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Spring just arrived but I’m thinking of summer

By Katherine Ullmer, Staff Writer 6:25 PM Thursday, April 2, 2009

Summer musings. OK, so it’s only spring.

Lately, I’ve overheard a lot of people musing over the summer and summer things. Lawns. Who isn’t thinking about their lawn already? To do your own or to have a lawn company do it. I heard one lawn company owner say he didn’t see why people would want to do their own lawns since buying fertilizer and weed killer at retail stores has gotten higher, while the cost of fertilizer and weed killer sold to lawn care companies has gotten cheaper because of the economy and the large unsold supply of lawn care products.

The same landscaper said his landscaping business was down because of the slow economy. People also aren’t putting in as many backyard ponds as they used to, he said.

And fishing. I overheard two retired men talking about what they did in their retirement and one said he likes to go fishing a lot at lakes around the area, and play poker. He said he’d heard that walleyes were supposed to be especially big in Lake Erie this year.

I discovered a small herd of deer that hangs out in a woods near Far Hills Avenue and Rahn Road has increased from five last year to nine this year. The Ohio Farm Bureau’s newsletter had an article about Ohio’s over-abundance of deer, about 700,000 at last count.

I’ve seen the local deer out most often near dusk and early afternoon. Recently they’ve started eating fresh green tree leaves and plants and bushes near houses. Motorists should take note, that like the growing squirrel population, deer don’t watch for traffic.

Hitting a deer in the road is likely to be less dangerous to your health than veering to the left and hitting another car head-on, or veering to the right and rolling over into a ditch or hitting a tree.

Today’s windshields are made with safety glass and are likely to shatter into a million pieces without even scratching you. Still, hitting a deer can prove deadly.

The black cat in our neighborhood was spotted for the first time in many moons last week. Seems the birds are back in great numbers and he finds lots of hiding places in the plants and bushes in our yard for sneak attacks.

And yet a sad note. Long time Centerville Rotarian Jac Sheley took ill at the March 19 Rotary Club meeting at The Clubhouse at Yankee Trace. He was hospitalized, landing in the intensive care ward of a local hospital. Centerville City Council’s chaplain John Bradosky said a prayer on his behalf at the March 23 council meeting.

In January Sheley took a cruise to Jamaica and Cozumel, Mex., by himself and had a good time. He lost his wife about a year and a half ago, but took time to smell the roses.

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I think... it's time to hang up the keyboard, katherine. :( i don't want my two minutes back, though. i thoroughly enjoyed reading this. it is hilarious.

honest pete
10:14 PM, 1/23/2010

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What the Hell? It took about two minutes to read this. I WANT my two minutes BACK!

Confused
11:12 AM, 4/10/2009

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