Friday, March 18, 2016

Spring Moss & Fruit Flies & Products Anew

Somehow, some way, moss grows on my driveway. Each year I pressure wash this greenish layer of slippery slideyness away and coat the concrete with some measured amount of liquid detergent that won't harm anything it touches but somehow keeps moss away? Is that in essence damaging something in the environment? Well, whatever, I do it each year with a hope of getting it to last for more than 6 months. I am let down each and every year. Tomorrow morning I will make my pilgrimage to the front stoop to survey the extent of the creeping low-lying flora that I must battle. Armed with my trusty Briggs & Stratton 4.5hp pressure washer and some slickers below the belt, I will undertake 3 hours of soggy sabotage of the green mile, working the wand in routine movement to leave a clean and fresh pattern for the coming seasonal changes...

As the moss finds it's moving truck arriving tomorrow, we will no doubt soon see those pesky tourists known as the fruit fly moving in. When I lived in California I do not remember the influx of this micro-winged flying element of extreme irritant. The fruit fly has yet to show me a redeeming quality. Not once have I seen one knock at my door politely to come in. No, they hitch hike into my world on the back of some dying fruit I recently purchased at the farmer's market in town. The master of avoiding capture and death, these little tiny vermin know just how to push my buttons and send me into a tailspin. I have prematurely begun covering the fruit in the house. I am vigilant in making sure no standing water resides outside. I citrus wash the drains. I may have even placed some vinegar traps out. It is war, I declare...

Both of these circumstances give good reason to put your thinking caps on. What device or product would make both of these issues less daunting? How could we create something to remedy such trials? Necessity is the mother of invention, indeed. This is why we create and develop and build and repeat until we get it right. It is the American dream, sort of, to be able to devise such utility that can relieve and destress our daily lives, and bring these creations to market and share with success...