Wednesday, March 31, 2004 The shame!
After I moved out of the old apartment, I left Plant with my trusted friend K. She had several other houseplants, and the ex-mate and I thought Plant would find a good home with her.
At times, I like Plant better than either the foster cats or the late Robocop. Plant never wet the carpet or woke me up in the middle of the night. Instead, it sprouted new leaves and grew taller, even though I took minimal care of it and sometimes did things which were bad for it, such as putting it (in its pot) on the couch with the cats and the dog and I when I would play the "Everyone in the room has to get on the couch" game (popularized once I could no longer afford cable).
The next to last time I saw it, it was thriving.
This evening I saw it, and noticed that the plant it was next to had an infestation of horrible, warty little flat insects. The internet tells me they are called "scale". They slime around and leave stickyness behind them, and they suck the juice from leaves!
Then I noticed that Plant, too, was sticky!
I started looking for parasites, and I found them. I picked off all that I found, and then washed the stickyness of the leaves wish a wet rag. Before I was done, K. began to offer gentle hints that it might be time for me to go home. For example, she went and brushed her teeth. She also yawned several times. I continued scrubbing plant: K. allowed Plant to get scale. I didn't leave until she promised to move it across the room and take special care of it.
If I ever have kids, and those kids ever come home from school with head lice, I'm just going to have to disown them and be done with it. I'm not going through this again.
Also: this is the second time within a few months that Plant has contracted a social disease.
posted by Frenzy Lohan | 3/31/2004 04:24:00 AM
0 comments
|
