Tasteless Tomato

I was eating a BLT (without the T) and thought that a nice slice of tomato would taste good. It's been a long time since I've bought one. Then I remembered that they're just a waste of money. Tomatoes taste nothing like they used to 25-30 years ago. They used to be firm and bursting with flavor. Now they're mushy and tasteless. It's sad that humans distroy most of what they touch, attempting to improve it or simply make more money. It's bad enough when every man-made product has to be changed or improved like laundry detergent but they have to play God and mess around with nature. Nature would take care of itself if there weren't any humans around.

Here's a recent fuck-up...Africanized honey bees. "Duh, let's cross breed some bees and make the honey bee super aggresive so it'll make more honey and we'll make more money." Hello! Are these people scientists? Are they stupid? Did they really think they could contain a tiny aggressive flying creature? Oops, some got out. Now they've upsetting the insect world which affects the birds...and so on. I trailed far from my BLT (it is called "Ramblings...").

Ok the tomatoes.... and cucumbers. Come to think of it, I don't remember the last time I had a decent watermelon. Remember when fruits and veggies were available 'in' season only. Now we have to either import them or grow them faster (hurry, hurry let's make some more money). I don't need strawberries in December. I'd rather have them RIPE and in their prime growing season...locally, well at least within the region (Midwest, Northeast, etc.) Having them in winter means they're picked before they're ripe so that they won't spoil on their way from South America to my refridgerator.

Well, I'm done bitching for now. Guess I'll get back to my tomato-less BLT.

Death of a friend's loved one.

Everyone has loved ones die. It's a fact of life. The loved can be a family member, a spouse, lover, friend, pet or even, for some people, an inanimate object. We each have our own way of handling/dealing with this. Some like being surrounded by friends, others want only a select few with them and still others would rather be alone.

As the friend (I'm talking true, love them dearly close friend here, not acquaintance) of someone who's lost a loved one, it's often hard to know what to do or say. I spout off some dumb platitudes, something I tell myself I won't do, and feel empty and useless afterwards. If I say too much am I going to make it worse for my friend? If I say too little will they feel I'm heartless and uncaring? It's worse when you're hundreds of miles away and can't be with them in person. I listen as they tell me what happened, how important the loved one was in their life, how long they've known them, etc and tears well up in my eyes and roll down my face as I hear the tears in their voice. I want to reach out and hug them, hold them close, but I can't which makes me feel all the worse and even more useless. I should know what to say, I mean what kind of friend am I anyway if I can't handle this? Fortunately for me since this is of the true friend variety, they know my feelings are in the right place even if I suck at expressing them. This is one of the many things that makes a true friend so priceless and so rare. I love you and your loss is my loss.