Timehop tells me that we've had snow on this date in past years, which seems impossible to fathom given that I was melting while sitting outside this afternoon. Where my global warming deniers at? How come y'all get so quiet on days like today?
ANYWAY.
The problem with the weather being so unseasonal is that it makes me want to go outside and I SHOULD KNOW BETTER. Y'all, it's prime Bradford Pear Tree season, i.e. STAY INDOORS AND HOLD YOUR BREATH.
Have you caugh a whiff yet? I was smacked with one earlier today and wanted to commit an act of violence. Our neighborhood is filled with the evil things which makes absolutely no sense because how have people not heard that those trees are the absolute worst? Like, for real, they would be banned all over the place if people weren't so certain that profit matters more than all sorts of other things. (I'm not making that up. There are lots of articles like this one outlining that the reason the trees still continue to be sold is because people are money hungry.)
Perhaps all I can do to help end the horror that is the proliferation of Bradford Pear Trees is to spread the word about the fact that they are the worst. There are legit reasons:
1. They are the trees that are most likely to split and break and tear up all sorts of things when it's windy or stormy. Like, a 30' tall tree will snap in half during a storm. That's not fun, no matter how you look at it.
2. They're invasive. Look at the hillsides all over Pittsburgh right now. The white flowering trees? That's them. Nobody planted those there. They made themselves at home and are driving out native trees.
3. OMG THE ODOR. The best description I can think of for how they smell is that it's real close to what I imagine it would be like if your dog puked up the dirty underwear you hid at the bottom of the laundry basket 6 years ago after a drunken night of rolling around in ashes at a bar in the South Side that microwaves fish all day long.
It's. So. Bad.
So, yinz, stop buying and planting the dumb things, please? Pretty please?