Fragments From Floyd

So I'm off soon to spend three hours with one home health patient. Well, not exactly: a half hour with the patient, two and a half with the paperwork and the drive there and back. I dunno. I think maybe I'm about ready to leave this paper chase for the next generation. But maybe I'll feel different when the day is over. It's never so bad when it quits hurting.

Ann has the day off. And I'm certain I must be imagining things. It seemed--surely not--that when I reminded her I would be gone all day and she would be home without me, it was not remorse I saw in her face. It was not sadness, for certain. I swear it almost seemed as if she was barely able to restrain a certain kind of glee. Could that be possible facing a day without Fred? Nah!

Meanwhile, here are some links hanging around in NoteTabPro that yearn to see the light of day.

SOS! Save Our Seeds. The call came several years ago to protect our precious seeds. We'd be up some kinda creek without a paddle should we lose the seeds that grow the plants that feed us. There are enough scenarios that could result in just such an outcome. Norway is putting legs on the idea--er, maybe roots is a better term--by creating a cave into the rock of a remote northern island where the world's seed stock can be safe from everything short of meteor impact. Sounds goofy now, but...

Eggs and Green Ham: This is for real--green glow-in-the-dark pigs. I can die now, I've seen it all. "They are the only ones that are green from the inside out. Even their heart and internal organs are green."

Froggy Went a Courtin'. And he did fry, uh-huh. Frogs around the world are falling victim to a fungus that thrives in globally warming temperatures. It kills frogs by attacking their skin and teeth as well as by releasing a toxin. While researchers had previously identified the fungus as a major reason for the frogs' demise, they have been trying to determine why the disease has taken such a major toll in recent years. Now, they think the know the culprit. Same problem is wiping out the salamanders.

Mushrooms as Art: Saw this and remembered long ago, when I used to carry around a two foot square piece of black velvet in my camera bag. One time in Alabama (out in the Grant's Mill area that now is cheek to jowl subdivisions) I found twenty different kinds of fungus and arranged them much as you see here for a portrait. It made a pretty impressive image, if you're into 'shrooms. They come in some pretty snazzy colors and forms.

I Had A Thought! But mine never turn into money. This young man's idea turned into this webpage and several hundred thousand more dollars than I've made on the web.

What the Hellebore? Feeling creative? Name a plant, get one free if your zany and creative name is chosen. I just like looking at all the varieties modern plant genetics has created. The genus Hellebore is in the Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family. Most are poisonous. But beautiful.

Counting the Cost: I was shocked when I read how so many people spend so much for various forms of entertainment and communications. According to Wired, "it runs more than $200 a month for a third of the households in this country. Four in 10 spend between $100 and $150 a month, according to the poll of 1,006 adults taken Dec. 13-15." Then I added up my own--even without satellite or cable or digital radio or iPod or other bells and whistles. Seems my hobbies are more expensive than I'd realized. How 'bout yours?