October

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. 
~ Lucy Maud Montgomery

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Trick or treating is fine, but we don't get a lot of trick or treaters here. I wonder what it will be like this year. I mean, EVERYONE should have a mask, but will we open our doors to others during the pandemic? Maybe that is the scariest part of Halloween this year.

(pause)

Nope. I still think it's probably ghosts. 

Or zombies.

Or candy corn.

Pumpkin

Each year the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch he thinks is most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.

~ Charles Schultz

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I once saw someone posting on online that they were trying "vegan pumpkin pie." 

I thought, "Why?"

I don't remember now if I was wondering "Why are they trying vegan pumpkin pie?" or "Why are they posting about it?"

Cats

A house without either a cat or a dog is the house of a scoundrel.

~ Portuguese Proverb

- - - - -

There are cat people and dog people. Well, technically dog people are called "werewolves" and cat people are called Carole Baskin.

Barn

I compare myself to a good barn. You can have a good barn and if you paint it, it looks a little better. But if you take the paint off, you've still got a good barn.

~ Dolly Parton

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Maddie makes great pottery. She should get a building like the one in this photo and sell her pottery there. She could name the place "Pottery Big Red Building" or "Pottery Large Farm Shed" or something like that.

Eat

Eat me.
~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Leslie thinks I need a lot of remedial help. I guess she was afraid I might try to hatch this. 

Amusement

One must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life.

~ Oscar Wilde

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If you ever drive by an abandoned amusement park, you stop and turn around and go back. There are going to be some great photos there. And maybe a mystery you and the gang can solve. And snacks. And a big dog you can pet. 

Sanders

Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it's a start.
~ Anthony Bourdain

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You might wonder if this is a BBQ place run by Colonel Sanders or by Winnie the Pooh. If so, I say congratulations on keeping up with your A. A. Milne. Also, if the latter, it no doubt is honey BBQ.

Cow

To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
~ Shunru Suzuki

- - - - -

To give your meadow a sheep or cow is the way to control it, too.

Tree

Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.
~Herman Hesse

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I don't think I have ever wanted to be a tree. I love a good tree, though. I love a tree that is full of great branches and standing alone in a field somewhere. There's something just really beautiful about that to me.

And if in that tree there is a house, and in that house there is a man who lives alone and simply, I just move on. He probably isn't the kind of person who wants visitors and he probably has stuff up there he can throw at me. Plus, I need to get going, anyway.

Structure

My architecture tends to be legible, light and flexible. You can read it. You can look at a building, and you can see how it is constructed. I put the structure outside.
~ Richard Rogers

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I don't like a lot of structure in my life, but I do like a structure for my house. 

Foggy

Sometimes we need the fog to remind us that all of life is not black and white.

~ Jonathan Lockwood Huie

- - - - -

And sometimes we need fog because fog is awesome. I think fog provides us with some freedom we don't get when everything is clear and open. If I had to name this kind of weather, I think I would name it something that means "free person" or - I think that Kermit means "free man." We have freedom when we can't be completely seen, but connection when we can be a little bit seen. We can be a little bit seen in the fog, but not completely. 

Yes. I'd definitely name it Kermit the Fog.

Reality

One person's craziness is another person's reality.

~ Tim Burton

- - - - -

I should have bought this for Jared when I saw it. He could turn it upside down and use it as an "r" for "rabbi."

Present

Children have neither past nor future. They enjoy the present, which very few of us do.

~ Jean De La Bruyere

- - - - -

Jean!! I don't know what the heck you're talking about. I know lots of adults who enjoy presents. Fact check yourself, woman!

Feedback

I'm sorry. If you were right, I'd agree with you.

~ Robin Williams

- - - - -

You know how sometimes people offer you unsolicited advice and then say that they are only trying to help and then they get mad when you tell them you don't need their advice and you bring out a notebook with a bunch of notes about their past behavior and give them unsolicited advice back because of all the crappy things they have been doing and saying and you hand them the notebook and say, "Study up, Charlie!" even though they aren't named "Charlie" and then you tell them they'll want to pay special attention to pages 72-81 and 291-304 as well as the summaries on pages 519-524 right before the citations and the index?

Me neither. 

Also, I kept a duplicate copy of that notebook.

Store

A bargain is something you can't use at a price you can't resist.
~ Franklin Jones

- - - - -

I've never had need to purchase any hogans though "hogan" sounds like a kind of boot that I might like. I think you'd wear them on a toboggan. But maybe it's just because they both end in "gan." 

(pause)

In fact, I'm almost completely sure that's why I think that. Because I think you might also wear that kind of boot to engage in shenanigans or to harvest an organ.

And what kind of boot is made for all three of those things? 

Toad

A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.
~ Chinua Achebe

- - - - -

This is the best toad photo I have ever taken. I have not tried to take many toad photos. Perhaps I should try more often. 

It's nice to be surprised by things -- to learn that you're pretty good at things you didn't know you were pretty good at. If you don't try different things, you minimize the opportunity to be surprised by being good at different things. 

You minimize the opportunity to fail, too. And I don't know why you would ever want to do that. That's when the best learning happens. 

That's why Enya wrote that song "Orinoco Flow" or "Fail Away." She knows. She gets it.

Boss

People ask the difference between a boss and a leader. A leader leads and a boss bosses. People really should be able to figure that out on their own. Sheesh people. Good think you have a boss.

~ Michelle L. Boettcher

- - - - -

No one has given me anything for Boss's Day the past few years. I don't know why. I boss people around all the time.

Characters

Texas is just so rich with characters. Women who live alone in a little house on a thousand acres with nothing but cattle and a pickup truck. And an airplane.
~ Sissy Spacek

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I would like to write a story someday where every character was interesting and flawed. Where every character was lovable and loathable. Where every character made you laugh and made you swear. Where you would want every character as a neighbor, just not a close neighbor.

I would like to write a story someday where every character was just like all the real people I know.

Observing

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.
~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

- - - - -

I saw a cat walking through our yard the other day. "Oh! A cat!" I said cleverly.

Leslie then saw it and said, "That's not a cat!" 

I said, "Oh, it's a woodchuck!" 

Leslie said, "That's probably what's been getting in the garden! Or maybe it's a groundhog. What's the difference?"

I said, "They're the same thing. They belong to the large ground squirrel family called "marmots" first identified by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Sometimes they are also called 'whistle pigs.'" 

I weirdly know a lot about woodchucks and groundhogs except I don't know what they look like. They look like funny-shaped sort of drunk-walking cats. (pause) Actually, that's a pretty good description. I guess I do know what they look like.

I also know that they make Leslie scream if they try to come in the screen door. And I know that Leslie screaming makes me scream. 

I know a lot.

Destination

One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.
~ Henry Miller

- - - - -

But what if your destination is the optometrist, Henry Miller? 

Repent

'You're going to have things to repent, boy, ' Mr. John told Nick. 'That's one of the best things there is. You can always decide if you want to repent them or not. But the thing is to have them.'
~ Ernest Hemingway

- - - - -

The truth is, if you pented correctly the first time, you shouldn't need to do it again.

Abandoned

You have not been abandoned. 
You are never alone except by your own choice.
~ Jonathan Lockwood Huie

- - - - -

I am not sure if this is actually abandoned. I think maybe not because it looks like they have a city / county garbage receptacle. And if you've ever had such a receptacle, I think you'll find that the city / county really likes to get them back if you move. And if your neighbor in the duplex says, "Just leave it [the garbage receptacle] and I'll take over the fees when you move," don't believe her. 

Hallelujah

There is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones... when one looks at the world, there's only one thing to say, and it's hallelujah. That's the way it is.
~ Leonard Cohen

- - - - -

Don't write a book with a character named "Holly Lou Yah." I suspect she would be an annoying character with a lot of cousins whose lives she critiques while simultaneously inserting herself into their business. No one likes that. Also she probably doesn't fact check her social media posts.

And also don't make a character named that because I'll sue you.

Still

Civilization begins with distillation.
~ William Faulkner

- - - - -

I call this photo "Still Life."

So...

As the cherub is to the angel, so the cat is to the tiger.
~ Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

- - - - -

As the cat is to the tiger, so the grasshopper is to a much larger grasshopper.

Bird

I have great faith in fools; self-confidence, my friends call it.

~ Edgar Allan Poe

- - - - -

When I unwrapped her gift, I joked, "So you gave me the bird." I paused, then added, "Seriously. Where is the rest of my gift??"

Lenore scowled and said, "This is it and nothing more." 

That made me laugh so hard hat I tooted. I said, "'Tis the wind and nothing more." 

Fence

Love your neighbor as yourself, but don't take down the fence.
~ Carl Sandburg

- - - - -

We are getting a fence so we can get a dog. I'm hoping by the time this posts we will have both. As well as some posts for the fence. Otherwise it won't stand up very well. 

Ultimately, I'm hoping this is a post post post.

Circles

Circles, like the soul, are neverending and turn round and round without a stop.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

- - - - -

You know what is responsible for that turning round and round? Baby. As in, "You spin me right round Baby, right round. Like a record Baby right round round round." The fact that circles don't have straight edges combined with Baby's love of circles and spinning round is also why no one puts Baby in a corner. 

Making

An hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.

~ Samuel Butler

- - - - -

And a Manwich is only a man's way of making a yummy sandwich.

(pause)

Wait. What are we talking about here?

Sharing

Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. 

But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a museum and you decide that a certain painting would look better in your house, and you simply grab the painting and take it there. But if you were very, very hungry and you had no way of obtaining money, it would be excusable to grab the painting, take it to your house, and eat it.

~ Lemony Snickett

- - - - -

I have some pretty good ideas. I'm not going to tell you about them though 'cause you'll steal them.

Selves

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

~ The Buddha

- - - - -

A lot of people don't know that Yoda got his name when George Lucas combined the first two letters of the names of Yogi Berra (for humor) and the last two letters of the name Buddha (for wisdom). They don't know it because it's not true. If they look it up to find out the truth for themselves, not only are they gullible, but they also don't know to spell the Buddha's name.

Zak

The future isn't just a place you'll go, it's a place you will invent.

~ Nancy Duarte

- - - - -

Today Zak is five. He is in that space where he still makes meaning of the world on his own, but where the world is starting to tell him what is and what isn't. I hope he keeps making the world what he wants it to be. At least most of the time. 

And I hope there are tacos and puppies and fall leaves and laughter in his world. 

Because I like those things.

(pause)

And if there are Palmetto bugs in his world (something I don't like) I won't blame him.

But I will expect him to do something about it.

Happy birthday, Zak

Letters

I'll write to you. A super-long letter like in an old-fashioned novel.

~ Haruki Murakami

- - - - -

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir wrote to each other. And P. G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie (and George Orwell, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). So did Catherine the Great and Voltaire. J. R. R. Tolkein and C. S. Lewis wrote to each other. T. S. Eliot and Groucho Marx (although they stopped writing after the first time they met each other face-to-face). Of course Hemingway wrote to Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein, but also to Marlene Dietrich.

I like reading letters that famous people have written to one another. They just get so angry when I take the letters out of their mailboxes.