Places

Every exit is an entrance to somewhere else.

~ Elizabeth Puig

- - - - -

You can never really leave a place behind. It travels with you - like dust on your clothing or mud on your shoes or dirt on your shirt sleeves.

Also, why are you so dirty?

Truth

Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable desire to see the truth.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

- - - - -

Me: I just mentioned you in a post on Facebook.

Leslie: In a good way or a bad way?

Me: In a completely accurate way.

Leslie: Uh oh. That could be bad.

Signs

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.

~ Aesop

- - - - -

Bathing suits optional is not the sign of noble souls.

Funny

When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.

~ George Bernard Shaw

- - - - -

Some people probably judge how funny they are by the likes they get for the posts they post that they think are funny on Facebook. Not me. I judge how funny my Facebook friends are by how much they like the funny posts I post.

Window

The windows of my soul are made of one-way glass,
Don't bother looking into my eyes - if there's something you want to know, just ask.
~ Ani Difranco

- - - - -

And the windows of my soul are made of fiber glass - not good for cuddling, but they keep my soul warm. Given some of the things I have posted, I might need my soul to be used to the heat.

Peppers

There aren't as many quotes about peppers as you might expect.

~ Michelle Boettcher

- - - - -

If I had it to do over again, I'd study plants and write my dissertation about the genus Capsicum. You might think it's because I love banana peppers (which I do), but you would be wrong. I would do that because then I would have people call me Dr. Pepper.

I could do that now, but it would be weird.

(pause)

WeirdER, I mean.

Gratitude

I would maintain that thanks for the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

- - - - -

Today is my favorite holiday. I love gratitude. I have so much to be thankful for - like not being a turkey. Well, in the most literal way not being a turkey. 

I am grateful for the people in my life.
I am grateful for some of the people not in my life.
I am grateful that some people are no longer in my life.
I am grateful for the people who will be in my life in the future (I think. Not all of them, but some of them.)

I have said it before, and I will say it again - I am the luckiest person I know.

Like the saying goes:

Thank
U
Really
Keep
Everyone
Yesterday.

(pause)

Just because you CAN make an acronym out of every word doesn't mean you SHOULD make an acronym out of every word. 

Umbrellas

The rain, it raineth on the just. And also on the unjust fella, but mostly on the just because the unjust steals the just's umbrella.

~ Charles Bowen

- - - - -

You know who it doesn't rain on? It doesn't rain on martians because water can only be on Mars in the form of vapor or ice. That's why Gene Kelly is relatively unknown on Mars.

Camera

Photography has nothing to do with cameras.

~ Lucas Gentry

- - - - -

I think that is a bit of an exaggeration. It has a little bit to do with cameras. Without them, it would just be staring. And that is less socially acceptable. Trust me. I found that out the hard way. The irony was when the person yelled, "Why don't you take a picture -- it'll last longer!" True, but I just kept staring because I didn't have a camera.

Cameras are an excuse to stare. 

Deviled

The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.

~ William Shakespeare

- - - - - 

And wicked pigs give us deviled ham.
And wicked farmers give us deviled food.

Actually none of that is true. You have to pay for most of those things. Farmers and pigs don't just give ham and food away.  

Fence

The wide world is all about you, you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.

~ J. R. R. Tolkein

- - - - -

People bragged and bragged about Petit and the Wallendas and RØnningsbakken, but they never met Grandpa. Grandpa used to string BARBED wire between the barn and the other barn. Then he did his high wire act. 

Just the one time, but still all those people never met Grandpa.

Windows

We are all prisoners but some of us are in cells with windows and some without.

~ Kahlil Gibran 

- - - - -

I think maybe if I had a different house I would have different windows. I wouldn't have hard glass. I'd have something more pliable. Something more forgiving. Something soft and comforting. And I would have much smaller windows. A hundred small windows - if they were small enough - would still allow light in and would still allow a view outside, but they could be configured in so many different ways.

Tiny windows. Plush windows.

Yes, in a different house I think I'd prefer to have micro, soft windows.

Re-creation

We invent nothing, truly.  

We borrow and re-create.  

We uncover and discover.  

~ Henry Miller

- - - - -

I agree with Henry Miller on this. I was going to put, "Except for Velcro. Someone invented Velcro." Sorta true except Velcro is a borrow and recreation of sandburs - just as Hamilton is a borrow and recreation of Aaron Burr.

Reflection

If we reflect, we shall recognize.

~ Laila Gifty Akita

- - - - -

You know how you can see a reflection in the water?  And you can see a reflection in a window.  Isn't it also interesting when a water tower sees its reflection in a window?

(pause)

Yeah, probably not. 

Windmills

A great wind is blowing and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

~ Catherine the Great

- - - - -

I like windmills like these. If they are broken or if they don't work, I don't care. I still like them. They remind me of hard work and ingenuity. They remind me resourcefulness and slower time.

But they remind me of something else, too. Something that is hard to see. Something that sneaks up on us sometimes and is right in our faces at other times.

You see windmills also remind me of wind.

Life

As I grow to understand life less and less, 

I learn to live it more and more.

~ Jules Renard

- - - - -

Leslie went to visit her grandchildren over fall break. She has two of those things now - grandchildren not fall breaks. She gets to just swoop in and have fun and play with the children and take them Sleeping Beauty gloves and then leave when she gets tired.

She's like a super hero.

Most grandmas are like that.

Especially Grandma Hulk. Or Grandma Cyborg.

Beer

Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer.

~ Henry Lawson

- - - - -

Most popular drinks in the world:

1. Water
2. Tea
3. Beer

Most poplar drinks in the vampire world:

Nothing. Vampires aren't real.

Ice

Like fragile ice, anger passes away in time.

~ Ovid

- - - - -

Without ice, we wouldn't have curling. Without curling, we wouldn't have curling teams. Without curling teams, we wouldn't have fun. Without fun, we wouldn't have anything.

(pause)

Okay. We might have fun without curling teams, but not as much fun.

Thank you, ice!

Excitement

It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It is my partner.

~ Jonas Salk

- - - - -

I have heard people say that "only boring people get bored." I don't believe that. Actually, maybe there was more to the quote than that. I tuned out after a while because it wasn't that interesting.

But my point is that Kirk has shared that he sometimes gets bored. Take, for example, this series of text messages I got from him a while back:


Kirk:  The airport is boring.  FYI.

Kirk:  Glad I leave soon.

Kirk:  I wish there was a Republican debate here.


Of course his solution to boredom wouldn't work for everyone.

Adulthood

As a child I thought, 'Once I am a grown-up, there will be no more fear, no more worries, and it turns out that's not true.

~ Olivia Colman

- - - - -

Sometimes I wonder if childhood is about what we let in and what we get into and if adulthood is about what we push away and what we stay out of. Maybe if we went into more and let more in we would be happier and freer. Maybe not. That's why I wonder - because I don't know.

Sometimes I also wonder if grown-up is misspelled. Perhaps it should be groan-up.

Bridges

I have to accept the fact that no matter what I do it's going to annoy someone.

~ Nathan Lane

- - - - -

Why a one lane bridge? Why not a fast lane bridge? A bowling lane bridge? A Nathan Lane bridge? A Diane Lane bridge? Hey - are Nathan and Diane Lane married? Wait... probably not. A Drury Lane bridge? 

I love bridges. What about a Beau Bridge? 

The world is full of so many questions. And bridges. 

Preserves

The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity.

~ Miguel de Cervantes

- - - - -

I wonder if that is true from grapes and berries, too.

Butterfly

Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.

~ Antoine de Sainte-Exupery

- - - - -

I bet if we could read the thoughts of the butterfly and the butterfly used a lot of profanity we wouldn't think they are all that pretty. 

Tangled

I'm not really a storyteller myself I tend to get all tangled up when I try and tell stories.

~ Daniel Day Lewis

- - - - -

I am okay with telling stories, but I am not good at telling jokes. I get tangled up telling them. I think the difference for me is that jokes require more structure than stories. There is the set up, the misdirection, and then the punchline. And if you tell those out of order, it sort of ruins the joke.

I don't find that to be true with stories. You can tell the pieces in any order as long as you tell them in interesting ways. The best part is you don't even have to have a point. If people don't understand your stories, you can just pretend the stories are too complex for those people. 

If they don't fall for that you can always ask them, "So... do you know any good jokes?