Puppy

My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet.

~ Edith Wharton

- - - - -

Lily is six months old today, but this is one of the first photos I took of her the first week we had her. I love this picture. Lily is under our couch. She looks very sweet and innocent. She was an ankle-biter, though. And a back-of-the-leg biter. And a shorts biter. And a finger biter.

But it was her way of communicating things like:

"I'm hungry."

"I'm thirsty."

"I'm tired."

"I have to go to the bathroom."

or

"I love biting you."

Rainbow

Rainbows apologize for angry skies.

~ Sylvia A. Voirol

- - - - -

People are always asking where the rainbow ends. I can tell you it ends at my neighbor's house. It's nice to be that close to the rainbow, but my neighbor isn't nice. She yells at me when the rainbow comes out just because I do a small thing like digging around the foundation of her house looking for gold.

Drops

 A drop of water is as powerful as a thunder-bolt.

Thomas Huxley

- - - - -

Nuh-uh. I'd much rather be hit by a drop of water than a thunder-bolt. 

Or would I..? 

What if that drop of water made me look up and then I got bird poop in my eye and I fell in a chasm and hit my head on a huge rock and forgot who I was and ended up wandering around and making things up and posting them on the internet even though I didn't know what I was talking about?

(pause)

Wait a minute...

Phone

 

Today or any day that phone may ring and bring good news.

~ Ethel Waters

- - - - -

I really don't like talking on the phone that much.  I'm thinking about changing my name to "Potential Spam" because then I can return calls and probably no one will answer. Plus there are lots of t-shirts and flip flops and salt and pepper shakers with that last name on them.

Gratitude

Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.

~ Henri Frederic Amiel

- - - - -

I like being thankful and showing gratitude. I have a lot to be grateful for - friends, family, and how awesome I am at gratitude.

Greetings

I don't turn to greeting cards for wisdom and advice, but they are a fine reflection of the general drift of the culture.

~ Susan Orlean

- - - - -

Once again this year, I find myself on Thanksgiving Eve not having sent out a single Thanksgiving card. Fortunately, I live a life of gratitude so people just know I'm full of thanks. Like I'm thankful no one I know sends out batches of Thanksgiving cards to make me feel guilty. 

Web

Words have weight.

~ Stephen King

- - - - -

I think a good children's story would be about a spider who spells out messages in her web for the farm family who own the barn where she lives. I think she could spell things like "redrum" and "I am your number one fan" and "We all float down here!" and then when the family is reading what is on the web they get attacked by a rabid dog.

(pause)

Maybe not so much a children's story.

Spices

Spice a dish with love and it pleases every palate.

~ Plautus

- - - - -

Eulalia seasoned every dish with love. She enjoyed cooking for friends and family. She loved them all so much. They accepted her food gratefully. They told her how much they appreciated her going to all that effort. They assured her it wasn't necessary.

She thought they were just being polite and assured them she LOVED cooking for them.

They WERE being polite. Because Eulalia seasoned every dish with love and ONLY love, her food was pretty flavorless.

Purple

My house really is purple and yellow and hot pink and light green and orange.

~ Lisa Frank

- - - - -

If you are going to try and grow beautiful flowers for the first time and you are also thinking of getting a puppy, maybe don't do those at exactly the same time. The puppy might try to eat the flowers. Allegedly. According to someone who is very familiar with this experience. 

But if the flowers are purple and the puppy's collar is purple, it might make for some good photos. And if the puppy's name is Lily and the flowers are lilies, that could be cool, too. 

But I'm not the boss of you, so do whatever you want. 

Crabs

One learns first of all in beach living the art of shedding; how little one can get along with, not how much... To say - is it necessary? - when I am tempted to add one more accumulation to my life, when I am pulled toward one more centrifugal activity. One is free, like the hermit crab, to change one's shell.

~ Anne Morrow Lindberg

- - - - -

I think that when the pandemic is all over, that the hermit crab will be seen as the pet that best represents this era. No one sets out to get a hermit crab, you just end up with it - like COVID-19. Also hermit crabs live in isolation - like we have been doing during COVID-19. Also some people don't believe in hermit crabs - like some people don't believe in COVID-19.

Manners

Good manners sometimes means simply putting up with other people's bad manners.

~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

- - - - -

If that's true, there's a lot of that going on right now because there are a lot of people with bad manners. I don't think you get manners if you are born into wealth or a specific social class. I see a lot of rich elite people every day with no manners.

I don't think you get manners from parents or school or church. I know people whose parents tried to teach them manners and who had church and school leaders try to help them learn common courtesy. That doesn't always work either.

I think you get manners from inside. When you realize that it's important to treat people well, then you will treat people well. You won't get it before then no matter who your role models are.

And if you don't get manners from inside, you might try reading a book with a giant bear shaking the hand of children holding monkeys or holding hands with rabbits. If nothing else, maybe people without manners will read that book, try to shake hands with a giant bear, and then we won't have to worry about how rude they were anymore.

Bird

In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.

~ Robert Lynd

- - - - -

In order to see people it is necessary to become a part of the noise. 

(pause)

And in order to see Savion Glover it is necessary to become a part of the noise. And the funk. At least it was necessary in 1996.

Table

I think if you follow anyone home, whether they live in Houston or London, and you sit at their dinner table and talk to them... I think we're all the same.

~ Brene Brown

- - - - -

I agree with this. I think in situations like that we are all going to say, "Brene Brown, why are you always following me home?!!"

Fence

A good neighbor is a fellow who smiles at you over the back fence, but doesn't climb over it.

~ Arthur Baer

- - - - -

"I don't like fences," said the chicken. "They make me feel cooped up."

"I don't like fences, either," said the cow. "They restrict my moovement."

"I also," the horse added, "Do not like fences. In fact, I canter stand them."

"The pig added, "Oink. Oink. Oink." Being a pig and one of the smarter, more enlightened animals he knew it made no sense to complain. Plus he was a bit boared with the conversation.

Choice

You are not the victim of the world, but rather the master of your own destiny. It is your choices and decisions that determine your destiny. 

~ Roy T. Bennett

- - - - -

You know when people say to their babies (who don't usually have a full grasp of language, by the way), " I'm so happy you chose me to be your dad," or "Thank you for choosing me as your mama," or "We're so grateful you chose us to be your parents." 

That's not at all how it works.

Reservoir

Music is a reservoir... of sounds.

~ Dexter Gordon

- - - - -

A reservoir is also a reservoir of sounds.

Typewriter

I'm in control of the tiny, tiny world right here at the typewriter.

~ Joan Didion

- - - - -

I remember the good old days with my laptop typewriter. I'd take it to. . .

Not really. That's a lie.

Butter

I don't even butter my bread. I consider that cooking!

~ Katherine Cebrian

- - - - -

These are fancy butters from a restaurant in West Virginia where Leslie and I ate. We had to take a tram to get there and back. That was fun. What was not fun is not having a butter cow at the Iowa State Fair this year. Not that I've been to the Iowa State Fair in a while, but that's not the point. The point is that there should always be a butter cow. Maybe they will make one whenever it is safe to gather in large groups again. Butter late than never.

Waiting

It is an anxious, sometimes dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by.

~ Rumer Golden

- - - - -

If the above quote were true, I might feel for dolls. However, the doll in this photo has clearly chosen to sit quietly and wait for what she is about to do.

And that is terrifying. 

(pause)

QUIT STARING AT ME. 

Veterans

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.

~ Cynthia Ozick

Start

Start where you are.

Use what you have.

Do what you can.

~ Arthur Ashe

- - - - -

When people run track, they don't just run. The get on their mark. They get set. THEN they GO. 

The same is true of any other kind of task. If you go to the grocery store, you don't just GO. You get a pen. You get a paper. You make your shopping list. You go to the store. You get ready to go in the store. You realize you forgot your list. You get frustrated and just go ahead and go into the store to go shopping. You remember about 40% of what was on your list. You go home. You unpack. Later you find the list in your pocket - the one you checked three or four times when you got to the store.

So, good luck with your grocery shopping. 

Lines

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.

~ Erma Bombeck

- - - - -

It would be a lot easier to see if it was a chorus line.

Liberty

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

~ George Orwell

- - - - -

This is very true. I think it might also be true that while there is freedom of speech, we also have the freedom not to listen. We might choose not to listen because we disagree or we feel harmed when someone says something or we might choose not to listen because we know the speaker is wrong because of this one thing we read one time on the internet.

Dogs

The world was full of monsters, and they were all allowed to bite the innocent and the unwary.

~ Stephen King, Cujo

- - - - -

One time when I was out driving and taking photos, I saw these two dogs. They trotted out to look at me. I don't think they barked, which meant I could only assume that their bite was worse than their bark. I did not try to pet them. 

I think all three of us agreed that it was for the best that I just drove away. I know at least one of us agreed about that. 

Tower

A well-ordered life is like climbing a tower; the view halfway up is better than the view from the base, and it steadily becomes finer as the horizon expands.

~ William Lyon Phelps

- - - - -

Also, you get slower and more tired as you progress through that well-ordered life, just like when you climb a tower.

Adventure

I am on a voyage of discovery. I search for those of you who will go on a great adventure... if you are one of those audacious few willing to dare and then to share... then come with me.

~ William H. Danforth

- - - - - 

William H. Danforth was the founder of Ralston Purina. He also started the camp that I attend every year (except pandemic years). There is a teaching and learning conference at that camp. It's kind of a significant place to me.

I suppose you could say that I have joined William H. Danforth on a great adventure. 

The most recent leg of that adventure was trying to find some Purina Puppy Chow at the pet store. There were four or five aisles of dog food. The only thing not in those aisles was the Purina Puppy Chow. It was on the other side of the store. With the cat food.

Adventuring is really hard work.

Mill

The mill cannot grind with water that is past.

~ Daniel D. Palmer

- - - - -

And a car cannot run on gas that is passed.

(pause)

I hope.

Dock

I have trouble with seafood because it tastes like a dock.

~ Douglas Coupland

- - - - - 

A dock is kind of like a bridge that is keeping its options open.

Delicious

Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious,

~ Ruth Reichl

- - - - -

Overheard...

Kid: I said I wanted cheese on my sandwich.

Grandpa: There is cheese on your sandwich. Right there.

Kid: I don't like this cheese.

Grandma: Whattaya mean? It's Parmesan. It's baked right in the bread.

Grandpa: It's baked right in there. You eat that.

Kid: No. I don't like this. I don't like it at all.

Grandma: You're making a mountain out of a molehill. It's not the end of the world. You eat that.

Kid: . . . (maybe he took another bite or two. I didn't see for sure.) Okay. I'm full.

Grandma: You eat that. You eat half that sandwich and we'll save the rest.

Grandpa: It's not the end of the world. You'll like it okay.

Grandma: (apparently to Grandpa) At least he's not like Cicely.

Grandpa: She asked for HAM on her sandwich! HAM!!

Grandma: And any other time she would have only wanted vegetables. I should write that on my calendar. What a day.

Grandpa: HAM. Who would've imagined? A ham sandwich.

Kid: Okay. I'm really full now.

I just stared at him while I ate my box of doughnuts. 
(not really. I just didn't have a photo of a sandwich on parmesan cheese bread or a ham sandwich).

Old

I knew if I waited around long enough something like this would happen.
~ George Bernard Shaw epitaph

- - - - -

(no anecdote needed)

Collage

Collage is the twentieth century's greatest innovation.

~ Robert Motherwell

- - - - -

I'm not sure I agree. Though I love collage, I'm thinking maybe antibiotics or the automobile or TV or the computer might be up at the top of the list.

Not that it's a competition. If it was, I think maybe the computer would win. Unless it was a collage competition, in which case I'm definitely wrong.

P.S. I don' think it's a collage competition.