Step Softy and Hopefully

Positivity with Trepidation

I am saying this very carefully, but after two days there are no signs of the magpies.

This is written so as not to offend anyone in the bird world. But….No magpies for two full days.

I planted the marigolds. The bags  are blowing and the CDs and tinfoil are glinting.

To get your head on straight as a woman, it’s interesting to hear how others (I mean men) would deal with the situation. One nice couple told me you have to kill one and leave it laying where they congregate. The others get the message and do not return. Can’t see myself in that role.

Two men on separate occasions told of how they fixed the problem with a shotgun. Not only did they kill more than one, but the offensive birds never returned.

Nnnnn…yikes.

The upside is that within a short time of their departure the smaller birds returned. I tried to post a video so you could hear the little birds singing but couldn’t make it work. Joy to my ears and the world! Keep your fingers crossed!

 I thought it was Marley and the magpies, but….

One morning about 4:30 a.m., daylight had broken and I was awake and up for some reason. There was the mother cat from two doors down, Marley, on her way home presumably coming back from a night of hunting. You have to understand Marley. She is the mangiest, most matted, yet lovely cat you could ever find. She has a huge heart and loves children. 

As she daintily moved quickly down the sidewalk, I noticed a couple of the resident magpies flying back and forth between the trees and ground. As I watched, one of them began to swoop at her non-stop until she reached her own doorstep. The other just walked around on the lawns. Marley seemed unfazed.

I thought they must be protecting a nest. That was in my front yard.

Fast forward a few days later when I was out in my backyard trying to water my plants. A while ago I realized all the little songbirds from earlier in the season had disappeared.

A couple more magpies were being very noisy in my big Maple and all of a sudden they began to swoop at my head. I was yelling and flailing my arms and they left. I looked high and low but couldn’t see a nest.

I went on the internet to find a remedy. They said to string old CD discs and wads of tin foil because they don’t like the bright reflecting light. They said they don’t like eyes so to wear a hat or helmet with sunglasses perched on the top. The light was so bright and so windy the next morning I was fighting off a migraine from the glinting light myself because of it. I wore a ball cap and sun glasses when I went outside again and it seemed to work. They didn’t return for a while, but they did return.

Their conversations are so incredibly annoying, the minute I heard them, I went outside and grabbed a broom and started yelling. They took off.

When they returned, it was supper time and they brought at least six more friends with them. Once again, I went out bare-headed to storm the guard. I banged on the eaves, on the BBQ, and anything else I could find and yelled at them to go away. Several flew off immediately, but at least three totally ignored me, sitting on a tree branch together like they owned it. I felt like I was in The Birds movie.

My sister said to try grocery bags blowing in the wind so I attached a few to the deck. I stopped and bought 24 marigolds and will transplant them tomorrow. Supposedly, magpies don’t like their smell. I’m afraid they would work better placed on the roof or up in the high branches, but I won’t be reaching those places any time soon.

I understand they are members of the Corvid family with crows and ravens and are extremely intelligent. They don’t have layers of cerebral cortex like humans but something different. They recognize faces and know if you’ve wronged them.

Oh wow, I hope I haven’t started a war…

Sayings

In respect of the children found in Kamloops, I wish to express my heartfelt sympathy to all the families. Time for Canadians to understand the plight of our brothers and sisters at the hands of our own evil people.

To bring a smile, even a small one to sad faces, and turn the bleakness into a bit of light is the intention of this post. It is a collection of phrases that have made me smile over the years.

*********

Dr. Walter Murray said, "chewing tobacco did more to discourage 'necking' than a hundred years of reform.  (MacEwan, Grant (1975)...and Mighty Women Too. (Western Producer Prairie Books. Saskatoon.)

"How can a person deceive himself and get away with it?" (Peterson, Jordan. (2018). 12 rules for life: an antidote to chaos. Toronto: Penguin Random House of Canada.

"Every now and then, soft as breath upon my skin, I feel you come back again." (Diamond Rio.             I Believe.)

"Summed up as principal on three words, thoughts become things." (The Secret)

Jokes

"If your eyes hurt when you're drinking coffee, Grandpa says, "remove the spoon."

"I'm so depressed, I'm thinking of buying a gun, Grandpa says, "why not rent one?"

"Koala Crossing - 4:00 - 6:00 p.m." (Just for Laughs)

Olden day medicine and humours

Phlegm - winter - old age 

Melancholy - autumn - maturity 

Choler - summer - youth

Blood - spring - childhood

(Arikha, Noga (2007). Passions and Tempers. A History of the Humours. Harper Collins).

Leprechauns

A legend since medieval times. A tall type of fairy often appearing to humans as an old man (not the modern view of small, childlike and in a green suit.) Leprechauns love to collect gold, store it in a pot and hide it at the end of a rainbow. If a human catches a leprechaun, the fairy must grant the human three wishes before he can be released. (Top 10 Irish Myths and Legends)

St. Patrick

A British child sold into slavery in Ireland. Monks told of him converted to Christianity. He forced all the snakes out of Ireland, but really there never were snakes in Ireland. (Top 10 Irish Myths and Legends)

World Politics

Socialism - You have two cows and you give one to your neighbour.

Communism - You have two cows and you give both to the government and they might give you some milk.

Fascism - You have two cows and you give all the milk to the government and the government sells it.

Nazism - You have two cows and the government shoots you and takes both cows.

Anarchism - You have two cows and you keep both the cows and the shoot the government agent and steal another cow.

Capitalism - You have two cows and you sell one cow and buy a bull.

Surrealism - You have two giraffes and the government makes you take harmonica lessons. (Ann Landers)

"The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe. For the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them. (Turkish Proverb on Facebook)

 How I fill my time after retirement

Hostessing

A nice job for a retiree is hostessing for new show homes. For me, it’s maximum three - four hours at a time and I have worked any where from two to five days a week. I can accept less hours if it’s affecting my retirement gig, or if I have other plans but the little bit of extra money in my bank account doesn’t hurt. In this city there are quite a number of home builder/developers and like any line of work, you can expect a certain number of hosts or hostesses to come and go.

Writing and Art

If you’ve always wanted to write, this kind of activity can eat up an entire day/month/year. I started with a non-fiction Memoirs book which was incredibly long and convoluted. I researched the how to and once I sent it off to various publishers the waiting game began. In the meantime, I started another book, this time fiction in the historical fiction/family saga genres. At the same time, I paint with acrylic paints and experimented with illustrating a children’s book. My grandchildren loved it, so there’s that. Not to mention the main animal characters were all named after them.

Fortunately, I lucked onto an ad for a free webinar about literary agents and how to get published. The information is life-changing and I am working my way through it.

For your information, what I discovered is that for non-fiction, you send a proposal document (between 30-70 pages long of your business plan before you actually write the book. Oops! As usual, I have done it bass ackwards. Oh well.

For fiction, you do write the book first and for children’s, there are agents for picture books which I would like to explore. 

Gardening

If you have big trees that suck up all the moisture, maybe containers are for you. I have done container gardening for some time with tomatoes and cucumbers, but recently had potatoes suggested. Hmm ...I will give it a try. I was fortunate to receive raised garden beds from my family and they sure save the back.

Playing an instrument

I have played piano since I was a kid but am enjoying a keyboard. I bought an electric guitar and received a very old fiddle for Christmas one year. I want to learn both. Recently, I was lucky to talk to a friend who could show me the basics for the fiddle. I bought a how to book and watched You Tube videos so this should help.

Baking, cooking, crocheting, knitting, games, biking, and yard work are a few others. If you’re bored and can go for a walk, plug in the headphones to listen to an audiobook. If you have a treadmill, watch walking tours of various countries and essentially, walk around the world! I have walked around places like Hawaii and Las Vegas.

I want to learn how to sculpt and do stained glass. I would love to play in a band or sing back up (although that might be a pipe dream with my pitchy alto voice). The best though is interacting with friends and family whenever possible.

Did I mention I am neither talented nor gifted but sure am having fun trying out new experiences! Don’t let lack of talent stop you, practice makes perfect!

 I'm back.....in a pandemic...

It's the middle of May and well into the second year of the pandemic.  On April 14, 2021, I had my first dose of the Astra Zeneca (AZ) vaccine and am now wondering what will happen with the second. The last I heard, they had  put a hold on that vaccine. Fortunately, there is supposed to be a four month window after the first shot, so hopefully researchers will have time to figure out a game plan. In the meantime, experts are weighing in and at least one (a credible doctor) predicts that mixing vaccines for  second doses may not be an issue. 

When I went to my scheduled appointment at Merlis Belsher Place in Saskatoon I had heard the controversial media stories about AZ. In my mind, the risk of blood clots was so incredibly low that it seemed entirely blown out of proportion. To me, the media was going a little over the top to report one death out of hundreds of thousands of doses given. I guess they wanted to sniff out something that could snowball and rightly so. I thought of the risk of blood clots from the birth control pill and smoking for one, not mention the meds people take every day for medical conditions.

I made up my mind that after a full year of skulking around and avoiding other human beings, it was more important to get any vaccine than to be choosy and get none. Of course, when I walked in the door and registered and they gave me the news that I would be receiving AZ that day, my heart sank.  

What I realized at that moment was that I had the option, however heavy, to refuse. From the masked, gowned, and gloved volunteers working, there was no coercion or judgment, only respect for a person's decision.  I stood there rather dumbfounded and decided I needed to be part of the movement to keep the ball rolling if society is ever to develop herd immunity against COVID. I took the plunge however uneasily. I think my experience, likely mirrors many others, but I am told that some did have the guts to say no there and then. 

The line-up was not too long, the nurse giving it was competent and the needle was painless. As a non-practicing nurse who used to give immunizations, I was more concerned with her landmarking than anything. TV ads have tended to show a bigger needle than necessary, giving the needle too high up on the arm (smack dab in the centre where the nerve runs), and twisting the needle once inserted. Yikes. 

Within twelve hours, I had a raging fever that lasted 48 hours, followed by  24 hours of the sweats, then nothing. From that, I was happy that my body had mounted a good immune response. The vaccine worked. Others I know had reactions that ranged from nothing to feeling tired, to feeling like they were run over by a truck.

Next, reports came that if a blood clotting problem was going to happen with AZ, it would manifest itself between Day 4 and Day 28.  Well, Day 28 was last Wednesday, May 12 for me, and still nothing. In the meantime, tragically, more Canadians than expected have now died from blood clots associated with AZ. My heart goes out to their families and friends. I can only think that they were trying to do the right thing and work towards herd immunity as well.

This experience is a day-by-day existence and everyone is learning as we go.  The researchers work tirelessly and if we listen to them and the other experts, we will come out whole on the other side. 

Best wishes to all those waiting with bated breath for what the next steps will be.