Mom

The kitchen is where we deal with elements of the universe. It is where we come to understand our past and ourselves.

~ Laura Esquivel

- - - - -

My mom died two years ago today. This was her kitchen. My dad made the pegboard rack and I'm not sure how old the spices in the spice rack were. And today none of this looks the same. Time changes things. Time changes memory.

Time even changes the meaning of things - advice, history, songs. Like, you know that one song? I used to not have a lot of feelings about the line that goes, "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child"? Now I feel like that all the time...  Because I am.

(pause)

It's okay. My mom would have laughed at that.

Wonder

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder. 

~ E. B. White

- - - - -

Not all who wonder are lost.

 

Street

To know only part of the story is to know only part of the truth, a part of the whole, a part of a word, a part of yourself.

~ Riana Rain

- - - - -

Do you wonder what the rest of this street name is? Is it Hoover or Dover? Is it Forever or Never? Clishmaclever?

(pause)

You don't? 

Your lack of curiosity disappoints me.

 

Language

(screen shot from the internet)

But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

~ George Orwell

- - - - -

 I love adorable prices.

Peas

Peas are terrible and a joke food.

~ Annie Murphy

- - - - -

I bet this Lego minifigure isn't welcome at many pool parties. I won't bet a lot, but I bet.

Doing

I want an opportunity to create opportunities, (Casey, 2024).

- - - - -

When we let go of things and give others opportunities, we are letting them do new things. This works best when they are things we didn't really want to do in the first place. Better for others to do those things.

Covered

There are no secrets in life; just hidden truths that lie beneath the surface.

~ Dexter Morgan

- - - - - -

We keep a lot of things covered. Well, some of us do. Some of us don't. Those of you who don't, keep you distance. I don't have time to listen to all of your things. 

Shadow

Pulvis et umbra sumus.

(We are but dust and shadow)

~ Horace

- - - - -

I think that the original name of that one song by the group Kansas was "Pulvis et umbra sumus."

(pause)

I wonder why they changed it.

Wind

Dust in the wind,

All we are is dust in the wind.

~ Kerry Livgren

- - - - - -

If I end up being dust in the wind, I hope I don't end up in someone's eye. 

Fungi

All fungi are edible.

Some fungi are only edible once.

~ Terry Pratchett

- - - - -

To learn something for this post, I googled "What percentage of mushrooms is..." and the search offered me "poisonous" when I wanted "edible." What I learned is that the robots are a little pessimistic.

Calls

Call me.

~ Blondie

I was watching something the other day and a person was making a call on her cell phone. When the other person answered, the woman said, "It's me." 

If a person knows who "me" is on a cell phone, they probably have the caller's name in their caller ID. You don't have to say, "It's me."

Just an observation.

(pause)

A note on the format of this blog post. I wanted the second photo LARGE so you could read the sign and see the phone pole next to the sign, so that's why it is the way it is. if you don't like it, start your own blog or substack or whatever.

Garage

Normal people are so hostile.

~ Dexter Morgan

- - - - -

When I searched my blog for something related to this quote, I tried all of the following:

• Angry
• Anger
• Fire
• Hostile
• Hostility
• People
• Rage

The only thing I got was "garage" when I searched for "rage."

I feel like that's a sign that my blog isn't about hostility. Maybe it also means it isn't about "normal people." That seems about right.

 

Bears

Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.

~ Martha Graham

- - - - -

When Martha Graham said the above, she was talking about bears not people. She was a huge fan of and advocate for bears. In recognition of her love of all things ursine, Nabisco honored her in 1988 by naming their newest snack after her, thus we have Teddy Grahams.

Store

The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are about three billion to one.

~ Erma Bombeck

- - - - -

Maybe if I ever have a store I will call it "What the Future Holds In." It will probably be difficult to stock, though.

Strangers

A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet.

~ American Proverb

- - - - -

Some friends are stranger than others.

 

Leaping

Leap and the net will appear.

~ John Burroughs

- - - - -

This was a painting in one of the places we visited one time. I really liked it and bought a postcard of the image. It's called "Diving Pig" by Michael Sowa. I like to pretend the pig's name is Faith and that the pig is leaping not diving.

(pause)

I'll give you a minute, not that you'll need that long.

Vibrant

Some colors reconcile themselves to one another, others just clash. 

~ Edvard Munch

- - - - -

The colors of this meal Leslie and I had in Maine were vibrant. I just learned that the words vibrant and vibrate have the same origin. Was I vibrating with excitement about this meal? No. I mean, I was excited and all, but not really vibrating. 

I'm relieved to say that Leslie wasn't either or she might have dropped our food. Of course that would have led to Lily vibrating as she grabbed it. 

(pause)

That's enough about that.

Tortoise

We called him Tortoise because he taught us.

~ Lewis Carroll

- - - - -

We are always asking why the chicken crossed the road, but we don't ask why the tortoise crossed the road. Our lack of curiosity is really disappointing sometimes.

Learning

Learning never exhausts the mind.

~ Leonardo da Vinci

- - - - -

Yes it does.

Play

The dog was created specially for children. He is the god of frolic.

~ Henry Ward

- - - - -

If you have a job that you love, a job that feels like play, then I think you should call it "playbor" not "labor".

(pause)

No. I guess that could sound like "play bore" which isn't what I was going for. 

 (pause)

Anyway, the point is, dogs looks scary sometimes when they are playing. 

(pause)

People, too, I suppose.

(pause)

In conclusion, I hope you have a job you like, but more importantly, I hope you have a life you love.

Fish

The fish will be in the pool where you least imagine it to be.

~ Ovid

- - - - -

And it won't last long because of all the chemicals in your pool.

Thinking

IYKYK

~ Kids These Days

- - - - -

"If you know you know," seems an unnecessary thing to say. Clearly if you know you know and if you don't know you don't know. We all know that. Those. We all know those things. We all know. WAK.

Porch

Eating cold tuna fish out of a tin on a porch while two people are in love across a lake - I think that's desperately lonely.

~ Rupert Friend

- - - - -

I thought I knew what loneliness was until I read this quote. Wow. 

That's why I always invite a friend over when I am going to eat tuna fish out of a tin.

 

Substantial

How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.

~ Carl Jung

- - - - -

I really like this quote. It is something to think about and to discuss. You know who doesn't really care for this quote? The state trooper who just pulled you over for speeding.

 

Marshamallows

Life is a marshmallow, easy to chew but hard to swallow.

~ Francis Bacon

- - - - -

I once wrote a song called, "Free S'mores for my Lord." I thought that it might become a camp favorite. It didn't - not because it wasn't a great camp song, but because I didn't share it with hardly anyone. 

 

Classes

The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible and those who do the improbable.

~ Oscar Wilde

- - - - -

My kindergarten was divided into three reading groups. I was in the second group and instead of reading A King on a Swing I was stuck reading Six Ducks on a Pond. I'm sure it's my mom's fault. Or my dad's. I can't decide which one.

Actually, it was probably Mrs. Sassaman's fault.

Good thing I'm over this incident from several decades ago and it doesn't even bother me anymore.

Views

Nothing's beautiful from every point of view.

~ Horace

- - - - -

This was a nice rental property. Very quiet. Comfortable. However, the fact that you could see through to the bathroom from the front door was weird. 

(pause)

Or maybe the fact that the bathroom door was open when we knew people could see through if they came in the front door was the weird part. I don't think it's weird that Lily doesn't like the bathroom door closed at any time, though. That's how dogs can be sometimes.

The layout was weird. We are weird. Dogs are dogs. 

Thank you for holding your applause during this presentation.

Banks

To be wealthy and honored in an unjust society is a disgrace.

~ Confucius

- - - - -

So the origin of the word "bank" comes from "bench." So, I think a good thing to say to a kid who is in sports, but who doesn't get to play is that their coach is keeping them on the bench because bench comes from the word "bank" and they are so treasured they need to be kept in the bank.

By the time you tell them all that, the game will be over. 

Food

People who love to eat are always the best people.

~ Julia Child

- - - - -

I saw a video that said, "Watch this if you don't feel like cooking dinner tonight." Then someone spread peanut butter on a cookie sheet and added things you might dip in peanut butter - apples, pretzels, whatever. That was it. That was the whole "recipe." Kind of clever, I guess.

However, I was worried it was going to be a video of something gross that would make you lose your appetite and not want to eat dinner. 

(pause)

I guess it was exactly that for anyone with a peanut allergy.

Cinema

Cinema forms memories and memories form history.

~ Mstyslav Chernov

- - - - -

I used to go to movies all the time. They were my escape from difficult times in my life. Going to movies gave me a few minutes away from some challenging people. Being enveloped in the darkness was like being wrapped in a warm blanket on a cool evening. 

I don't go to movies much anymore because young people turn their phones on through the whole film and old people don't know how to turn their ringers off during the film.

I don't really watch movies on my phone, but if that is what I did now that would be all kinds of ironic. 

Books

Some books are heavier after you have read them and know what they hold. Others are so light they almost fly away.

~ Michelle Boettcher

- - - - -

Isn't it kind of cool how when you read you take things from books without changing them at all? You take knowledge and stories and ideas, but the books are the same as before you read them.

(pause)

Unless you rip pages out of the books. That would be different. That would be vandalism or damage of property. At least it would if they weren't your books. So quit doing that, jerk!

 

Children

(Photograph and absolutely no help by Kirk Boettcher)

The very first law that a child learns is the law of combat.

~ G. K. Chesterton

- - - - -

Yes, I was attacked by Zak as captured in this photo. That isn't the most interesting thing in the photo, though. The most interesting thing is the red ball in the background. If you look closely - up from Zak's butt there are some white birdbath stands. Above the stand on the left is another stand in the distance with a red ball on it.

That ball is an old bowling ball. I have no idea where we got it or why it became something we played with in the yard. 

At some point, we stopped playing with the bowling ball. That is when Mom painted it (it was many different colors, the last of which, as you can see here, was red). She put it on an old bird bath stand as a "gazing ball."

I don't know if gazing balls are still (or were ever) popular. I feel confident that bowling gazing balls were rare if not completely unpopular.

AND creativity and innovation were rampant in the home where I grew up. Violence from children was also rampant, as evidenced here. The response to which was not intervention, but photography - again with the creativity.

Stars

A star falls from the sky and into your hands. Then it sweeps through your veins and swims inside your blood and becomes every part of you.

~ C. JoyBell C.

- - - - -

Actually, when a star falls from the sky and into your hands, it likely will burn you very badly. If you then put it in your pocket, not only will it never fade away, but neither will the scar from the burn you'll get on your leg from putting that star in your pocket.

(pause) 

Um, also... May all your wishes come true.

Exposure

Sometimes people try to expose what's wrong with you, because they can't handle, what's right about you.

~ Facebook post with image of Jason Momoa

- - - - -

When I first started reading it, I thought the quote would end with "because they can't handle what's wrong with them." I guess my expectations were too high. I should have known better since there was a misplaced comma in the post to begin with.

I just wanted to expose what's wrong with whoever wrote that post.

(pause)

Wait... 

Car

It seemed like a vehicle was well and truly dead once the stereo had melted.

~ Maggie Siefvater

- - - - -

Me: You know the scariest story in the Bible is to me?

Leslie: No. I do not know that.

Me: It's the one where the guy gets taken to heaven in a fiery chariot. There was a picture of that in one of my Sunday school books and it scared the crap out of me.

Leslie: Esau?

Me: No, not Esau. Though I think it was one of those guys with a lot of vowels in his name.

(We both pause. Thinking.)

Me: Elijah!

Leslie: Yes. Elijah.

(Pause. Reflect.)

Me: Who gets into a fiery chariot? I mean, I'm not completely sure I would get into a Ford Taurus to go to heaven if it was on fire.

Trucks

Chuckwagons and pushcarts served cowboys and urban workers, respectively, all the way back to the years right after the Civil War... In the 1950s, ice cream trucks were the first businesses to take to the streets in modified vehicles that look almost exactly like their trucks today.

~ Stephanie Butler

- - - - -

Once upon a time Leslie shared with me that Clemson was having concert trucks around campus for mobile entertainment venues. We agreed that it was a pretty cool idea. Leslie said she also hoped they had food trucks on site with the music. I said I also hoped they had couch trucks.

Hoping is fun.

Hairdressers

I think the most important thing a woman can have - next to talent, of course - is her hairdresser.

~ Joan Crawford

- - - - -

Nigel had had it. For the fifth time this week a woman wandered in to his little building on the corner to see if he had time to do her hair, saw a dead body on the table in front of him, screamed and went running outside. Maybe calling his place the "Coroner Hair Salon" was not such a good idea after all.

Synonym

This word isn't in the the thesaurus, but here's the definition...

~ Merriam Webster

- - - - -

The other day I was looking up synonyms for "librarian" and got the response quoted above. While gendered, I have read about the "book women" who shared books via the Pack Horse Library Project as part of the WPA during the Great Depression.

Anyway, my point is, I think it is interesting that there is no synonym for librarian. I feel like the librarians made this happen intentionally. You know how snooty they can be.

 

Art

A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.

~ Leonardo da Vinci

- - - - -

We should probably be glad that da Vinci was a painter (and, I know, a bunch of other things). I mean, if he was a tattoo artist instead, there would be some guy's arm hanging in the Louvre with the Mona Lisa on it. 

Gross.

 

Brick

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.

~ David Brinkley

- - - - -

A successful person is one who can dodge the bricks others throw at them. 

 

Watching

People are always watching things. They should be seeing. I see the things I look at. I am a see-er.

~ Patrick Rothfuss

- - - - -

One day I was scrolling through social media. An ad popped up for a movie. Someone in the film said, "I thought that Kong was the last of his kind." I immediately scrolled on. I had no interest in that movie.

I scrolled on, and the next thing I saw was this: 

And I thought, "If that was a movie, I would totally go and see it."

Out

Before you heal someone, ask him if he is willing to give up the things that make him sick.

~ Hippocrates

- - - - -

I think we should get some opportunities to call in for "sick of you" days.

Pomegranate

I felt my heart crack slowly like a pomegranate, spilling its seeds.

~ Trevor Healey

- - - - -

Once upon a time I posted a photo of a pomegranate we grew on the same day that I had also posted a photo of my nephew. More people liked the photo of my nephew than the photo of the pomegranate. not a lot more, but a few. So that's nice, I guess.

Siblings

Non nobis solum nati sumus.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

- - - - -

The quote above translates to "Not for ourselves alone are we born." You probably already knew that. Anyway, one way that I think this really applies is to siblings. As an oldest child, I know I was born to tell my brothers how to do everything. I think Aurora would agree with me on this.

You're welcome.

Camp

Everyone on Facebook: Can I go to Camp GoGo?

Leslie: No.

- - - - -

I think we often find ourselves comparing our experiences to other people. Our lives. Our work. Our partners. Our extended family members. 

When you are camping and you look at your campsite and think about whether it is better or or worse than the one next to you, that is called "camparing."

(pause)

And don't do that. Because comparison is the thief of fun camping.

Words

 

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

~ Rudyard Kipling

- - - - -

Recently I was reading a book. It had several words I had to look up because I wasn't sure what they meant. One of the words was "prevet." The protagonist was a college student and talked about classes they were taking and said they had to drop pre -

vet (it was split on two lines). 

As I was entering it to look up the word, I realized she was dropping pre-vet. If it had been hyphenated on the same line I would have understood it the first time.

I blame the publisher and the page layout choices they made for this.

 

Catch

If you run fast enough, tou can still catch those dreams.

~ Charmaine J. Forde

- - - - -

Some people chase dreams. Other people wait for their dreams to find them. 

(pause)

As it is with dreams, so it is with ice cream trucks.