Summer 2014 July 21 Monday (If Only...) (Battle of the BirdsI)

Summer 2014 July 21 Monday (If Only) (Battle of the birds)

75 degrees this morning.  Found my stop watch, walked 59:48 minutes, a good walk.  I don’t try to “beat my time”, I just do it so I can keep general track.  (I’ll be honest, the reason I started this is that when I walk “laps”-even long laps-I tend to forget where I am and which lap I am on.  I 

started using the stop watch so I knew what lap I was on!.  My current walk is a route which is not repeated, so I’m don’t need to worry about forgetting which lap I am on!)  Also did 40 sit ups and 4 sets of 15 lb weights.

“If Only”.  This morning while listening to “Reset”, the author mentioned the concept of “if only” as in “if only I had a job”, if only I had a new car” …”if only…. I would be happy”.  

Obviously there is no one thing that will make you happy.  I used to have a department head (the title may implicate the guilty, so I won’t use the title) who would ask for a major purchase and say “if only I get this, I will be happy for five (or whatever) years and not ask for anything else”.  Of course, six months later…..

Somewhere in life, I realized there is no “if only” that will make me (or anyone) “happy”.  Life is a series of experiences (in my opinion) and I think “happiness” is dealing with and living the experiences. 

Some years ago (I can’t pinpoint when) I decided that “experiencing” life, even the negative, stressful things were the important part of life.  I don’t try to cover up any of my experiences, although I’m sure I do.  That includes both the physical (such as my surgery for skin cancer) and the psychological (dealing with an angry  resident, dealing with my own anger etc.), as well as the pleasant parts of life.   I’m hardly perfect on it, but i just think “I need to truly experience  living life  and really feel how I feel” (so to speak) and it makes life much easier and, in my opinion, much better.  That is one reason that the only thing I use that may affect my experiencing life is coffee, and it is hardly that much of an impact.  (It keeps me awake for life!) I don’t want to miss experiencing life. 

BATTLE OF THE BIRDS:  We continue to fight the “Blue Jays”  (actually after looking up Blue Jays on the internet,  I don’t think they are Blue Jays, but…).  

We made a major advance yesterday when we took down the nest, washed it all down, put up a plastic “owl” near the site of the next and also put up some chimes to harass the birds.

The birds went a little crazy and tried to scare off the owl (unsuccessfully) and I didn’t see them this morning.  I expect they will be back with some new techniques.  I know they won’t give up easily.

Thus far, the owl appears to be working well, but I won’t claim victory for awhile yet.  

Again, we don’t like doing it, but the mess it creates is a real health hazard.

Some major advancements in moving in.  With some help we put all the moving boxes in the attic and cleaned out the garage.  We still have a lot to do but getting the moving boxes out is a major advance.

We have a non-profit coming out tomorrow to pick up a bunch of items we are donating, thank goodness, which will open up lot of room.

I really don’t like the lack of  recycling here.  They actually don’t recycle cardboard.  Yesterday I carefully cut up all the cardboard boxes we aren’t saving for a future move and carefully filled the trash cart to capacity, all the while feeling that something is wrong about not recycling cardboard.  Such a waste of resources.  I now have two bins and have them filled to capacity with the few items they recycle.  

That’s it for now, Monday, July 21, 2014