Birds on the Brain

Being "Birds" I suppose Mike and I are more prone to care about the flying variety. When we first moved to Shoals, it was fun keeping track of the different birds we saw in the deep woods, the huge Pileated Woodpecker being the most amazing. Our interest was further intensified when Marty worked for Wild Birds Unlimited. I started doing official "bird counts", carefully identifying and recording their presence at different times of the year. Mike and I continue to compare what we see with the pictures found in the Audubon book and on the internet. There was a Rufous-Sided Towhee at the feeders this morning. (see below)

In the last couple years Mike has taken over bird feeder duty, making sure they all have access to plenty of the right kind of seed. He also takes many, many pictures of the birds, some of which he posts on his website. I'm generally the one to select the bird feeder systems, the feeders themselves, and to buy the seed. Several years ago my sister sent us a wonderful hummingbird feeder, so we get to watch the teeny little birds, too. We have a couple suet feeders that we put out in the winter. Now we have bird feeders on the east, west, and north sides of the house for our unfailing entertainment.

Birds like suet in the winter; the fat in the suet helps their bodies keep warm. A few years ago I found a recipe for suet on the internet, and now make it every 3-4 weeks. In case anyone's interested, here it is: Melt 1 cup lard and 1 cup crunchy peanut butter. Remove from heat and add 2 cups quick oatmeal, 2 cups cornmeal, and 1 cup flour. Mix well and divide into 4 freezer containers. Freeze. Optional: Add raisins, craisins, nuts, veggies. Then settle back with your binoculars, camera and bird book, and enjoy the calm of a little nature study.

Eating Healthy

As usual, the checker at the grocery store asked me if I was a vegetarian, having noticed the fact that over half of my purchases were fresh fruits and vegetables and that there was no meat among my purchases. "Not exactly," was my reply, adding that we do eat chicken and occasionally pork. Her next comment was that I must be really healthy because of eating so many different kinds of vegetables and fruit. She said that most people just buy bananas. I wonder what she eats? Not that it's any of my business, but I would guess it's not a variety of fruits and vegetables since she was so amazed by my dietary preferences. She looked more like a fast food junkie.

Mike and I certainly don't claim to be approaching sainthood regarding our food choices. We have accumulated more than a few years of eating greasy ground beef and heavy pasta casseroles, plus we still can't make ourselves eat fish. We've tried and tried, but for some reason it always tastes and looks like fish, like out of date fish, like frozen fish, like leftover fish. Even if it's heavily breaded or covered in a flavor smothering sauce, it's still old fish. My sister Vicki has the advantage of living on the west coast (like she's practically in the ocean!) and can get really fresh salmon that she grills. My, that's delicious! By the time that "fresh" salmon makes it to Indiana, it's either old or it has been frozen. What a crime. One exception: I must confess to eating albacore right out of the can. Now, that's not too bad.

Sadly, we've found that the story about older people not needing as much food is quite true. It's horribly easy to pack on pounds and tremendously difficult to take them off. We don't have as much flexibility or as much energy, so walking is our best exercise, and it takes a whole lot of walking to burn 3500 calories (the number it takes to discourage one lousy pound). One solution that covers everything is to have lots of fresh fruits and vegetables around because one can eat an almost limitless amount of that stuff and stay not only slimmer, but healthier.

Boy, I would kill for a piece of chocolate cake right now!

New Years Day 2009

It looks pretty much the same out the living room's east window, but this little bird is wondering why she has to suffer the "economic downturn"... no seed in the feeder! She will wait until the feeder is full again and then fly to tell all her friends and family the good news. Yea, we are not forgotten; they still love us!

Much as I enjoy our feathered friends, I would like it very much if these birds would consider making their New Year's resolution be to refrain from messing up the outside of the window. Perhaps the "mess" helps them avoid smashing themselves into their reflections? Is there a lesson to be learned here?

Happy New Year to all! My wish for you is that your problems are as small as mine... and that 2009 is full of hopes and dreams realized. Is it too much to ask for world peace?

Making Up

Making up. Why do we bother? In the picture below are products from Avon, L'Oreal, Maybelline, Revlon and Cover Girl. After a lifetime of comparison shopping and trying every new thing, I'm convinced it makes little difference what one buys. What matters is that, once bought, a person has to use the product. In truth, makeup makes me look like maybe I wasn't just dug up, but it is never going to make me look like Kim Novak again. Shucks.

There's a whole lot of water under the bridge between then and now, and no amount of "skin care" and "making up" is going to change all the sun exposure and neglect. It's hard to "make up" for lost time. Even products containing both elastin and collagen can't undo what's already happened to a person's skin, in spite of what the advertisers have to say. So the answer must be to start young and form good habits. Another "answer" at any age is to eat right, exercise, stay healthy, think happy thoughts and smile a lot. It probably wouldn't hurt to use moisturizer morning and night, too. ;-) You're only as young as you feel!!

Excellent Friends

Good friend Wilma and I, plus husbands, went out to dinner last night at a highly recommended but somewhat out of the way restaurant. The food was very good, but the company was the best. We started laughing before we got there and were still laughing when we got back home. Mike and his camera captured the spirit of the evening with this picture.

Excuse My Rant

Sorry, but I just have to comment about the economy. Personally, when Brian Williams or Jim Lehrer spends a half hour talking about how horrible things are I simply walk out of the room. Don't we already know how bad things are? Have you looked at your 401K or your IRA lately? Is there any wonder we are cutting back on our spending? Imagine working all your life and religiously setting aside money into savings that you couldn't really afford in order to have some semblance of a fund for your retirement years, only to watch those savings dwindle to half or less, finding out that after all you are going to have to keep working until you are 106 years old or dead. Forget watching sunsets from a desert isle (much less from a bathtub); you still have to get up and drag yourself to work forever and forever; that is, if you even have a job.

Economists are crying over the decrease in consumer spending; well, duh. Our local grocery store seems to be down to less than half of their usual customer base; at least when I am there the aisles are echo chambers. People are shopping sales and going to stores where you can get staples for much less, and a pretty good choice of brand and generic goods. The produce leaves something to be desired, but if you get there on delivery days it's not so bad. The dollar stores and St. Vincent's are becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. St. V's is hurting for enough donations to fill the demand, which means people are reluctant to pass on what they have in case they are going to need it themselves down the road.

We got used to driving around less when the gas prices went through the roof. I think this encouraged less spending across the board; at least it made us aware that we could economize without too much distress. More people are shopping at WalMart stores, they say, but the last two times I went there it was not nearly as busy as before the "economic downturn". Those new WalMart shoppers will soon discover that the food prices are not that much less, not even enough to offset the gas burned to get there. Of course, I still have to go there if I want to get barley or our favorite rice or some of our favorite condiments, but it's easy enough to put those trips off for another week or two.

I find that I am shopping with a carefully constructed list, made after planning a week's meals, and if I find that something on the list is not available I just cross it off. If the broccoli looks yukky, I don't buy it. If the enchilada sauce cans are rusty or dented (and this is happening more and more as the retailers try to limit their own expenses!) I go back to making my own enchilada sauce or change the week's menu.

Remember the days when we would not buy any meat that cost over a dollar a pound? That's a joke now, for sure. Fortunately, Mike and I know how to stretch a dollar, we know how to cook from scratch, we like soups and stews, and we have always believed in "make do or do without". Now I can see that it is going to be a challenge to include all those expensive fruits and vegetables in our diet that is supposed to keep us healthy. They don't tend to be very filling, and the temptation is to fill up on starches and desserts.

This is a generalization, I know, and perhaps a little like a Pollyanna statement, but I believe that the American public is tough and resilient and capable of making changes (there's that word again... change) that make them proud of themselves rather than making them feel sorry for themselves. The sky is not falling; the world is not coming to an end; we shall overcome.

But that's just me.

Backing Up

Mike came home from Bloomington today with this 400 gigabyte external hard drive, which he will use for a backup. It is also portable. Will wonders never cease? My nose is just slightly out of joint.

Some months ago, I bought this external hard drive for use with my computer. Even though it is bigger in actual size, it is only a 150 gigabyte, and would be awkward to lug around. I never thought I would need one with a higher capacity, but have used 36 of the 150 gigabytes already and am considering compressing the data to make more room. By the way, in case you're interested, I use software from Karenware called Karen's Replicator for backing up, and am quite happy with it. I also have two very portable 2.0 gigabyte USP flash drives that I use to back up Quick Books Pro and Quick Books Point of Sale... and other stuff I consider important. Ah, where would we be without our guru, Marty? Still in the dark ages, that's where. I have always considered Danielle to be our backup guru, and have no doubt that both Miki and Eric have outdistanced us by now.

Differences

Each of is different and unique, and usually things work better that way. Who would want everyone to be the same? Mike and I were talking about our own differences, our different parenting techniques, our different outlook on life in general, and how that's worked in our lives together. Sometimes we agree to disagree (trying not to be disagreeable in the process) and sometimes we actually manage to have a mutual admiration society going. It's always seemed to me that he has a special knack for seeing his life as a series of adventures, and when the kids were little he encouraged them to make whatever they were doing fun. When I brought that up, he said, "Yes, it will get you to the next rock." Now here's an example of how different we are: When he made that comment my first thought was of the Greek myth about Sisyphus whom the gods condemned to ceaselessly push a rock to the top of a mountain, only to see it roll back down. "No," he said, "I mean like a rock to use as a stepping stone."

Vive la difference.