Plant

Here we go 'roud the prickly pear,

At five o'clock in the morning.

T. S. Eliot

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You know how some plants have thistles and stuff on them?  Some people do,  as well.  They just need strategies to protect themselves from the cruelty of their environments.  It doesn't mean there aren't good parts to them, as well.  It doesn't mean that if you take the time you can't get to know them.  And we have to remember that the world may not treat them well because of their thorns and thistles.

But be patient with the people in the world, too.  Because - while it is a bit unusual to see a person walking down the street or in the workplace or in the grocery store wearing a jumpsuit covered in thistles - they probably have their reasons.  Sometimes the world needs to adjust to fashion which is designed to incorporate organic materials and built-in defense mechanisms.  It's not always just about protecting the wearer from the non-wearer, but vice-versa.

Slumber

Slumber not in the tents of your fathers.  The world is advancing.

~ Giuseppe Mazzani

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I think it is completely acceptable to call a guy who sleeps in flannel a slumberjack.  And if he is not a nice guy, I think it's fine to call him a slumberjackass.  And if he is a not nice guy who sleeps in flannel all the time and kills people, yes, he is a slumberjackassassin.  And if he is also always super-sarcastic, it's fine to call him slumberjackassassinsincere.

(pause)

Shall I continue?

(pause)

That's what I figured.

Horse

A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace.

~ Ovid

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I am sometimes too quick to judge.  When I took this photo, I thought it was just a rockinghorse next to a mailbox.  Upon further review, I see the mailbox is supposed to be a covered wagon.  Now THAT makes sense.

Upright

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

~ Chanakya

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Overheard at the grocery store...

Woman:  How are you?

Other Woman:  I'm upright.

Woman:  Oh, I see wine in you're cart.  You'll be fine.

Other Woman:  Yes.  Coffee, wine and cat litter.  I'll be fine.  Oh, and a bit of chocolate.

Rock

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

~ Ernest Hemingway

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When I looked at the "recently added" list of music the girls had purchased, I saw the following:

* "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC

* "Back in Black" by AC/DC

* "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC

* "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns 'N' Roses

* "Juke Box Hero" by Foreigner

(pause)

This was unexpected to me.

I guess everything goes in a cycle.  Round and round.  Like a record on a record player.  Or a CD in a CD player.  Or a frisbee thrown by a frisbee player.

Fence

 

Silence is a fence around wisdom.

~ German Proverb 

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I think that you should be careful when you're on the fence.  I'm not telling you to have a definitive opinion on every single issue.  It is important to gather information and think through things.  Don't be impulsive.  Don't do things halfway.  It's important to explore where you stand.  Sometimes people don't take enough time to think through everything.

Also, I think that maybe if you have to sit on either a barbed wire or electric fence, that might make you make up your mind a little more quickly, mister!

P.O.

The role of the Post Office [currently] is as trusted third party with an unparalleled workforce and physical locations,...  Who else can claim so many countertops and employees, and the trust of virtually every merchant in the country with their money, with their bills, with everything?

~ Eric Arnum

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I bet a lot of postal carriers do community service. I mean, their jobs are basically service to the community and in the community.  They can be the bearers of good tidings and great joy or of stress and anxiety or of sad news.  THAT is the power to influence.  And I bet - given the nature of their work - a cause they really care about is reading. "Mail Carriers for Letteracy" is a pretty huge organization for mail carriers, I bet.

Pretentious

I just love real characters, they're not pretentious, and every emotion is on the surface, they're regular working people. Their likes, their dislikes, their loves, their hates, their passions; they're all right there on the surface.

~ David O. Russell

- - - - -

People who attempt to impress me by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than they actually possess give me a pretention headache.

Foreboding

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

~ Samuel Butler

- - - - -

 

Leslie complained because she had to repeat herself over and over to her mother.  Then she complained when her mom got new hearing aids, saying, "She got new hearing aids and now she hears everything."

 

Personally, I think Leslie should be grateful her mom got hearing aids and not hearing aides.  Because that would mean there would be extra people running around the house loudly repeating everything Leslie said to her mom.  And that would be really annoying.  Plus, they'd probably leave milk cartons in the refrigerator with like only a little bit left and no one needs that aggravation.

Football

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

- - - - -

When I asked Jessica if she wanted to go to the football game, she said, "Okay...  Pull my finger."  I didn't really know what to do, so I pretended like my hands were full.  Then she said, "Wait, that's not what I meant.  I meant...  twist my arm."

I'm not sure that's what she really meant, though... 

Great

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. 

When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

~ Buddha 

- - - - -

Patty and Joy go walking together a lot.  Joy is taller than Patty and walks at a freakish break-neck speed.

Patty:  Just look at me walking with her...  it's like a Chihuahua walking with a Great Dane.

Me:  She's not that great.

Patty:  No, probably not.

Joy:  Oh, I thought she said, "Great Dame!"

Cemetery

Bores put you in a mental cemetery while you are still walking.

~ Elsa Maxwell.

- - - - -

It was very disquieting to me that while Kirk and I were eating at Zombie Burger the song, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" by Belinda Carlisle was playing in the background.

Lutefisk

Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling.

~ Andre Gide

- - - - -

My mom says she can only wear her "Project Lutefisk" shirt at Thanksgiving or Christmas when she makes lutefisk.  Erik says she can wear it for Halloween too, if she wants to frighten people.

Flamingo

If the Vikings were around today, they would probably be amazed at how much glow-in-the-dark stuff we have, and how we take so  much of it for granted.

~ Jack Handey

- - - - -

So this morning, I heard on NPR that the poison hotline gets lots of calls around Halloween.  They get lots of calls when little kids chew on glow sticks and get the glow stuff in their mouths and then their mouths glow in the dark.

That is yet another awesome way that babies freak out their parents.  As if pooping themselves and spitting up on their parents isn't enough.  And learning sign language.  It freaks me out that babies can learn sign language.  And if we keep teaching them that, it won't be long until they start talking with one another and organizing and just completely take over.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to be led by a bunch of babies with glow-in-the-dark mouths speaking a language I don't understand.

You might say, "Don't worry, Michelle.  Just wait until night time and then when they're talking you can see their glow-in-the-dark mouths and stage a coup and take control back."  But you are so very, very wrong because they're speaking sign language.  They don't have to open their mouths at all!

Think, people!

Shiny

My joking answer to this question is that I leave a bowl of milk out on the back porch every night for the Idea Fairy. In the morning, the milk is gone and there's a brand-new shiny idea by the bowl.

~ Sarah Zettel

- - - - -

I was looking online for bright shiny things and I came to a video called, "How to make an aluminum foil ball toy for your cat."  I did not watch that video.  I'm pretty sure I already know how to do that.

Crossing

I want to feel my life while I'm in it.

~ Meryl Streep

- - - - -

 

I like Meryl Streep, but she is kind of intimidating to me.  I would NOT want to piss her off.  If I have something to share with her that I think she might not like, I always think carefully before I approach her with it.  I consider it "Looking both ways before I cross The Streep."

 

So far, so good.  I haven't ever really pissed her off.  At least not that she's mentioned to me.

Hero

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

- - - - -

When I was a kid we went to Brainerd, MN which is one of the alleged homes of Paul Bunyan.  The photo above is not of that place.  It is a roadside attraction on HWY 69 between Ames and Rake, IA.  I like seeing these kinds of things, but I wouldn't want to be the neighbor to them.

Anyway, I liked the Paul Bunyan stories.  I like the fact that we mythologize our struggles - John Henry: Man versus Machine.  Or Man versus Nature - Paul Bunyan.  Or Old Stormalong: Man versus Water.  Ichabod Crane: Man versus Pumpkin.  Johnny Appleseed: Man versus Fiber Deficiency.

I wonder if Paul Bunyan ever sang, "I Got You, Babe" to his ox.

No.  I guess not.  That song wasn't released back then.

Time

Don't wait.  The time will never be just right.

~ Napoleon Hill

- - - - -

Me:  Thanks for the conversation.

Brad:  Anytime!

Me:  ANYtime?

Brad: Nnnnnnn -- I take that back!

Story

 

Our past is a story existing only in our minds.  Look, analyze, understand, and forgive.  Then, as quickly as possible, chuck it.



~ Marianne Williamson

- - - - -

 

Why is it that people always say, "To make a long story short..." when it is way too late?

Property

Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.

~ Henry David Thoreau

- - - - -

Okay, who wouldn't want to buy this tower thing?  If you charged $5 a person to go up into the tower, you'd make your investment back in no time.  Plus there's always offering advertising space on the sides of the tower.  And opening it on weekends as a Tower and Breakfast. Where, if I was you, I'd suggest marketing that you serve a TOWER of pancakes. 

Of course, I'm not completely sure what the amenities inside this tower are currently.  I don't know if it would comfortable hold a bed or a place to make or serve breakfast.  But I'm an idea person, not an implementation person.  You work out the details.  Just make sure I get my cut of any potential financial gain.