LIFE?

Saturday April 16, 2011 3:30 am

Have you ever watched a movie... two times in a row? Perhaps if you are really into movies that might not be an uncommon occurrence for you? However, for me this was a first. Although the movie was good, with an elaborate and well-thought storyline, and the special effects were second to none... that is not the reason I watched the same movie through for a second time. The first time I sat there and saw all of the images dance across the screen, and I even heard the words... but, I really didn't see the images, nor did I really hear the words... no, not the first time. (I will say though out of all of the vampire movies I have ever seen... if I could have my choice of who might bite me on the neck... well, it would probably have to be Selene.)

I decided to open with that paradox... seeing something and not seeing... hearing something and not hearing... because as little sense as that might make, that is how I am feeling about many things. So, for you, the occasional reader to my blog... hop on and hopefully you can enjoy this short ride down my particular rabbit hole.

At what point in life does any of us have it all figured out? And the “it” I am referring is life. Is it during our teenage years? I guess I thought so at one time. I mean, had you met me then I seemed to have all the answers? Just ask me. Life was certainly more simple and easier. No entanglements, work when you want, date who you want... yep, it all seemed fairly easy.

I suppose that it was in my 20's that I REALLY had all the answers: again, just ask me. This might be hard for some to believe who would read this today, but if you knew me then you would already have known this about me. That entire decade I never even paused a single time to wonder about such things as happiness, or contentment. In fact, none of the things that many spend their entire lives in search for... I never even gave a thought to them. I suppose that I was just so cocksure of myself that I wouldn't even consider such beggarly topics as those. No, not me, I was above that particular fray.

And the foolish part of that is I was actually admired by some people for having it all together. In reality though, I think it was nothing more than the movie I watched the first time this evening... I just wasn't really paying any attention. I had a particular friend who was a few years older than I was and many times he would unburden himself to me and I would patiently listen and offer my advice as I was asked. Inevitably he would ask when he was all done talking if there was anything I might need to tell him? “No, not really,” I would always say. And the honest truth was there wasn't anything I needed to talk about. Because, again... there was no question I could be asked that I didn't have a ready answer for.

I began to realize in my 30's that I had fewer answers and more questions... this was quite a revelation to me. Now, I never had any great epiphany or eureka moment when I suddenly realized that I was not half as bright as some had thought. No, this new self-awareness was gradual, as even that took a little while to sink in. At this point in life every single answer I had heretofore known... were all revisited with probing questions. In time I learned to dislike both the questions and the answers. Why wasn't life like it was before? Admittedly I was ignorant about so many things in my teens and 20's, but, at least during those years I was “blissfully” ignorant.

When my three older daughters were all very young, each one, and at different times in their young lives I would have them sit on my knees facing me and I would hold their little hands in mine and I would swing their arms back-and-forth in time to the verse: then, in a sing-song voice I would recite Humpty-Dumpty to them.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses, And all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again!

(Now, after I had recited this part, they would always join in and together we would finish with: “Poor old Humpty Dumpty!”) I thought of that this morning as I realized that once something is broken... irrevocably broken, just like poor old Humpty Dumpty, it really can't ever be put back together again.

I do have at least one consolation as I sit here and type this morning. It is the steady and rhythmic breathing and snoring from Virgil. He was asleep beside me on the couch as I watched the movie the second time... and within seconds of my shutting everything down and coming in here, the poor little guy followed me in and dropped down on his bed by my feet, and promptly fell into a deep sleep! Does anyone know if it's okay to be envious of a dog?

I suppose I am at the place in life where if you asked me ten different questions on ten different topics... I can still give an answer to every single question. But, here is where I am so much different than I was just 20 years ago. Ask me just one question... any question, about any single thing... and still, I can give you ten answers to that single question... and each answer, will be different!

If I leave this up for several days there will be some who read this and know my background and belief system. If that is you, never fear... I am not doubting what I believe about the Bible or any truths as they relate to doctrine... it is just life in general... or at least my life in general that I have no idea what I am going to do with it.

In summation I think that every single thing from this point and backwards... I realize I never really had any true answers: not about life anyway. And now, today, this morning and at 55 year of age... for every “answer” I think I might have? I have ten more questions about those answers, which (of course) I only thought I knew anyway?

It's now approaching 4:30 am and I awoke at this same time just 24 hours ago... only then I had to get ready for work... now 24 hours later and I'm not yet tired. Usually I can lay down and sleep for a few hours... but over the course of the last 20 years there have been just too many nights like this one: where in approximately two hours I will begin to see light through the window to my right first... then little by little the black through the window I am facing... will start to turn to lighter shades of grey. Then, I will know the Y is open and I can go there and see others, who like me are up early to start another day.

My dad used to tell stories about some brilliant scientists at a place he worked for in Ohio who could go days at a time without sleep, as in their minds they were wrestling with some obscure facts or formulas. I suppose to lose sleep because one is so bright that sleep is deemed unimportant or an impediment in their quest for truth, is one thing... and perhaps even to be admired. But to be average and ordinary in every way, and still not sleep: well, that bites!

You can always email me at clarkmatthews1@aol.com

Have you heard the buzz?

The original Flyman Flytraps are available for the first time online. I will give you a little history as to how this trap came into existence.

Plato famously said, “Necessity, who is the mother of invention.” That sentiment was never truer than in the case of my flytraps.

Several years ago we raised dogs and the puppies were offered for sale. At one time we had as many as thirty-three dogs on our property at the same time. If you have that many dogs; guess what else you have a lot of? I’ll give you a hint; you have to gather and haul it away. You guessed it, “canine caca,” “dog’s dinner,” “puppy pooh,” or any other name you care to call it, in excess of 500 pounds of collected animal dung per month draws a lot of flies!

I spent many $$$ on poisons and other peoples ideas of what was the best way of eliminating flies. To be fair, each of these products that I used had some limited benefit, but none of them worked to the degree that I was looking for- virtual elimination of flies in my backyard and surrounding property. That ideal led me to invent what I believe is one of the very best flytraps (and bait) in the world.

For the last ten years I have been tweaking and perfecting my traps and baits until I now have an inexpensive and very effective means that does what I wanted all along. I have achieved near elimination of all flies from my property. With my traps and bait, you will be on your way to achieving that very same thing as well.

Statistics

For this next segment I will be using the most common and accepted averages and statistics for certain characteristics of the housefly. I will include a low and high number and then I will take the mean average for those figures.

Musca domestica (common housefly) lives approximately 10 – 25 days. (Average 17 days) The female, during her lifetime will lay between 300 – 900 eggs. (Average 600 eggs) The weight of flies has been measured from 37 – 43 milligrams. (Average 40 milligrams)
The next sentence will have two important facts to keep in mind. (1) “As long as there is a food source, (2) the majority of houseflies lives and dies within ¼ mile of where they were hatched.” To better understand why those two facts are important, picture your house as the epicenter for flies and then imagine a circle that radiates from your house only 1,320 feet in all directions. Keep in mind that for the vast majority of common houseflies, that boundary (1/4 mile) is their whole world.
Ask yourself the following question. Do your neighbor’s houses that are within that 1,320 feet boundary have “food sources” for the hated Musca domestica? If you answer yes to that question, and of course, yes is the correct answer, then a logical conclusion should follow. The flies that were hatched in someone else’s backyard will live their life annoying those people without having a need to invade your own backyard.
That is why my flytraps are so successful. By the multiplied thousands, they trap, kill and therefore prevent flies from being able to reproduce. That is why it is important to set several traps around your yard and if possible, get them out in the early springtime. By enacting such a plan you are dealing with a finite and manageable number of these pests and not a pestilence that seems to have infinite numbers.
Flies are not just a nuisance or merely annoying, they have been known to carry disease organisms that cause: salmonella, dysentery, typhoid fever, anthrax, cholera, tuberculosis, ophthalmia, parasitic worms and summer diarrhea, just to name a few. Also, in your livestock and even your backyard dog they can cause myiasis. These are parasites (fly maggots) that live under the skin and feed off of living tissue.

Five facts about my traps:

First, I use no poisons at all. In past years, one of the problems with my buying and using (even) some effective store-bought remedies to kill flies was that strong poisons were involved. I always had to be careful that the bait and my dogs never came into contact with each other. Using my Flyman Flytraps, that is never a problem as my bait is completely non-toxic.

Secondly, my traps are environmentally safe. With those other traps, once they were done being effective and needed to be replaced, you had to be careful how they were collected and disposed of. With my traps, once they are full, the only things you dispose of are the dead flies. I even provide the means for that and you never come in contact with their tiny disgusting carcasses.

Thirdly, my traps are 100% reusable. The Flyman Flytrap can be used again and again, even season after season. This was not the case with those poisons that I bought. It was always, once and done.

Fourth, my traps can be used in any type of weather and they are unaffected by rain, sun or wind. This was not the case with those other ones and you had to apply more treatment after strong winds, too much sun exposure or rain.

Fifth; my traps are very inexpensive. You could purchase four of my traps and enough bait to fill each one three separate times, for less than the cost of one small tub of a particular fly poison that I used to purchase.

How effective are my traps? Purchase my Flyman Flytraps and from your own backyard and property you will be able to make a visual and measurable determination for yourself.
As I stated earlier, the average weight of a housefly is 40 milligrams, and it takes approximately 25 flies to equal 1 gram. There are 28.125 grams in one single ounce. If you measure that weight in dead flies, it takes approximately 700 of their bodies to weigh one ounce. In earlier years, I have emptied traps from my yard and the accumulated weight of the dead flies, has been in pounds! This adds up to more than 11,000 dead flies, per (each) pound!
Are you ready, okay then, let’s kill some flies! Here is how to order:

You have three ways to purchase. I accept PayPal, money order or personal check. At this time I do not accept any of the major credit cards as the percentage of each sale that these companies withhold is simply too much. (Please do not send cash.) Checks or money orders are to be made out to: Flyman Enterprises.
I also offer a thirty-day 100% money back guarantee. After using my traps for two weeks, if you do not think that they are as effective as I have stated, simply ship them back to me and I will give you the full purchase price that you paid for the traps. How’s that? After ten years of experimenting and perfecting, I am extremely confident in what my traps and baits can do.

My basic trap

It consists of seven normal household items,
and it is made with glass, steel and tin.

When you purchase an original Flyman Flytrap and you use and see how effective it is, you will wish that you had thought of it first. My design also makes it a virtual impossibility for the trapped fly to escape. This has to do with my “inverted reflector” and the fact that the common housefly has approximately 4,000 individual lenses in their eyes. Imagine, having eyes with 4,000 lenses to see with and being “blinded” by a simple thin sheet of reflecting tin?
The best time to set my traps is in the very early spring of the year. The reason for this is that 70% to 95% of all fly larvae and pupae will die over the winter season. Therefore it stands to reason that by trapping the much smaller numbers of flies that survive into the early spring will make it much easier to reach your goal of practical elimination of houseflies from your property. It is in fact that very reason (and practice) that allows us to enjoy a “virtual, no (house)fly zone” around our two-acre property.
Even though we quit raising puppies for sale, we still own ten dogs and it is nice to be able to have pets of your choice and not be beleaguered with the pestilence of houseflies.
Suppose it is the middle of summer and your own property has fly populations that (even by using my traps and bait) would make it an impossible task to reach that coveted “no housefly zone,” should you still use them? Absolutely and for at least two reasons; get a jump on killing the fly population before winter and (perhaps) kill large numbers of flies that could be carrying some sickness to one of your pets or family members.