Some days life offers up a giggle. Today’s comes from a reference in the Moving Through Life blog: a video and memories of one man’s childhood experience of a Flowbee. Only if you know that we had never heard of one until six years ago — that it truly sounded like a weird creation of our son-in-law’s imagination and we teased him outrageously about his — can you appreciate how tickled I was to find this. (Thanks, Joseph; you’ve made my day!)
Get your own giggle-dose here and then go check out what he has to say about it in “Childhood Nightmares“.
When the going gets tough, the tough go for jellybeans — or, in this case, the Confidence Guy goes for them. Remembering what’s important puts daily stresses into perspective for him. I think maybe I’ll go buy some jellybeans. Sounds like they’re good reminders to have on hand. Besides, I love jellybeans!
Boulders litter the area in front of our lakeside cabin. Someone once bemoaned their untidy presence and voiced the wish that they could be removed. Like icebergs however, what is visible above the layer of mulched needles, bark and leaves is only a miniscule portion. Moving them would be an impossible task and so they remain in place. Our front yard will always be au naturel.
Finding a level spot between the rocks to balance a lawnchair can be an inconvenient challenge but scaling their height or using them as stepping stones in a game of ‘Tag’ or ‘Follow the Leader’ — that can be a lot of fun.
Life is full of obstacles and opportunities. Sometimes knowing “which is which” is just a matter of perspective.
Have you ever lived with a dog? A big one, that thinks he’s a person? We’ve had many dogs through the years, mostly the small-to-middling sized Shelties that I’ve bred and trained for over thirty years. But a few years ago we returned to the breed of my childhood, Labrador Retrievers, and I’m beginning to realize our lives will never be the same!
At 80-plus pounds, our current two-year-old male Lab has a puppy mind in a powerhouse body.While he’s mentally sweet and gentle, physically he’s like a wrecking ball in demolition mode.
“Wild dog coming through,” I bellow as he hurdles into the house to greet everyone and slides precariously across the kitchen floor. “Grab your coffee mug (or wine glass, as the case may be),” I yell as his tail swings in a happy arc that clears the coffee table. “Watch out!” I warn as he cavorts through the room flinging his toys in every direction. “Sorry about that. Here’s a towel,” I say when he’s planted an apologetic kiss on hand, cheek, or even mouth (yuck!), and drooled on someone’s clean outfit. He can’t imagine there’s anyone who doesn’t welcome his enthusiastic attention.
Granted, we only inflict him on those who adore him, and he isn’t always on the move. Like most youngsters in their Terrible Two’s, he’s quite angelic when he’s asleep.
During those moments I’ve been known to say that a second dog might be nice. After all, we haven’t had a singleton dog around the house for years. We lived with as many as five Shelties at one time.
That roar you heard was my husband. “One is definitely enough!”
I like to think that most people aspire to honesty. It’s that some-goodness-exists-in-everyone kind of optimism, I suppose. But when I delve into my psyche–really dig deep–I have to admit there’s a form of dishonesty that I’ve lived with all my life. It’s a non-criminal version, of course, but it’s dishonesty just the same. You see, I hide behind a mask, a veneer that protects the inner me from prying eyes. What people see is not the real me. They see only what I’m comfortable having visible.
A friend and I used to joke about the virtual brick walls we had erected around ourselves, and how we removed strategically-located bricks in rare moments of intimacy. She’s a musician and it makes me wonder if this phenomenon is common among creative people.
Many writers admit to being introverts. Does that mean they also hide behind walls or wear masks? What impact would that have on their ability to be honest in writing? How honest am I in mine? Whoa!! Now we’re getting personal. Quick, where’s my mask?
Here in Canada this is Thanksgiving Day and tomorrow is Election Day. At first glance that seems like an unfortunate combination. While the global financial world has been drowning, Canada’s stock market flounders in sympathetic dives and bellyflops, scaring home owners, investors and pensioners alike with its thrashing. Our present political situation doesn’t appear to be in a state for which thankfulness is a rational response.
But the very fact that we have the right and freedom to vote for the party that we believe can best address the situation is something for which we should be supremely thankful.
On her blog yesterday, Shari Green (DD ) urged everyone to vote. She posted the Rick Mercer parody of Trooper’s hit song “Raise a Little Hell”.
“If you don’t like what you’ve got, why don’t you change it?”
“If your world is all screwed up, rearrange it!”
“If you don’t like what you see, why don’t you fight it?”
“If you know there’s something wrong, why don’t you right it?”
“Raise a little hell!”
I think Trooper is onto something!
I’m going to wear my Trooper T-shirt to the polls tomorrow and vote! Am I thankful that I can? You bet!
Just got the word that a friend’s giant pumpkin topped the charts at the Elk Grove, California competition. It’s a whopping 1,536.5 lbs., beating the California record by one pound, and the Canadian record as well.(In fact, I’ve since learned it beat the world record!!) Wow! That’s some pumpkin. Way to go, Jake!!
I was cleaning out a drawer (well, ‘cleaning’ is a relative term… I was looking for something and it required moving stuff around in a messy drawer) and I came across a few errant felt markers that belong in my craft box. While inserting them into their proper container I took care to put each one into its rightful place, organized in rainbow order. No, I’m not an obsessive-compulsive person or a neat-freak (if I were, would that drawer be so messy?), but some things just beg to be organized.
Black and brown were at one end of the set and white at the other. My hand hovered over that white marker. Should it really be there next to the very vibrant red, or would it be more appropriate at the other end next to the black one — the two ‘non-colours’ together? Indecision!
Memories from past art classes pop up and I am reminded that white, in fact, IS a colour because it is comprised of equal amounts of the three primary colours, while black is not because it is the absence of all colour. At least I think that’s what the Additive Colour Theory says. So the white marker will stay where it is. On the other hand, there is the Subtractive Colour Theory that says “black is a colour when referring to the colour of pigments and the colouring agents of tangible objects” and “technically pure white is the absence of colour, because you can’t mix colours to create white”. So maybe the black and white markers should reverse positions? But black beside red, and white beside brown? That just doesn’t feel right.
Okay, okay, so now I AM obsessing.Maybe I should just toss those markers back in the drawer.
Yesterday a TV report said that in Canada the average age of a video gamer is now forty. Forty! We’re told that systems such as the new “Wii Resort” and Microsoft’s “You’re In the Movie” are marketed to the middle-aged participant. Can you believe it?
The just released Entertainment Software Association (ESA) statistics say that thirty-five is the average age in the U.S.A. — not quite our forty, but still sort of middle age — and they add that one out of four gamers is over the age of fifty, that 40% are women and also that women age eighteen or older represent 33% of the game-playing population while boys age seventeen or younger represent only 18%.
I’m not sure why I’m surprised. Even business men play games on their PDAs between appointments and while travelling. But the stereotype of videogames being the exclusive domain of teenage boys persists. That is, until I acknowledge I play Solitaire on my computer. I’ve never considered that I contribute to the over-40 gamer statistic, but I do! That’s quite a revelation for very conservative me.
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I'm a freelance writer of fiction and non-fiction living on the West Coast of Canada. Thanks for visiting here. Grab a coffee and come join in the conversation.
Posted by Carol J. Garvin 
Posted by Carol J. Garvin 
Posted by Carol J. Garvin 
) urged everyone to vote. She posted the 
