I know this is a very long title and against the laws of proper English but we sometimes have to speak American around here. Also some folks I know would question the integrity of the statement in and of it’s self. It would sounded something like this: “Really? You learn something?” I know it sounds crazy to some but I really did learn a few things this week. Let’s reflect shall we?

I) One of those things is more a concept than anything else: As we get old(er) we re-learn things we already knew more than learn things we don’t already know. I am not saying we cannot learn new things: I believe one must learn something new everyday. It brings a challenge to our life as active, forward thinking and looking people. Unfortunately with the busy life style of most of us we simply forget things we learned because of the time and space thing.

II) Proof read everything before you send it via web, text, letter or flyer. Below is the flyer I made on the fly (git on the fly…never mind) for my wife to handout when The Boy went missing. Notice the very FIRST words on the flyer. Fail! It would be funny if it was the snake that was missing. Fortunately our ball python was not missing so this was just slightly amusing.

III) Some rules are good for something other than someone making it just because. As an example the crawl spaces in our neck of the woods have to be sixteen inches from ground to bottom of the joist ( I wonder if that will change as American’s are getting thicker). I for one am glad. Sixteen inches between ground and floor joist was good for me. Fourteen inches would not have been. As I get older I am getting “thicker” as well. I need more space, as it were, to move around in close quarters. The upside to this is two-fold: Being able to maneuver around and repair a water leak myself saved me a small fortune. Also being able to move around allowed me to keep an eye out for marauding spiders.

IV) Being a pack rat and a procrastinator sometimes pays dividends. After scoping out the water leak in the crawl space I found the perfect fitting in my “spare fittings, screws, bolts, nuts and such stuff” box in the garage. On the downside of being a pack rat, and procrastinator, is I found a lot of items in there I will never ever use. As a side note: Why are people like myself, whom drag our feet, called procrastinators? See “pro” (as in professional)  would indicate one was getting paid  for said lack of motivation or out right laziness.

V) Look up. As I was heading east mid-week on a fine but boring stripe of four lane I spotted something up ahead. There were two small slim black slits using the blue sky as a backdrop as they moved to and fro. As the black slits circled I thought they were buzzards or vultures because of their relatively large size. As they rode the thermals cascading off the warming Terra- Firma below I watch their slow spiraling dance across the sky.

As the distance between us closed I noticed that there was more a resemblance to a hawk in their skyline silhouette. I still couldn’t make out what they were, though the bird closets to me underside was turned toward me it was still nothing but a etched thin thing against the sky. The other bird was still some distance off and on the farthest apex of their spiral dance.Then the nearest bird rotated the top of its wings and body towards  me. As it did it fanned out its tail feathers and the sight caught me by surprise: the tail feathers are white! As the bird finished its rotation, it brought its head around and it was white! An eagle! It is a pair of Bald Eagles! I was giddy as a school boy at recess for rest of the day: I have never seen a Bald Eagle outside a zoo but today I saw two and they were in a word: Majestic!

Wikimedia Commons

There are some simple things (re) learned this week:

VI) Friends are like a gardens: Beautiful to behold and they need tending too regularly.

VII) The moon amazes me as much now as it did when I was a kid. From new moon  to old crescent it is still pretty cool.

Here is to learning something new everyday and may you have a wonderful week!

‡ Authors Note: I first published this post April, 11 2011 ‡