Stop Messing With Nature

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.”~ Russell Baker

Welcome to the beginning of July in the year 2014. For those of you who have been waiting for it, please be patient. The bitchy blog posts about heat, humidity, and unbearable air temperatures during summer are coming. Just not yet. Hang in there!

But in all seriousness- let’s have a chat. Just you and I.

For those of you that have been paying attention, you know that there’s a nest full of barn swallows and right now is the time that these birds are being born and eggs are hatching.

Round two is happening currently as we speak for this year/season. The birds have hatched and they are just about ready to learn how to fly. I don’t know for sure whether or not we’ll have a third round of eggs. It is rare but has happened before.

But as with every year, there’s bird drama. And it happened yesterday evening when I heard a bunch of voices of children hanging around my front door.

One of the baby birds had accidentally fallen out of the nest and was on the ground. Its neck seemingly broken as it was able to twist it in ways humans can’t even dream of. But I don’t know for sure whether or not barn swallows have that same neck structure as say, an owl does. Able to turn it directly behind itself and look.

Whatever it was, it had caused one of the “bird parents” to come down from there nest and perch upon a shopping cart that got left on my patio area… watching its young struggle to move about. It had not yet learned how to fly at this point, so it was really at a poor disadvantage.

However if we have learned anything by having these birds come and build their nests is that you do not mess with the young. You do not touch any of the birds. And you must certainly do not touch any of the baby birds that may have fallen out of the nest. Its just nature happening. As sad as it may be. 

A few summers ago, our maintenance guy decided to mess with the nest by flashing an LED light inside while the birds were sleeping. Maintenance was attacked viciously to the point where he became paranoid about birds if he had to come over to my home.

A social services coordinator attempted to lift a baby bird back into the nest because it had fallen out. That bird (even though was returned from the nest) was forced out of the nest again and landed on the ground and soon after that perished.

The lessons came quick. DO NOT TOUCH THE BIRDS. DO NOT INTERVENE WITH THE BIRDS. DO NOT HANDLE THE BIRDS.

Once a human being does that, then the adult birds stop caring for it and force it away where it actually is left to die.

Granted, barn swallows are not very large birds in size. But birds are birds. And to this day I do not know why they trust me, but they do. Enough to build their nests and enough to NOT attack me when I come out of my front door to do whatever it is that I need to do that day. 

Usually the adult birds will just fly away, swoop around, and come back to the nest once I have cleared the area.

These children last night however, were hovering and circling around this one bird that unfortunately fell out of the nest. I warned the children not to touch the baby bird. I warned them to stay away from the baby bird because the adults would come after them.

I’ve seen it happen before. Birds will defend their own.

And instead of paying attention to me and listening, the oldest child of the group took off her jacket and wrapped the baby bird with the sleeve of the jacket and picked it up. The adult birds were flying back and forth in a super rage. It was horrible to watch. And it had to be terrifying for the birds to watch their young being picked up and carried away. 

Since someone touched the bird, the adults left it alone. The kids took off with it but then minutes later came back with it and put it back on the same spot on the ground as they picked it up. But it was too late. The adult birds already abandoned it.

So this morning, I find the adult birds still perched lower to the ground, but the baby bird was on the ground and had not survived.

And to think that this bird would have had a fighting chance as it struggled to move. Just a crash course in learning how to fly and it would have lived and been okay and probably in the future, been something that laid its own eggs.

Again human nature got in the way and spoiled everything for this winged baby. Sealing its doomed fate.

As difficult as it may be for some adults, we’ve got to learn to leave animals alone. Even while the animals are “in their hour of need.”

If the young of an animal will be abandoned if interfered with by humans, then yes – just leave them alone and hope and pray for the best.

Lessons In Irrefutibility

“This is truly a lesson in futility; man cannot be sure of anything more than his own existence, and even this is tenuous.”~ Author unknown

The image to the right is the basic building block to what started out as one lesson for one person and ended up being another lesson for many, and a warning for others.

I was in Houston for SIX MINUTE CENTURY this past weekend, and I promise to get to that blog post as soon as I can. But I felt that these lessons needed to be shared with you, the reader, first.

What you are viewing is a post of someone that I know who had said that they were going to the SIX MINUTE CENTURY show, but failed to arrive. Based on very few interactions with that person… this was looked at as an excuse as to why that person was absent.

The first lesson here can begin by seeing that the first thing deleted/censored out is my name. In other words, she tagged my name on Facebook. This post was originally on her own profile but since my name was tagged… it ended up being on mine as well.

Here’s the lesson: DON’T TAG PEOPLE IN RUN OF THE MILL, REGULAR DAILY FACEBOOK POSTS. You leave yourself wide open to the last SIX comments. The first was the person herself, offering what was revered to be another excuse on top of the one that was already provided. The second comment was that person’s friend offering their sympathy.

The rest was nothing but …. what I imagine….. was pure HELL for the original person who posted. Comment #3 began as a cautionary statement, and then the rest were simply brutal.

The following is a chain reaction to what  followed:

• A- Comments #4-7 were rough. Comment #8 would be the likely nail in the coffin.
• B- I deleted the original person who posted this mess from my Friends List on Facebook, when all I wanted was the truth out of them and I could not find it. With each trip that I took to Houston, I would tell this person that I would be there.. only to have her say “Oh cool. I’ll be there!” and then she not show up at all and then make excuses why she wasn’t there later… DAYS later, even after I had returned home.
• C- The original person would eventually delete the post. Then come to me in the Facebook inbox (where she should have went in the first place) and claimed innocence and wondered why these people were attacking, stating that their comments were very rude.
• D- The person blocked me on Facebook. I was not the one who blocked. But they did it.
• E- Nobody to my knowledge went after this person more than what you see in the image. Not on my side.
• F- This person had someone come after me and attack while defending HER.
• G- I had to block THAT attack from Facebook.
• H- This person went to the one who gave the cautionary comment, to try and plead her case only to find that this person that she was talking to was MY FRIEND and was going to back me up no matter what!!
• I- My realization that had escalated farther than what it should have. Which is my only regret.
• J- Thinking back, the image states that she was a different venue (different colors used to remove the names of venues) than where SIX MINUTE CENTURY was playing. And it didn’t make sense why she would be there.

Nobody is innocent in this situation. Her with her constant BS excuses as to why she didn’t show up to hang out or say hello or anything. But instead she went to my friend BELIEVING that I was “thinking” she and I were “more than friends” which was not true.

True, it would have been something that I would have welcomed, but I was wanting to spend time with her to get to know her.. and do it in person, and not over the Internet. You CANNOT HIDE when its in person. 

And I could have stopped it before it got out of hand. I could have removed the name tag from her post. But then again, I have NO control over what people were going to say. Not in the least.

Again, I am going to stress this lesson to EVERYONE:

DO NOT WILLY-NILLY TAG A PERSON’S NAME IN A FACEBOOK POST THAT YOU ARE WRITING. ESPECIALLY IF IT IS SOMEONE THAT YOU DO NOT REALLY KNOW.

Because of the tag on my name, she more or less asked for what she got, which was the comments that followed. She allowed it because by the name tagging, it created the opportunity for people to say what they did and of course it pissed her off.

And here’s a bonus lesson for those who are on Facebook or any other social networking websites and use them regularly.

If someone is having an argument or a fight….. keep your business to yourself.

The only reason why the people who commented on this doomed post was because they already knew about  the situation before today. A couple of them already frustrated that I was letting this woman get to me.

But when after I was blocked and the ‘war’ was over…. there was a man who came after me and was basically attempting to show that I was in the wrong 100% when he should have kept out of it.

Bulletpoint F.

The likelihood is that this woman went on a posting rampage AFTER blocking me…. seeking attention. And there it was, someone else thinking with their dicks instead of their brains.

I would most likely RETURN to a social equilibrium with this woman IF she were to apologize for giving the run-around. But that’s likely never to happen as she probably doesn’t see it this way at all. And even if she were to do so, I wouldn’t associate with her as much as I did before… which was barely at all to begin with.

So there’s really no HUGE loss here.

But allow this story to serve as lessons.  As if it were MY OWN cautionary tales for you all to soak in and absorb.

Don’t tell someone you are going to do it, if you have no intentions on doing it in the first place. Don’t lie. Don’t allow your personal emotions to get tangled. Learn that fire is always going to hurt no matter how many times you touch it. And learn when enough is enough.

 

 

 

Explosion Moment #01

“Life is hard. People can be cruel. Trust is easily broken. We all make bad choices in our lives… But for crying out loud- life never was meant to be easy. People are always going to be different. And just because you trusted and got burned doesn’t mean EVERYONE will burn you. And you have the free will to change your choices, if one proves to be wrong. Quit living your existence in your aquarium full of your own tears. Learn the lessons given to you. And free yourself from your enslavement!”

2011

Almost there.

I noticed that several colleagues of mine who live in other countries have begun to wish everyone a happy new year. But for myself, 2012 is still several hours away.

And as extremely taxing and difficult as 2011 has been for me, I can honestly say that there’s been a whole lot of good that I could possibly reflect upon.

I started this blog back in February. Hoping to use it as a tool of releasing frustration, confusion, and overall make it an outpouring of negativity to get it out of my system based on some events that were just plain awful. Naturally, the tone to a majority of the posts would change. And today, I’ve accumulated nearly 200 posts. And I’ve had over 6,000 views to my blog. I am quite proud of that. I enjoy writing in this blog and I do see myself continuing to write.

I’ve made some new connections with people. Acquired several new acquaintances. And even walked away with my head held high from the bad ones.

I’ve made new friends. And friends I’ve had before, have become closer friends. And what is even more endearing is the fact that some of them who had been already close to me, I now cannot fathom life without them. To remotely think about it, makes me cry.

I’ve met in person many wonderful people! I came away with some memories that I will never forget!! And in others, I’ve crossed the lines, shattered the boundaries, and still came out squeaky clean on the other side.

I’ve received so much support from others. More than I would have ever been able to imagine. And I am grateful for that, and for them.

I’ve been given so much help in my hour of need to the point where I probably would never be able to thank them enough or repay them. But knowing that “thank you” was just enough caused me to learn that there are some people still left in this world who genuinely do care for me.

I keep making progress in sledge hockey, even though I was not able to finish out last season due to illness and the fact of the matter is that this season has barely gotten off the ground.

I know that I have repeated myself time and time again about how desperately I wanted to get away from 2011, but I feel that there’s so much more to be thankful for that did happen this year. Many blessings were bestowed.

And I look forward to advancing in 2012 with the hope and faith that regardless of the low-times of this year, which were plentiful, I can stand tall and push forward towards a better year, with all of the lessons and experiences to take with me as I learn. And leaving behind the bitterness, sadness, and things that would drag me down so heavily.

May we all learn our lessons both from the good and the bad of this year and apply them to better living in 2012.

To those who have played such a pivotal role in my life, I want to say thank you and .. I love you!!

 

 

 

The $102 Pack of Cigarettes

Last year, the only son of an elderly neighbor of mine was pounding on my front door relentlessly late at night at the most ridiculous of hours.

I knew who it was, and I knew what he had wanted. This 16 year old son was wanting me to go to the corner store and buy him a pack of cigarettes.

After realizing that he just wasn’t going to go away, he said that he had the money in his pocket and I told him to prove it to me.

He dug deep into his pockets and pulled out two fists full of loose change. Including a collection of at least eight Walking Liberty Half Dollars and other assorted quarters and nickels.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was he absolutely serious about handing over these old coins? All of them were minted in around the years of the World War II era. The majority of them were from 1944. He had one that was from 1941, and another from 1946.

It was ridiculous. I asked him if he knew what he was doing and if he knew how much these old coins were worth. He said he didn’t know and didn’t care. He had recently gone to the corner store himself to buy something else, but the store clerk refused to accept them. So he was trying to get rid of them.

So, I was no idiot. This was the one time that I went ahead and did this for him. Besides, the rest of the change I needed so that I could do some laundry to have clean clothes. I took all of his change and kept it to myself and paid for it out of my own pocket. The transaction was complete and we never spoke of it again. I hid those half dollars like it was the Holy Grail itself.

Time went on, his father (my neighbor) passed away. And he moved away to live with some guardians. Up until two days ago where he came knocking on my door, his skateboard in hand. He came in and sat down and talked his face off, complaining about his social life and how terrible things had become since he lost his father. It truly is a sad situation for him.

And then he brings up the conversation about his massive half dollar collection. Apparently, he went to some coin and silver shop and traded in what he had left over. He told me the story about how he had received about $150 for his coins. And he was really getting excited as he continued to tell his tale.

Then… it hit. The real, deep-down reason as to why he was here visiting with me. Because of the fact that he got so much money for those silver coins AND that he had blown all that money in one day… he wanted those coins back.

Umm, NO. It was part of a transaction.

So I told him, “Do you have a pack of cigarettes because that’s what YOU bought with those coins?”. Obviously, he wasn’t going to have any!! So I turned him away empty handed.

I knew the value of those coins were far more than just fifty cents. And he received his smokes. So those coins now belonged to me. But he kept insisting until I just told him that I didn’t have them any more.

Out the front door, he stormed off. He said that he would be back later to see if I had put my hands on those coins again since “I stored them at the house of my parents who live two states away.”

This afternoon, I too went to the same coin and silver store as he and traded in all the coins that I found in my safe place. With the loose quarters and nickels that I had and then used for laundry, added to what I received from the silver store for selling the coins, that pack of Marlboro Lights 100’s was worth a grand total of  $102.68!!!

Now clearly he did not understand the value. And he should have thought things through. But at his young age, all he was doing was focusing on what he wanted at that exact time and moment. So let it be a lesson to him. Although he’ll probably never learn because he’ll never know. I sure hope he smoked those things SLOWLY.. but I doubt that he did.

Also let it be a lesson to those who read this. There are reasons why people collect old coins. This would be one of the reasons.

And now I will be able to do laundry for at least the next six months.