From the East Wing, On To Fast Time, Garden Buddies, Bobby Knight's Cat, Sophia's Doritos, And Dirty Snow

Greetings to all, and welcome new friends to the East Wing.

Every year there’s something that just tells ya spring just “right around the corner”. Some may say seeing the first Robin, or the first green thing pushing its self through the dirt. For me, it’s the first time I feel the warmth of the sunshine on bare skin. I don’t care who ya are, that’s a springtime feeling.

It’s surprising what a few degrees of angle of the sun in relationship to the earth can make when it comes to being warm or just being daylight. Guess that’s why the Democrats and Republicans are not in charge of that sorta thing. Can ya just imagine if people like Barney Frank or Joe Biden were in charge of moving the sun around the universe? It’s scary enough with just what those two do now, much less given the extra work of sun moving. Course Barney Frank could maybe get some help from Twinkle Toes, seems he has some connections in that area of twinkle.

Here we go again on this fast time kick. Spring forward, fall back, dumb and dumber. Sure would be nice to be on the same time all year long. Did ya ever wonder why?

Today is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, time for moving the clocks one hour ahead. The exceptions are Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.

Benjamin Franklin, was the first who suggested daylight savings time in 1784, they laughed at him. In the early part of the last century a fellow named William Willett, proposed a similar system in the pamphlet “The Waste of Daylight”. They laughed at him too.

The Germans were the first to officially adopt the daylight-extending system in 1915 as a fuel-saving measure during World War I. The British switched one year later, and the United States followed in 1918, all for the same reasons. In 1918 Congress passed the Standard Time Act, which established our time zones across the country.. This experiment in jerking ‘round with the time lasted only until 1920, when the law was repealed due to opposition from dairy farmers. It turned out that cows don't pay attention to clocks and very few have watchers. Don’t know how many times ya’ve been in a barn, but ya seldom see any clocks on barn walls, in fact, ya seldom see anything on barn walls. During World War II, Daylight Saving Time was imposed again, year around, and for the same reason as during the first world war, to save fuel. Now I don’t know if we now save anything or not but I do know we sure make folks mad every time we change the clock. Forward or back.

Now in the United States, Daylight Saving Time commences at 2:00 a.m. to minimize disruption. However, many states restrict bars from serving alcohol between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. At 2:00 a.m. in the fall, however, the time switches back one hour. So, can bars serve alcohol for that additional hour? Some states claim that bars actually stop serving liquor at 1:59 a.m., so they have already stopped serving when the time reverts to Standard Time, Yah Right. Other states get solve the problem by saying that liquor can be served until "two hours after midnight." In practice, however, many establishments stay open an extra hour in the fall. I think most bars that find themselves in that situation just lets the drunks vote whether to serve another round or not.

Another good reason to choose 2:00 AM to switch the time is it prevents the day from switching to yesterday, which would be confusing to say the least. It is early enough that the entire continental U.S. switches by daybreak, and the changeover occurs before most early shift workers and early churchgoers are affected.

Much effort is put into making the time switch a safety reminder “time”. Many fire departments encourage people to change the batteries in their smoke detectors when they change their clocks because Daylight Saving Time provides a convenient reminder. A working smoke detector more than doubles a person's chances of surviving a home fire. More than 90 percent of homes in the United States have smoke detectors, but one-third are estimated to have dead or missing batteries. I checked mine.

Seems we just get the ole clock deal settled get everybody on the same time page, and we jump head first into the Ides of March. “Beware the ides of March” is for most people one of only two lines ever remembered from William Shakespeare’s works, the other being that Romeo thing, ya know what I’m talking ‘bout, where he’s at and all.

The word ides comes from a Latin word meaning “to divide.” The most memorable thing ‘bout Marsh 15th was the assassination of Julius Caesar on that day in 44 B.C. Now Julius Caesar was an interesting fellow, not only did he change the way the world was calculating stuff, like days and months, he also created the concept of lucky and unlucky days. One thing for sure, March 15th was not his lucky day. He’d been better off to have gone fishing that day for sure. Course it they didn’t get him that day, then March 16th would’ve been an unlucky day.

Yesterday afternoon, me and the she were on our way to a birthday party for twin girls turning 80, Doreen and Doretta, when she said she could hardly wait to start digging in the dirt this spring, even said she was gona grow a garden.

With that idea in mind, I got to thinking that it takes more than good soil, sunshine, and rain to make a garden grow. Plants have to grow well with one another. Just like people, some are friends and some are foes! Just like people, some plants just plain don’t like each other.

Now dill and basil planted among tomatoes protect the tomatoes from hornworms, and sage scattered about the cabbage patch reduces injury from cabbage moths. While Marigolds are as good as gold when grown with just about any garden plant, repelling beetles, nematodes, and even animal pests like rabbits and squirrels

There are even some companion plants that will act as traps, luring insects to themselves. Nasturtiums, for example, are so favored by aphids that the devastating little bas#%$#@s will flock to them instead of other plants.

Things like carrots, dill, parsley, and parsnips attract garden heroes, praying mantises, ladybugs, and spiders, that dine on insect pests.
A plant like white garlic can repel a plethora of pests, along with one hillbilly BobbyRay, and make excellent neighbors for most garden plants. Soup beans don’t grow well in the presence of garlic, and I’m not surprised.

Now potatoes and beans grow poorly in the company of sunflowers, and although cabbage and cauliflower are closely related, they don’t like each other at all. Cabbage and cauliflower sounds like some families I know.

The idea of companion planting is common sense: Lettuce, radishes, and other quick-growing plants sown between hills of melons or winter squash will mature and be harvested long before these vines need more leg room.

Now if ya like reality TV, Bet you’d like what’s going on in the garden. Talk ‘bout live drama, just watch the praying mantises, ladybugs and spiders go to work. WOW ! Now while ya’ve taken the time to stop and smell the roses by watching live Garden TV, if ya want to see a really productive society, find yourself an ant hill, just watch for a few minutes at what’s going on, you’ll know what I mean.

Ya gotta keep in mind that gardening’s not rocket science. If it were so, we’d all been starved to death long time ago. Seems we’ve been planting gardens ever since we stopped being hunter-gathers. Guess the only good thing going for that hunter-gathering lifestyle is ya got to see a lot of the county. That was back before the interstate roads. I think it was even before Route 66. They had an unusual means of transportation back then, it was called walking. Can ya imagine walking a thousand miles at twenty five miles a day. Now that would make for a long day indeed, and to make matters worse, like it even needed to get worse, there’s no Holiday Inns or Cracker Barrels along the way.
Some time back I came across one of the more enjoyable web sites I’ve seen in a long time. Not sure if I passed this site along or not, but if ya want to enjoy old radio listening then this is a must visit site. http://www.myoldradio.com/index.php ENJOY THE MUSIC, ENJOY THE STORIES. For those who have never heard this type radio, you’ll be surprised, for those who remember, precious memories, how they linger. Memory Lane.

Another sure sign of spring is the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Sophia has gone through a cat size box of Kleenex in the last several hours after her Indiana Hoosiers were not invited to the big show. I don’t think Sophia likes basketball, she just likes the red and white colors of the Hoosiers. She did say that while in Indiana, Bobby Knight has a Calico Republican Cat named Bouncer Balls. I don’t even know if that true or not, just what the cat said. Course ya gotta keep in mind her current mental state with the Hoosiers on the bench.

To get Sophia out of the dumps we just shared Nacho Cheese Doritos. It’s hard for a cat to be down in the dumps when ya pull out the Nacho Cheese Doritos on ‘em. The smile on that cats face, you’d think she’d seen a republican. Calicos are like that, yah they are.

Sure did enjoy the extra daylight today, am looking forward to tomorrow and the next day and the next day….. Tis the springtime for sure. Mustina’s already talking ‘bout dog days. The 2girldogs are big on the Dog Days of Summer. It’ll be here before ya know it. But in the mean time we gotta usher in the official start of spring when the Vernal equinox occurs on March 20, 2010.

We’ve laughed and we’ve played in the East Wing the last Sunday of this winter, 2009 – 2010. And all the while winter is melting away, leaving all the garbage which we collectively threw into the snow thinking no one would see. And now we all see.

Those whom throw into the snow should be embarrassed. Ya gotta keep in mind, God didn’t put the beautiful white snow here for your personal garbage dump. I hope everybody who reads this will feel compelled go back out there and pick their stuff up along the way, where they threw it out. I’ll see ya out there while I’m getting my stuff too.

I think I may have to go back to Georgia, I’m sure I have to go to Tennessee, and maybe Kentucky. Maybe the next time me and Mr. Lincoln go somewhere, I’ll take a garbage bag. Such a good idea.

As this evening draws to a close in the East Wing, the 2girldogs dreaming of the Dog Days of Summer while Sophia’s busy hatching a plot to derail the democrats this coming fall, we’ve enjoyed your company once again, and as such we do look forward to your next visit on the first Sunday of Spring.

Stay safe in Iraq and Afghanistan

From the East Wing, On To Fast Time, Garden Buddies, Bobby Knight’s Cat, Sophia’s Doritos, And Dirty Snow

I wish you well,
BobbyRay