Hats

(photo by Chandler Lewis)

I was so captivated by the hats and the stories of the women.

~ Susan Tsu

- - - - -

I believe that any hat can be jaunty if you wear it right.

I also believe any person can be jaunty if they wear their face right.

(pause)

I guess what it comes down to is that I believe in jauntiness.

Money

You don't pay taxes -- they take taxes.

~ Chris Rock

- - - - -

They don't take taxes from everyone.

Field

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.

~ Ovid

- - - - -

Growing things is a lot of work. It takes a toll. This is particularly true when one grows anxious.

So quit it.

Trouble

Trouble is a part of your life -- if you don't share it, you don't give the person who loves you a chance to love you enough.

~ Dinah Shore

- - - - -

I once had a conversation with a four-year-old about a person I knew who had been through a lot in her life recently. I said, "She's had almost every kind of trouble you can imagine."

The kid looked at me for a second and then asked, "Has she had a wedgie?"

I don't think the woman HAD had a wedgie of late. So there was that.

Self

If you love yourself, you love others. If you hate yourself, you hate others. In relationship with others, it is only you, mirrored.

~ Osho

- - - - -

I was going through old email the other day and came across this from my dad about my niece: 

Just wanted to let you all know that Sarah announced earlier today that next week is Sarah Appreciation Week.  : )

Well, I blew that celebration off. Sorry.

Library

Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.

~ Walter Cronkite

- - - - -

I worry that people don't read enough anymore. They read Tweets or Facebook posts or blogs (like this one), but they don't read history or literature or political documents (like The Constitution - that's a good one).

I wish that people would read more, think more, listen more, and act more. In that order.

I dream big.

Worry

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.

~ Swedish Proverb

- - - - -

Sometimes I have ideas for things, but do a little investigating and realize someone else has already had the same idea. Case in point from recently: "haikunamatata." I was going to write a haiku of the song here in this blog. Okay, if we're honest, I was just going to break up the song into lines of 5-7-5 syllables. 

Someone else (maybe a few someone elses) already thought of that. 

I am a bit slow on that one. People have had 22 years since the Lion King came out and I'm pretty sure that saying was around and being said for a long time before that.

I'll get over it. Seriously. No worries.

Light

Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.
~ Walt Whitman

- - - - -

The sun does amazing things. It casts shadows. It illuminates. It winds itself around trees and branches and shines through leaves. It glows and warms. It is amazing and beautiful whether rising or setting.

That said, I wouldn't want to have to try and keep it in my backyard. First, it would burn the earth to death. Second, my yard isn't that big. Third, I have nice neighbors, but I bet they'd complain about that. Fourth, I don't know if I'd be able to get much sleep with the sun in my backyard. 

Despite it all, "Keeper of the Sun" would be a pretty cool title for me to have.

Love

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting you are special too.

~ Ernest Hemingway

- - - - -

You might wonder who this B person is. Is it Aunt Bea from Mayberry? Is it Lucille "B"all who said, "Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world." Is it Rutherford "B." Hayes?

No.

Those people are all dead. In fact, Rutherford B. Hayes was dead before spray paint was even invented. Why would you have guessed him? That was a bad guess.

Fair

The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars, and the selfish hide in high places.

~ Bryant H. McGill

- - - - -

The other day I was in the grocery store and an old woman offered me a beautiful apple. I asked her what kind it was. She said, "It is an Envy apple." I thanked her and took it.

When I got home, I ate it. It was one of the best apples I have ever had. I liked it a lot. 

Then I felt sleepy. 

Then the seven little men with whom I live (don't ask. it's complicated) put me in a glass case. 

(pause)

Okay, other than the fact that I ate an apple the other day, most of that isn't true. It WAS called an "Envy" apple. I hadn't had that kind before. It WAS very, very good.

On a very, very, very loosely related note...

The Elbert County Fair is the fair of them all.

Acid

Tragedy is like strong acid - it dissolves away all but the very gold of truth.

~ D. H. Lawrence

- - - - -

If you have two things and one of the things is Bactine and the other of the things is your contact solution, I have an idea. Don't keep those things beside each other because if you do, then you might accidentally put the contacts you were soaking overnight in Bactine in your eyes in the morning.

This may or may not be based on a true story. It isn't about me, but I may have been around there when it happened. Also it doesn't really end in tragedy (just extended discomfort followed by recovery). 

You're welcome.

Stop

Stop waiting for a producer. Produce yourself.

~ Marianne Williamson

- - - - -

If a stop sign stops working then it has followed it's own advice, right?

Control

Only you can control your future.

~ Dr. Seuss

- - - - -
I did some research and found out that this is a controller for a model train. I thought it was something different. I thought it was the switch thing you threw to create a Frankenstein monster. Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I simultaneously relieved? Maybe.

I think it's funny that this is probably called the "Dual Rectifier Electrapack Senior" but the way it is set up it looks like "Senior" is it's own speed. 

Which, if you think about it, is true.

Swimming

The water doesn't know how old you are.

~ Dara Torres

- - - - -

I like this photo. Aurora loves the water - she has since she was little. This photo shows that.

I also like how David is creeping and lurking in the background. I think it is symbolic of how he is as a father - protective, watching. 

It also represents how Leslie is as a grandma. Thumbs up. Because her thumb is the only thing you can see. 

Also if the caption to this was, "The stranger loitered near the baby" it makes the photo feel completely different.

Also it's a watercolor photo.

Also...  Nope. That's enough.

Speed

The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.

~ Edward R. Murrow

- - - - -

Edward R. Murrow was born in 1908 and died in 1965. I'm not sure exactly when he said the above quote, but he could have said it today. Well, he couldn't because he is dead, but I mean the comment is still relevant today. 

Sometimes I get frustrated at how things are right now. There are issues with the media and with whether facts are true and whether I can say something but expect you not to believe or worry about it because it isn't what I mean. And by "I" I don't mean just me. I mean everyone. I don't mean everyone. I just mean the the people who say something and then say, "I didn't say that" and then see video of them saying that and say, "You know that isn't what I meant."

I mean those people. 

Humor

The face of a child can say it all. 

Especially the mouth part of the face.

~ Mark Twain

- - - - -

I think it is essential to have a sense of humor to get through things. I mean, maybe someone can do it without humor, but not around me. 

I don't know when you start to develop a sense of humor or if it is something you are born with. I think it starts around the age of two. Maybe it starts earlier than that, but until babies have words their jokes are sort of rambly.

This is what I remember as Aurora's first joke. It was a good one.

Aurora: No. No. No. No.

Me: Can you say anything else?

Aurora: Anything else.

Smart aleck.

I really like that kid.

Play

Play is the beginning of knowledge.

~ George Dorsey

- - - - -

I think children could learn a lot by playing on headstones. They could learn about climbing, physics, geology, history.

I might even start a program for just this purpose. You think I'm going to call it the "Headstone Start Program," don't you?

You're wrong. I'm going to call it something different.

Beer

I don't think I've drunk enough beer to understand that.

~ Terry Pratchett

- - - - -

Looked up the plot line for this movie and read something like: Midwest teens band together to protect their town and their country.

I guess that calls for a beer.

Gate

A gentle word opens an iron gate.

~ Bulgarian Proverb

- - - - -

We have a gate between our yard and our neighbor's yard. Neither of us has used it since we moved into our house. We can get the stuff out of her yard we want just by reaching through the fence.

Angry

You will be punished for your anger,

you will be punished by your anger.

~ Buddha

- - - - -
People are angry right now. They are angry about how they have been (mis)treated. They are angry about how they have (dis)regarded. They are angry about the (dis)interest of others who are supposed to be in service to the larger community. They are angry that the wants of the needs of the very VERY few have continually outweighed the needs of the many.

Pretty much everyone is angry.

I'm not convinced that anger and outrage are the best approaches to resolving issues. I wonder if love might work better? I guess we won't know until people try that over the longterm. 

It makes me so angry that people aren't more loving to one another.

Door

A best friend is the only one that walks into your life when the world has walked out.

~ Shannon L. Alder

- - - - -

Also burglars. They will walk into your life when everyone else has walked out. Including you. If no one is there, they will walk in. And take your stuff.

But maybe that is helpful. Maybe they help you take stock of what you had, what you have, and what you really need..?

(pause)

Nope. Never mind. I'm still pretty much anti-burglar.

Roads

Roads were made for journeys, not destinations.

~ Confucius

- - - - -

I take a lot of photos of roads. I don't know that I think, "I will travel to a road today and take a photo of it," so I can't call the road my destination.

However, I have traveled places and realized when I got there that I didn't enjoy that place or it wasn't what I expected. And sometimes I even realized that I learned more on the journey there than from the place itself.

And then I realized I wasn't even in the right place and I got mad and decided I should take a course on map reading. And then I realized that I used to have map skills class in elementary school and that I wasn't always good at it, but some days I was good at it.

Then the police officer knocked on my window and said I needed to move the car out of the middle of the road.

So, while roads were not made to be destinations, you can learn a lot from them.

I bet that's why they are called "street smarts" and "roads scholars."

Learning is fun and so is knowledge.

Trailer

Followers are more important to leaders than leaders are to followers.

~ Barbara Kellerman

- - - - -

Trailer Failure

The trailer had dreams. 
Dreams of leadership.
They were never meant to be.
The trailer was born a follower.

That is a poem I wrote. I'll just wait here for that Pulitzer Prize. 

Creepy

No no no you were doing fine, you had been courteous and receptive to courtesy, you had established trust with the embarrassing truth about Miggs, and now this ham-handed segue into your questionnaire tut-tut-tut it won't do.

~ Hannibal Lecter

- - - - -

There is a deli in town called "Mig's Deli." I want to go there because I like delis. I don't want to go there because I don't like the name "Mig." The reason I don't like the name "Mig" is because of Silence of the Lambs.

Whoa.  

I am right. I don't like the name Mig because of Silence of the Lambs (spelled Migg for the character in the movie). I thought I didn't like that name because Clarice found Migg's head in a jar when she went into that storage unit and scratched her leg and had to get into the car and then she saw it there. 

I was wrong. That was Miss Hester Moffett.

Miggs was the guy in the cell next to Hannibal Lecter. Suffice to say that - based on what he did to Clarice in the movie - I don't want Miggs fixing me a sandwich either.

I feel nauseous now.

Puppy

Put a puppy in your picture and it will make it 20 times better.

~ Lucky Blue Smith

- - - - -

The other day Leslie and I went to play disc golf. Leslie said, "I'm so excited! I'm just like a little puppy."

I responded, "We should get a little puppy!"

Leslie said, "I thought you wanted to wait until you get tenure to get a puppy."

I said, "They're getting rid of tenure everywhere, so we can get a puppy NOW!"

I'm pretty much a silver lining kind of person if it means that I can get a puppy.

View

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

- - - - -

I think one's view depends on one's experiences and character, but also on the windows through which one has a chance to look. The view isn't the same for all of us. Whether our eyes are open or closed we see different things.

It's like a cloud formation. We might each see something different. It doesn't mean that we can't try to see what the other is seeing. And maybe once we see things another way we can't go back to seeing things the way we did before.

See what I mean?

Well, I guess by then the cloud formations maybe have changed but my point, which I think is good, is still a good point, I think.

Blue

Blue has no dimensions, it is beyond dimensions.

~ Yves Klein

- - - - -

Blue is one of my favorite colors. It is cooler and calmer than red or orange. It is more confident than yellow and more bold than brown. It is deeper than white and doesn't require as much commitment as green.

I don't understand why some people say that they are "blue" when they feel down. Seems like they should say, "I'm feeling kind of baby poop brown-green."

(pause)

I hope that catches on.

Lllamas

Loaf of bread 

and Cream of Wheat.

Llama Llama wants his treat.

It's no fun at Shop-O-Rama.

Llama Llama

MAD at Mama!!

~ Anna Dewdney

- - - - -

I just learned that there is a book called Llama, Llama Mad at Mama. Spoiler alert, Llama Llama acts a bit like a spoiled brat in the part of the book I read. I think the book is part of a series. I don't know that I will buy or read it.

I would, however, buy a book called Dalai Llama Mad at Mama. I bet it would be hilarious. And also enlightening.

Painting

One never knows what one is going to do. One starts a painting and then it becomes something quite different.

~ Pablo Picasso

- - - - -

Life is full of change and transition and failure and recovery and new ideas and all of that. However, if one starts a painting and it becomes cupcakes, don't eat those cupcakes.

Post Office

P. G. Wodehouse... used, when in town, to solve the problem of the long walk to the post-office by the simple expedient of tossing his letters out of his window: his belief that the average human, finding a stamped and addressed envelope on the pavement, would naturally pop it into the next pillar-box was never once, in decades, shown to be unfounded.

~ Stephen Fry

- - - - - 

So I guess the post office comes from the history of riders posted across the country to hand off and deliver mail.

I guess that Post Toasties comes from the history of riders posted across the country to hand off and deliver toast.

Loser

You make your own luck, Gig. You know what makes a good loser? Practice.

~ Ernest Hemingway

- - - - -

Leslie: Take a photo of that. You should call it "Sore Loser."

I'm lucky I get to hang around with her.

Art

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

~ Edgar Degas

- - - - -

This quote is nice. However, it is only PART of what Degas said. The whole quote is as follows:

Art is not what you see, but what you make other see. I want others to see how good I am at art.

Sitting

Our disrespect for thinking: someone sitting in a chair, gazing out a window blankly, always described as 'doing nothing.'

~ Dalain de Botton

- - - - -

We used to be busy with doing. Hunting. Gathering. Later farming. Then the labor of industry. 

Now we are less busy, but we want to be busy so we create busy-ness. We are plugged in all the time - reading without critical thought, writing without specific intent, looking at lights and listening to noise. 

We don't stop and think. We don't find quiet times to sit. And - of course - we avoid nature.

What will become of us?

Don't worry. Time is a pendulum and pretty soon we will return to thinking without doing. Finding peace. Sitting. Reflecting. Speculating. Dreaming. Imagining.

Then we'll all starve to death.

Stream

      

Islands in the stream

That is what we are

No one in between

How can we be wrong

Sail away with me

To another world

And we rely on each other, ah ha

From one lover to another, ah ha

~ The Bee Gees

- - - - -

First of all, I didn't know until I just looked it up that the Bee Gees wrote Islands in the Stream. 

Second, I don't know what the hell the Bee Gees meant by the lyrics to Islands in the Stream.

Good

The word 'good' has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shot his grandmother at at a range of 500 yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.

~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

- - - - -
Leslie is going to be a grandma again. I guess that's because she was pretty good at it the first time.

Signs

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge 

is the power of teaching.

~ Aristotle

- - - - -

I took a photo of this sign for my friend Catrina. Whenever I see someone's name on a sign, I tend to take a picture of it. Except for my friend Denny Stop. Taking pictures of signs with his name would take too much of my time.

Anyway, I don't know if I'd like working at a tire store.

I'd get tired of it.

Wood

I like to work with wood a lot. I make furniture that falls apart. 

I also sew.

~ Tim Conway

- - - - -

To me it is ironic that a mushroom feeds on rotting wood. Here you see a mushroom made from wood that was not rotten. I guess wood just can't win!

Of course now that I think of it, I'm not sure if wood is even competitive.

Crafts

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.

~ Ernest Hemingway

- - - - -

Leslie always jokes that she would be awful doing the arts and crafts portion of vacation bible school. Why she is ALWAYS talking about vacation bible school, I don't know. 

My mom was the boss of vacation bible school at our church a few summers. She was good at it, I think. I vaguely remember them always recognizing her and giving her some kind of gift as a thank you. I think it was always a cross. 

Anyway, I disagree with Leslie. I think she would be good at arts and crafts. As long as it was arts and craft beers. Or if she wasn't good at it, after a while she wouldn't care. 

Also, one day she could have a big bowl of mac and cheese and if the kids tried to get it, she could say, "HEY! LEAVE THAT ALONE YOU KIDS!!  THAT'S THE KRAFT MACARONI AND CHEESE!"

Although, I think yelling at them like that is wrong. She should at least learn their names and not call them "you kids."

Also, another day she could give them options and ask the kids, "You want to do which craft?" Only the kids would hear her saying, "You want to do witchcraft?" and then there could be a big scandal at the vacation bible school.

See? There are a lot of reasons I think that Leslie should do the craft portion of vacation bible school.

Violators

A license to practice law is not a license to violate it.

~ Loretta Lynch

- - - - -

I am learning all the time. Recently I was learning about the prison systems and how prison originated - here and other places. I was surprised to learn about the origin of the word "penitentiary." It was one of those things that once I learned it, it made sense, but I had never really given it much thought before.

I wanted to share what I learned, so I went to talk to Leslie. She is the one who usually gets to learn what I learn because she is the one with whom I usually share what I learned.

Anyway, I asked her, "Do you know what the origin of the word 'penitentiary' is?"

She paused. Thought. Then she said, "Is it something to do with 'penis'?"

While the origin that I found was about being penitent, I wonder if she might be on to something here.

Tree

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

~ Khalil Gibran

- - - - -


What if you reveal your secrets to a tree? Maybe that depends on the tree. Maybe an oak keeps secrets well. Maybe a willow does not. Maybe a sapling will share what you share with it while a redwood never will.

And as for the young, single, female tree? Well, we can't know if she will keep your secrets or not. See she is a Miss Tree.

Umbrellas

I thought a shit storm was coming, and I had no umbrella.

~ Barbra Annino

- - - - -

What you don't know is that when they were coming up with names for umbrellas and they asked the one guy what they should call them he said, "Um... brella?" But instead of calling them "brellas" now we call them "umbrellas."

Is the fact that you don't know this because it is a lie or because you are uninformed?

I don't know. I don't know your life.

Lists

When the great history of horticulture is written 

I will be listed among the absent.

~ Allan Sherman

- - - - -

I take and make LOTS of notes.  I have written this before, but sometimes I come back to my notes and don't know what they mean.  An example...  The other day I found a piece of paper with four names on it.  I don't know what this was about.  Here are the names:

Grover
Mark Harmon
Tom Selleck
Shirley Temple

Maybe you can figure it out. Let me know if you do.

Yellowish

Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild.

~ Welsh Proverb

- - - - -

This flower reminds me of something you would see in a grandma's house. It's sort of yellowish. 

Grandma's houses are full of things that are kind of yellowish. Sunlight, lemons, old papers, old cats.

Actually, if grandma's house is full of cats - no matter what color they are - call and get some help. Grandma doesn't need all those cats.

Bike

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. 

Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. 

Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.

~ Iris Murdoch

- - - - -

I think some might argue that horses are pretty pure, too.

But bikes don't poop in the middle of the street. 

Or they shouldn't.

If yours does, you need to have it checked out. 

Beam

Happiness is being on the beam with life - to feel the pull of life.

~ Agnes Martin

- - - - -

What if the guy who ran the transporter was named "Jim Beam"? Then on Star Trek they would have to say, "Beam me up, Jim Beam."

(pause)

Except they'd probably just call him Jimmy and say, "Beam me up, Jimmy."

Other than that one annoying space explorer who would ALWAYS say, "Beam me up, Jim Beam." I bet the other space explorers wouldn't be able to stand that guy.

Fog

In the morning I woke like a sloth in the fog.

~ Leslie Connor

- - - - -

Does the fog obscure things or reveal things? Does it reveal in us our fears? Does it show us what we believe to be in the unknown? Does it sooth us and uncover our true peace?

No.

It obscures things because you can't see when it's foggy.

Books

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.

~ James Baldwin

- - - - -

Books build bridges between people and between time. 

Books on building bridges also literally build bridges.