Short and Un-sweetened

It's been a long time and while i still don't have big news or loads to talk about I have a few short comments.

Royal Wedding - I found it entertaining that so many people seemed to think that their comments online about how irrelevant the wedding was to them was some how more relevant than the wedding itself. I think sometimes the current generations have lost the ability to simply be happy for two lucky people. We seem to say if it didn't happen to me then the system is unfair or I don't care. The real green movement is to be green with envy.

Osama Bin Laden - It took a long to come about but in the end we did what we essentially said we would do. Like any parent you have to follow through on your threats or you have no standing. I have to admit that I am somewhat relieved that this will not be dragged out in a surreal trial and the burial at sea denies supporters of a martyrs shrine although the compound in Pakistan may become such anyway. Were we (the U.S. collectively) right to do it? To quote the great warrior Ash, "Good, Bad, I'm the guy with the gun."

Glee - Jumped the shark and is such a dead show, they just haven't gotten the memo yet. The show is formulaic in the extreme..."tonight on glee it's (insert band/singer) night, watch as character X and Y have an arbitrary conflict leading up to a sing-off with freakishly expensive use it once and forget it costumes and stage props because apparently Lima, OH has the wealthiest school district in the nation"... It's kind of like 90210 got supposedly dropped in the middle of rural Ohio.

Of course the same can be said for American Idol and the D.O.A. 'The Voice' but we like to really wail on our dead horses. I believe the simple truth is that people don't watch the show to see people win, they watch to see who loses. The next days headlines proclaim the weekly loser in bold letters while the 'winners' are labeled as safe ... for now. Don Henley said it in Dirty Laundry that 'people love it when you lose.'

So, I have a challenge to anyone who cares, which I expect to be zero people. When you Blog or tweet or comment etc. Focus on positive personal accomplishments. I very quickly tire of he said / she said crap from supposed grown ups who sound like my kids telling on each other. In that vein, I planted a garden at home. It's four raised beds 4' x 4' with various veggies. I made the boxes, shoveled the compost and mulch and planted the seeds. My oldest daughter occasionally helps which makes it especially nice to connect with her on a personal one on one level. I'm also putting in various fruit bushes and trees in the back yard and am looking forward to watching them grow. I think gardening is one of the ultimate lessons in the rewards of delayed gratification. I'm not keeping careful records of costs but I describe myself as a 'lazy farmer' in that I do not plan to spray or even fertilize beyond the aforementioned compost which will result in a semi-organic garden since I also didn't make a big deal of the seed varieties used. I don't know if this will result in a lowered food bill but it certainly won't increase it by any appreciable amount. I may keep some records of yields when they come in to compare year on year but as this is not a business or competition it probably won't get any more complex than an excel spreadsheet.