Spare Us the Cutter...Or Those Who Poorly Use Them

There once stood a proud hydrangea here.

     Sometimes, I leave myself shaking my head.    

     Saturday, my lovely wife Val and I did some needed yard work, mainly in the front of our property, and I also did a bit in back. While there may be more, there are two rules all home/property owners agree exist: All homes are eventually perpetual fixer uppers, and there is always yard work to do. Since we have a 124-year-old house and an extra lot next door to us as our property, you can see how true this rings.

     I was doing some tree and bush pruning and trimming, and attacking some grape vines and other older, more virulent weeds, tool in hand (Val now calls it the “heartless chopper,“ or claims she calls the tool that, and not me, who may be the real tool here). After finishing my major objectives, I started pruning and trimming around a fence on the right side of our front garden; this garden is split in two by the walk from the sidewalk to our porch steps. There are trees, bushes, shrubs and other plants, with the crowning life forms the two hydrangea plants, one on each side of the stairs set back close to the house.

     Of course, Val and my missions Saturday were to weed, cut, prune and trim uninvited growths that were threatening the lives of the items we love as well as being eyesores. I also wanted to trim a couple of trees and remove some unwanted weeds on the side of the house. Val was working hard on the weeds along the front of both sides of the garden as well as on some growth further back. Because I was making better time than expected, I started to work inside the garden on the right side, a bit back near the utility meter on that side near the house. I started in on that side and removed a lot of growth, including vines and weeds.

     We went inside after finishing as much as we could before the weather got too hot; I went grocery shopping, while Val worked on the next episode of her YouTube vlog, “TrikeLife.” After I pickled up dinner, we went to Nick Charlap’s for ice cream, which Val had been looking forward to all weekend. As she went down the stairs, she looked to the right side of the garden and said “Wow, you really cleared a lot of stuff from around the meter…WHERE IS THE HYDRANGEA?” I looked and started to say “Right there…holy shit.” You guessed it, I had pruned/trimmed the hydrangea dangerously low, to the point you could barely see it. It had not registered at all to me before, during or after I had done it that I had actually damaged the hydrangea, a plant we both love and Val especially cherishes.

     I can’t count how many times I apologized to Val about this and how many times I have tried to figure out how I did this so in depth without realizing what I was doing. We’ve both spread coffee grounds over the years to affect our hydrangea’s color, and Val has done all she could to keep them watered and getting sun. The aggrieved hydrangea is not dead, but as Val said, it will take a little time, like 5 years, to fully grow back. Maybe I’ll be allowed to trim things again by then.

David J. Costello: Colleague, Friend, Mensch

  

David J.Costello, right, one of the best, with Steve Mikula

  My friend and colleague from Buffalo State College, David J. Costello, who sadly died June 29, is one of those persons you hope you encounter sometime. He was friendly, funny, intelligent, kind, thoughtful, strong in his beliefs but approached life and situations looking for the best in people and working with them to solve things, instead of instigating conflicts.

     David became my, or I became his, friend and colleague through the United Students Government at Buffalo State, where he served as president for two, one-year terms, from 1982-1983 and 1983-1984, as head of the Positive Outlook party/ticket. I ran unsuccessfully for USG senate on another ticket in 1982 (a whole other story), but stayed active and when two senate vacancies came up at the start of the school year, I was chosen to fill one of them. David welcomed me, let me know there were no hard feelings for me having run on the other ticket, and asked where we could work together.

     One area almost all of us serving in various student representative positions, from the United Students Government and College Senate to the Faculty Student Association and College Council (I was fortunate to serve with Costello on the College Senate and follow him as student representative on the College Council), was fighting the two-pronged assault of tuition increases and faculty reductions. Much of this resulted from painful cuts in federal and state student aid after the conservative policies of Reagan, Pataki, etc., took their toll. David rallied us student representatives and other students to publicly fight these draconian actions, using his own skills plus those developed during his internship with then-U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He appeared at rallies, on television and radio (these being pre-Internet times), teaming up with faculty, staff and administrators when necessary and advantageous, showing us that students could fight for their rights, even when not overly successful. I have always felt a bit betrayed that, while we fought against faculty and staff cuts, we didn’t receive much, if any, support in return for exorbitant tuition increases, but that’s another story.

     David’s ability to work with all kinds of people served him well here; he did not show public anger, but he did display outrage when necessary at the cuts and their effects on students. He also did not turn the USG into a partisan political circus, as some might do, instead focusing on students’ rights and needs at Buffalo State College. David asked me to run on his Positive Outlook ticket the next year; I was honored and said yes, and was honored more when he designated me the senate majority leader during his second term. He also avoided another political circus during the end of his second term, when I ran to succeed him as USG president. David had no wish to run again, as he was planning to graduate, and while he wholeheartedly supported me, we both knew he could not come out publicly supporting me because of the other candidates’ involvement with USG. I would absolutely have loved him to come out endorsing me, but fully understood his decision and still marvel at his integrity. I did take his offer of advice on campaigning for the office, and I probably should have done a better job, since I finished second in the USG presidential race (to someone with the last name of Mosey).

     After David graduated, he occasionally kept in touch about USG issues but did not want to appear like he was interfering and indeed, he had moved on, to work on the finance world, eventually with a career in management at HSBC Bank. I would see him occasionally and always welcome our discussions, me addressing him as “Mr. President,” and he calling me either “Senator Hosey” or “Majority Leader Hosey” before using first names. The last time I spoke to David in person was before he moved from Buffalo to New York City for a position; I was picking up dinner from the late, great Italian Village Restaurant on Buffalo’s West Side when I saw David in a booth with a friend. We hugged, spoke for a few minutes and, as always, vowed to stay in touch. Fortunately, the Internet and social media allowed us to do so. Our main discussions were on politics, both national and Buffalo, dogs (he so loved his beloved Freddie) and the Buffalo Bills, for which David was a rabid fan. My wife Val Dunne and David became fast social media friends, particularly on canine and political topics. As his health took a turn for the worse, I heard less from him, understanding but not wanting to accept why.

      David treated everyone he met with respect and dignity, sometimes more than I would have, and his friendship and love for so many people and causes are a wonderful legacy. The reason I chose the photo accompanying this piece, from the 1984 Elms, the Buffalo State College yearbook, of David sharing a laugh with a member of the Student Union maintenance staff, is it shows his warmth, humor and ability to get along with everybody. I hope Buffalo State University, as the school is now known, does something to honor David J. Costello. I and so many people mourn his loss and already badly miss him. Hail to the Chief, my friend.