September 12, 2022

Reflection

DEATH AND THE DOMINO EFFECT

First it was the phone call: "Dad died yesterday afternoon at 2 o'clock."

"Of course," I said, "I'll do the funeral, but first I'll have to make some switches."

I had to get someone to take the 12:10 Mass for me. 

Harry agreed. I'll take the 6:45 on Thursday morning for him.

Next I had to get someone to take the funeral I had on Thursday  at 10 A.M.

At these funerals, we all have to make these switches. We have to re-schedule.

Every time when I'm driving and I see 10 or 15 cars in a funeral procession, I'm looking at a lot of rescheduling.

Then for the family of the person who died, there's the removal of the person's stuff - the tidbits of a person's life - the trinkets and the tokens.

Death certainly has a domino effect.

Then the realization - life has a zillion domino effects.

A word - a compliment - a curse - a complaint - can trigger the tapping against a whole string of dominoes.

Wounds can cause surprise repercussions.

Being late - being early - a smile - changing lanes - not taking care of one's car - can all cause - unforeseen results.

Does the waves from a  boat off Africa - eventually hit the beach at Rio?

I wake up when the guy who lives next to me closes his room loudly.

My words - written or spoken - have implications.

How about my thoughts? 

How about my attitudes?

 September 12, 2022

Thought for Today

"What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about."

Sir Thomas  Beecham, Quoted Harold Atkins 

and Archie Newman, Beecham Stories

Of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony

 September 11,  2022

Reflection

HOT

The faucets handles are marked  H and C - red and blue - hot and cold.

Amazing.

The weather can't be turned on and off. We take what we get - or buy an air conditioner or a heater - or move to Maine or Florida - or Rio or Mount Pocono.

It's hot today - March 27, 2007 and it was very cold - freezing last Tuesday - at this same time.

March.  It's March madness.

Someone is hot and bothered - angry and burnt, furious and steaming.

So and so is cold!

Sometimes hot is negative - as in sweating - as in hot and bothered- as in angry and fuming.

Sometimes someone is cold - and it's a negative comment. Yet it could also be a compliment - as in calm, remaining cool and calculating - but it's usually negative - as in the newspaper description of the murderer - being a cold-blooded killer.

Notch it up a bit and cool is hot.

Hot seems better than cold when taking a shower. 

Plants grow better in warmer temperatures - than they do in the Artic and Siberian Tundra.

Hot is the place where they have more people. Compare India to the North of South Poles.

In the United States people drive south to Florida or Arizona for the winter.

Hot is where the birds are chirping - and eating juicy worms - yet  to present a curve here - there is the desert.

So hot cooks food and burns the meal. It  kills germs - helps form pottery. It also melts plastic and iron.

It's simple - but tricky. We 

And then we freeze our meats as well as  thaw them if we want to cook them .

It's all very interesting.

 September 11, 2022

Thought for Today

"A picture is something which requires as much knavery, trickery, and deceit as the perpetration of a crime. Paint falsely, and then add the accent of nature."

Edgar Degas [1834-1917]

Attributed

 September 10, 2022

Thought for Today

"There is nothing in Christianity or Buddhism that quite matches the sympathetic unselfishness of an oyster."

Saki,

Chronicles of Clovis [1912]

September 10, 2022

Reflection

COLD

Cold creeps - coming into an area - and one's toes feel it first - and continue to feel it.

Cold is quiet - invasive- pervasive - and doesn't just stick to hand surfaces. It penetrates hard surfaces - like green metal fences and black iron banisters.

Cold is hard - like ice  - freezing water, ponds, puddles, lakes. It freezes, thaws, re-freezes, cracking and crumbling rocks in its story.

Cold is the heart after another dumps us.

Cold is the mind after another gyps us or lies to us - or uses us.

The killer is described as cold hearted  - also the tax collector - as well as the church says "No!" to the beggar.

The judge, the principal, the truant officer, has to stay cool, neutral, like Jack Webb in Dragnet.  "Just the facts, mam. Just the facts."

Cold is a pause, a stepping back, a calming down - being cautious, stepping back from a situation to consider cause, concessions, compromise, calculating all comers, corners in a situation.

Cold turkey is stopping drinking or smoking or drugs, on the spot, not a slow stopping or turning off from...

To have a cold is to avoid contact with others - till one is better.

 September 9,  2022

Reflection

RAIN

It's raining.

Beads and bubbles of rain sitting on a newly washed and waked car.

The sound rain makes on street from tires going by this house.

Rain - the sound on sills and windows after the cars have disappeared.

Rain - nice if needed - not wanted this day because of this wedding this afternoon.

Rain - rare in Arizona - plentiful this day - in Maryland - this late March.

Rain - a bit damp - a bit cold - a bit uncomfortable - but we don't appreciate the coolness of rain - unless we want coolness and rain.

Rain - why this word - why the sound in this word.

"It's raining!"

"We need rain!"

"My roof is leaking. Enough with this rain."

Kids - little girls - boys sometimes too - loving rain - so they want to go outdoor with yellow plastic boots on and a chance to love the rain.

Window shield wipers getting a chance to show their necessity.

Rain ....

The rain of God - rhyming with "the reign of God". Is there any connection.

The two times - a week each time - I was in Arizona - hearing, "You have to be when it rains. The desert blooms when the rain falls."

It didn't happen when I was there.

Rain....

It's sunny today, March 19th, 2007.  Spring will be with us - in two days - and hopefully, busy April showers. as well.

Rain ....