Easy, Peasy is in the Eye of the Beholder!

This is my 3rd full-sized Dole Pineapple that I grew from the top of a store-bought pineapple

I have citrus trees, avocado trees, at least one adult full-sized pineapple plant, at least one dragon fruit, several miniature pineapple plants and one huge cherimoya tree - just to name a few.

I have started all these plants from seed that I get from fruit bought at the grocery store.
For 41 years of my fricken life (until we moved into our current home), I could grow the most impossible plants from seed that I get from their fruits, but I would kill a cactus faster than CBS dumped "Jimmy The Greek"
(I apologize for the random Golden Girls quote.)

For more pics of my pineapples:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2303028378528.2136690.1333773488&type=3


There were several cacti in pots in the windows of this house when we moved in. I thought, "Oh, what the Hell! They would have eventually been dead, anyway!" But, after 3 years, they have grown and multiplied WAY too much. I think I finally reached the top of the 'Cacti Mountain', and I have ultimately figured them out.


Along the same lines, for years, I had aquariums, and I successfully bred and raised Bettas, which is not an easy task to do. With the lone exception of a cheap, feeder goldfish, with a 100% success rate, I killed every cute, 'puffy', rather expensive fancy-type goldfish that I ever attempted to bring into the house. I think they eventually learned to warn each other when they saw me approaching the aquarium in the store, and they hid behind the rocks and plants until I walked away.


The same goes with knitting and reading music. If I'm knitting a VERY simple stitch repeat, I will cuss a lot, and I have to rip it out, and start over many times for about 2 hours before I get the pattern right. However, if I start to knit a center-out, top down complicated 16 stitch-repeat lace shawl, I'll never make a mistake on it.


I never learned to play "Heart and Soul", "Chopsticks" or "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". Those songs frustrate the Hell out of me, but with some practice, I can play heavy-handed Scott Joplin pieces.

Ask Mark. He will tell you that these friggen things will honestly frustrate me to tears. Lots of cussing and lots of tears, actually.

One of my fellow regular estate sale shoppers have observed my behavior, I guess, more than I have, and she let me in on the secret: She said, "The reason you mess up on the easy stuff, and you do the difficult stuff well is that you KNOW it's easy, so even though you THINK you are paying close attention, your brain gets bored quickly, and turns itself off without letting you know it went to sleep.. THEN, after several mistakes, you realize your attention span shut off without first warning you. When you do something difficult, you KNOW it is an advanced level, and you know it requires all of your attention, therefore, you make no mistakes."

I dunno. Do you think she's right? Even if she s, I have tried to take this advice to heart, but my brain has 'been doing what i's been doing' for 44 yrs. It's going to take a firm hand to guide this old ship back to shore, but with some diligence - and more cursing and crying - I think I can...I think I can... I think I can!

- Michael