Flying

 A few days ago I had to fly to Edmonton, Alberta for a Celebration of life for my aunt. She was the last of my father's generation and it was important for me to say a proper goodbye. Some families take time to have the Celebration of life, and some do it very quickly both are correct. My cousins decided to do it quickly. 

To attend I had to book a flight with very short notice and I went to Google Flights. For those of you who have not used this, it is a very easy way to find the best and cheapest flight from where you are to where you need to go.

I booked with Flair airlines and the experience was not as bad as I had feared. At this time there are numerous stories of delays at the airport. The news is full of reports of people taking three hours to get through security because of the lack of personnel. So, I dreaded the hurry up and wait issue that I thought would be my fate. 

My anticipated fears were not realized. I arrived at the airport 2 hours before my flight, parked my car and was transported to the airport. When I arrived there were only a few people at the counter and I waited about 2 minutes before I talked to the clerk. She checked my vaccination status and I went to security. Security was busy but not that busy. I got into line and was through in about 7 minutes. The delay was because I had a knee replaced and when I went through security the machine beeped. The security guard must have been bored, I told him the beeping was caused by the knee replacement, but he used the wand. He used the wand about four times going over my entire body but he used the wand about six times on my knee. I was not sure if he thought by waving the wand more times the wand would make a different sound. It did not, so eventually I was waived through.

The flight was on a new 737 and it was not packed so there was room to stretch. Because it was a short flight they said they would not be around with snacks or the drink cart. That was fine by me.  I was expecting some inflight entertainment, but there was none unless you had the app for your phone. Since I know little about phones and apps I  did not have access sto entertainment. The flight was on time.

The return flight was delayed by 9 hours due to a staff shortage. I should have checked my phone before I went to bed. My flight left at 6:00 AM and I had to be at the airport by at least 4:00. So I arranged for a shuttle to pick me up at the hotel at 3:25 AM. When I woke at 2:45 AM I got up showered, and dressed and just before I went down to the lobby, I checked my email and noticed a message from the airline letting me know of the delay. It had been sent at 1100 PM. I cancelled my seat on the shuttle and went back to bed.

When I arrived at the airport the next afternoon, there was no problem checking in, but the security line was a bit longer. However, this time I told the security guard about my knee operation and when the machine beeped, they just waved me through.

So, if I am flying in the future  I will download the airline app to have access to inflight entertainment and I will check my email and text messages for information on delays, so I won't have to get up in the very early morning if I don't need to get up.

Poems about dandelions

Yellow Mayne on a bed of bright green

Welcomes the sun into its bower

Deep taproots aerate the soil unseen

When raindrops fall in heavy showers

A weed, a food a medicine, a drink

Vitamin A, C, and K, along with calcium

It makes one think

As I ponder this apparent axiom

Is this a flower or a weed that in my garden grows?

Lets ask the poets what they know

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The First Dandelion by Walt Whitman

Simple and fresh and fair from winter's close emerging,

As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been,

Forth from its sunny nook of shelter'd grass—innocent, golden, calm as the dawn,

The spring's first dandelion shows its trustful face.

Dandelion  by Hilda Conkling

Little soldier with the golden helmet,

O What are you guarding on my lawn?

You with your green gun

And your yellow beard,

Why do you stand so stiff?

There is only the grass to fight!

The Dandelion by Vachel Lindsay

O dandelion, rich and haughty,

King of village flowers!

Each day is coronation time,

You have no humble hours.

I like to see you bring a troop

To beat the blue-grass spears,

To scorn the lawn-mower that would be

Like fate's triumphant shears.

Your yellow heads are cut away,

It seems your reign is o'er.

By noon you raise a sea of stars

More golden than before.

Dandy Dandelion  by Christopher Morley

When Dandy Dandelion wakes

And combs his yellow hair,

The ant his cup of dewdrop takes

And sets his bed to air;

The worm hides in a quilt of dirt

To keep the thrush away,

The beetle dons his pansy shirt—

They know that it is day!

Dandelion by Nellie M. Garabrant

There's a dandy little fellow,

Who dresses all in yellow,

In yellow with an overcoat of green;

With his hair all crisp and curly,

In the springtime bright and early

A-tripping o'er the meadow he is seen.

Through all the bright June weather,

Like a jolly little tramp,

He wanders o'er the hillside, down the road;

Around his yellow feather,

Thy gypsy fireflies camp;

His companions are the wood lark and the toad.

But at last this little fellow

Doffs his dainty coat of yellow,

And very feebly totters o'er the green;

For he very old is growing

And with hair all white and flowing,

A-nodding in the sunlight he is seen.

Oh, poor dandy, once so spandy,

Golden dancer on the lea!

Older growing, white hair flowing,

Poor little baldhead dandy now is he!

Things I did not know about dandelions 2

 Dandelions are among the most expensive items in the grocery store. Shops sell dried roots as a no-caffeine coffee substitute – for $31.75 a pound. Dandelions out-price prime rib, swordfish and lobster. They also appear in produce and other sections, and even at the liquor store. You can enjoy a complete meal, from salad greens to dandelion quiche, followed by dandelion ice cream, washed down with dandelion wine. If you over-indulge, a cup of dandelion tea is the perfect remedy since dandelions help the liver flush hangover-inducing toxins from the body.

Herbicides used on lawns to kill dandelions take a terrible toll on wildlife. More than seven million wild birds are estimated to die annually due to the use of lawn pesticides. Lawns make up thirty million acres of the United States, and Americans use an estimated 80 million pounds of pesticides on them annually. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that “homeowners use up to ten times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops.”

But there’s a safer way to have a dandelion-free lawn! Let the grass grow 3 or 4 inches tall to shade out the sun-loving dandelions, or use specialized tools like the Weed Hound to have a thriving, healthy yard that is safe for kids, pets and wildlife.

And at the end of the day, dandelions are just plain fun. The dandelion seems to be the flower earmarked for children: In a park or garden, it’s the only flower a kid can pick without getting into trouble. A child in a field full of dandelions can practically never run out of things to do: Blowing on dandelion puffballs can tell you if it’s time to go home, how many years until you get married, or how many children you’ll have – and of course, if you catch a flying dandelion seed, you can make a wish.

Dandelions require sun and disturbed soil to thrive. That’s why they seem to “look for” human activities: roadsides, construction sites, parking lots – and lawns. Having escaped the herb gardens a few decades ago, they now seem to be on a quest to get back into the yards they once abandoned.

Things I ddi not know about the dandelion 1

Although it’s often dismissed as little more than a stubborn lawn weed, dandelions have deep roots in history throughout the ages. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans enjoyed the flower, and they have been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over a thousand years. Dandelions probably arrived in North America on the Mayflower – not as stowaways but brought on purpose for their medicinal benefits.

Dandelions were world-famous for their beauty. They were a common and beloved garden flower in Europe and the subject of many poems. In the terrifying New World, the cheerful face of the dandelion was a sweet reminder of home. In Japan, for instance, whole horticultural societies formed to enjoy the beauty of dandelions and to develop exciting new varieties for gardeners.

Dandelions are a green and growing first aid kit. The use of dandelions in the healing arts goes so far back that tracing its history is like trying to catch a dandelion seed as it floats over the grass. For millenniums, people have been using dandelion tonics to help the body’s liver remove toxins from the bloodstream. At one time dandelions were also prescribed for every ailment, from warts to the plague. To this day, herbalists hail the dandelion as the perfect plant medicine: It is a gentle diuretic that provides nutrients and helps the digestive system function at peak efficiency.

Dandelions are more nutritious than most of the vegetables in your garden. They were named after lions because their lion-toothed leaves healed so many ailments, great and small: baldness, dandruff, toothache, sores, fevers, rotting gums, weakness, lethargy and depression. But it wasn’t until the twentieth century was the underlying cause of many of these symptoms realized: vitamin deficiencies. In eras when vitamin pills were unknown, vitamin deficiencies killed millions. In its time, “scurvy” was as dreaded a word as AIDS is today. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveal how dandelions probably helped alleviate many ailments: They have more vitamin A than spinach, more vitamin C than tomatoes, and are a powerhouse of iron, calcium and potassium.

Dandelions are good for your lawn. Their wide-spreading roots loosen hard-packed soil, aerate the earth and help reduce erosion. The deep taproot pulls nutrients such as calcium from deep in the soil and makes them available to other plants. While most think they’re a lawn killer, dandelions actually fertilize the grass.

Dandelions are masters of survival. They can take root in places that seem a little short of miraculous, and then are impossible to get rid of, as homeowners have found. But why is this plant so hard to kill? It’s because they are fast growers. The sunny yellow flowers go from bud to seed in days. Their lifespan is long, too – an individual plant can live for years, so the dandelion lurking in a corner of the playground might be older than the children running past it. The roots sink in deeper over the years and can go down 15 feet. Like the Hydra who sprouted two new heads for everyone that was cut off, the roots clone when divided; a one-inch bit of dandelion root can grow a whole new dandelion. Dandelion leaves can shove their way through gravel and cement, and thrive in barren habitats.