KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS----

 

KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS--------

As you can probably tell, now that I have retired to the Springer Hills Retirement Home….I have more time on my hands to think about things I have overlooked or not had time to consider in many years.

The Springer Hill Retirement Home has two residents, very exclusive and no HOA to fool with. We do not anticipate any newcomers for at least twenty five more years.

It’s hay mowing season and I have been observing how this process works. First the hay gets mowed. Then it’s threshed? Or put into rows, then the baler comes by and runs over it and every so often a big round bale comes out.

So, as I’m watching this take place across the road, I see our neighbors’ field on fire. I hop in our mule/buggy and run over with two fire extinguishers which did little good on the growing blaze. Fortunately, more neighbors and the volunteer fire department show up to get everything under control. Disaster averted. The next day I am watching my neighbor work on his hay baler. A piece of equipment I know absolutely nothing about. He opens the back and crawls in for something. Then he opens a panel on the right side, and I can see all kinds of dials and controls. Then he opens a panel in the front which I presume has more controls. The point is farming is more complicated than I thought. So that lets me out of any thoughts I may have had about trying my hand at it. This leads me to the following discussion.

You see, I am the most un-mechanical person you have ever met. In my lifetime I have owned nine antique cars in my life. Why? I have no clue. I always thought I could fix them up and drive them, but alas that never happened. The best condition they were usually in was on the day I bought them. They went downhill from that point. My wife would ask me how I was doing when I came in the house from trying to work on these things. Many times, I told her that I fixed one thing but broke two more trying to fix the one. I think I though I could learn to repair something as complicated as an automobile by osmosis.

If it hadn’t been for my best friend in high school, I would probably have never been able to date. My first car (a red 1932 Chevrolet) wasn’t ‘cool’ so I traded it in for a 1953 Ford that looked much better but wouldn’t run. So, I had to call old Bob from a pay phone (no cell phones in the 60’s) and have him walk me through what to do. My dates were not impressed.  

But the one thing I am not is a quitter. So, I bought seven more over the remaining years with about the same degree of success. Right now, I have 1952 M-38A-1 Military Jeep sitting in my car port. It ran great until about a month ago when I decided to flush the radiator. How hard can that be? Well, I must have dislodged some old gunk in it that stopped up the cooling system and now it won’t run. I have ordered a new radiator and once it gets here, I am going to have it installed by a real mechanic and then sell the last albatross of my life. Never again for this folly.

Lesson to be learned ? Stay away from things you don’t know anything about or cannot understand.

See you next week….Peary Perry

HAPPY AS A CLAM---

 

HAPPY AS A CLAM-------

I don’t want you to get the impression that I am happy to be out of the big city or that I hated living in a big city the majority of my life. Big cities have been good to me and have allowed me to make a good living over all these years, but now it’s time to move onto to greener pastures.

After 68 years of working, I think God and one of my sons looked upon us and said, “Well done…now let’s kind of chill out for the rest of the years.”

So, my son built us a new house in the middle of a hay field in a town of about 280 people in central Texas.

We moved here in October of last year and it has taken some time to get used to it. We are exactly in the boondocks; we have a service station and Dollar General store. No stop lights, just one blinking light at an intersection. It is still hard for me to relax and learn to retire. I am so used to getting up each morning and putting on a suit and driving to the office. It is difficult to just have another cup of coffee and think about nothing. Retiring is a different lifestyle.

Instead of police and ambulance sirens, horns and such, we wake up to cows making cow noises and at night we hear the coyotes calling. We have lots of frogs, toads and fireflies. And clouds, you can see the entire sky. We have a tin roof which is a joy to hear when it rains. The lightening and thunder displays are awesome when it storms.

But most of all it is quiet. You can hear yourself think.

Maybe it’s just me, but in the big city, everyone seems in a hurry but here it’s a slower pace. Folks don’t seem as up tight and actually talk to you every chance they get. Went to the doctor the other day to get an allergy shot (we live in a hay field, remember? And a couple of days later the doctor’s office calls back wanting to know how I was feeling. cannot recall that happening before. I had to take an item back to a big box store for a refund. I was in and out in about 5 minutes. The last time I did that in Houston, I was in there for over an hour.

Our neighbors are some distances away, but they bring cookies, candy, vegetables just to be neighborly. The mail lady stops in for coffee and just to talk. When has that ever happened to you?

We walk about 2 miles in the mornings, folks stop and chat for a few minutes about everything. Gives me a chance to catch my breath. 

We miss our friends; we miss our neighbors. But at some point, in your life you must say ‘whoa’ and slow it down. Take a chill pill and learn to relax.

I think the Eagles had a line in one of their songs that went something like….”don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy”.

Color me relaxed….

See you next week…Peary

 

TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS....

 

I started working when I was 14 years old..and stopped after 68 years. This has now provided me with a whole new experience.

I have an excess of time on my hands.

I now find that over the years I signed up for stuff that I didn’t really need or want. For example, I found I have had a subscription to audio books for over 15 years. I have never listened to an audio book nor do I want to do so. These little discoveries are like a smaller version of Christmas or my birthday.

But what I want to discuss today is my new found appreciation of nature. When you grow up and live in the city for the majority of your life, you seldom get to experience any form of wildlife outside of the idiots who drive on the freeways.

But here in the country, we get everything. We have a ranch outside our front door with cows and horses. I know nothing about cows and horses and their various activities amuse us. Like those little white birds that seem to be assigned to each cow. Do the cows get the same bird each day? Do they know each other? I feel sorry for any cow that doesn’t get one. What’s the reason for that? Why do cows clump together in a tight circle from time to time? I’ve asked several of the ranchers around here and their answers are pretty vague with comments like…” I don’t know, they are just cows”

We have 2 feral cats that come up at night and eat the food we set out for them. They get loud if we forget to fill their bowls. Makes me wonder what they did before we got here.

But our main source of entertainment so far has been the toad population. Notice I said toad and not frog. We don’t get frogs, only toads.

We started off with Morris (my wife names them) then came Matilda, then Micky and then Mabel. I put an old bug zapper in the carport on a 3-hour timer. We now have 10 toads (6 will remain unnamed) that show up for the opening of the cafeteria right on time every evening. We moved the zapper to an area in front of the house before the situation got out of hand. The first couple of nights most of the toads had gotten the word that the zapper had been moved. She had to ‘relocate’ a couple of them since they had apparently missed the memo advising them of the move.

Having time on my hands allowed me to research how toads communicate. Fascinating.

They do use their voices, but they also use hand (paw, flipper, mitt?) signals as well as thumping the ground to start vibrations. We now find them in a semi-circle sitting in front of the zipper waiting patiently for their next morsel to be delivered. These toads have never had it so good. I now have time to imagine that they pick and choose their entrees. Tonight, I’ll have the June Bug a ‘gratin and tomorrow the roasted mosquito. I think Morris saves flies and gnats for dessert.

Now you know ……wasn’t this a stimulating discussion? Hope you learned something.

See you next week…Peary Perry