Common Sense

As I was looking through the newspaper this morning I noticed some headlines and articles that made me want to say "Duh!"

*Research indicates computer games won't boost your IQ

*Pay off debt before retirement. You also might want to retire your mortgage.

*Cell phones indispensable to most teens

I wondered if nobody has any common sense anymore that these things are considered worthy of the ink to print them in the paper. Feeling quite smug, I put the paper aside and got to work. My nose was jerked down where it belongs before noon.

First, I defrosted and reorganized the deep freeze. We're getting a quarter of beef next week from a local farmer and I wanted to get the job done before the freezer fills up. As I was putting things back in the freezer and writing down the inventory I came upon a pint of apple jelly dated 1998. Horrors! I've been taking that thing out and putting it back in for twelve years? I knew why. That batch of jelly didn't get right. My frugal German genes rebelled at throwing out food, so I stuck it in the freezer. Somewhere along the line the other two boxes either got used or pitched but this one was still stashed away. If you want to know what 12-year-old frozen jelly looks like, try it yourself. I threw it out.

Common sense: Food does not improve by freezing OR aging in the freezer.

The next job on my list was to edge and weed the circles around the two trees in the front yard. That totally finishes getting the flower beds in shape for spring and it's a big relief to have it done. Anyway, a few years ago the bluebells in my spring bulbs flower bed were too thick. I pulled a lot of them out but it seemed a shame to throw them away. I planted some of the bulbs around the trees. But now they have taken over there as well. So today I yanked a lot of them out and threw them on the bank along the road. If they want to grow there without being snuggled into the earth that's their privilege. Last week I yanked out some Ivy and Wandering Jew that were growing all over everything as if they owned the place.

Common sense: To get rid of a plant that is known to overstay its welcome, don't transplant it, throw it out.

Duh! I guess I don't have as much common sense as I thought I do.