Decade Long Soliloquy

After more than ten long, lonely years of blogging, I felt that I should mention that this post marks number One Thousand of my published posts. Yes, you read that correctly, one thousand posts! That works out to be nearly one post of interest, per year! Or, to think of it another way - almost a dozen!

This brings up an interesting question. a) Do I post because I have no life - or, b) Do I have no life because I post?

See below for the answer.


Answer: a

Today's Video Clips

Here’s a clip from the beloved (by me) movie, “Matilda”. I loved this movie. I loved it not only because I thought it was a good movie - at least, that’s the way I remember it - but also because it was from the era when I used to go with the kids to the Video Store to pick out and rent movies on a Saturday afternoon. That was a lot of fun.

"Matilda" was a movie that I felt was kind of traditional for the kids. They were already at an age where they had long since left behind the pulse-pounding "Barney" movies (thank God) and were segueing from some of the Disney cartoons to the more realistic and nail-biting excitement contained in any of the many, many Olsen Twins' movies.

This, for various reasons, flagged to me that it was time to explore other, more mature, more sane options for them - while hopefully avoiding some of the unintended "I'm going to shoot myself to get this over with" side effects for any of the adults who happened to be within earshot of said movies (i.e.: me). This movie seemed to fit the bill. It was a lot of fun to share that time together.





By the way, if you've already seen the movie, there's also this behind the scenes clip. This also brings back fond memories. It runs a little over sixteen minutes...

Today

A Father's Day, filled with grey skies and softly falling rain.

I like a day like this - once in a while. To sit on the porch, in solitude- and listen. Nothing but the rain brushing against the leaves as it falls.

But given the choice, I would rather share the silence - and listen. Together.

---

Today, the solitude feels more like loss.

I don't have much to say today - but I don't want the day to pass without noting it; without ending it, like usual, with this...

Cat Food

I was going to post this as part of my popular* "Further Evidence..." series (here and here and... that's about it), but then I realized that this is really marketing genius!

This stuff hits all the high spending consumer bases: people who like rainbows: roughly 79% of the American population, people who like unicorns: roughly 37% of the American population, and people who like cats: roughly 3% of the American population (a small but very vocal - and very, very high spending portion of our great society).

Add that all together and you'll find that this stuff appeals to an impressive 119% of the American population! Like I said, Genius!

*Each post had exactly one hit each. That's a total of TWO hits, for those of you too tired to do the math.

Writing on the Wall

I came across this graffiti on last night's walk with Sam - and I'm having very mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, I'm glad to see that at least a portion of our youth is taking a strong and forceful stand against Nazis.

On the other hand, I find it a little bit sad that kids today are even thinking about things like this. What happened to those carefree days when kids could focus on writing simple, uplifting messages like, "F**K Marco!" or maybe even dash off a few crude pictures of genitalia?

I guess those were simpler times.

A Walk Through Town

Today, Sam and I went on our longest walk of the season - somewhere around five miles. But since there were two of us on this walk, I consider it to be more like ten miles total.

Our first stop, or technically, our second stop, was at the Post Office. I needed to get some stamps and pick up a postcard I ordered from Bulgaria. For whatever reason, it couldn't be left at my door without a signature. So I went in and signed of my two dollar postcard - and now I feel like my signature will be appearing on items ordered from somewhere in Bulgaria, for the foreseeable future.

Then it was over to the Chamber of Commerce.  I've never been in the Chamber of Commerce before, and after today, I still haven't. They were closed. I went because apparently, over the years, they've produced Christmas ornaments of noteworthy places around town (keeping in mind that "noteworthy" is a relative term) and I had wanted to go in and take a look at their years-old overstock.

I'm not sure how interested I am in any of them but I've often wished that I had more memorabilia from my hometown, from back in the era when I was growing up there. So, I thought maybe my kids might someday feel the same way about their hometown because naturally, if I feel some way about something, then everybody else must feel the same way, too. Well, sorry kids. The place was closed. Maybe some other time.

Undeterred, Sam and I continued our walk all the way down to the bank on the other end of Main Street. Then we headed back home, stopping along the way for water, as well as making a stop at the hardware store.

Nothing particularly eventful happened this long walk of ours - other than the fact that we inadvertently managed to get some exercise- and somehow managed to avoid stopping to get an ice cream cone. So, I guess that was pretty unusual. Still, sometimes these uneventful walks are pretty good, too.

P.S. My feet were killing me. Sam still refused to rub them.

Tonight's Photo

 Helaina pretending to be casual as she walks across the infamous Bridge of Death.