Grapefruit & Sarah

The orange and grapefruit trees in our backyard are just now concluding their blossoming, with the once white blossoms now sort of a fading tan as they give way to the process of producing the tiny green fruit. But for a period of two weeks, the air was laden with their aroma, almost over-laden, with the scent slapping us in the face. It’s not an unpleasant sensation, but it can be almost overpowering. And this year we were blessed (or cursed) with so many blossoms that our trees looked more white than green. Even our little transported grapefruit tree is loaded with blossoms. This is the tree we grew from a seed back in New York almost thirty-five years ago, the one we kept as a house plant, finally putting it in the ground when we moved to Arizona, where it grew so thick it was dangerous to insert an arm inside its branches. After fifteen years here, it’s now about ten feet tall. This spring I finally got around to trimming it up from the ground, giving it more room to produce fruit. The tree, in fifteen years has produced only half a dozen grapefruit, and those only in the last two seasons. But by this summer it should have a bunch.

I just read an article in this week’s Time called “It’s Her Party Now.” The “her” referred to is obviously Sarah Palin, and the party is either the Mad Hatter’s tea party, or the GOP. I think the first possibility is much more appropriate, with Sarah as female Mad Hatter and the party attendees as her dippy, tea-sipping devotees. If, in fact, Sarah represents the future for the GOP, then I have to say the GOP is in even bigger trouble than I thought. I’d like to see a 2012 ticket of Palin/McCain, sort of a flip-flop of 2008, with the emphasis on “flop.” Such a ticket would solidify Obama’s chances in the next presidential election.