stuff and things and endangered plants

Today I went to the doctor and learned that 65% of pesticide used in the US goes on cotton. Pima cotton, which accounts for one-sixth of US cotton production, comes from just north of us, even though we're in Pima county and that's Pinal county, but I digress. Anyway, that means that approximately 10% of the pesticide used in the US is sprayed all over the valley north of us, which happens to have the worst dust particulate problem in the country. So the pesticide-encrusted dust that gets kicked up wafts over here, and EIs in the Tucson basin are feeling it this time of year. That made me feel better to know because now I have some idea of why I've been sleeping all day the day before a storm, which is when the wind blows down from up there.

In other news, carnivorous plants are mostly endangered. In yet more news, I broke my ribs mountain biking on July 3rd, but it didn't hurt enough for me to worry about them being broken. I resumed riding about a week later, and about five weeks later, I went on an epic ride in the Santa Cruz Mountains sorta near my parents' house, and made my ribs really sore again simply by breathing pretty hard. (Trails in the Santa Cruz Mountains are pretty steep.) Then there were some x-rays. Now I'm about six weeks out from that, and I've been swimming, and my ribs are starting to feel pretty reasonable. When I can do the backstroke with impunity I'll know I'm all better. For reference, it's much harder to fall on rocks from a lane in a swimming pool, so I may stick with that for a while.