Alerts, We Got Alerts !!!

Tags

alerts, calendars, magnets, phones

During a chat with a friend who relies on his cellphone to govern and remember most of his daily comings and goings he mentioned to me that when he has an appointment upcoming he always posts an alert on his phone to remind him not to forget to be where he is supposed to be at the correct time and place.

I shyly admit that I wear a watch for keeping time and that alerts for me go into my Month at A Glance calendar.

He sets alerts a week out, two days out, the day of and I suppose up to the hour he is due somewhere.

I write my alerts in erasable marker on the whiteboard which hangs magnetically on the fridge. The magnets holding power is iffy so I have to buttress the calendar with extra magnets from things like clips from chip bags and roofing contractors. The added magnets seem to have solved the problem of having the calendar crash to the floor.

Alerts, we got ’em. Just depends on where you put them I suppose.

Let’s Get Serious About Commercials

Tags

car radios, commercials, used cars

I recently bought a used, no previously enjoyed automobile and the car being somewhat up to date in the technology department came with a serious radio package which included a satellite radio subscription.

The said service continues to tell me during my extended free trial that it is commercial free but and I say but isn’t the fact they are touting the lack of commercials in itself a commercial?

Chalk this one up to George Carlin.

Visits

Tags

breezes, spirits

I’m not talking about baseball managers visiting the mound to discuss strategy with their hurlers or going to Aunt Jean and Uncle Walt’s house for a Sunday dinner. When I was a kid we used to visit relatives all of the time for Sunday get togethers but that was probably when extended families lives within a reasonable drive of each other and now everyone’s kids live everywhere except their hometowns where you still live.

The kind of visits I’m talking about involve people, at least not in the sense that they are here and and you see and talk to them. These visits are rare and the best way for me to describe one of these visits is to lay it out in details and let you be the judge of whether I’ve gone round the bend or not.

A couple of days ago, here in the early days of not quite spring in these here parts the weather was cooperating with a warmish day, lots of sun and a decided lack of a wind, kind like your painted ship on your painted ocean deal.

I had a window open and while not thinking about anything in particular I felt a cool breeze sweep by me while I was standing inside the house. I looked out from the window for any evidence from swaying branches or leaves being kicked up but there were no telltale signs or other evidence of wind.

And so since there was nothing outside I wondered where that breeze had come from and I have to add that this is not the first time I have experienced a phenomenon like this one.

The breeze is s spirit visiting me and I am totally comfortable with making that assertion. A dear friend who passed away years ago recently came up in a conversation and I’m sure it was her spirit that paid me a visit. I hadn’t thought about this person in years but there are mostly fond memories associated with her and great sadness associated with her passing.

When my uncle passed away years ago in the middle of the night, you always get the call immediately after it happens no matter the time, I happened to look out the window to see star in the night sky I had never noticed before.

This breezy kind of visits has happened to me at least twice before. One time was in the dead of winter and out of nowhere a warm breeze swirls around me and I was inside a building, actually a hay barn climbing over bales. Where had this warm windlet been hiding and who was it?

Honestly now, how many times have you left a funeral service or a visitation and notice a bluer sky or a butterfly or a robin or any number of extra spiritual kind of things which convinces you that person who has passed is not gone just around in a different form?

Another time was a cool breeze that I could almost see come through the window on a sweltering summer night.

It’s kind of reassuring to me that somehow, somewhere we live on in another form after we leave this one behind.

Let me know if I’ve lost my marbles on this one. I’ll tally up the results and report back to you later.

Around the Water Cooler

Tags

birds, feeders, hawks, hierarchies

I don’t know, do people still gather around the water cooler in the office anymore? Are there still water coolers? Are there still offices?

The title is intentionally misleading as I was trying to describe today’s goings on at my bird feeder where ostensibly the locals would gather and chat about thing similar to people at a water cooler.

It turns out that what I saw today in the years today amongst my feathered friends could more aptly be described as a graphic explanation of ” The Pecking Order.”

Smaller birds like chickadees and sparrows seem to co-exist nicely with mourning doves and squirrels. No pushing or line cutting to be seen.

Grackles show up and every one scatters. A lone Blue Jay appears and the place becomes deserted.

A Hawk arrives and the place is a ghost town.

Maybe the same thing happens at the water cooler. Underlings gather en masse for strength and protection but are frightened away by managers and everyone splits when the top dog or bird in the food chain arrives.

Life and bird feeders are just a series of water coolers I suppose.

A Fixer Upper

Tags

birds, springtime

There is a bird’s nest under the eave of my front porch. At one time it was a neat, well kept home for sparrows but for some reason it was abandoned and since no one took care of it for a couple of years it fell into disrepair.

Lately though I have seen a number of prospective buyers fly by, stop in, take a look around and head off again although I think it’s a good sign that we’re getting visitors this time year.

Maybe a sparrow or two will take a liking to the neighborhood and begin to rehab the nest for their home in hopes of raising their springtime family which ought to coming along one of these days.

The nest is not listed on Zillow or your local real estate agent’s webpage so it must be word of beak that has put this nest on the to do list of potential homes for the local feathered population. I sure hope so.

Maybe it’s a sign spring.