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 ...