An Owl and Mechanicals

This cartoon from the New Yorker (of course) made me laugh
out loud in a restaurant yesterday afternoon. (If you can't tell,
the rabbis have scissors in their hands.)

This is what has become of "my" bed. Fred and Ethel all
cozy together and Sheba in the queen position.

I’ve thoroughly mechanically disinclined; I’ve driven since I was sixteen yet I cannot identify any part of a car’s engine. Consistent with that was my desire to learn nothing about the mechanics of the water system at Pinecone Park. But I had to and with knowledge came expenses. The more I came to understand it, the more money I spent repairing or replacing parts.

Today a new $400 well switch will be installed and my gauge will be repaired. Henceforth I will be able to easily now the level of water in my cistern and it will no longer overflow.

These repairs give me dominion over my water system and that left me with one thing left to “master:” My hot tub. It’s the last piece of monster machinery I should understand. I and every guest I’ve consulted have failed to lower the temperature and, therefore, it’s electrical consumption.

And it’s huge. I, a single man, have a hot tub that seats eight! I’m heating an enormous amount of water every day—all day—and I don’t use it when it’s hot outside. I seriously considered getting rid of it. But ‘m not going to. Instead, I called a technician who will come here and give me an instructional overview and, hopefully, lower the temperature.

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My VISA card got refused the other day. I blamed the website. Then it happened again so I went online to check my balance. Damn!

I chose to receive my VISA statements electronically last March and since then, when they arrived I trashed them deciding that I’d take action when the paper statement came. I made a huge mistake; my balance was over eight grand!

Awareness landed like a concrete block to the head.

Another block is going to fall in November. 

I pay Hydro $67 per month. That’s the highest amount they allow! I’ve tried to call them to ask to pay more and to find out how much energy I’m consuming per month, but the wait time on the phone is 90 minutes. Plus, on their website, they advise customers that they will not discuss any account for which they do not have a year’s worth of consumption data. They won’t release data about my energy consumption until November and that’s when they’ll want the balance of my annual bill minus my $67/month.

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Last night during happy hour I went outside and did something I haven’t done before: I went outside and just sat there and took in the view of my quarter-acre back yard. It’s not something Winter inspires me to do and it’s something I’ve been too busy to do until now. 

I’m stunned by what I’ve done for myself. It’s a park to this fellow who’s come here from a tiny urban condo. I teared up smelling my Gardenia; it’s miraculous that I can grow this plant that has been my favourite flower my whole life. When I moved here there was one plant: A Rhododendron. Now there are little gardens scattered around my property full of plants and trees—a few planted last Fall; most all of them planted this Spring.

As I sat there the glorious sunset avian serenade became a cacophony of noise. I looked around for a predator— a Peregrine Falcon or a Coooper’s hawk. And then somehow I noticed it: I saw a large Barred Owl in a tree right behind and above my studio. It thrilled me to see it looking so majestic on a low branch of the tree, it’s head turning like R2D2.

My love of this place only grows and by this place I mean both my home and this island.