Striving for Balance

Why is it that Nature cannot arrange a nice balance of moisture and sun?  20 million Pakistanis are up to their elbows in flood water from too much rain.  Russia is literally burning-up with drought.  We got inundated in March and the front lawn was parched and brown through most of  August.

Too much rain in a short time
makes skins crack

Only assiduous hand-watering saved the tomatoes - which were coming in ripe and delicious, until the rains of last week.  Now after 4 unrelenting days of rain just last week (5 inches), followed by 90 degree days,  the tomatoes are engorged and cracking their skins.   They are ugly.... but, still delicious.

My New Friend
At least I am not losing them to the squirrels this year.  This is probably because the  red squirrel that has moved in to the neighborhood.  Aggressive little critter, he has driven away all the gray squirrels  - which in past seasons have raided my vegetable garden. He is small but very territorial.

My Friend, the Red squirrel
taking an acorn break

When it comes to fruits of the garden I am a Social Democrat - willing to share a little with the bugs and fellow creatures of nature.  But these gray squirrel  bastards just took a small bite out of any tomato that was starting to ripen, ruining the whole crop.   I blame them for forcing me to become a BB gun toting Nazi. 

Now my little auburn furry friend patrols the trees in my back yard chattering and scolding any other rodent that shows their little rat faces in the yard. 


My friend, Murphy thinks I ought to get my BB gun and shoot him as well.
"He'll get into your attic," he warns me, "then he'll chew your wires and all hell will break loose.  Shoot him. That's what I would do."

But I don't think I will shoot the enemy of my enemies.

Someone should really council the red squirrel about his obvious bigotry against rodents with a different fur color.  I wonder if his mama told him not to play with gray squirrels as a kit.  Nature does not enforce egalitarian sentiment among wild creatures.  Hostility towards other species seems to be the norm.
I guess we humans have not evolved all that much, eh?

Thinking About Big Houses

No more silence and peace around here. At least not until they finish tearing-down old, perfectly servicable houses and replacing them with huge un-necessary mansions with more bathrooms than bedrooms.

I am conflicted by my desire for personal peace and quiet and my belief that others have the right to improve their property. After all, doesn't the neighborhood benefit from nicer homes? All boats rise with the tide, isn't that what they say? The answer is not always yes.

For those of us who live in the older, perfectly serviceable homes that are getting torn down, the property values do not necessarily reflect the inflated value of the mansionized neighborhood. If the potential buyer is only interested in your lot, not your house, then clearly no one will care about your bathroom tile or kitchen counters. A tear-down house is only worth the price of the dirt, as one real estate guy told me.

As retirees, we are acutely aware that we are approaching the time when we will be wanting to migrate to a more accommodating living space. By that I mean all the rooms on the same level.  Low maintenance yard. Near ammenities and medical services that we will unfortunately need as entropy and gravity work their evil powers.  Some day, someone will knock on the door and make an offer we cannot refuse.  They will demolish my beloved screen porch, dig out my hostas and replace them with expensive ornamentals, replace our dilapitated cedar fence with a taller one made of plastic.  Maybe they will chop down the trees and replace them with a swimming pool, like the new one down the street.

These noisy mansion builders are clearly non-union. They start banging and sawing at 7am, and shouting in a foreign tongue. (Hey, I am not xenophobic: they are obviously doing jobs that English speaking natives do not want.) American construction workers typically quit at around 4pm. But these guys keep sawing and banging and shouting all day until dark - which these days is 7pm.  I'll bet Mr. Trebbiani (the builder who put up most of the houses in neighborhood back in the 50's) would be shocked and amazed to see his modest 2200 sq ft homes demolished and replaced with 4,000 sq foot behemoths to house a family of 5 - with a bedroom and bathroom for each person.  He probably would have thought, "You need a bigger lot."

In the old days, 12 of us would be living in a three bedroom flat with one bathroom and a ten gallon waterheater.  We huddled together for warmth.  We had to walk 8 miles in a snowstorm to get to school wearing worn out sneakers, even in Summer!  Ok,  it wasn't really that bad.  But I wonder what kind of spoiled little princesses and wusses are being raised in houses where no one needs to wait to get into the bathroom.  Those moments spent waiting for a sibling to emerge were important lessons about balancing stress and patience. (Never let them know you are in a state of urgency, or they will take much longer.) These were character building preparations for an adult life of challenge and competition for scarce resources.

When I was growing-up, vacant lots still existed. We loved to go into empty half-built homes and play hide and seek. We ask for a few scrap boards and the carpenters would give us some nails and we would go off and build a tree house in someone's yard. The mother of the house would eye us with our tools and wood and demand, "What are you kids up to?"
"We are gonna build a tree house."
"Ok, be careful. Don't poke your eye out"

Today the mom would be so worried that one of us might hurt ourselves (and possibly sue) that she would forbid the project on the grounds of safety. "You'll fall and put your eye out!  Why don't you kids play down in the rec room?  We have a new 150 inch screen! Wear your helmets"

Candidate Fatigue

I'm not like the others, honest!

It's election time around here again. I can tell by the number of harassing phone calls that we are getting from the candidates, now several times a day and we are still 3 weeks from the primary. 

One candidate says in his robocall "I really hate robocalls, but..."  I didn't hear the rest of his message because I hate robocalls even more than he does.  This same guy (who is running against an incumbent for state senate)  has come knocking on the door, sent at least 4 flyers in the US mail, and his minions have called here at least half a dozen times.  They have asked us to put a sign on our lawn and send money.  We have of course declined to fund our own harassment. 

No doubt, the candidate's advisers are telling him that he needs name recognition*.  And I admit that I was impressed last month when he spent the afternoon walking my neighborhood, knocking on doors to tell people about his candidacy.  I am inclined to vote against incumbents on general principles, so I assured him that I would seriously consider voting for him.  But, after the 6th phone call the other night, I find myself in the steely grip of anti-incumbent candidate fatigue. I am having serious doubts that this guy would behave any differently compared to the incumbent.  Maybe we don't need to waste more tax money breaking-in another novice pol and his advisers.

*Name withheld intentionally

Low Pressure

I have H2O sickness.  This is the 4th consecutive day of rain.  We have been in the clutches of a summer Northeaster - which is our description for a low pressure center that gets stuck in the eddies of the jet stream and hangs like a gigantic dripping wet noodle off the new england coast. When this happens in the summer, we get lots of  rain; when it happens in the Winter, we get 4 feet of snow. 

The weather guys say it will be bumped off by a shift in the jet stream tomorrow.  Good riddence.  This is the kind of weather gardeners hate: drought followed by flood.  The tomato skins will be cracking and the greens will be rotting in the trenches.  The barrel out on the patio has 3 1/2 inches of rainwater in it.  I am nervously checking to make sure the pump is working - just in case.

Poor Obamas - their Martha's Vineyard vacation was ruined just like any ordinary tourist.  (Well, they can take some consolation in the fact that taxpayers will be covering the cost of their rooms, unlike the average tourist who spent the week playing umbrella minigolf and hanging-out at the Mall instead of on the beach.)

I notice there are a series of hurricanes developing off the coast of East Africa and heading in our direction.   

Is it just me, or does it seem like Summer is coming to an end?

Networking is not for Novices.

It looks like the recession (and associated unemployment) is not recovering as soon as we all had hoped.  Involuntary unemployment is probably the second worst thing that can happen to a family.  Health problems being the first worst*).  Most households are financed by working couples. The loss of one job is a disaster.

There is a lot of bad advice going around on job-related sites urging people to learn how to network - as if that would help them get a job.  Generally speaking, I think this is bad advice.

First, networking is not a skill that you can learn, like rollerskating.
Networking is a way of life.  Some people are natural born shmoozers who love to get together with people - especially new people - to talk and listen.  Some people figure-out early in their career that being social and acquiring contacts is both enjoyable and rewarding.  The value of contacts becomes more evident for jobseekers in their 40s and 50's. 
The overwhelming majority of hiring managers who list jobs with headhunters or on job boards are looking for a particular skill-set rather than heavy experience.  The older worker has a competitive disadvantage for these advertised jobs.  Naturally, mature job seekers want to maintain, even raise,  their paygrade. They firmly believe that they are entitled to this rate (plus benefits)  because dammit they are more experienced.
But the hiring manager doesn't think he needs expert level skills and experience.  In fact, he is likely to be very price conscious. 

Experienced jobseekers in this economy who have not been networking for the past twenty years would be well advised to downsize their expectations, and be willing to let anyone who is interviewing them know that they will be the most reliable and trustworthy employee in the room, and they are more interested in the opportunity to work on this project than to match their previous salary, 

Networking is not something you can learn to do when you suddenly find yourself job-hunting.  There is nothing so annoying as someone who contacts you out-of-the-blue to suddenly wonder how you are doing - oh, and by-the-way,  do you happen to know of anyone who needs an experienced Gym Teacher?

Non-networkers will never find a job through their emergency contact file. They should not waste their time sending e-blasts to former acquaintences soliciting help.  Why should someone want to help someone who is obviously trying to use them?  Answer: only if they are also out of work and looking.  This is probably not so bad.  If you are one of those people who wishes they had been better at networking, a good place to start is with others who are also unemployed.  Job seekers often join "support" groups of other jobseekers.  This is fruitless when it comes to finding work, but it does provide some companionship and people of like minds.  Misery loves company.
Better to spend time honing the resume and learning to write a killer cover letter.








*Admit it you thought I was going to list the worst problem as "running out of beer."  Hah!

Portland

We had the most excellent meal at Fore St restaurant last night.  Everyone says it is a tourist trap but this was a great experience.  I had Grilled Swordfish.  Highly recommended.  Bring a co-signer.

Indulgent Allocations

I am at the library, hiding, while the cleaners are at the house,scrubbing and vacuuming.  Since we retreated from the world of full-time work (and full-sized paychecks) we have cut-back on many of our discretionary expenses.  Dry cleaning, eating-out, impulse purchases have been severely curtailed.  Nowadays, I go to Hair Cuts Ltd where I can get a senior cut for $12  (and every 10th cut is Free!) instead of going to my former barber who charged $35 for the same trim and no freebies.  At the supermarket, we tend to choose items that are on sale.  I have little use for professionally laundered shirts, and have adopted the typical wrinkled retiree look. (The wrinkles practically disappear after you have worn an item for an hour or so.)
I guess these alterations in lifestyle are fairly typical of retirees who find themselves facing the uncertain future with a drastically reduced, fixed  income stream.

But there are some quality-of-life compromises we have agreed not to skimp on.  So, every two weeks we chip-in from our allowance money to put folding green in the cleaners' envelope. 

Just last week this agreement was reaffirmed.  We had rented a house on the Cape for the first week in August.  Part of the rental agreement include leaving the 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house swept, vacuumed and clean.  As we were driving back, my wife observed, "See, we are not such indolent creatures; we can still manage to clean a 3 bedroom house!  Maybe we should fire the cleaners and save all that money we are paying them."  Then, we just looked at each other and laughed --as we always do when one of us suggests saving money by firing the cleaners.  Hey, let the grand kids earn scholarships if they want to go to college. 

The other thing that we've agreed not to skimp on is travel.  If we go, we don't go off-season to save a few bucks.  We eat-out and have good meals while we are traveling.  We stay in three or four star accommodations.  We rent a car.  We check our bags on the plane.  We aren't crazy extravagant - we do check the online specials and try to get the best price for rooms cars, airline tickets, then we bite the bullet and book.  During the trip we try not to think about what it is costing. 

The problem about travel is this:  Since we don't have regular jobs, there is no good excuse to resist the urge to go places.  So every week or so (it seems), I find a new glossy travel brochure on my desk, or my wife sends me an email link from her latest Trip Advisor.com search on great destinations in Italy.  "You need to plan the next trip so you have something to look forward to," she reminds me.  I know this is true. But, where will we get the money, I wonder.  Maybe we should fire the cleaners. (Laughs.)

How I spent the Day Yesterday

A picture of relaxation.

Back from An Un-Plugged Week at the Cape

We have returned after an all-too-short week on the Cape.  I'm too mellow to complain about anything with any proper level of sustained aggravation.   The weather was nearly perfect.  The only rain we got lasted about two hours.  Somebody said that the best time to catch fish is just after it stops raining.  So, we grabbed our poles and went over to the pond (30 yards away).  We caught a couple of good sized fish, on funky yellow spinner lures.  Unfortunately, I never read the section of the manual where it tells you how to use the camera function on the cellphone and instead lost the photographic proof of the huge Bass and Pike we caught!    They were THIS big (Holds hands about 18 inches apart)...ok maybe more like this (13 inches).

Anyhow,  we went swimming both in the pond by the cottage and also at the salt water beach near West Falmouth. The kids and grandkids came in family groups 3 days each.  They all had a good time, from the feedback I received.  The rubber rafts that I bought at Rhode Island Job Lot were a big hit.

One local provider of lobsters was having a sale ($5.99 per lb for 1.25 lb lobsters) all week so we steamed-up batches on two separate occasions.  Judy insisted that we only wanted male lobsters.  She doesn't like the red lobster roe.  So the fish guy was patient enough to check the genitalia of each lobster.  He tried to show us how to tell the difference, but we seemed immune to such fine distinctions and just nodded as he dropped the frisky fellers into the bag.  These smaller lobsters were the tenderest and tastiest I have enjoyed in years. Not to mention they were relatively inexpensive - normal price is $7.99 for "chicken lobsters."   Of course our feasts were accompanied by hot native corn on the cob.  And cold imported beer (from California).

The problem with August vacations is the garden.  All summer long, you tend and weed and fertilize and water.  Then just as everything is about to ripen, you go away.  When you come back you find that everything dried-up or the squirrels ate all your ripe tomatoes and rabbits ravaged the greenery.

But not this time:  Look at what I picked today!