For your Life

I wandered around DC's Union Station this rainy harum-scarum morning whilst awaiting my darling lil' sis and her manly man. By the way, I'm fascinated by people-watching and would consider becoming homeless just for the excuse to do it full-time. Well, nawh, the madness passed - I like sleeping in a bed too much. Thoughts du jour:

• What kind of life is it if you have to run, briefcase and umbrella clunking about, just to get to work on time? Why bother - I'd dawdle and wonder what's wrong with this gig if I'm running to get to it. No dignity in that.
• Blonde hair. I hear tell it makes women look younger. Trust me on this one today - it does not work for everyone.
• Plasticware. Fascinating. Why did that gentleman stop by the ABP and tuck a spoon into his jacket? Does he peruse the plasticware every day? Is this too not dignified? And does he care - I think not. I just laughed to myself.

Thoughtfulness in Black and White

I have this friend, Arkansawyer, who blurbs, eBays, and is somewhat Deviant too. He blogs too! And he's got this alter ego in Armadillo Creek - check out that ol' boy... The point is that you can have your eyes opened on a trip to something right in front of you, but it all looks better through the black-and-white perspective:

The colors of life often clutter the landscape of thought, of feeling, and make me miss what's right in front of me. It's caught in the camera eye - and this stranger is a long-awaited friend. OK, that makes no sense except to me, but I am, and remain, the Two Medicine Man who walks an odd road. Thanks to Arkansawyer and the Chebby, I have a lot to share this winter, so stay tuned.

The Plexiglass Toilet

Color me disturbed. That's a color tone unique to white porcelain, namely a new toilet that I saw at a conference center. New. No seat. New. Cannot have a seat because there are no bolt holes in the porcelain and kind of low-to-the-ground, Turkish style. New. No non-desperate person would squat on it. Gave me the hebbies just checking it out. Euwh. Walk on...

Also on the short list of disturbing thoughts:

• Led Zeppelin on tour without Robert Plant (likely).
• The conjunction "that" can easily be eliminated even thought it's for necessary info, unlike "which". What makes it so expendable?
• Chinese food that tastes better the next day. Without MSG. What is growing in my Moo Shu that improves its flavor?
• Steven Tyler, Aerosmith: does he really shave his legs?
• Carnies with webbed feet.
• Women named "Sabrina" whose fashion flair brings to mind "Consuela." Disturbing or not -- you vote.

Feel Good Music

We all have our fav's. I throw this out for consideration. As I leave commuter bus at 0645 by Navy Memorial, downtown DC, and walk twenty minutes past wizzing traffic, homeless folks and yummy-smelling eats, I proffer these tunes:
Feel-Good

• Cinderella - Steven Curtis Chapman
• Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann's Earth Band
• Crazy Ones - JC Mellencamp, the Man, the Legend
• Closer to Fine - Indigo Girls

Energy

• Deuces are Wild - Aerosmith
• Light Up - Styx
• The Girl I love, she got long black wavy hair - Zepp

Introspection

• To the Last Whale - CSN or the Styx Remake
• Horizon & Silvia - Steve Winwood
• The Awakening album - Melissa Etheridge (play it all the way thru)
• [Anything by Blind Melon]

Just OK is not OK

A great song, either Soul Asylum or Switchfoot. Yeah, that's a bit of a musical chasm but what can I say - my AM musical tastes are a leap of faith each day that what's on Mr. iPod will fuel my ambition to return to work. Different subject: $2.5B lost in last 15 months in retirement funds. And here I'm frustated not to have mad money. Makes me appreciate the roof over my head and the peace I have at night when sinking into my fav chair. I got so mad at this recession that I upped my 401k by a percent. And reasolved to continue going to Dollar Store 'cause it's so much fun anyway! So there, Mr. Rain on my Parade!

Everyday should be a better day than before. Impossible but worth trying. So, I agree that just OK isn't OK. Onward, onward. Time to slam some Yes, Keys to Ascension, into the speakers and kick it up a notch.

Freakish

Isn't that a great word? C'mon - you can use it both in polite society to describe certain countries' fiscal policies, your father-in-law's eating habits or the people you see on the way to work. Or at work if you're not lucky. I would like to hear other fascinating adjectives that also are versatile and just a wacked-out bit off the mainstream vocabulary. Nebbish and wonky are two more somewhat dated words that I wish would come back into play!

To Silflay or Not to Silflay

"Mister Pigivg..." If you don't have ANY clue about what I'm talking about, then you've missed out on one of life's finer literaty experience, a check-box to being a full-fledged literati.

I'm just two chapters out from finishing Watership Down and can't believe I made it through the workday without knowing the ending. I think those little blokes will be just fine though the warren is in disrepair at the moment. Never knew cute lil' bunnies could be so ... [you'll see].


Check him out! My son Chris is a sailor man. A manly man. Modern day Popeye, eh? I can't show the serious pix because you would be scared by his military demeanor. We are proud parents and I hope to loudly and proudly support the U.S. Navy!

P.S. - They train in Great Lakes Illinois, so don't worry about them sufferning in southwestern heat or anything like that. Well-fed, well-motivated and pumped to succeed. More to follow on this topic.

Mizz and Ms.

Yes, it's been a long time since I rock and rolled, but summer's end means I bloom after wilting in the heat.

Today's brief missive is on the glaring shortfalls of addressing women as 'Ms.' Laaaa-ame. This sound has no flair, no ring, no glamour, and none of that pizzazz that the 'Ms.' of the world will tell you they have (right, Sabrina, Manya & Heather?). Sounds like some lumber-head bureaucrat needed a new title and came up with one before his coffee break. So, gentlemen, take a break to listen, front-to-back door of Melissa Etheridge's latest album, The Awakening. Doesn't exactly make me want to come over to the female side (I ain't man enuf) but it does leave in me a searing image of what women think and how they might feel going through life. Leave it to Melissa E. to get me thinking about this...

Meetai dikir nemesheyui

"There is no hill that never ends."

This Maasai proverb aptly describes my life this month. Bet any reader would agree it's a universal lenses for all our lives. Any challenge that is overcome is followed by other ones. Even on vacation I'm faced with challenges -- like making myself relax! Maybe it's because I'm immersed in the lives of our two sons that I feel this one hits home. But life and love are good things (like breathing), so my quick thought here is that sometimes you don't WANT that hill to end. I'll be happy to see my young men get onward and upward but am in no hurry to cut the ties that bind, the ones that work both ways. Up the hill I trudge, like a good hobbit, and marvel and what awaits -- and wonder if I'm up to it. So far, so good!

Picture, Schmickture

Not a nice title, maybe, but it best captures my strange reluctance to take pictures. I often am bummed to see a picture and find that it doesn't match what my memory. It's really simple, though; even a superb picture, full of colors, light, shadow, action and intrigue, aren't accompanied by the smells, sound and (yes, Charlie Bucket) the taste of the occasion. It's perfectly ridiculous to think that I could stand at Two Medicine Lake, MT, gaze up at the mountains and forever remember their magnificence. So, I should stop traveling alone and have a Voice of Reason that says, "Hey, dad, why don't we take some pix? Don't you want to be in some of them?" I always says Yes so fortunately do have some memories. Digital is the way to go, but I'm an Analog Kid at heart so still miss the Canon AE-1 Program days. Time to get with the program, eh?

Next trips are with my friends; with MT Mountain Man Lee to western MD and with PA Shutter Buster Jim to PA parts unknown. A day away from work is fraught with the peril of being closer to one's self, but it's a risk I gladly take.

I wonder at the downwind weather of the Lake Erie in November? I hear the soft and truly sad tones of Gordon Lightfoot and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald resonating in my heart and so will drift off to work, wondering at this new day and what it brings...