Shout out to my audience--Hello, China!

Somebody over there has really really REALLY been promoting my blog post about the Pentagon announcement of future U.S. - Chinese military exercises because that's the entry that's gotten an astronomical number of hits, and from that region.  The hits continue on a fairly daily basis even though, at this time, it's old news.

Okay, whomever wanted to search on "john deangelo motolola", you need to know that John DeAngelo did not work at Motorola. He was my co-worker at Illinois Power Company. OK?  John was a fellow "Seein' Eye" (C & I, as in Control & Instrumentation department). We were members of the union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW Local 51), so we were contractually brothers, in that sense.  Yup, I was officially one of the guys, and that also explains how I came to cuss like a sailor--with no apology for it.

But since you guys in that neck of the woods historically have a thing about workers, I have future plans for a blog rant about unions, so stay tuned. Since I'm aware of interest in American agriculture, I've got some backyard gardening stuff, too, by the way.  Take a look at my neat asparagus hedge--

 The typical way to grow asparagus is to pick spears in the early spring from crowns that are at least 3 years old, skipping over spears that are thinner than an index finger, and picking them for no more than 3 months; after that, they're permitted to grow out and they do get unruly that way.  They bow over and lean, especially if they bear seeds, and sprawl if they're not bundled by string or something.  I use wires I save from salvaged political campaign yard signs (yeah, you'll have to look that up) and make a low fence around the base of the row.  After that, I do the untypical thing and take the hedge clipper to  the lot.

The heart-shaped leaves you see in the foreground is something called the Honeyvine, and I don't pull those out at all because migrating Monarch butterflies lay eggs on those and have one last batch of babies before taking off to Mexico for the winter.