My son said, “I am always striving to hear something new and different in music.” When I was his age (twenty-four), I was the same although I never listened to country. I always wanted to hear something new. My taste in music is still eclectic and so is my wife’s, which makes it a little easier to listen to music when she is around. Eventually I also started listening to jazz and my taste there is very varied to the most discordant (seldom) to the most mellow and everything in between. When he was growing up I had the stereo on all the time so it is not surprising he loves music, too.

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.

A pair of catbirds were hanging around.  Usually that means they might have a nest nearby.  I looked and found a nest in a large bush.  I never did see one in it.  This is not the first time we have had a catbird nesting nearby.  Another time a half grown catbird found its way into our garage and I was thrilled when my son captured it and let it go in the bush they were nesting in.  Last year we had a Carolina wren nesting only feet from our door step.  It kept hopping on top of our fence nearby and then I found out what a lovely voice it has.  I did find the nest.  You never know what bird will have a nest nearby.

My son moved to South Carolina today.  Myrtle Beach to be exact.  This is a big move on his part.  He has always lived in Central Pennsylvania his whole life.  I guess the only constant is change.  He is coming back for Christmas.  I will see him then.  And I wish him good luck.

‘Only poor people use laundromats,’ my son stated.  I don’t know how true that is but I remember being happy there was one in my town when my drier broke.  He has made a comfortable living for a number of years and would not even consider using one.  He is relocating and needs everything for his unfurnished apartment.  I simply was glad there was one in my town.  I know what it is to be poor.  He has forgotten.

How careless is He with the two feet straw sticking out at all angles out of the snow.  The last day or two I noticed this wild straw and how beautiful it looked against the white.

There is so much beauty around and He is so careless and free with it.  I never forgot the time my son was in the car speeding down a major highway and he mentioned how beautiful the sky was.

I looked and it was a plain gray.  Not so plain to Saul.  There is so much we miss and God is so free with it.  I strained to figure out whether the bird a hundred feet away was the elusive pilliated woodpecker.

Finally I walked away.  I saw the red head but could not tell if it was the red bellied woodpecker or the other.  Both are fairly big woodpeckers.

I could not tell in the distance.  Such beauty all around.  And I am so blind to it sometimes.  Or just plain preoccupied.

I don’t want to feel sorry for myself yet I have to recognize my limitations:  my left arm still hurts and is recuperating from surgery.

Despite that, I want to do all that I am capable of and not wallow in self-pity.  There are things I want to do and at the same time recognize my arm will hurt more if I overdo it.

I never made my traditional meal of potato latkes.  I was not up to it.  My son was disappointed.  At the time it was too much.  I feel up to it now and despite the fact that Hanukkah is now over I will make the dish for my wife and I.

I will keep looking around and see what needs to be done or I want to do.  No matter what I do my arm will still hurt.  I just have to recognize that.

Things really do not make me happy. Christmas is fast appearing. We have received several dozen catalogs all displaying their wares and I don’t care.

Less than a week ago I had minor surgery. I don’t feel an hundred per cent. I had a fistula made. It was not that minor. I was under twice for two and half hours. (They had to repeat the operation.)

My hand is healing and I can’t do things so well with one. If I used (???) my left hand too much, it hurts too badly and sometimes I have to take pain medication.

We take so much for granted–I included. My kids were over and my son was disappointed I did not make potato latkes (a traditional Hanukkah dish).

I just could not do it. I am depressed and just want the holiday season to be over.  I can not easily do things I once took for granted.  I know it will get better but that does not make me feel any better.

Thank God For My Pets

Author: siggy

Thank God for my pets.  Somehow I believe it is no accident my second wife also loves animals.  I never had pets growing up.  I love all of my pets.  All eight cats and all four dogs.  It is a menagerie.  And it is true I can’t go on vacation so easily but that is a small price to pay.

There is Tilla one of the pups we kept of our golden retriever (we kept two) who is a paradox extremely aggressive but timid at the same time.  For example, if you throw four scraps to our four dogs, he usually will get three if you don’t stop him.

He actually let my daughter pet him the last time she was over (that was a first).  He still runs in the other direction when my son approaches him.  And he is good with pets.

Coco is the other pup of Sweetie and extremely affectionate although she can be pretty insistent when she wants to go out.  She will sit at our feet front legs crossed sometimes–a real lady.  She gets along with everyone.

My eight cats are all different (the one unfixed female, now fixed) had two litters–one and three.  Pumpkin the only surviving cat from the first litter is one quiet, laid back cat who seems to get along with all the other seven.

The other three from the second litter of Jasmine’s are Cheyenne, China, and other whose name temporarily escapes me.  Both Cheyenne and China are long haired.  The mother is shorted (???) haired, small and dainty but able to take well care of herself.

Cheyenne is one beautiful although somewhat wild cat.  He usually does not let me pet him.  If I get too close, he gives me the eye as if to ask me “how dare you approach me?”

China is one exotically black and white colored cat who is one cool character.  He is extremely laid back and nothing seems to faze him.  I always have trouble remembering the sexes of our cats.

Cool Hand Luke a black female cat I brought into this marriage who hangs out in our bedroom and is appropriately named.  I have another completely black cat “Slinky”.

It is hard to tell the two apart although if you pet them you can tell the difference immediately.  “Slinky” is somewhat timid and extremely affectionate.

Tiger is the third cat from the second litter of Jasmine also appropriately named who sorts (???) blends in with every one.

Buttons is the other tiger looking cat who decided to adopt our family.  He showed up at our doorsteps and my wife started feeding him and when he got his shots, she let him come in.

He knew a good thing when he came in:  he did not go out for months again.  He is the newest member of our menagerie.  He does, at times, terrorize the other cats.

He also terrorized the vet and her staff during his exam:  It took them ten minutes to catch him in the exam room when he squirmed out of the grasp of the vet and three people were chasing him around the room (the vet called for backup).

He scratched the hell out of the vet in the process.  He is still a (???) somewhat wild although he has calmed somewhat after he got fixed.  That pretty much takes care of our cats.

Pax, the father of the pups, is the only pet of ours not mentioned by name.  He is the biggest and oldest dog close to an hundred pounds, an Rottweiler mix.

He suffered from bad ear infections and only at the vet where they put a muzzle on him would he allow anyone to go near to clean them.  It took me awhile before I lost my fear of him.  The veterinary helper called him a “baby.”  He is one dog I never want to get out he is one scary looking dog.

There is also Sweetie our golden retriever who is aptly named.  She will stand there forever letting you pet her.  She is one happy-go-lucky dog who always likes to have something in her mouth.  She was traumatized by her original owner who would lock her up for hours.  That is how we got her and that is the last of our menagerie.

Let me introduce you one of my pets:  “Atilla The Hun” or “Tilla” for short.  He is a sixty plus pound black dog who just turned two.  His father “Pax” is a rottweiler mix and his mother “Sweetie” is a golden retriever and both live with us.

He is the reason we built our 100 foot long fence over a foot higher.  He could jump the previous one–not the biggest dog we have (we have four) but he is lean and muscular with a barrel chest and the only dog of ours who could perform that feat.

The state dog warden once paid us a visit.  It seems “Tilla” escaped and “terrorized” the local neighbor’s dog (and I use that word “terrorized” really loosely).  The two dogs simply barked loudly at each other.

He does have a timid nature although loving.  When my son comes over, he usually runs in the other direction.  And my son is good with dogs.

There are two other things he does that are unique:  he locks himself in the bathroom when he wants attention and the other is when he is anxious to go out he twirls rapidly in almost perfect circles.

He is the only dog who knows how to let himself out the front door.  We usually keep the screen door locked now.

He is the most aggressive of our four dogs.  If you put out four tidbits in front of them, he usually gets three of them.

He used to think he was still a puppy and snuggles onto my wife’s lap while she is sitting on her Lazy Boy all sixty-six pounds of him.

I started giving him an occasional walk for he was the only dog put on a chain (before we made the fence higher this summer).  Remember he could jump the fence.  I felt sorry for him.

Every time he hears the rattle of the chain he appears right in front of me.  Usually in five seconds or less.

He has become my dog and often sleeps with me on the bed.  There are probably more stories I could tell about him but this is a good start.

I make sure my two large bird house totems face outward, one on each side of my front door.  I want the birds in my neighborhood to feel welcome.  There are a multitude of birds that come to our five feeders, which I keep well supplied with anything from sunflower seed to thistle to suet and when the warm weather arrives I put out nectar I make especially for the hummingbirds.  That does not even include the birdseed I scatter on the ground for the birds who prefer to feed there.

Last year there were three birds nesting in our vicinity.  An eastern phoebe built a nest above the right front door light although there might have been too much traffic there for her to be successful in raising her young.  A nest was built there two years in a row.

A scarlet tanager raised a family in a bird box stationed at a large white pine a foot higher feet than my head less than an hundred feet away from our entrance although I never spotted the brightly colored male.  I had never seen one before.

A catbird made a nest in the thicket of one gigantic bush in the corner of our yard.  One of our cats found the nest and flushed the young catbird out of the bush and we shooed the cat away immediately.  The frightened baby bird hopped into the open garage chirping in fright.  My son who happened to be at my house first had to move a table and a filing cabinet out of the garage to reach the scared little bird who had hopped deep into the cluttered garage.  He trapped the baby bird carefully scooped up into a little box without touching it and safely released it back into the overgrown bush where its nest lay.

I want all the birds in our neighborhood to know they are welcome to visit our premises and raise their young.  Every day I watch them come to and fro our feeders.  Soon I will put out nectar for our hummingbird feeders and watch the miniature “helicopters” come back and forth and jostle for position at their feeders.  We will have one feeder at the window just so we can watch them closeup.

There is such a variety of birds that come to our feeders.  The magnificent ten inch long red bellied woodpecker with its gorgeously marked red head occasionally feeds on our suet feeder (which I have placed right next to the trunk of the large white pine tree) and there is his companion–the smaller downy woodpecker which stands at attention as it climbs up and down the trunk of the same tree also feeding on the suet.  Then there is the diminutive brown creeper who is aptly named who also feeds on the suet and my favorite–the fearless chickadee whose antics I always love watching.

This is, of course, an incomplete list.  I want them all to feel welcome and the birds continue to come here in a constant stream.  I joyously greet them each morning and watch them all day and never know when an odd bird makes its appearance like the indigo buntings that seem to come through here once or twice a year in flocks.  I never know for sure what I will see outside my window.  I want the birds to always feel welcome.

bluebird