Bunny in your case the profession would be gigolo! Nice work if you can get it. I was never pretty enough and my gag reflex is too strong. Math has haunted me all my life, unfortunately I can't stay away from it as I am in the science field. I can barely keep my two phone numbers straight in my head. Last summer I suffered through college algebra (again) in a vain attempt to raise my GRE anayltical score. Plus studied all the tutorials for the math part in my spare time. I would hate to imagine what kind of score I would have gotten had I not done all of that! Still it wasn't good enough to get into a doctoral program. So if I ever have any spare time again, I will be back at the math tutorials. I just don't have the knack, it's a real struggle. The job I want is to write trite, innacurate platitudes and make a bundle selling books to miserable bourgeoise who dream of being a forest ranger! People say I'm a good writer. Another gig I fantasize about is travel WRITER. You know, go on fantastic trips, and then write about it for the poor slobs stuck in the office! Having had jobs that a lot of people fantasize about being easy and stress free, it is one of my pet peeves. Like the idea that teaching science to kindergarteners is "easy" because it is at a basic level. Yes of course it's easy for a college educated person to understand the science part, but the difficult part in managing the kids with their different perceptions, experience, maturity level, and 15 minute attention spans, etc. It's not just a matter of speaking slower and louder! And to work as a tour guide at a national park you have to put up with years and years of grunt work and moving from park to park. One of my former students works for the National Park Service. Sure he has had some great jobs--he once lived in a lighthouse on an island off the coast of WI on Lake Superior. But i saw him last summer and he says he longs to settle down. He said he wants to finally know where the hardware store is and what box he left that book in. He's lived in five places throughout the country in eight years--FLA, WI, CA, WA, and now ND. Yes, he's finally gotten a job where he can settle down a bit--in the Badlands! Going on a nature hike in a park is fun and relaxing, but it isn't necessarily fun and relaxing for the person who's job it is to lead it. They work hard to make it look easy. Not that I haven't loved my career, but non-competitive and stress free it aint. The visitors feel non-competitive and stress free--but they are on vacation. The employees are not, and all the things that they deal with and take care of are the stresses the visitors are there to avoid. That's what they get paid for, to deal with them so the visitors don't have to. If you live in a tony vacation spot it is even worse. On your way running errands or to the grocery or laundromat you have to pass by folks lounging around on the beach, something you would LOVE to do, if only you had the time! But you're NOT on vacation. It's like torture, lol! I much prefer grungy Allentown where the housing is affordable and the parking is ample and folks are as stuck here as you so might as well smile and make the best of it! But having worked outside most of my life I am unfortunately spoiled for a desk job. It also doesn't suit my personality--I need to be up and doing.

Turning Up the Heat - Larry O'Hara (which we are doing here as it has turned as cold as Feb)

The grocery store where I like to shop just did a massive reorganization. So, not only can I no longer find stuff but it turns out they also took the opportunity to discontinue some of my favourite brands of things such as tuna, pasta, hummus. I have a good thing - I run at 7:30 am with a group of people 3 x a week, always the same days and it is amazing how often it starts to rain just as we *finish* our run at 8:45. That's right, I said, finish and not start. We are mystified by it but we don't want to question it too loudly.

I took down all my feeders (squirrels, raccoons, and chipmunks mostly) and have been planting natives. I have lots of trees, too, on my little half-acre. Tons of birds this spring and summer, although it seemed we had fewer last year when I first took the feeders down. All I put up now is suet in winter and spring. Have to say, the squirrels get at that as well, so I may stop doing that, too. This morning, I heard Carolina wrens, house wrens, sparrows, cardinals, robins, catbirds, blue jays, and a couple of weeks ago and Eastern towhee. Just plant those natives and they will come. ETA: I tried safflower several years ago. Didn't faze the squirrels who devoured it just like the sunflower seed.