Alabama Trip

Last week, I spent several days helping push plants at the Alabama facility we own.
Obviously, it is a little different vibe than Oberlin, OH, so I'll lay a few things on you.
For my hour drive over to the facility, the one commercial that seemed to play over and over on the radio was a "donate your car to us" ad. The agency was some institute for the blind. It took me hearing the commercial for the second time to really get that one.
Every dining facility we ate at, the owner walked around and talked with the patrons. Now you expect that at fine establishments like Miorcas (downtown Cleve.), or some original Italian place (no matter where in the world you are), etc. but, hey, this was "Big Daddy's" in White Plains, AL, pop. 5,000. His shirt open to the mid-chest so he could show off his new open-heart surgery scars, he never stopped talking and making sure everyone had what they need. Sweet tea in the South is still the best. We also ate at "The Barn," one of the top 100 places to eat in Alabama (I can now tick that one off my list). Again, Ron the owner came and sat down with us and even gave us a few slices of Red velvet to make sure we didn't leave without being satisfied. Shoot, even when we went to the mall on our way to see SW3, the owner of the American Grill put extra veggies on the sandwich even though it wasn't on the menu that way, and told us how business was going etc.
Notice I didn't say where the food was bad or good. If the food was bad or just decent, the Southern hospitality made up for it. If the food was good, the meal was great. Now I wouldn't travel half-way across the country to get to any of those places, but there were some good reminders to me that words can set tables.

One to grow on

One to grow on
Originally uploaded by davidvw.

Ok, the peony has a few years on the kid, but Jack will catch up in a bit. This peony has taken about 3 years to get this nice (It needs ants to pollinate it to bloom).
The kid is about 8 months and just starting to try that crawling thing. I know we'll eventually have to have more patience with him than we've had with the peony, but he looks better to me than the plant ever will.

Y2Link

I noticed someone put a link to my site on his site, so I'll explain a bit. I wasn't quite ready to do that explaining, but that is ok (hey this is May. Any gardener knows that greenhouse people don't sleep in the month of May).
Why? is always a great question.
Why do I have this site up?
1. Every time I change computers, I lose all my favorites links and industry links. I still don't have them all up on my site, but when I have time, I'll do it. So I'll have them no matter what computer I change to, or if I am on the road and need to look up something quick.
2. Also, I want to chronicle certain things sort, of like, sending a letter to yourself and not opening it, and saying, "look, I said that last year!"
3. I told some friends I wanted to start a discussion page about some issues. Ok, I only told 1.
4. I want to occasionally show off my kids.
5. Want to show some of the places I've been whether other greenhouses for work, vacation stuff with my wife (planning Italy for the fall, her first real extended "European Vacation" rather than just passing thru) and kids. There are some pretty cool automated greenhouses in Western Europe, and thru-out NA, and it would be fun (for me and to me) to post the new things and laugh at them in a few years. Also I can post pics of new plants that haven't made their way into the marketplace yet. OOOooo, I know, you are so excited.
6. Occasionally show some places not to go.
7. Talk plant culture with other plant geeks (yes, as an added bonus, plant killers can ask anything about their dying plant they have in their entrance that never gets light, but you can't figure out how to keep it alive).

Bad Lisianthus

Bad Lisianthus
Originally uploaded by davidvw.

Cheesy Grower Humor:
Sales guy walks in and sees plant, says, "Gee, what's wrong with that Zinnia?" Plant guy says, "First thing wrong with that Zinnia is that it is a lisianthus."

There may eventually be a list of links up for "Cheesy Sayings," just for the fun of it, or something for me to make fun of, I'm not sure which.
"I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens."

The names of the Pope

A friend of mine was telling me about the names the Catholic church calls the pope and I also looked up some.

Pontif, which means bridge builder, comes from pontificus maximumus, which is what the Roman emperors called themselves.
Pope - from papa, or father
Chief Pastor
Supreme Ruler
Infallible Ruler
Chief Judge
Vicar of Christ,
Supreme Pontiff,
Bishop of Rome,
His Holiness,
Holy Father,
As "the rock" - protector and gatekeeper of the Church so the gates of hell will never prevail in Jesus' Church. Defender and Promulgator of God's Truth, Will and Way to the Church.
As "holder to the keys of the kingdom of heaven" - controlled and authorized by God to discern and choose what to bind and unbind for both heaven and earth. Given the keys to Jesus' Kingdom, the role of St. Peter, or the papacy as a whole, includes the power and authority to bind (declare is unlawful or bad) and unbind (declare as lawful or moral/good) anything upon both heaven and earth. This means, whatever the pope declares as binding or unbinding should be heeded and followed by everyone in the Church on earth as well as all saints and angels in heaven.
As "vicar of Christ" - good and loyal shepherd of Jesus' flock; humble servant, obedient to Jesus' teachings and the will of His Father.
As "universal shepherd" - feed Jesus' lamb, tend and feed Jesus' sheep - with God's Love, Care, Truth, Will and Way.
As "universal fisher of men" - evangelize the whole world and bring God to all people and all people to God.
Papal infallibility - When certain statements are made by the pope, he is under the influence and control of God and so there is no way he is going to make a mistake. Thus, he enters the situation or state of "papal infallibility". It is not of his own doing. Rather, it is under the influence and doings of God, Himself so no error can be committed.
He is Bishop of Rome; Vicar of Jesus Christ; Successor to the Prince of the Apostles; Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church; Patriarch of the West; Primate of Italy; Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Province of Rome; Sovereign of the Vatican City; and Servant of the Servants of God.
I even found an email address for the pope, just in case you want to ask him about any of the names:
benedictxvi@vatican.va

The above words are not mine, but what Catholic doctrine proclaims of the pope. Some of those names are obvious provencial in nature, which doesn't make them inherently correct or incorrect. I would put forth a challenge though to any who are mesmerized by the reading of the above names: What are the names of God? Christ? Holy Spirit? God the Father? Look through Scripture to see what names God allows Himself to be called. Then, when you have seen Scripture, ask yourself, what place should I give men when giving out titles?

Sales this weekend

Well, sales after the foot of snow 2 weeks ago really put a damper on things. Hopefully, with the gorgeous weather we had this past weekend, it really made some momentum. We'll see in an hour when the guys run Retail Link and HD #'s.
Reading: Ecclesiastes - I'll be reading it over several times just for the month of May. I want to understand it better. More later.

Credit Nightmare

If anyone has ever thought, "Oh, all those guys who worry about their credit report and all that identity theft stuff are full of hooey," that anyone would be sadly mistaken. I've dealt with this problem for nearly 10 years. 1 time, I even had 2 detectives come out and check out everything. I sent out letters to credit agencies, numerous stores and courts. I thought the issue was taken care of several years ago.
About a week ago, my wife tried to pay for something using our normal credit card. It is simply a Quicken credit card that we use to track our expenses, we pay it off every month and we get reward points every time we use it. They denied it, saying she was over the limit. She called me (fortunately it was late afternoon), and I called the credit card company and "calmly" relayed to them a reminder that we have never been late or not paid in full in the 7 years we have owned the card. "We realize this sir, but the credit agency relayed to us your financial circumstances and we have dropped your limit by 800% because you are a risky account. We only do what the credit agency tells us is the best thing to do."
Without going into the other 3 calls I had to make before actually contacting a voice that was not a tape, I finally spent 1 hour on the phone with a very helpful individual. Interestingly, the last time I communicated with the major credit reporting agencies, you could not email or phone those companies. The only communication was via snail mail. Things have advanced since the credit reporting stone age and now you can contact 1, yes one, company that will respond and work out the problems with you. Experian was extremely helpful in literally going thru the 25 pages of my credit report and changing the over 30 instances of problems that I had not created. I found out that the problem was not identity theft, but a wrong SS # someone had written down when Keri and I were first married. The one digit that was off, matched me to someone who was near my age, had my same first name and lived nearby. I had tried to correct this before, but apparently no one heeded my call to check the facts. So, over the past few years, on my credit, this fellow has bought a year membership to Bally's, 2 cell phones, 2 land lines for a phone, tools from a professional tool company, leased an apartment, had himself sent to collections on all the above items, bankrupted himself 4 times, late payed over 100 times, and oh, bought a house and defaulted on the mortgage. And my credit stayed at 750 out of 850 until the latest bankruptcy, which then brought it down to 650. I'd hate to see what really bad person at say a 200 score would look like. Sounds like the whole grade inflation thing. Let's just make everyone look good, so people don't feel bad. I pity the fool that has a perfect 850 score. It apparently doesn't mean that much. But, hey, hopefully that is what I will have here shortly. I'd like to be that fool for a change.

Not just another pansy

Pansies have a bad rap. Everyone views them in such a negative way. When someone is a wimp, they call him or her a pansy. Just about everyone gets called a pansy sometime in their life. Fact is, pansies are some of the toughest plants around. They typically overwinter well in areas all around the world that can bottom out at -10 to -18 (C) or even in areas that only get down to 5 (C). So these tough little flowers survive the harshest of conditions then get trampled on because people tend to look at the negative (they stretch in the hot humid conditions). Folks too quickly forget that first burst of color in the spring, bringing with it summer hope, warmer weather, and foreshadowing of outdoor fun that old man winter closed up.
I'm sure there is a life lesson in that somewhere. If I could just remember what I was thinking of when I started writing.