Perspective

Well?

It's Captain America, after all...

Rain, Rain, Stay Awhile

We're 6" below average for the year, so the steady rain we're seeing is very welcomed.

Quote of the Whenever I Feel Like It

I expect powerful writing from this author, but this struck me as unexpectedly beautiful.

Poets are the dreams of Gods.
-- H.P. Lovecraft

Quote of the Whenever I Feel Like It

I have given up my democratic prejudices and have willingly set the lower classes free to be completely taken care of by the upper classes. -- Robert Frost

He was only half-kidding, I think.

Frazil Ice

Magnificent Nature.



Thanks to Bayou Renaissance Man for the pointer.

Yeah, it's chopped at the edge. The original is here. Either way, it's worth taking the time to watch.

Snippet

This week at work:

Boss: Where's Mary?

Me: On the roof.

Boss (laughing as he walks away): I better go and talk her down.

Mary (from her cubicle): What was that about?

Me: I lured him to the roof. Now go do your part.

Stolen from Failbook

Made Me Laugh

Spotted while surfing the net:

If someone hates you for no reason, give the motherfucker a reason.

The Joys of Urban Living

I don't actually *live* in the city, but I work downtown.

This morning after parking my car, as I'm walking to my place of employment I see this guy on the sidewalk. Shirtless, pants half-down his legs, acting like he's freezing to death and desperately trying to open the side door of a van. He knocks, looks around, jiggles the handle, knocks again, does the popsicle dance and then does it all over again.

At first I wondered how this fool managed to lock himself out of his work vehicle (it was a company van), especially since he was barely half dressed. When I looked back, he had moved down the street and was trying to open a car.

I hate the city.

Trying Too Hard

I saw a sign at the local daycare center for CAMP WOW, and underneath the splashy top line it read, "Wonderful wOrld of aWesome."

Someone got paid good money to come up with that.

Turning Tables

According to a reliable source, one of the trendy names for kids is Nevaeh, which is inevitably followed up with, "It's heaven spelled backwards."

I may start introducing my granddaughter to people as "Harpo. It's Oprah spelled backwards, ya know."

New and Useful

As Sheri's hired help said, "It's hot, but it's not Africa hot."

Lately I've been saying, "He's crazy, but not Tom Cruise crazy."

Touched, in a Good Way

While stationed in North Dakota with the Air Force, I spent a long, cold winter reading massive amounts of poetry by Byron, Keats and Shelley. I'd never been exposed to poetry to any extent and decided that it was high time that I correct the situation. I made it through to the end, but discovered that I'm not much of a poetry person.

That's not to say that I don't occasionally get into some, but it's not a steady diet.

Recently I've been reading Sappho, One Hundred Lyrics. A couple of nearly complete pieces and a handful of fragments are all that are left of her work, and yet, for two and a half millenia she has been considered one of the greatest (if not the greatest) poets of all time.

"Sappho who broke off a fragment of her soul
for us to guess at." -- E.E. Browning

The book contains all that remains of her impossibly perfect words, along with a welcome bit of context and history. There were probably nine volumes of her work all told, along with various other types of works.

"Love's priestess, mad with pain and joy of song,
Song's priestess, mad with joy and pain of love." -- H.T. Wharton

I am smitten.

Heart of mine, if all the altars
Of the ages stood before me,
Not one pure enough nor sacred
Could I find to lay this white, white
Rose of love upon.

I would build a fragrant temple
To thee, in the dark green forest,
Of red cedar and fine sandal,
And there love thee with sweet service
All my whole life long. -- Sappho

We used to play a silly game, imagining a time machine and what ifs. Were it to become reality, I know exactly what I would do.

Silent Library

I think most game shows are weird, but Japanese games shows take weird to a whole new level.

Silent Library is one of my favorites. The game is simple. Six guys sit in a 'library' and a game is announced. They then draw from a stack of cards. They each turn their card over and the one with the uh-oh card has a stunt pulled on them. They're supposed to stay quiet through the whole thing but as you'll see, it's pretty damn hilarious.

The video at the link is long, but try to at least watch beginning at 5:50.

Euell Gibbons

We share a birthday and a love of the outdoors, but that's about it. In popular culture, he's most famous for his television ad quote, "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible." Followed soon after with "Grape Nuts cereal reminds me of wild hickory nuts."

Remind me never to eat a wild hickory nut, because I tried Grape Nuts for the first time this morning and they are nasty. Yuck.

Sooper Dooper Valoo Deal! Boy Howdy!!!

In the $5.00 bin at WalMart they had a copy of Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus!!!

Yep, past tense. It's mine, Mine, MINE now! Bwahahahahahahahaha

Wayell Hayell

To everyone who's comments *just* got posted here, my apologies. I haven't been real good about checking the bucket o' spam for gold nuggets, and blogspot is rather, er, enthusiastic about marking things as questionable.

Which you all are. Have no doubt, that's one of the things about each and every one of you that endears you to me.

FTW

When good triumphs over evil.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Whew, been busy!

My Dad is now living with us for a couple of months. He was at an assisted-living place in Iowa that he really didn't care for, so Liz and I drove out and picked him up. We got back yesterday evening after a whirlwind trip across half the US.

So today Rachael and I installed a new stair lift in the house so Dad can make it up and down the stairs (Liz can use it too). Not real difficult, but kinda finicky and the thing is mondo heavy duty so we're worn out from wrasslin' it into working order.

Tomorrow is installing extra grab bars in the bath. In the near future I need to put a railing on the front porch step and do some electrical work in the attic. And if you're wondering why we didn't do all this ahead of time, it's because it took quite a while to make room for Dad in the first place. I think we'll be getting a small storage unit to hold some of the 'extra' stuff we moved out of his bedroom (used to be my den).

I'm dead tired, but damn, it's great to have Dad around. The extended visit was Liz's idea. She's the bestest.