I have a ritual that I go through in the mornings (you too?)!! First (after I get out of bed), I open the laptop computer to (later) look at the e-mail messages. Second, I start the coffee and return to the computer. This morning, the first message I read—on our JAARS Center Exchange of information—was two bird houses / feeders on black metal posts, FREE. I immediately put on a pair of jeans, ran a comb through my hair, grabbed my coat and car keys. The frost was so thick on the windshield, I had to search a box in the back of the KIA for the spray bottle of “de-icer.” (Last night was the coldest night for many months!!  Low of 27 degrees.) ~~ Less than an hour after I read the message or, more accurately, less than half an hour after I read the message, the two were loaded in the back of my KIA. Yes, they are old and need “tender loving care” but that’s not a problem for me. I speculate that if I purchased the identical metal poles, and bird houses / feeders, it would cost upwards to $100. Wow!! What a gift!! My fine feathered friends are in for another treat at the Edwards smorgasborg (Golden Corral).  

Here are the current statistics: Eight bird feeders are hanging from the eaves and/or Shepherd’s hooks. I have two Hummingbird feeders stored away until Spring; I have two or three bird feeders stored away for later use. I currently have four squirrel feeders and will add the fifth one soon. (I put away the squirrel feeder on the cute little chair when I thought the squirrels went into hibernation. Here’s a picture of a raccoon on the squirrel feeder.) FYI: Last night I had a possum digging around for food under the squirrel feeders. As previously mentioned, I bring the squirrel feeders into the apartment at night because the raccoons (and possums?) devour the squirrel food in warp-speed!! ~~ I’m able to watch the raccoons, and possum, because I deliberately turn on the patio light, at night.

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Postscript, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012: There was a Cottontail (rabbit) on my patio last night. I moved too slow; I missed getting a picture.  However this earlier picture verifies that rabbits visit occasionally.
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Another postscript, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, 6:10 PM: Above right, “Look who came to dine at the Smorgasbord.”
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Postscript, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, 4:30 PM: This is an apology for the picture (above right).  I just viewed this blog on my computer at work and cannot see Peter Cottontail.  How strange that I can see the rabbit on my home computer but not on another.  Computers are such a challenge!!

The NBC “Today” show celebrated their 60th anniversary.  Did you watch?  What a hoot!!  It was reminiscent of a family reunion to see all those familiar faces, and people I spent time with.  You too??  (Figuratively speaking, I spent time with.)

I imagine hearing the squirrels say: “Well, we’ll just have to settle for second best.”  They had already devoured the whole peanuts in the round red “slinky-type” feeder.  I ration them to one generous serving per day!!  ~~  There are five squirrels  in my back yard as I write this (11:00 AM)  and perhaps a dozen Mourning Doves.  I see several bright red Cardinals sitting on limbs in the nearby woods.

We’ve had two rainy days.  Yesterday I was traipsing through the rain to and from the laundry room.  With the flood in my apartment, and the gray, gloomy weather, I’ve felt discouraged.  Sometimes–with my downsizing project–I feel like I take two steps forward and then slide three steps back!!

It was so-o-o-o nice to take a shower after three days!!  I had been afraid to run much water… and I was watching that drain frequently!!

Changing the subject back to my little furry friends: One is at the patio door glass, peering in (11:20), with (I imagine) the question: “Where are the peanuts??” They can see me in the living room. I have to sneak slowly across the room to stand at the glass and take pictures. If I move too quickly, they run away for a few minutes.  (Note: Many of my squirrels-on-the-patio pictures were taken through the glass.  I’m pleased the pictures look as good as they do.)

Time to fix lunch (11:40) because I leave for work in about one hour.

I’m so tired, I’m cross-eyed!! I kid you not; this has been an exhausting day!! (Fortunately, I wasn’t scheduled to work.) I’ve done three loads of laundry: rugs, rags, towels…. I washed the dishes that had piled up for two days. I’ve reorganized the displaced items BUT it will be several days before everything is back in order. I removed the cover from the ironing board so the wood can dry (and will need to buy a new cover). I put the ironing board back in the closet with the “fat end” up so it won’t be in water if the flood happens again.

This morning I discovered water damage I was previously unaware of. Water in the clothes closet and cardboard boxes with water marks three and four inches high. Not that the water was that high but the cardboard (sitting on wet carpet) acted like a straw and soaked higher and higher. A neighbor stood on his porch and told me he knows what I am experiencing. He said it came up in their furnace cabinet. “Furnace cabinet!! Oh my gosh, I didn’t check there!!” Yes, water came up there, too, and it was dark sludge (versus clear water that I dealt with yesterday). So I have cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned. I’m exhausted!!

I’m looking at this “as a blessing in disguise.” I’ll not put a dozen things near the front door as a “staging area” for things for sale and for free. I’m going to load things in the KIA and haul them to a Christian Thrift Shop in Lancaster, South Carolina. I’m going to force myself to get the things out of the apartment. After all, I had already decided I would sell the item(s) or give away. So why have them cluttering my apartment??

It’s almost 4 o’clock. I’m going to enjoy a cup of tea while watching Dr. Oz on TV. I doubt I’ll get much done this evening. My “get up and go got up and went”!!  ~~  A few pictures taken today.

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I suspect someone has been reading my blog and thought I could use more suggestions regarding things to jettison. Today I received this link for Eighteen things you can get rid of today.

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It is 12:25 PM as I start this message and I am very, very unhappy!! I’ve been trying to clean up after a flood of water in my apartment. Lo, these several months, I have had slow running drains but it wasn’t a problem I couldn’t work around. The situation worsened this past week and I reported the problem to management. They looked… and I learned this apartment has had the problem “for years.” My throw rugs have been used to soak up the water, and towels, and rags–plus mopping up and squeezing the mop multiple times. I’m so tired!! Praise God, this is a warm day (57 degrees at this moment) and I could have the front door open as I took sopping wet rugs, and rags, to the porch, and wrung the mop in the front yard. I have wet carpet all the way into the living room!! The water came up through a hole (a drain) under the water heater. Designed (I imagine) to catch water “if” the water heater started leaking?!

In the alcove with the water heater/storage closet (with hook-up for a washing machine if desired), I had things that I had listed “for sale.” It was my “staging area” (near the front door) when people came to claim the sold item or free item. Items in cardboard boxes are ruined!! Perhaps of most concern to me: My wood ironing board that is older than myself (my Mother’s). It was sitting in the storage closet and got wet–up about three inches.

I shudder to think how much worse this might have been “if” I were not home this morning. ~~ I’m eating lunch as I write this. Then “decision time.” Do I lug all the wet things to the laundry room? Do I leave them on the front porch for management (and the neighbors) to view? As I said, “I’m tired!!” so not sure what the afternoon will produce. When I was younger, I was able to handle “heavy-duty” projects. No more!! I guess I am “wimpy, wimpy, wimpy”!!  ~~  It’s now 1:05 and I’ve made the decision to get out of my pajamas and put on some jeans and a T-shirt.

Comment regarding picture: I had just finished ironing the dust ruffle, before adding the mattress to the twin-bed frame. That was a day or two after moving into this very nice apartment at the JAARS Center.

Postscript: In double-checking to see how the published blog looks, I’m amused to see that it is followed by “The uncomplicated life.”  Curious how these things happen!!  I didn’t plan the sequence!!

If you read many of my blogs (in TabTeardropTravels), you know that I have been attempting to downsize.  I have far too many possessions!!  Furthermore, it is difficult to part with things that “I may need,” and memorabilia, and heirlooms.  Praise God, I don’t fall in the category of a “hoarder”; my apartment is not wall-to-wall with clutter.  But I am limited and feel the burden of “too much baggage.”  I loved the simple lifestyle while living in my tiny travel trailer.  I didn’t give the PODS storage container–full of my possessions–a second thought during the fifteen months I was in the T@B.  The payment was an automatic debit from my checking account so I didn’t have to write a check every month.  Now I rarely travel with my trailer because I feel compelled to stay home and work on my downsizing project. Continue reading →

Nostalgia!!  Last night, I stumbled on a Public Broadcasting System (PBS) program regarding Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.  For over forty years, I lived in the Mojave Desert not far from Anza-Borrego.  I had a flood of memories!!  ~~  Memories were compounded when I couldn’t fall asleep.  I “surfed” the TV channels and stopped to watch a “Billy Graham Classic” (early crusade).  Ken and Joni Eareckson Tada were being interviewed.  I’ve loved Joni for years!!  Many years ago, I enjoyed a Christian cruise of the Inside Passage to Alaska with Joni and other well-known believers.  ~~  Then I found myself watching a Praise the Lord “classic” on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).  I was watching TBN decades ago when it was a fledgling TV station in Southern California.  (I was watching in black & white, on a TV with “rabbit ears.”)

I could write a lot more on this topic but there are also sad memories: rejection, deserted parent with three young children, financial limitations, ad infinitum.  I choose to focus on the positive things in my life!!  I praise God for the new memories I’m creating at JAARS : volunteer tasks, comfortable apartment, new friends.  “Forgetting what is behind….” (Philippians 3:13)

Click the red links to read more information.

The Southeast has a touch of Winter weather (after abnormally warm weather). The water in combo water container bird bath is frozen solid (8;30 AM). Frost on the lawn sparkles like a million diamonds!! Television weatherman said 16 degrees low last night, and 45 degrees will be the high.  ~~  My squirrel friends are on the patio looking for their food but I don’t want to venture out with their feeders.  Burr!!
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Postscript: Water still frozen at 11:00 AM!! I was outside to sprinkle bird seed in the grass for the Mourning Doves and the Common Raven. I hung the squirrel feeders about 9 o’clock.

No lie!! I think they are first cousins!!  I suspect the raccoon is related, too.  The raccoon is like a vacuum cleaner because it sucks up every bit of food it can find.  (I watch them on my patio at night.)  They (raccoons) even forced the lid off a container to get to the bird seed!!  I suspect the raccoons are getting the feed I put out for the deer.   I have to bring the squirrel feeders into the apartment at night or the raccoons would eat their food too.   The prize for “pigging out” goes to the squirrels who devour the whole peanuts in a matter of minutes!!  ~~  No lie!!  I must confess: I have encouraged the squirrels with a variety of tempting treats!!  As I said in a previous blog: Better than Netflix.