Changing Priorities

Some years (a whole bunch) ago my brother told me about a fellow that lived in Ft. Collins, CO. As I remember the story the fellow had bought three building lots in various areas of the city. His plan was to design and build the best house he could on the least desirable lot, live in it a few years and sell it. Then he would take the same design and make changes that he determined desirable based upon his experience. Then again sell the house and repeat the process, building the perfect house on the lot which was the most desirable. By the time he retired he would have a house that served all his desires and it would be paid in full. This story floated around in my mind for many years and I often wondered how the final chapter turned out. I always thought that it was such a great plan and I think it was always in the back of my mind that I hoped it worked for him. About a year ago I had the opportunity to ask my brother if the fellow had been able to build his perfect house. I was disappointed but not too surprised to hear that the plan was not an absolute success. He said, "As you age your needs and your desires change." I have a feeling that anyone that is over fifty, or maybe younger, can likely relate to those feelings.

I sure understand that. When I was younger by twenty or forty years I did not think about it. I had thoughts that there were certain things that I would want to do as long as I had any physical abilities left. I think it would be proper to say that I was partly right about some things and wrong about all the rest. I grew up on a farm and I thought that I would always want to own my own land and have a space between myself and the nearest neighbor, at least a large building lot in the city. So here I am living in a forty foot motor home, with very little space over to the neighbors and I am very happy with that. At least I don't have to mow the grass. And as long as we winter in Texas or somewhere south I don't have to shovel snow either. I have heard comments from a lot of other people that indicate that their priorities have changed also.

There are a lot of activities here in Bentsen Grove that anyone can get involved in. Those can get a person into trouble, sort of, if care is not taken. As one couple put it they had been too busy the year before and wanted to change things a bit. So they added a couple more activities. They did not say how that was working out but it a common happening I think. This year we have done about the same thing. Every week while we are here I will be taking pictures of the new arrivals in the park. I think I have the template set up now so that I can select, crop and print the pictures very quickly. It seemed like it should be easy to do. Just hit print on the computer and a few seconds later it is done. I am trying to do a bit better than that and give a good picture for posting on the board that is consistent for the whole park. I have had two Wednesdays to get photographs to work with so I am hoping that next week I will be able to get it done the way I think it should be in a few minutes.

I thought that the amount of dancing we did last year was either enough or perhaps a bit too much. So this year an additional day was added to the schedule. And in addition to that I am learning (I hope) how to make a instructional video of the dances we do for the class. Maybe when I get too tired to dance I can go run the camera and take a break. We will see how that goes. We have something scheduled every day. Sunday is of course church, then four days with dancing, computer club and park meeting pictures. There will be a few more activities that we add as soon as those start which could be in a week or two.

There are more people coming into the park every day and new faces from last year show up. It is good to see friends from last year getting here. There will be rush of a lot more will be coming after Thanksgiving.

One of the things that we enjoy down here a lot is the green parrots (or green parakeets if you prefer) that gather every evening. We have gone to the area that they gather every evening at least in the winter and they are back. The truth is that they may gather there in the summer also but I have not seen them. When I have been up in the area it has been too dark to see them very well but there is no question about hearing them clearly. I tried to video them one evening and a person that knows exactly where to look, in other words the videographer, can see them in the trees. I will go back one of these evenings before the light fades and get a movie to post here.


GREEN PARROTS TAKEN WITH A FLASH


A few weeks ago I caught my foot in an earphone cord going to my computer and I damaged the plug that it goes into. I talked to a friend down here and he told me what I might encounter if I tried to fix it myself. I was told I would not do more damage so I tore my laptop computer apart and found where the problem. With some assistance by a fellow that is a LOT better on the Internet than I am I was able to order a part and should be back in business in a few days when the part is shipped to me. I have never taken a computer apart but I have heard that a laptop is a lot harder to work on than a computer with an external tower. There must be nearly twenty tiny screws that have to be taken out to get access to anything. But as a bonus I learned how to put in a second hard drive in my computer if I should desire, or I can easily replace the no. 1 hard drive if I ever need to do that.

I appreciate the comments that have been made about this blog. I know that it is being read and enjoyed.

Till later this is Uncle Duck