Who will give in first?

The first independent item that I ever wrote that received a lot of positive reaction among my family, (as opposed to my letters to them) and which was the inspiration for both these blogs and this Blog site*, was about Our First Born’s Dog, George and his persistence at getting to the other side of any obstacle put in his way to stop him! And there have been as least one more since then, and this is another, or even two more.
When we moved into this place, there was a pool but no pool fence, so we had to put one in which effectively cut the backyard in two and for a while that caused no problems; until George decided, for some reason still only known to him, that he wanted unimpeded access to the other side. Access that he not only achieved but the source of which, eluded me in discovering for some time. Eventually we discovered that although he looked too big to Squeeze through the bars, he not only could but did. And apart from putting netting all along it, which I don’t want to do, there is little to stop him. And as he can’t get into too much harm there, I’m not bothering. (No He won’t go near the water! The other dog did and had to be fished out once, but as he doesn’t also get through, it is not a real danger.)
Under our house, is a small dug out and concreted section that was made into a walk-in storage and work shop area, while the rest slopes away to about 18 inches at the lowest point.
At first the dogs used to sleep under the whole under- house area, but as most of this is dirt or sand, and as they both have woolly hair/fur, they got a lot of dry dirt and soil on them; which they later transferred to the carpet inside the house. So another scheme for their night sleeping arrangements had to be made. At first that was into the Garage, which worked fine; til we had a great storm one night and the garage, being at the bottom of a concrete drive, ended up with 3 or 4“ of water in it and one dog getting sick from the related chill!
So back under the house they went, but supposedly confined to the concrete half with a temporary 7 or 8 metre long barrier of whatever material was on hand that I could find, including some pool fence, Garden trellis, Old screen door, Tarps, a fold up Table and a couple of old trestle tables, a bit of plaster board, etc., whatever.
Well, nothing really worked. He got through the pool fence; He climbed up and over the trellis. He clawed through the plaster board twice: Once when it was the only thing stopping him so he chewed his way through under the bottom. Then when I put a piece of wood about 2 foot high in front of the plaster board, he simply stood on his hind legs and chewed his way through the plaster board above where the wooden board stopped protecting it!
Anyway, for the last few nights I have won the battle there, but that hasn’t stopped old George still trying. As I may soon be losing the trestle tables, and unprepared to go to the expense of a more solid and permanent barrier, as we will not be remaining here for ever, I still may end up giving in to Him! Or they will end up back in the Garage again, as we have largely resolved the Flooding problem: we Hope!?!?.
As seen above often the end result of our giving in is not lack of will, but lack of real impedes to spend the time and or money required to win. What about you today? Are you like George and prepared to never give up, no matter what the obstacle, and keep going? Failing in one spot yes, but then moving along and finding a weakness elsewhere? Or like me, are you only prepared to go as far as finances and potential danger warrants?
As hinted above, had it been the other dog, getting through the pool fence, with his love for water, we would have long ago had some form of additional protection for the fence. Likewise, if George was getting out onto the road, again we would do what it takes, not to just keep him in, but to keep him from danger.
So in closing; is that obstacle that you are currently facing, really worth the effort it takes to fight it? If so, keep fighting on and do whatever it takes to win. But if it is not worth the effort now, give up now and channel your money time and effort into to a more beneficial and winnable fight? Over to you now.
*But not posted on blog site till January 2007.

That’s what Dad said!

Although a mature young lady and about to be married soon, I had occasion to council her recently on the death of a beloved pet. And of course, me being me, did it in my own unique style, which seemed to work okay.
A bit later, over lunch, I had the occasion to overhear her side of a telephone conversation. At that stage I had no idea who was on the other end, except to conclude that they must have been very wise indeed! Just like me! Because all I kept hearing on this end, was, “That’s what dad said!” “That’s what dad said!” Must have heard it 3 or four times at least, not that I was counting!
Anyway, later I found out that the party on the other end was my very own first born! And it seems even if I hadn’t taught her much, I had at least taught her to be like me.
Now, whether that is a good thing or not, I will leave that with you, but it does point to the fact that those closest to us, do both see and imbibe, even if by osmosis, what they see and hear in and from us. So one always needs to be careful of the example we are leaving with others and especially those closest to us, don’t we?
So, who is learning what from you right now, and is it something that you would be proud to hear them say, “That’s what ****** said"?

Who is top dog now and why?

The other Night I received a phone call about 7pm and a women’s’ frantic voice came babbling on excitedly. Unfortunately the only words I could understand in her panic, was “blood every where.” Fortunately, I was able to recognise the frantic, high-pitched voice and so I said don’t panic I am on my way over now.

As I knew it was my/our own first-born and because I know that there are two dogs there, I guessed it was one of them’s blood and not our first-born’s brother or sister's blood everywhere. So I didn’t break too many laws getting there, although I didn’t waste any time either.

Well by the time we got the 5kms there, things had settled down and the blood had stopped flowing and in fact, was mostly cleaned up by the time we got there. As I had predicted, it was the dogs’ blood, or more correctly mostly from one of them. What I hadn’t predicted and would have been wrong had I tried, was who came out on top of the argument.

From previous experience, even though there is no door between them, they are fed in different parts of the house, as Charlie tends to gulp his food down, while George leisurely takes his time to eat his. Thinking that he is top dog there, Charlie often finishes his and unless stopped or otherwise prevented, comes along and pushes George out of the way and eats his too. Yes unless prevented by a human that is, that is what Charlie does, because George always let him.

Well did, may be more the operative word here, as this time, George not only fought back but came out on top. For now at least. I suspect that there may be a few more tussles in the future, but for now at least, George is top dog, much to Charlies chagrin.

Why? Because Charlie pushed his boundaries and his weight, one time two many and George, who had been co-operative till then, had had enough and not only fought back but won and took Charlie’s position at Number one spot. Now Charlie may never get it back again or if he does, it will be over a lot more spilt blood and probably a lot of his own again too.

How true of our lives is this too? Sometimes people just assume top position, and others will, even if unwillingly allow it without any real opposition, but when the people at the top, start to abuse their power too much, people eventually fight back and often like George, come out on top. And if you wish to replace them again, it becomes, bloody, messy and usually very costly to all involved.

So the moral today is, if you are already on top of the pile, learn from Charlie’s misfortune and don’t abuse your power, or you might just loose it unexpectedly and bloodily too, like Charlie did. Fortunately his two wounds were largely superficial but he still looked a mess. You may end up that way, or worse too, if you abuse your power, so don’t please?

Computers! Great when working, not so great when not!

Well here I am again after an enforced Break. Switched my computer off as normal last Thursday night, but on the Friday morning, couldn’t switch it on no matter how hard I tried. Of course our one and only son and computer “fix-it” was away for the Easter weekend, so I couldn’t get any help there, could I? His older sister suggested ringing a couple of her/their cousins for advice and help, which I followed up on. Fortunately one was able to help me, just not the one I/we had thought of, that’s all.
Anyway he soon diagnosed that the problem was the power board and that I needed a new one, which of course I couldn’t get till the shops re-opened Tuesday on. Anyway he used his computer to open the files that I needed for Sunday’s Service and got me out of trouble there and then. Yesterday when the shops reopened I was able to get the new part and have it installed. So now it is now back on and working with a new Power board and me a few dollars lighter.
Anyway my problem on Friday was that I had material in the computer that I needed and no way of getting them out over the holidays with my son unavailable to help me and I had to turn elsewhere for help, with no idea where to turn too. Had my younger daughter also not been away for the weekend, I would have turned to her next.
In all honesty, had I not been in desperate strife, I would not have turned to my first born as she is not noted in our household as much help when it comes to problems with the computer. Helping use various programs and such, Oh yes, but providing solutions or help in fixing problems? NO! However she was able to point me in the right direction.
In trying to track down one of those person’s of possible help that she had indicated, I had to go through his house mate (and another relative,) to reach him, only to find that this first person, much to my surprise knew as much, if not more about computers, as the one I was trying to Contact. Although I know this young man very well and have called on him many times for help and advice with my fish, I was not aware of His computer competence too, and had always considered the other Guy to be the so-called expert.
I know I have written about this before, but I was again guilty of only seeing one dimension of a persons abilities and expertise and in my mind at least, didn’t think he could do much else, especially when he was overshadowed by someone else in that field.
What about you? Are you perhaps guilty of the same thing of overlooking someone’s expertise, simply because you associate them with some other area of talent and who are normally overshadowed in another field (which they might even be better at) because you automatically associate someone else as being better.
Last Friday I was guilty of under estimating the help that both my daughter and my Nephew were able to give. Yet both very graciously helped me despite my initial snub of them both. Thank you both heaps. I sincerely thank you both for your graciousness as well as your help!

Superfluous Word.

At our First -Born’s recent 30th Birthday Party, one of her Bosses made a comment to me that although very, very nice, and likewise as generous and true, I considered it superfluous. So much so that I decided to write a blog about it, but then began to wonder at myself for even using the word superfluous! I mean isn’t the word “Superfluous,” superfluous anyway?
I guess I must have come across the word Superfluous through reading books long, long ago in the past, and probably knew what it meant long before I could actually properly pronounce it. (It is not pronounced “super- fluous” as I first used to pronounce it, but rather it is:” Su-per-flu-ous” and actually means:” Unnecessary or Needless comment” or “Extra – redundant, etc”.)
The thing is I have long known how to properly pronounce it and even longer, have known what it meant, but to the best of my memory, I have never ever used it before in Conversation let alone in writing. Which leads me to wonder how many others these days actually use the word “Superfluous” as against those who use the words “ Unnecessary or redundant etc?”
This led me to wonder how many other words there are used in Books and articles these days that no one ever uses in real live Conversations? How about you? Have you ever used Superfluous? And are there any other words that you know of, that would fit into this category of “known but never used in real speech?” Over to you for comment now: Walter