I swear I just took these down...

It is the time of the year when every year it gets harder and harder not to fall off the roof.

remember Veteran's Day?

There has been some quasi-serious talk in the United States about certain states seceding from the union.  Since that sounds like civil war talk, I kind of imagined (quasi-seriously) that all those men and women who engage in civil war reenactments would have a distinct advantage over the rest of us...should an actual civil war break out.  Then, I realized, that in those reenactments, 95% of the participants are reenacting dying.  So, I don't think it turns out to be much of a tactical advantage, but it maybe something to consider in any discourse related to secession.

for your sake

i would like to believe that we all understand the futility of concern - although it is nice to have someone concerned about you - but it is giving concern that is of issue, not receiving concern.  i would also like to believe that if we all did understand the futility of concern, I wouldn't need to apologize to you.  and by not apologizing to you, you wouldn't know that I ever even was responsible for doing the thing that maybe i did to you.  i think you are better off not knowing.  i am pretty sure i am doing, and will continue to do, you a favor - i am concerned about you.  no sense in adding to your futility.  it is of no concern.

staying on

going through my head this morning were doubts.  inside my head looked like this: doubt, doubt, doubts, doubts, doubt, doubt, doubt, doubts, doubt, and so on.  And it was real, and pushed into overwhelming, and then, a little later, it was okay.  and then a little later, i knew it was okay, but I also knew it wasn't going to be okay later on, but I know you just keep on when it gets like this. because it is okay. always. i promise. stay on.

I still am not sure what he was trying to say.

many years ago when I was a young man, my grandfather gave me a pocket knife.  I was kind of excited because I didn't have a knife of my own and I really thought having a knife was cool.  Also, my grandfather never had paid much attention to me and wasn't much for gift giving.  After he handed it to me, I bright-eyed over the yellow handle and silver tips before putting my thumbnail into the slot on the blade.  I opened the blade and immediately noticed there was no sharp edge to the blade.  It was so dull that it was apparent it was never meant to be sharp.  It was more spatula than knife.  I said, "thank you".  He said, "son, a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp knife".  I remember trying to smile.

What was that?

Today I was thinking about how it is that the light around us - the illumination that appears as an obvious natural state of clarity - is moving - like the wind, but when the wind stops, there is still air.  When the source of light stops emitting, the light keeps going, away, and is gone from where it once was.  Our light, constantly, quickly speeding past me, not so infinite, not so absolute, not so eternal, gone.  Darkness on the other hand...

unwritten

Dear Lover,
I feed on your weakness, because I like the taste.  You complete me.  But it is the taste of your thoughts and your hopes which i find putrid.  I am afraid that you may, in fact, not complete me - as I had earlier indicated.  It was an honest lack of good judgement on my part.
Your friend,
jimmy

ow

Imagine, please, that I heard something in my neck pop or crack while I was still in bed at about 4:23am yesterday morning.  Now imagine, please, that 24 hours later, I can't sleep and my neck still hurts too much to turn my head without swiveling my entire torso. Now, I imagine you have more painful and chronic ailments than I do. So here is a pretty picture for us to look at, scientifically designed and created with the appropriate shapes and colors to help alter our unique mood states into a positive healthful rhythm; so that both of us make it through the day without strangling anyone:

Okay, my take (4:43am Nov. 8, 2012): I have given the photo a good look-see and I have doubts, but I think you go to jail for strangling someone else; so count me as heading into the day...cautiously optimistic. ow.

jimmy bravo

I am getting the distinct impression that the universe does not care if i am sad...or happy.  So, my plan of the last 30 years to teach the world a lesson with my petulance (and other well-crafted behaviors) has been wasted in an auditorium without an audience.  My fellow actors, brothers and sisters, look out past the stage lights - there is nobody in the seats, empty.  No one is watching and i am giving the performance of a lifetime here!  Have you ever heard an off-stage laugh, or a gasp, or the sniffle that accompanies a tear?  Have you received any applause, or boos?  No, me neither.  Fortunately for me, I don't worry about the accolades; I am in it for the love of the craft.  Bravo.

Election Day

I have been looking forward to a time when everyone in the world is happy at the same time.  I hope it is not an apocalyptic event but rather just a nice moment...or epoch.  Anyway, if it happens, i want to be ready with a catch phrase that will both commemorate and seize the essence of the event.  Right now i've got, "nice one".

e.g., your grandma can't get her prescription filled

Is it delusional to believe that the only things that matter, are the things that matter to me?  Or by saying things that don't matter to me, matter to me, am i making them matter to me?  Relatively unrelated to that, and yet apropos (i think), i've noticed one consistent thing about this world we live in: it is trying to kill me, you, all of us. Unrelenting.

Thick as a brick

I watched a TV program on how to make bricks. Bricks are a sturdy building material.  Bricks are to shelter as enamel is to a tooth.  There is no such thing as a good analogy.  Anyway, turns out, all you need to make bricks is 1) brick dough 2) a smoosher and 3) an oven.  I feel both empowered and sad.  Empowered with my new brick making knowledge and saddened with the realization of just how much time up until now that I have wasted on NOT making bricks. Like now.

flowers are pretty

 This is the time of the year when the sun is already low by the time I get home from work.  This photo is of an autumn mum (at least that is what I am calling it) that I have been finding captivating for the last week or so.  I love these colors.  The colors in the photo are accurate.  I see these colors glowing each evening after work, even after the sun drops below the western tree tops.  These colors and this flower make me happy.  I make everyone in my house look at it.  Now I am asking you to look at it.  I can't do better than that.