Just Stuff

I saw the first baby dove ever this morning.  Well, ever in our yard.  The mortality rate for doves is not that good.  It was beautiful.  The baby dove is in our back flowerbed which means that our weird neighbors behind us might think I am looking into their home.  Out here in Rancho De Five that is not much distance between homes.  The weird people moved in just about the time we had three baby rabbits living in that flowerbed last year.  I would look out the window to check on them and maybe the neighbors thought I was trying to look into their home.  I checked and the neighbors have their window treatments of steel closed up tightly, nary a ray of sunlight able to penetrate. 

Yesterday I went by the bank to activate a new debit card.  I like to do that in person as not to make a mistake on the process over the phone.  I also asked about some paperwork and bless the bank officer's heart, she took the liberty to dumb down the explanation.  I deserved it, you know coming into the bank to do something in person rather than on the automated phone thing. 

In the book Journaling Adam Feldman writes on Nostalgia in his book Journaling.  In the chapter the when of journaling he writes about viewing and living in a current season.  The three life suckers in a current season of life is entitlement, bitterness and nostalgia.  Nostalgia is an unusual topic in this arena but it is so true if we spend much of our time looking back at the good old days, we aren't paying attention to the right now.  People who live life in constant nostalgia are in for rough times and expensive times.  Nostalgia is expensive.  Just look at antiques or reproductions of lawn furniture, glassware and the like....it costs a lot to live in the past and that is in more ways than one. 

Once again watching the show Hoarders did some good.  I know that hoarding is nothing to joke about and people have a problem with keeping trash, treasures and everything in-between.  Roy was in the study and throughout the past few months his file cabinet and chair are filling up with stacks and stacks of papers, boxes and all kinds of stuff.  I asked him about the top of the file cabinet, if there was anything that could be thrown away or put away.  As he started to stuff things in the drawers and the drawers wouldn't close, we took a closer look at some things.  He had two small boxes in the bottom drawer and he told me they were full of technical stuff.  So, I opened them.  Uh, technical stuff from the early 21st century.  Those were ditched as well as a few other things.  He has been looking for a file he needs to do our taxes...no wonder he can't find anything. 

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the motion lights we bought for me to see my way in the dark.  So far so good after the first night because we were blinded by the light....always throw a song lyric in for good measure.  Buddy doesn't have the sneak advantage she used to have.  Last night Buddy was quite upset because she saw my suitcase in the guest bedroom.  She is being rather cautious being near me for fear of going to cat camp.  But I got to thinking about the neighbors behind us and if in the middle of the night they looked out from behind their window treatments of steel...they might think we have some kind of light show going on. 

One of my all time favorite authors just released a new book, Acts of God.  It is not a Christian book per se but a Southern book of short stories.  Ellen Gilchrist is one of the best short story writers of her generation.  She's getting older and who knows how many more books she has in her.  It has been a while since her last book.