gardening, History, Nature, News

In It For the Long Haul

30 Comments

On this day in 1806, after three months overwintering at Fort Clatsop, the Lewis & Clarke expedition headed home from the Pacific coast. When they arrived back in St. Louis in September, they had been gone for 2 years, 4 months and 10 days.

I’m usually good with delayed gratification. I eat the cake out from under the frosting, then eat the frosting on its own.  I do my weekend chores right away on Saturday morning.  I get my taxes done the first week of February and you all know I do my Solstice cards and gifts way ahead of time.  But 2 years, 4 months and 10 days seems like a long time to finish a project to me.

As the temperatures begin to climb a bit I’ve been thinking about the front yard these days.  My long term plan has always been to diminish the grass and increase the flowers.  Although I still have grass, it’s not much and only takes me about 10 minutes to mow these days; the flowers have definitely taken over.  This is year 11 of my plan.

So I guess 2 years, 4 months and 10 days isn’t too long after all.

What gratification can you wait for?

30 thoughts on “In It For the Long Haul”

  3. my plans are always in a flux with more going toward the future than in the next weeks kitty but today it feels like deferred gratification is the deal

    as i begin a new project helping folks sell on amazon i am telling them we need to be ready to start with promotions that ensure zero profit for 2 or 3 months followed by a season of big sales in 2 or three items, this will allow us to add many more in the following season with an eye on the big picture as the goal

    my kids see this and embrace either the heart of it or the opposite
    like an alcoholics kid you either have alcoholic issues yourself or you are a teatottler

    i’m 40/60 entrepreneur/fixed vision household

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  4. Rise and Defer Baboons,

    There is no delayed gratification like gardening, or in a larger sense, farming. On our porch I have an old family ox yoke now used as a picture frame which holds a saying cross stitched by my mother years ago for her farmer father:

    Who plants a seed
    Beneath the sod
    And waits to see
    Believes in God

    I am not sure that delayed gratification means one is a believer, but it is a nice thought.

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  5. Poor Lewis and Clark were really sick of damp weather and a diet of salmon by the time they headed back east. At least they were eventually headed down stream when the reached the Missouri River system. The Mandan villages must have been a welcome sight.

    I am not good at waiting for much of anything. Neither is my daughter.

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        1. Her recent car accident has tried my patience, which can be prodigious if I put my mind to it. By Monday of this week I had enough of phone calls from her about the insurance and why was it taking so long for the adjusters to get back to her and what did I think about this or that possible replacement vehicle, so I snapped at her and let my impatience be known. Whenever I do that she gets a certain tone in her voice, the sort of calming, therapy tone you would expect from someone saying “just put the gun down” or ” just step away from the ledge” which makes me even more impatient.

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  6. Planting spring bulbs is all about delayed gratification. By the time I plant the bulbs in late fall, I’m sick of gardening; don’t want any more dirt on my hands, and definitely don’t want the pain in various body parts that the planting brings on. But, the gardening catalogs cleverly offer their spring bulbs in late winter when the promise of a little color looks the most enticing. So I order my spring bulbs while everything is covered in dirty snow, forgetting for the moment that I’ll have to find someone to plant them for me come fall. It’s a cycle as predictable as any in nature.

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    1. I know exactly how you feel. Last spring our boss gave each of us a little pail with some daffodils in it. I managed to save four of the pails and I babied those bulbs all summer long, drying them out keeping them in the garage. And then I finally dug a hole and planted them in the fall. So I’m waiting to see if they come up after all that day being. But like you , by October I am so done with gardening for the year.

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      2. It interests me that we have a like button but no dislike button. The harshest judgement we can make of a post is to not comment. My mother always told me, “If you don’t have something nice to say, say nothing at all.” That is so Midwestern to me . . . but I’m Midwestern to the core, so I Like that.

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        1. “The harshest judgement we can make of a post is to not comment.” ? You have got to be kidding me! Sometimes the kindest thing I do is NOT to comment. 🙂 And not just on the trail, either.

          Liked by 4 people

  8. I am strangely calm and not imatient about the impending birth (5 weeks to go) of our first grandchild. No news is good news at tbis point. I may fell differently if he is late.

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  9. I pretty much run my life on a delayed gratification plan. Alas, Father Time doesn’t do the same. As someone who used to be younger, I can confidently say that life doesn’t necessarily save the best for the last for us.

    Each morning I read the news on the computer in the same order, going left to right with my lineup of “bookmarks.” That starts with NBC News and the Washington Post, two great general news sources. Then I read the StarTribune, for if my body is no longer in Minnesota my heart always will be. Then Politico, a centrist political news site. Then NPR, always interesting. Then MinnPost, a Minnesota news site created to supplement the Strib. And then . . . desert: Trail Baboon.

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  10. OT – Since I know most baboons are smartphone users, thought I’d pass along this scam alert. The article was in the Pioneer Press on the 14th and 15th.

    Consumer advocates expect a spike in cellphone “port” scams now that the consumer fraud has been reported in the Twin Cities.

    T-Mobile sent out a text alert to their customers in January and February, informing them about the scam and encouraging people to add a port validation feature if they haven’t done so already.

    “It’s a scheme that is affecting the entire wireless industry,” said T-Mobile in the link sent to customers.

    As word gets out about the scams, attempts tend to increase, according to Dan Hendrickson, spokesman for the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota.

    “Scammers strike when the iron is hot,” Hendrickson said.

    As more people find out and take preventative measures, the attempts will fade for a while until scammers find a different angle.

    It all starts when a scammer acquires identification and a phone number, then tries to gather other personal information.

    Pretending to be the phone’s owner, they contact the mobile provider and report the phone as stolen. Then they request the number be ported, or transferred, over to another provider and device. Once the number is ported, scammers can start accessing people’s financial accounts.

    Stopping such scams isn’t easy, Hendrickson said.

    “It’s not going to go away, unless the (cellphone) carriers really come up with a bulletproof method of preventing this,” he said.

    T-Mobile users can call 611 from their phone to add port validation or dial 1-800-9378997. A representative will ask you to create a 6- to 15- digit passcode that will be added to your account. That way, no changes to your account can be made without entering the passcode.

    Other carriers such as Verizon and Sprint require PIN numbers for a port to go through. AT& T has the option to add or remove extra security — if added, a unique passcode must be provided before any changes can be made.

    “Port-out fraud has been an industry problem for a long time, but recently we’ve seen an uptick in this illegal activity,” a T-Mobile spokesperson said. “We are encouraging customers to add extra security features to their accounts.”

    Anyone who has experienced this type of scam is encouraged to take steps to recover your identity, file a report on BBB ScamTracker and help get the word out to others.

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    1. OT – An additional few tips on what to do to protect yourself:
      Get in touch with your cellphone provider and set up a unique pin or verification question you must answer before anything can be authorized. Ask specifically about porting and/or port-out security on your account.
      If your phone unexpectedly switches to “Emergency Calls Only” mode, contact your wireless provider immediately. This means your phone number could have been transferred to another phone. Report this to the police and contact your bank, as well.
      Watch out for alert messages from your banks or financial institutions, and unexpected texts in response to authentication requests you didn’t initiate.

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  12. I was very good at delaying gratification when I was in my twenties and thirties, and even into my forties. As time goes by, though, I’m less and less willing to wait. You can put together the perfect retirement plan and die at 60. It happens to a lot of people.

    As is the case with many of life’s great questions, it’s about balance. Don’t spend everything you make as soon as the check clears. But don’t deny yourself all of life’s pleasures with the idea that you’ll make up for lost time later.

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