well, wait a minute on Monday's post.

I don't know I was pretty down Monday when I wrote "I Love Being Old."  I hadn't worked with UPS for the 3rd straight year yet.  I didn't know when I would work. Then, I worked with an awesome UPS driver. Still, I am working with him!
Ok.............well.....let's start with leadership at TMA  Ask if you don't know what that is.

I guess the manager and president aren't idiots.  First, area you should look for is corruption. The second is the annual budget.  No raise in association dues.  Logical spending occurs in the Annual Budget released/discussed last month.
What makes me upset comes from a well-known truism. One of the last people to use it was a Sec. of Defense I didn't even like Donald Rumsfeld at all (he served from 2001-2006).  But, the truism is something that more people need to consider.  It's this:
You don't know what you don't know. 
You can make all sorts of assumptions about how few people read Secretary's Minutes and Treasurer Reports.  No one knows how often people read those in the laundry room. & I'm willing to bet that the number of times people read them isn't zero. 
To TMA's credit they do send a statement in the 1st half of the following year relating how much is spent (ie if you  the condo spends in 2018, you get an accounting of what they spent in 2019.  Hopefully, that won't change.                                     

Things are better on the vocational front. It's been a year at a vocation that I spent 16 years doing, cardiac monitor tech.  I'm with a local hospital.  Benefits are good; I earned OT in spring, summer and fall.

There's another area that I might go in that will be announced later. It will be in tandem w/ cardiac monitor tech

I love being old!!

Let me tell you something!
I DON'T want to be a year, a decade or a score of years younger than I am now!  DO you know what I love best about being old?  When the police stop me, and I'm old enough to be their dad, they don't write me traffic tickets anymore.  I had one who caught me doing 16 mph over the speed limit.  He said "screw the speeding ticket;  I'm going to give you a little muni ticket for having a scent tree in your rear view mirror.  That's a muni offense here in Palos Heights!"
I don't want to live to be 90 or even 85.  But God says so, then I will live that age.  I just wonder how in the world I could afford to live at that advanced age.  I don't want to live that age because of what happened to my father, paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather. The first two died a very difficult death with Alzheimer's.  I'll never forget how Dad or my Grandma Alvina acted when they had their respective illnesses.  Dad took me aside 4 or 5 years prior to his mom's death and said, "I don't think she's going to live much longer, Vince."
Yet, she did.  She suffered from Alzheimer's.  She went to my Mom and asked repeatedly, nearly each day, about her certificate of deposits.
Then, about 30 years later, Dad had Alzheimer's.  First, Mom showed me the report first diagnosing him.  Then, I remember as clearly as yesterday, the first "Alzheimer's comment" my father made.  We sat for lunch or supper and my Dad said, "I know what day my birthday is." Really a sad, sinking feeling!
Yes, of course, I cried at his funeral.  I remember crying a few days before April 14, 2011 before I mailed my b-day card to him.  I was on the train.  I looked at the birthday card I was going to write and said, "how do I reach him???"  I cried. I hate, detest crying in public!!!!!  The train was my sanctuary from all life threw my way. I didn't have an excruciating life as a paralegal.  But 2011 was a difficult year.  A month after the crying incident, my ex-wife's father died.  When I helped put away possessions, I came across a piece of paper.  I became very distraught.  I was very hurt at what somebody did.
If it hadn't been for a wise brother like Jerome helping me out of that very tough situation, I would still be eaten up by that piece of paper.
BEFORE that,  as I drove to Ithaca back in 2010, I thought, "well, you know......maybe if Dad has Alzheimer's, then he'll mellow out.  He won't ask a lot from my Mom."
Dad was an Alpha personality until he went to the nursing home.
When I went to the place that I once called home.............Dad asked a lot of Mom.  Sad....very sad.
I was particularly sad that the older sister-in-law my fiance' dubs the "Ice Queen" didn't like coming to Ithaca, because she disliked the way my Dad acted.  I guess she had her reasons.  She had her reasons.  She lived through the developing feminist era of the late 60s and 70s.  Clearly, her mindset was different.  How could it not be?  Nevertheless, I really do disagree with her about my Father!!

Then, I see myself in 2019.  If Don Henley thought that 1989, 30 years ago, was "such a graceless age," then what the hell does he think now!!!!!!!!!!

From the same album, he sang, "This is no Shangrila."  In 2017-2019 it certainly wasn't Shangrila, certainly not for this nation.  Wow......I loved 1989, the year that album came out.  I moved to a city where they drive faster.  I loved their drivers and their radio stations a hell of a lot better than those in LaCrosse.

Now, I see myself now with my glaucoma, considerably worse vision and puffy, red, numb feet (complete w/ toe ulcers).  If I aged from 1999 to 2019 a great deal, then what is going to happen to me from 2019 to 2039?  

"That which doesn't kill you will only make you stronger." 

BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!

I have a depression that gnaws, an anxiety that inflames, and thank goodness for 2 drugs for my insomnia, so that I can float away from mental/physical pain for 8-10 hours.  The depression is hereditary. 3 people very close to me from 1963-1984 had/have it, too. 

  Hey, don't blame me for being on meds for my insomnia.  I lost 30 lbs. in 2 months back in 2007.  I couldn't sleep the whole night thru EVER AGAIN.   OK, so it sounds silly when I say don't blame me.  What I mean is don't blame me 100%.  Dr. Mool gave me the meds to make me sleep.  When I built up a higher tolerance going from 2007 to the fall of 2019, I got my 2nd med.  I'm not proud of it, but it sure makes me feel a lot better.  At least I'm not like Michael Jackson who had to take horse tranquilizers before his fateful death. I certainly wasn't your fan, but RIP Mike J.  

I'm still hopeful.  I still want to marry my fiance'.  I sent my annulment into the Chicago Archdiocese.  I'm hopeful they'll say "yes, your marriage is annulled" after a number of meetings I will face, and a verdict I hope is favorable.  I earned a 98% 5-star rating at Lyft and Uber and get rewards for those achievements.   

 My lover tells me that I do well-taking care of her.  She takes care of herself, too, for the most part.

He's on the extreme right in the last picture.

  

I like this guy above.  He's the reason 44 men have been presidents but Trump is considered the 45th President. You could, dear reader, win a bet asking, "how many men were President of the United States?" There's always one less than the # of presidents for the last 125 years.  Yes, he was counted twice as 22nd and 24th president; he earned it.  He had a beautiful, young wife, too.  I think of when I was a president of the condo.  Obviously, that doesn't resemble being President of USA.  Until my dying day, I'll be proud of reforming not once (2003), but twice (again in 2014) a condo board. I made mistakes. Thank God I left before O'Connell sunk her ugly clutches into the board and executed a 3-cornered theft. I love the above man's quote,  "a public office is a public trust!"  I laugh hard at the irony of being a Democrat, but acting like a Republican in my 14 years of being in public office as an elected condo board member.  I don't regret any of the fights I was in w/ manager my last year in office, 2018.  Those idiots (manager, president) couldn't even appreciate the value of posting the Secretary Minutes & Treasurer's Report in the laundry room.  I served as a President 6 of those years, was a Secretary all of my years as condo board member.  I learned parliamentary procedure thoroughly (also learned it as a 6 year Vice President of St. Damians Men's Club). I was complimented for how I wrote Secretary's Minutes. Yeah, I researched how to do that.  I took my time preparing those Minutes, because I thought they were damn important.  Yes, I wrote excellent Secretary's Minutes, and it's not bragging if it's true.  I wonder if I will be saying Cleveland's last words before he died, “I have tried so hard to do right.”

He didn't measure up to being a great president.  In his last term, he was stained by a bad recession.  There are reasons he shouldn't be considered "great president."  A man who met him was a great president.  Franklin Roosevelt's father knew and contributed to his campaigns for president.  Franklin Roosevelt talked to this man in the 2 pictures.  They were all from northern New York.  When I look back at 2019, I wish I accomplished more.  It grieves me to tears that I didn't avoid certain mistakes in 2019. I told my fiance' that I panic before going to bed often in the last 8 years; I say, "is that all I did today!!!!" Sometimes, it seems like all I have are my 2015 Mitsubishi, my kids, my dear future wife, my condo, a brain, siblings and self-deprecating jokes.  

....All we can do is hope for a better 2020.....

what does the IMPOSSIBLE BURGER mean?

So the IMPOSSIBLE WHOPPER is a burger sold by Burger King which has no real meat.  It's made out of soy and potatoes.  It tasted very similar to a regular burger, but I could taste a subtle difference.  There's an article on the Impossible Whopper in the New Yorker.  I love/respect beef farmers.  But clearly when we talk about sustainability and carbon footprint, we have to fact the fact that the Impossible Whopper leaves a much smaller carbon footprint.
The facts clearly back that up!

There's Now & There's Then, But What Happens to Us Now?

            This could be another day like any other.  I wake up, make a wholesome breakfast; later, work at Ubering and Lyft.  I do what millions of others do.  Get up, earn money, refrain from the noticeable bad habits that afflict a select group of unfortunate [1]people here in the United States.  However, we do not overlook those more fortunate than us, the ones who don’t seem to have to do much to get a few thousand each workday in the town I live or go on the train, show up and earn it in the LOOP area of Chicago. The problem is that we feel jealousy or feel that we are a failure, because we have to struggle so much more than those people.  Human nature seduces us to look and ponder at those who have it seemingly easier than us. 

            Why was this morning different for me than the others? I had a dream where my situation was worse than it is now.  I was suddenly friends again with a pretty woman from my old neighborhood in Ithaca. She came up to me and said that she heard that I didn’t like her anymore, and that was why I had been away from Ithaca.  I was about to explain all the things that had gone wrong in my life, and that the reason for me to be elsewhere had nothing to do with anything she may had done wrong.  However, I woke from the dream, because………..it simply was time to get up and face the new day.

            The point is that in this blog, which started 14 years ago, I have already documented the adversity that I suffered.  They include having prostate cancer and taking a hiatus from my career as a paralegal.  Then when I was recovered and was hired back after having cancer, the legal environment for paralegals seemed to be very different than when I left.  Yet, there are so many other things that have happened to me that I have discussed more at length that I need not list them again. 

            When I grew up, I had a very strong contempt of Country Western music.  I woke up early in the morning at 5 am and, after breakfast, milked cows.  Either my father or my older brother subjected me to listen to that hick music while I would get hit by cows tails as they tried to fend off flies.  The DJ certainly did not help as they would attempt humor and fall woefully short.  That is why I disliked Country Western music.  It stood for a milieu that I despised.

            However, that occurred well over 40 years ago.  I don’t look at Country Western music the same way.  As my PBS station played Ken Burns TV series Country Music, I looked forward to hearing a new episode each night since Sunday.  Monday, I was unable to hear Episode 2, because I was working a night shift at the hospital.  However, when I went to the PBS website, I was easily able to listen/see the episode on my computer.

The music played was more hick than the music I heard 40 years ago; what changed?  I did.  I left the farm 32 years ago. When I hear Country Western on Ken Burns TV series, I’m not working next to a cow.  In fact, I’m miles away from any cow. I no longer feel the hot contempt I did back then.

These episodes graphically showed the tough, hardscrabble lives these musicians lived before they became famous.  Then they showed how some of them struggled in life even after they became stars.  How people like Jimmy Webb died young of TB, and how Hank Williams died even younger of alcoholism-induced complications.  Both were legendary pioneers of this music.

Clearly, there’s a frustration in seeing someone with great talent having it all cut short due to their own shortcomings.

We face many challenges.  There are so many ways we could make costly mistakes and not many ways we can do things right and succeed.  That is why they call the desired course of life “the straight and narrow.”

What many of us find particularly difficult and what has confounded millions of us in the times we live in are changes that have occurred in the last 20, 30 years.  There are more changes than there were 30 years ago.  Sadly, the changes afflict many of us quicker and more unrelenting than someone who lived a generation before us.  Global warming, the upheaval in the workplace (those who work at this same place for 15, 20 years are in the minority), the value of the work done by the middle-class being less than before and the disgusting "gigue economy" are all examples of these dizzying changes.  

One of my favorite authors is Hermann Hesse.  He wrote Steppenwolf in the 1920s.  I always marveled, in this book, at how he predicted World War II more than a decade prior to its beginning (80 years ago to the month)! Clearly, as you read Steppenwolf, the world changed as a result of World War I which occurred a few years prior. Early in the story, a man the main character lived with discussed how difficult it would be to live in the Middle Ages.  The main character, Harry Haller, replied,

"A man of the Middle Ages would detest the whole mode of our present day life as something far more than horrible, far more than barbarous.  Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and ugliness; accepts certain sufferings as matters of course, puts up patiently with certain evils. 
Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures...overlap.  A man of the Classical Age who had to live in medieval times would suffocate miserably just as a savage does in the midst of our civilization.  Now, there are times when a whole generation is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the consequence that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence." Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf , 1929

Clearly, there have been so many changes, that it has become hard to keep up.  Yet, keep up we must.  We have to realize that the way in which we succeeded in 1990 will not succeed in 2019.  Think of how much the political landscape has changed between now and 1990.  I have discussed these changes in this blog previously, so there's no reason to discuss them now. 

As we struggle onwards, there are some who are worried about how they will find their next meal. Many others are worried about how they will pay their mortgage. Still, others wonder how they can clearly pass on the ethics and outlook that helped them succeed through a majority of adulthood to their offspring and a younger generation. 

_______________________

[1] When I think of bad habits tragically plaguing people's lives I only have to look at my own community.  I look out my 3rd floor balcony of my condo and see a neighbor next to me who let alcohol and foolishness cause him to go to jail and blight a life where his potential could have led him to accomplish more.  There's another man who has such a crippling gambling habit that he spends too much of his life homeless.  His condition has reduced this man who is 5'9" to a weight of about 140 pounds. 

a funny incident

I woke up one night and noticed my eye drops were missing.  I didn't think much of it, because I had eye drops elsewhere.
Then a day or 2 after, I noticed that the bread would not fit into the toaster.  I looked inside the toaster and there were my eye drops.  I should explain that my medicine is kept in my kitchen cabinet, because I don't have an existing medicine cabinet.  So it was a situation where the eye drops fell off the shelf and into the toaster.  & I didn't see it. 
If you look close enough at the top of the bottle, you'll see that there's a crease.  I didn't toast the eye drops, but the heat that was in the toaster apparently put some creases into the bottle. 
oh well

What Will We Think

A couple years ago, when I worked for Chegg Tutors; I helped a student with comparing nations.  China was one of those nations. There was an important discovery that I made.  China spends more than the United States on business capital.  By virtue of having the highest GDP, the United States still has the world's largest economy.  Yet, the fact that China invests more in their businesses, that they have a much bigger population, that their businesses are becoming larger, employing more people, it is only a matter of time that China's economy, its GDP will be bigger than the United States.

What will be the reaction of politicians, business leaders and economists when the Chinese economy catches up to the American economy.  I predict that there will be a good deal of anger and blame that will surface.  Why is US no longer #1?
What could we have done to stay #1 longer?
What did we do wrong, and what is China doing right?
The Republicans will blame the Democrats, and state that if the American economy was not so regulated and so taxed the US would still be dominant not only over China but over the world! This is similar to what happened in China in 1949 when the nation became Communist.  There were Republicans who placed great blame on the Truman administration for China becoming communist.  There was this great conceit that US could have prevented China from being communist.  If only we would have intervened!  So, how is it that when we actually intervened in Vietnam we could not prevent South Vietnam from becoming communist.  If we couldn't succeed there, how the hell could we have succeeded in China.
And so it will go when China has the world's largest GDP.  There is no denying that the United States will have less power (obviously with wealth comes power).  Yet, this is happening.  with China giving considerably more foreign aid to other nations than the United States does.

WHO ARE THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE?!?!?

"How does it feel to be               
one of the beautiful people?          

Now that you know who you are, 

what do you want to be?             
 "Baby You're  a Rich Man," by Lennon & McCartney

In a land filled with desperation, self-loathing and needless sacrifice, there are a group of people ages 25 to 70 who stay above the struggle that others suffer in the the city, suburb or rural area.  

Here are the characteristics of these beautiful people: 

1. They DON'T LIVE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK

2. Where they live DOES MATTER; WHAT THEY DRIVE matters, too. 

3.  Their friends share similar features, think the same way they do.  If there is a difference of opinion it will be who does what better.  Competition flows easily through these confident, competent  people. 

4.  The confidence they carry is palpable!!  You see it in their face.  It's kinda like a slight, Mona-Lisa-type smile as they accomplish what they know they can accomplish. 

5. The beautiful people know that  they've accomplished much earlier in their life, and it gives them the opportunity to take it easier in their 50s.  

6.  The beautiful people can plan to go to the Super Bowl, World Series or the NCAA football or basketball championship games without giving a single thought about price or getting out of work!! ("Why should I sweat the time off going to the Super Bowl?" asked one of the beautiful people,  "I own the fuckin' company!")

7.  The issues that concern the beautiful people are not issues normal people usually think about. AND the issues concerning the "peasants" certainly DON'T CONCERN THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!! 

8. A corollary to #4.  With their massive confidence, they feel that when problems arise, particularly with friends' problems, they can help them out.   They'll solve the problem deftly.
 Sometimes, unfortunately, they project this attitude to people who aren't  "beautiful people."  Like the ones who live paycheck to paycheck and are unable to save.  They can't figure out why they can't spring for paying for their new hot water heater that just went out or why they're using a credit card for a massive brake job on their car.  Their solutions to non-beautiful people problems are pat and simplistic.


9.  One of the sources of power for beautiful people are the people they know, their connections, their "peeps".  With these friends they have shortcuts to problems that peasants can only dream of having.
10.  Not only do beautiful people have friends in high places, but they often know celebrities.  You'll see a picture in Facebook with a man whose on TV every week.

There may be other characteristics of beautiful people.  If you know any, please tell me about them in Comments.  I may amend this blog entry to include yours!!

A QUESTION FOR YOU !

IS the most common source of misery wanting something you can't have??

The Very Good Theory on Music you hear!!

Vince's Theory of Music on the Radio

Cars are a lot like songs. First, they have to be made. Some songs, some cars are ill conceived, not made well, and then sold to the public. If it's a car, it breaks down after about 40,000 miles and is a damn "lemon". It's a song, that sounds like shit! We all heard a shitty song, right? You know like "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees? 

Then there's better songs, but not by a whole lot. These are songs that sound good, catch fire, but then fall apart after hearing it for the umpteenth time. Think about a popular song that goes to #1 or close to #1. Then you hear it, and hear it and hear it, and hear it in commercials. OMG!!! I think I hear my cockatiel whistling the melody!! Can't think of a song like that now (I stay away from those kind of stations), but "You Light up My LIfe" by Debby Boone comes to mind (anyone around in 1977??)Another song is "Out of Tears" from VOODOO LOUNGE back in the mid-90s. After playing it on the radio stations, MTV, they played it in soap operas maybe a commercial and OMG, I am so over that song by then!! The point is the first time you heard it, you thought is was ok, the 3rd time you heard it, you don't mind it. But like cars, that song just keeps piling up more and more mileage. Then it hits about 100,000 miles. You've heard the song so much, you immediately change radio stations if you hear the 1st 4 notes! Yes, it's so bad that you don't even have to hear the singer sing the tune. You know the song so well, and we all know "familiarity breeds contempt.". It ran and drove well for awhile, the song sounded good, but after hearing it so much and reaching 100,000 miles, the muffler dropped off, it's timing belt snapped, the engine has no power in it, and the transmission is shot. If you hear that fuckin' song again, you'll start swearing (sorry, I already go that covered). The bottom line is that the song isn't good enough to hear so many times. Like an average car, it's days are numbered after it reaches 100,000 miles. 

Then, there's the great cars. Songs/cars that were well designed, put together masterfully, and sold to an adoring public. Some songs are so awesome that they could be 30 years old and still sound as though it was released yesterday. 
I loved hearing The White Stripes "Fell in Love with a Girl" back in 2002; I love hearing it now, 6 years later, and will love hearing it 10 years from now. You can say the same about other songs from other bands. Two examples are Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Under Foot" and "Misty Mountain Hop" (but not so "Stairway to Heaven" it's been played oh so much! It's like a car with 600,000 miles on it. By that time nearly any car would break down!)

There are songs that don't get much airplay on a popular album. They are a vintage car with only a few thousand miles on them. Boston has 2 songs like that. One is "Let Me Take You Home Tonight" from the first album and "Party" from the 2nd album. I like them more than "Long Time' or maybe even "More than a Feeling". Now, More than a Feeling IS A GOOD SONG. But when classic rock stations across the nation play this song 3-5 times a week.........well, it has about 600,000 miles on it...... and you know what happens to cars w/ 600,000 miles on them.

Today, if the cars were just like the music we often have to listen to, we would see 1970s, 1980s cars more than we see cars made after 2000!!!!!!!  How messed up would that be!!  
So that is why I am lukewarm about a song like "Stairway to Heaven" but absolutely worship a song like "In My Time of Dying". "In My Time of Dying" is a song that not many people heard, but it sounds every bit as good as "Stairway to Heaven". No, the radio stations don't play "In My Time of Dying", but that just means it's a great car with only 15,000 miles on it!! Yes, those are the songs I love THE MOST!!

More song's in this vein: 
"& RUN" by Sir Sly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMtnWxHbyQA 
"Just Make It Stop" by Low  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rAdzJ1U0RU
"DANGEROUS" by Big Data  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8b4xYbEugo
"If I Fall"  by Catchpenny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXFL_vrpjPI  (Due notice, I am the uncle to the 2 leaders of this band.  They are Christian & Zach Schauf)
"Digital Witness" by St. Vincent (I LOVE Anne Clarke!!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVAxUMuhz98
"Barton Hollow" by Civil Wars  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExAM8D7cfbI
"Volcano" by Damien Rice  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZduDvIBu3EU
song by G Love  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPH3dPQkIc  (don't take this song literally, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!)

Boycotts and silent treatment

Silence or inaction work better than overt conflict.

THE NRA is declining!!  No one shot the henchman, Wayne LaPierre.  Maybe should have.......
But that's not for me to advocate.
Look how the White Trash element is having problems in the NRA.
NRA gets outspent in 2018 by gun control groups.  Democrats finally win in an off-year election.
Wayne LaPierre SPENT FAR MORE THAN THE NRA took in membership dues.  
NRA is in the financial hole, in the RED INK.  HAAH! 

It's not all of the alt-left's counter moves.  It's inaction.  It's saying screw it.......we just aren't going to drink the White Trash's Kool-Aid anymore.  The statistics speak loud and clear.
The avatar for the rightwing Conservatives is the Readers' Digest.   You know it's pretty bad if your are a conservative reactionary and one of the best rightwing outlets the Readers Digest criticizes.  & that's EXACTLY what Readers' Digest did  in an article over decade ago AGAINST Oliver North.
YES, THAT OLIVER NORTH!
The one who the CIA said was an "accident waiting to happen!!"
The Oliver North that was working 100 hours a week for the CIA doing William Casey's  arms for hostages scheme! The same Oliver North that, according to famous writer, Bob Woodward, only got a couple hours of sleep during much of the sordid affair!

Consider this if a right-wing reactionary says that white-trash group is not worthy of his leadership, you know things are not going well for them!! Oliver North resigned as President of the NRA a few days ago!

Silence is golden.  If you post and others don't respond....then you need to stop and think. 
Sometimes it's better to shrug your shoulders and keep fighting the good fight, but other times...........

These bullies die!

There's been a few too many years where I suffered at the hands of bullies.  Obviously, when I was young, ectomorphic and nieve. After I left Ithaca for the 1st time and went to school in Madison, I got picked on MUCH less.  I even won some fights (where was the prizewinning$$ ??)

There was a very large group of bullies that my MOM told me about.  They are the STARLINGS. Starlings deliberately and fiendishly smash bluebird eggs.  She told me all about them.  I felt her outrage as she told me about how starlings made it an odious habit to peck out bluebird eggs.

The very common, all too over-populated Starling!  Baleful, greasy and foreboding!!



Then from late middle school to early high school, I spent an hour per week shooting starlings.  Oh, the cats loved me!  When Vince picked up the gun it was mealtime.  One of the funnier, more satisfying moments on the farm was picking up the .22 caliber rifle (with its faulty safety that slid) and having the cats follow me around the house and barn shooting those bullying starlings.  I enjoyed picking each and every starling off the trees with those dangerous-w/in-a-mile 22 bullets!! I enjoyed watching the pleasure those cats had when they chewed up and ate the bullies.
One day I shot where I shouldn't and Dad yelled and said, "Just for that, Vince, you can't use the gun for a month!"
Not a word of protest came from my mouth.  I shot in the wrong place (next to the large  pipe taking haylege up the harvester via blower).  I thought to myself, "Well my uncle and namesake was killed with a gun and I could probably study more.  I actually was an honor student my sophomore year and that was the year I gave up the gun on a regular basis.  I probably have picked up a gun less than 20 times from 1979 to the present.  

Over a decade ago, Maribeth (my ex-wife) had a sidekick called Sal the Handyman.  Sal was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Milwaukee, WI when he was a very young teen.  He joined one of the gangs, went to prison, sold drugs when he got married and moved South to the Chicago area and went to prison some more. Sadly, Sal's wife spent more time romancing women than men.  Then, Sal's former girlfriend lived at the same condo as Maribeth & I.  One time, Maribeth fought her poolside.  I think Maribeth's fury was a bit too much; the girlfriend ended it by walking away but giving Maribeth the finger all the while.

But to Maribeth & Sal's credit, they put hardwood flooring in the kitchen and living room as well as tile in the bathroom.  They also installed our old air conditioner which still goes strong after all these years.  Here's where the Sal Subplot weds with the starling.  Starlings are all over our condo complex.  When Maribeth & Sal installed the air conditioner, they got an air conditioner that was smaller than the holes the condo provided for our 166 condo units (including our condo unit).
So while the air conditioning is very effective in cooling our living room, there are 3 crevices where those damn starlings can get into.  I have used pungent poison in the main area where sparrows and starlings have gathered.
To the beautiful morning doves, they became too smart to roost in the defense I put up-chicken wire and aromatic poison.  But, of course, both the sparrows and starlings are persistent bastards, and I have been forced to use another scheme.  The old discarded clothes are only effective against the smaller, pesky birds while the aromatic poison is wet......not when it dries up! 
I found a cheap cattle prod, most of them for around $100,   have stored speaker wire, arranged for part of the wire to be BARE and now the starling bullies are in for a very painful shock of their lives.   HA!

Dear Reader, I will fill you in on how my thorough scheme works out.