Mums to the Mums: Gratuitous Mothers Day Post

Following up on a tip from David French, whose "French Press" newsletter is usually worth reading...

Mothers Day is drawing near, and I am now officially worried about my mother.

This is the mother I didn't visit all winter, because this winter's flu just kept going around and around, and (as usual these days) my car pool list currently consists of 3 reliable drivers and 14 mostly or strictly passengers, and none of the drivers wanted to expose the more fragile passengers to flu. It was a funny strain of flu. I never came down with it but never built up total resistance to it. I'd be around someone who was coughing or complaining, and for the rest of the week, any time I felt chilly or tired, I'd feel my temperature just starting to rise--as usual--and also my blood pressure rising--as not usual. I'm not at much risk for classic cardiovascular disease, and instead of having my blood pressure rise during the day's work and having to lie down to rest like a classic cardiovascular patient, I'd wake up feeling hypertensive and have to get up and meditate to get my blood pressure down.

So I called one day in March to share these complaints with Mother, again, and she commiserated, and also, in her sweetly motherly way, let me know that she had been on her feet all day with someone who was down with the flu and was having Serious Chest Pains (possibly gas, but this lady was a classic cardiovascular patient so you never knew). And she had wanted to get to the health food store in time to make something special for the St. Patrick's Day dinner, and before the quarantine went into effect. And I said, well, I'd try, one more time, but I didn't think bringing Cousin A or Neighbor B along would be a good idea...again. We had been having this conversation since January.

And those were the last words I've heard her say.

If she were able to talk, she would have answered her phone or called from another one by now. If she were dead, someone would have called. That is how I know she's ill. Probably with pneumonia. Probably from last winter's flu. Though she also has osteoporosis. Weight-bearing exercise has kept her hips and legs solid but her ribs have cracked under her own weight. But cracked ribs would've healed by now.

The only flowers my mother has ever seemed to want in the house have been the ones her grandchildren brought from the garden, and flowers are not generally the best thing to send someone who has pneumonia.

However, for local lurkers whose mothers like cut flowers and do not have pneumonia, this message:

We have a floral wreath artist in Gate City. The sign says "Made By Hands" and the location is the same building this web site used when it had a physical location on Jackson Street, one block west of the traffic light.

You can visit the store at https://www.localgatecityflorist.net/ . The site opened slowly for Firefox because of all the pretty pictures, but it's legitimate, and if you like baskets packed with big pink flowers it's pretty.

You can walk in during regular business hours. There's seldom much danger of more than ten people crowding into a floral shop at one time. If you walk in you can order an arrangement that suits your mother's (or wife's, or grandmother's, or soon-to-be-a-graduate's, or any other flower lovers') taste...flowers don't have to be big and pink. Fresh flowers are the hot item in spring, but the store also sells wreaths and balloons and other pretty-pretties for people who are allergic to fresh flowers.

Florists have to pay bills too.

Yes, of course you can still support your local writer. You still should support your local writer. Six feet is the distance from which, as you propose a topic for a blog post, you can stretch your arm straight out toward me, and I can stretch my arm straight out toward you, and as each of us holds it by one end you can hand me a $5 bill.

The floral wreath artist has not handed me a $5 bill. Nor is she obligated to do that, because a local Republican did. What he asked for was some conservative content. Tom DeWeese shared a nice summary of "The Green New Deal" today (linked on Twitter), but that's his content. David French shared just the phrase "mums for the Mums," so this post expands on it. More conservative content will follow since what the Republican handed me was a $20 bill, actually.

What this post really needs is some pictures of big pink flowers, but I don't think Firefox is up to that. (Yes, you could also support your local writer with a gift of a new laptop; if it happens to have "old" Word, that will be much appreciated by my hack writing customers.)

So I'll sign off with this thought: If you order flowers in advance, you won't have to linger in a florist's shop when others want to come in. Do you readers' Mums like 'mums (chrysanthemums), or do they prefer roses, lilies, hydrangeas, or maybe daffodils?