Be serene, like me

Don’t do it. Don’t you dare plant those tomatoes. This weather is a lie perpetrated by Mother Nature to get us impatient humans to spend our money on seedlings, dig our yearning fingers into the dirt and start tilling soil.

Take my word for it: you turn on that sprinkler system, and by April Fool’s Day, you’ll be replacing a valve split by frozen and expanding waters. Better to be serene, take advantage of the gorgeous days of this false spring, build a raised bed garden, cut away last year’s dead and withered plants, or maybe go away for the weekend. Whatever you do, don’t look at those expanding buds on your peach tree.

Trust me, I’ve had my heart broken too many times.

Along other lines, I’m going off the Atkins diet. I’ve been hovering around 225 for a long time now. I’d like to lose about 15 more pounds, but there’s a bigger issue. I’ve been running one to three times a week and lifting weights one to three times a week for several months. At various times in my life, I’ve lifted weights, and I record my progress, so I have a pretty good idea what my rate of improvement should be. Generally, I can expect to increase the amount I lift about once a month. This time—and this has never happened to me before—during the past two months, the weight I’m lifting has decreased. I don’t know what to attribute this to except my diet. At any rate, I’m going on a low-fat diet. I’ll let you know how it goes—if I start gaining weight, I’ll be back on Atkins faster than you can say, “Meat is murder.”

In the meantime, I think the Sushi Pier should probably lock the doors when they see me coming.

Reason to vote No. 19: Do you ever wonder why local environmental policies are so sparse? It’s because voters and non-voters haven’t elected people who prioritize greening up Reno with better recycling—like cardboard box recycling—or a public composting center.