Category Archives: Miscellanea

Happiness

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CozyKittyHappiness is . . .

  • A choice.
  • Waking up on the green side of the grass.
  • Holding your new-born child.
  • Being with all your grandchildren.  (For now she lives in another state.)
  • Being at peace with God and man.  (Thanks, Sylvia)
  • A trip to the endodontist that ends with no root canal.

That last one happened to me today.  I’ve been pain free for a week and neither cold nor tapping elicited feelings of pain or discomfort.  So it’s, “Let’s wait and see what happens.”  I’m good with that.

What makes you happy.

Random Thoughts

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Last Thursday, Sylvia returned home to take care of some unfinished business.  (She was with her dad that week)  We went in to Lake Odessa for lunch at the Chinese/Thai restaurant.  When the fortunate cookies came, she opened hers and read it.  I opened mine and showed it to her.  They were both the same.  That was a great sign and a good omen.  At least, we thought so.

We returned to the house and had some Dove dark chocolate with mint.  The inside of her wrapper had the same message as mine.  Is this another sign?

~

Sunday evening, I had been watching a turkey vulture glide around the neighborhood.  There was a strong breeze from the west, which makes for good vulture watching.  They seem to hover in place and then swoop off with the wind.

It was time to fix my supper, so I went into the kitchen.  As I looked out the kitchen window, the buzzard was low over our lawn.  It seemed to be hovering and then it began to drift down wind.  It headed straight toward me and passed within 35 feet of my head, which was safely protected by the house.  It was an awesome sight.

~

Is anyone else interested?  I’m thinking of doing a GoFundMe site.  The purpose would be to purchase Prozac for Angry Birds.  I’m hoping that the Prozac won’t change the music and the sound effects.

Miscellanea

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Falcons Win Again

Last night, the Falcons beat the Mustangs 14 to 1.  During the second half, some of the Falcon gals with less experience were in the pool.  Briana was in her usual role of play maker or whatever they call it.  Her dad will correct me if I have it wrong.  Briana scored five goals and Julia scored seven even though she spent the fourth quarter watching from pool side.

Home Work

Yesterday, I finished rolling the lawn.  Does it seem like that took a long time?  That’s because it did.  There are about seven acres of lawn here.  I remember the time we lived in town and I spent less than an hour to mow the lawn, and that with a non-motorized mower.

On Resumés

It started Monday on Communication Exchange when Patricia wrote about Resumés as Self Discovery.  That post had me thinking about how my resumé had changed over the course of my working career.  Yesterday, on String to Short to Tie, Vanilla featured a Garfield cartoon in which Jon pads his profile.  (This was just one in a neat series of strips featuring blogger Jon.)  When I read Jon’s words, “Of course I had to pad it a bit to make myself sound more brainy” a memory clicked on.

It was some 20 years ago in Connecticut.  I was a department head and  looking to hire a technical editor.  An applicant appeared at our office with resumé in hand.  I had time that day, so I invited him into my office and talked with him as I read what he had to say about himself.

This was for a national membership organization and we do all of our business in English.  With interest, I saw under other qualifications, “Fluent in Spanish.”  I looked up from the paper and slowly and clearly asked, “¿Donde estudió usted Español?”  With a bewildered look on his face he said, “What?”  I repeated the question.  He told me he hadn’t understand a word I had said.  I informed him that I had just asked where he had studied Spanish, which is about as basic as anything could be.

Would you hire that person for a job that requires an individual to check for technical accuracy and clarity?  I didn’t.  Have you ever padded a resumé?

World Builder

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I found this on Kim Komando’s Website.

This computer-animated video features a man creating a world from scratch. But why would he do this? Who is he doing it for?

Bruce Branit created this award-winning short. The footage was shot in one day. But the visual effects took almost two years.

All that work really brought this world to life. Almost nothing in this video is really there.


World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

What is it?

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Once again it’s time to play the guessing game,” What is it?”.

As I’m writing this, I can see only the bottom half of the image. It looks like peanut butter frosting to me. I’m so ready to take a bite . . . But we both know that it’s not going to happen.

I’ll tell you on Friday what the correct answer is. If you are not getting close to the correct answer, I may give you a clue on Thursday. I’m guessing you won’t need it.

Other Happenings

My sister, Clara, is coming to spend the afternoon with Sylvia and me. (Her hubby is away on business.) We’ll be working on some bloggy stuff together and just having fun. This evening, we’ll go watch our granddaughter in the home opener of the water polo season. Go #7!

Last week, I ordered a new digital camera for Sylvia. We were finding it harder to find 35mm film, and processing takes a while. By contrast, digital photos are processed in-store while you wait. I’m hoping the new camera will show up today, but thinking it probably won’t. The memory card and reader arrived USPS yesterday.

She picked up her Honduras photos yesterday. She will share some of them with us at some as yet unspecified time.

It Doesn’t Exactly . . . Explained ~ Or Not

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On Monday, I posted the poem, “It Doesn’t Exactly . . .” I asked for your help to identify what “it” is. The truth is that I didn’t know then and don’t know now for sure what the poem talks about. And, in case, your wondering, yes, I was (and am) in a legal state of mind.

Thanks to these folks for their guesses:
Bryant, Jill, Armando S. Cabral, Anonymous and Meghan.

They all gave excellent answers. Each is well reasoned. I liked Bryant’s answer (case of vertigo), and Jill’s too (time machine).

When I saw Armando’s answer (map to nowhere), I thought, “That must be what it is.” Perhaps it is a featureless map with an X for “You are here,” and another X for “It is here.” (Whatever “it” is.)

Then Anonymous suggested a book. That’s possible, it fits the description. Especially if it’s a blank ledger book.

Well, I’ll have to think about it. You all have helped me zero in on the possibilities. Do you suppose it could be a featureless map to nowhere that has been placed in a case of vertigo aboard a time machine and shows you where to find the blank ledger book?

Perhaps my friendly neighbor and fellow blogger, Meghan, can come over and help me find it. Her response was: “I guess we’ll have to stop by and see for ourselves!” I seem to have misplaced the thing — whatever it is.

Picture, Picture Tag

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I saw this on In The Eyes Of The Beholder. Allena didn’t tag me, but it looked like so much fun I decided to pick it up and run with it. The idea is to search for images that answer the questions and then post them with the questions on your site and link back to me if you’d be so kind.

(1) Age at my next birthday


(2) Place to which I’d like to travel

It’s water polo season and my granddaughter swims for this team. Can’t miss that!


(3) Favorite food

It’s called pernil, or in English roast pork. Yum yum!


(4) Favorite place

Home! My office is behind those shutters.


(5) My nickname


(6) Favorite color


(7) College major


(8) Name of my love


(9) Hobby


(10) Bad habit


That was fun! Thanks for reading this far down the page.

I’ll tag:
Clara
Mikki
Lin
Jill
Justine
Ida
You — if you want to join the fun, please do.

If one of the questions bothers you, substitute another. Post images for answers and tag some friends. And most importantly, have fun doing it.

Thanks!

Faith & Feelings

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Feelings may come quickly,
Faith builds its foundation.

Feelings may question,
Faith still believes.

Feelings may waver,
Faith holds the course.

Feelings may flounder,
Faith remains firm.

Feelings may take to the wing,
Faith builds its nest in your heart.

Like a rivulet that rises when the sudden warmth of early spring melts the winter snow, feelings flow quickly and are gone.

Like an artesian well, faith’s cool refreshing waters rise from the cool deeps to sustain our life.

Closing the Sale

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Since last year, I’ve been doing outside sales for my WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider). I’ve done his Website since 2004 and now I follow up on inquiries and schedule installations. It’s interesting, usually fun and I get to talk with a lot of great folks in this area. Without applying any pressure, I ask for the sale. I’m not on commission, but I know what a bargain the service is. For that reason, I was very interested in an e-mail that my son sent me a copy of yesterday. There is a basic principle of sales illustrated here.


The message:

An interesting perspective from Seth Godin . . . [SETH GODIN is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change.]

The Panhandler’s Secret

When there were old-school parking meters in New York, quarters were precious.

One day, I’m walking down the street and a guy comes up to me and says, “Do you have a dollar for four quarters?” He held out his hand with four quarters in it.

Curious, I engaged with him. I took out a dollar bill and took the four quarters.

Then he turned to me and said, “can you spare a quarter?”

What a fascinating interaction.

First, he engaged me. A fair trade, one that perhaps even benefited me, not him.

Now, we have a relationship. Now, he knows I have a quarter (in my hand, even). So his next request is much more difficult to turn down. If he had just walked up to me and said, “can you spare a quarter,” he would have been invisible.

Too often, we close the sale before we even open it.

Interact first, sell second.

Bryant
President, Great Lakes Marine

What It Is

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On Tuesday, I posted this picture and asked the question, “What is it?” Thanks to all of you who posted your answers via comments.


Now you’re anxious to discover did you correctly identify the image. Zoom out, and you see that it is snow on the driveway.


I shot the photo from my office window last Saturday. I was looking eastward toward the barn as a winter storm was starting. The wind from the east caused the snow to gather in what looked like waves. It was very interesting, and looked almost like sea foam atop waves. By the next morning, their were knee-deep snow drifts between the house and barn.

Clara was declared the winner and was given the Tommy Toe Award on April 24.

For you fellow feline fanciers, that black hole, to the left of the people door, is the cat’s door.

Thanks again to all you who participated in “What is it?” Should I do it again?