Friday, November 9, 2012

Squirrels and Birds

I have been watching the squirrels and birds on my patio.  I am watching them now.  There are some new squirrels and they look small and very young.  I guess it was a good year for births.  I went to the store for new suet cakes and found them on sale at 99cents at BiMart.  I bought 15 of them but they won't last very long.

Sometimes it is fun to let life go by and see what appears on the horizon.  Sometimes it's not.  I didn't like the news of a new cancer tumor although very small.  The doctors and nurses are very nice to me in the clinics.  One never knows what will happen on the wards on the 9th floor.  The last time when I went to the hospital, it was for thyroid cancer.  I was there over the weekend and it was very pleasant.  Sometimes, there are angry nurses who can be rough on the woman patients.  That happened to me at the Portland VA Hospital but it was another nurse, a Vietnam veteran, who caught it when she switched off my meds.  I also caught my laxative pill on a side table instead of where it is supposed to be.  Since I was on pain medications and I have celiac disease, that could have been awful and it was but I got over it.  The vet nurse said that she was having back problems.  I was afraid to complain otherwise it would have been worse.  This time, I won't be such a push over.  I am hoping  nothing will happen.  

The squirrels fall every so  often but they don't seem to be hurt.  The birds are no longer flying into the patio windows.  I slid the screen over it and that stopped it.  I worry about the squirrels as humans often like to shoot them and for a while all of them disappeared.  I have no idea what happened as no one investigates possible murders of squirrels.  I remember one time when a neighbor in Redding, California started to trap and kill the cats.  I lost two of them and all of the feral cats which had been keeping the rat population down.  Then we were all flooded with rats.  A sheriff who investigated and found the culprit warned him that he would arrest him if he kept killing the cats.  At first the neighbor said he was catching them and giving them to the shelter but there was no record of his doing that.  He did stop but I missed my cats.  Things happen and I don't think my experiences were any different from others.  I didn't like that neighbor because he was also a peeping tom and all of us had to sleep with the blinds closed.  

Here in Portland, there are lots of squirrels and birds but I have never seen any feral cats or even domestic ones.  I am not near a stream as I was in Redding. I even have seen woodpeckers, crows and even a pair of ravens.  No loose dogs and cats.  That is certainly different from Redding.  In Korea, I never saw them at all and if they were to show up somewhere there is no doubt in my mind that they would end up in the soup pot or at least the dogs would.  Food is very expensive in Korea and everyone has gardens even on their patios.  I am glad I lived in other countries but glad to be home.  I even got to vote this last presidential election.  It is very difficult to vote when you live in foreign countries.  

My life is very pleasant and full of joy at the present time.  I can't send out any of my work as I might not be here to sign contracts should they come in.  My apartment is monitored and so are my financial records.  Someone tried to hack into my Google Page and email without success.  People who do that must be sad people as many of their victims have so little in the first place.  I am glad I have arranged for someone to keep an eye on things.  

A Buddhist master once wrote that everything in life is an opportunity to learn especially on one's spiritual path.  I have found that to be true.  I am a senior and have had a great life although I am in no hurry to leave right now.  I have never been more at peace and joyful as I am now. I am learning a lot from this latest cancer problem and who knows what is going to happen today.