Ray's Thought for the Day

There now that's fixed. a comes before e in Phaestoglochin. Now that's a rule to remember. Fingers, ye need to remember that particular rule. But alas and alack when Crumby and me started rumagin' through the freezer bag, even after a long and diligent search, we found no Phaestoglochin achenes. We did find six coral beans and a rhizome of what may be beaked panicum(Panicum anceps) and some other tiny odds and ends including a piece of pocket fuzz that we looked at under the microscope diligently to see if an achene or two had got attached to the fuzz. But there warnt no achene on that fuzz.

Now I Ray distinctly recall puttin' those achenes in that freezer bag and they shouldn't have crawled out on their own, but sometimes they do seem to do just that, crawl out on their own. On the other hand, here's whut could have happened. I took that rhizome out of that freezer bag first and played with it fer awhile and them achenes could have hitched a ride on that rhizome and dropped off that rhizome at the first opportunity. So now they are probably loose here somewheres and there aint no use lookin' fer em if they be loose on account of there could be other loose achenes here in the laboratory besides them two and I, Ray wouldn't be capable, believe it er not, of determinin' which was which.

But never mind all that. Fer I, Ray am no idiot like many may think, and I know right where that particular Phaestoglchin type carex habitates and I can go back there and get me yet another achene er two, and the next time I'll be more precautious with the bag collectin' media, aka freezer bag. And them two stray achenes that be loose here somewheres should get swept up eventually and thrown out in the compost. They got as fair a chance at survival as any of us.

Then too, and continuin' my optimistic thought er two, there's the spell preliminary which I larned by myself yesterday evenin' (no thanks to that whiskey swillin' Ms. Merriam) and after we finally got shut of them twain little blabbermouths, both Sugarplum and Sweetiepie. So gettin' to that another cheerful thought I have had a brainstorm that has indeed been bolstered to the brainblizzard level by a documink lately received by none other than my very own bosom companion, the thrice renowned Crumby the Junior Ovate. And the title of the documink is: Preliminary Checklist of the Vascular Flora of Palmetto State Park and the Ottine Area, Gonzalez County, Texas June 1990 Draft. Whut we need to focus on here is the spell preliminary, for what preliminary spells is, there aint no end to it, which takes the author of the documink off the hook, fer eternity, as a matter of fact.

Now here's the especially cheerful part. As many are aware, I, Ray am under a great deal of pressure, both from Red and especially from the sometimes sarcastic LDR who is my very smart sister, to finalize the Checklist of the Vascular Flora of RGVECB. But my trouble is, the dang little wonders have a mind to shift onto and off the property willy-nilly so they be here today and gone tomorrow, then suddenly they be back agin. But the spell, preliminary, totally solves the problem, since the problem is eternal. So now all that be required of Ray the Especially Smart Druid is a little addition to the title and Ray is all done, Praise the Triple Goddess Under Every Name We Have Ever Called Upon Her in These Parts..

Preliminary Checklist of the Vascular Flora of RGVECB.

There now. All done. And just in the nick of time too. Fer the comfort station beckons my good progress in that direction.