Muy Caliente

It's been "cold" here on the coast (persisten low 30's); not as cold as that hard freeze earlier this month but enough to burn off the last of the leaves except for the magnolia and winter adapted plants in my yard. I noticed on my walks that non-native species such as Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) and Sow Thistle (Sonchus oleraceu)seem to not be affected by the cold temperatures. My South Texas species dropped their leaves soon after the hard freeze. Henbit and Sow Thistle have a competative advantage over many natives in that they can keep their cells from totally freezing. Why? Maybe production of anti-freeze chemicals or managing to keep the cells' surface only frozen, thus providing an insulating barrier for the interior cell. The spring native are also unaffected: spiderworts, blue curls, clasping leaf coneflowers and skullcaps.

My chili pequin bush (the Texas state pepper) is going dormant but not before I picked about 200 peppers and put them in used Tobassco bottles with vinagar and a little salt. This was based on a tip from Eric a few years back. What I don't know is how long I should let them soak. According to the Scoville rating the pequin is about 30,000 - 50,000 Scovilles. That's my limit.

15,000,000–16,000,000 Pure capsaicin
8,600,000–9,100,000 Various capsaicinoids
5,000,000–5,300,000 Law Enforcement Grade pepper spray
855,000–1,050,000 Naga Jolokia (a.k.a. Ghost pepper)
350,000–580,000 Red Savina Habanero
100,000–350,000 Guntur Chilli, Habanero chili, Scotch Bonnet Pepper, Datil pepper, Rocoto, African Birdseye, Madame Jeanette, Jamaican Hot Pepper
50,000–100,000 Thai Pepper/Indian Pepper,Chiltepin Pepper, Pequin Pepper
30,000–50,000 Cayenne Pepper, Ají pepper, Tabasco pepper, Chipotle peppers

Rant for Today

On the weekends I take the boys for a walk around the local school grounds. Kahn can’t come because of his knee injury. Walking around the grounds I pick up plastics for recycling – think that this time they won’t end up in the gut of an albatross or turtle. Standard junk – candy wrapper, colas and on occasion chocolate milk bottles. If you think it’s none of the government’s business to tax sugar laden junk food then you’re oblivious to the obesity epidemic of our nation. Texas is one of the leaders in obesity. With little concern for school funding the state leaves the school district with little choice but to make deals with food companies to fill their pantries with sugars, chemicals and high fructose corn syrup. I picked up a Borden 8 fluid oz. bottle of chocolate milk. “Fat Free” it says on the front label. No doubt to placate a parents concern. On the back label the sugar content is 28 grams or one teaspoon. Doesn’t sound like much but why put it in the milk at all?
For your reading: Sugar Blues – recommended by Chelsea Adams.

Automation

An automaton.  Day in and day out scraping wall paper, painting, plastering, scrubbing.  When I question the other side of me says “shut up” and keep focused on the Mission.  A mission that is non-existent for now but gives me purpose.  You let the current of fate sweep you along then you might as well sit in a rocker and wait for death. 

Motor Head is tolerant of the bedroom remodeling; sleeping on the bed with the Houston Grand Opera playing in the background.  The wall is on its second of three coats of paint; fumes warp my brain and chemical reactions access the databanks from 1972.  Vesti la giubba is twisted and bastardized to “No more Rice Krispies, we have run out of Rice Kispies.  My tears will not stop until I hear Snap, Crackle, Pop.”.  I relive it over and over in my head.  My curse – cataloging every ridiculous factoid of Americana. 
1968 - 1972: the impressionable years. 

Motor can’t take it - he has his standards. He begs to be let outside where I follow him. When approached he flops into epileptic-like convulsions. Sort of like those goats that go into a narcoleptic seizure when they hear a loud sound.