Rabbit day, today, Augustine and stuff

The

"Rabbit"

under the tree was

"officially"

our first "trick or treat er" this year.................................... Wasn't even dark yet!!!!!! On the other hand or maybe more to the point, Halloween, the day of the pumpkin, has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival. I suppose that since Welsh is one of the several languages included in the listing of of Celtic languages that they might have some of the blame for the "day". Pumpkins remind me of a large field of pumpkins near "Half Moon Bay" and a time driving by one fall day a long time ago. The also remind me of a lot of years where you would have found several neat our front door and in our house, this time of year. I have always been surprised by how "cheap" pumpkins are. I saw a big stack of them in front of the new Smiths store last Saturday and you could pick anyone you wanted for 39 cents. It is hard to figure out how growing pumpkins could turn a profit for a pumpkin grower. Most kids, I would think based on my own recollections, would remember the time that they got a big sack full to the top with a variety of "stuff" when they went out trick or treating. I don't remember people going to the elaborate work to dress up the entrances to their houses in years past as they do today. Since I haven't posted anything in a week plus I suppose I ought to find something "blog-worthy". Truth is I am at a loss to figure out what might be blog worthy. I was excited to order three books yesterday. I recall 26 blogs way back where I posted a list of books read for each letter so maybe getting excited about ordering three books yesterday is worth noting?

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Big Money "P.G. Wodehouse"

The Winter of Our Discontent "John Steinbeck"

Confessions of St. Augustine, "Augustine"

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Wodehouse is a writer that is easy to read. Funny. Different. It will be an easy quick read and will be a good diversion. Winter of our Discontent is a Steinbeck book I don't recall reading? Doesn't mean I have not done so but I figure he too is an easy enjoyable read. It has been a lot of years since I read Augustine. I recall that he had a great deal of influence on the development of Christianity. Development is different that someone who just notes the historical details. I am anxious to go back over his work and see how it may look against the backdrop of my own development of understanding. It will be something I will mark in red and re read and remember where it is on my shelf after I finish the first most latest read.

Fall

Fall colors,

Many of the "posts" that I have made refer to "running". Often I have just got back, or I am on my way. Today I only "think back" to running in the canyon in the fall or along mountain trails in the middle of trees full of bold colors. Something changes when you go outside and it especially changes when you run or find yourself in the mountains or surronded with the bright colors of fall.

Nothing up ahead, except miles, "maybe" .................part 3

22
Miles

Ahead..................

Saturday, still, 2:44 PM. On the one hand today's blog is about over. "Nothing" left to discuss, ponder or write about. Of course how we got to part 3 depends to a large degree on what parts one and two really were.

"What we see around us depends

on what we seek in life"

Moon, lights, and a few miles distant run, part 2 or so

Saturday, still. 11:43. Ran some miles, listened some some ipod songs. Got up this morning thinking about the words to an old song. Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies............Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show lyrics as a matter of fact. More songs on the "run". Then Lights of ABQ. Course it was about 5 years plus a few days ago that I drove in from the West one night and indeed saw the lights, seemingly a long way from home.

But I'm still such a long, long way from home,

And the road goes on, on and on, on and on.
But the Lights of Albuquerque, will soon be shining bright,

Like a diamond in the desert, like a beacon in the night.

And I wonder if she'll take me back, will she understand?

Will the Lights of Albuquerque, shine for me again?

"Out There", today, part 1

Saturday already and it is 9:44 and this may actually be post number 456 in a long line of posts. Then too as with many of them I am just getting ready to go out to run or I suppose I may have just got back by the time I add to this Saturday post? Speaking of 456 this place "out there" is a "place in space #456".

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More to follow, maybe

Things change: The world melts down, cookies leave, but the grass with the white plume in the backyard is still great

Since it was overcast and a little windy today I didn't get out to run. On the other hand today the International World Monetary Fund warned that debt-ridden banks were pushing the financial system to the brink of a meltdown. Confidence has been in short supply and panic has swept through the global markets. I did turn on the TV this morning. CNN's host for that moment mentioned that this was a good day since we were not losing any money at the moment since the banks and the markets were closed. A news broadcast mentioned that the "only thing we have to fear is fear itself". Having thought a little about "today's events" I figured I would look back to a time a little over a year ago. I recall being in El Paso. It was the middle of the night and I looked up and noticed that my hotel room window had the curtain open. I reached for my camera and wondered if it would take a picture in a dark room. It did. I wonder if it was just "cause and effect" and the consequence of my own decisions that took me to that room or if in some way how it all turned out was a blessing.

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Reality is probably both what you do to yourself and the result that has a mixture of blessings. Reality is "the state of things as they actually exist" or put another way everything that "is". Both the back yard and the mountain to the East seem to be about the same as they were a year ago. Their reality is about the same.

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Yesterday I came home from work and found a open bag of "Mothers Cookies". This company makes a number of different cookies and are perhaps best known for the little circus animals covered with frosting. These are good.

The bag was half empty.

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I could have said it was half full

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It was half empty because I didn't see any of the pink and white animals. You see reality changes when the stuff you want is missing. I was informed that there was more of them in the bag than I thought and that I was wrong to think that they were all missing. In fact I was later treated to several of the "found" critters from the bottom of the bag. This bag was an assortment of regular little cookies as well as the frosted ones rather than a straight shot of the good stuff. One could say that any bag of half open cookies sitting out when you come home is a great thing really, but then "Mothers Cookies" is no more................................. They exist right now but soon they will not be part of "what is". Keeblers has a fair cookie like this one I think. Then on the other hand things will change soon. They are going out of business I learned from a good friends blog.

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Next year looking back I may still remember the hotel room window from the year before. I might think of the world meltdown of the entire financial system that took place this last week. I might think of the day the cookies left the land of "what is". Hard to say.................

Today was the first day of the Balloon Festival. Probably if we had been up in a balloon this time we would have a picture a lot like this one but since we were not this one from a few years ago may work out fine. 650 Balloons will go up and perhaps a million people will watch the most photographed event in the world. At least it was once. Anyway it is also General Conference today and we enjoyed that a lot. I was thinking about the painting I posted yesterday. It was my first exposure, at least that I remember, to an artist and to a significant work of art. It was on the front wall inside of the 1st ward chapel where I grew up. This picture of that chapel is from a time around 1900 but then it no longer exists and I suppose that the picture is all I have. The picture for me is indeed art. Not just because of its impact on the senses but because of what it actually means to me.

Not Alone

Minervia Teichert is a favorite artist for me. She painted the mural on the chapel wall faced each week in the church that I attended as a young boy. She was born in Ogden, Utah and grew up on a ranch in Idaho. The history books show that she became the first woman to be sent by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on an artistic mission - first to study at the Art Institute of Chicago under John Vanderpoel, and then at the Art Students League of New York under Robert Henri.

Women and western themes feature prominently in Teichert's works. Teichert is known for a set of 42 murals from the Book of Mormon, as well as her murals inside the Manti Utah Temple

This is one of Minerva Teichert's most cherished works. In the image we see Mary Fielding Smith with her son Joseph F. Smith crossing the plains with their ox cart. To the right of the image we see the spiritual guardians that protected Mary Fielding Smith on her journey to Zion, hence the title "Not Alone". At the bottom of the picture, Minerva Teichert gives the title of the image and the date 1847, the year of the great migration to the West.
This is Teichert at her best as she portrays the tremendous faith and courage of the pioneer women.

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

Fire

Do not go gentle into that good night
By Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end

know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

This week an old guy took me aside and mentioned the word "geezer patrol". I was pleased that he wasn't referring to me and may have felt some relief from the "patrol" in just talking to me but then how we see our self may not always be close to how others see us. Actually I think how we see our self has a lot to do with how others see us but the more interesting issue is what is it that old men fear. Dylan Thomas's poem captures it well. The dying of the light. Does the "fire' within us rage and burn and get stronger or is it dying. The light or fire within is the question. The dictionary says that fire is the heat and light energy released during a chemical reaction. Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities within, the color of the flame and the fire's intensity might vary.

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I think that "tears" may be the indicator of heat and fire and even light. Within we "feel strongly" and the heat drives the "tears" outward.

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Things that bring tears

Little Girls

Little Boys

Soft songs

Stories of Love

Loved Ones

Family

The Lord

Flowers

Sky

Mountains

Testimony

Wind

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

Today's walk with KJ had a little crispness in the air. Enough so to make it comfortable and enough to make some movement of the air noticeable. One of the things I like about running is the "air'. The air made me think of the scripture above. It was an interesting way to show Nicodemus that his own worldly knowledge and experiences was just not enough to understand the things of God. Of course he who told him this probably knew the answers to his questions and all he had to do was believe or just want to believe.

Earth

KJ took this picture and posted it on her blog. The picture is just amazing. The flower is pretty good too. Capturing this image is a talent that helps one stay positive. The other day I was driving behind a car and saw a bumper sticker. It said something about the "Earth" and I at first figured it would be a save the earth type comment and would be more or less political in motive. Anyway I had to speed up a little to really see what it said but it said............"We don't own the Earth, the Earth owns us". As impressed as I was with the thought I don't claim to have it down exactly here today but the thought is pretty significant. When you see a flower like this or look up to the mountains it is pretty clear that the "Earth" indeed is in charge as far as were concerned. I have always been amazed when I fly somewhere and as I look out of the window down at the Earth. It is so much bigger than we often think. Our place on the Earth and in the Universe is pretty small yet we find so much of the real beauty of it all "at our disposal".

A truck, brownie and the morning pages

A few years ago I was reading a book about writing and it offered some advice that in a way this blog has sort of been the application of for me. The advice was to write everyday and to write for a while about "nothing". Nothing really is better described as just writing about whatever crosses your mind. The book called that process writing ones "morning pages". No suggestion was made that anyone but the writer would actually read the morning pages and that could be just as true for this blog. I have thought about printing out my blog pages and saving them in a small book since they do capture a lot of favorites, memories and "stuff".

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Looking back at the week things that stand out are:

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1. At work we added a "new brownie" to the menu. We needed a professional picture of the brownie quick. The project was given to KJ who, when I got home, took the shot.

2. I ran mid week 6 miles with a friend not having run at 5 AM midweek since we left the "cove"

3. Our home was taken off the market this week. No sign out front.

4. I played 18 rounds of Golf on Friday, something I haven't done in a few years.

5. Unpacked some of my "clutter" for my office making the office more like it was and what was missed for too many months.

North to Alaska, at least that is where the pictures were shot.

The flowers I posted yesterday came from an email a friend sent. Today another friend sent a email with a bunch of attachments and many of them were "bears". He used to live in Alaska and they went back to see the grandkids, ect., and he took a lot of "bear" pictures. Yes I did in fact send him an email asking how he could justify so many bear pictures and so few grandkid pictures? Wonder what his answer will be. Looks like a fine fine stream to be in, if of course the bear wasn't there.