Birds Hate Me

Not all birds, I'm sure, but many. Since I'm probably the only person who reads this nonsense anyway, I will now start mixing in some things that I would like to remember, kind of a journal of events and thoughts. Yesterday I was attacked by a bird yet again. I've had several "avian events" over the years. Once while driving a bird, obviously trying to kill me by forcing me to drive off the road into a tree, smashed into the drivers' side window which was open 1" and exploded spreading bird entrails into my hair. Obviously the rare Japanese kamikaze bird. Another persistent bird succeeded in knocking me to the ground by dive bombing me. I attempted to bash his bird brains in with a briefcase, was able to make contact, but was unable to maintain my balance doing a complete mid-air somersault with the contents of the briefcase being scattered all of which caused my wife to laugh so hard she wet herself. There have been other less harrowing events, like birds flying into me, which is so unnerving since you see them coming and assume that they will avoid you. I feel that in those instances they're just sending me a message "we can hurt you anytime we want, watch your step". Last year in the park there were two hawks, one eating a squirrel, one acting as lookout. He looked me in the eye. I got the message, "keep moving, nothing to see here. If I wasn't involved with this squirrel I'd come over and peck your eyes out." Last week biking to work through the park one of them dropped a load on me, forcing me to go home and change. I bet they had a good laugh over that. This most recent attack occurred where I get the bus home at night. I always stand under the same tree, which now apparently has become this particular birds' turf. I was checking an oozing wound on my shin (sustained when a very heavy folding camping table I was carrying through Wal-mart came unhinged and whacked my shin with great force) when the bird flew down and hit me in the back. I thought, okay- here we go again, bring it on, let's settle this once and for all. Maybe if I can manage to kill one of them they'll think twice in the future. I think they sensed I was wounded, oozing pus from my leg and this is their best chance to take me down. I readied myself with my lunch bag. I found that if I kept my eye on him he wouldn't attack, but if I looked away for a moment, down he came. He hit me four times. Thankfully the bus came. I enjoy birds, I really do. Why do they hate me? Then I remembered. I was 10 years old and had made a slingshot out of a coat hanger and a rubber band. I never thought it would work, the BB sailed through the air and hit it's mark, the little sparrow. I picked it up, it's heart was pounding. I made a little bed near the railroad tracks. When I came back the next day it was dead. I think maybe I need to put up a bird feeder.

"Finished" Basement

Finished is a strong word, but for $300.00 whad'ya want? I took a 19' x 12' space in my basement and made it into a family/play room. Sure, you can get into carpentry, but that's not my bag. It's amazing what paint can do. The walls I first cleaned with TSP then applied one coat of masonry paint (tinted light blue) with a heavy nap roller. Then I cleaned the floor and applied Rustoleum 2 part epoxy basement floor paint. It's been 3 years and both walls and floor have held up perfectly. The next problem was the ceiling and the one open wall. I have open rafters and first I tried painting the ceiling flat black. Too much work, so I purchased some painters drop cloths and several hundred thumb tacks. I stuck the fabric up on the ceiling and hung them from ceiling to floor on the open wall. When I require thumb joint replacement surgery I might develop second thoughts about the thumb tack method. I used velcro to fix the bottom and end of the wall to the floor and cement wall. I bought a rug and a room divider to hide my water meter and tubing, and moved the old sectional sofa down there. I found a 3 light track light at Home Depot for $20 and ran an extension cord. It's a very quiet space, cool in the summer, a great place to read. One thing in my favor was that I have a very dry basement. Like I said, it cost around $300 and has added much needed living space to my tiny house, and as an added bonus it acts as a repository for piles of laundry that come out of the dryer.

Organic Backyard Lawn

In this part of the world, having a lawn that looks like a golf course is an obsession with some people. In order to get that look they dump chemical fertilizers on their lawns which pollute ground water and are generally harmful to health. What we all should really be doing is growing vegetables instead of grass, especially if you're like me and have a tiny, postage stamp front yard. How many vegetable gardens do you see in front yards? Not many. How many people actually step foot on their front yards other than to mow or fertilize it? I've seen in my area some chinese people who have beautiful front yard gardens. They're usually quite small but overflowing with produce. They must look at Americans and think what idiots we are for not taking advantage of this opportunity to have grow free food. I have to admit that I'm not much of a gardener, someday I would like to plant vegetables in my front yard. All I have right now is is a small raised bed garden that is 3 cedar boxes stacked at different angles and filled with soil. I got the idea from a gardening book, and we get a surprising amount from it. As far as my lawn goes, we don't use chemicals- we use W.O.W. from Gardens Alive. It's a corn by-product, is safe to let children play on and id non-polluting. The lawn isn't perfect but it's not bad and it improves every year.