2 June 2024
The Devil beat his wife today. At least that what we used to say when it poured down rain and the sun was shining at the same time. Technically, it’s called a sun shower and is more likely a saying in the Southern U.S. The important point here is that it rained!
On my walk this morning (1.5 miles) I noticed all the shrubs, herbs, and even some trees had shriveled leaves. That means they are trying to reduce surface area to retain water. We were virtually in a drought here. The good news is we are predicted to have rain for the next week. Our “rainy” season is about 15 days late so far.
On the walk, I met Nicole with her boxer. She told me she had just been thinking about me and Rocky back in the day. We chatted for a while and then we headed different directions. She and Stephen are headed for the Keys this week in spite of the wind and the rain.
Just before I met up with Nicole, I spotted a plant in Pete’s yard that took me back many years.
This is the plant from which we get castor oil – the bane of my early childhood. Even though it is called a bean, it does not belong to the bean family, instead, it belongs to the Euphorb family, Euphorbiaceae – think crotons and plants that look like cacti but are not. The castor seed contains anywhere from 40-60% oil rich in triglycerides. It also contains small amount of ricin, a deadly toxin. Whatever you do, don’t chew the seeds. There’s enough ricin to poison you. Of course, ricin can be weaponized and if exposed to enough, death can be as soon as 3 days.
It’s an attractive plant and it would often escape from peoples’ yards and you could find it growing in waste places and open fields when I was a kid. It’s not a good idea to plant these, in my opinion because young kids could mistakenly open the capsule and chew the bean.
Next week is pretty crazy. I have the neurologist on Monday as well as dinner with friends, Tuesday is an infusion of Herceptin and meeting with Dr. Velez, Wednesday is physical therapy, and Friday is my cardiologist and perhaps the replacement of my cracked glass on the inside of my oven. Thursday is my only respite. Oh well, another old saying is idle hands is the devil’s workshop.
Stay tuned.
