Walking in a Winter Myrtleland (take two!)

Every now and then, something happens which makes College Station, Texas, a little less bland, a little less "United States of Generica".  For example, later this year, construction will begin on our very own Chuy's restaurante y cantina. 

We have friends who prefer only "local" restaurants, and Chuy's is a chain, but we fervently believe one trip to the Elvis Presley Memorial Nacho Bar, margarita in hand, will make converts of even the most fervent locavore.

Then, there are the natural events.  Like snow.  We've had measurable amounts of snow four times in the past 22 months, which for College Station, is quite an event.  "Global Weirding" is here, as avid Myrtle readers will know from previous posts.  

The fact that the very same scientists who tell us that the Earth is warming also predicted that we would have a cold, wet winter in College Station is all too easily lost for some pedestrian thinkers, but we suppose that is only understandable.  The world is a big place, and it is sometimes difficult to digest just exactly how interconnected it is, and it can also be frightening when you consider how much it is changing.  That which we always understood to be timeless and unchanging is not timeless, nor is it unchanging.

Better than getting worked up about it, though, is getting out in it and enjoying it.  Revelling in it.  Owning it. 

The slogan for everybody at Myrtle's place is "Do what you can with what you've got when you've got it."  We can't stop the Chinese from burning dirty coal, nor can we stop irresponsible drivers from purchasing gas-guzzling SUVs, nor can we convince all our fellow Texans that Adam and Eve did not ride dinosaurs to church.

But we can grow as much of our own food as possible, reduce our consumption of shared natural resources (like getting off the city's water supply, for example, or converting to solar as soon as is practicable, or etc. etc. etc.), and in general live as free from the tyranny of desire as one can imagine doing while still being a part of the greater world.

And when it snows, as it will occasionally do, especially in an El Niño year, we can get out and play in it.

Two-and-a-half weeks to planting time!  Until then,

Happy farming!