Tackling the Jungle

Spring is on its way yet again, and while I am super excited for the nice weather, I am not so excited about what the melting snow is uncovering in my yard. It's not that I have a horrible yard. I have seen much worse. It's just that when I look at my yard I feel like a tiny ant in a huge forest. It needs work. Lots of it.

If I had oodles of time or money, maybe I would have some idea of were to start. I could hire some people to get it to a manageable state, and then keep it up myself from there. But as it stands, I don't have money for that, and my own efforts amount to little more than picking up sticks or cutting off a small branch here and there. That's not going to cut it. I have whole trees that need to go. WHOLE TREES!

Trees seem so insignificant when they are small. You feel like a giant who can crush them at a whim. However, when they get bigger, how the tables turn. Tree can now not only crush you, but your house and car as well. You must bow to their every command, because getting rid of just one branch takes a truckload of heavy machinery. Tree wants to grow roots into your pipes and mess them all up? Tree does that. Tree desires to drop a truckload of leaves in your yard? No stopping tree. Tree wants to take over the entire yard? Tree is now king of the yard.

Trees aside, the lawn is more weeds than lawn. The ground it mostly hard as a rock. There is no secondary water. The pear trees drop hundred of nice squishy pears on the ground. One tree is infested with some sort of bugs. There are piles of debris left from the old owners. And to top it all off, I think we have gophers. I take it back. I do have a horrible yard.

On my days off from work, it is hard to get the motivation to tackle any part of the yard, because it all seems so hopeless. But perhaps if I take it one tiny step at a time, progress will be made. Lets just hope I can chop faster than the plants can grow.

Simple Thought

Work is getting slow at the tax forms job, which means more time for blog writing.....yay!......but a lot less money......boo! I guess life has its trade-offs. I get to be poor and you get to read my inspirational words. Wait a second. I think I got the short end of the stick.

I dislike the saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." It is totally false in every way. If you have a disease, does it make you stronger? I don't think so. If you get repeatedly punched in the head, does it make you stronger? No way. If you are verbally abused every day of your life, does it make you stronger. I'm thinking no. So why do people always say it? Do they mean, "What doesn't kill you makes you mentally stronger to be able to deal with difficult things more easily?" Maybe. But even that isn't always true. People can get beat down mentally as much as they can physically. A truer saying would be, "What doesn't kill you really sucks and will probably make your life miserable for a while, or even to the end."

I'm not saying all this because I think people should have a negative attitude or give up when life gets hard. I'm just saying that sayings don't usually help. They are over-simplified, overly-optimistic, sometimes false, ways of looking at the world. If you want to make someone feel better, don't give them sayings. Give them help, give them REAL words from your heart or a quote from a beloved author. Before you say it, quotes are not the same as sayings. Quotes can sometimes turn into sayings if they are too simplistic or over-used. But quotes usually have so much more depth and meaning and are more than one line. Quotes come from a thoughtful approach rather than carelessly dropping a one line saying.

All I want people to know is that humans are more complex than sayings allow. Most problems will not be solved with a simple saying. People seem to forget more and more to put thought into what they do. If anyone wanted some advice from me, I would urge them to talk less and think more.

People Kill People

Gun control is a really hot issue right now, so I thought I would put in my two cents about the matter and then people can go back to bitching and moaning about one thing or another. I believe, the less guns the better. See? Right there I lost all the radical gun rights activists and all the moderate ones are already fuming. Hear me out.....or don't. I don't really care. I believe less guns are better because guns make it really easy to kill. I'm sure that's what the gun rights people want, because they have a lot of fear about who or what may be lurking out there that they many need to kill. But I think guns make it TOO easy to kill.

Think about it. How many stories can you think of where someone was murdered, or accidentally injured or killed by a gun? I can think of quite a few. Now, think of stories you have heard where people where saved by guns. Police and military stories don't count, because they are not average citizens in average circumstances. I am drawing a blank. The truth is, if you own a gun, you are much more likely to be accidentally injured or killed by it than you are to be saved by it. And, yes, that includes people with gun training. Even people with training have accidents with guns.

The next point I would like to make is that the government will never take away all guns. I know that is hard for activists to believe, but think about it. What is the government? The people. What do the people want? To keep their guns. If you want to keep your gun, why would you worry that you would take it away from yourself? The government (meaning some of the people) only wants to make it a little harder for people to get guns. That means more background checks, more gun safety training, and more restriction on what kinds of guns you can get. That's all. Now that's not so bad is it?

Well the gun rights activists will point out that the government may somehow get too much power, and then we will all be ruled by an oppressive regime. I'm not too worried about that in America, because the people here would not stand for a government like that for long. There would be guns and fighting, yes. But then we would either restore our fair and democratic government, or there would be anarchy and we would have to protect ourselves from all kinds of terrorists and gangs and evil people who want to take our guns, our freedom, or our lives. In that case, having a gun will solve everything. Not. In an extreme, end of civilization and order scenario like that, I would be much more worried about surviving the elements than surviving the other human beings who want to kill me. Nature is a much more indiscriminate killer than people. I would be worried about learning how to survive off the land without electricity or running water or any modern conveniences. I would not be worried about getting a gun, that once out of bullets, would be useless to me.

On the internet I read a quote by gun activists that said, "If guns kill people, then do spoons make people fat?" Of course spoons don't make people fat. People make themselves fat. The same goes for guns. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. If there are more guns around, it only makes it easier for people to kill people.

Reminiscing

I just did a search for my blog, and I have to say it is kind of cool having my own web page pop up in the search results. I remember the days when web pages were a new thing and I remember thinking that I would never want one, let alone have one. How things have changed. I may only be 31, but it feels like I have been around a lot longer than that. Already, kids are growing up in a totally different world than what I grew up in. Kids today don't know what it's like to not have cell phones or cds and dvds. They couldn't imagine not having cable tv or the latest video games. They are totally surrounded by technology, and I wonder how they would adapt if all that where taken away.

I always thought I would never grow into one of those adults who says, "Back in my day......." But now I believe it is just something that happens to everyone that can't be avoided. I don't know if the past was necessarily better. Some things probably where, and some things probably weren't. But no matter what is in the past, it seems to have a powerful effect on people. It always wants to draw you back into it. Sometimes you remember the happy times and you are sad because they are over. Sometimes you remember the sad times and you can hardly bring yourself to get past the pain.

I have found that it is usually best to not dwell on the past, happy or sad. If you do, you will not fully live, because you will be neglecting the present for something that is already over and can never be again. I used to think about the past a lot before I realized this, and I think my life is better now that I don't let the past dominate my mind.

I have also come to realize in my years of living that change is a constant and cannot be avoided. This may seem obvious to most people, and I guess it is. But I used to spend hours and even days longing for things that where in the past. Once I accepted change, though, it really helped me let go of things that where already gone.

The past will always be a part of our lives as long as we can remember it. It is wise to learn from the past and even to reminisce about the past from time to time. But don't ever get stuck back there, or your life will move on without you.

(I think it is funny that I didn't start writing this post intending to write anything about the past. It just goes to show the tangents that my mind is always taking.)

The Sunny Side

Life has continued on, and here I am once again to write about the small notions that run through my mind. I do a lot of thinking, but sometimes I wish my mind wouldn't run so freely. Ahhhh, to be oblivious and ignorant to the cares of the world. I suppose some people have that. But I think once you have passed a certain level of knowledge, you can never go back to that blissful ignorance. Such is life.

I have been thinking a lot lately about a quote that I like from Romeo and Juliet. I like Shakespeare when I can understand his old English. Here is the quote for your reading pleasure:

Thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead.
There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slewest Tybalt. There are thou happy too.
The law, that threat'ned death, becomes thy friend
And turns it to exile. There art thou happy.
A pack of blessings light upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love.
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.

This quote is from when the Priest is talking to Romeo about all the good things in his life that he has to be happy about. Yet Romeo can only cry and whine about all the bad things that have happened to him.

I like this quote because it seems so relevant to modern life. So many times I hear people complaining about all the bad in their lives, when in reality they have "a pack of blessings" on their backs. When your car breaks down, you think of the bad luck, the cost, the annoyance of not being able to get around, and the wasted time it will take to fix. But do you think of the fact that you have a car in the first place? Are you grateful that there are people who have the knowledge and skill to fix your car? Do you appreciate family and friends who are willing to give you rides? Do you think about the fact that you have enough money to pay for the repairs, even if you have to scrape to get it? All these things are your blessings that get easily overshadowed by the misfortune.

The Priest's warning at the end makes the quote especially meaningful. "Take heed, for such die miserable." If we are always blind to our blessings, we will always be miserable indeed. So when bad things happen to you, why not take the time to see your pack of blessings? It may only be looking at a bad situation in a different light, but you will surely be a happier person for it.

Worry Wart

Well, my passwords haven't been stolen for a little while, so here's hoping that they gave up on tormenting me. Now I can continue to worry about what I usually worry about - Everything! Just kidding.....sort of. I do have a tendency to worry a lot, so I have to make a conscious effort not to. Usually I do pretty good at it.

Right now the thing that causes me the most worry is the gigantic amount of snow we have been getting. I seriously don't know how people survive in places like Alaska. We get a couple of feet of snow and I start worrying that our cars will get stuck, or break down, or smashed in an accident. I worry that the heater in my house will stop working or that we will get so much snow that I can't get into my own driveway. That last one is a major possibility because our driveway is gravel, so we can't use a snow blower unless we want to be shooting rocks at our neighbors. There is no earthy way I could keep up with shoveling it. I did a small section just tonight and I already feel like my arms are going to fall off.

There is also the very real possibility that Mike and I could become sick and not be able to shovel or do much of anything else. Our workplace seems to be a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty sicknesses. In the past few weeks, more people have called out sick than I can count on my hands. Even as I write this, I feel I am fighting off a multitude of sicknesses that all those people brought back to work with them. I'm not officially sick yet, so I hope I can just sleep it off. (Also, I have been eating those Airborne anti-cold tablets like there is no tomorrow.)

But there will be a tomorrow, in spite of all my worrying. So I better lay my worries to rest. If the cars break down, we will work something out. If it snows more and more, someone is bound to help shovel our driveway. If our heater breaks, we will use coats and blankets until we can get it fixed. If I get sick, I will recover. (Besides, nothing can be as bad as that one year where I was sick for almost the entire winter.)

I think it is time to banish my worries for the night, take a shower, and snuggle in bed with a good book. Awwwww yeah, isn't this the life?

Private! Keep Out!

Hi! Remember me? I'm the person who writes this blog. I know it's been a while, but lately I have been adverse to most things "computer". It's not because I have renounced technology or anything like that. I'm just tired of changing passwords. You see, over about the past month, someone has been hacking my computer accounts on a regular basis and changing my passwords. In fact, it may not even be me writing this blog. How can you know? Maybe I am someone with an evil plot to take over the world through the blog of Robin Berube!

But seriously, what are these hackers trying to accomplish? So far, they have only managed to post one spam ad on my Facebook account and to annoy the crap out of me. I have changed my passwords a dozen times, upped my security features, had Mike run several virus scans. All to little avail. So you can see why it has been easier for me to avoid technology altogether. Maybe I am letting the terrorists win, but my will is weak. I wasn't made for fighting cyber wars. I may have a chance at a war of words or even possibly a physical fight. But computers confound me for the most part, and this one even has my two "Michael" computer geeks stumped. (That's my husband and my brother, if you didn't know.)

I was never a huge advocate of privacy, because I never really had much to hide. I thought of privacy as personal secrets about your sex life or what I write in my journal. But this whole hacker situation has me thinking of privacy in a whole new way. Now I am scared that someone can access my bank account or use my credit card. I'm worried about someone using my private information to cause a lot of trouble for me. And for what? I'm not rich person. I don't have much to take. Yet there are people out there who will kick someone who is already down.

So if you are a cyber criminal and you happen to read this blog, think for a second about the people you are hurting with your crimes. They are people who probably don't have much and who would still probably help you out if you needed it. They are people who work hard for what little they have, and don't deserve to have it taken away. They are people who have enough problems in their lives already. It makes me very sad to think that these kind of people are being preyed upon. But if you decide, even after my little speech, that you still want to hack into my accounts. At least write a good blog.