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

REGRETS? I'VE HAD A FEW..

 

REGRETS? I’VE HAD A FEW….

Since I’ve retired, I find I have more time to look back on things in my life I wish I had done, but now it’s too late. We all have busy lives and somehow time just slips away from us. Last week I was 60 years old and this week I am almost 83. Where did those years go?

Relationships fade away as well. The people you knew 50 years ago that aren’t in your daily lives tend to slowly disappear into the sunset with each passing year, don’t they?

The regret is that I wish I could get another chance to ask my parents and grandparents about their lives.

Unfortunately, I was so busy with my family and trying to make a living I didn’t have time to think about what they had experienced during their lifetimes. Also, I was to preoccupied to have even been able to formulate the questions.

Today is “D” day, the anniversary of the allied invasion of WW2. My dad was making a landing on Utah beach 81 years ago. I wish I had been able to ask him about his experiences and feelings during those difficult times. All I have are some photographs and his medals. I missed a lot there, for sure.

My mother’s mother married a man in New Mexico and they homesteaded some property and built a sod house. She had 3 children before he left her for greener pastures in the early part of the 20^th century. She once told me of a neighbor who had his foot caught in the stirrups of his saddle and was dragged behind his horse for some distance before the horse was stopped. In the movies they guy gets up and shakes it off. She said the poor guy had all of his skin sanded off and it took a week for him to die. Those times must have been tough on everyone who survived.

She took her three children and moved to West Texas, where she met my grandfather and had two more children. My mother was one. My mother and I lived with them during the war in a house they owned. two bedrooms, one bath. My grandmother never drove a car or worked. My grandfather worked in a furniture store. I loved their house. I loved them.

What were their dreams?

How did they survive the depression and hard times?

What did they believe in?

What was their backgrounds and life like when they were kids in the 1800’s?

There are 1,001 questions I would really love to discuss but alas, it’s too late to do so now.

Many of you that read my weekly musings are much younger, take a moment to think about who it is in your life you need to converse with before it is too late to do so.

You won’t regret it in your later years.

See you next week….Peary

DO I NEED MORE OF THESE?

 

DO I NEED MORE OF THESE?

When I was a kid growing up, there was a five and dime store a block or so away from us. They advertised many things including ‘notions’. Now to this day, I haven’t a clue as to what ‘notions’ actually are, but my wife says it was makeup, cosmetics, etc. Something that you got a ‘notion’ to buy. I guess that’s the best answer….maybe you heard it different.

Now that we have moved to the country and downsized, I have taken an inventory of our kitchen and found we have an overabundance of items which we actually do not need. In the five and dime store, we could buy a pot. Just an ordinary cooking pot. A very cheap pot. But look at what it can replace today. Nearly everything.

We really don’t need a tea pot, a rice cooker, a egg cooker, or a multitude of other things that can easily be handled by the simple, no frills cheap pot. I have brewed coffee in a pot before. I could do it again. I also don’t need a pot strainer; I can use a plate or the top to my pot to drain off the water.

I don’t need a toaster; I have an oven. I have toasted bread in the oven before. No big deal.

I certainly don’t need a chicken shredder; I can use 2 forks just as well. Who needs an egg peeler? Toss it away. Learn how to cook eggs that peel easier. An electronic gravity salt and pepper shaker? I thought if you turned a saltshaker upside down, you didn’t need a battery, gravity is free. Works every time. A garlic crusher? Use your knife.

I have a panini maker, a George Forman grill and a waffle maker. Seems to be over kill to me. Something is going. Probably the panini maker. I can’t spell panini much less make one. I think I can use the stove again for this.

Avocado slicer? Nope, use a knife. Wine opener? Nope, use a corkscrew. Bell pepper corer? Nope, use the same knife.

Here are some things I don’t have and certainly don’t need.

A chip bag sealer. I have never needed to actually SEAL a chip bag as I have never opened one without eating the entire bag. Who does this? Have you ever needed to seal a potato chip bag after you opened it? Uneaten chips are unheard of in our family.

A noodle maker? Nope, I am not making noodles, I buy them in a box. You need a hobby if you have time to make noodles. Besides, just look at how long you have to make your own noodles to break even on buying one of these contraptions.

A defrosting tray? Put the frozen stuff in the window in the sun.

Last but not least. A watermelon slicer. Use the same knife you used in the examples above. Always wash the knife between cuttings. (public service announcement).

That’s all the wisdom I have for this week, see you next week.

Peary Perry