miscellany

Tonight it feels like autumn - no, it's not cool but the evening grew noticeably dark before I was ready, before I was ready to go inside.

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Yes,  I wanted to write something microbiological during this Microbiology Week over at Deep-Sea News, but I fear that another week is flying past me with good intentions trailing behind.  But please go there and read the interesting post on cold-water coral disease:  the organism that they write about, Vibrio splendidus, is related to the coral pathogen, Vibrio coralliilyticus, that my lab is so interested in and that we are examing using both proteomic and genomic approaches.  Like our coral pathogen of interest, Vibrio splendidus causes disease in warmer waters - a trend that is common among the Vibrios.  We're interested in the 'why' of this, in other words, what gets 'turned on' (focusing on virulence factors) in the organism as the waters warm.

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Today is my Dad's 74th birthday.  My brother and I are sending him and my mother a lobster dinner for his birthday -  lobster and a few side dishes for the two of them and for a neighbor couple who have been invaluable during this challenging time for my parents.  A sister of my mother's has convinced me to lay low for the month of September, telling my brother and I that we can't burn out early in this year of lung cancer.  So we aren't there, we're just sending lobster - no substitute for your children in the flesh, but a tasty substitute nonetheless...right?

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All of this rain in the southeast, yet the leaves underneath my live oaks remain dry.  How disappointing is that?  At present they say that we are 12" below normal with respect to average rainfall - I think about all of the new plants that I put in the ground in late winter and early spring, in anticipation of rains - but instead I've been struggling with keeping everything watered.  But this morning, while walking around the dogs in the garden, I made a mental list of the plants that didn't seem to mind that the season had been so dry.  I need to put that list on paper.

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I need to plant my fall vegetable garden.  Here are some fall planting guidelines for key crops:

• Brocolli  Aug. 10 - Sept. 15
• Kale  Aug. 10 - Sept. 15
• Lettuce, head  Aug. 15 - Oct. 1
• Radish  Sept. 1 - Nov. 1
• Spinach  Oct. 1 - Nov. 10
• Turnips  Aug. 25 - Oct. 15
• Mustard  Oct. 1 - Nov. 30

(From the Cross Garden Center Vegetable Planting Chart - I have good luck with these guidelines - onions should also be planted now, and garlic, and it's a few weeks late for leaf lettuce, but I'll probably try some anyway).

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I'm going through a crash course at work on web schematics and design.  Yes, www.coralmicrobes.org (and .net and .com) are now ours!  They're being held by GoDaddy until our schematic actually has code associated with - and thanks to a generous new colleague and collaborators at a large (and infinitely more computer savvy) university up the road - I'm feeling optimistic about what this site might become. 

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Gotta work on a manuscript now.

Comments

[Kim]

Maybe lobster isn't a good substitute for having your children there in the flesh, but it's awfully nice of you to include dinner for the friends who have helped out your parents so much. I bet your parents are bragging (or at least thinking) about how great their kids are, to be so thoughtful. Knowing that must be a great gift.

It does feel an awful lot like autumn. I have a sudden urge to dig out my sweaters and build a fire.

[Pam]

Kim: Thanks - they'll enjoy the lobster, but I can also tell (by their voice) that they'd rather have our presence. It's made me crave a good Maine lobster dinner though.

The last few evenings here I've really noticed it getting dark earlier - so my internal 'light' trigger makes me lapse into autumn thoughts too - only difference down here is that we've still been in the upper 80's during the day. A cold front is coming through for the weekend - so lows only in the lower 80s. Okay, that cooler, but sweater weather? Definitely not down here. I like this time of year though.

[The County Clerk]

Your father and my father share a birthday.

Happy birthday to him.

More later.

[Pam]

CC: Happy Birthday to your father as well.

[Chris M]

Your planting notes make me wonder if I should do in the tomatoes and other summer crops and attempt some of those you listed...hmmm..

[Pam]

Chris: I'd definitely do in the tomatoes (are they still producing anything?) - and at the very least get some lettuce and spinach in - maybe brocolli. I'm going to plant onions and garlic now too (you can buy organic garlic from the store and plant the outer cloves - don't plant conventional garlic because they often are treated with sprouting inhibitors).

[Annie in Austin]

As a parent who is seldom with her children for any of our birthdays, I sympathize with your parents' wish to be together. As realists, we've learned to just enjoy any meetings, whenever they happen.

Even though I try to be a realist, Pam ... your dad and Hank's dad sharing the same birthday has me wondering about this astrology business.

Annie

[Pam]

Annie: Yeah, I wish I had been there.

As for the whole astrology business, it is pretty funny. The world (and more specifically, the blogosphere) is an interesting place - that I do know for sure.