Rose Hips, European White Birch, Fathers' Day

Rose Hips:
Unbelieveable as it was, I did see a large squirrel, grasping the horizontals on a wooden fence with only its hind feet, stretching up full length and violently ripping rose hips from the neighbors rose bush and stuffing them into its mouth. I had no idea that squirrels were smart enough to eat rose hips for health and I was amazed at the strength and balance exhibited during the process. I was pleased also when the squirrel's entire focus changed as it got hit with the three high speed .62 caliber paint balls that I fired *:->...last seen running headlong down the phone lines *:-)

European White Birch:
I'm still not sure how it happened, but it did. We set out yesterday to get a Fathers Day Tree for my son and his wife to plant at their house so they could have something to remember their two fathers (one each) by. After a series of lengthy discussions and quite a good tutorial from the garden center tree expert, a small concrete bird bath ended up going to my son's place and my wife and I are now determining where to plant the gorgeous European White Birch that we purchased for ourselves. How do things like that happen? *:-)

Fathers' Day:
Happy Fathers' Day to all of us who are Fathers and understand what that means, and to all those who will be Fathers and will come to understand.

Movie Recommendations:
"Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself" (2002) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Hope And Glory" (1987-2001) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Kitchen Stories" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Danny Deckchair" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Love And Death On Long Island" (1996) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Tree Tent, Poison Oak & Very Cool

Tree Tent:
Today my wife arrived home and was working in her studio. A knock was heard, somewhat muffled and far away but still probably for us. A face appeared in the port-hole of our gate, and a pleasant looking, smallish woman began apologizing for the intrusion. She explained that she was from "The County" and that because we have fruit trees we are officially "requested" to allow the county to hang insect traps in the fruit trees to control pests and provide early warning info prior to ordering overhead spraying for the entire county, which nobody wants. If they catch the infestation soon enough, they don't have to spray everywhere. My wife said yes, and we now have tent traps in some of our trees.

Poison Oak:
I am exceptionally allergic to poison oak and when we first moved to this home in 1987 we hired laborers to remove the oak from the property (no small job) by hand pulling and de-rooting the stuff. About 3 years ago a small patch appeared on the county road side of our property, and I spotted it and dug it out. It comes back each year but I know where to look and so I just remove it each year and it does not come back until the following year. Two years ago a second, closer-to-the-house patch appeared and I spotted it and removed it also. This year both patches dutifully appeared in the spring, grew to about 2 feet in height, spread to about 18" in circumference, and when I spotted them I dug them out. Then the weather changed. This spring has been quite different than average, and the extra rain and the combo of rain-sun-rain has caused things to go through a regeneration cycle. I did not know this until I was working on the county road side of the property installing better deer fencing, moving back and forth and not paying much attention to the ground, and then dropped a tool and as I was bending to pick it up, came face to face with new poison oak growth, 2 feet high, growing straight up from the location from where I dug it out earlier in the spring. I stopped dead still, looked all around the area, and when I realized that this was the only spot, I then very carefully removed and got rid of the oak, cleaned all the tools with gasoline, washed my work clothes twice in hot soapy water, and took a hot soapy shower myself. The oak discovery cost me about 1.5 hours of productive work time, and it has been a week now and no oak has appeared on my body, so I guess I survived *:-)
I then realized that the other spot had also probably grown back, so a couple days later I took that new growth out as well.

Very Cool:
Our cat, while truly a "Cool Cat", is also quite upset with us. We did not listen carefully enough to the radio weather warning about the sudden drop in temperature accompanied with wind and cold rain and we left our cat out ALL DAY in the cold and rain *:-( She is still pissed off about it and provides us with reminder lectures as she goes in and out the door now *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 2: (all episodes)" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Swimming Pool" (2003) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Who Was That Masked Cat?

Who Was That Masked Cat?
I returned home to find my son and our daughter in law talking with my wife on our deck. They were looking, talking about and gesturing toward one of the apple trees over by the back shed. They were excited because the cat in the tree was not ours, not any of the 5 neighbor cats that we know, was large, had poofy long gray fur, was physically very active and was climbing the apple tree with great skill and was focused on a squirrel that was several yards away. We are excited because perhaps this is the cat that has been helping us by killing the squirrels. Welcome, newcomer *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Swades" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Lover's Prayer" (1999) - No, don't see it. OC-
"A Series Of Unfortunate Events" (2004) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Swimming Upstream" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Allo Allo!" (1984) - No, don't see it. OC-
"A Different Loyalty" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"National Treasure" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Veteran - Warrior

Veteran:
I am one. April of 1968 through September of 1970. As of today, 2 people have thanked me for my service to our country, and I have also been honored by a Native American ceremony for warriors, where I was asked to step into the center of the ceremonial circle. I am not Native American, and I was the only Veteran at the ceremony, but they asked me to step out anyway because it is for all warriors and I am one. The Native American honoring dance was the first time I was recognized as a Veteran, and that was in 1998, 28 years after my service ended. I will be using my Veteran status to help me get my next job, if what the county and state say about Veteran preference is true.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers" (2005) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Cats 1, Squirrels 0

Cats 1, Squirrels 0:
I came home yesterday and as I was preparing something to eat I glanced out the kitchen window and saw a dark, strung-out object on our concrete walkway that leads to our gate to the main road. It bore no resemblance to any shape I was familiar with, was remaining completely still, and had some grotesquery about it that made me curious. I left my food prep area and walked outside and approached closer. Heh. Heh Heh. Heh Heh Heh. *:-> The smallest of the 3 squirrels that have recently started entering our domain lay very definitely dead on our walk. I'll spare you a description of the grotesqueries unless you email me for the details. I verbally and loudly thanked the cats (invisible somewhere in the bush) for their efforts, shoveled up the remains and walked some distance up the road and flung them into the wildness of our mountains.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Life Aquatic" (2005) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Progress, Preparation, Possibilities

Progress:
At today's business meeting for an area group that I am currently chairing we voted on and passed several items that have been hanging around for along time. Thanks for everybody's help and good will *:-)
Preparation:
A large international meeting is coming up and our elected delegate needs lots of help in preparing to "be the voice of the people". He is adamant that all of us do our part to make sure he is representing us and not just his own desires at the votes that will be taken. It is inconvenient for us to do all the preparatory work that could be avoided if he were the sort that allowed us to shirk our duty. Thanks go to his committment to the process.
Possibilities:
They are infinite. I am working to remember that. And they can be infinitely good as well as bad. Stay tuned.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Young Visitors" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Opossum, Squirrel & Bird

Opossum:
It's back. Big, old, absurdly heavy, agonizingly slow, long tailed opossum. It climbs into the plum tree, hangs upside down and walks paw-over-paw out to the end of the limb, bending it horribly, to get to the non-ripe and just-set green fruit that is starting. For some reason I am not motivated to shoot it...yet...and will think about that for awhile. Noisy beast too.

Squirrel:
Game On! Several squirrels of several sizes have re-entered the game court on our property. Still entering on the telephone line and seemingly much faster this year. They quickly recognize the sound of my paint ball rifle and also don't like the orange paint that splatters them with near-misses. I haven't gotten deadly serious yet about aiming, and I will keep playing for awhile longer until the apples start getting ruined by the squirrels, then I'll aim more carefully so I can knock them to the ground where the cats or my axe can finish them.

Bird:
We like the birds, the birds like us. We are blessed with many varieties that other neighbors don't see much, probably because of the variety of fruit trees and other foliage we have. Our cat is completely incompetent at catching birds so no worries there because she was brought up by her mom to be a mouser and only a mouser, which she does very well.

Movie Recommendations:
"Birth" (2004) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Hotel Rwanda" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Neighbor, Dust & Rock

Neighbor:
Nice fella, young, married, two dogs, one child, lives in a house right across from our driveway, which shares a cul-de-dac like end with his. Since we live in the mountains our driveway is...ummm...unpaved. Mostly dust actually, with occasional stones and pieces of fallen limbs *:-) Day before yesterday I came home from work early and wheeled rapidly into our driveway. My neighbor was standing in his (recently blacktopped) driveway.
Dust:
He stood quite still, facing our driveway, as a huge and thick cloud of dust enveloped him and made him gray from head to toe. He said nothing, didn't get mad, didn't smile, just stood there and eventually went into his house.
Rock:
I got on the phone immediately to the local quarry rock delivery service and ordered 7 yards of 3/4" Aromas washed rock. It arrived promptly and was dumped in the common portion of our driveways. As my wife and I retired for the evening, we could hear the scrape and toss sounds as our neighbor began spreading the rock over the common areas. I finished the job the next morning and now we don't cover him in dust when we pull in *:-) He brought over a half-watermelon this evening and is smiling a bit *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Dirty War" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Echos of Enlightenment" (2001) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Library and Bibliographic Instruction

Library and Bibliographic Instruction:
I had the opportunity recently to research what is happening with school libraries these days. It seems that the school administrators are using the library budget to buy laptop computers for the "library classroom" instead of many hardcopy tomes. I believe there is a fundamental difference between bibliographic research using a laptop and library research using a professional librarian at the elbow of the person trying to learn. Unguided bibliographic research can present the student with a black hole full of info tidbits that may or may not be relevant to the research project. A guided research effort with a professional librarian, coupled with a least a few actual books to hold in the students' hands will, I believe, produce a better informed and intelligent result.

Movie Recommendations:
"Aviator" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"The Phantom Of The Opera" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"The Best Of Zagreb Film: Nudity Required" (2000) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.