Predicting the Weather with Acorns

For over 30 years I have been watching the mighty oak tree in my front yard drop acorns and watching as the squirrels scurry around collecting them. I am most fascinated from year to year in the number of acorns that drop. Some years it’s a light crop of acorns, and some years there are so many acorns falling down, that I have to wear a hard hat just to walk the dog. (Yes, the dog gets a hard hat too!)

It has always been my opinion that God is looking out for the squirrels and provides just the right amount of nuts for them to store up for the winter. I have noticed that this particular oak tree produces the most acorns just before a cold winter and produces less just before the milder winters. My meteorologist father concurred on this weather-predicting aspect of this special oak tree.

What puzzles me most this year is that, though we had one of the largest acorn crops that I can ever remember, the squirrels were few and far between. This seems to suggest that we are in for a long, cold winter, but the squirrels don’t seem to notice.

Could it be that the squirrels are not gathering this year thinking that the acorns will be there when they need them. Possibly the squirrels have moved on to greener pastures somewhere else. Or maybe they’ve moved on to a new synthetic nutritional substance that is tastier and sports a longer shelf life than the lowly acorn.

Possibly some enterprising entrepreneur has changed the business climate in my neighborhood by offering to gather and deliver acorns. My yard is a gather-and-tote-your-own operation, and I have no plans on providing the squirrels a delivery service.

As in any business, having a large inventory and the potential of a large public demand does not always work the way it should. The public can change their minds in an instant leaving suppliers holding the bag.

As we help students prepare for a career, we must make sure they know that industries change or even disappear. Skills must be viewed as transferable from one job to another.

Preparing kids for the 21st century is nothing like preparing kids for the 20th century, or is it?

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.