Year End Thoughts

Yesterday after lunch, I went outside to take a nap with the cows. I wanted to think about the past year. When I work, I work hard. When I play, I play hard. When I think, I go to sleep. Bebe and I ate at an upscale Italian chain restaurant for lunch. They play Italian music in the dining area and have a Berlitz language course running in the restroom. I used to be able to learn maybe one or two words when I visited the necessary room, but now I can learn whole sentences. The food was very good. The ambiance was only broken by my thoughts about the people I was watching. A young lady apparently hosting her parents sat adjacent to us. She looked like she might play violin in some symphony. Her posture was perfect and her fingers moved as though she had trained them extensively. Her parents ordered tea and coffee to drink and she a glass of Chianti. When her food arrived she ate from the bottom of her fork using her knife to stack. I suppose she studied in Europe. It might have been the only restaurant in town where these skills could have been displayed without any questions. I then got fascinated by the way people eat the little loves of Italian bread they bring to your table. Some were trying the cut the bread while others (including me) tore it apart Viking style. After the meal I tried out my newly acquired ability to lift my considerable bulk from my chair without holding on to the table and grunting loudly. I have been doing squats with heavy weights in the gym to provide the necessary lift. I was up like a feather. Well, a big very heavy feather. Next we went a few doors down to the Barnes and Noble Book Store. I wanted to hurry and cash in my Christmas gift cards before the stores went out of business. I couldn't disengage my mind from the people there either. A lithe young woman with artificial carrot red hair was doing Pilate moves in front of the books on Yoga as she shopped. Near the books on relaxation, a man sat in the aisle and shopped the bottom shelf. I thought it must be theme day so I joined in. I was going for the mystery section. At the end of each aisle, I put my back to the shelf end and did quick peaks around the corner before moving to the next one. I put my sunglasses back on when I reached the new best sellers and pretended to be on surveillance. I kept waiting to be told I won the prize. Bebe was nowhere to be found. After I checked out she reappeared near the rear exit. I knew I would be spending the afternoon with the cows.

The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us. - Quentin Crisp

News Overload

I don't know about you, but I am a little overloaded with news. This picture was taken after the Democrat convention. I think they may have failed to consider the load they were placing on their candidate. With his 143 days of actual work experience as a Senator, he may not be up to pulling the cart.

I think an old elephant might be better equipped for a slow steady pull. His running mate is certainly prettier than Joe Biden. Well, enough of that balderdash. Tropical storms, convention coverage, football season, the war, gasoline prices, the stock market, the value of the dollar, and a plethora of predictions concerning all of the above have certainly created a news glut. I don't watch it anymore. I prefer reading the text myself to having it read to me by someone who defers to someone else for an interpretation. Then in the interest of fairness a second interpreter counters what the first interpreter said. I can stop at anytime and make my own interpretations. However, in this era of ever being in touch through all of electronic media people have become dull with what they've heard on the news. There is so much coverage, people are forced to speak in generalities because there is no way to digest and catalog all the information. The result is a very shallow knowledge of a wide variety of subjects. Introduce some facts into almost any modern conversation and most of the participants will leave because after the sound bite they're done. Blogging is the one medium where an instant response is not required, and if the participants choose to do so, they can do some research and put some meat in their answers. There is a lot of hullabaloo about Vice Presidential choices on both sides of the aisle, but I can't remember any VP who actually did enough to be recognized in office unless there was a tragic loss of the President. Most are lost in obscurity after their terms in office.

So, this morning when I woke up and discovered I was out of coffee, I decided to take Bebe out to Gem's Pancake House for breakfast and caffeine. I am in a constant state of displeasure with my current size, but I lack the will power to really mount a concerted campaign to take care of the problem. My approach this morning was to eat enough to keep several people going all day without another meal. I think this one is going to work since I have not thought about eating anything else since we got home. I'll let you know. I didn't even have room left for my vitamins. I hope you are out of the path of all the tropical storms. We don't know if any of the drilling rigs will actually be damaged enough to affect our oil production, but in our wisdom, speculators have jacked up the price of crude just in case. So when people need gasoline to evacuate, gasoline prices mysteriously go up. It also happens that way near every holiday in anticipation of a drop in the supply because of increased usage. I have answers for these problems, but I haven't found anyone that can control these situations who is interested in my solutions. I hope your holiday weekend is safe and spent close to home. One way to combat high gasoline prices is to not use any.

Remember:

You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun. - Al Capone