And the real meaning is.......................

The fair is over. I suppose the real meaning of life wasn't to be found at the fair. We missed the chickens and then in addition to the art, which may be the real meaning after all, we wandered off into the part of the fair that isn't really part of the fair. I remember "Pleasure land" was the name of the little group of rides just to the North of Ross Park. A merry go round, a Farris Wheel, and a place that sold Cotten Candy come to mind. I remember the horses on the Merry Go Round. They seemed to have a "life of their own" and often over the years as I have looked a little closer when I see a MGR Horse and it seems to me that the Merry Go Round horses are a step into a new world. The new world I see when I look closer is fantasy to some but reality once you arrive..................... Perhaps the horse is just bored, maybe it was Alice who was bored reading her book. Maybe a white rabbit would soon run by. Bet he would be wearing a coat and carrying a watch, and just worrying about being running late. Folks in the real world who are late probably aren't worried about it, by the way. I suppose the horse wouldn't fit, but Alice would, so she follows and goes down the rabbit hole. In this new world, that is anything but old, one falls very slowly. She falls and at the bottom is a hallway and it has nothing but doors and they all seemed locked. A key is found, then a door, and it opens into a beautiful garden. I suppose Alice is still in the real world, that is also old, and she, in her earthly state, can't fit through the door so she looks around and on a table in the hall, did I mention that the hall of doors had a table, sees a bottle. The fine print that is pretty big actually says, "drink me". In this new world your food has labels telling you what to do rather than what is in it. It didn't say why she should drink by the way but it did causes her to shrink to a size small enough to fit through the door. Well that is the point. What I am saying is going through that door is the pont. Horses on Merry Go Rounds can be a way to slide into a new world, and get to and through the door, and once you do you learn the real meaning of life..........................................

a new post. the name will change soon, I suppose

This first draft blog will be added to later, maybe. Last weekend I had over 100 people from 7 or 8 countries come on to this blog. Now normally I have 5 or 6 at most on the weekends and during the week a lot less check this blog so I have to ask myself "why" did I have all those hits last week. A few seemed to stay on the blog for a long time? The blog meter that is a no charge way to find this stuff out gave me this information. Not that I go looking for this feedback it just automatically shows up every Thursday and is interesting, at least it was this last week. Maybe some word captured some sort of sort?

you can't rollar skate in a buffalo herd

You can't rollar skate in a Buffalo herd
But you can be happy if you have a mind to
You can't take a shower in a parakeet cage
But you can be happy if you have mind to
Lyric's by Roger Miller

















Today started out the day by talking to the cat. Not that this happens much but it is one thing that made today different. It sort of is a reality check . Then yesterday I misspelled "roam" implying that the buffalo had been in the "room" perhaps. Course cowboys don't spell but I am about as far off from being a cowboy as you can get. The other day I asked a young person how to spell nozzle. Somehow I had it in my mind that it must be "nossel" but that looked weird. So I asked and no one knew how to spell it. That seems weird looking back. How hard can it be to be able to find someone that can spell nozzle.

Might be a buffalo in the room, or maybe they are just out roaming

Home on the range............. this weekend. About to go out and run 10. In the movie "Dances with Wolves" I particularly liked a scene where our hero was sleeping and it seemed like the earth was shaking and thunder was all around. He got up and ran to the top of a small hill and it was the "buffalo". It was a great scene. Running a long run leaves one plenty of time to contemplate everything, and then nothing, and at times both thoughts follow each other. One is not necessarily any better than the other. In fact it may really be the case that rather than "everything vs's nothing" the real issue may be whether the sky it truly inspiring, the sun perhaps reflecting just right and the air in ones face. Worth stopping with ones hat tipped down and giving it all some thought or maybe thinking about nothing.................................

The other side of the street.

I have preferred to have a pencil in hand at work. I have been guilty of biting my pencils, a lot. Likewise I like longer pencils and I like to keep them sharp. Electric pencil sharpeners are useful. Good erasers are a plus. I have a few journals near my desk at home. The one I open the most is my running log. Looking over at the journals I notice the running one and find that I also have inside this one "several sections". The first section, after the running section, is titled "Funny". The first page has a cartoon showing a cow laying on a couch in a Head Dr's Office. The caption says, "No, I wouldn't call you a mad cow exactly- I'd say you're a cow with issues". Truth is I have meet a number of those folks over the years. Another says, "For the next 27 days I'll be conducting a non-stop sales meeting on why we're not making enough sales calls". The next tab is titled "Correspondence with friends and family". This one is pretty weak since my contacts files in my email are hundreds of times larger. Next is "Thoughts and Poems" Some of these I wrote. Some are quote copies. Most are in a larger file on the desktop. The next is "Friends Past". Pictures............ Mark L., Norris W., a note from Garr, a cousin, and a cute little boy from the past. Somewhere I have a picture of Klppinburt standing by his 1940 something K whopper I need to find and get in this book. Not a lot of stuff really but somewhere to park the pictures. I do have others. A little book titled "Notes on Trip to Korea" another titled "Daily thoughts, Family Photos. ect". In this one I have a section where I just wrote whatever I thought of on some days. On 1/20/08 I wrote "Monday Tomorrow is KJ's birthday." Another section on Family where I pasted in a picture of a Pillsbury Doughboy getting run over by a big old steam roller. One person for sure will laugh again when she reads this. Below I have three larger books. Each is a picture album. Then another is a bunch of stuff on history of some relatives. A little to the right of these books are a dozen or so binders full of stuff.

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Last night I was reading a book about reading, again. Ann Q. wrote this little book and it is interesting to see her present her love of reading by telling the reader over and over that she grew up loving reading more than anything else. She claimed that as a youth she would prefer to stay inside and read to anything. I think that would have been fine but then I can't claim that anything like that was true for me. I enjoyed getting out and my challenge was trying to see what the world really was.

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Asked about "social structure" for a project by a great young man I wondered a bit if we can really move our own social structure. I recall how motivating it was as a young person to visit cousins I had who had lived in many places across the country and seemed to really be into books by the way. It was clear to me that they lived in a world that I didn't know and I wanted to move into that world.

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The key to moving in a positive direction in life is knowledge. Even, no I think especially knowledge of what is on the other side of the street is critical. For the author who loved reading more than anything it was a tool to seeing the other side of the street. One ought to. and in my opinion should want to know more, to learn more, to understand more, to be able to think deeper.

Cows, Rabbits, Pie, Photo's and Heuvos

Huevos Rancheros, is potentially a new menu item at work. I took the HR picture and KJ "touched it up" some. Since my last picture, from a couple of weeks back, was just of a couple of feet (mine) this may be a jump into "beyond", to post this picture. It may well be the case that this blog is "winding down", at least for a while. Feet, breakfast menu items, may or may not be an improvement in posting of daily thoughts? The direction is indeed changing. Probably the best item I could write about in terms of the last weeks activities would be the "revelation" of MJ's laptop password. Seems at though he mentioned "that place that remains nameless" followed by "three six's", and used it as a password at his work. I will say that the best part of this insightful approach was to have watched his Mom laugh "hard" when told. Looking back at the week lots of things stand out. We went to the "Fair". This is the last time I am going to stand in line and wait for a piece of pie. It was good. Kj's was better. She had the Apple Green Chile pie. It looked very good. It was a surprise to find at the fair only a very small "Photography" building. What really sort of stood out was the big old poultry barn full of rabbits in cages. It is interesting to see the different little "rabbit faces" and all the different sort of personalities. I can tell you rabbits seem to be more individualistic that cows. Then on the other hand the disappointment of the day was the fact that the poultry barn, being full of rabbits, meant that there were no roosters. We asked a lady in the Rabbit barn where the roosters were. She said they were at her house? She added that in a couple of days the rabbits were leaving and the roosters, and hens I suppose, were coming. Big disappointment my fair buddy. Loved the fair. Another highlight was watching the show Mama Mia for the 2nd time. 3rd for my companion. I have given some thought as too what show MJ and I might go see next week when I am "on my own" while KJ is up North having a great time. So that ends the short recap of theme of what we each found

in this place called "the last little while".......
William Butler Yeats

O Rocky Voice, Shall we in that great night rejoice?

What do we know but that we face

One another in this place?

But hush, for I have lost the theme,

Its joy or night-seem but a dream

feet 2

The picture was taken because my legs were so brown not necessarily because my feet looked like they had been dipped in bleach. They weren't by the way. I suppose it could be concluded that this blog "hit bottom", finally, but then if we put it up to vote the problem is that we only have about 5 registered voters.................... and that total might be a little overconfident on my part. If the total it is true however I figure my vote counts "6 times". Anyway after 10 miles today it wasn't my legs that were tired but I was indeed a little more tired than usual.
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I forwarded a copy of this picture to my running friend of 25 years, up North, just to say hello, so I have gotten a lot of "mileage" out of this picture. Since it is "Labor Day" I guess ? there is more to celebrate than my feet.
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Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed

on the first Monday in September. The holiday originated

in 1882 as the Central Labor Union (of New York City)

sought to create "a day off for the working citizens".

Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated by most

Americans as the symbolic end of the summer

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Summer ending today with this holiday and that is ok since Fall is the best time of year in my opinion. Today was the first day that I opened my office window and just let the air come in.

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The Poet’s Mind
Vex not thou the poet’s mind

With thy shallow wit;

Vex not thou the poet’s mind,

For thou canst not fathom it.

Clear and bright it should be ever,

Flowing like a crystal river,

Bright as light, and clear as wind.
Alfred Lord Tennyson