The Ownership or the Old Friend?

Really, have you ever gone to a big beautiful mansion as a guest and when you arrived and brought inside another guest greeted you and the implication was it was THEIR HOME? What if you DIDN’T ask and ASSUMED it was this person’s home and they also were waiting to meet someone there?

Then… you both decide to walk and talk around… and you the guest have to leave before the owner or renter comes back? If you are criminal minded… do you leave and order “hits” to rob the place believing the guest is the owner and “easy one to kidnap” or mess with? What if you saw that big mansion guest again later at a very inexpensive store like KMART? Would you think they are an imposter? A fraud? Would you treat them like the mansion owner? Or stop and ask them again who they are? What if you again were criminal minded or crazy or just not thinking… and later started RUMORS, slander… that the person you met at the mansion was a fraud, not wealthy… and yet… you never knew their actual net worth? And what if they were the actual mansion owner and you blew them off because they were at a KMART or CVS? What if you started talking again and then find out this person is NOT THE SAME ONE as the one at the mansion you had a conversation with yet they knew WHO YOU ARE–and they are an imposter who may or may not know the guest or the mansion owner but have info on them?

The Sudden Oak Death in California

Photo from Sudden oak death is plaguing California forests – Save the Redwoods League

I’ve been watching plants in a garden recently almost a year now. Even though not a green thumb, I can keep the easy plants going. Hey, water, light, sunshine, fertilizer, weeding. Most can handle this! And buying the correct plants for the zone you are in really helps. Ask the people at your local nursey for help on what will work at your location (home, office, other). I just thought about Sudden Oak Death again. I don’t have an oak tree however I’ve done road tripping and seen dead trees in California just out by themselves in a grassy pasture, even not so grassy desert areas. It is a sad thing to see a great oak that’s grown for decades… suddenly die.

My question to us all, since I am NOT a botanist or ecologist: Are the trees most susceptible to the fungus the ones that got TOO DRY first? The reason I ask is because I am noting that HEALTHY house plants, even yard plants tend to fend off even insects when they are watered enough over a long term. The plants that got dry seem to not have as much natural chemical resistance. Those chemicals can STINK insects away. Insects have been known to transport spores from all kinds of plants, especially diseased dying ones.

Also, for trees… they have natural oils throughout. If they dry up too much, then the insects… the really small ones… could create their own spaces within the trees and cause it to have micro holes… which could capture water longer in places trees cannot dry as well. Without natural oils, the tree could actually get more saturated and moldy when wet weather comes–not unlike untreated lumber.

Another question I have: Did this mold fungus come from tropical areas on planet Earth where it thrives but does not harm the trees? Carried by winds, birds, insects, humans? Guess what. The U.S. National Park Service thinks that is what happened! VIDEO ON SUDDEN OAK DEATH (produced and featuring the National Park Service)

My final question: If we can vaccinate humans and animals from diseases and viruses, can we also do the same for a tree or plant? Would giving a tree or plant a “cure” or preventative through its water source help it? Effectively causing all its cells to have something to fight the fungus off? Is the “secret sauce” found in trees and plants in areas where Phytopthera ramorum(scientific name) is common? If we can’t save the older trees, what about the younger ones?

For more reading on this please see these links:

SuddenOakDeath.org
National Park Service – Sudden Oak Death
Arbor Day Foundation – SOD
Arborist Now – a Full Guide to Sudden Oak Death

The Empty Well

(back soon with the story, need more time to think about it. Hope the title alone can solve some pending questions.)

“My ink well is dry, therefore I cannot write more.” – the writer

“I’ve been ill for a very long time, I don’t know what well means.” – the patient

“I have not done something fulfilling in a long time.” – the worker

“I wish you well, and good bye.” – the fraud

The story…

The year 1200 AD… somewhere in Europe.

There is a small town with two water wells that draw from different sources. Each well is located a separate ends of the town. For more than one generation the people of the town got their water from either. There were no fights. Even during a drought, people talked and planned to make best use of the waters available.

One day, a young man was angry. He wanted a way to get the attention of everyone in town so he tainted one well and gathered like-minded friends to guard the remaining well.

His first attempt at showing his anger was to watch some people become very ill from the well he did not guard.

The next attempt at “letting others feel his anger” was to block people from using “his well”. Most were scared enough to just not ask for water and rationed what they had, hoping the boys would calm down.

A small boy is encouraged to talk to the boys at the well and he seeks them out. Once in front of them he asks, “Why are you protecting the remaining well yet not sharing its waters?”

The older boys complain amongst each other. It has been many days they’ve lived around the well to “protect it” and they’ve had to find their own food and slept under tree limbs and the sky, no longer protected themselves. The small boy notices they are tired and angrier than he remembers ever seeing people. And they have weapons he is not used to seeing. They look newly made, and not by the blacksmith. Made themselves?

TBC

For the Birds!

Why do I write stories that include animals and birds? Very easy to answer. Their actions speak more than words, and humans know what they mean to them. Most people who are literate enough to read a story or a news article have enough experience on Earth to understand simple gestures found in the animal world that can, but not always, illustrate a similar human gesture or meaning….without spoken language.

I actually like wild birds. They care for their own. Like humans, if something is wrong with them… they will not behave in a normal, respectable way.

Birds, like humans… can be dangerous. Doesn’t matter their size; no matter how beautiful their feathers, how agile they are in the sky, how well fed they are. Conversely, they can be the most endearing and respectable animal on Earth when NOT causing a problem somewhere.

The Girl and the Flock of Birds

Short story, not very original. Just a reminder.

A girl sat on a bench by herself and now and then a bird appeared, pecked around and flew off again. Minding her own business, the girl opens a package of crackers and birds start showing up at her feet, on the bench, and occasionally they jump onto her shoulder and off again… legs too.

“Don’t worry, I’ll share some of my food…” and she takes some crackers in her small hand to drop on the ground and before she can a bigger bird lands on her wrist lowering her arm and almost throwing her off balance.

She leans further over to drop the crackers politely and more birds fly in as well as more than one homeless person.

There is a COMMOTION!!! Birds are flapping wings, the girl is SCREAMING as they get caught in her hair. Her arms are swinging all around her and one homeless person grabs them saying, “Girl, don’t hurt the birds.” And some birds draw blood on her arms and face.

The other homeless person leans over to push birds aside to grab scattered crackers… clutching them tight and then giving them out as if they were theirs… now smaller pieces, even partially damp and dirty from being taken off the ground.

What should happen next is a police officer or other reliable adult runs up and chases the commotion off the child and helps them get to safety. The reality is, more adults may show up and knock out the child and kidnap them, ask for ransom from whoever they can get money from. Not even seeking out friends and family. Could be months before that child gets home. In the Twilight Zone… they may never get home or have crackers on a bench again.

This does qualify as a short horror story near to the upcoming Halloween nights. It is to remind parents and youths to keep an eye out for each other and not allow violence to be commonplace. *Thinking about it some more: IF Gandalf the White(a wizard from Tolkien’s writings) showed up, he would have likely sent away every thing living but the girl and one deserving bird, then stepped back and be gone to allow the girl and bird peace between them.

Problem Solving

I need to write a more elaborate post here. Call this one a placeholder.

It is HUMAN to problem solve. It is actually a function of most animals. ANYTHING that has a brain… is a problem solver. We are supposed to be the highest animal on the Earth, the species with the greatest thinking and problem solving abilities. Are we doing our best in our daily lives?

National Slave Day

Today is actually “Labor Day” in the United States. It is a day we celebrate the achievements the country and the people within it have made in getting and giving work lawfully and humanely. Wishing I could toast to my own life’s work, I decided to create and propose something for everyone to think about: National Slave Day. It’s basically for everyone who were not able to get a stable steady income and life, even those who only experienced a slavery or enslavement a short time. http://nationalslaveday.org

Not about a “shame on you”. It’s purpose is education for those being enslaved and those promoting slavery in small and big ways. It takes a strong will to make improvements near and far.

The Person on the Phone Line

(very short fiction story)

A lonely person picks up a rotary dial phone and calls a random number. A voice on the other end talks to them for an hour. They never tell each other their real names and just…talk.

Back then the system wasn’t too good. There were pops and crackles, fuzzy sounding voices between clear times. Still they talked about things. Why the world doesn’t look right, why their lives are not what they expected. Dreams, hopes, loves and hates.

They laughed, and almost cried too. Out of fear of “ruining it” they choose to never speak again. Thank each other and hang up.

Those were better days. People talked to each other. Shared ideas without fear, without passing judgement. People knew how to be polite, considerate, authentic… even tolerant.

This takes places in the 1970s, USA. Back then, we had rotary telephones in homes and workplaces. They were called a “tele – phone” because unlike a telegraph… it was SOUND.

Shaking the Sky

Massive cloud formation over a rainforest, likely after a rain in the Pacific Ocean far from large airports and heavy industrial cities. Photo used with permission of the artist.

In my early life I probably flew on at least 10 different airlines and sizes of planes, with 20,000mi+ over ground around the world before I was 10 years old. I have a great appreciation for flying and even wanted to be a pilot of something with hard wings. Not putting down such an amazing industry with this blog post. Actually wish to nudge visionaries to think how to keep flying machines in the sky with less disturbance and lower fuel costs. I know this kind of leap in technology may not happen before I pass on into the afterlife!

Here is what I started to write about on my newish X Corp account:

“Random question… (see whole post for equation question) I’ve not done any research on… would jet fuel fumes in the air.. kill airborne organisms that are GOOD AT holding moisture? Does the “air noise” cause problems for clouds to accumulate and gather enough moisture to be able to produce rain? One big jet plane = [this amount of noise/vibration in the air] + [this amount of chemical seeding/comtamination into the air] which… causes = [how much disruption in the process of producing healthy rain clouds?]

What this means is… Are we shaking the sky too much and causing the moisture to scatter before it can form nice rain clouds regularly?

Thousands of loud jet planes are flying in the global skies in any given minute.

What if tech visionaries came up with flying machines that still carry a lot of people, and fast… but interfere less with the air they fly in?

This blog post isn’t just about advancing flying machine technology, it is also taking a bigger ‘think’ about the sky itself and how it is so key in the ecosystem of the Earth that perhaps… we may be disrupting it considerably with the current flying technology we have?

Life Puzzle

What is a “life puzzle”? How simple or complicated our lives are!

What I’d like to share is that we all have a puzzle to deal with the day we are born. It could be a simple life ahead or a very complicated one. What makes it complicated? Here is my theory: How many people you interact with in your lifetime. I say this because each person has to be dealt with in an individualized way and has at least one piece of your puzzle: They know you in their way.

This is a art mosaic of glass tiles on wood by artist “ShelaghJaneMosaics” that I found online. I picked this one because the content illustrates the idea of portions and pieces of our lives. Some of it can be very straightforward and obvious, other parts more abstract. It has elements of various emotions which could translate to life experiences such as events or human beings. “Puzzle” can also mean “confusion to be sorted out” and something like this image shows it. It even has peaceful and also hot colors reminding us of good and bad times. NOTE: I do not know the artist at all, and I am not presenting this image as a form of advertisement.

This was not something I was planning to write about. It came to mind because my own life looks simple, and it really is NOT AT ALL. I’ve had to figure it out myself: What is making my life complicated?

What is a puzzle? Essentially, it is a sum of pieces that come together to form a conclusion. A jigsaw puzzle is made of a single picture cut into unique-looking pieces.

Our own lives are a big puzzle, and it can take decades to figure out the “big picture” that is your own life. What the “complete view” of who you are in the big world we live in, the planet we are on. It can be a puzzle of big pieces like a pizza or a huge mosaic of thousands of small fragments of various sizes. How does your “life puzzle” look? What makes you, YOU?

This is a pepperoni pizza! Some people have lives this simple. Yes! Think of it as flat, round, not a lot of ingredients, no one piece is the same… some is saucy, spicy, smooth, crunchy… I found this image on the internet and it belongs to Zionsville Pizza. I never ate there, looks good though! Please send me an email if you tried it out?

If I can give advice on this, it would be to try to understand the pieces you think you know well. Those are: 1) what you need to accomplish daily, weekly, yearly, and long term, 2) who is involved that matters to you. Then you can think about how it all fits together to help you keep moving forward and 3) what pieces are missing. Thinking is good, keeping your own notes in a journal is GREAT. You do not need to be a professional writer to sort out your own thoughts about things.

I wish you well in learning your “life puzzle” and my hope you’ll work on it to help you understand yourself and the pieces that do and don’t belong to you!

I feel like an old lady writing about knowledge and wisdom for younger people. I am old enough to do this now authentically! Ha! I welcome you to read my other writings also. I hope they can help you find your own personal, inner freedoms even if you stuck at home, or in a boring job, or just in a rut.