Hands

You'll forget it when you're dead, and so will I. When I'm dead, I'm going to forget everything -- and I advise you to do the same.

~ Kurt Vonnegut

- - - - -

I think it's a good idea to forget to wash your hands when you're dead. Otherwise, eventually, you're just washing bone against bone, and that doesn't sound nice. It's called "bone dry" not "bone washing hands wet."
 

Nicknames

Nicknames are fond names. We do not give them to people we dislike.

~ Edna Ferber

- - - - -

One name I have for Lily is "Doggo Chicago" because I like the way it sounds. While I think Lily is a very smart dog, I am glad she doesn't know a lot about geography or she might wonder why I call her that. 

Tree

Never complain. Never explain.

~ Katherine Hepburn

- - - - -
 

Trees never complain and they never explain. 

But once we learn to speak the language of trees, we will find out much of that is untrue. Especially about the rubber tree. You know that thing is chanting "I'm rubber, your glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you!" all the damn time. 

Not only is that annoying to you, you know all the other trees are griping about how annoying it is. Imagine how annoyed they must be!

Friend!

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.

~ Octavia Butler

- - - - -

In my experience, there are a lot of situations where you have to give before you get. I think in friendships this is the case. If you give, you will always get back. Sometimes you give and you get an amazing friend. Other times you give and you get information about how untrustworthy someone is and how unworthy they are of your friendship. I like the first way best.

I also find in grocery shopping they expect you to give money before you get your groceries, but that isn't really what this blog post is about.

Dog

Dogs are our link to paradise.

~ Milan Kundera

- - - - -

There are a lot of things I disagree with Milan Kundera about. This is not one of those things.

 

Dog

Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.

~ Dean Kooontz

- - - - -

Dog park people are very interesting. In my experience, they talk about three things: Dogs, other people's dogs, and dog parks. In all honesty, that's really all I'm looking for in terms of conversation at a dog park. Well, in ALL honesty, I'm not looking for conversation at all. I'm just looking to pet some dogs.
 

Cricket

I have always loved cricket. Since childhood.

~ Nani

- - - - -

I don't hear crickets at my house very often. In January, I heard one for a few days. I liked the sound. If that cricket had jumped on my foot, though, I'd have been scared. Same with music. I like music, but if musicians jump on my foot, I get scared. Well, more angry and hurt than scared, but startled nonetheless. 

Also, I didn't have a photo of a cricket, so I'm using this photo of a spider. 

Golf

Keep your sense of humor. There's enough stress in the rest of your life not to let bad shots ruin a game you're supposed to enjoy.

~ Amy Alcott

- - - - -

 Golf balls mean different things to different people.

Typewriter

In order to write about life, you must first live it.

~ Ernest Hemingway

- - - - -

Duh. 

Robots

Robots will provide an important role in providing physical assistantship and even companionship for the elderly.

~ Bill Gates

- - - - -

I believe this. I believe this mainly because it's mostly old people I see collecting robots like the one in this picture.
 

Journaling

Journal writing, when it becomes a ritual for transformation, is not only life-changing but life-expanding.

~ Jen Williamson 

- - - - -

"Dear Diarrhea," she wrote. She was deeply reflective, but a horrific speller.

 

Information

It's not the things you don't know that trip you up. It's the things you think you know, but you don't. You fail to ask a certain question because you believe you know the answer. Separating your information from your assumptions can be very tricky business.

~ Claudia Gray

- - - - -

Sometimes I get surveys about things and some of the questions are about where do I get most of my information. I think I might start putting "Highlights Magazine" because I think that will cut down on the number of those surveys I get.

Cemetery

The cemetery is full of indispensable people.

~ Winston Churchill

- - - - -

Why don't they call a cemetery a "zombie garden"? 

Lettuce

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no arguments, just understanding. 

~Nhat Hahn

- - - - -

Maybe. 

But when I pushed my brother into the shade and poured water on him, it didn't help our relationship. 
 

Library

No bad thing can happen to you in the library.

~ Maya Angelou

- - - - -

One of the police guys at Duquesne would disagree with this. He used to say, "Libraries attract perverts." I shan't comment on why he said this to Leslie. Is it because she is a librarian or...?

Not for me to say. I can't read his mind.

Connection

Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.

~ Susan Sontag

- - - - - 

I think it is probably true that most people want to be connected. Even when we walk through the world with our eyes and minds burried in our phones - nearly falling down stairs or getting run over by cars - we are reading about others and trying to find common ground. Sometimes finding common ground in our dislike of people, places, things, activities, opinions... We want to belong. We want community. 

Well, most people do. Others of us are psychopaths or sociopaths or live in caves or "off the grid." I hope those people still find connections. Like the cave dwellers - I hope they bond with cave creatures. Or the "off the grid" people. I hope they have friends and families or even books that give them a sense of connection. Or pets. And I hope the psychopaths and sociopaths get connected with law enforcement.

Love

Love can build a bridge

Between your heart and mine

~ The Judds

- - - - -

I hope that's a metaphorical bridge because, like, structural integrity.
 

Photography

Three is no delight in owning anything unshared.

~ Seneca

- - - - -

When I visited Maine recently, we went to an architectural surplus place. I love those places. 

I was taking photos when I saw the sign above that said, "Photos are encouraged!" I don't always tag people or places when I post photos on social media, but I did this time. I got a lot of nice comments. The store got some attention. The people who saw my photo got to see my photo. 

It was a win-win-win. Not that it's a competition.

(But if it was, I would have been one of the winners).

It was way better than the time I took some photos in a bead store and someone ran up and said I couldn't do that. In a bead store. Your loss bead store people. 

Note: the name of the store was not "We Try to Bead Nice." (if it was I would have taken a photo of that sign and written a post about irony)

 

Hug

A hug is like a boomerang; you get it back right away.

~ Bil Keane

- - - - -

I think this is not a good observation. Not all hugs are wanted. Some people are not huggers. Also, I have never hugged someone and then immediately been hit in the head. Of course, I've never thrown a boomerang and then immediately been hit in the head, either.

There's still a lot of life I have yet to live.

Goats

Goats are herd animals and will become depressed if kept without any goat companions.

~ Lively Run Goat Dairy, Goat Fun Facts

- - - - -

I heard the other day that goats are the protein of the future. I also read that goat meat is eaten more than any other kind of meat in the world. So, I guess that goats are the protein of the present unless you live in some self-obsessed culture that doesn't eat a lot of goat meat right now. But I don't know anyone like that.

Marbles

I regard golf as an expensive way to play marbles.

~ G. K. Chesterton

- - - - -

I think if you ask a lot of families what their grandparents did for fun when they were kids, more families than you might expect would say, "They played with marbles." And if you ask those same families where their grandparents' marbles are, I bet they don't know. It makes me sad how many young people say that their grandparents have lost their marbles. 

Peeps

Someone must x-ray my stomach to see if the Peeps I ate on Easter are still in there, intact and completely undigested. And I'm not talking about this past Easter. I'm talking about the last time I celebrated Easter, in 1962.

~ Bill Maher

- - - - -

I'm guessing Peeps marketing is more successful in color than in black and white.

Fear

Most of our fears are borrowed. Since that's the case, we should get busy returning them.

~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

- - - - -

I also think many of our fears are gifted to us by others. We, in turn, are destined to regift them to others. 

Which sucks.

For all of us.

 

Bambi

You see, when you're young and foolish it doesn't matter where you may be, you always think you'll be happier somewhere else. 

~ Felix Salten

- - - - -

I listened to Bambi recently. In case you're wondering, no, it is nothing like the Disney movie. Anyway, I kept worrying that as I was listening to it, a deer would run out in the road and I'd hit it.

(pause)

That didn't happen.
 

Spider

It was no mean trick doing the wiring with those mittens on. But I managed it and crawled out, batting spiders into the shadows. I could hear a thud as they fit the floor joists, then a scuttling sound, then, worst of all, the silence of spiders.

~ Bailey White

- - - - - -

This is, I believe, a golden silk orb weaver. It was huge. In the background, you can make out the blurry image of our neighbors house. As you can see, the spider is much bigger than the house.

Self

Talk to yourself like someone you love.

~ Brene Brown

- - - - -

And if you don't care if people like you, do whatever the hell you want because you're going to anyway.

Humpty

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less."

~ Lewis Carroll

- - - - -

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

and lied to everyone because I don't believe for one second that his potato chips are good for me OR the kiddies. 

Liar.

Dreams

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just gonna ask them where they're going and hook up with 'em later.

~ Mitch Hedberg

- - - - -

I had a dream last night. Well, the night before I am writing this entry. I was back in college and living in the residence halls. It wasn't my residence hall, and this floor was in the basement of a building. Anyway, everyone was getting ready to go out to parties to decide what sorority they wanted to join. I didn't want to go, but I felt pressured because everyone else was. Eventually, I decided not to go, and I was relieved I made that decision. 

Turned out no one really noticed or cared that I wasn't going, and there were a lot of other people who weren't going either. 

The lessons from this dream are thricefold:

First, it means I should trust my instincts and not feel compelled to go along with the crowd. Such has been the case for me for most of my life, so that works.

Second, we should worry less about what people think of us because they mostly don't.

Third, when they implode the residence halls you lived in, even in your dreams, you have to come up with someplace new to live.

Note: I know that thricefold is not a word, but maybe now that I've typed it, it will become a word and fall into common use.

Music

You can't change the music of your soul.

~ Katharine Hepburn

- - - - -

You can't change the music of your soul, but you can change the lyrics. If it's a sad song, change it to a happy song. If it's a shallow song, give it depth. If it's "Blurred Lines" just change it (back) to - "Got to Give it Up" by Marvin Gaye.

(pause)

And also, if that's your song, I really hope you like to dance.

Pranks

Nearly half a century ago, a series of events led 

to the creation of the most mysterious and grand displays of 

Elbert County's illustrious granite industry.

~ Rose Scoggins, Mark Wells, and Dawson Baker in the Special Issue of The Elberton Star, July 8, 2022

- - - - -

I don't know if it is true or not, but the story I have in my head about this monument is that Grady Albertson's friends donated this spire to Grady Albertson as a prank. He went home from work one night, and they had this set up at his place of work, and there wasn't a lot that Grady Albertson or anyone else could do about it.

(pause)

Okay. So I just did about one minute of research. I don't think what I thought was right. Sounds like Grady may have erected the Georgia Guidestones, which I got to see a few times before someone blew them up. He also made this, and I guess then his friends dedicated it to him.

This doesn't really go with the post I was going to write about my brother suggesting a joke we could play on my mom would be to sign her up for a retirement community.

That's the way life is. One moment you're thinking about pranking your parent, and the next moment you're thinking about people blowing up weird monument sites you've seen. I'm sure you've been there and can relate.