This is a sure way to get hot, mow the yard.
I did it tonight and when I got done, I had grass on my arms, and plenty of sweat all over me, including a shirt that I'd sweat through.
I was steamed!
I took a shower over an hour ago, but I'm still a little hot, and sort of uncomfortable.
I waited till about night to do the job, because otherwise I'd be boiling with the sun's heat. It's nice to have the job done, just not that nice doing it.
I have hundreds if not thousands of baby trees coming up in my yard. It's crazy.
This is no way for trees to grow, a few to every inch. If they were allowed to grow up, they'd never make it, since there would be no room for anyone to get big.
So I've been plucking them up, weed whacking them, and, when the time comes, I'll be mowing them.
It's a little sad, since I know we're all trying to save trees. But we can't save every one of the little fellas. Otherwise I wouldn't have any yard, and, like I said, the trees would end up way too thick anyway.
I don't know if people really think I look comfortable in my own skin. I don't, so there's no reason they should think of it.
It's funny, really. Because if anyone should feel comfortable in his own skin, I would think it'd be me. But I sure don't!
Today I was milling around the place where we were about to have breakfast and I was thinking of this. I got up from the waiting bench so someone else would be able to sit, if they wanted. There I was milling around, with nowhere to put my arms. So naturally they're flailing about.
If you cross your arms that makes you looked closed. But if they're just wiggling back and forth, that's a bad look too.
Of course I about tripped over people, with the whole coincidental nature of people turning and trying to walk in the same space.
Finally, while worrying about the parking meter, which I got up to feed, I came back in and my breakfast was hot and steaming, waiting on the table for me. I sat down, the sophisticate at breakfast, and enjoyed it.
We had numerous laughs, which gave me that spontaneous look, no doubt. Then it was time to eat in earnest.
All of us like the old song that says, "The minute you walked in the room I could tell you were a man of distinction." What is that called anyway? "Hey Big Spender"?
I seem to remember it being a song that was used in a commercial for a brand of cigars, maybe White Owl. But who was the singer? Was it Joey Heatherton? Or Edie Adams? Seems like it was Edie Adams. I can't remember for sure, but it seems like she had hair kind of like an owl. No offense intended.
I like to think that when I walk into the room people think I'm a man of distinction, even if I'm not smoking. I went into a store the other day, a store that I think, after thinking about it, is probably meant for the smoking of illegal stuff. But they have little signs that say that's not so. My own suspicion is that the signs are a -- wink, wink -- disclaimer for legal purposes. I looked at all the pipes and asked what all this was. The friendly lady waiting on me said they were for tobacco. I didn't stay around, because I said I don't smoke. Really, how big of an idiot do you have to be to be a smoker these days?
Still, like the song says, you can be a man of distinction. Not that I really think I am. Usually when I walk into a room, no one notices. At least the lady at the tobacco place saw me standing there!
It looks to me like we need a greater urgency and federal involvement to get the oil spill cleaned up.
Trying to let BP clean up their own mess would seem only right if it was at one level, something manageable. Now that it's a gigantic catastrophe, and apparently not going to clean and fix itself, we need a response that is equally massive.
What's the problem? I read somewhere that the White House doesn't want to get "the blame" if things go badly. Good grief, is that what's motivating us or holding us back, who gets the blame? It should be very clear where the blame lies, with the company that ran the business, plus the poor regulation that came out of the Bush years.
But we have a catastrophe now -- a very depressing mess -- and we need to act like it. They need to get in there and do what it takes and spend what it takes to make it right. Then as far as I'm concerned, let BP go broke and out of business -- who cares about them? I don't. They're vandals anyway.
I think President Obama ought to make this a national priority and get it done.
I may have knocked over a dog yesterday just by passing by.
Sometimes I think I have some very strong negative energy, which I know is a terrible thing to say about yourself but it's true. But usually people and animals are able to remain standing as I pass.
A couple of months ago I went by some trees and some guys were sawing one of them and it fell right when I was there. In that case it probably had more to do with the sawing than with me. But I don't know what to say about yesterday.
I was walking down the sidewalk when a guy came around the corner with two big dogs, about a half a couch each, loveseat sized. We commented on how great the dogs looked, then took a couple of steps on our way past. Then I don't know what happened exactly, but we looked around and one of the dogs was laying on his side and refused to get up. The dog's owner was patting him.
I called back to the guy, "Does that happen very often?" And he said that he'd had the dogs for 2 1/2 years and that this was the first time ever.
Hmm... the thought came to me that I'd just knocked over that dog with my negative energy. And I try to be such a positive person, but these things just happen.
I think I mentioned the other day that I have now a "meditation room" where I live.
My original idea, which I had 11 or 12 years ago, was to have a room with nothing in it, and call it "the God room" or "God's room." That idea didn't last very long, because I needed the room for my own practical purposes.
Anyway, even the Temple in the Bible, in the holy of holies, had stuff in it. It wasn't entirely empty. Plus, if you just have an empty room there's a terrible echo and it's very distracting.
But what to put in it? My own first thought is practical things. Like a chair to sit in. A little bookcase. Some books. A table. And so forth. Then there is the issue of what to put on the walls. And that's where I'm struggling right now. Because everything I see seems too cliché, not my style, not righteous (in the 60s Righteous Brothers sense), or there's some other objection.
I was at one of those world stores tonight and was looking at some of the wall hangings and so forth. They didn't have a real great selection, but I finally did get one, a wall hanging of some sewn elephants, something made in India, probably by some poor slave making eight cents an hour (I hope not).
Elephants. It looks pretty good, but of course I have a bad association with elephants, which always remind me of Republicans, most of whom I hate. In this case though, I'm figuring what do the Indians know about Republicans? I'm not saying there that much happier than us, but if they don't know much about Republicans wouldn't they have to be?
If the thing screws up my meditations, I'll get rid of it.
I've had a couple of interesting experiences in complete darkness recently. At the new place where I live, the basement has several rooms, and there's only one room with windows. When you close that door the rest of the place is completely dark. Then you can go into another room and you're even more isolated.
I'm using this room as a "meditation room," so far, where I can read my Bible, other spiritual literature, do certain exercises that I do, pray, and just sit and meditate. A couple of times so far I've turned the light off and just sat in complete darkness. Today I even did my exercises in complete darkness. To me it's a very interesting experience.
I started thinking though about fish that don't have any eyes because they're down a trench where there's no light, and even though I'm not really worried (because I'm not going to be down there forever), it's something to think about. It's a very strange feeling, as most of us have experienced at one time or another, to be in complete darkness. The expression, "You can't see your hand in front of your face," is very true. Because I've tried!
There is a little bit of illusion to it, because your brain tries to compensate and you think you can see the shadow of your hand. And other shadows as well. I have some pillows there in a pile that my dog was laying on the other day, and I thought it could see some light shining on one of the pillows. But then I started thinking maybe it was just my imagination or my brain compensating, etc. I put my hand in front of my face and I thought I couldn't see the light. I lay down on the floor and couldn't see where any light was coming in. Yet I could still see it. It turned out that the pillow has some kind of very light florescent surface, at least on one edge, and so that's what I was seeing. So I tossed it out in the hall.
It's a freaky thing then if you sort of halfway lose your sense of direction and are trying to get to the light switch. I didn't really lose my sense of direction, but you can get off by a couple of feet while exercising and have to start feeling around. I had a small fan going and so I could judge my positioning by it.
I really think I'm going to like this room and my experiences in it!
I'm really happy about Arlen Specter, that he lost in Pennsylvania.
What I was think about him is that he was a thorn in the Democrat side for way too long to be a loyal Democrat now. His conversion to the Democratic Party was strictly for his own survival. And the fact that it didn't do him any good is a good thing.
So now he can retire and go back to being a Republican he's always been.
So what is the problem with this clown from Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat running for the Senate?
Over the years he has lied about serving in Vietnam. He was in the military at that time but did not go to Vietnam. So why would someone be stupid enough, being in politics and having your whole life open to the public, to make such a ridiculous claim?
It is not like anyone really checks up on these things is it? Yeah, right!
But on the other hand it sometimes pays to be a slimy liar when you are in politics. Unfortunately the goofball is a Democrat and that's my side. So I guess I hope wins. Whatever.
I hope the oil spill is going alright. I really am not keeping track of it or reading the news except what I see in the headlines. Because I find it so depressing!
The company responsible for this, or companies if there is more than one, ought to be strung up and skinned alive. What they have done is reprehensible. And since the Supreme Court judged that a corporation is a person, this is one person needs to go to prison.
As for those who blamed Pres. Obama right off the bat, of course they look foolish, which is hard to do because they already looked foolish enough. One of the things that I did read said it was some kind of gigantic methane ball under the rig that surged up. That sounds like something too hard for even the president to manage to cause!
But those in charge of the safety of the range have no excuse because their science and their technicians ought to know the possibilities of their business. And if they do not they need to be held accountable to the full extent.
I drove by a BP gas station today and thought, I wonder if there is any backlash at that level, because personally it is not a place I would go to right now.
I recently moved, and I have a little more room for various things. One thing I have more room for is my CD collection.
Before, I had some in one room, then racks of them uncategorized and unalphabetized around the house. Now, at least this is true for all the ones I've found so far, I have them all in one place ... and all in alphabetical order.
That's nice. Now at long last I can see what I have. I don't have the classicals alphabetized or Christmas, but everything else. How nice.
I went into a place and someone stepped up, "May I help you, sir?"
What makes you think I'm a man?
I've been sweeping up around my new room, just now getting it cleaned ... I moved a couple weeks ago.
All around I'm finding a penny or a dime here and there, then another, then another, and maybe a quarter. So I have a whole little pile of change. I even found a couple smashed pennies from the previous occupants, smashed at an amusement park with a little design on them.
It seems endless but I know it's not ... or I'd see pennies and dimes piled all over the property. So no matter how many I find, I'm never going to find a million dollars.
We've been watching some of the episodes of "Deal or No Deal," which I never saw in its prime time run. I'd barely even heard of it, but I know I did hear of it, because my daughter was talking about it a few years ago, how she'd like to be a contestant. But I didn't explore it to see what it was.
They have a million dollars for their top prize, but hardly anyone gets it. I even looked it up on Wikipedia, and they have the records of how many people have gotten the million. And I believe it's less than five, like three. Three?!
So it's tough to find a million dollars. Even when they're giving it away.
Someone was reminding me today of Antarctica, that big icy place down south somewhere.
I'd forgotten temporarily that it was a continent. And while we were talking about it being what it is, I said something stupid like, "So it was a continent at one time?" And I immediately thought how stupid that was, and knew that it was a continent now. That gave the other person the chance to say that it is a continent, which I knew.
The parts I didn't know, how dumb I am, was that it was a continent up here somewhere, not entirely down there. And that it drifted along with the other stuff of continental drift. In its case, being around where Brazil is now, it had the misfortune to drift about as far south as you can go. I guess it pushed the original South Pole out of the way, and that's why all the magnets moved their power to the North. Joking.
Anyway, there was lots of flora and fauna on Antarctica, and now it's well known as being fossilized. Because it's so old and needed to be preserved somehow.
Hat rack, hot rocks, Shadrach.
Hadrian, hot plate, help yourself.
Hot springs, helpless, strapless bra.
Health to you, hoop skirt, stiff neck.
Hip replaced, knock kneed, studied.
High chair, highway, speed bumps.
