Thought Provoking
Month: September 2016
Pest Control
One night last week I killed a Buick sized roach in my bedroom closet. Now the pest control company, Orkin, and I have this understanding– I pay them a substantial amount of money, and they make sure I don’t see any creepy crawlies inside my home. I assure you, I’m keeping my end of the bargain.
This post isn’t about my one roach. Roaches aren’t really newsworthy in the Florida panhandle, but I have a friend who recently moved to Oregon and her pest issue is enormous:
http://www.dailyastorian.com/Local_News/20160719/animal-versus-animal-as-elk-dogs-clash
Elk are taking over her yard, creating divots that she patiently replaces, and generally terrorizing the neighborhood. And they can be aggressive. I worry for her safety. Say what you will about roaches, but I’ve never heard of anyone being trampled to death by one.
In our text chat on Wednesday morning I suggested various remedies:
Granted, the spikes might be ill-advised, and we are animal lovers, after all. My friend did say they’d tried spraying wolf urine around the edges of their lawn with no success. Can you imagine going into the local feed and seed store and ordering thirty gallons of wolf pee? And having that pee fail to do its job?
I don’t guess Orkin handles elk. On the plus side, one isn’t likely to find an elk skittering across the bathroom floor at 2 a.m.
I hope my friend and her husband find an elk solution soon, but I fear nature will have its way in this case.
Peace, people!
Snapshot #26, I think
I call this one, “But Who’s Counting?”
Workin’ It
After many months of being a domestic goddess I’m off to work again. Part of me is saying, “Woohoo” while the other part is asking, “What was I thinking?”
The toughest obstacle thus far this morning was dragging my feeble body out of bed when the 6 a.m. alarm sounded. I’d been wide awake since 4:30 either from anticipation or dread; I’m not certain.
Obstacle number two was getting dressed in something other than denim capris, a tshirt, and flip flops. I almost cried when I placed my feet in regular shoes. I’m so sorry, feet!
And instead of my normal brunch I had to eat breakfast! To ease the strain of eating something before 9 a.m. I stopped at Cinnabon and scarfed down a serving of Cinna minis with icing. My feet might hate me, but my tummy is so pleased.
Now, having arrived a full thirty minutes early for my assignment, I’m sitting in the car in front of a school in Tallahassee listening to Howard Stern and scanning the cars in the parking lot for my coworkers, none of whom I’ve met. Surely they’ll be easy to spot. We all have identical green suitcases packed with testing materials.
Wish me luck, friends. If you don’t hear from me again you’ll know I truly was allergic to work and couldn’t afford an epi pen.
Peace, people.
There’s No Place Like Home for a Faerie
Our faerie family decided today that they could return to their home.
They still have some cleanup to do, but they gathered in their garden to thank me and all of you for supporting them during Hurricane Hermine.
They’d so admired one of my decorative plates that I presented it to them as a gift. I think it will be appreciated by the wee folk more than it ever was by me. And it makes a colorful backdrop for their garden.
Quite frankly, it was time they moved out. It’s not that I didn’t want them staying in the house, but the cats were having a hard time remembering that they’d pledged not to eat them. I can’t imagine the bad karma that might ensue from having one’s cats devour a fae family.
Peace, people!
Flags and Patriots
Stand, don’t ask
Pledge allegiance,
There’s a good boy!
Otherwise, those
Flag toting
Patriots cry no joy.
Never mind that
Soldiers died for
Your consecrated right
To speak your mind
Wrapped up in the
Constitution, tight.
Unblinking, unthinking
Loyalty to words
Written by a racist
Sing them anyway,
“Oh say can you see”
That doubts persist?
Courage lies within
Your conscientious
Objection,
Yet some say
Your rights unworthy
Of protection.
Screw that,
Give ’em hell
Stick to your guns,
Wrap yourself in the
Words of our founders,
Amendment number one.
Five Things on a September Monday
Great post for a Tuesday morning in September, too. Read more at redswrap.wordpress.com.
September Mondays are tricky and lovely at the same time. There’s something about their fleetingness that makes them precious, like if you died this very second with the sun shining, the wind blowing and the waves up, you’d be fine with that. It’s all theoretical, of course. We’re never fine with it. Dying.
So walking on the beach, a list came to me.
- I’ve never had 100% of my four kids be fine at once. So since that’s never happened, it’s going to cease being a hope of mine.
- I have one grandchild who tells me she doesn’t like being outside. This is astonishing and distressing to me in a thousand ways since I think being outside a lot is a big deal and fundamental for healthy living. I look at her pale face and big brown eyes like she is a mushroom growing in the cellar. How could such…
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Connection
We lingered over drinks, chatting about inconsequential topics. I like the Rangers,
You follow the Royals. I’m a Cowboys fan, you think I’m a fool. We laughed until
Tears traced meandering pathways down our cheeks. I claimed one lonely drop midway down
Your face, but you didn’t reciprocate. Maybe I mistook this connection. Maybe you aren’t
Invested as I am. Tell me I’m beautiful and I’ll forgive your lapse. Maybe I’ll believe you.
Snapshot #26
This one’s called “Waiting for the Service Tech Who Was Suppsed To Have Been Here Between Ten and Twelve and Still Hasn’t Arrived.”
Parents: Right Now Is All You’ve Got
Powerful stuff from my friend, Jan Wilberg. Read more at redswrap.wordpress.com.
Last night, a drunk driver crashed into my friend’s parked car, pushing it across the grass to rest against her neighbor’s stone porch. Minutes before the crash, my friend’s daughter and grandson had been in the space obliterated by the drunk driver but they’d driven away before he turned the corner. They were all fine. The car was dead and the driver was arrested but everyone else was fine.
But it just goes to show what I’ve known for a long time.
Anything can happen.
I just put that out there for folks who think the world spins on an “If/Then” axis.
Chief among such folks would be parents who convince themselves from baby’s first cry that the end result of all their incredible effort will be a flawless child and then a perfect adult. This might be true if a drunk driver doesn’t come zooming around the corner.
Linear…
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Praying for Eyebrowz 