The birds are finally coming to my suet cage. I did move it further from the trunk of the white pine. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. Maybe. I briefly had two Carolina wrens and a downy woodpecker on it. I, also, saw my first red bellied woodpecker feed on the suet. It came twice. I just got tired of sharing my suet with the squirrels. I would go through one suet cake a day sometimes. The suet cage was an unexpected Christmas gift from my wife. And she gave it early to me. I am delighted the birds are coming inside it to feed.

I spotted the pileated woodpecker, again, (this time from my window in my den) climbing up the tree across the street. I shouted to my wife to glimpse it it but it was too late: it had flown away. She had never seen one. Its red crest and large size were unmistakable. I assured her she would get another chance to see it: the bird would be back.

Coco, one of our dogs, has to greet my wife first before going out. When we return after being out for awhile, we let all the dogs out immediately into our fenced yard. Coco will not dash out before she gives my wife a big hello. She is the only dog of our three that does that. She enthusiastically greets my wife and then she runs out in the yard.

I am waiting to see how long it takes for the birds to find the suet, again. For years I put some up right next to the trunk of the large white pine outside our window. I got tired of sharing the suet with the squirrels. Sometimes I would have to put up new suet once a day. My wife surprised me with not one but two cages to enclose suet cakes. It was a Christmas present she gave me before the holidays. The cages are supposed to be squirrel proof. I put up the one that had largest holes. I wanted bigger woodpeckers to be able to reach the suet. The suet I put near the trunk of the tree was finally gone. I want to see how long it would take the birds to find the suet in the cages. Today I saw a chickadee alight on the outside of the cage briefly. That is the closest I got to seeing a bird go in the cage. It might take weeks before a woodpecker goes into the cage. And they seemed to like that the suet near the trunk of the tree. Let us see how many weeks go by. Birds are creatures of habit.

I had to remind myself of the scripture that says, ‘Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.’ My wife kept complaining I was interrupting her all the time. And I thought of that passage from the bible and it gave me a weapon to help me to stop doing that. It was a bad habit I had and now I had a way to stop doing it. It would not be easy, though. I would have to work at it.

My wife and I have a fierce Scrabble rivalry. I taught her all my tricks. Now she beats me more than I beat her–at least it seems that way usually by using all her tiles in one move: there is a fifty point bonus if you do that. Recently I had a game where I did that three times. I won that game.

Lately our games don’t last longer than an hour. She used to deliberate forever: I taught her how to focus logically on the words and premiums played. There was a time years ago she thought counting points was mercenary. I taught her how to maximize her points.

In the instructions of the game it says the total of the points scored in one game is usually between 500 and 700 hundred or more depending on the skill of the players. Yesterday we played our second highest score (890 points). In over ten years we have played hundreds of games between us. It is hard to lose a game when you score 419 points but I did: she had 471 points.

She has become a worthy opponent. That we have an activity we both enjoy so much and are so equally matched is only by the grace of God. And she is my wife. I still think she has become a better player than me. Only by a hair.

My wife was ready to put back the curtains on our large living room window. One curtain rod was missing. Both my wife and I looked up and down the room where we might have laid it. No luck. Then one evening I spotted it. It was resting on the frame of the window in plain sight. We both laughed. Sometimes you can get “blind” spots. You don’t see something because it is not where you expect it to be.

Being a father is not a right. It is a privilege. Sunday was Father’s Day. My son called me to wish me “Happy Father’s Day.” I did not hear from my daughter: she had hung up on me several weeks ago and cursed me out. I had written her a letter and she reacted violently to my words. Either we have a relationship based on truth or we have no relationship. It is her choice not to talk to me. I am not her friend but her Dad. And I will continue to speak the truth whether or not she likes it.

Lynelle and I celebrated Father’s Day by taking the Millersburg ferry across the Susquehanna River and eating at a great restaurant that was walking distance. Millersburg is a great quaint town. I took many pictures with my new digital camera of the river and of the town. I could not think of a better way to spend Father’s Day.

We had to put Pax to sleep last night. My wife could not witness it. He was a great dog–fourteen years old. This did not make it any easier. He had a full life as a big dog. With much difficulty we got him into my car. I had to wait in the waiting room about fifteen minutes. Pax was in such bad pain. He could hardly move. He had two ripped knees and just got worse with his medication. He would not stop panting. I talked to him softly, stroked him lightly while we were waiting.

Finally we got into the room and he lay on the stainless steel. I did not stop stroking him lightly and talking to him. He lay there and I kept softly stroking him on ___ and talking softly to him. It was his last few minutes. The vet explained to me what was going to happen, shaved one of his legs and gave him his injection. I talked to him softly and lightly patted him as he went from one realm into another.

I burst into tears uncontrollably when he became still. I knew him for twelve of his fourteen years. He had such dignity. In the end no matter how difficult it was for him to exit into our yard and navigate the steps, he still went out into the yard to pee.

We did this for him not us. Now he can run freely, with no pain. Maybe, one time we will meet in heaven. He was a great dog. I loved him but I had to let him go. He is now in a better place.

Pax is part of our family. He is old for a large dog: fourteen years old. He once weighed ninety six pounds. He is down to eighty-two pounds and can barely get around. Both of his knees are torn and all his muscles in his back have atrophied. He has been taking pain medications twice a day and then we added an anti-inflammatory medication twice a day. Finally that was replaced by steroids which we just started yesterday. We talked
about putting him down.

He is pooping all over the house and now peeing all over the house. He is a plucky dog. He gets in and out of our house with much difficulty. I am hoping the prednisone helps him more. The vet said that outside of his knees he is in relatively good shape for a dog of his age and size. His advice was to make him as comfortable as possible. I told my wife if she was incontinent and even senile I would not abandon her. We both love Pax and will just clean up after him. We are not going to put him down unless he can not get around any longer and is in too much pain. He is part of our family.

Hopefully the black bear will stay away. He visited us twice and wrecked our gate to get over our five foot fence. Then he tore down all our bird feeders and got into the container of sunflower seed. My wife actually saw him. I am guessing his sex. I never did find the bird feeder we kept sunflower seed in. I bought another inexpensive one. The birds are slowly coming back. It had been a few days we had no feed for them. My wife was sound asleep in the living room which has a large front window. He came to our property at night. It just so happened I was away when this occurred. Yesterday a carpenter built us a sturdy gate. Let us see if that keeps the bear from entering our property. My wife is terrified of the bear and stopped sleeping in the living room. She wants nothing to do with this “critter”. This is the first time we had a bear on our property since we built a fence around part of it.

I Thirst

Author: siggy

I thirst. The drink I had with me for my picnic had spilled out. We ate and all I could think of was to drink some water. Usually when I become thirsty I immediately drink something but this time I did not have any thing to drink. The park did not have any drinking water. Minutes later we stopped at a store and bought a large container of water, which I consumed. I now knew what it meant to be thirsty. That was all I could think about: drinking something. Now I knew what it meant to be thirsty.