Posts

Posted on

Rewinding Life

From time to time I will hear or read an interview of some famous person.  One of the common questions asked is, “If you had your life to live over would you do anything differently?”  Almost invariably the answer is, “No, I would not change a thing.”   On hearing this, in my mind, I am screaming, “Bullshit.”

I look back on my life and there are so many things that I would have changed had I had the opportunity.  Maybe it is the programmer in me, but I see life as a imagesseries of decision points.  Like the traveler in Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, go one direction and the other path is usually lost.  I do not know a human alive, if they are being honest, that would not own up to bad decisions, to decisions they regret, or wonder what would have happened if they had taken the other branch.  I think it is part of the tragedy that is the quiet desperation of human existence.  The Buddha gave a way out, living in the moment.  However, that is much easier said than done.

One of my fantasies is to wonder what would happen if I could go back and change x to y.  What would have my path have been?  Continue reading “Rewinding Life”

Posted on

No wine for you, Cat

100_0380Robin’s cat, Booty Wang, is your typical finicky cat.  He is especially finicky about his water.  He prefers that it be from a running source.  A time or two or ten I have found Robin running the water at the bathroom sink and Booty lapping it up from the stream.

Given my attitude about the subservient nature of companions not of the Homo sapiens food group, I am not going to do this.  However, I do feel a responsibility for animals partially in my care.  We did start keeping a water bowl in the upstairs master bathroom as well as one in the laundry room.  He would not drink from the original bowl that I had purchased.  After a few weeks I wondered if it was because it was plastic.  So I changed it out for a glass bowl.  Voila, he would drink from that, BUT only if the water was fresh.  If the water had sat for more than a few hours he ignores it.   He will walk into the bathroom sit down in front of the bowl, and wait for a human to magically change it into fresh water.   Did I call him the subservient species earlier?

This morning that routine transacted, and he still just sat there looking at the fresh water in the bowl.  In exasperation I said, “Cat, I cannot change it into wine, deal with it.”  That is when I remembered I had not taken my meds.

Posted on

The Real Meaning of Black Friday

Wal-Mart heirs occupy slots 11, 14, 16 and 17 of the richest people on the Planet! Yet many of its employees are forced into public welfare programs due to low wages and their HR policies. If you work and are willing to work full-time should not have to get public assistance to make ends meet. That is the real Black Friday…a day of mourning for the American retail worker.

Make A Change At Walmart

Posted on

Where have all the IT jobs gone?

Where have all the IT jobs gone, long time passing?
Where have all the IT jobs gone, long time passing?
Where have all the IT jobs gone?
Our corporations have outsourced everyone.
Oh, when will we ever learn?
Oh, when will we ever learn?

IndianTrain

Posted on

Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 3,761

…yeah I know you did not ask!

Facebook reminds me of a circle jerk. Everybody busy stroking their own egos desperately hoping someone is watching.

Posted on

Hurrying into the office

Short, young, round woman jaywalking across a 4 lane one-way street in downtown St. Louis.  She attempts to hurry with her feet hardly clearing the pavement and her knees barely bending.  If it were not for the feminine form it would look like an old man’s shuffle in high speed.  The curb appears at the end of her rush from traffic.  Somehow she manages to make the shuffle leap the six inches up, but this acrobatic maneuver  throws her center of gravity off forcing her body forward much too fast.   She manages to regain her balance. Her travel slows to a normal gait.  Surely she is heading into the office congratulating herself for beating the odds of against downtown traffic once more.

Posted on

Raw Okra

There is an unknown person at work who obviously has a garden.  Occasionally they will bring in product of the okraaforementioned agricultural endeavor.  Some of it is rather strange, a single banana pepper, a half a cucumber, a grossly misshaped  tomato.

Last week this incognito agronomic  benefactor brought in a small, yellow bucket of tomatoes.  Next day there was a sign on the table in the break indicating that the tomatoes were gratis and to be taken, but please return the bucket.  I laughed.

This morning there were a few “maters” and two stalks of okra on the break room table.  I commented to a young lady in there, “That is rather strange, what do you do with just two stalks of okra?”

Her rejoinder was, “You eat it raw.”

“Raw”, I said, “I’ve eaten okra fried, boiled and pickled, but never raw.”

The lady replied, “They are crunchy like potato chips, but healthier.”

I had nothing to say after that.  Anyone else ever eat okra raw?

Posted on

Impaled on my own self-effacement

Impaled on my own self-effacement1209026_10151613261694147_348947125_n

I had worked on some reports for another area some 2 or 3 months in the past. The young lady (39 years of age) whose area it is had moved all but one of the reports into production. She asked my help this morning in moving the last report. I replied, “I would need to refresh myself with the report, as being 78 years old I do not remember what I had for breakfast this morning.” She looked at me funny for a minute and replied, “You’re not 78… are you?”

Sigh.

Posted on

Deep Dark Depression, Excessive Misery

I was at the golf course the other day and I found myself singing —

“Blue despair and agony on me
Deep dark depression, excessive misery
If weren’t for bad golf, I’d play no golf at all.”

Hee Haw was a big part of my life when I was young, could you tell?