Blind optimism

This post is not about politics.  It’s about ants. . . and trees.

As you all know, I’ve been plagued with ants lately.  I could just say that this is bad luck, because my house got on their radar, and it takes a lot of work to wipe it off.  However, I’m choosing to see this invasion in connection with something else that’s happening outside my house:  the trees are already changing colors.  Usually, this happens a week or so later in the summer and with less intensity.  One can attribute this to the drought we’re having, and say that dry trees lose their green more quickly.

However, and this is where the blind optimism comes in, I’ve decided that the combination of ravenous ants and fall-colored trees means that this will be a wet winter, ending the drought.  I have no scientific basis for this belief.  Indeed, the only thing driving my prediction is my refusal to see ants and red trees as separate events with unremarkable causations.

Let’s see if blind optimism overwhelms rational analysis this winter in Northern California.