Wednesday Hodgepodge - 14 October 2015

1. What's something that has recently 'tried your patience'?

Two things fit this category for me.
1. The lack of modesty in today's society is something that is really, really trying my patience and sanity lately, and…
2. Our neighbors are always smoking like dragons, morning, noon, and night. I have COPD (thanks to the first 18 years of my life in a smoking household) and cigarette smoke causes me a great deal of hardship. While they are able to enjoy their entire yard, I cannot be outside in our own yard for any length of time at all because of their constant smoking. Our yard is a wreck because I can't do any yard work thanks to their smoking. Granted, it would be an exertion trying to get things done with the COPD even if they were not smoking, but at least I would be able to do it, a little at a time. It is impossible for me to do any work out there when they've basically smoked our yard up like a bloomin' pool hall. Yes, I am cranky over this and just short of going over there and screaming my head off at them to just cut it out, if not for the health of their neighbor (me), then at least for the health of their own children.

My right to breathe trumps their right to pollute the place!

2. Do you think patience comes to us naturally or is it something you have to learn as you grow? On a scale of 1-10 generally how patient are you (1=I blow up at the drop of a hat and 10= I've got all the time in the world).

I do not think that patience is necessarily a natural trait, though some folks seem to have a great deal of patience without having to work at it. One thing that I learned a long time ago about patience is that you never, ever, ever, ever pray for it. If you do, you'll get it alright…you will get tested and refined in the fire until you get it.

It depends on what I have to be patient about. I cover both ends of the scale pretty well. I can be really, really patient if I am, say, waiting to go to the dentist. I am not so patient when it comes to visiting graveyards for family history research. I do not enjoy the former and totally love the latter, so I don't like having to wait to go!

3. Share about a time when you felt like you could fly. Or a time you wished you could fly. Or a time you felt like you were flying.

That one's easy. I have felt like I was flying as I went to sleep pretty much each time that I have been put under for surgery. One time that I remember the most is as a child at the dentist's office. I think that I really was flying then. In my hallucinating state, I was on one tooth and the dentist was on another tooth across a huge gorge (my mouth haha). I hollered across the gorge to him, "Who are youuuuuuuuuuuuu?" "Who do you think I am?" he yelled back to me. "Bo-bo" was my reply. I don't know who "Bo-bo" is or was, but he is forever ingrained as my dentist now.

4. Your favorite song with the word fly in the title or lyrics, or your favorite song that relates to flying in some way?

One of my favorite flying songs is "I'll Fly Away". Here is "I Saw the Light" and "I'll Fly Away".


5. What's in your fall picnic basket and where are we picnicking in your neck of the woods this time of year?

I do not have a picnic basket nor am I planning on any picnic, but if I had one and were planning to picnic, I would pick the cemetery in Beeville, Texas. This is where David's great-grandfather Elias Wallis Roberts and his second wife Maggie are buried. I have visited the graves of all of our other great-grandparents and all of our grand-parents. Papa Elias and Nona are the only ones left to visit.

6. Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, landscaping....which skill would you most like to possess and how would you put that skill to use today?

More choices, eh? I would choose carpentry and landscaping. I would love to have a beautiful yard/garden around a house that I built myself filled with furniture that I built.

7. What's something you think is too expensive to justify buying lately?

I would have to say clothes. They cost too much for what you get and I don't like the styles of most clothing today anyway. It either is way too tight or shows off more than should be shown.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

My ponderings for this week involve needs. I can't understand why meeting one need, fixing one problem, has to cause other problems, why a fix can't just be a fix all the way around. It is like we can have A at the expense of B, or B at the expense of A, but never are we able to have both A and B. A and B are both needs, not wants. It isn't a matter or prioritizing, I don't think. Both are necessary, but taking care of one destroys the other. I don't understand why this is.