short stories part whatever, more bloomey things

I subscribe to a newsletter called Nautilus. You have to pay to play to get access to all the articles in every daily email but they always include one free article and they are fascinating. Most recently I read one titled How Life Works by Philip Ball. It’s talking about genes and gave forth this interesting tidbit, that we are not complex forms because we have an abundance of genes, in fact we have barely half of the amount in a banana, but because of the way our genes are regulated. We are half of a banana, I found that amusing for some reason.  Other essays I’ve read via Nautilus recently: Never Underestimate The Intelligence Of Trees by Brandon Keim and How To Quiet Your Brain Chatter by Liz Greene. I have several more still in my inbox I want to read. The one about trees was really no surprise because I’ve held the belief that trees are sentient beings with all the attributes of sentience since my early 20s. In fact I believe all life is sentient. How can it not be and survive?

When my brother was here the topic of ear worms came up. He said that the way to combat one driving you crazy is to mentally replace it with a vigorous marching tune. So I tried it this morning, tired of the short refrain from a song I can’t remember the last time I heard it and had been hanging around for a couple of days (and why does my brain pick these off the wall refrains?), and it worked. Of course now I have this Philip Souza type marching melody bouncing around but not as often and infinitely better because it has no words! And later in the day even it was gone.

We’ve been have really nice weather this last week; cool nights and mornings, low humidity, blue sky days, lows in the 60s, highs in the low 80s. That’s changing this week as highs will get into the 90s and lows in the 70s while the hill country will be broiling. Summer is creeping in.

This is the Chinese tallow tree in the little backyard directly across from the back door on the east side of the property inside the fence and shades the yard and house from the hot summer morning sun. It drops its leaves in the fall and if we get an early cold snap they turn yellow, red, and orange. Even without a cold snap they get speckled with all colors just not all at once. The leaves I drew last fall were from this tree. It’s old, average lifespan 30 - 50 years, and I imagine it’s close to 50, but can live up to 100 in optimal conditions. I love this old tree that gives us shade and color and shelter for birds and squirrels.

You might remember that I got a letter from a Frank Hofer, an account manager with a reputable Investment Bank in Canada offering me half of $9+M for submitting me as the heir to Alan Abbott’s estate who died with no kin to claim said estate. Well, it turns out that Frank is a piker because I got another letter from Noah Mark Esq., an attorney and notary public, also in Canada contacting me about an unclaimed “permanent life insurance policy” held by his client the LATE JEFFER ABBOTT, a real estate investor, who was also a cancer victim and died about four years ago with no heirs coming forth and had a “Life Insurance Policy” savings monetary deposit of $49,375,735.47 (gotta love the 47¢, makes it more authentic don’t you think?) which he will happily split 50/50 with me for submitting me as the heir. Oh and time is of the essence since the money will have to be turned over to the state after being unclaimed for four years. Boy, am I glad I didn’t jump on that first offer. Now I can go for the big money.

A week later and my eye feels almost normal. The graininess and gooey feeling is gone, mostly I’m just aware of it. It feels like there is a bit of a glare on the outside edge but now I’m thinking that’s just because I’m getting more light in compared to the other eye. And I swear, my eye is a different color. I’d been in the habit of using my glasses to watch tv so things were better in focus but now of course my glasses are useless. I was watching tv Saturday night and I suddenly became aware of how sharp, in focus, it was and while I need cheaters to read a book or look at my phone (computer screen is fine) where before I didn’t, my mid range vision is excellent and I’m not really sure how far that extends. Pretty far seems like. 

A few more blooming things: in this picture byzantine gladiolus, day lilies, society garlic;

spiderwort, one of my favorite day lilies, carolina wild petunia which I dug up out of an easement in my old city neighborhood and which has spread all over the little backyard.