Trees Bite Too!

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Is there anyone out there besides me that plays Free Cell?

Years ago I thought I would play every game, starting with game number one, and progress to the next game only after winning that one.
“Every game is winnable,” Mike’s old friend, Duane -- who is gone now  -- told me and it is a challenge we had both undertaken.
Yeah.
I don’t remember how far I had gotten in that endeavor before moving on because like I said, it was years ago. But I bet I still have the papers around here someplace where I recorded the game numbers that I played, the ones I won and the ones I needed to go back and look at with fresh eyes. But on this computer- a computer that I’ve had for about a year now, I’ve played 843 games. I’m not choosing the games, I just play whatever game comes up. I’ve won 842 of those and the only reason I have one loss counted against me is because I hit the Okay button which quits the game instead of Undo last move button. A mistake I couldn’t fix. I’d have to live with the loss.
This past week I had a stinker of a game. It was game number 9132889. I had been tempted to quit several times and have a second loss counted against me but I was having a hard time accepting defeat.
I persisted.
I played and replayed and undid the undo button and started from the left and started from the right and started from the middle and quit for the day and the next day and the next. It was frustrating especially when you know that I normally complete a game in around two minutes. My best time being one minute eleven seconds.
The computer only tracks the time I have the game open. It saves it when I close it and resumes when I open it again. This game, this stinker of a game, this game number 9132889 I played for a total of two hours, five minutes and forty-seven seconds before I finally figured out the solution.
I can be stubborn.

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Last week…
I finished last weeks letter and sent it. I took the girls out and guess what! The daffies were blooming that day!
This is my current desktop photo.

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Jibber-Jabber, last weeks letter, elicited a few responses from you.
My beautiful cousin Rosemary, eldest daughter of my beloved Aunt Marie, was the first to respond. Rosemary said she thinks there are different kinds of cinnamons. She prefers the Vietnamese or Saigon cinnamon that she finds at Wegmen’s or Home Goods.
Another beautiful cousin of mine, Stacey, a granddaughter to my Aunt Marie, wrote to tell me that the story about Andrew tickled her.
Andrew calling birthday birday made me laugh…many years ago Ean’s tenth birthday, he’ll be 20 this month, in my rush to get everything ready for his birthday I wrote Happy birday Ean on his cake…totally forgetting the th…it’s been a standing joke ever since and each kid gets a cake with happy birday every year in our house!
I am so glad she shared that with us. I am so glad my story could make her laugh and bring back a fond memory.
Our friend Cookie wrote.
Hope you put up an x when the black cat crossed in front of you. That would offset the bad luck of the black cat.
Honestly, I wondered if anyone would comment on the superstition of having a black cat cross your path. And, in case you are wondering, the answer to that question is no. No I did not put up an x or anything else.
I had at least three more responses from friends who just wanted to let me know that they do indeed read my jibber-jabber and look forward to it every week.
Thank you.
Thank you all.

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Spring is coming.
The first day of spring is March 20th.
Springtime is a time for all of nature’s babies to be born. Let’s help nature out and the next time you make scrambled eggs, why not toss your eggshells out for the blue jays? Those beautiful but domineering birds will get into the nests of other birds and eat the eggs for the calcium.
Something else that helps the birds is to hang bits of string out in the branches of trees and bushes. The string should be six to eight inches long and you can even offer them some strips of cloth. Those should be cut into one to six inch lengths. You can even put out hair, if you clean your brush or clip your dog. The birds will use these things to help build their nests. But don’t use the lint from your dryer - as I’ve heard you could do. The Humane Society says it crumbles and can contain chemicals.

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Last Sunday there were only two daffies in bloom, but as the week progressed more and more daffies opened up.
The daffies live beside the access road behind our building. There are plenty of daffies on the downhill side for me to photograph.

Do you think I can be content photographing them?
No!
There is just a small cluster of daffies on the uphill side of the access road.

And I think: The daffies heads are all nodding and to take a photo of the inside I have to get down on the ground and shoot up. Not an easy feat for someone who has regained twenty pounds -- maybe more! I’m not on speaking terms with my scale just now.
If I climb up the hill then all I have to do is shoot up into the daffies. 
That’s my plan.
I hooked the dogs leashes to a small tree and hiked my way up the hillside and snapped a few photos.

I am an old, overweight woman. I have to be careful not to fall. So I get up from my crouching position and survey the best path back down this hillside. I’ll just start down and use that tree for a brake, I think.
One step at a time. I’d get that far then plan my next step.
I start down, coming a little fast, but not too worried, throw my hand out for a brake as planned and…
OWWW!
It bit me!
Look at this tree would ya!
Look at those spikes!

Tell me. What business does a tree have for growing spikes like this all along its trunk?

Let this be a word to the wise. Always know where you are putting your hand before you put it there. Trees bite too!

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Our walk this day continued on down to Valley Road and out to the old schoolhouse.
I do photograph it every time we walk out to it but it’s pretty much the same as the last time I showed you so we will save the space for something different.
At the old schoolhouse I turned around and headed back to the campground. I thought this shot of the dam was pretty and it was on my desktop for a while. Those tall windowed rooms on stilts that you see are actually gantry cranes, used to lift the heavy flood gates.

The Canadian geese were on the pond. As I approached, they swam off.

 But as I stood there photographing them, they turned around and started swimming back to me.

I bet they are used to people feeding them, I thought. I’ll put some cat food in my Doggie Poopie Bag and toss them some the next time I come down.
I never once thought about it again until the next time I got down to the pond and realized I hadn’t done it.
Sigh.
Next time.
And I forgot again!
Doggone it!
By the time I remembered to put a baggie of cat food into my bag, the geese were gone.

More stories but as the time grows late, we will save them for another time.

And with that we will call this one done.