The Price of Grass

I recently purchased 6 pounds of grass seed to repair the lawn from the severe winter. The 6 pounds cost me $30. Thirty dollars for grass seed? Are you kidding me...that is $5 a pound.

When did grass seed get so expensive and why?

You would figure if you were paying $5 a pound it would be pretty clean, but reading the bag, it has 6% inert material. That means almost an ounce of that pound is not even grass seed. So much for purity.

Now how much area will a pound of grass seed cover for growing in the northeast? About 200 square feet. So not much when you consider that an acre is 43,560 square feet. So to seed a 1 acre lot is about 217 pounds of seed or a little over $1000. All to have a nice green lawn...

So now to compare the cost per pound to other things we purchase. Gas is current $2.60 a gallon, but a gallon of gas weighs 6.25 pounds or about 42 cents a pound (remember that gas is lighter than water). Flour cost about 3.25 for five pounds, breaking down to around 65 cents a pound. Beer weighs about 8.75 pounds per gallon, so lets do some math here...a half keg is 8 gallons and for a decent micro brew is about $175...so 8 times 8.75, divide 175 by 70 equals about $2.50 a pound, still half the price of grass seed. And the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516, limits what can be in beer.

So why is grass seed so expensive....

Another Edition of Random Mutterings.

This will be a hodgepodge of what has happened over the last couple of days that I have enjoyed. So with further ado <intended>....

• Having my wonderful daughter back from California.
• Started a gathering of people with a common thread loosely binding us together, it shall be called "The Hartford Reading Society". I am sure there will be many more laughs and new friends developed out of this. <inquire within for more details and special invite>
• It has been a great week for the 'stache, must be the ease in the weather that is helping with the grooming and maintaining the look.
• A quick thank you to the young woman with the light and short summer dress on Saturday during a slow morning at the shop. The well timed breeze made my whole morning...and the white thong looked good on you.
• The first visit of the year to the local Dairy Queen.

That is all, now carry on.....

Wow, Just Wow!

A few months ago, my son announced that he had gotten a lead role in the spring musical at Clark University. The Clark Musical Theatre was doing Mel Brook's "Young Frankenstein." Being about 6'3" of course he got the role of the Monster.

Now my son had never really shown a huge interest in the theatre, and outside grade school music and a years worth of piano lessons had not also not shown any inkling of performing. His college roommates are musically inclined and have done some performing.

So with little experience, he went out and conquered performing on stage. He needed to sing, dance, and emote. He endured the long hours of rehearsal, make up, and all this while going to school full-time and maintaining his grades and a part-time job, along with all the other social obligations that go with college life. He mastered it all. I could not be prouder as a parent. 

He can act, he can sing, he can dance, he is a rising star...

Seeing him perform was a thrill and the support he garnered from his cast and of course the support he gave them. in return. He, along with his director, developed a character, not channeling Peter Boyle's original portrayal, with many salutes to the various monsters through out the years. 

Not sure what is next, but I am sure it will be amazing..

March 32nd, aka Lunar Leap Year

So I was in a 3rd grade classroom today, the students entered all wild up and ready for the hijinx that is associated with the traditions of April Fools' day.

But I had beaten them to the punch and had posted..

March 32nd, 2015

Lunar Leap Year

...on the board. They immediately tried to tell me it was wrong and they were onto my rouse of an April Fools' prank.

I quickly explained to the whole class That it was not and everyone had forgotten the Lunar Leap Year. I went on to tell them that it occurred every 40 years to balance out the lunar calendar similarly to the the other leap year that happens every 4 years.

They were slightly hooked, and you could see some believe starting to set in. So I explained some more about planet rotation and axial tilt, and orbital length. Explained some abstract concept about waxing and waning gibbous moons and their effects and how adding a day every forty years made up for the shift in tides and currents on earth. 

SOLD, they were now fully hooked....for about 5 minutes.

One astute individual looked on the computer and saw the date and the con was starting to unravel...until I explained that since personal computers have only been around and commonly used for about 20 years, the technology has not caught up to adjusting for Lunar Leap Year, but people were working on an app to correct it...game back on.

Even a few other teachers that stopped by the room confirmed the Lunar Leap Year and the students spent the date dating their papers...3/32/15. 

This lasted most of the day, until they needed to take out their planners and record their homework for the day...pat myself on the back for a well played swindle.