Opening Day

Spring is here.  Major League Baseball teams are playing their first games of the 2012 season.  As much as I love Opening Day with the Phillies, it’s not officially spring at my house until opening day of LawnBoy season.  It’s extra special when they happen – like this year – in the same week.

The first crank of that 2-cycle engine is as exciting as the crack of the bat.

Beer is the perfect beverage for both.

The sound of the mower is almost as loud as the fans.

The fence is what we’re aiming for, and, most important of all,

LawnBoy Green is pretty darn close to Phanatic Green.

My lawn is my field of dreams and the home team always wins when it’s LawnBoy season.  Happy grass cutting season.  Plan well, though, so you’re done in time to see the opening pitch!

Just Call the Guy

I am an inveterate DIY-er.  My husband is definitely NOT.  Like early-birds and night-owls, Sharks and Jets, hawks and doves, you might properly surmise we have had a few failures to communicate on household matters.

I have a long list of things around the house that require my attention – and muscle and sweat and nerve.  Husband is (maybe intentionally) oblivious to these pressing matters.  For over 25 years, now, I have always thought it only fair to inform husband of these important issues and to review my plans to address them. His consistent response has always been a version of “Just call the guy.”  More aptly, he looks at me as though I am speaking in tongues and offers me money to hire out the work (and to shut me up.)

It goes against my grain to pay someone to do things (except to clean the house) I can do myself, or even things I THINK I can do myself, so I usually just blunder out to tackle whatever it is that has my attention.

Until now.

It has come to my attention that the economy is not so great.  People don’t have jobs and people are not spending money.  I must, as a concerned citizen, do what I can to help, so, I will be “calling the guy.”  I will be paying someone to repair my fish pond.  I will pay someone to paint my ceiling.  I will pay someone to install hardwood in my house.  Well, to be more precise, I will let husband pay for them.  It surely gives him pleasure to take an active role in maintaining our home – and I’m sure he isn’t going to be active in any other way than to write a check.

You are HERE.

As the suggestion of an internet art buddy group, I just finished reading one of those self-help/discover-your-joy/find-your-real-self books.  This one, folks who’ve read it said, brought them amazing life-altering results.  What I discovered was truly amazing.

What a revelation to find – in print, in someone else’s words, in a book endorsed by many as life-altering – that I’m already doing it!  I am living my joyful real-self life!

There was no epiphany, no tragedy, no life-altering event that caused me to begin to attend to my well-being.  It just seemed to happen that I have become more aware of what I want to do and how I can actually do those things. (It also just seemed to happen that I became aware that nobody was going to do them for me!)

I find myself wincing a little when I hear someone groan, “I need to get a life.”  This journey we’re all taking – with scenery that is sometimes uninspiring and traffic that’s frustrating and unexpected detours that take us out of our way – IS our life!    Since I want the journey to be part of the fun, I think I will dance along my path.  I know the view will be ever-changing, but I am looking forward to it.  I only need to keep moving toward the life I want and I will be there at every step.

The Importance of Getting Up Early

I was so excited for this week – Daylight Savings Time AND I had a nice little blog post almost ready to go before the clock had to be set forward.  Congratulations to me. Then, I woke Sunday morning to read this beautiful, sad, happy memoriam, written by my friend Dave Wiltsey.  I was so moved by this, I knew I had to share it with you. With his gracious permission, here is Dave’s touching farewell to his friend, his beloved pet.

This morning I slept in……..

by Dave Wiltsey on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 11:07pm ·

This morning I slept in, because I didn’t have to get up early to let you out and feed you breakfast.

I didn’t have to check your water bowl to make sure it was filed with fresh water.

I didn’t have to lint-roll my shirt to get your hair off because you jumped up on me on the couch after I got home from work for our daily snuggle time.

When we went out to run errands, or go out to dinner, or meet friends, we didn’t have to plan our schedule to make sure you got dinner on time or got let out.

I didn’t have to wipe up all the water off the bathroom floor after you shook-off after your bath.

Today I didn’t sit in the living room and hear your toenails on the floor as you followed Lori around, hoping she would be going to the kitchen and that it might somehow result in you getting a morsel or a treat.

Tonight I didn’t have to put my jacket on and take you for a walk and worry about you trying to eat every stray piece of food someone may have discarded.

Tonight I didn’t have to call you to come upstairs when it was time for bed, and put up the baby gate to keep you from wandering out of the bedroom or close the bathroom door to keep you from pulling stuff out of the trash.

And right before I fall asleep, I don’t have to try and remember if I set my alarm clock for the morning, to do it all over again.

I don’t have to do any of this anymore……….but I wish that I did because I loved doing it and I loved you!

Today I will cry, but I know that someday soon, I will smile and remember how lucky I was to get up so early for you.

Excuses

We’ve all had the experience.  In a testy situation, instead of clearing the air, we make an excuse.  Sometimes, it is to save face. Sometimes, it is to avoid getting slapped. Sometimes, it is to let someone exit gracefully.  Sometimes, however, it is because we just don’t want to deal with the problem.

This week, I was faced with such a situation and I made an excuse.  What a cowardly and completely unproductive thing to do!  The confrontation was not friendly, the agitator did not have grounds, there was no reason not to finish the fight, except that I was just too tired to deliver the coup de grace.  I made an excuse. The result of not taking care of that little bit of nasty business when I had the (righteous) opportunity is that the problem persists.

When we are assailed by an acquaintance, a co-worker, a family member, we need to quickly identify whose monkey’s in the room.

If it isn’t yours, say so! The monkey that rode in on someone else’s back a few days ago is still sniffing around me, because, instead of flinging him back to where he belongs, I made an excuse.

Sometimes, it seems easier to avoid an unpleasant discussion, but, in the case of those with whom we regularly have contact, that usually just postpones the inevitable.  Lingering issues are not like fine wine; they do not improve with age.  This is especially true if there are sour grapes in the ferment.

When made to preserve an important relationship or to avoid needlessly hurting someone’s feelings, I think excuses are fine, temporary, “get out of jail free” constructs.  When we use them to obfuscate a real problem, we are just being cowardly.  Yellow is not my color; no more excuses.

Vote FOR Something, Please

Seems to me we have slid down the slippery slope. We have crossed the line. We make decisions based on our experience with “reality” television.  Started out by raising being famous to being worthy.  Followed by voting for the “best,” which was really voting for the most popular. Talent lost its cachet in the (over-tanned orange) face of celebrity.  That was bad enough.

Enter “Vote the Worst,” some snarky folks who wanted to crash the system – the formula for success for American Idol and its brethren.  Sure, we loved some of the nonsense it created.  We could not wait to see what Sanjaya would do to his hair.  We groaned, but took mighty guilty pleasure at Nancy Grace slogging her way through another quickstep on DWTS.  It was all just fun and games, until it wasn’t.

Enter Rick Santorum, whose Michigan campaign strategy can only be described as “Hey, Democrats, vote for me because your guy probably can’t beat our other guy!”  Really?  Well, of course, it’s true that Obama would have an easy time dismantling candidate Santorum, while candidate Romney would surely offer a more evenly matched duel.  The issue here is that the American public is being (almost openly) asked to “vote the worst” in the Republican primary!

I am about as close to the middle of the road, politically, as one can possibly be.  I see good ideas and bad ideas coming from both parties.  I sincerely hope we are offered the opportunity to choose between President Obama and the most highly qualified Republican candidate in November.  To think we might be forced to pick the status quo or an anachronism (nicer word than misogynist, which I suspect is more appropriate) is tragic.

Please vote for something, not just against. Find the ideas and goals and character you can support and do it.  Bad stuff is easy to see.  Pundits and pollsters and political operatives keep that in the headlines. We owe it to ourselves to look for the good – and there is good to find – and help make it grow.

I do not believe in the parties, I believe in the people.  I know lots of you and you are pretty cool, compassionate, and generous.  You are open-minded and close-knit.  You are strong and kind.  You can make things better. We can make things better.

Just Change the Channel

Have you ever watched a television show and found yourself annoyed at the end of the hour because it had not been “good?”   You know that feeling of totally wasted time because you were bored, depressed, offended, or just not entertained by whatever it was.  Now, how many times would you choose to watch that same program again?

Why is it that we find it so acceptable to live that kind of bad re-run life?  So many of us go through the same motions every day and go to bed with the same sense of time not well spent, just spent.  There are some obligations that must be fulfilled, of course, whether or not we find them pleasant.  I’m talking about the optional stuff – and there’s a lot of it.

When we’re bored with what’s on TV, we change the channel.  We have Stumble Upon and Pinterest to offer new ideas and options at the click of a mouse.  We do not waste much time pressing the button when the screen is not interesting.  That’s the way to live!

It’s time I started paying as much attention and demanding as much from my whole life as I do from a prime-time drama, how-to show, or sitcom.  I will cut out “reality” programming (drama queens and princes,) get unbiased news (go outside and look at the world for myself,) stop watching depressing self-help shows (shut up my negative talk,) and find time for great comedy (spend time with happy friends.)

I will throw away the TV Guide, receive my own satellite transmissions, and never accept anything less than 3D, high-def, spectacular.

Oh, and I will sing my own theme songs for every thrilling new episode.