NOISY Neighbors Next to My Bed!

This weekend I built a rat cage that is five or six times the size of the critter cage I had them in before. I built it to fit a shelf in my bedroom because my sister, Jackie, is no fan of rats and shuddered every time she had to pass by them on her way through my living room, morning and night, on her way to and from the garage.


The new cage is more than two feet high, 14 inches wide and four feet long. My two rats have lots and lots of space now to run and climb and... build...

I never knew--until they were sharing a room with me at night--how industrious they are. I put several pages of newspaper on the bottom of the cage so their feet wouldn't be on the wire...but they aren't leaving all of it there.


Last night, three different times after the lights went out, they went to work and tore the top layers of paper into long shreds (rrr-rrr-rr-iii---pppp for six or seven long seconds each time), then carried them to a "secret hiding place" beneath another piece of newspaper to construct a rodent's version of the Taj Mahal in one corner. Tearing newspaper is NOISY. It drowned out the radio music I usually fall asleep to. It drowned out the dog that barks (at times) across the street. I couldn't help but smile. The noise didn't keep me from sleeping, luckily, because I have nowhere else to place a cage this size!

Today I went to a new pet store to find them a better variety of rat food. The new place, Champion Pets in Parkland, has a better option than most nationwide pet stores do, and the fellow there is ordering me a five pound bag of dog food that one of the rat experts on the Internet recommends so I can use that as their staple diet.

Casey and Jamie named the rats but I can never remember what they named them. Let me think... The hooded rat is Pepper; the white rat is Misha. Or maybe Mishka. I don't call them by name; all I have to do is show up near their cage early in the morning and late at night and they come over to see what I have to offer.

I got rats because I'm auditioning critters for when my kitties, Archie and Ashley, ages 16, go to kitty heaven. I want a pocket pet or a table pet for my old age, not a kitty whose litter box I'll have to clean or who I may trip over when I get less adept at walking. I know, I know... I'm prepping way before I have to, but cats live 16-18 years and before then these care-and-stability matters WILL be an issue for me if I get another cat or dog, so I want to find an easier pet to love on and care for.

The down side to rats (other than other peoples' reactions and the rats naked tails)is that they only live a couple years, and since losing a pet is my least favorite part of pet ownership, I don't want to have to go through that every other year! So I made the new cage roomy enough to contain a guinea pig, a chinchilla, a hedgehog, or a couple (or more) smaller size birds: finches, parakeets...

Jackie's all for me getting a small bird. In fact, she suggested I take the rats back to the pet store and get the new pets sooner rather than later. I smiled and said, "Sorry--when I adopt a pet, it's for the life of the pet. Next time I'll consult you before I get a pet, though!"

Poor Jackie. She has a definite "thing" against rats. Had I known that, I would have made another choice...

My Second Prepub Review of SETTLE FOR BEST

Settle For Best: Satisfy the Winner You Were Born to Be by Kristine M Smith is a delightfully good read for people who want to improve themselves or find their inner happiness. This book is invaluable, jam packed with Kris's zest and love for life and how she is willing to share it with the world. Like her mentor (and my inspiration) DeForest Kelley did for me with the show he was in (Star Trek) and the way he looked at and lived his life, Kristine's new book has helped me put life's challenges in a new light and, along with De Kelley, has re-sparked my zest and love for life and my commitment to reaching my goals. Can't wait 'till it hits the shelves. [This review is based on a pre-publication review copy.] — Greg Barton, Australia

The First REVIEW of My Next Book Has Arrived!

Here's the VERY FIRST review of of my upcoming book. “I’ve just read SETTLE FOR BEST: Satisfy the Winner You Were Born To Be by Kristine M Smith. This is a valuable reference book, indeed, infused with the author’s signature lively use of the English language. It sure helped me in my current challenge!” —Edward E Smith, Yelm, Washington (No relation to the author, but a very good friend!)

Getting Work in Like Crazy!

I'm very blessed. I'm getting steady writing work from existing and new clients. Thank you, all!!!

My 40 Thousandth Visitor is...Me?

I can't be absolutely sure, but when I logged on just now, the counter read, "39,999 Visitors." As soon as I chose "New Post," the counter went to 40K.  


Waaaahhhhh! I was going to announce that the next person to visit my blog site would be Visitor #40K, and now I can't--unless someone confirms to me almost immediately that they logged on at about 7:20 PM Pacific Time to catch up with my goings on...


Anyone?

Meteor Shower Back Yard Sleep Out

Last night my 12 year old niece wanted me to sleep outside with her in the back yard here at home so she could watch the Leonid (I think) meteor showers that were touted in the news.  So I said yes and hauled out a sleeping bag and pillow for her (to put on Jackie's anti-gravity outdoor recliner) and a blanket, anti-gravity outdoor recliner, and liner for me (to keep the breeze from coming up under the recliner and freezing me out).


I went out an hour before Elizabeth did because I was tired (more about why later). Fell asleep until she came out at about 9:45. 


We chatted as we watched skyward. We spotted the Big and Little Dippers and (I think) some other planets. We saw a satellite or the space station go by (a shining orb in the sky). We saw an anomaly that seemed to defy natural laws which I thought might be the balloon someone sent up to take photos of the meteor showers from 10K (or maybe 20K) feet up; I don't know what else it could have been. We legitimately called it a UFO since we had no idea what else it might be and we were really guessing about what it was.  It seemed to be moving the way a kite does -- back and forth, up and down, as if buffeted this way and that by wind, but it was way, way up there where a kite couldn't be seen (or fly) and of course it glowed some or we wouldn't have seen it, probably illuminated by the sun or moon. It had no "running lights" the way flying machines from Earth do.


At about 10:30 we decided we were both hungry, so we went in for a few minutes. Lizzie made popcorn and an almond milk hot chocolate; I cut a three-inch slice of a sub sandwich and made hot chocolate. We went back outside and bundled up again while we ate.


Along about 10:45 or so we saw our first, and only, meteor. It was quite spectacular.  I say "first and only" because about fifteen or twenty minutes into the vigil, as Lizzie and I were chatting (occasionally) back and forth, I started softly singing (and then humming) AMAZING GRACE. It seemed appropriate as we gazed into God's beautiful heavens.


Well!!!  As soon as I finished the nocturnal "lullaby" I said something to Lizzie. No response. I said something again. Nothing! She was sound asleep!  That was my permission to do the same, and I was out like a light.


Now for the reason I was so sleepy.  I went to McLendon's Hardware yesterday morning and bought ten rolls of sod (2' x 4' each) to put down in the chicken yard to give the chickens something to peck at other than the seed Jackie and I sowed there three weeks ago. Each weighed (I'm guessing) about 50 pounds each, perhaps more, because they were well-watered. 


When I got home I backed up the truck to within about ten feet of the gate to the chicken pen (as close as I could get without driving onto the drain field, which is a no-no) then I got the wheelbarrow and placed two or three rolls of sod in it at a time. The wheelbarrow tire was a little low, and I didn't pump it up. Big mistake!


So I wheeled 100 to 150 pounds' of sod through the chicken gate into a semi-soggy-boggy part of the chicken coop (or as far as I could go before the semi-flat tired wheelbarrow got bogged down) and then horsed the sod (which I'd had to move once already from the middle of the pickup bed to the tail gate) into place while hunched over. (The netting over the coop is only about 5 feet off the ground; I'm 5'7".) 


By the time I was finished with this "little chore", I was muddy, sweating,breathing harder than normal, and pretty-well exhausted!  I'll eventually go get more sod to complete the job if what I bought yesterday survives well (I guess the chicken pen is perhaps one-fifth covered in sod right now), but you can believe it will be in ten roll increments--maybe five--and I WILL put air in the tire of the wheelbarrow! At my age, lifting, carrying and placing sod while hunched over is not easy! 


Oh! I also filled the truck (after emptying it of the sod) with all of the detritus we gathered over the winter--stuff we need to haul to the dump. That was EASY compared to sod-carrying, but my elbows were so sore yesterday afternoon and evening that I caved and took a full dose of aspirin!


When I awoke in the outdoor recliner this morning at about 5:45 as the sun came up, I noticed that Lizzie's sleeping bag was empty and Jackie was inside.  Lizzie and I had both promised that if one of us went indoors during the night we would wake the other and we'd both go in, so I asked Jackie when Lizzie came in.  She said, "Oh, about an hour ago. She was freezing. Weren't you?"  


No, I wasn't. I was wearing a coat, winter socks, jeans, and I have 50 or 60 extra pounds on me, so I was just fine. Lizzie is skinny as a rail...she doesn't have any extra "padding" at all on her body. The sleeping bag wasn't enough to keep her toasty warm.

Finished Writing My Seventh Book Last Night

Last night I finished writing SETTLE FOR BEST: Satisfy The Winner You Were Born to Be. It's now in the hands of eight people who will be going over it with a fine-toothed comb and letting me know what they think of it and whether I typo'ed anywhere.  (It's very, very hard to proofread one's own writing, but I THINK I caught everything. I'm about to find out!)

Freedom!

Yesterday was my last day working off-site (occasionally) for the first 4 1/2 months of 2012.  I feel ten years younger just knowing I'm back to writing full-time again. I still have the occasional church gig but, other than that, I'm free and clear to navigate as a full-time copywriter again!  I will probably sleep better at night not having to keep three balls in the air every week.  It's a relief.  Three jobs is too many (especially when the one that just ended cost me more in lost writing projects than it was worth, which is the opposite of the way I expected it to work out; oh well, live and learn!)

This past weekend Jackie, Phil, Wendy, Casey, Jamie and I built a hen house and a chicken pen for our six chickens, which we raised from infancy.  They are now looking like pint-sized versions of what will become their adult selves, so we had to get the facilities made for them. They have been freed from a small (goat-sized) cage to the great outdoors, and they love it. They have started to teach themselves to fly.  They sure know how to peck for food already; that comes naturally!

I set a large dog igloo in the center of the "barnyard" so they have a place to get in out of the rain and sunshine if they don't want to climb the ramp into the hen house.

They don't know how to climb the ramp yet. They will descend it, but I haven't seen them ascend it yet, so I have to collect them to put them in bed at night until they figure that out.  (Some night time critters are small enough to get in through the chicken fence, so they need to be shut in at night.)

We put plastic netting over the top of the pen so flying predators (eagles, hawks, owls) can't get at them so I have to walk hunched over slightly to get around in their pen (no fun for older backs, but do-able).  I'll take some photos soon so you can see the new chick digs.  I swear the hen house looks like Snoopy's doghouse (except for the color). I want to put a plywood "sleeping Snoopy" on top, but Jackie says no.  Too bad.  It would be fantabulous, methinks!

I'm thinking of laying down some sod in the chicken pen. We seeded the area a few weeks ago but I think the wee hens are going to eat that all up in no time at all...  Sod is very inexpensive right now at McLendon's Hardware... something under $2 a roll, if I'm not mistaken...  I could put down the whole expanse for $50, probably... or at least enough so they'd have forage while the rest grows in!

Today I pushed some of the cable spools up the hill so Laverne and Shirley (goats) can get up into the prickly trees and eat the new buds that are emerging. It's a hawthorn tree, I think, and they just LOVE it, so they've been standing on their hind feet to get at it for days. Today I figured I'd help 'em out. The spool elevates them another three feet (approx) so they have more of their favorite forage now.  I'll take pix of that during the next sunshiny day, too...

Stay tuned!

Yesterday was a Bad Friday For Jesus, a Good Friday for Us

Last night I went to my first-ever Seder service at our church, followed by a Good Friday service.  I was there from 6 pm to 8:45 p.m., ostensibly to be available if any nursery-aged children arrived, but none did, so I joined the parishioners.  I'm glad I did.

The Seder service was instructive and compelling. It's the traditional Jewish Passover meal; the event commemorates the "passing over" of God's wrath toward the Israelites' own intrinsic imperfections (no one is blameless) and their deliverance out of Egypt after 20 generations (400 years) of slavery and cruel treatment by the Pharoahs.

During the meal, we ate foods reminiscent of the trials and tribulations the Israelites endured.  Although I'm well-versed in Old Testament scripture and history, taking part in the Seder service was emotionally compelling and a terrific reminder of how faithful God is to humankind when we do our best to walk in His ways (heck, even when we fail to walk in His ways! One pastor I know proclaimed, "There's a myth that says the Bible proclaims, 'God helps those who help themselves. It doesn't. Instead, what it shows is that God helps those who can't help themselves.").

After the Seder service, additional parishioners joined us for the traditional Good Friday service. We visited the four points of the cross (indoors and out) and heard the story about what happened on the night Jesus was betrayed, followed by a kangaroo trial and his scourging and crucifixion. Some of the older children were involved in the re-telling: they "carried" his burial cloth in, and then carried it out with "Jesus's" body (the cross) after we all placed spices in the burial cloth.

Although inexpertly done (how I pray for a more realistic and dramatic portrayal than the ones churches usually essay), I was still touched personally as we sang appropriate songs from the hymnal punctuated by a contemporary verse that all Christians sing in churches today ("My chains are gone, I've been set free, My God My Savior has ransomed me, and like a flood His mercy reighs, unending love, amazing grace). I went inward and relived the last hours of Jesus' life as I knew it had to have been (after seeing THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST), and that did it.  I was emotionally spent by the end of the service... thanking God for what He did to make a way for us all.

Working On a New Book--Will You Buy It?

In my "spare time," I'm working on my next book. The working title (and I believe it will be the actual title because I haven't come up with anything better in two months, and I like it a lot) is "SETTLE FOR BEST: Why ‘Settling for Less’ Will Never Satisfy the Winner You Were Born to Be". I'm at least a third of the way through it, I think, and averaging 3K words every time I tackle it (every few days recently).

It's premised on the list of mindsets and actions that Napoleon Hill discovered when he interviewed and studied the "self-made" millionaires who existed before, during and after the Great Depression. The same attributes serve today when it comes to the mindsets and actions of successful people. 

As a lifelong self-help book aficionado, I'm putting my own spin on Napoleon Hill's findings to make the book both a primer and a word of encouragement to those who have leaned their ladder up against the wrong wall (professionally or in any other way) for much of their lives (or not) and now want to pursue the courses of action that their spirits have been prompting them to follow since they were little. 

The new book resonates with me because I finally followed the prompting of my own spirit (five years ago) and dedicated myself to becoming a full time professional writer and I've never been happier. I want readers to feel the thrill of pursuing your lifelong goals, too, if you aren't already (although I pray you are!). 

What they say is true: "Do what you love; the money will follow."  It's true, I surmise, because doing what you love is such a joy that you  keep doing it pretty much non-stop, waaaayyy more enthusiastically than you'd do anything else, and enthusiasm and dedication like that is rewarded on earth and in the spiritual realm!  I bet the angels sing when we do what we're here to do... and I bet God smiles, too.

I'm on chapter eight or nine.  Each chapter is short; just two pages, so far. One or more of the future chapters might exceed that; I didn't start out thinking I'd make each chapter two pages long; it has just worked out that way so far. There will be at least 22 chapters, I think, because Napoleon Hill listed 20 kindred mindsets of wealthy individuals.

Incidentally, I'm happy to note, NONE of the 20 mindsets and actions have anything to do with politics as we see it practiced today. I found that very refreshing.  If I had to do what many so-called "self-made" millionaires do today to get rich (use/screw the poor of all ages in other countries in sweatshops and the poor and middle class in this country by using them up for too little in return) I'd prefer to remain poor and honorable to "filthy" rich. 

To be sure: I'm not against money; if you are, send me yours!   I'm against those who will do anything to anyone to get more of it and then hoard it abroad in off shore bank accounts, skip out on their fair share of taxes, and do as little else for America as they can possibly get away with. To me, that's a return to  Gilded Age/Robber Baron principles. No one has to do that to get ahead; it's just easier that way: the "lowly" serfs and wage slaves make the products and deliver the services while the wealthy sit on their asses, drink sherry, play golf, and laugh.

I hope anyone who reads my book and gets rich will remember what I think of rich people who contribute too little to society. I like to think that the folks who read my book will want to get rich for all the right reasons: to make a real contribution to the world, both with their passion and product or service and with at least 10% of the profits they make from them. Ideally, I'd like them to get so rich that they are able to "reverse tithe" and give away 90% and keep just 10% for themslves and their progeny. 

I salute Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and the too few other gazillionaires who use their money to bless people, not to rape and pillage them and the planet.

Money is amoral. It's a medium of exchange. You can exchange it for good things or for bad things. It takes on the character of the person who has it...

I'm all for getting more of it. I have splendid plans for it...and very few of them revolve around me!