Stories and other stuff

I saw a Facebook meme the other day that I think rings a little true.  It said "Life is hard."  "It's harder when you're stupid."  Who's to say who is stupid but people do a lot of dumb things.  I have accomplished my share of stupid over my almost 50 years on this planet but I'm also glad I've learned to figure some things out. Not life.  Not people.  Just mechanical things. I had a full day.  I did some painting as I said I would this morning when I got up.  Then I ventured up to the back 40 for my first look at the tractor.  It needs the battery charged and if someone felt sorry for me and purchased a new seat, that would be wonderful.  I also decided that it needed a new fuel line so I purchased that item before painting. I needed to disconnect the fuel line from the tank.  The old hose had become part of the fitting and it was unsafe at any angle to cut the line with anything sharp.  What I wound up doing was pulling...

Spring sprang. My tulips and daffodils are poking their heads up.  So are the irises.  Me and the immigrant had the annual conversation about round-up on the Snow on the Mountain that will soon invade my flower beds.  I thought now would be a good time to kill it.  She again seems to think that if I do, I will kill other things. She only thinks that because I have, and would, kill other things.  I made her cry more than once by thinking something was a weed that was not.  that's how I learned what a Hollyhock looks like.  I now protect Hollyhocks like I was defending one of my own children.  I mowed over some Shasta daisies  once with the same result.  What's annoying to me is not to her. Mr. Not-not lookin' pussycat has just come up to visit.  You never know what you're gonna read on here do you? Anyhow,  time flies. It's been four years.  I think I mentioned that.  I've been divorced for seven months now. ...

One thing I've learned the hard way.  I need to be more like the ant and less like the grasshopper.  I could learn a thing or two from the squirrels too. I'm learning first hand about stewardship.  It's hard work.  I painted my bedroom.  I have some stuff in my bathroom prepped for paint and when extra money presents itself, I will finish it.  Other things will take priority though.  I've been informed by the resident green thumb that adding filters to our secondary water system is now a priority.  It will mean a large expense up front but lesser expense on the back end.  For the most part, I do what I'm told in the garden. Ants work.  Grasshoppers don't.  Squirrels save up for winter.  I need to learn to save.  That's part of stewardship and I cannot wait to be in a place to put something back for the rainy days.  Soon.  Very soon. Garden  plans are being formed right now.  Excitement is building...

First off, reincarnation is crap. I don't believe it for a minute.  Not for even a nano-second. Having said that, Snot the pussycat is back. The thing looks just like my little buddy Not-not.  June checked and it's a boy. The funny thing is the things the cat does.  I was sleeping the other night when my feet were attacked.  That was Snot's favorite thing to do... jump on my wiggling feet.  He always went after the blanket monster.  He was so funny and this one does the same thing.  Always at night... always the feet. The second thing I noticed was today when it was walking in the living room and it stopped to watch the TV.  I don't mean look at it.  The cat watched it for a minute or so and then went on. Snot had cat-itude.  He didn't like other cats except his brother.  Neither does this on.  His momma is OK, but he has no tolerance for the others.  He hisses at them. When I get time, I'll post a picture to...

If you could choose a theme for my life lately, it's simply this" Once bitten, twice shy. I had something odd happen to me today.  We, somehow, have lost a couple of shovels (spade type) aroun' here and when I raked up the doggie bombs into piles (yuk!) there was nothing to scoop them into the bag with. I have a system for cleaning up after the snow melts.  When you try when it snows, you get more snow than poop, so it's just easier to leave them until it melts.  Then you rake it up into piles, put a plastic bag into a five gallon bucket, add shovel, and viola' you're done.  Takes about an hour.  Grosses you out.  You need to wear shoes you don't care for anymore.  I keep a pair of throw-aways around just for this task.  The shoes go,  too. Anyway, without a shovel, I had to go to Wal-mart.  They had a kiddie shovel that was just perfect for the job.  For six bucks.  Can't beat that deal.  I would have picked up th...

I had intended to write this about "out with the old, in with the new".  Except there isn't really any "new" that is in, except for splashes of color and maybe some drawer pulls when I can afford them. What I am though is happy.  I wrote something other than a blog post today.  I will be doing a lot of that this week.  I'm looking forward to it.  I found my happy someplace today.  It's been gone for a couple of months.  I mean, you try hard, and things don't work out like you want them to.  It happens a lot; well at least to me, but I know too that God isn't through with me yet.  After all, I woke up today. Today I fixed things and worked on things.  I repaired the cat scratching post that the pussycats shredded.  The tube that connected the two pieces was made of cardboard and covered with rope.  The cats made quick work of the rope and then quicker work of the cardboard.  It's made of some kind of pressed wood that's...

Good Saturday morning gang! OK, maybe gang is exaggerating the readership of this here blog thingie.  Maybe if I were any kind of consistent in posting, more would read.  It's not that I don't try, it's that either nothing is going on or stuff happens that I can't really find proper words to describe. Honest.  I still enjoy writing.  I just don't know what to write about. Today, I have a subject though.  It's about trials and conviction.  Those are two words typically associated with criminal cases.  To Christians, though, they have other meanings.  Like trials in the things we face in our day-to-day lives.  Conviction is that inner feeling from the Holy Spirit of God that what we are doing we shouldn't or we're not doing something we should be doing.  For me that conviction has been about making a past wrong right. But how do you do that?  Especially when it was decades ago?   Tough question.  I don't know that I ...

Warning:  Today is one of them swiss cheese blogs.   Sorry, but some of this just between me and God.  My mom reads this thing, after all. I asked God mostly out of frustration but partly out of a bit of desperation if there were things that needed attention in my life to show them to me.  I kind of felt adrift or running around in the wilderness.  God will sometimes answer prayer quickly as He did in this case. It was something He'd shown me before and I kind of tried to talk my way out of it.  I don't want to do this thing God asked me to do for lots of reasons.  I tried telling God I would but would prefer not to and convinced myself that being willing was enough.  I tried the explanation of why I didn't want to do it and hoped that would be good enough.  I tried shopping for opinions and got universally the one I wanted to hear.  That was the human standpoint. This all started months ago. And I guess it's one of them things tha...

I honestly wonder sometimes if I have this whole thing wrong.  I mean, I know I did at first, but I went to school and learned some things.  I tried to get better at being a Christian.  I still stumble and trip.  I haven't had any epic fails, but some close calls.  I think it's just part of the experience. I've been repaid evil for good; sometimes at every turn.  The whole thing of showing some integrity over a story I can't tell you in public led to me getting bit by the pussycat and then getting sick afterward.  I got smacked in the face, figuratively, by life again.  I kind of wrote about the relationship roulette thing too.  At least I got that part right. My friend is trying hard to make the best of a bad situation.  I'm proud of her because it's hard.  She honestly is putting God and His word first.  It's not been an easy thing to do and it may not work out for her, but she's trying.  So many others wouldn't. I...

I'm bored. So that means two posts for a Saturday.  I've kind of lost my passion for storytelling and pretty much everything else lately but let me just recap for you the last two weeks. 12 days ago, I was listening to a radio program about God's will.  Then the heater in the truck started blowing cold air.  I went to the store that never closes to get some anti-freeze and they were closed.  I left work early in case the truck overheated and I needed help to get home.  When I got home, I let the dogs out.  When the dogs got out the cat got out.  When I picked up the cat to let it back in, I got scratched and bitten. The bites got infected.  I got to get two shots of anti-biotic in the hips.  One really hurt.  I talked to my friend Tami Jo.  She and I have officially changed places in our relationship roulette.  I spoke to her again briefly today.  She's doing the right thing and I hope that now the shoe is on the oth...

I hadn't noticed but I've been singe for six months.  I'm thinking that's about five more months than popular opinion thought I would be.  I'm really in no hurry and I'm not so bad alone.  It'd be nice to have someone to share expenses with, to be sure, but past that, I think I'm still needing to learn some things. I needed a little guidance today and turned to the Psalms, specifically Psalms 145-147.  I don't know that I found answers there, but I did find some uplifting scripture.  I fear God and that's a good thing.  In fact before I turned to said Scriptures, I talked with the Almighty about that fear.  I'm reminded that to fear God is a good thing. One of the comments the ex made about me was that she was certain there was someone waiting in the wings.  I talked to that specific someone today and it just reminded me that God has reasons for things.  We find ourselves at polar opposites of how our relationship used to be; I'm hopi...

In the past two weeks, I have had my rear end handed to me twice; first by a pussycat bite...the second time by the common cold. I've had colds before but let me tell ya; this one's a doosey.  It's taken up residence in my chest this afternoon and as much as I want to stay in bed, I have to go to the store.  I need Vicks. I've tried all the new fangled remedies;  day cold medicine worked on day one.  Cough drops fixed the sore throat, but I cannot talk very well and when I cough, it sounds awful.  I still can't breeb.  Well, if I said breathe, that's what it would sound like.  I had to give my e-mail address to June's doctor today and she couldn't understand me at all.  She had to call me back and get it again. Crummy cold. I'm kind of tire being a victim in life.  I'm on a quest to eliminate whatever is causing the stupid stuff that goes on in my life.  I've been a victim far too long but no more.  I'm fixin' to start fight...

Someone suggested we should become unicorns.  She was tired of being a people.  My reply was that I want to be four. I picked four for a lot of reasons.  At four, there's no school.  There's only breakfast, lunch, and dinner.   And nap.  And snack.  Sometime during the day, for some reason, four year olds still need a nap.  I'm fifty.  I need a nap.  I didn't when I was four.  I need one now.  When I didn't need it, I had to take it or get punished.  When I need it now, if I take it, I'm gonna get fired for loafing.  Nobody minded me loafing when I was four. I also picked four because at that point, you're potty trained. At four, someone holds your hand when you cross the street.  Someone knows it's a big, scary world out there and you need someone to help you navigate the perils.  My life is a mess, in no small part thanks to my own self.  At four, someone was there to tell me the stove was hot a...

I went to Salt Lake today because I needed a part for the dryer.  I could have ordered it and paid more for the shipping than the part, but probably less than what I paid in gas to get the part today.  It was the principle of the thing.  I kind of didn't weigh it out properly; learning to look before I leap is part of the stewardship lesson, but I was blessed to see a friend today. She needed a favor so I killed two birds with one stone. We agreed to meet at the Smith's in Sugarhouse.  I arrived before she did so I went to the appliance parts store which was just up the block and across the street.  When I got there, I forgot the slip of paper with the model number of the dryer on it; I left it in the truck.  I went back to get it and by this time my friend had arrived.  We exchanged greetings and headed back to the appliance store. My friend is from Oregon and I keep trying to tell her she ought to go home.  We can't go anyplace together wi...