All The News That's Fit To Print

 

Looks like I'm going to have plenty of apples this year - make some cider, maybe some wine, run a couple of batches through the dehydrator.

While mowing the other day, I noticed a few blossoms on the cherry "bush". It started out as one of two cherry trees but the deer have been munching on it long enough it's more like a bonsai tree. I planted it quite a few years back and this is the first time it's blossomed. It seems like it had a growth spurt, going from about 3 feet tall to almost six. I'm hoping to see a couple of cherries this year.

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Forty-seven people shot, nine fatalities in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend. I worked part time for a contractor in Chicago roughly 30 years ago and the neighborhood where I was working was a rough one. If memory serves, Chicago had about 900 homicides on the year back then. Looks like the city is heading back that way again.

The Epoch Times is reporting on a teacher shortage for the upcoming school year. The past two years has created some real issues. The online teaching, masking, social distancing, and all the rest has taken it's toll. Additionally, after staying home for a year or two, the little darlings don't want to behave now that they're back in the classroom. And now that there's been another school shooting, you know that's going to weigh heavily on their minds while deciding if they want to return in the fall. I've been mulling over returning to the college to teach a class or two and the risk of a shooting, even though the odds of that happening are quite low, is something to think about. There are enough hazards in a welding shop as it is - don't want to have to worry about some whack-a-doodle coming in and shooting the place up.

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I got most of the immediate concerns with the garden taken care of. I've still got some flowers to plant - I shouldn't have let the Missus go to the greenhouse on her own. In addition to what we needed for the cemeteries, she bought a couple of flats of stuff to plant around the shack. Having the cooties put me behind schedule right at spring planting. I've been hitting it pretty hard the last few days and I think I've got most of my strength back. I think most of what ails me now is old age and lack of doing anything much for a while. It's supposed to be nice weather the next week or so - temps in the seventies, rather than the nineties like it was the last few days. Looking forward to that.