My 'Cosmic Crisp' Apples

It was definitely quiet the day with the wind, snow, and cold, so my Friday was pretty much spent dealing with our build-up of snow. For whatever reason, I knew our temps were going to be taking a nose-dive, but I didn't realize we were going to have blizzard conditions. Living in North Iowa will always have its pluses and minuses, where the flatlands offer more summer sunshine and cooling north winds, but on the flip-side, that wind can become a force to be reckoned with during our winter months, and especially when the Alberta Clippers arrive.

There were showings scheduled for several of my listings today, but both of them were cancelled due to the weather. I was also getting emails from various banks and offices I do business with, notifying me they'd be closing early, just so their employees could arrive home before the weather turned uglier. But on a positive note, it's already the 12th of January, and this is the first blizzard to hit us, which is something to be thankful about.

Before this storm arrived, I had already planned on getting back to a project tomorrow that I'd been working on, just so I could get it finished up and move on to something else, but there's no question I'll again be busy with snow removal. Hopefully I'll manage to at least get over there tomorrow afternoon to get some work done.

While in conversation with a prospective buyer today, I talked about the 'inland migration' that's been taking place since the pandemic arrived, where we've be getting people moving here from the southerly and western States. I was asked my overall opinion of Mason City, as well as the long-term growth prospects of our community. Of course I matter-of-factly said, it's definitely not Heaven on earth, but it could be much worse considering what's been going on in some of our Country's metro areas.

Oh how much I wanted to say, "If we could get a full house-cleaning of City Hall and rid ourselves of those 'rubber-stamping' council members, and replace our administration and elect new council members who have a little more gray matter between their ears, as well as being dyed-in-the-wool critical forward thinkers, then we'd be on an upward track." If that would ever happen, I'd wager the farm that we would start seeing real and lasting growth, instead of these little 'pockets' of progress they advertise as being the next greatest thing since the invention of the wheel. We have too many examples of the Peter Principle in our City's government who need to go back to where they came from. But again, what else does one expect when living in the 'last outpost'?

In my office mail today, I received a 'thank you' card from another who's part of that group of seniors I dropped off Christmas gift bags, and today's touched my soul to where it actually brought a few tears to my eyes, and only because I could tell those words came from the heart, and the creepy/coolest thing of all, was my having not ten minutes earlier, started thinking about her. Now how beyond coincidence was that? We definitely must've been on the same wave-length today.

I had to make a quick trip over to Fareway today, just to pick up a few things I needed, and when looking at their various varieties of apples, I discovered the ones I'd been looking for, and as chance would have it, they were on sale, so I purchased a half-dozen.

This searching for a type of apple all started last week when an old client of Holtz Realty, dropped off a gift bag of goodies, and in it, was an apple which I later ate, and believe me, it was the best tasting red apple I've ever eaten, so it looks like my favorite Golden Delicious are going to be taking a back seat.

Because that apple still had its sticker on it with the name 'Cosmic Crisp', I went done another 'rabbit hole' in search of them, and only because I've been thinking about planting several apple trees this coming Spring. Well, not to my surprise, those apple trees are a patented variety and are not allowed to be taken out of the State of Washington where they're now planning on having likely hundreds of thousands of them planted. I even went to the length of checking on various nurseries in Washington, and wouldn't you know, they will not ship even one of them out of State. Now that's unfortunate.

One of my friends stopped by the office this afternoon, and while there, I offered him one of my 'Cosmic Crisp' apples, and in spite of him not being fond of apples, he also said it was the best he'd eaten, so if you are curious enough about their taste, stop over to Fareway and purchase a few, as I'm sure you'll be equally wowed.

I've already been paging thru some of the vegetable and fruit catalogs and making note of the vegetable seeds I'll be ordering soon. I've decided to not purchase any vegetable plants this year because I'm almost certain the cucumber plants I put in the ground last year, were infected with rust, which ended up killing them before their time.

I'm definitely going to be planting my own 'British cucumbers' from seed, which will hopefully be as good as what I had the year before last. Also on my list, is a packet of celeriac, Hamburg rooted parsley, and Scarlet Nantes carrot seeds. After visiting with my dear friend yesterday, I may even attempt to grow my own celery which requires a great amount of moisture and fertile soil. Oh, and I forgot to mention I've been making black bean soup out of those black beans I grew, dried, and then shelled. Yes, even home-grown black beans taste better than what you'll find in the stores.

Tonight's One-liner is: This idea that you're a successful tough guy if you evade taxes and deceive the state, has got to change!

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