It was alive right before....

  Son gets tickled at some news reporters who make weird statements in their broadcasts.  As sad as it may seem, the one phrase that almost irritates him is the oft repeated description of someone who perished in an accident.  Over the years, numerous reporters have made the proclamation "He/She was alive right before he/she died!"  Most listeners never catch the glitch as they are more stunned to hear the news of the accident.  When you think about it, though, the statement is quite stupid.  Duh, everyone is alive right before they die.  What are these newscasters thinking?  The person may not have been healthy/wealthy/poor/local/happy/sober/or whatever but they were definitely alive.  

  Late this afternoon, the poorly worded statement popped into my head as Mark and I wandered through the garden picking tomatoes. When we came to the squash, I just had to make the proclamation!  "Oh, no!  My squash plant was alive right before it died!"  Mark looked at me as if I was loco.  Well, I guess talking like that deserved the puzzled stare. heehee!  The fact was, I knew the squash plant was going to perish. They all are.  The plants were huge and bearing tons of squash but since I refuse to dump chemicals on the garden, they became infested with squash bug larvae. These critters can ruin more gardens and I never remember to check under the leaves for the bright yellow eggs.   Had I done so and squished them, my plants would still be with us.  Instead, the seemingly healthy looking plants we saw at daybreak, toppled to the ground at dusk.  Dead, kaput, gone. The eggs hatched, the larvae made their way into the stalks and killed the plants from the inside.  Actually, I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened because I saw the telltale signs that the stalks were already infested.  There was not much I could do to prevent their death.  My oversight a couple of weeks ago, allowed the bugs to do their thing.  Had I found the eggs, this would have been prevented.

  Still, the silly phrase ran through my head and blurted out of my mouth causing poor Mark to question the sanity of his wife.  It is funny how things work like that.