Palm Tree

This beautifully trimmed palm tree is growing in the atrium of this house. If those dead fronds that hang down aren't trimmed, the resulting thatch is a great home for rats. After our first encounter with rats in the walls of our house in Berkeley the city vector control guy came out and told me chapter and verse about rat behavior and how to keep them out of the house. He was a nice guy with a shirt with a little rainbow over the pocket that said 'Karen' on it. When he finished, he looked at my horrified/crestfallen face and said, 'It's not your fault. Rats are everywhere.' 

I've heard that many times since and know a lot of weird facts about rats as a result.

A friend of mine, something of a Berkeley historian, told me another interesting fact about palm trees. They are often seen planted in suburban yards, and she said that when early settlers came West and settled in California, they would plant a palm tree by their house so they could have the family picture taken by it to send back to the relatives in the frozen East. 

It sounds a bit apocryphal, but I can attest to the fact that my great-grandparents lived in Berkeley at the turn of the century and they I have pictures of my grandmother and her three sisters sitting on a porch with a palm tree like this one next to it.

I went to Pilates today and mentioned to Sheresse, the teacher, that I was on the waitlist for the next two weeks. She said she thought something would probably change  and I would get in. As I was finishing up the star on the back of my quilted coat I got a text saying I was in, followed by one from Sheresse saying she saw me on the list. I told her I suspected she had something to do with that and she responded, 'only manifestation.'

I was attempting to take the back off my MacBook to clean the dust out of it since the fan is running constantly. I've never done this before, but how hard could it be? I'm getting pretty good at following YouTube instructions, but I admit to some trepidation. David showed up with one of my newly painted cupboard doors and said he'd get a can of compressed air and help me do it tomorrow when he brings back the other door.

It's good to have David out of hibernation.