Category → Fruit of Contemplation
Want to add beauty to the world?
If you want to add some beauty to the world, and who doesn’t, then do this simple thing: Let milkweed grow on your property.
Monarch butterflies follow the world’s most incredible migration, but they are increasingly challenged by unnecessary weed control and manicured lawns that eliminate milkweed.
Why milkweed became Public Enemy Weed #1 is probably lost to early 1900s history. But the negative association in most Americans’ minds keeps it suppressed far and wide.
In an urban and suburban environment, milkweed is no worse than the ailanthus (“tree of heaven”) growing everywhere, and it provides a home for beautiful butterflies that make our summers happier and more fulfilling.
So if you see a patch of milkweed growing on your back corner, please leave it. Beauty on wings will thank you, and that miraculous journey will continue for another year.
Toyota: What the Hell Happened?
What the hell happened to Toyota?
Toyota was once the world’s flagship car and truck producer. Since my wife and I married over 20 years ago, except for one Subaru Forester, new Toyotas have been the only vehicles we have purchased. Overall we have been very happy with those purchases. Until now, when we joined a growing list of unhappy Toyota buyers.
A couple of years ago, Toyota experienced odd problems with cars taking off on their own, crashing, and killing the occupants. Some of those occupants can be heard crying, screaming, yelling to Toyota and 911 dispatchers as they unsuccessfully struggle to control their vehicle. Toyota sales plummeted. Significant inward analysis followed.
Enter the Toyota Tacoma, Toyota’s premier pickup truck. Tacomas have developed a loyal following, and an aftermarket add-on industry (bed extenders, cow pushers, roof racks, etc.) second to none. I myself owned a 2002 Tacoma for over eleven years and it performed flawlessly. It reinforced my brand loyalty.
But now, if you go on tacomaworld.com and other similar websites, you’ll see a growing chorus of buyer dissatisfaction. Tacomas apparently have been rushed to market without the kind of research and development necessary to work out the bugs. I myself can tell you my own very recent experience with the new Tacoma.
It has been a deeply disappointing experience. The brand new Tacoma I purchased is flawed, and despite four visits to Faulkner Toyota (the first within days of driving it off the lot) to have it fixed, the problem persists. The truck is not merchantable. It should not be in the channels of trade, and yet here I am, another unhappy Toyota Tacoma owner.
Attempts to get customer satisfaction have resulted in arguments, outright lies by Toyota dealer employees, vague promises to fix the truck over the next month. A month? It has already spent nearly as much time at the dealership as it has spent in my own possession, and another month is said to be needed to possibly resolve to the problem. May I say that I paid cash for the truck, and I perhaps unreasonably expect a brand new vehicle to perform flawlessly.
So here we go, watching Toyota self-destruct its last remaining stalwart vehicle. Very sad. Very sad, indeed. What happened at Toyota? No one seems to know.
For me, the Nissan Frontier is looking like my likely next pickup truck. On Consumer Reports it ranks much higher than the Tacoma with owner satisfaction. To Toyota, my lemon purchase is but one small statistic. To me, this experience is practically a change in lifestyle.
Happy Spring!
Who can resist joining the chirping happy birds now scampering and flitting across our lawns in search of worms, nesting materials, and mates?
The sun is up, the skies are blue, the smell of spring is on the breeze, the leaves are unfolding…
Spring is finally here. Chirp chirp!
Easter vs. Academia
We are in the midst of Passover and just beginning Easter.
Passover and Easter are about birth, spiritual and physical freedom, and in America, the power of co-existence. Not only of different faiths, but different ethnic groups, different ideas.
However, for decades, college campuses have increasingly harbored anti-American staff, whose teachings run counter to everything America stands for. Many are at state-run colleges, where public taxpayers foot the bill for their salaries and benefits. Private colleges often receive huge federal grants that also support these anti-American professors and administrators. Number one on their hit list is usually Christianity, the dominant faith of our great nation. Christianity is the repository of values in America, so tearing down the faith leaves a vacuum they are trying to fill with secular humanism, atheism, etc.
A week ago a student at Florida Atlantic University complained about his professor, Deandre Poole, who had assigned the students in his class the job of writing the word “Jesus” on a piece of paper and then stomping on it on the floor. The offended student was suspended from class. Can you imagine if the word “Allah” or “Mohammed” had been written on the paper? It would have been an international incident. Yet because the student is a Christian, the school has nothing to say to him. Yes, the oppressive Mr. Poole is not in his class room right now, but that is because the school says he has been threatened, not because he is an awful teacher.
I don’t care what your faith is. Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Zoroastrian….if you are an American, recognize that people like Deandre Poole are at war with your ability to practice your religion without harassment or oppression, and that Poole and his friends will outlaw your ability to fight back.
It is Easter vs. Academia, and I hope Easter wins.
Winter, I’ve just had it with you…
Normally I look forward to winter every year. Cooler temperatures, various hunting seasons, trapping, fall fly fishing to hungry trout that were laying low just weeks before….it’s probably my favorite time of year.
That said, I have just had it with winter this year. We have burned five cords of split oak firewood, which says something about how cold it was, and I am just tired of hauling wood.
Wearing wool keeps me warm and wool clothing usually comes in colors and tartans that you won’t find in other fabrics. Even when I am not out hunting, wool clothing reminds me of the season and is just so doggone warm. And now, I don’t want to see another wool shirt for a long, long time…
Snow in late March? OK, I recall casting a fly on the mid-April opening day of trout season about 28 years ago in Centre County, amid a snow squall that impeded view of the Royal Coachman that was so visible to the trout below. And my own wedding in March of 1993 happened on “the storm of the century,” which kept many of our guests and family from reaching the proceedings.
Those two events aside, I cannot think of another drawn out winter like this. Old Man Winter, I will not miss you.
The tonic of wilderness
Reading just about any wilderness outdoors report by hikers or wilderness advocates, you’ll have a tough time not meeting up with the well-worn phrase “the tonic of wilderness.”
All my life I’ve been a wilderness hound, and I don’t know what that phrase means. Whether day hiking, fishing, or camping with a rifle next to me many miles from the nearest road, my feelings about wilderness have zero association with the word tonic.
Euphoria, and drug-induced narcotic stupor are more accurate for my take-aways. That Cloud Nine feeling can stay with me for weeks after returning to human settlement. Getting older only makes it better, because so many layers are filtering the experience now. Water, stands of old conifers, some far off hill that sees one or two people a year, or a decade, these now are the templates upon which each new excursion is planned. Studying a topographic map now yields concrete images of what to expect in my mind, accurate or not.
Since last year I’ve taken to marching about with a heavy pack loaded with 50-65 pounds of steel as a means of getting back into some sort of decent condition. Sometimes I am fortunate enough to hike a local park for 30-60 minutes. Usually, it’s just my neighborhood that I’m tromping through in my rugged hunting boots. Concrete isn’t pretty to see, and my mind once again helps out. As the minutes tick by, a quiet euphoria overtakes the senses, and my eyes see trees, distant horizons, and unbroken scenery. My hand instinctively grips an imaginary rifle, and oblivious to cars whipping past, I wander unnamed marshes somewhere else.
If someone wants to call this the tonic of wilderness, OK. It makes no sense. But if that’s now the by-word, I’ll accept it. Just so long as I can get more, soon
Something lighter
Odd ways to die from long ago…http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/2012/10/29/causes-of-death-you-wont-want-on-your-death-certificate/?o_xid=54215&o_lid=54215&o_sch=External+Paid+Media
Good movies hard to come by
Zero Dark Thirty takes its name from the old saw that military duty usually begins at some dark hour long before dawn, when most people are fast asleep in cozy beds.
The movie by that name contains the same message: Americans live comfortably, while brave warriors place themselves at great risk for the greater good, often without thanks or recognition.
It’s certainly a timely message, as our current president is reluctant to lead or give credit to those who do. Americans are in grave danger around the planet, and thankfully we have citizens who still believe in the greater good, even if their current political bosses do not.
Like the movie Act of Valor, Zero Dark Thirty gives a glimpse into the harsh reality of battlefields far away from daily American life, but without which our happy existence would not be possible.
A good message, a necessary movie.
Downton Abbey’s American Roots — Of Course
For the other Downton Abbey addicts and aficionados out there, here is an interesting article I enjoyed reading this morning. All about the family connection between the TV show Downton Abbey, the real Highclere Castle, and Wyoming, America. By the way, the state of Wyoming was named after Wyoming, Pennsylvania; it means “Great Grassy Plains” in the Delaware Indian language.
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/downton-abbey-close-to-wyoming-rancher-s-heart/article_11965d2e-5c28-11e2-8c45-0019bb2963f4.html