CHANGES
March 31 2014
“The
only thing constant is change.” While there is question of who
actually made this quote, Issac Assimov, an American author, Francois
de la Rochefoucauld, a french author, or Heraclitus of Ephesus. a
Greek philosopher (wise man) of the fifth century BC it holds a lot
of truth. My personal guess that it was the Greek that wrote it
first. Things change for every one of us on a daily basis. Most of
the time we do not notice the changes. Many years ago my brother
told me of a friend of his who bought a building lot on which he
wanted to build the perfect house. His plan was to build a “perfect”
house on a different site and live in it a length of time. He would
determine how it could be made more “perfect” and build another
house on a second lot. He figured that the third house that he built
would really be perfect and could be built on the “perfect” lot.
When twenty years or so had passed I asked my brother about him. I
received an answer that should not have surprised me at all. The
friend told my brother something like, “No, I was not ever able to
build the perfect house. As I aged my needs and my desires changed.
The house that would have been perfect years ago is no longer
perfect.”
We
change and become different. For a great number of years I have felt
that we become different people every few years while still retaining
a lot of the same characteristics. Of course there are major changes
while we are very young. A person as a baby is a very different
person than when they become a toddler, and then a small child, a
preteen, and a teenager. I think that the changes slow down some
when a person reaches early adulthood, about the time they reach
college age. Then the change is influenced by life choices. I went
to college and my best friend did not. It seemed to me that he had
changed when I went to see him. But my Mother said, “No, he has
changed little. You left home and became the one that changed a
lot.” Becoming a spouse, perhaps a parent, and middle aged does a
lot to change us into different people. Suddenly we become that
person that is called a “Senior Citizen.” I would think that we
become different people about every five years on the average. The
average years between changes might be less, but I don't think an
individual time span is ever more than fifteen years.
Close
to two and a half years ago when I returned to the valley with West
Nile some friends of ours loaned us their golf cart (personal
electric transportation vehicle) while they went on vacation. At the
time I was walking a small amount but not a lot. The gift of its use
was a blessing that I would never have guessed was so good. There
were many evenings that we would go out and drive it around the park,
get some fresh air, meet the other residents of the park and simply
get out of the motor home. It was so nice that the idea of getting
one of our own was constantly in the back (or closer to the front) of
our minds. Our friends went on vacation several more times in the
next couple of years and again they gave us their golf cart to use.
A lot of people here in the park have PETs (personal electric
transportation) but as far as I know they all also have carports to
park them in. When they leave in the off season they cover the PET
with a cover of some sort. We do not have any sort of carport so our
thoughts were we would build some sort of shed in which to store it
when we leave for the summer. Of course there is other value to
having a shed. In February we decided that if we were ever to get a
PET (now to us it is a Peace Electric Transportation) we should do it
now and start enjoying it. For Erma's 50th anniversary, her
Christmas, her birthday and Mothers Day I bought a sand colored
Yamaha PET. I put on a few extra bells and whistles, like a rear
seat so it carries four, a long roof that covers the seats better,
hub caps that dress up the wheels, a custom dash so the the original
ugly dash does not show. And of course I had lights put on it. So
for my equivalent celebration days Erma had built for me a 10” x
12” shed and had it electrically wired. Now since the shed is
really a home for the PET it has to be called the PEnThouse. It may
just be me but I think that our PET is one of the nicest looking
vehicles in the park. The PEnThouse turned out a lot nicer than I
dreamed it would. It is covered with vinyl siding, even the door is
covered. The fellow that did the wiring suggested that it would be
good to put 220 volt into it so that if I ever wanted to put a
clothes dryer out there I would have the power. It has twice the
number of receptacles I thought about installing. His suggestions
simply made sense. A shop florescent light gives a lot of light in
there too. The bottom line is that all we have had done has turned
out nicer than I imagined before we started. This is a rather
significant change for us this year.
THE
PET HALFWAY OUT OF THE PEnThouse
In
early February I was up for a short bit when it was just before dawn.
As I headed back to the bed I noticed a dark spot on the floor. My
first thought was that it was likely a black sock that I had kicked
away from my shoes. As I got a little closer it looked like it
moved. I thought my imagination was in high gear, it could not have
moved, but it did. So did we have a rat or mouse in the motor home?
In just a second or two I realized that it was a smallish bird. It
flew away from my grasp and to the other end of our motor home and
down the steps next to the door. I reached over to open the door so
it could go out but it had other ideas. Right past me and as far
back as it could go by the bed again. It was only flying a few
inches above the floor, but it was fast. I went back to see if I
could catch it and put it outside. Again it eluded my grasp but this
time it went under a package by the back window. By using a hand on
each side of the gaps I was able to get my fingers around it and
gently hold it. It nearly got away again. As I walked towards the
door I could feel its heart beat. Its feathers were so very soft.
It was so small. As I looked at it I could tell that it was a
fledgling bird. I think a young sparrow. The feathers were not
fully grown and did not extend as far outward as an adult birds
feathers do. I was able to get it to the door and release it
outside. It was gone in a flash to points unknown. Then the
questions started coming. How did it get into the motor home? Is
there a hole somewhere that is big enough for a sparrow to get
inside? Did it come in from the outside the last time that I had
opened the door when I came in? Was it inside all night? If it was
inside all night I would call it smart to be in and away from the 35
degree air outside. Why in the world would any bird be having
fledglings in the first week of February. I know this is Texas and
the weather has been up in the eighties some days, but it is still
quite cold some nights.
Over the years that we
have been On The Road we have had several visitors. We had a small
frog that came into the motor home when we were in Virginia. One
time a beautiful butterfly paid us a visit for a short time. Out in
Colorado we had a dozen to two dozen miller moths that would come in
every day. So every day we would spend time catching them and
letting them go outside. We kept doing that through Colorado,
Wyoming and Utah until we got out of their territory. The worst was
once when we got fire ants in that then bit and stung Erma. They
very nearly put her into the hospital. Most of the critters that
come in are carefully invited to go back outside, but those fire ants
got sprayed.
Here in Bentsen Grove we
have been privileged to be able to watch a Golden Fronted Woodpecker
work at building a nest cavity in a tree just in front of our motor
home. In fact there are four holes that he (it is a male bird)
worked on some. In the neighbors tree there is a hole that is an
inch to a inch and a half deep. There is another hole in our tree
about the same size. One that he has barely started and a hole that
must be getting nearly large enough to get his whole body inside. We
have been told that a male will make several cavities and then show
them off to the female and she chooses which one will be the nest.
Both of the birds will be close to the cavity once in a while but
usually the male is alone. We feel very glad that the nest is in a
place that we can easily see it from our front window.
THREE
VIEWS OF THE GOLDEN FRONTED WOODPECKER IN OUR TREE
Bentsen
Grove is experiencing a massive exodus of winter residents. While
that is usual some of them are going to places where it is still in
single digits and snowing. We have not scheduled a time for us to
move north but I assure you that it will be several weeks or at least
till there is little or no chance of getting into freezing weather or
snow. I could stop all my activity duties here at any time but I am
just going to slow down those activities for now. I still will be
quilling and I will be helping people with their computer problems,
and that is about all.
Till
Later This Is Doug Of
PEACE
ON THE ROAD
