The definitive word on pinching tomato plants

‘It depends’.  There are wildly diverse views on pinching.  Advocates note that you can get faster fruit (true) bigger fruit (sometimes) and dense foliage (often).  Opponents say it’s a waste of time. See http://tallcloverfarm.com/326/tomato-plants-leave-the-poor-little-suckers-alone    Me?

For starters, determinant plants do not need any pruning at all, since they stop growing on their own.  I suggest if you can let the plants spread out let them go because letting the summer breezes pass through the plants is a great beg deterrent. One pruning that is necessary is removal of the lowest leaves just as they begin to yellow – they are of no use to the plant.  The rest depends on your garden and your available time.  I do not pinch – at least not tomatoes.

An honest analysis of getting old

I’ve been at it for a year and a half now --- watching, reading, discussion with experts, and even exchanges with normal people.  I have tried to parse and categorize old age based upon what actually occurs, and like everything else it is complex. Without granularity I have reached three conclusions I can share at the outset, and the first is the bad news that growing old is, without exception, the management (or lack of) of decline.

Older people (this is not chronologically dependent) can then be considered based upon how they are dealing with the mental physical and social decline those progresses at a variety of paces.  The guy toolkit is not very well prepared for this task -- our fathers give us few insights as they age since they are facing the issues for the first time.  My dad gave me some of the bad news, but more about all the funerals he had to attend and issues dealing with an aging spouse.  He was in poor health, so his issues involved the medical care he needed.  He never told me, despite many lengthy conversations, of the forces of decline. He never shared hints as to how he was dealing with it.

Impossible to ignore, like gravity, the forces of decline make multi-tasking an ordeal; first modify and then cripple physical activities that were routine; and risk obliterating any social skills (some of us have few to begin with).  Your scope of activity mental and physical begins to contract and then shrink before you realize it; but most of all you are confronted with the need to choose which of your legacy activities to retain and which to jettison – you cannot do them all.

Yet we try to carry on.  So many older guys keep up their work and exercise and hobby routines no matter the age related difficulty.  They try to keep up the rigors of travel, and the volumes of reading or gardening that they have always accomplished.  After all they have done it for years.  So my second insight is that early on in the aging process is that you must pivot from doing everything you want to do to selecting activities and levels of activity from the deck you are dealt.  Pivot to a careful choice recognizing limited capabilities now and less in the future.  Some are easy (this old guy is not climbing ladders anymore) and some are painful (no more day trips to the shore) in the realization of what is no longer possible. Pivot you must, and there are no guidelines in the guy manual on how to do this.

Failure to pivot to a world of selected activity usually results in a total reset.  Some call it retirement or recovery (from a medical event) but older people inevitable have to reset their lives to a different pace and scale.  This reset could be managed and planned if somebody would tell us how to do it.  The real estate industry seems to market the downsizing of homes, and the warmer climate invite retirees to relocate as part of their reset.  If you are an exercise fanatic you can purchase a condo in an athletic resort in Florida to suit your future needs.  A reset is a big deal, but physically and financially this is the third conclusion -- everyone must plan some sort of reset. You cannot reverse mortgage out of the inevitable decline in everything else

I am comfortable with this decline/pivot/reset conclusion. Now I see others in terms of how they are dealing with these three forces. Not very well, I am afraid; since life brings a few more cards to the deck we are dealt. Foremost is medication and medical treatment.  Older people are consumed with often excessive meds and doctor visits; trapped in a health care system that by its own admission overdoes the testing and treatments and medications.  These old boys are seldom clear headed anymore, so more often than not they let others make choice for them.

The other card that pops up in the deck like the joker you never thought was in there is the death of a spouse.  Not supposed to happen, some of us old guys have a sudden void in all aspects of their lives that is impossible to anticipate. The dog listens well, but leave a bit to be desired in conversations.  You suddenly realize that most of your activity was tailored for two people rather than one.  Going out to a restaurant by you becomes a feed and now a meal.  Going to the movies loses its charm when solo.  Invitations to parties evaporate. Visits (frequent) by single females are just plain weird. My conclusion is that this is the most serious motivation for pivot and reset.

After the medical filter, I look at old guys on how well they face the world by themselves.  I am still working on this one…if you want details ask the dog.

Seemingly excessive discussions of health issues

Where to start, from someone who sees a recent trend in individual behavior as increasingly self-absorbed and dwelling on real and imaginary health problems, and as a proponent of the ‘mind your own business’ school of social discourse?  But it is unavoidable, these discussions of medical and emotional problems.  Maybe we should not ever greet anyone with ‘How are you?’  But that will not stop the inevitable flow of the narrative of doctor visits, recurring problems, potential procedures, and of course medications.

Friends and family and acquaintances are at the very least swept up in discussions of all things medical.  The world, and the bodies of these adults and of course their children and parents, cannot be degenerating at such a rapid rate that that is all there is to talk about.  At the usual risk of offending everyone, there is clear behavior in excess here.  The fixation so many have with health issues all the time such that it fills or dominates conversations is really IMHOP boring.  But what do you do?

The Guy Manual, if ever written, should be a guide to behavior reacting or even anticipating things we do not normally anticipate.  There is no chapter in the Guy Manual on what to do when all those around you seem to have drifted into a hypochondriac fog. Often they are unavoidable, since family members are often caught up in the medical morass(es) that fill everyday life. Frankly, we want to be sympathetic out of courtesy, but we do not care about their aches and pains, or syndromes, or medical agenda that make doctors and pharmacopeia on the top of mind.  We really do believe that a) it is none of our business; or b) it is really boring; or even c) there is a deep seeded psychological problem behind it all.

Clever guidance would be a way to avoid the conversations, or those who insist on pivoting each and every conversation towards health issues -- often difficult. Crude guidance (for those of us with few if any social skills) would be to preempt conversations with rules – ‘I do not want to discuss health and medical issues in any way’ may well be off-putting to exactly those we wish to put off. Redirection to another topic may well work for those who can take a hint, but simply changing the topic of conversation several times will not stop those fixated on things medical.

A couched offensive approach currently has my favor.  Each time they insist on pivoting the conversation to their favorite health topic ask them a foundational question.  So for example if they begin a litany of things they cannot eat you inquire if they are familiar with orthorexia.  If they constantly talk about doctor’s visits ask them if they have read about   somatoform disorder^[4] .  If they talk about the disease du jour ask them if they know about the Internists study  Choosing Wisely    .  If, inevitably, they talk about all manner of medications ask them if they have studied ‘polypharmacy’. At the end of the day there really are better things to talk about.  It sure beats simply calling them boring hypochondriacs (maybe). At the end of the day you can always just walk……

Greens cannot ignore the fundamentals of finance

There is clearly a big gap in most of the commentary from the ‘bright side’ of the green arguments ---no understanding of capital.

The reason I say the good guys are winning is that all capital flows globally will now avoid fossil fuels like the proverbial plague.  (here is my rant) .  Not even ethanol.

MOST DO NOT REALIZE THAT PRIOR INVESTMENTS ARE SUNK CAPITAL THAT CANNOT BE REVERSED  The coal fired power plants, the crappy oil cars, the miserable electric grid, and even the production of resistant antibiotics are all funded by capital that is through the pipeline of annuities and pensions and insurance policies and coupons that grandmothers (of politicians)clip. Stopping the use of old oil cars stops payments to pensioners (in pensions that are already under water).  So the main enemy is time*…..it will take time for these things to work through our capitalist system.

Old coal fired power plants are a good case (and our most egregious environmental sin) ---  even the operators do not like them and are happy to pay fines and insurance policy bills as long as they make their bond payments.  Raising capital for scrubbers and conversion is not possible at this time.  Same for Duke energy (current poster child) who would love to raise capital to properly entomb coal ash but is stuck (at least until their bankruptcy).

My favorite case right now is used batteries…..clearly a plague on the green scene.  It was announced this week that they have found a way to take (some not all) of used batteries and make them into a home (stationary) storage system in a financially viable way.  Same for spent nuclear fuel rods….but all of this takes time* AND  CAPITAL.  So (end of rant coming) keep to the ‘right is right and wrong is wrong’  theme, but watch the capital…

*some cheeky guy might site the existence of GADD  --Green attention deficit disorder

Pea Heaven

Peas Peas Peas Peas…finally filling and delicious.  A sure sign of summer, no matter how late.  In salad or soup hot and cold or certainly raw  the non sacrin sweetness is unmatched and make the aches and pains of gardening more than worthwhile. I understand you can purchase fresh picked peas from Amish garde3ners…but make sure they are very recently picked. So nice to find something simple and awesome!

Derp, derpy, derping, …whatever

I would like to say two nice words about the younger generations, who I take great delight in often belittling..... South Park.  Sure they are overly obsessed with each and every famous episode, but the bits that ooze into our culture are priceless….take Mr. Derp.

Mr. Derp repeats, over and over, his platitudes (attention youngsters this is called cognitive capture) despite evident facts to the contrary (attention millennials this is called Dunning Kruger). We see it so often it now gets into the mainstream – politicians and of course economists are labeled Derpy.  In public.  In the press. It sounds so innocent and silly to us older folk, but at the root of derp is contempt, make no mistake.

Not since John Stewart became the sole source of news for several generations has there been a popular culture icon with such a profound effect.  Embrace Mr. Derp.

The Two Dollar Bill is Back

Full disclosure – I have a vegetable stand with an honor box.  Stories about the honor box and notes from people who have no cash (and IOU 75 cents) could take three pages.  I have noted that this year there is a small flood of two dollar bills, when I had not seen them before.  I get a Suzy B every once in a while, and often the ‘ashtray dump’ of a pile of small change, but never smiling Jeffersons (remember?).

So, as a curious mind wanting to know, I asked several local merchants (yes, bars) if they have been getting them as well, only to learn of a cascade from the local gentlemens’  clubs that is the source. How remarkable!  First, that they would abandon one dollar bills when making change for customers as an incentive to double the tips for the staff (can you imagine asking the lady for change for a two?)  but more remarkable that the effect from one small industry can move so broadly so fast.

Lest we forget, it was the adult internet entertainment industry that begat efficient online payment systems ten years ago.  I wonder what innovations are next?

Gardening…cool weather vs hours of sunlight

Worried about your warm weather plants? Think about the hours of sunlight (even with clouds) that they are enjoying without hot winds or heavy rain.  My friends who are the real experts say that now that the sun rises at 5:30 and sets at 8:30 the tomato plants are very happy no matter what the temperature.  It is not too late to plant tomato plants, but plant them deep.  We still have vigorous and large plants in 20 varieties that you can still enjoy this summer.

Don’t worry about the cool temperatures, only the cool nights.  Many gardeners cover their plants when the temperature approaches 50.  The best is still a ‘wall ‘o water’ but there is a risk of burn when there are no clouds. We will have a week of clouds. The cloud cover will make your peas and greens very happy too. Unfortunately, weeds are happy too. Leave your shoes outside…..