We Thank Our Veterans While I Wage A Late-Night Standoff With A Woodpecker

A moment of gratitude turns into a real, lived-in story about resilience, community, and the messy beauty of everyday life. We open with a heartfelt salute to veterans—friends and family who chose service, carried the weight of duty, and brought discipline and courage back home. From memories of time near Alameda’s Navy community to the small but meaningful perks offered on Veterans Day, we explore what appreciation looks like beyond a simple “thank you” and why listening to real stories matters.

That spirit of respect threads into a surprising second act: apartment life with a relentless woodpecker. Between sleepless nights, maintenance delays, and the rules that protect wildlife, we walk through humane deterrents—reflective tape, CDs, owl decoys, timing repairs—and the difference between quick patches and real fixes. It’s funny at times and frustrating at others, a reminder that life doesn’t pause for big feelings. When the nest is above your window, theory meets practice, and patience becomes a daily drill.

Along the way, we invite veterans to share why they joined, what basic training taught them, and how service shapes civilian life. We also welcome practical tips from anyone who has solved tricky wildlife issues without harm. If you’ve navigated the transition out of uniform or found a way to reclaim your sleep from a stubborn bird, your insights could help someone else. Hit play for gratitude, real talk, and a few hard-earned laughs—and then join the conversation.

If the episode resonates, follow the show, tap the thumbs up, share it with a friend, and drop your story or advice in the comments. Your voice makes this community stronger.

Chapters

• 0:00 Warm Welcome And Hiatus Update
• 0:31 Veterans Day Gratitude And Shoutouts
• 2:23 Life Around The Military And Sacrifice
• 3:40 Apartment Woes: Pests In The Walls
• 4:41 The Woodpecker Saga And Sleep Loss
• 7:35 Deterrents, Maintenance, And Frustration
• 8:36 Invite For Military Stories And Tips
• 10:04 Support, Subscribe, And Farewell

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Chickka wow wow. What's up, party people? Welcome to another episode of LKVate your life. I am your hostess with the most S. L is in the letter L. And key as in the key to your heart. Thank you for tuning in. Sorry, I have been M-I-A. I feel like it's been one thing after another, right? Like my mouth, my you know, my uh autoimmune thing, or an illness, or my voice, or so I just want to tell you, I was hopping on today on this mindful Monday, November 10th, to touch on Veterans Day, because it's Veterans Day tomorrow, and I want to give a shout out to my veteran friends, Ms. Keisha McCreary, Eric Ponas, the ex-hubby, uh Daryl Hutchins. I feel like Roger Havens, somewhere along the way, told me that he was a vet. Um, and if I'm leaving others out, please forgive me because it's hard to remember when you're going down the friend list of who's in the military when you have so many friends on social media and in person and whatever, whatever. So, one of the things I wanted to say is thank you. Thank you for your service, thank you for your bravery, thank you for being willing to, you know, fight for our country, and God bless you all, because I have witnessed throughout the years of being married to a military man, to being around the military base and hanging out with all my friends back in the day, ages 18 through 20-ish, 21. Um, so I definitely saw um, especially the Navy, because I lived in Alameda, and I saw what the people went through. Um, I haven't been privy to see, you know, boot camp. I've heard the stories and I've seen the movies, but I haven't been privy to that information firsthand. Um, but I know it can be challenging. And so I just want to say my hat's off to you. Thank you. Thank you for just, you know, being willing to take on that role. It is so commendable, and I want to make sure that we honor our veterans. And I know my girl Keisha is gonna be taking advantage of all the perks that come along with that um on Veterans Day. I guess there's a lot of places that offer like um, you know, discounted meals or free meals, maybe even I don't even know, but I know there's all kinds of stuff out there. And yes, by all means, you should take advantage of that. And so we're gonna have a podcast interruption about this because uh something that has been interfering with my life. Um, so apartment living, gotta love it, right? So apartment living. Let me just tell you, I have had the not so pleasure of being disturbed by uh months back, it was a mouse that was living, a mouse or a rat that was living in the walls, and they had done some construction in the apartment nearby, connecting. And so I could hear it in the wall, and it was basically waking me up at night because I could hear it in there scratching and doing all kinds of stuff. Well, after several months, that finally went away, and then we had various different apartment living interruptions, and most recently, if you're hearing noise in the background, most recently is I've had a woodpecker that has decided to create a home right outside our bedroom window, and it's actually built a nest in the overhang of the upstairs neighbors' window, their bedroom window. So it had gone underneath and created a hole. So literally right outside my window, above me, was this huge hole where this woodpecker was storing all its food and nesting and the whole night. And that's been going on for several months and several sleepless nights, bringing in the food in the nighttime, and then uh you know, waking me during the night, and then so it just so happens as I'm starting my podcast and traffic is flowing, I finally managed to get the staff to do something about it after numerous complaints about the hole because I'm aware, you know, there's uh you know, wildlife protection, which I don't want it to be harmed, I just want it to find a new home, and so now it's coming back looking for the hole and is all confused. And well, the maintenance was kind enough to board it up with a piece of plywood and some screws, but the woodpecker is still coming back and like, where's my home? Where's my hole? What's going on? And the only way that they can be deterred, if you don't know about this, you're gonna learn about woodpeckers, is that you have to put up like reflective things. So you can hang CBs, you can hang uh reflective like wind shines or things of that nature, or you can have owls as a deterrent, but they don't like noise and they don't like flashing lights. So I'm literally, as I'm doing my podcast, having to turn on my phone light and shine it out at the woodpecker who's in the tree, going, I'm confused. This used to be my nesting hole, and now it's boarded up. And my fear is he's just gonna peck right through this piece of wood because it just so happens that the maintenance forgot to put the reflective tape, even though pest control said you gotta find some shiny tape or something shiny to hang up there, and they were like, Oh, yeah, yeah. And I was like, Yeah, like electrical tape, and they're like, Oh, yeah, you know, like what you use for the air conditioning, ducks, and blah blah blah. And well, here it is, five o'clock, and he's trying to come back to his damn hole, and so I'm shining my phone light on him, trying to deter him, and he still keeps coming back to it. So I'm like, what is it gonna take to get rid of a damn woodpecker? So talk about podcast interruptions. Um, but I would love to know if anybody has any stories they would like to share about why they decided to join the military. If you have any basic training stories that you would like to share, I would love to hear them. And or how has it shaped your life now? Like, what has it done for you? How has it shaped you in an individual? I know a lot of people, it makes them more neat, and they do military corners, which is what my mom did. And yeah, so I would love to hear if you have any stories to share. Um, please feel free, like I said, to put it in the podcast comments. And I would love to hear your military stories, your experiences as far as basic training, how it shaped you as an individual, what has it done for you now? What is your civilian life like? Did you grow up a military person? Did you join because of family? Inquiring minds want to know this. Meanwhile, while I'm holding my microphone and recording this podcast, I am also trying to deter this Dan Woodpecker who keeps coming back. So I might have to end our podcast abruptly. So sorry about that. Um, but hopefully this gives you a laugh. Maybe you even have some tips or tricks that I don't know of that I haven't mentioned. And if you do, feel free to put them in the comment comments. I would love to hear them. Remember to like, follow, subscribe, share, all of those things. Help the algorithm and help me get my podcast out there. I would really appreciate your support in this matter. All you have to do is click the like button, the thumbs up button if you like the episode, comment, share, and I would appreciate the love. And thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for listening. And ciao for now.