IAQ

Recently I offered up to a former student what I now regard as a rather banal observation about retirement, how much more time is now under my control. Not only banal, a paraphrase, but at the core accurate. Perhaps a more astute observation would be of the underwhelming number of questions from others I face daily.

Of course, no longer in front of teenagers as their teacher is an easy explanation for the drastic drop in answers I generate. I suspect parents understand, those at least who have their children go off to school--the virus notwithstanding--or those who become empty-nesters. Not that all questions stop forever. Do they?

Since I am not much of a provocateur, rarely do I have to respond to more than a couple of questions a day, and many days none. Still, I will admit to surprise no questions followed a statement about the daily morning quotations I put on Facebook when I said I post them for a selfish reason. 

Even a simple inquiry about a particular flower in a photo series I shared is now out of the ordinary. The question, I mean, and not just the flower. Turns out, one other photo sparked enough interest to ask about, this little trio.

Merely garden-variety red Japanese maples (Acer palmatum, if you must ask) I bought online, six bucks apiece, nearly leafless, and three times taller. Yes, I cut them down that much, counting on them releafing pretty quickly. 

Will they be bonsai, my sister asked. Well, technically, they already are. But I know what the question points at, the highly refined trees and plants looking ages old in what sometimes seem impossibly shallow containers.

"Probably" was my answer, but that response is hedging since it would be unlikely they would end up in the ground. The more pointed question would be the 3 together or separated late next winter or early spring. On that point I am leaning toward keeping the 3 as a group. End of February, beginning of March I may provide an update. Should I be asked. 

Now I've got to brace myself because I have a 2nd-grader next door who, depending upon her arithmetic lessons, can be quite the Grand Inquisitor.