winter's
still here

Friday, March 23, 2001


+ + + + + + + + +

I find it most humorous that we go through the same routine every year: almost to the day — March 17th — with the calls coming in by the dozens and hundreds, asking me about mulch, dividing perennials, planting out veggies, bedding plants and on and on and on. People get anxious when a few 40° and 50°: days roll by; they think Spring's arrived. Ditto when the days get longer. Hey, it's still Winter, folks! Will be for 3-4 more weeks. Obviously they didn't listen to that stupid groundhog up north a few weeks back. People are also calling up for landscape work, and are very shocked that we're already booked through July. Sure, I can put them on The List, and they'll get called when their turn comes up. The shitpy nurserys can do the work next week; the quality, high-end operations are booked up a year in advance. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm so ready for Spring, but in the past 11 years I've been snookered twice by faux Spring: Winter delivered late freak ice storms and snows, damaging tender nursery stock and perennials we'd unwittingly set out to "harden off" — quick maturation of new stems and leaves by buffeting winds and cool temps — prior to sale. Lots of damage in those early days; I won't be doing that again anytime soon. Now we set out only containerized shrubs and plants which haven't broken bud just yet, and have not leafed-out. They're still able to handle the snow or ice or frost; the plants with "tender leaves" just opened will be whacked back and stunted for months. Spring's forecast is grim, according to these "government officials". Did you ever know anyone in the government to be accurate or truthful? Me neither.

Around The Garden Center.
The landscape crews are working furiously to get all of the containerized nursery stock out of the six large 30ft x 100ft greenhouses, where it was stored for the Winter months. And as loads of fresh stock arrive, I get the John Deere 675B SkidLoader and John Deere 70 Tractor out, and everyone pitches in to help unload the tractor trailers, so we can get the drivers on their way to the next stop. This'll go on for another 3-4 weeks until just after the 11th Open House, Saturday, April 7th.
Ouch, once again. The DJIA dumped last Friday and I'm seeing the bruises a week later.
Saturday was busy for this time of year; lots of walk-in retail traffic and many people inquiring about landscape work. Heck, Spring arrived Tuesday. Additionally, it was St. Patty's Day and all the drunks were out and about. Did I wish you Happy St Patty's Day? Sorry. The number of DUIs always seems to increase year-over-year, for the Penna State Troopers. Checkpoints everywhere; lots of field sobriety tests being administered. We are still closed on Sunday — Spring hours kick in March 26th — so I went down to feed Pickles, do some paperwork, water plants in Greenhouse 1, check on some cuttings I'd made last Fall, et al. Always something to do in an operation that size. I stopped at Mom & Dad's on the way home for some delicious corned beef & cabbage; it's the McKinley — Top 'O The Morning To Ya! — on my Dad's side of the family coming through. Happy (belated) St Patty's Day!
I've often said here that I don't fly anymore, because of terrorists shooting down commercial airliners; ditto this weekend's wreck is also why I don't take the train either. I'll drive, thankyouverymuch.
This past week might have been the closest thing to Spring, since last Spring. Temps in the 50s and 60s, buds a breaking just south of the Garden Center & Nursery Complex, Tidal Basin Cherry Blossom Festival (DC) about to happen, people leaving their Winter Digs by the tens and dozens at first; now coming out by the hundreds. A brief snowstorm scare which never materialized. My Landscape Crews worked to bring tender (not "hardened-off") leaved containerized plant material out of the six 30ft x 100ft Greenhouses. I'm taking a "big chance" on the weather predictions, yet the "risk" isn't too large that a 3-4man crew can't reverse it should the weather prove inclement, with a mere 24hr notice. We're on Spring-Summer-Fall Hours (M-S 8-6, Sun 12-5) beginning next week. "Vacation" is over for one more Season. No tropical islands, no luau's, no lazy days in the Tropics. 94% of the Industry spent the Winter getting ready for the Spring. No kidding. People used to ask me which "islands" I'd Winter-over at. (OK, OK, I know it's bad to end a sentence with a preposition.) Reply: The Island of York (PA).
Spring arrived Tuesday, but you'd never know it from the weather. Another Nor'easter was working its way up the East Coast with 6-10" of wet, heavy snow, galeforce winds and heavy rains; the worst being inland. Maybe we'll get some and maybe we won't. It's a shitshoot. Quite typical for this time of year, I've decided to hold all "tender" nursery stock and perennials back in the greenhouses for another week until this storm passes and then put the plant material out and let it "harden off". I gave instructions to the landscape crews on Tuesday, who've been busy bringing last year's nursery stock out into the Retail Display Areas, along with the newly-arrived stock. Better safe than sorry.
On Wednesday, during the storm, during my 3hr drive north to visit a new landscape site for some long time customers who just moved from Hershey (PA), I encountered heavy rains and snow on I-81; the return trip was merely rain. Temps never dropped into the freezing zone, even at night, so the snow once again missed us, thankfully; the higher elevations got some though. By Thursday, the storm had moved into the Northeast and we were having to deal with major flooding: 5" of rain had fallen and many roads were under water. At this point in the emerging Spring, rain is more welcomed than snow.
Tomorrow, my Sister Becky arrives from San Francisco, for her annual 3 week stay and helps us get ready for the Open House (Saturday, April 7th). All are glad to see her; she whips the Retail Greenhouses into shape and Mom & Dad are happy to have her back for a visit.

The GOP Cretins.
Congress spent $18.5 billion on pork-barrel projects in the current budget. So what? Lib-democRAT filth spent more on a consistent basis. Give those GOP Idiots a few "practice bills & votes", and they'll get it as right as the lib-dem lowlife filth did, after 8 awful terrible immoral treasonous nightmarish painful evil embarrassing crime-riddled years with the now disgraced ex-president and disgraced current- senator. Why don't those 100 morons and scumbags and cretins ever learn from History?
Top congressional DemocRATs took their opposition to the administration's tax-cut plan to a new level yesterday, blaming President Bush for scaring consumers and investors so badly that the economy has soured and thousands have lost their jobs. "The Bush administration has been talking down the economy now for some time," said Senate white trash Minority Leader Tom "fist me, Lance" Daschle at a Capitol Hill news conference with House white trash Minority Leader Richard "The Greased-Weasel moron" Gephardt. Are those two subhuman shitfilth, or what?
The Bush administration is considering ending the ultra-liberally-biased American Bar association's long-standing role as a semiofficial screening panel for nominees to the federal bench. I say, Yes! Get rid of the stinking liberal ambulance chasing scumbags; we need more Conservatives on the benches to prevent frivolous lawsuits and make sure scum like OJ Simp-scum and Pussbag Combs go to prison, where the filth belong.
shit for brains, spineless white trash Republican governor of Virginia, Jim Gilmore, caved to the bigoted, racist NAALCP (Nat'l ass'n for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People) replaced his yearly Confederate History Month proclamation with one commemorating both sides in the Civil War. The race-baiting, misery profiteers at the NAALCP turned up the heat on Virginia by threatening an economic boycott — similar to the one it is staging in South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from State House grounds — if shithead Gilmore again issued a Confederate History Month proclamation. Not being a southerner, it doesn't raise my hackles. What does is the caving to those lowlife, lib-dem black scumbags. Definitely not Blacks.
The worthless EPA relaxing standards on arsenic in our drinking water? Bull-f*cking-shit. Everyone should be protected from such poisons and toxins. Everyone.

The US Congressional Criminals.
This just in: of the 535 (435 Reps, 100 Sens) people who make up the US Congress, 29 have been accused of spousal abuse, 7 have been arrested for fraud, 19 have been accused of writing bad checks, 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses, 3 have done time for assault, 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit, 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges, 8 have been arrested for shoplifting, 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits, 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year, and 1 — Hitlery Rotten Clintoon — has a criminal record longer than the Bill Of Rights.
Well, well, well, the disgraced current senator Hitlery Rotten Clintoon bitch scum is back in the news, spending the US Taxpayers' monies like her f*cked-up criminal husband did: on unnecessarily lavish office space. She's rented a $514,149-per-year suite in a stylish Manhattan high rise. Stupid New Yorkers probably won't care; afterall, they elected the criminal bitch to a 6-year term. They've gotten what they wanted and now have what they deserve.

Idiots, Morons and Cretins.
Both Bill Gates Sr and Gates Jr are morons. Neither wants the Estate Tax repealed; the argue that paying the tax is "the price of being a U.S. citizen". Talk about convoluted, f*cked-up illogic. They're both socialists and communists.
Why doesn't the Law put this white trash piece of shit Robert "more coke, please!" Downey in prison for 30 years and rid society of another druggie? He's garbage and always will be.
Well, well, well, Huge Rotten, disgraced current-senator Hitlery Rotten Clintoon's shyster lawyer brother, still hasn't paid the $400,000 back to the two criminal sleazeballs that disgraced ex-president Bubba Jeffy Clintoon pardoned, back in February. Betcha he's got some serious tax problems. Good; go to jail, you fat piece of shit.
I love it: the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals told the commie-socialist-liberal shitfilth ACLU to f*ck off! Ohio's state motto — "With God, all things are possible" — is A-OK to use. The ACLU is laden with dick-sucking lowlife filth, almost down there with murderers, rapists and child molesters. The ACLU is a bottom-feeding organization, rife with AIDS-riddled homo scum, and is even more responsible for ruining America's moral fabric over the years, than BJ Clintoon was.
In typical Brit "style", they do everything too late to do any good, and do it very wrong. The mass Killing of millions of healthy animals to stem the hoof-mouth disease problem is absurd. It won't end the problem; merely bankrupt the farmers. There are better ways through inoculations and medicine.
Why the f*ck is the World obsessed with shitney Queers? She's a two-dollar whore slut rag bitch. White trash shit filth.
Right behind the lowlife islam-muslim shitfilth religion is the scientology trash bullshit scam, a group of pathetic losers who can't find their own tits/dicks/asses with both hands. Founded by a cretin, Dead Ron Blubbard, scientology is a cult which bilks people of their monies — though in the case of Bruise and Revolta, who the f*ck cares? — and brainwashes their already mindless skulls into obedience and servitude. The US should either revoke their status or throw them out of the country. If I was president, I would, by EO.
Hey, Fat Irrev Al "interloper Jew scum" Sharp-scum race-baiter, misery-profiteer and all-around race-baiter lowlife is headed to Florida, to "assist" the murderous 14 year old, 180lb WWF Wrestler Imitator, who murdered a 6 year old, 40lb tiny girl. Hey lib-dem scumbags, just so you don't think — wow, there's an oxymoron: liberals who "think" — I'm a racist: both kids are Black. Doesn't matter if they're White Kids or Green Kids; the boy's guilty of murder, should be placed in prison until 18 years old, transferred to Death Row, and executed for the crime. End of problem for Society and its innocent victims.
Aw gee whiz, am I surprised? Puss Dummy hip-hop nigga gangsta lowlife walks. Another OJ Jury. Racist, braindead, moron, lowlife white trash, black and hispanic filth parasites who want to see Justice thwarted = OJ Jury.
Castro nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of developing nations? Only a moronic left wing commie socialist wacko could do something that f*cked-up.
A group of punks hanging a puppy from a tree limb. If I'd have been there, after getting the puppy down — it was still alive but now has brain damage and a bad prognosis — I'd have beat a couple of those lowlife punks to bloody pulps. What is it with humans that makes them so f*cking stupid and cruel?
Don't get me wrong; I love the people of France and Italy, their history and food and wine. But their governments are socialist and communist homos slimefilth and the most f*cked-up governing bodies on the face of the Earth. Even more f*cked-up than America's. All socialists and communist-homoshitfilth — and by definition, liberal scumbags — should be identified, rounded-up and exterminated. I'd love to pull the trigger or plunger.
Here's the main reason why Europe is f*cked-up and will become even more f*cked-up: socialist and communist filth in the European Union (EU) mean to control every facet of life and business. Every socialist and communist experiment has failed in the past and this too, shall end miserably for Europe.
Think I'm too hard on subhuman homo filth? Nah, read this. And the dick-sucking Maryland governor, Parris Glendening, felt it necessary to push through another "gay rights bill" to protect the rump raiders and fudge packers from discrimination, just because his dead-from-AIDS brother was gay. Tsk, tsk.
f*ck this lying load of shit; jail the white trash scumbag for being an alcoholic.
The lowlife, lazy, alcoholic, drug-addled redskin injuns are on the warpath again. Still beating that equality drum": American-Indian "activists" see a connection between the use of the name of a man considered a spiritual leader and the acceptance of Indian-related nicknames and mascots for sports teams, which they say range from the simply demeaning to the sacrilegious and together keep American-Indians from being considered on a level with other ethnic groups. Crazy Horse was a piece of shit. All the redskin scumbags need to go get jobs and live like normal human beings, instead of welfare cases, drunk all day and night, drugged-out and laying in their own puke.
She's a terrorist: throw the Lori Berenson lib-dem whore into a deep, dark Peruvian prison and melt down the jail cell key.
I love this: A Brooklyn man has been charged with stealing millions from the lowlife liberal rich and infamous scum through the Internet, apparently using a public library computer to help him pull off the heist. He should have ruined all of them financially instead of just stealing a few bucks. I'd love to see all the slimy Hollywood shitfilth — Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martha Stewart, Ross Perot, Ted Turner, investors George Soros and Warren Buffett, and 400 other lowlife morons — with no assets whatsoever, as a result of disastrous "investments", like dick-sucking liberal scum Salon.com's worthless stock, selling for $0.79/ share these days.

Reparations?
For what? They owe US. And hey, I'll forgive the debt, if they'll send the lowlife subhuman criminal and worthless shitfilth welfare scum — I'll set the criteria — back to Africa; the quality Blacks can stay.
Can't handle criticism? Can't handle the truth? Blacks will engage in discussion; black scum and white trash always react violently.
With blacks comprising 13% of the US population and committing 44% of the violent crimes, these lowlifes in Seattle are playing their failed race card: accusing the media of "portraying" them as criminal, which they are. Hey slime apologistas: f*ck you. Rein in your bastard criminals, make them get jobs and become members of society, like we are. What? Can't or won't do it? Cowardly liars and liberal filth, all. Any excuse for bad behavior. Gimme my 9mm and .357 Magnum; I can fix it permanently. I'm sure that quality Blacks in Seattle are disgusted, too; they've worked hard to get what they've got and be where they are, as have all of us.

Execute This Subhuman Garbage.
Here's the idiot savant father of one of the OKC bombing victims calling for "forgiveness" for the murderous Tim McVeigh. No f*cking way, he richly deserves Justice and death.
Another murderous underage punk piece of shitfilth, desperately needing to die, for being a Brooklyn schoolgirl mother of a newborn found half-eaten by a dog, was held on $500,000 bail yesterday on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges. Execute the subhuman filth at 18.
Read this story and tell me with a straight face that these 3 pieces of subhuman shit don't deserve to be executed. I'd pull the trigger in the blink of an eye, in a heartbeat. No qualms whatsoever.
In a state that has no death penalty and has not executed anyone for more than a half century, a federal jury today began to consider whether to sentence a former nurse to death. Last Wednesday, the jury convicted the nurse, 33-year-old Kristen Gilbert, on three counts of first-degree murder and one of second-degree murder for giving four patients at a veterans' hospital lethal injections of epinephrine, a powerful stimulant. Go ahead Massachusetts, execute the bitch; she richly deserves it.

The MegaPenny Project.
This elegant exercise in number visualization offers the answer to the age-old question, "What do a billion pennies look like?" WARNING! SPOILER AHEAD -- A billion pennies look like five massive blocks of copper each roughly the size of a school bus. But that's not all! A million pennies resembles a good-sized bookshelf, one-hundred billion stacked pennies forms a giant monolith half the length of a football field, and a stack one quintillion pennies is just ridiculously big. This is a wonderful way to whack five minutes. We suggest you work your way up from the first stack of sixteen.

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