Transitions and Treadmills
22/08/17 07:37
I'm not a big football watcher but I get a little irked when I see players in the NFL acting not as footballers which is what they get paid to do but rather social warrior activists. This business about taking a knee during the singing of the national anthem is getting out of hand. These are black players predominately not wanting to celebrate or participate in something that they perceive to have racists roots. I think it's a good thing when the likes of Colin Kaepernick who may have been the first asshat to indulge in such nonsense is now and has been for a while looking for a team that is willing to hire him for the 2017 season. Admittedly, he was off to a good start as a star quarterback with a first rate team in the NFL. I'm not sure when his performance started to wane or whether or not the degradation in his performance coincided with his decision to take up arms, so to speak, wth his brethren in the Black Lives Matter movement by taking a knee during the singing of the national anthem. Fans of the game are for the most part patriotic and god loving americans who want nothing more than to either attend the games in person or sit back in their recliners in the privacy of their homes to forget their worries, indulge in their fantasies, and watch an afternoon of football. It is all about the teams and their fans and that is all it has ever been about. It is up to the teams to temper the idealism of their players for the sake of the game and its fans. If they are either incapable or unwilling to do that then the fans should vote with their feet. There is something to be said for the common good and that is, like it or not, the American way.
I think I'm quite satisfied with how everything is going this summer when it comes to the hummingbirds that have taken up residence in our neighborhood. That may be casting the net too far and too wide. That is to say I think the birds have taken up residence in our yard just as they do every year. I've not seen those telltale red hummingbird feeders in the yards of our neighbors so there would be no reason for the birds to stray. Were it not for the three feeders we have hanging on three sides of our home I think it's safe to say we might actually not even know they are around. Taking that one step further, I cannot for the life of me identify the birds by sight nor can I tell how many hummingbirds there are. They are simply too small, too fleeting, and too similar to get a proper bead on them. I know there are at least two because I see them dive bombing and performing other seemingly amazing aerial feats in what appear to be either mating rituals or in competition of sorts to access the feeders. Very rarely have I ever seen two of them at once sitting on any one or more of our three feeders. I have also done a better job this year compared to past years in ensuring that the feeders are cleaned and filled at least weekly. Now that I have the recipe down pat I'm making a new brew once a week and putting the excess in the fridge. They arrive right on schedule in May and leave sometime in mid September. In late Spring I wrote down on a yellow sticky the date when they first appeared this year and stuck it on the wall in the kitchen as a reminder to watch for them next year around the same time. These wonderful birds are, if nothing else, predictable creatures. This is a good thing.
It's just as well that no one knows about Nancy's new job. It's nobody's business for one thing. She prefers it that way for another. This includes family members on both sides truth be told. It's a part time job to keep her busy a day or two a week and that suits her just fine. If that is what she wants to do then I am there to support her. Getting off that damn Boston treadmill after so many years delights me to no end. Gone are the fatigued looks, the dreaded commutes, the black ice alerts, the traffic jams from hell, and the terrors of it all. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see all of that going by the boards. Poof! See you later, mother fucker! If you detect a hint of anger then you would be correct. Nancy was and is loyal to a fault and that was true about her schtick in Boston. She was unlikely to leave that job short of her boss retiring so when the time came for him to call it quits she was in with both feet. Getting off the treadmill of life requires more that a boss retiring so she set about looking for something closer to home just to keep one foot in the game. Her new schtick may not be the ideal job and had she her druthers she might have been more discerning in her search. I do my part and thank her from time to time for bringing home the bacon. It is altogether unnecessary from my point of view but I defer to Nancy on such issues as I always have. That is what a dutiful husband does. The good news is that I get to join my darling for lunch time walks on each of the two days she works given that her new place of business is close by and not otherwise out of my way. She gets to complain about her new job and I get to listen. Some things never change. Neither of us would have it any other way.
I think I'm quite satisfied with how everything is going this summer when it comes to the hummingbirds that have taken up residence in our neighborhood. That may be casting the net too far and too wide. That is to say I think the birds have taken up residence in our yard just as they do every year. I've not seen those telltale red hummingbird feeders in the yards of our neighbors so there would be no reason for the birds to stray. Were it not for the three feeders we have hanging on three sides of our home I think it's safe to say we might actually not even know they are around. Taking that one step further, I cannot for the life of me identify the birds by sight nor can I tell how many hummingbirds there are. They are simply too small, too fleeting, and too similar to get a proper bead on them. I know there are at least two because I see them dive bombing and performing other seemingly amazing aerial feats in what appear to be either mating rituals or in competition of sorts to access the feeders. Very rarely have I ever seen two of them at once sitting on any one or more of our three feeders. I have also done a better job this year compared to past years in ensuring that the feeders are cleaned and filled at least weekly. Now that I have the recipe down pat I'm making a new brew once a week and putting the excess in the fridge. They arrive right on schedule in May and leave sometime in mid September. In late Spring I wrote down on a yellow sticky the date when they first appeared this year and stuck it on the wall in the kitchen as a reminder to watch for them next year around the same time. These wonderful birds are, if nothing else, predictable creatures. This is a good thing.
It's just as well that no one knows about Nancy's new job. It's nobody's business for one thing. She prefers it that way for another. This includes family members on both sides truth be told. It's a part time job to keep her busy a day or two a week and that suits her just fine. If that is what she wants to do then I am there to support her. Getting off that damn Boston treadmill after so many years delights me to no end. Gone are the fatigued looks, the dreaded commutes, the black ice alerts, the traffic jams from hell, and the terrors of it all. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see all of that going by the boards. Poof! See you later, mother fucker! If you detect a hint of anger then you would be correct. Nancy was and is loyal to a fault and that was true about her schtick in Boston. She was unlikely to leave that job short of her boss retiring so when the time came for him to call it quits she was in with both feet. Getting off the treadmill of life requires more that a boss retiring so she set about looking for something closer to home just to keep one foot in the game. Her new schtick may not be the ideal job and had she her druthers she might have been more discerning in her search. I do my part and thank her from time to time for bringing home the bacon. It is altogether unnecessary from my point of view but I defer to Nancy on such issues as I always have. That is what a dutiful husband does. The good news is that I get to join my darling for lunch time walks on each of the two days she works given that her new place of business is close by and not otherwise out of my way. She gets to complain about her new job and I get to listen. Some things never change. Neither of us would have it any other way.