Ducky and Jimmy, the Autopsy Gremlin

We are NCIS fans. The original, not so much the added cities. I like Gibbs' rules, and for years before we discovered Gibbs' Rules I have three of my own for the baseball teams I coach and have shared them with the players often.* One of the characters, Dr. Mallard or Ducky, has an assistant, Jimmy. This post isn't about NCIS or even about the rules. It's about our duck, Ducky, and her chicken companion, Jimmy.

Over the last few months Ducky has ingratiated herself to us. She quacks and follows us around when we are working in the back yard. One day she walked into the back cabana to see our son. Right after that a chicken  flew over the chicken yard fence and the duck and the chicken soon became fast friends. Now Ducky and Jimmy both follow us around and come into the house when the back door is open. Ducky originally had a male duck companion, but that duck flew the yard and the last we saw of him he was paddling around the golf course ponds with the other ducks. I guess Jimmy fills that void.

The last few days Ducky has been absent in the morning. We're not totally sure what is happening. At first we thought she had flown to greener pastures and ponds. But she came back in the afternoon. Then it happened again, and today it's the third day she has left or hidden herself in the morning. What is interesting to see is that Jimmy is looking for her each day. Ducky isn't back yet today. We don't know what will eventually happen, but Ducky sure has been a hoot, er, quack to have around.




*Coach's Rules for baseball
Rule #1: The coach is always right.
Rule #2: Never play catch or pepper in front of the dugout.
Rule #3: Refer to Rule #1.

But I always remember Gibbs' Rule # 51: Sometimes you're wrong.

Black Swan, or Changes are a'Comin'

I've heard and read some things that surprised me, but shouldn't have. Two stories from the radio got me thinking. I guess there is an online award pointing out and making fun of people that do something that shows their sense of entitlement. The first is from 2012 when a woman won the Michigan Lottery for $1 million dollars, and continued to receive state aid of $200 a month. She was surprised when asked if she thought it wrong for her to receive the aid. She said no, she had bills to pay and food to buy. It was pointed out that she had just won $1 million to which she said, I got only $700,000 and things cost money. I guess she won the 2012 award for Entitlement.

The second story to come from radio listening is the recent story out of San Francisco of the woman that was offered a job by Yelp!, accepted the job, then wrote a letter to the CEO criticizing her pay and bemoaning that she can't buy food and lives on the lunchroom crackers. She was fired within two hours of posting the letter at work.

The last story is from Missouri where Dr. Melissa Click has been fired and charged with misdemeanor assault. She is the former professor that, during a on campus demonstration, told a student journalist to leave and called for "muscle" to help her remove the student.

What strikes me about these three stories is what used to pass for common sense seems to have won out. People doing stupid or mean things, or someone that has their priorities out of whack is handed some justice. Hope these are not Black Swan moments.

What's Goin' On?

Baseball, building (or at least tearing down) and gardens. It's that time of year when baseball interferes with the spring garden beginnings. Having some time in the morning helps, but evening is my most productive time and I am away.

We took the youngsters to an almost inner city school yesterday and for some it was eye opening. Other than a bad loss,it was event free. Our whitebread players were exposed to other people and with some prodding realized those young men have the same thoughts and desires as our kids do.

The one thing the kids were shocked a bit about were the homeless camped and sleeping in the trees and shrubs of the freeway. The boys literally saw people sleeping as we creeped by on the congested freeway.

Besides our own gardens, we started a project we have been trying to get started at sister-in-law's house. We have helped others start gardens and while this is the latest we hope to have more going this year. We have decided to cease gardening across the street at our neighbor's. The years of trying to eradicate bermuda grass finally was too much. The area will be missed, but the recovered time will allow us to refocus other places. We spent so much time fighting the bermuda it finally hit us we could use the time in better ways.

The playhouse is mostly down. The second story is demolished and ready for nails to be pulled. The bottom half is ready to move and will be soon. The area left behind will become a mini orchard and tomato patch. We will try to grow vegetables until the trees get bigger and shade the area. It also cleans of the backyard a bit. We still have to find places to store tools and such, but that will come. As usual for us, we plan as we build and fit things as we create new openings. Sounds kid of like nature--Nature abhors a void. So I guess I should go fill the opening to do work.

A Reminder of Erma Bombeck

I found this at "The Thinking Housewife" blog. I hit home because it reminds me of Erma Bombeck that I used to read. reminds me of my childhood and stirs me to think, Why don't we have these commonsense types thoughts as much any more?

A Bit of Erma

February 6, 2016

THE housewife-humorist Erma Bombeck raised three children and churned out newspaper columns in this suburban house in Centerville, Ohio. She wrote the column below, “Are We Rich?,” for publication on June 3, 1971. She eventually did become rich from the hundreds of clever, satirical pieces she wrote about her domestic world. She neither romanticized nor disparaged her way of life. It was a world where men were still men and women were still women. Having started them in 1964, her columns were syndicated to 900 newspapers by 1978. Though she would later go on to campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment, she was not initially enthusiastic about the feminist movement, once saying of Betty Friedan and her fans, “These women threw a war for themselves and didn’t invite any of us.”

“Are We Rich?” by Erma Bombeck

The other day out of a clear blue sky Brucie asked, “Are we rich?”

I paused on my knees as I retrieved a dime from the sweeper bag, blew the dust off it and asked, “Not so you can notice. Why?”

“How can you tell?” he asked.

I straightened up and thought a bit. Being rich is a relative sort of thing. Here’s how I can always tell.

“You’re rich when you buy your gas at the same service station all the time so your glasses match.

“You’re rich when you can have eight people to dinner and don’t have to wash forks between the main course and dessert.

“You’re rich when you buy clothes for your kids that are two sizes too big for the one you buy ‘em for and four sizes too big for the one that comes after him.

“You’re rich when you own a boat – without oars.

“You can tell people have money when they record a check and don’t have to subtract it right away.

“People have money when they sit around and joke with the cashier while she’s calling in their charge to see if it’s still open.

“You’re rich when you write notes to the teacher on paper without lines.

“You’re rich when your television set has all the knobs on it.

“You’re rich when you can throw away a pair of pantyhose just because it has a large hole in it.

“You know people are loaded when they don’t have to save rubber bands from the celery and store them on a doorknob.

“You’re rich when you can have a home wedding without HAVEN FUNERAL HOME stamped on the folding chairs.

“You’re rich when the Scouts have a paper drive and you have a stack of The New York Times in your basement.

“You’re rich when your dog is wet and smells good.

“You’re rich when your own hair looks so great everyone thinks it’s a wig.”

Brucie sat quietly for a moment, then said, “I think my friend Ronny is rich.”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

“His mom buys his birthday cake at a bakery, and it isn’t even cracked on top.”

“He’s rich, all right,” I sighed.

Another Adventure Unfolds

As much time has passed, much the same as always has happened.

The children are all back in their places. We made a mad dash north in the rain to get a couple off. Spent the night, which isn't the norm, with relatives and reconnected. As posted in the past, driving through the Bay Area is always an eye opener. The people just think differently than us from the inland. And I don't mean the difference between big city and rural folk. Went up the mountain to the farm. Still love it there and think of living there.

The continual process of revising and fixing our home is ongoing. Playhouse is coming down which means stuff stored there has to move somewhere, which means decisions to toss some takes place. That is always a tough time. When two packrats live together things collect that shouldn't. This time it was mostly our children's toys that were saved for grandchildren. No grandchildren yet, so a collection that needs a new place or dispersal. The plan is to move and rebuild the playhouse into a on site storage unit. We have plenty of objects that could fill the unit.

The move would free up ground for a mini fruit orchard. The trees need to get in the ground. We enlisted a group of son's friends and tried to move the top half of the playhouse. The thought was to clear the land for the new trees. A sub plot was relocating the playhouse and building a rock climbing wall on one side of it. The p-house was moved before, but this time the interior drywall added too much weight and the p-house sits unmoved and in the process of being torn apart. A sense of non-accomplishment builds. A small shipping container sure would solve more than a few problems.

The farm show is coming soon. We've been able to go some of the last few years. It's always a senses blowing and overwhelming event. But tucked away in corners are some things that are helpful for us on a small scale. This time all of our northern family will be here so it will be a family time also.

One of the biggest adjustments in the last few years has been transitioning from a career into a new way of living and new work situations. The summer in the park was, and is good. I will be going back again this year. Working during the rest of the year has been and ongoing reevaluating process. I've been substitute teaching, but that has reinforced the decision to stop teaching more. I will be starting in a new role as a supervisor for new teachers soon. I'm anxious of being back in education, but as an advisor and helper I think I have some things to offer. It reminds me of coaching, which I'm still doing and enjoying. As we say, "Off to another adventure."

The big adventure this spring will be a wedding of one of our sons. The good news is the wedding will be in the United States. The adventurous news is it will be in Alaska. He lives in a country closer to South America than to us, so Alaska is good. It was somewhat expected, but still a surprise. The distance will make it tough for many to come, but so far there will be some family at the event. Best of all the young lady he is marrying is wonderful and the two seems genuinely in love and focused on moving on together.

Alaska is a place that we have talked about going to, but lately it has become another of the Bucket List items that never was going to happen. We will stay a bit after the wedding and do some touristy things. One of the places we will seeing is Whittier. We are taking a tour there, but an interesting thing about this town is it can only be reached by air, boat or driving through a tunnel in a mountain. Once there you'll find the whole town lives in on 14 story former Army barracks. Everyone, all 218 people. This town would make the late Huell Howser drool.

Good times ahead in an uncertain world. Just another adventure.

We Must Be in the West

Driving through the downtown of our fair hamlet on New Year's Day there was one car parked on the street. There was also a pair of horses tied up outside the only bar in town.

Living the High Life.

Book Review: New Slow City by William Powers

Just finished this book and I am conflicted about what I think. I guess I had high expectations and that may be the root of the problem. The concept behind the book is to transform life in a city into living like you would not in a city. Live the "slow" rural life within a large city and not be captured and forced to frantically chase the urban dream.  First the bad.

I began reading and was rewarded with ideas of how to take time in our lives to enjoy things instead of trying to do more. The idea of opting out of some of the hectic inconveniences and keeping the good events is something we all could profit from. But isn't that called making a choice? The decisions the couple make such as the wife working full-time, read 50-60 hours a week, and the husband working only two days a week allow him to backpack and loll around the city. This reminds me of small organic farmers working to create a farming lifestyle, only to find that one or both of the farmers have off farm jobs to survive. It like an M.C. Escher drawing, something just doesn't seem right. As the book progressed these thoughts and feelings became more prevalent to me. It eventually made me look forward to the end of the book.

Then I realized the author was living his life his way. Nothing wrong with that. I don't want to live in New York, but that shouldn't stop him. And Powers did have some good ideas about living and utilizing a large city. Choose what you can and want to attend or do. He did reopen my eyes to looking for the forgotten in all settings. Large city or small town, there are things we take for granted or forget. Powers remind me to open my eyes. That good was worth the read.