i hate coming back from vacation to my office, as there's always a pile of work to catch up on, messages to return and dozens of other things which need immediate attention. Even though I left a clean desk, after my all-too-short, 3 day vacation last week, I had a pile of things to do on Friday morning. In previous years — 1997/98 excepted — I couldn't have done even a one day hiatus, because I didn't have the proper people in place to carry things forward without my direct supervision. Since having them on board now, I can leave and not worry about the business and whether it'll run all right if I'm not there for a few days. As long as I do my part in setting up and scheduling the landscape jobs, they can easily take it from there. It's a tribute to them (and to me for being smart enough to hire them). Getting back into it wasn't easy, after 3 days of being a couch potato. At least the weather moderated and we had some rainfall in the interim to cool things down. The drought is now official; like we in the business didn't already know. One toe at a time into the water... The Daily Routine. Humans are creatures of habit, just as many other animals are. And I'm no exception. Though I dislike being in a rut, a routine or pattern is necessary to survive and prosper when there are so many tasks and chores to get done in a finite amount of time. In order to keep this 20 acre Garden Center & Nursery complex operating at peak efficiency and insure the health of the tens-of-thousands of plants, maintenance schedules are set and implemented. Watering systems are synchronized with fertilizer-delivery machinery. Running an operation this size requires a well-orchestrated medley of plans and actions, designed to pre-empt trouble spots before they become trouble spots. Everyone has areas of assignment and responsibility which, if ignored, can lead to flare-ups and minor crises. I hate both; it's so much nicer when it all works together. Sad Story. In my daily travels throughout south central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, I run into all kinds of situations in which people have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous characters masquerading as landscapers or some other type of expert. More often than not, the victims are the elderly who just don't know any better than to trust someone based upon their word. And talk is cheap. Substandard work was done and an exorbitant fee charged and the unwitting people have fallen prey to scumbags. Perhaps at one time, people could take another's word for something, but these days there are just too many lowlifes out there pulling scams on easy targets. Sometimes, what I see almost breaks my heart. I run ads telling the public to beware of the buffoons riding around in pickup trucks with two shovels and a broom, calling themselves experts. It's easy to get magnetic signs printed up declaring we're professionals!, when in fact none of them are. They're just out to hit-and-run a homeowner who doesn't know any better. And that usually means the elderly. The industry needs to get all the morons, idiots, morons, scumbags, cretins and buffoons out of the business. Most of those scum are ones who can't find a job anywhere else, and have given landscaping a bad name. Many are also college kids, doing Summer work with a buddies pickup truck. All these people should be digging ditches where they can't do anyone any harm. I don't like any government involvement and interference in any part of my life — it usualy f*cks up whatever it touches — but there needs to be some serious regulation and testing of basic standards and proceedures in the horticulture industry. Thanks You x 3. An unfamiliar sound — rain — began early Thursday morning and has continued all day. Not a heavy, driving rain, but rather a gentler, soaking rain, which is exactly what we needed after drought conditions have set in for the third year. The ground has been so dry that just below the mulch is powder; not exactly good for growing anything except rocks. An unusual amount of plant material failures have occurred this Spring. My landscape crews struggled in the mud all day to complete their jobs. They were a mess when they returned. Oh well, a little soap and water can easily fix that. Too Bad. The very fact that the criminal Clintons are not indictable by Judge Starr simply means that they and others have covered their tracks very, very well. It doesn't indicate either Bubba or Hitlery are innocent. They're not. They're both scumbag criminals and a great embarrassment to this Nation. Clinton doesn't even view his impeachment with shame. Neither he nor his bitchy carpetbagger wife have any morals or ethics when it comes to doing what's right and being honest. They're both accomplished liars. She's a congenital. Speaking of liars and criminals, AlGore-Bore-Snore is now slamming Clinton for his conduct. This from an moron who knowingly took illegal money in a Bhuddist Temple fund raising event and claims he invented the InterNet. f*cking amazing piece of liberal shit. And with a criminal, lying bitch like the politically-compromised and sexually-challenged Janet Reno stopping investigations into the criminal Clintonoids, American Justice is thwarted at every turn. Read the first 3 chapters from the new book by Bob Woodward of Watergate fame. I Hate Racists. Having no affinity for Lucasfilm, I rail at the reverse-racist scum who use every opportunity to denigrate a product or idea because they have a racial stereotyping problem. Reverse racists are worse than outright racists; at least with a racist, you know where they're coming from. The reverse racists have mental image problems they don't even know about and are cowards in dealing with the truth. An idiot liberal emailed me that I was a racist, because I use words like white trash, idiot, chink, illegal alien and so on. I'm not a racist; I give shit to anyone and everyone who deserves it, regardless of color. f*ck the politically correct shit to death. Liberals truly need to purchase, or at least lease, some semblance of brains. They're naturally devoid of the ability to rationally think and reason. Pause In The Pesto. After processing basil et al into pesto sauce for the past three years, and having thoughts of going public with the product, I checked into the State of Pennsylvania required $1,000,000 liability insurance policy. $12,900 per year as protection against a recipient dying from eating my pesto. Hmmm, I don't think so. I've given it away to hundreds of people and they're all still here. Forget it for now. I'll just keep my production small and high quality, as usual, and forget the new venture. Stupid People. Only morons, idiots and scumbags would allow a convicted of murder, sentenced to death cop whacker, piece of subhuman shit to do anything except die for his crimes. But certainly not to deliver any kind of commencement ceremony address. The shit-for-brains student morons at a dump school, Evergreen State College in Washington State, wanted the murdering scumbag to deliver a taped address. I personally would have put a 9mm through scumbag's head, as just and right payback for Killing a Philadelphia cop in 1980. Ummm, it's 1999; that means scumbag's been kept alive for no valid reason for the past 19 years. He should be long dead by now he should be well-rotted compost. Instead, the piece of shit has become a celebrity with every liberal moron who thinks the death penalty should be stopped. To succintly illustrate how f*cked up the criminal justice system in this country really is, a convicted parent murderer is allowed to get married in prison. Married? How about executed, as he and his lowlife brother should be? When will that happen, as has been mandated by US Law? Ummm, probably never. The death penalty isn't used nearly enough. There are 3,700+ subhuman lowlifes awaiting their turn with the Grim Reaper, costing American taxpayers $16 billion-plus per year to keep their filthy, stinking hides alive. Give them all what they so richly deserve: death. That's what they're there for, isn't it? Sometimes, the system works. The List of Books. Are you determined to read the best and nothing but the best on the beach this summer? Here's the consummate list of lists for literati and committed readers: Western literature's greatest hits, as determined by an illustrious assortment of critics, juries, and publishers. You'll find Nobel and Booker prize winners, Harold Bloom's controversial Western Canon, the Modern Library 100, the Penguin Classics catalog, various lifetime reading plans, and much, much more. Bring your own towel.