It helps to have a goal. I always say that, don’t I? And then I go on leading the goalless life, or at least a life where goals are set up and then ignored. Goals and deadlines are the same to me, except that deadlines must be met. Goals are a little less rigid. It helps to have a goal, but it helps if the goal is easy to meet. That’s about the only time a goal is reached.

So earlier this week I bought a new pair of garden gloves at Target, where everything is all “back-to-school” now, and the gardening supplies have been rotated to the back of the store. I was a little tired of having the stickers in my old gloves eat away the skin of my hands every time I put them on. I’ve been using that as an excuse not to do more work in the yard. In fact, this past week was the first since the yard got mowed that I didn’t fill up the yard waste container and roll it out to the roadside.

Having run out of excuses when today turned out to be mild and pleasant, I set myself a modest goal today. All I wanted to do was clear away enough brush and dry weeds around the birdbath in my garden to be able to fill it up for the first time in awhile. I didn’t promise myself I’d fill up the container in one day, although I nearly did, and it’ll go out to the road this Thursday even if I don’t do another lick of work all week.

It didn’t take long, but it was hard, scratchy work. And it paid off right away, because almost as soon as I came inside, a sparrow found the birdbath and started splashing around in it. There’s a sight I’ve missed since the weeds got so high and the birdbath toppled over. Whatever the next goal turns out to be, I hope success is this rewarding.

Naturally, a scrub jay came along and chased off the sparrow before the sparrow was finished. And the jays don’t even like the birdbath. They just want to be the bullies of the yard. This one dive bombed the sparrow and then sat in the tree overlooking the garden, just to make sure the sparrow didn’t come back. I hate it when birds act too much like people.