Plant #29

There is this little plant that has clearly had it rough in the greenhouse. While it was a seed the mother plant was attacked by a fungus that apparently got on the seeds as well. We tried planting the seeds several times with no results except rotten seeds. When we realized that a fungus was attacking the developing seeds, I used a chlorine treatment and then a chemical that induces germination. It still seemed to fail...then one of the seedlings popped up! I was really excited even though the plant had clearly been damaged by the ninja-like fungus. The plant continues today in the greenhouse because I refuse to throw it out. It is small and fragile so it is useless for our experiments, but I just can't bring myself to give up on it and throw it away.

It might be slightly unreasonable, but there's a part of me that thinks that one day I am going to go out there and the plant will be big and healthy. Even if it never gets as big as the other plants I feel like it would be heinous to throw it in the trash when it has struggled so hard to survive. This might be significant in some way but I prefer not to look too much into it. I think I just like to see things/people make it.

On a funnier/scarier note, I had another conversation with the husband of the house where I live. This is a true story and he is crazy. We were watching a report about social security and the crisis it's facing. This is how the conversation played out. (things in *marks* are my thoughts)

Raul: "I think the solution to all of this is to just have everybody retire at the age of 50."
Louis: "What?!" *crap, I forgot to ignore him!*
Raul: "Yeah, because people would travel more and spend more money for longer if they retired younger. Because people retire and then they travel."
Louis: *deep breath...* "Okay, but this is how the social security system works..." (I then explain how the social security system works) "...so I don't think lowering the retirement age would solve anything."
Raul: (He looks at me as though I just don't grasp his higher logic.) "If you look at any of the great civilizations like the Romans, the Greeks, or the Egyptians they all died earlier. If you look at their society they didn't really have any people above the age of 55." (He looks at me again like I just don't understand.)
Louis: *just walk away!* "I think that had more to do with their quality of life..."
Raul: "Yeah, but they were rich and did really cool things like the pyramids!"
Louis: *Holy crap, I've been sucked in. GET OUT NOW!*

That was the point where I knew that I had but two options: 1) smile, nod, run. 2) Collapse in convulsions on the floor do to the taxing nature of his warped logic and possibly wake up in a padded room with large guys handing me a cup full of pills. I chose life. I ran like the wind.