When I was a kid, across the street from our house was a stand of beautiful tall eucalyptus trees. They smelled great and they dropped their acorns which also smelled great. My brother and I would play with the acorns, in the summer we push them into the hot tar on the road near the curb. We would make patterns and play checkers without rules with the acorns.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group gives Kossacks a safe place to check in, a daily diary where we can let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, earthquakes, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It also allows us to find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, earthquakes etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
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BadKitties
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FloridaSNMOM
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The college where I walk Razzle has eucalyptus trees. They're beautiful and tall but they do not smell good and they do not have the little acorns I remember. I had forgotten all about them. These eucalyptus drop seeds that are fibrous like little tiny coconuts. There's no scent to their leaves.
I hadn't thought of that for years until last week when we were in Monterey. The Monarch Butterfly Conservancy has eucalyptus trees. The forest floor was littered with eucalyptus acorns and the whole grove smelled so fresh. It reminded me of being a kid and I wondered about the eucalyptus trees at the college. Apparently these are a different kind and I'm sure there were reasons they were put in but they're not nearly as fragrant.
I found the acorn from the grove in my jacket pocket this morning while I was out with Razzle. For just that small moment, as I smelled it, I could see me and my baby brother on a hot summer day and we smelled young and alive.