Tree Saplings and "Stuff"

I once read that an optimist is "someone who plants small trees when he is old".  Well, yes I am and I did.

I MAY see these 4 trees grow and bloom and I MAY not.  That makes little difference to me.  I just like to DO THINGS that suggest the future.  I sometimes think of the future without me alive in it.  It takes some thought...  But I can picture the yard with newly-planted saplings at least grown to blooming age.

I planted 2 Sourwoods and 2 Korean Dogwoods.  The Sourwoods have a bad-sounding name, but where they grow, they are gorgeous.  Burgundy leaves and bunches of gold seeds in the Fall.


The Dogwoods are great in the Spring and the Korean dogwood doesn't suffer the disease that is infecting American dogwoods.  So I hope to see Spring and Fall colors.  It may take some time for them to grow to full color in their seasons.


One day, this property will not be mine.   I'll be gone in some way or another.  But I have a vision of the yard.  I should have striven for that idea years before, but you do what you can as you can and not look back TOO much.

My personal vision of the yard involves perennial flowers, some spots where there are mostly self-sowing flowers, and some places where are specific plants to help the hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees thrive.  And that is aside from the thistle seed feeders for the goldfinches and the sunflower seed feeder for the cardinals and purple finches et al.

It may seem odd that I dislike Robins, but they eat my earthworms and I kind of resent that.  But they need their food too, so I leave the lawn-clippings on the surface for the earthworms to eat as best they can.  Nature balances when you let it.  If I didn't have healthy soil, I wouldn't have earthworms, and if I did't have earthworms, the Robins wouldn't be marching across the lawn finding the least careful worms.

I do sort of wish the Robins hunted voles though...  I would love the Robins better then, LOL!

The best thing is that I'm 68 and I still have PLANS!  LOL...  The day I don't think about "next year" is the day they haul me away.    I think the best way to stay sane while aging is to imagine "next year".  New flowers, new tomatoes, etc...

A Visual Joke...

I was sent this, and I cracked up.

A Better Day

So the cement held on the pvc pipe repair.  And I pulled on it hard.  Good.  Now I just have to straighten and reinstall 2 others.

I plan to add more supports so that (hopefully) this doesn't happen again.  As best I can guess, enogh leaves fell on the chicken wire covering that the large snowflakes that fell didn't fall through it and accumulated enough weight to bend even the metal pipes in the pvc pipes.  I'll have to be careful about that in the future.

I built the structure with metal pipe inside pvc pipe because there were some complicated connections and metal pipes didn't offer those and pvc pipes did.

I still have some pipes to straighten.  But now that I've done the worst-bent one, the rest should be a BIT easier.  Not "easy" but "easier".  Part of the problem with the first one was that the temperature outside was close to the minimum 45F that the cement cures at rapidly.  The next couple days are supposed to reach the 70F mark (yay Spring) so I can do better with the other bent pipes.

So of course I wasn't sitting around just waiting for the temperature to rise.  I had planned for the brambles in the back 1/4th of the yard to be gone in Fall 2017, but the one guy I found who said he could do that THEN ended up in the hospital from a job injury (and decided to retire).  I did it myself last Fall (really brambly awkward work).  But I did it.

I had to do it.  I had 5 saplings to plant that I bought in Fall 2017 and had set in my garden "temporarily", LOL!  I went out to dig holes for them in Winter and it was like digging a hole in ice.  So I moved 4 of them Tuesday.  At least I could dig the soil.  I transplanted them carefully.  I LOVE my solid steel spade!  I sharpened the edge and it cuts through all soil and vine roots well. 

Today, I took 4 kitty litter buckets (I save them) and drilled a tiny hole in the bottom of each.  Why?  Well, when I fill them from the hose, they drip water slowly into the soil.  It soaks in rather than run off that way.  And I don't have to stand around 30 minutes soaking the area.  Plus, the buckets remind me where the saplings are so I won't mistake them for the junk saplings that spring up on their own.

More to do in the days to come of course, but that was a good start!

A Hard Day

My enclosed garden structure is falling apart.

I didn't think that was possible  because the PVC  tubes were so closely bound by the chicken wire and nylon ties.

But 2 winters ago, enough large snowflakes fell on the top to bend the framework.  It was little enough so that I could ignore it intending to push them straight (there are metal pipes inside the PVC for strength), but I never got around to it.

And a 2nd pvc pipe broke and fell this past Winter. So I went out to fix it.

It was a horrible experience!  Nothing I tried, worked.  You can't be on both ends of a 10' pole at once, but I built it to begin with, so I did in a way.

This is the original framework.  PVC tubes with metal pipes inside for strength...

Not enough strength.  I covered it all with chicken wire. And some large snow collected on it.  I didn't expect THAT.  It bent everything!

One pole just fell.  I straightened it.  And spent 3 hours trying to put it back in place... It was utterly maddening.

I THINK I have the PVC pipe with metal pipe insert cemented into place but I went nuts doing it.  I finally had to cut the chicken wire loose to allow me to get at the PVC connections to push the cemented parts together.  And finally used seriously-stretched bungee cords to keep the 2 ends tight together.

I'll see how well the bonding worked tomorrow.  I'm wondering if I have the wrong kind of cement.  I'll find out tomorrow.  If the parts aren't fused, than I need a different kind that has a primer AND cement combined.

And here I thought I was going to plant spinach, carrots, and leeks today after a small repair job...

Flowers! Spring!

It is finally Spring.  And not just by the calendar, by flowers.  I am thrilled to have some...

The first daffodils...

These all come from one bulb I planted.  I remember that spot...

Crocuses growing where I didn't deliberately plant them.  Squrrels or just is soin I used from elsewhere?

My favorite crocus...

This last one is a very old planting in bad soil and that was covered by overgrown brambles and vines and still survive.  THIS year, they get full sunlight and attention...

Lost Comments

My dear , readers, and commenters...  I have just learned (thank you Megan) THAT friends' comments have been ignored.  It wasn't deliberate, and in fact I check the moderation comment list almost daily.  So something obviously went wrong. 

And the graphic I use for Mark's Mews (the small wavey red of yellow title you see at my comments) is gone too.  I MAY have been slightly hacked.

So I am immediately running the computer through my anti-virus and computer security software.  It will take a day.  It is slow but thorough.

At last resort, I have my "time machine", which is is the Mac backup system.   Which of course I disconnected several months ago (for perfectly good reasons) and the forgot to reattach.  Perfect timing.  But at least my Mark's Mews graphic is in there.

See you all soon, I hope.  Bye for now...

Heart Cat

There will never be another Skeeter in my life.  He was the first who really was special.  I won't denigrate the ones who came before, because they were good companions who I loved, but there wasn't that "special connection".  They were GOOD CATS!

Skeeter was special.  I had reached an age and situation where I could appreciate him more than the others, but I have come to understand that it was my fault, not theirs'.  They shared my apartments or the rented house, but they never quite attached themselves to me.  Skeeter was the first here in my real house who did.  He slept under the covers against me.  And the other cat, LC, was really sort of HIS cat.  I loved and cherished them both.

But here is the difficult part.  Ayla, Iza, and Marley are more closely attached to me than even Skeeter was.  This is hard to explain, but for most of Skeeter's life, I was away at work.  Ayla, Iza, and Marley have been with me 24/7/365.  That has changed my thoughts a bit. 

I think what I'm trying to say here is that there is not just one Heart Cat in life..  And not all cats will be Heart Cats.  But there can be more than one...

I'm sitting here at the computer and Iza is sitting at my feet.  She really can't bear to be away from me.  I'm really her total focus in life; Tonkinese are amazing that way.  She has to sleep next to me, she has to follow me around the house, she has to sit next to me while I eat dinner.  I can't move without checking to see where she is.  If I fail, I bump her with a foot.  In bed, I have to be careful when I toss or turn because she is there.  She is THAT close to me all the time.  I cherish her affection deeply.  How could she not be a Heart Cat?

Ayla isn't always around me (she avoids Iza), but she wants my attention every morning.  Her territory is the bedroom.  When I get up, she is there on furniture wanting my touch.  Head bumps, strokes, nuzzles...  She follows me every place except into the shower (there ARE limits).  She needs me to hold and stroke her for assurance that she is my Small Beloved Princess and that she is as important to me as Iza is. 

And after 2 failed spays and frustrating constant heats in her younger days Pulling her off me sometimes like a pile of thorny brambles), how can I not assure her that her love is not returned.  I am so happy with her finally free of the "heat".  I can hold her over my shoulder for a long time and she purrs so happily when I do.  When I sit up in bed, ready to face the day, she comes and nestles on my lap for as long as I will allow,  and when she sits on the sunny bathroom windowsill, she desires all my attention for as long as I can give it.  She eats in the bedroom and guides me (as I follow her around holding the foodbowl) to the spot she desires for that meal.

Whenever I enter the bedroom, she calls to me,wanting my attention.  We went through so much difficulty together before she was finally spayed successfully on the 3rd try.  How could she not be a Heart Cat?

And Marley.  Good old Marley.  Marley does not sleep with me often.  But he is always a calm presence here.  He is usually on the ottoman in front of me while I watch TV, he is often on my lap.  If he was the only cat, he would attached to me like Skeeter was.  He is the cat who appears on my lap when I don't notice it until he is asleep there.  He is welcomed by Iza and Ayla equally, and naps with both.  When I am restless, he calms me.  He sneaks under the blankets sometimes but never disturbs my sleep, staying near but just out of touch so that I know he is there but I can turn around and he won't mind.  He is so much like Skeeter, but maybe more so.  How can he not be a Heart Cat?

The truth is that each one is.  I can't be so lucky to have 4 Heart Cats, so it has to be that we choose any early cat and decide on that one, and then deny the title to all that come after.

I think I will try to stop thinking in terms of Heart Cats, and allow them all to be, in their own ways.  The current ones surely are deserving of that title...

A Funny Story

I was reminded of this because of Daylight Saving Time.  It doesn't involve that directly, but it does involve time...

I shared one apartment with 2 other guys.   I was actually the person with the lease, but I was broke, so I found another broke guy to share the large bedroom with me and a guy with a good job to take the smaller single bedroom. 

I'll call the guy with the good job "Jim" (well that was his name).  His routine was to return from work, eat a TV Dinner, and drink Colt 45 beer until he eventually passed out in bed.  Got up every morning where to all accounts he was very good at his job as the Parts Manager at a car dealership. 

One Saturday afternoon, he had been drinking beer since morning (watching someone get up at 8 am and guzzling a beer is stomach-churning) and sat in a chair just waking up at twilight.  So I pulled a trick on him. 

Since he needed to get up around dawn, and dusk was about the same, my roomie and I pretended to be leaving for OUR jobs.  And roused Jim and told him he was going to be late for work!  He panicked and rushed out of the house.  Give us some credit here, we made sure he was actually functional and sober, just accepting our actions based on half-light. 

When he came back, realizing it was getting darker not lighter outside, and we were both sitting around watching TV instead of leaving for work ourselves, he was stunned. 

We cracked up.

Daylight Saving Time

Saturday night as I went to bed, I moved the bedroom clock up an hour.  That makes it easier to adjust to Daylight Saving Time.  It's easier to think of going to bed late than to suddenly lose an hour the next day.  There is sometimes benefits to playing tricks with one's own mind, LOL!

In the morning Sunday, I just got up and dealt with the time.  Since I don't keep regular hours going to bed or getting up, it isn't hard.  In fact, I got up at a generally "regular" time,  so neither mind nor body objected.

The annoying part is all the other clocks in the morning.  I have an unusual number of them.  There are 4 in the kitchen alone; the oven, the M/W  and 2 analog wall clocks on opposite walls. 

There are 5 in the TV room.  One a radio signal one that tells time, month/day/date, year, inside temperature, outside temperature, and inside humidity.  It a fun item, but mostly it is always accurate with the radio signal update and serves as the basis for setting all the other clocks.    Aside from that one there is the cordless phone, the cable box one, the VCR one, and an analog wall clock.  I don't bother with the VCR one, I put electric tape over the display a decade ago.  I know HOW to change it, I just don't need it.  I'd do the same with the cable box, but it also shows the channel sometimes.

The Living room has only one digital clock, but it is a very useful one.  It shows the day of the week in LARGE LETTERS; something very useful if you are retired and so don't have the kind of schedule that forces you to normally keep track of that.  And it is the first room I walk into in the morning, so that's the best place for it.  Don't laugh TOO hard, but sometimes after I get up and am dressed and about the house, I notice it is "Thursday" when I thought it was "Wednesday".  Its not like it may sound;  mostly I just need to know "weekday" from "weekend" (because I never do shopping on weekends).   Too crowded...

The Bedroom has 3 clocks.  The old digital clock/radio/alarm that I only use as "clock" these days.  The radio part was always awful, the alarm annoying to set.  So I just use a kitchen timer as an alarm clock.  Whenever I go to bed, I just set the timer to 9 hours (so easy).  If I wake up before it goes off and feel rested, I get up.  If it goes off and I don't feel rested, I just set it for another hour.  As I said, my hours are very flexible.

The 2nd Bedroom "clock" is only an analog day clock.  All it does is show the day of the week.  The face is divided into days and that is ALL it tells you.  If you looked at it carefully, you could judge early morning, late morning, etc.  But if you need that level of help, you probably NEED some other kinds of help, LOL!  I only have it because I hadn't found that Living room digital one at the time.

The 3rd Bedroom clock is equally not mainly for telling time but it does have a clock on it.  It is really a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer that tells me the minimum and maximum temperatures and the click of a button.  It's for gardening information but of course they just HAD to but a time display on it.  I will say, that since it is in the Bedroom and battery powered, it the electricity fails (so the clock radio blinks at me, it is easier to tell the time than finding my eyeglasses to read my wristwatch to tell what time it is. 

The Computer room has 3 clocks in it.  Two are on the computers.  One computer is online, so it automatically updated.  The other computer is standalone (for games but also security; I keep my passwords and asset trends on a spreadsheet there.  The clock there doesn't actually matter, but it can being confusing if I want to make sure I stop playing a game by a certain planned bedtime.  And I'll be darned, THAT'S the one I forgot to change today (doing it now).  The 3rd is a digital wall clock.  Well, just because I don't always wake up the computer when I walk into the room...

The Basement has 2 analog clocks.  One is a cool/unusual.  It is a woodworking equipment company brand one.  I was buying something and one of those exhibition shows and knew they were selling the item at a discount.  But I was negotiating.  I was asking for more than the demonstrator was willing to give and noticed he had a 12" analog clock showing the company (which I liked).  So I said "Throw in the clock and you have a deal".  He looked back at the clock and said "You have to be kidding".  But I now have the bench planer and the clock (which has kept perfect time for 20 years, is easy to read [large black hands on a yellow face], and gets comments.  The other clock is a standard cheap analog type for where I can't see the large.  I actually need clocks in the basement.  Otherwise, I stay down there too late...

The Cat room has no clocks in it.  Well, there IS one, but I keep the battery out.  It ticks loudly.  Same for a pendulum wall clock in the Computer room, BTW.  I sleep lightly

That leaves 2 clocks.  One is my wristwatch.  I hate my wristwatch.  I can set it, but it takes work and experimentation.  The buttons aren't labeled, not are they intuitive.  And with buttons sticking out of it, I am constantly accidentally changing it to 24 hour time or timer or alarm.  And it has a black display over a grey background.  But other ones were more complicated or gaudy.

My previous wristwatch was a Sears Phasar with an easily readable black display on a white background.  My Dad gave it to me when I left for college in 1968.  It kept perfect time.  The replacement battery was inexpensive.  The settings buttons were recessed (which meant that you needed a paperclip on old pen to depress them, but you couldn't change things by accident. 

The last clock is in the car.  Easy to change.  Dedicated hour and minute buttons, so today it was just one push and I was done. 

The Fall changeback takes longer.  Digital clocks beed to be advanced forward 23 hours, not 1 forward.  Many analog clocks get messed up being turned backwards, so you have to manually turn a slow button on the back 23 hours. 

But I love Daylight Saving Time.  Same TV schedule, but an hour later of light.  And since I never get up at dawn, I personally DO get an extra hour of light each day.  I spent my extra hour today deciding where to transplant some specimen tree saplings to in the area I chopped out the brambles in the far back yard, snipping out old growth on perennials, and cutting out some small briars and brambles from around flowerbeds preparing for new growth. 

Retirement Anniversary

I almost missed it this year!  I retired 13 years ago March 1st.   I haven't regretted a day of it!

I retired the first day I was eligible for a full annuity.  Many co-workers were surprised, for various reasons.

1.  Because I seemed to really enjoy the work I did.  And I did.  It wasn't routine work.  I wasn't following old procedures every day.  And it allowed me to solve new and different problems.

2.  I was allowed great freedom in what I chose to do.  Most office workers aren't.  Apparently, many co-workers were envious.  I could say a lot about being a "self-starter", and bringing "solutions to Management rather than problems",  but I bet most of you reading this are like that and don't need it explained.  But I had many co-workers who were not.  I recall reading a humorous collection of (probably fake) personnel evaluations and one said "Works OK if watched constantly and trapped like a rat in his cubicle".

3.  A number of co-workers asked how I could retire financially at 55.  Well I had carpool members who lived paycheck-to-paycheck and they didn't have to.  They talked about vacations, new cars, moving to larger houses, eating out a couple times a week, movies, etc.  I didn't do a lot of those things.

Now, I didn't grow up poor.  My Dad had a good Government salary (GS-15) and while Mom and Dad were careful with money (grew up in The Great Depression), we kids had what we needed, good food, and nice Christmases.  But once I left home, I spent years in poverty myself (refusing to ask for help).  And I mean roach-infested apartments I shared with several other guys, minimum-wage jobs, and Hamburger Helper...

But I saved as much as I could.  Every promotion meant half the increase went into savings and finally into index stock funds.  When I could finally buy a house, I had to borrow the down payment from my parents (at market rates and a firm repayment schedule).  But I paid that early, bought a new car 2 years later, refinanced the mortgage to 20 years, then 10, and finally paid off the original 30 year mortgage in 14 years.

My average car has lasted about 10 years (current one 12 and likely to go to 15) and 2 of them were cheap junk (a Chevette Scooter and a used Chevy Vega Hatchback, and my first 2 cars were rather old, so they didn't have much left to give), so the average lifespan would be higher otherwise.

So back to my co-workers' question about how I could retire at 55.  They bought new cars every 3 or 4 years.  I kept mine 8-10.  They spent money as fast as they earned it.  I saved and invested.  They went to restaurants once a week for $20 each; I learned to cook.

4.  The other question I got was "but what will you DO all day"?  That was my favorite question!  I had so much I wanted to do, I couldn't do it in the time I had off work.  Too few people have a life outside of work (other than going out on the town).  I had too many hobbies and interests I couldn't wait to do more of.

Subject and replies:

Gardening:  "But you can just buy food at the grocery store".
Yardwork:  "So just hire someone".
Woodworking:  "You can just buy furniture, you know".
Cats:  "They just ruin your furniture".
Computer Games:  "Yeah, I like Angry Birds (or whatever was popular in 2006)".  But I was stretching my mind with complex strategy games.
Cooking:  "Pizza Hut delivers".
Fishing:  ""Icky".

Etc...  I went bowling, I went golfing, I went fishing.  I gardened, I worked in the yard, I built small furniture, I enjoyed staying up late at night to see things on TV I had never been able to see before, listened to long pieces of music and watched weird DVDs (Heavy Metal, Fantasia, and Wizards, and bought science/history/nature ones.

I played Civ2 a lot (a game where you you start with a primitive Settler and built until you can hopefully launch a spaceship.  And then there was a multi-player version where you could play other people from all over the world.  After a YEAR of learning how to play it properly, I learned how to design new worlds for other people to play.

Then I organized the one and only worldwide Civ2 Tournament.  That didn't come from nowhere.  In college, I was the President of the University Chess Club for my last 2 years there.  It didn't mean that I was the best player (I was nearly the worst), just that I could keep the meetings organized and I also learned to manage campus tournaments.

So I took that old chess club organizing experience and managed the Civ2 tournament.  It was one of the most difficult things I ever organized.  Just try to imagine the negotiations involved in getting some player in Australia to play a person in Italy, or Japan with England.  But I finally got 12 of the 16 best players to play several rounds to get to a Final Two.

They played (and as always, I was a non-player viewer), and it was a close game.  As I promised, I made a small trophy of shaped wood painted red with a rearing horseman on the top with a small plaque announcing the winner.  The other players of the game followed the games and cheered the Winner.

The individual players only had to be there in their local time (like the Japan guy was up early to play and the English guy stayed up late), but I had to be available 24/7 for all games.  It was worth the effort; something new, something I had not tried before, something no one had done before.  But I also announced that I would never try it again, LOL!

All this is mostly a reminder to myself about what I've done after retirement, and why.  A lot of this blog is just me talking out loud about things that may not matter to others.  It doesn't HAVE to mean much of anything to other people.  But if it does, that's good.

I've enjoyed my retirement, and I hope to for a long time.  I am suited to retirement.  And this might sound odd, but there was never anything in particular that I ever wanted to do in life.  Just do some job well, and enjoy my time here usefully.  I've done and am doing that.

If nothing else, celebrate my retirement time with me...