Posted on by tonytomeo · 4 Comments

Merry Christmas!

This was much more awesome than gold, frankincense or myrrh!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

What is a suitable birthday gift for Someone Who has no use for anything worldly, but lived like He did? Gold, frankincense and myrrh seemed like good ideas in the beginning, although they were presented a year prior to His first birthday. Contrary to modern commercialism, a Lexus or Mercedes Benz might not be so appropriate for Someone Who preferred to come into town on a colt, and not the Dodge sort. Perhaps that is why it is customary to present gifts to others instead. Such gifts are Christmas gifts because so few have the same birthday.

Although overly elaborate or abundant gifts are a tradition that I find to be objectionable, I enjoyed many relatively minor gifts when I was a kid. Within my first few years, although I do not remember exactly when, I received my first tree, which was a seedling of Calocedrus decurrens, California incense cedar, from Amador County. A year or two afterward, I received a ‘Meyer’ lemon tree. During the same time, I received seed for many types of vegetables and a few flowers, as well as a set of child-sized gardening tools of premium quality. They lasted long enough for my mother to use the shovel to clean ash from the woodstove long after I graduated to a real shovel.

The most awesomely awesome Christmas gift that I received back then was my deluxe Radio Flyer wagon! It was my first luxury sedan that worked like a pickup! It was as durable as the other gardening tools. After I went to college, my mother used it to bring in firewood. It is out back right now, more than half a century after I received it new. It may continue to work in my garden as long as I do.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 9 Comments

Safety First

OUCH!

You should have seen the other guy.

Actually, this blood was not contributed by someone else. No one else was involved. Perhaps that was the problem.

I can not sharpen blades. I tried for a long time years ago, before eventually realizing that it would be best to rely on someone else to sharpen my blades. Those who know how to do it make it seem so easy. I have no idea how they do it so well, but I know that they do because it is how my blades get sharpened. It is an enviable ability.

Well, I neglected to get someone to sharpen my blades for a very long time. Naturally, my overused and worn pruning shears are beyond mildly dull. As most of us know, “A dull blade is more dangerous than a sharp blade.”.

The blade did not cause this damage directly. As I wrestled with the dull shears, they unexpectedly slipped past the stem that I was cutting so suddenly that I bashed my thumb against the accordingly damaged latch on the opposing handle. The injury was not bad; but I was too annoyed by it to stop what I was doing, which is why the blood continued to get messy.

I only took this picture so that I could later brag about rescuing a school bus full of Girl Scouts from an attacking polar bear, or something like that. I just have not gotten around to doing so yet. It might have been a grizzly bear.

Because these particular pruning shears are so worn, with a broken latch and a chipped blade, they really should be replaced rather than sharpened. They are the cheapie sort that can not be repaired. The blade can not be replaced. They performed exemplarily longer than they should have.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 10 Comments

Merry Christmas!

This was much more awesome than gold, frankincense or myrrh!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

What is a suitable birthday gift for Someone Who has no use for anything worldly, but lived like He did? Gold, frankincense and myrrh seemed like good ideas in the beginning, although they were presented a year prior to His first birthday. Contrary to modern commercialism, a Lexus or Mercedes Benz might not be so appropriate for Someone Who preferred to come into town on a colt, and not the Dodge sort. Perhaps that is why it is customary to present gifts to others instead. Such gifts are Christmas gifts because so few have the same birthday.

Although overly elaborate or abundant gifts are a tradition that I find to be objectionable, I enjoyed many relatively minor gifts when I was a kid. Within my first few years, although I do not remember exactly when, I received my first tree, which was a seedling of Calocedrus decurrens, California incense cedar, from Amador County. A year or two afterward, I received a ‘Meyer’ lemon tree. During the same time, I received seed for many types of vegetables and a few flowers, as well as a set of child-sized gardening tools of premium quality. They lasted long enough for my mother to use the shovel to clean ash from the woodstove long after I graduated to a real shovel.

The most awesomely awesome Christmas gift that I received back then was my deluxe Radio Flyer wagon! It was my first luxury sedan that worked like a pickup! It was as durable as the other gardening tools. After I went to college, my mother used it to bring in firewood. It is out back right now, more than half a century after I received it new. It may continue to work in my garden as long as I do.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 16 Comments

Horridculture – Dust Bowl

P00520
Cimarron County in 1940 or the road out back last Wednesday?

 

In a commotion that an Okie would flee from, the road out back got blown last week. What a mess! Dust was everywhere, and I mean, except for the road from which it was blown, it went ‘everywhere’. The engines of the two blowers at full throttle echoed loudly against pavement, the cinder block and metallic walls of the industrial buildings, and under the broad eaves above.

Fortunately, no one else was here to be bothered by it. Actually, no one would have been as bothered by it as we were by the crud that was on the road prior to getting blown. We know that blowing is sometimes necessary. There are only a few windows on the industrial buildings, and they were all closed. The few vehicles that happened to be parked nearby were already dirty.

Where I lived in town many years ago, the apartment buildings to the north and south were ‘maintained’ by so-called mow-blow-and-go ‘gardeners’. The building to the south lacked a lawn, but there was plenty of shrubbery there to be destroyed, even though the name of the technique does not rhyme with the rest of the routine. For both buildings, blowing dust was extreme.

There was no attempt to be tactful about it. The so-called ‘gardeners’ operated their blowers very loudly at full throttle, with no regard for where all the crud went from the pavement. Much of it went onto cars in the carports. Much went into the washrooms. Almost monthly, I needed to ignite the blown out pilot for the water heater in the washroom of the building to the north.

Both back corners of my garden were paved. There was a small paved laundry yard to the north, and a small paved trash yard to the south. The so-called ‘gardeners’ on both sides removed the kickboards from below the rear panels of those dreadful fences that I disliked so much, and blew the detritus from the neighboring properties into may back yard as if I would not notice.

When I replaced the kickboards, the so-called ‘gardeners’ broke pieces of them out, and continued with their technique. There was not much detritus from pavement that got blown weekly, but it was enough for me to collect and show to the property management of the adjacent apartments. It put the ‘go’ in ‘mow-blow-and-go’. It was the same technique only a few years apart.

As necessary as they are, and even though they can be used properly and tactfully, blowers still annoy me. The noise, the dust, and the seemingly innate disregard for others are not justified by their efficiency. I have used them, so I know that a practical degree of tact does not compromise efficiency. They exemplify the worst of what a formerly respectable industry has become.