What are you doing today?

[Alice B]

I spent my first few years on my grandparents 44 acre farm. I had a baby bunny hop on my shoe when I was about 2 or 3, that bunny lived in a cage til he got too big and moved to my uncle's. didn't find out til I was an adult what my uncle raised bunnies for. I love gardening. Not much on slaughtering livestock. but I lived in cities as a young adult, moved out here, rural edge of fort worth when I was 42, got chickens in 2010, so I guess I was 51. Now I have bees, I have a rescue bunny whose chief job is generating compost and fertilizer, and 5 dogs. I love it. The city was where I made a living, out here I made a life. I have a few wild things, mainly hawks and possums and the dreaded rats, which my dogs hunt and my feral cats and the hawks hunt. This is home. I have a load of firewood from my daughter's place on the truck, my grandson split it last year, loaded it yesterday. And I heat with a woodstove mostly, although this year I do have working electric heat on the central it is so expensive to run

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I think the best thing about splitting firewood is that you get to break things, and it's OK. Those opportunities are so rare, and must be savored.

 

[Back in the fold]

Today I’m welcoming new life into the world . Newly hatched Aplocheilus lineatus Golden Wonder Killifish . I got my original pair in December 2019 and five years later I’m still getting fry from their descendants . How’s that for a $ 7.00 buck deal ?

 

[gwand]

I grew up in a rural community in the Catskill mountains a couple hours north of NYC. My parents were born in Europe but raised in the Bronx. After they were married they moved from the city to the mountains. I grew up hunting , Fishing and backpacking. However we spent one weekend a month visiting grandparents in NYC. So I had a mixture of rural and urban living. Few high school grads went to college. I was lucky enough to get a scholarship which allowed me to go to college and medical school. I still maintain friends from my hometown and speak to one childhood friend weekly. So I have a deep appreciation for both urban and rural living. I still backpack but also have season tickets to the opera and a chamber music series.

 

[Back in the fold]

I grew up in a rural community in the Catskill mountains a couple hours north of NYC. My parents were born in Europe but raised in the Bronx. After they were married they moved from the city to the mountains. I grew up hunting , Fishing and backpacking. However we spent one weekend a month visiting grandparents in NYC. So I had a mixture of rural and urban living. Few high school grads went to college. I was lucky enough to get a scholarship which allowed me to go to college and medical school. I still maintain friends from my hometown and speak to one childhood friend weekly. So I have a deep appreciation for both urban and rural living. I still backpack but also have season tickets to the opera and a chamber music series.

Backpacking . . . don’t you just love it ?

 

[GaryE]

I think we're formed by our environments. What works as a place for you depends on what you like to do, but what you like to do depends on where you grew up. It's a loop.
I've weaned myself from listening to music the whole time I'm in the house, though I have some electric blues from before I was born playing now. I am learning silence, although when the wind is right I can hear a highway way off out of sight. If I lived city centre in the biggest, liveliest city on the planet, a guy my age isn't going to enjoy the nightlife. I miss quality live music, streets at night, and the energy that randomly explodes out of a city.
The last time I went to see a band I liked in a club, everyone was 22, and I was a freak there. I stood with the sound guys so I sort of made sense.
But I can travel to cities and get my fix. Living in the country is great as I am an old guy, whether I like it or not. I have space, cheap housing and a lower cost of living by far. I tend fish, plant trees, and walk hiking paths. It's pretty good.
Retire as a word can mean to retreat, and I think we tend to do that as we age.


I remember going on a school field trip in Grade 6, and realizing my friend Stephen was completely rattled by something. He kept asking what those weird things were, out in the fields. They were cows.

 

[Back in the fold]

The last time I went to see a band I liked in a club, everyone was 22, and I was a freak there. I stood with the sound guys so I sort of made sense.

It’s a different world at our age . I’ve made my peace with the fact that people 20 to 40 years younger are the decision makers and movers and shakers now . Nobody asks me anything about anything anymore . I don’t recognize the popular culture anymore and don’t really give a flying fig about it anyway . I’m retired now and have , as you put it so well , retreated from the world of everything that I used to think I cared about . The youngsters can have the mess , I’ll take my fish anytime .

 

[Alice B]

I actually went and saw Styx and Foreigner in June of this year in Dallas. There are some good things about proximity to a big city. I don't listen to music as much as I used to but I have a nice collection. Mainly just turn the radio and run for the next thing I need to do. Today is the anniversary of my 17 year old granddaughter's death, accident caused by drunk driver. Her mom moved her way out to the country in east Texas, driver of the SUV she was in decided to run a stop sign crossing a state highway when there was a semi coming. Front seat lived, back seat, 2 teenage girls died. Semi rolled on its side. Driver got 28 years in prison. The country is not always safer. Fewer traffic lights, fewer cops. More dumb stuff.

Since it was already going to be one of those days I took my 10 year old dog that I've basically been treating for metastasized mast cell for 2 years with antihistamines (which actually do work) and turmeric paste, to the vet. We did locate the masts under his skin on neck and shoulder of the right front leg, the leg he periodically chewed, letting me know to adjust his dosage. I added an antacid - generic pepcid ac - last month when his stomach started bothering him. Anyway, the vet confirmed my dosages, we could have spent a lot running a sonogram on internal organs but why, he will die when he dies, he will let me know when it hurts, I just treat the symptoms. My first mast cell dog I got surgery for, it nearly killed him. Now I know better - no surgery on this one for any reason or the tumors will virtually explode.

But it was a long and tiring and as usual, kinda sad day. December 3rd is just never going to be my favorite.