Thank God for good friends

Twice a week my best friend, Judi, and I take a long walk. Because I currently live alone and my dog is a poor conversationalist, these opportunities to download what's on my brain and get external feedback are invaluable. I even give her space to do her own downloading.

Or maybe what we're doing is uploading?? Anyway, I always feel much calmer after these walks. A story on the physiology of women's friendships came out in the LA Times last week but passed by before I could get to it. An older study said similar things about the health benefits of these important relationships.

It also helps to get outside where the greenery is growing so effusively right now. Nothing like a warm wet spring in the Northwest to produce greenery. I discovered a prickly dandelionish weed in my yard this morning that had reached a height of five feet, with a stalk that was two inches in diameter at the base. I brought out the heavy artillery to whack it down, but when I reached over to grab it, it came out with just a small yank. Surprising, like when you pick up an aluminum fork.

Turns out the root system for this gigantimongous weed was very shallow and not very broad either. Wouldn't it be great if we could so easily prove the shallowness of the Bush administration weed - and rout them all with a good yank. Such hypocrisy, such greed, such self-centered blindness.