies that don’t give a damn about us once the money has been transferred.  We can’t change that for the foreseeable future.  We can’t prevent the next spill, or the one after that, because we have nearly 4,000 wells just in the Gulf of Mexico, and with that many, there will be other spills.  But we can, maybe, prevent some future spill, 30 years from now.  Not with better technology, although that would help, but by making serious energy policies now that would lead to sharply reduced dependence on oil as a primary energy source.  What we’re seeing now is proof that we have a vested national and human interest in making cars far more efficient - or electric - and developing effective mass-transit.  We need to be willing to say “no, you don’t need an Excursion if you’re only driving 3 kids and a dog to soccer practice”.  You don’t have a “right” to drive a huge pickup truck, not when it only delivers 14 or 15 miles on a gallon of gas and you don’t haul big things or pull heavy trailers.   Smaller, lighter, more efficient trucks would serve most pickup drivers just fine.  What is so un-American about using less gas?  The cheapest barrel of oil is the one you never buy.  And it won’t wash up on anybody’s beach either.

The Tea Party idea springs from the Boston Tea Party, which protested taxation without representation. The modern-day Tea Partiers see themselves as inheritors of this independent American spirit - indeed, they like to don the tri-corner hats and wave “Don’t Tread On Me” flags, and walk around in patriot costumes. So I wondered - why isn’t the first item on their agenda pushing for true Congressional representation - senators and a congressman - for the District of Columbia? They pay Federal taxes, yet have no representation in Congress. There are more residents of DC than there are of Wyoming, yet Wyoming has two senators and a representative. In all seriousness, how can anyone who is upset over taxes not start there?

The goldfish pond is cleaned up, the pump is running, and this evening I added eight new little goldfish to the two over-wintering survivors. Maybe I can keep birds and bullfrogs and other carnivorous creatures away this time.

I checked Site Meter just now, and noticed that someone from ibm.com came to my blog, based on teh search string “I hate Lotus Notes”, and found this post. I mean, it’s true, I do hate Lotus Notes, but still…

I took these pictures about two weeks ago, the daffodils are gone now and the tulips mostly so, but they made sitting on the deck in my front garden a very pleasant place in the early Mississippi spring.

Tulips from above - my attempt at an artsy shot!

I had a burst of inspiration one morning, and decided to change our side entry. We’d always kept our garbage cans and recycling bin there. I don’t know why it took so long for me to decide that was ugly and I could do better, but here’s the result:

I had gotten the frogs a couple of years ago, with the idea of somehow using them around my goldfish pond, but that idea never germinated, so they had sat in my shop. The fern I planted beside them has almost doubled in size in the two weeks since I planted it.

John Feinstein has a nice read about Coach K and Duke (and Brad Stevens and Butler) at Feinstein On The Brink.

Back again, after a brief pause for recovery from reading the Health Care Reform/Socialist Takeover Of Amerika bill. And there have actually been other things hopping around since then, not counting Easter bunnies.

• I had several emails/Facebook notifications wondering whether I (not me specifically, except in one case) missed George W. Bush yet. Short answer: no. Giving four more years to the people who created this mess was beyond unthinkable at the time, and remains so. I remain firmly in the Obama camp. As far as Republican reactions to the health care thing, frankly I’m tired of the yammering. You guys had eight years to do something about it, and did nothing, while everybody outside your country clubs knew damn well there was a real problem. So we elected somebody else to do something about it. Sit down and shut up.
• Confederate Memorial Day/Confederate History Month/Whatever Southern Celebrations: I grew up a Southern boy. I know all the stories of gallantry and sacrifice in the face of the Damn Yankees. But it’s a story of gallantry and sacrifice and brave deeds done so that white men could own black people as slaves. To my fellow southerners - that was 4 short years of being very, very wrong. Can we not find some other heritage during the other 230 years to celebrate?
• If you’re anti-abortion, consider this: at what time during the past 25 years did the Republicans, when they were in control, actually try to do something about abortion? I don’t mean things like slipping partial-birth abortion bans into a bill about other stuff that they knew Bill Clinton would veto. I mean really, truly trying to do what they’ve been telling you all this time they would do if you would just elect them. Here’s the reality - the last thing Republicans want is for abortion to be banned. They get too much money, and too many votes, from you guys. They need to keep that pot boiling.

Enough for now.

It’s that time of year in Mississippi, when the oak, elm, and juniper trees spread pollen everywhere. Everything outside, and some things inside if you leave the door or windows open for long, have a coating of yellow pollen. When I got home yesterday, I used the leaf blower to remove some of the pollen from our front deck, so we could sit and build a fire in the chiminea. Yellow clouds billowed all around me, but I did manage to relocate some of it. I also washed my car, knowing it would only be temporary, but it, like most cars here, trail wisps of yellow everywhere they’ve gone the past few days. This morning, before I left for work, I rinsed it off again. That much had accumulated overnight. But it isn’t all bad. Temperatures are in the 70s and low 80s, and my tulips have been in full display. Perennials have begun to shown signs of vigorous growth, and we can safely plant annuals, I think. No more frosts, hopefully.