His back door opens earlier than the normal 10:00am. Occasionally it opens as early as 8:00 am and you can find him standing on his deck, holding the side rail as if assessing the new day. I smile seeing him standing outside this early.

I don’t worry about Mr. Mike anymore because he let a friend move in with him and I see positive changes in his daily routine since acquiring a roommate. My favorite is around 4:30 each day, they sit beside one another in deck chairs, scrolling through a tablet and laughing together. A young girl comes to visit and there’s only 2 chairs on the deck, but she sits on the deck itself, at their feet, looking up at them, listening.

Mr. Mike is a fountain of wisdom, but if you tell him that he’ll scoff and say, “I’ve just been here longer than you and have made more mistakes”, but I don’t buy it because he’s learned from every life lesson what not to do next time.

One day I was complaining about my portable drill being dead every time I wanted to use it and Mr. Mike shared his wisdom. He said, “When you’re done using it, remove the battery before storing it”, so I began doing this and the drill has consistently been ready for use without stopping to charge it!

I noticed the birds stopped using the bird bath hanging at the bottom of the yard, so I scoped out a new location. I thought it would be nice to bring it to the center on the yard and hang it from the deck railing. The female Cardinal from this post might benefit having water near her nest and then I could see the bird bath from the kitchen window.

Another thing Mr. M shares is, the more years we spend here the more likely it is we have everything we’ll ever need. I purchased a hanger years ago on sale that would attach to the deck post, so I went in search of that and my drill. Attaching the battery to the drill I stepped outside with everything needed for this mini mission.Thanks to Mr. Mike’s advice the drill held plenty of power and hanging the bird bath took 2 minutes.

When we need an answer to one of life’s mysteries it’s a solid practice to ask someone who’s been here longer than us. If nothing else they can warn us of what doesn’t work because they’ve probably tried it before. It doesn’t surprise me seeing the girl visiting and sitting at their feet. I imagine for her it’s like drinking from a fountain of wisdom.