Roads

If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.

~ Dolly Parton

- - - - -

December 31st is one of my favorite days of the year. It is a day for looking back and looking ahead. It is a day for celebrating, commemorating, and deliberating. 

Depending on what you're eating, it may also be a time for refrigerating. If you don't do that, it could lead to a time of regurgitating. And if you do that on someone's new clothes they got over the holidays, it could lead to vituperating, which may be exasperating.

But I digress. My point is that it's good to think today.

(pause)

And every day.
 

Interesting

If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in, the chances are very high that you will interest other people as well. 

~ Rachel Carson

- - - - -

Teaching is the same. Bring enthusiasm and a sense of interest to your classroom, and you will draw others into the learning. Write with enthusiasm about your areas of interest, and you will draw others into the reading. 

It doesn't work for everything, though. For instance, I don't care how enthusiastic you are about your collection of ceramic doll heads which you display in a room lighted by the anise-scented candles you make, I'm not going in there.

Attention

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

~ Mary Oliver

- - - - -

Every place has a name. It might be a name we give it or a name others have given it. Regardless, it is precise and the true name of a place is not a name that is shared with any other place. 

The place in the photos above is named "Specific." That is the one true and precise name of this place. Specific Alley.

Life

Life's not fair; Why should I be?

~ Margaret Atwood

- - - - -

So I ordered something recently - a set of motivational cards. The very first one said, "Noting in life is fair (tough shit)." Noting. I think it should have said "Nothing" but it didn't. And that seemed even funnier than what they were probably trying to say.

Sibling

Siblings that say they never fight, most definitely are hiding something.

~Lemony Snicket

- - - - -

I always think of Kirk when I hear that one Tina Turner song. I figure he must sing it when he is thinking about how lucky he is to know me. You know the song. I think it was on Schitt's Creek. "Your Sibling's the Best!"

You're right, Kirk. I am.

Kirk

What strange creatures brothers are!

~ Jane Austen

- - - - -

When I went to visit Kirk and his family a couple of weeks ago, I saw this truck around Greenville. It made me think of Kirk because the mud flap says Kirk. It doesn't take much for me to think of Kirk when I see the word "Kirk".

Christmas

"Today is one of the top days for cooking fires in Iowa and the rest of the nation..."

~ Iowa Public Radio

- - - - -

This is what I heard when I turned on IPR on Christmas morning 2021. It might make you sad, but - hey! - truth is truth. It really isn't safe to roast those chestnuts on an open fire...

(pause)

... in the kitchen.

Electricity

Electricity is really just organized lighting.

~ George Carlin

- - - - -

It is the holiday season today and other days. We have been without electricity for more than 12 hours after being without it for about nine hours. I'm not mad about it. We had some nice conversations and naps, and I did some leisure reading. I wouldn't have done a lot of those things if we had electricity.

Know what else I wouldn't have done if we had electricity? I wouldn't have been freezing and walking around in three layers of clothes with a hood up most of the day. They call Anderson the Electric City. Thats' what they call it. 

But I won't complain... because I just did that in the previous paragraph. 

P.S. Electricity really is organized because my computer shut down as I was typing this. Clever, electricity. Very clever.
 

Waiting

We are not born to wait. We are born to do.

~ Dean Koontz

- - - - -

We are not born to wait. We are born to do.

 ~ Lily Gladys waiting to open her holiday gifts.

 

Christmas

We've made ourselves miserable with wanting.

~ Mercy Torres

- - - - -

As you get older your Christmas list gets shorter because the things you want are so much more expensive. And you forget what you were going to write down. And your hand gets tired. And you know you're probably getting slippers so why even make a list?!

 

Winter

What good is the warmth of summer without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?

~ John Steinbeck

- - - - - 

This is a pretty summer-centric way of looking at the seasons. What good is the cold of winter without the warmth of summer to give it sweetness, huh?! What good is that? Or what good is the coolness of fall without the coolness of spring... Don't distract me. Let's just stick with summer and winter, okay? What about that?

Rehayndeer

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves.

~ Francois de la Rouchfoucauld

- - - - -

A hay bale dressing up as a reindeer is ridiculous. Reindeer EAT hay. That's like a pig dressing up like a person. NO, I'm not talking about

Miss Piggy. She is a puppet. I'm talking about Porky Pig.

 

Food

"Canned food is a perversion," Ignatius said. "I suspect that it is ultimately very damaging to the soul."

~ John Kennedy Toole

- - - - -

I usually hate it when people give their opinion about shows they haven't watched or books they haven't read or food they have tried. However, I'm going to do that right now. I have not tried "Spaghetti's Beefy TacOs," but I suspect they should have been called "Beefy TacUh-Os". Or perhaps I just don't have the palate for that.

I almost put that I might not have the pallet for that. Truth is, I don't have a pallet for Beefy TacOs, either.

Sunrise

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.

~ Aristotle

- - - - -

I love mornings. I am usually up before sunrise. For me, sunrises are about hope and the potential of the day. Most anything is possible around sunrise. So many hopes for the day.

Leslie usually hopes she doesn't have to get up at sunrise. 

That's okay. I still like her.

 

Hot

When you're hot, you're hot.

When you're not, you're not.

~ Jerry Reed

- - - - -

Working drafts of this sign included:

Feeling warm? Get in here before you burn in hell.

Feeling warm? Join us - this is where all the "cool" kids are.

Feeling warm? This church is air-conditioned.

Fence

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

~ J. R. R. Tolkein

- - - - -

A fence without a gate is a cage. A gate without a fence is full of wasps and if you play around it, you're going to get stung a bunch of times by your eye. Well, at least that's what happened to me. 

Help

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.

~ Oscar Wilde

- - - - -

       Overheard...

       Parent: We put aside money to help people.

       Child: I think I might use my money for Pokemon cards.

       Parent: No.

       Child: I mean to help people.

       Parent: Like how?

       Child: Like when one time we saw a guy who needed help when   

                  we were driving home.

       Parent: Yes! Exactly. And what did we do?

       Child: We didn't really have anything, so we just drove home. 

 

 

 

Play

All meaningful, organic, and foundational learning is at heart playful and ludic.

~ Marcelo Suarez-Orozco

- - - - -

I'm not sure what you do when you tell a kid he can't get up until 7:00 a.m. and he keeps getting up and talking and playing in his room and then you go up and tell him he needs to stay in bed and be quiet until 7:00 a.m. like you told him and you close his door and walk downstairs just as the cuckoo clock is cuckoo-ing that it's 7:00 a.m.

Gas

Your old road is rapidly agin'

Please get out of the new on 

if you can't lend a hand

'cause the times, they are a-changin'

~ Bob Dylan

- - - - -

"Hey! Michelle! Go to that gas station up the road! The gas is $2.59 cheaper!" you scream.

"That gas station is closed and has been for years," I say calmly. "Also," I add, "Please don't scream at me when I'm driving."

 

Mythology

Anyone can nurture a myth about their life if they have enough manure.

~ Fredrik Backman

- - - - -

I guess that means that they can nurture a garden about their life too. Of course, it would be a shitty garden.

 

Nap

I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.

~ Yogi Berra

- - - - -

Lily is excellent at napping. She can do it most anywhere and in a number of odd positions. 

(pause)

I need to add that to her resume.

 

Lines

 Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.

~ Lao Tzu

- - - - -

What if, after we achieved something great, we crossed a line and got a trip to Finland? We'd be pretty excited to reach the Finnish Line, I bet.

Teaching

The duties of a teacher are neither few nor small, but they elevate the mind and give energy to the character.

~ Dorothea Dix

- - - - -

The best part of this post is that there were seven "likes" right away from former students. Not a single one of them chose the laughing emoji. I said what I said. My students know.

 

Spiders

Man did not weave the web of life.

He is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web,

He does to himself.

~ Chief Seattle

- - - - -

This past summer I saw a black widow in our garden box. It ran away, so I sat down and looked up black widows on my phone. All I can say is that the first full page of information was about the comic book character. I was mildly annoyed and inconvenienced.

But then I thought, "What if I had just been bitten? What if I was not sure what to do and I was looking up what to do about a black widow spider bite?!" 

Was I angry at Scarlett Johansson? No. Of course not. She doesn't control the internet. 

(pause)

Or DOES she? She DOES play Black Widow... and it IS called the WORLD WIDE WEB. 

Coincidence? Future lawsuit? Conspiracy?

Tune in next week when we don't solve this mystery because we've moved on to something completely different.

Joy

If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment.

~ Carlos Santana

- - - - -

Maybe, Carlos Santana, but I'd still like to see the paramedics if I'm ever involved in a chainsaw accident.

Quirks

Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

- - - - -

I was watching a reality show and one of the men on the show used the word "manneurysms". I'm pretty sure he meant "mannerisms" as in quirks or gestures instead of "aneurysms" as in a bulging blood vessel, but I hope he said what he meant.

Tired

Let's start by taking a smallish nap or two.

~ Winnie the Pooh

- - - - -

After spending a week in Canada with two dogs, I learned where the term "dog tired" comes from. It comes from the idea that dogs get tired.

 

Us

To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.

~ Mark Twain

- - - - -

This is what it would look like if Mark Tennant painted a photo of Leslie and me at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

Tired

she's strong, but she's exhausted.

~ r. h. sin

- - - - -

"No! I CAN DO IT MY OWN SELF!" Lily shrieked. The poor pup worked herself to exhaustion trying to make some roller blades so she could skate with the other dogs. Unfortunately, she was a dog, had no tools, and had no opposable thumbs. And "the other dogs" she wanted to skate with were kids from the neighborhood whose parents put the childrens' rollerblades on for them.

Yes, I could have gotten Lily skates and put them on her, but she isn't allowed outside of the backyard, so it would have really just been cruel, wouldn't it? Besides, if I had done that, she wouldn't have given up on the skates and built that helicopter instead.

Truck

Anyone singing about trucks, in any form, in any song, anywhere, literally just stop -- nobody cares!

~ Kacey Musgraves

- - - - -

I think that is harsh. I'm not saying it isn't true (I've not done any research on the topic, to be honest). I'm just saying it is harsh.

 

Gratitude

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

- - - - -

We should give thanks every morning. There is potential in the day we each have things for which we should show appreciation. Like you can show appreciation for this blog. 

It doesn't have to be appreciation in the form of money, but that is one way to show appreciation. 
 

Supper

You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.

~ Anthony Bourdain

- - - - -

There are times when asking, "HEY - What's for supper?!" is particularly awkward.

Gratitude

Through the eyes of gratitude, everything is a miracle.

~ Mary Davis

- - - - -

I don't know if dogs can feel gratitude or not, but I know that they can feel joy. To me gratitude is a path to joy, so maybe dogs just skip a step. 

(pause)

This would be an even more clever post if it was Skippy peanut butter instead of Jif.
 

Life

Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.

~ Seneca

- - - - -

 Don't let others tell you whether you are living your life well or not. If they do that, you won't be able to hear your shows on TV.

Goals

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

- - - - -

I think the original version of this quote was "What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goalie." And then Nietzsche became a huge soccer fan and updated his maxim.

Carnival

Though the carnival life is gonna always shine, you can't turn back the time.

~ Maria McKee

- - - - -

 As I drive by the little carnival in the mall parking lot, I think of how much I would have wanted to go there if I was a child. Then I think of how sick I got the time I went to one of these things and the ride operator let the ride go on too long. "Silly young version of me," I think. "You're so naive. You have no idea how many times you're going to throw up in the future." 

Granted, most of those times had nothing to do with carnival rides. I'm just telling you what I was thinking. Leave me alone.

Things

We've made ourselves miserable with wanting.

~ Mercy Torres

- - - - -

I heard it said once that the things you own, own you. I see a lot of people trying to buy themselves happy with trinkets they collect or clothing or other stuff. I do that on occasion, too. During the pandemic, for instance, I bought things for other people because I couldn't be physically with them. It was a way of coping.

Would I be rich if I hadn't done that? No. Am I rich because I shared that I was thinking of them and I am lucky to have those friends and family? No. I just told you I spent a bunch of money. I'm not rich!

Nature

When I speak of silence, I often use it synonymously with quiet. I mean silence from modern life, silence from all these sounds that have nothing to do with the natural acoustic system.

~ Gordon Hempton

- - - - -

People (all the time, it's weird): What's your favorite dance, Michelle?

Me: Avoidance.
 

Truth

People need truth. Music lacks truth at the moment in my opinion.

~ Yungblud

- - - - -

What is true to one person may not be true to another. For example, I am super smart. That is true to me. That may not be -- wait, that's a bad example.

Spider

When spiders unite, they can tie up a lion.

~ Ethiopian Proverb

- - - - -

Some people are scared of spiders. I think that is silly. I'm scared of spider FANGS. But only the spider fangs that can penetrate human skin. 
 

Desk

If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?

~ Laurence J. Peter

- - - - -

I usually have a pretty organized desk. It gets piles occasionally - mail, materials for teaching, books, and so on - paper things mostly. However, you might be wondering about the hammer in this photo of my desk. "Is it because you were so frustrated you were about to pound your keyboard or computer?" you ask.

No. What kind of anger management problems do you think I am dealing with? Sheesh!
 

Upset

(Photo by Kirk Boettcher)

No matter what I do, you're going to be upset about something.

~ Bianca Del Rio

- - - - -

The other day I was talking with a colleague at work. We were discussing how stress can affect us and how some people project their stress on others. I shared an instance where I had tried to support someone recently and she kind of blew up at me. I told my colleague I hadn't meant to upset the person.

I said, "I don't actively set out to upset people." (pause) "Anymore."

Home

How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof thinking of home.

~ William Faulkner

- - - - -

Why are you on instead of under that roof if it's raining, William Faulkner?!

Sheesh.

Fall

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

- - - - -

There is a new beauty when leaves change - even as they begin to die. Even when they are completely dead and lying on the ground, they can be beautiful.

The same cannot be said about people.

Snow

Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers.

~ Kahlil Gibran

- - - - -

And, like snow, if you pee on kindness, it sort of ruins its beauty.
 

Buildings

We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.

~ Winston Churchill

- - - - -

There are all different types of buildings. I've said it before, but I think I might have liked to be an architect. I do have some questions, though. Like, why are there A-Frame houses but not C-Frame houses?
 

Toilets

You spend your whole life trying to get known and then you spend the rest of it hiding in the toilet. 

~ Bob Fosse

- - - - -

I think a good thing to do for your partner on your anniversary is to clean the toilet. It's kind of a symbolic apology for all the shit you did in the previous year. 

Why, yes, I AM working on a relationship guide. 

Why, no, I do NOT yet have a contract for that book.

Why do you ask?

Kabillion

Hold on and take a breath

I'll be here every step

Walking between the raindrops with you

~ Lifehouse

- - - - - -

There are lots of things that are difficult to count. Raindrops. Trees. Stars. Grains of sand. 

The other day I was writing something to someone and I said there were a "kabillion" of something. My machine autocorrected it to "Kabul Lion" because I use that phrase a lot. 

I think my dad runs autocorrect now. He was always quizzing me on the capital of Afghanistan before we talked a lot about Afghanistan in the U.S.

Also, I think my dad continues to do things for his own amusement, even in the afterlife. I guess the truth is - if you can't do things for your own amusement in the afterlife, when CAN you do things for your own amusement?

(Answer: Almost all the time.)

Job

If you don't feel it, flee from it. Go where you are celebrated, not merely tolerated.

~ Paul F. Davis

- - - - -

I was at something recently and a presenter or speaker (again, I can't remember where this was) said, "I really look up to student affairs faculty and staff. You teach research. You're out there driving golf carts..."

(pause)

Yep. That pretty much sums up what we do.
 

Knowing

The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own.

~ Willa Cather

- - - - -

There are a few things I know about the people who own this vehicle simply because of the sticker they have on their window. Nearly all of those things are good. The things that are bad probably reveal more about me than about them.