Gratitude

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

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I am the luckiest person I know. I try to remember that and to show gratitude and to give thanks for people, events, and things in my life that make it better each day. 

(See, you thought I was going to say something like, "I won't say which of the friends in this photo is the "old" and which is the "new", but I didn't do that. Instead I was just full of gratitude.)

 

Mailbox

 23 Tractor Mailbox Ideas - Pinterest

~ The Internet

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I am annoyed in two ways with "23 Tractor Mailbox Ideas." First, I am annoyed because you only need TWO tractor mailbox ideas - get a mailbox with a tractor on it or make a mailbox look like a tractor.

However, if you are going to go with multiple tractor mailbox ideas, coming up with only 23 of them seems like you just quit trying. I mean just go to TractorData.com and you'll find at least 260 types of tractor.

The internet has everything and nothing all at once.

Soulmate

... and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth, or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, even for a moment...

~ Plato

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"Soulmate" and "cellmate" sound a lot alike.

Chicken

I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens.

~ E. B. White

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Roy: Bernice, what are you doing?

Bernice: I've decided to be a "trash chicken."

Roy: Why?

Bernice: Well, if a raccoon can be a "trash panda" then I can be a "trash chicken."

Roy: But "trash panda" is funny because while a raccoon isn't a panda it sort of looks like one and it eats trash.

Bernice: Well, I sort of look like a chicken and --

Roy: I know, but --

Bernice: -- and I eat trash. Stop crushing my dreams.

Roy: Stop crushing that --

Bernice: McNuggets box. I have part of a McNuggets box.

Roy: Oh, Bernice...

Bernice: Stop crushing my dreams.

Bug

Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.

~ James Thurber

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This is such a true saying. Charlie's Angels was on TV from 1976 to 1981. At least two years too long.

Farming

There are only three things that can kill a farmer: 

lightning, rolling over in a tractor, and old age.

~ Bill Bryson

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Wow. That is one of the wrongest things I've ever heard. Other things that can kill farmers: bears, rolling downhill into a dell and smacking up against a tree, if his dog BINGO gets rabies and bites the farmer, getting fed cyanide brownies by Mrs. Farmer because she's had enough of the farmer's B.S., being buried alive with B.S., a tornado, a flood. 

I could go on, but I won't. I like a lot of farmers.
 

Power

Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same.

~ Thanos

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I think it's cool that the health tech company Thanos took its name from a comic book character. The idea of bringing stability to the universe and bringing stability to healthcare... It makes sense. However, I think that people should have been cautious of a company called Than--

Wait. 

It was Theranos, not Thanos. Anyway, people still should have been suspect because it was so close to Thanos. C'mon now people. Seriously

Masterpiece

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I think Lily would be a good host for Masterpiece Theatre. She wouldn't be judgmental about the performances. She would watch the parts that interested her. And she looks cute sitting in chairs. 

Bored

She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring.

~ Zelda Fitzgerald

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Lily is about the least bored creature I've ever known. She always wants to be going and doing. Or even sitting and thinking. She can sit for an extended amount of time just looking out the window. I don't know what she's thinking, but she seems to be watching and processing and trying to learn more about the world around her.

If at some point in the future I learn she was thinking, "This is so boring," I will be surprised. 

Sky

Excuse me while I kiss the sky.

~ Jimi Hendrix

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I love it when the sky clouds up and looks all scary. I mean, I don't want harm done to anyone or to things like crops or homes or other things that are outdoors. I just think the sky looks exciting. Is it because harm COULD be done? Maybe, I haven't thought that much about it. Mostly I just think, "Ooooh... look at that."

Pretzels

There aren't as many quotes about pretzels as you might expect given how wonderful pretzels are.

~ Michelle L. Boettcher

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Here's an ethical conundrum for you. If you are in charge of getting someone their favorite pretzels for their 90th birthday, do you use a seatbelt to keep the pretzels safe knowing that some of the pretzels could get crushed, OR do you leave the pretzels unsecured and hope not to get in a car accident?

Also, I hope this is the biggest ethical dilemma you ever have to face because that means you have a pretty great life.

Daybreak

What breaks in daybreak? Is it the night? Is it the sun, cracked in two by the horizon like an egg, spilling out the light?

~ Margaret Atwood

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I think daybreak is like an egg breaking. Sometimes it is a chicken or a duck egg and you have albumen and yolk. Sometimes it's one of those chocolate eggs and you have a toy toaster or a little doll inside. And sometimes it is like a baby bird egg and now you've touched the baby bird and its parents will never have anything to do with it. 

Daybreak is what you make it. 

Don't touch baby birds.

Barn

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful.

~ Alan Alda

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I don't know everything you'll discover in every barn you explore. I do know one thing you'll find. Bugs.  

Tunnel

To survive, you've got to keep wheedling your way. You can't just sit there and fight against the odds when it's not going to work. You have to turn a corner, dig a hole, go through a tunnel - and find a way to keep moving. 

~ Twyla Tharp

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Funnel cakes are something that a lot of people like. If you really like them and want even MORE of that, you could make "Tunnel Cakes." That would be a HUGE amount of that stuff. The problem is that I don't know a lot of tunnels that would meet FDA standards. I guess it's time to let that dream go and keep moving to the next one, my friend.

BBQ

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

~ Anthony Bourdain

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Sharing food can make a difference in any relationship, I think. Like, if you and I are friends and you serve black licorice soup for dinner, that is not going to have a positive impact on our relationship. 
 

Car

You can know or not know how a car runs and still enjoy riding in a car.

~ David Byrne

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I don't know what kind of car this is. I'm sure someone does and is dying to show off that they know what kind of car it is. The actual make and model are irrelevant to this particular post. 

My point is, this car has some stories to tell. 

Garden

All gardeners know better than other gardeners.

~ Chinese proverb

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I don't know bette than other gardeners. I just try stuff and then realize I should have planted sooner, planted later, watered more, watered less. 

I don't mind. I like learning. 

I especially like learning when something goes well - like "Hey, these tomato plants did great!" I like learning less when it's things like, "Hey! I didn't know squirrels ate green tomatoes! KNOCK IT OFF, YOU SQUIRRELS!!!" 
 

Music

 I hope to refine music, study it, try to find some area that I unlock. I don't quite know how to explain it, but it's there. These can't be the only notes in the world, there's got to be other notes someplace, in some dimension, between the cracks in the piano keys.

~ Marvin Gaye

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I remember, in marching band, playing the song "Africa" by Toto and I thought the same thing, Marvin Gaye. Anyone who has ever played that opening trombone part understands exactly what you're saying.

Bridge

Nothing is beautiful from every point of view.

~ Horace

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I wonder if this bridge thinks I captured it's "good side." 

(pause)

Actually, I don't think this bridge thinks about my taking this photo much at all. And that's okay. 

Doors

Be an opener of doors.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I think this is a good quote to say to most everyone. Except maybe diamond burglars, unless you are encouraging them to open the doors to more education so that they don't burgle anymore.