Staying In Touch

In thinking of telling about my eventful trip where a wrong turn led to meeting quite a few New Jersey folk...they came out on the street to talk to me and watch. I opted to instead tell you about something I just heard about this morning...

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday,
with his wife flying down the following day.

The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack. The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.

The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:

*******************************************

To: My Loving Wife

Subject: I've Arrived

Date: March 20, 2007



I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then!

Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

Your loving husband,

P.S. Sure is freaking hot down here.

A closeup snapshot from a day in my youth

"But Mom, these people LIKE me talking to them."

"I'm watching Peter Pan Pajo"

Thats what my little grand-daughter said to me when I popped by Jindians house today. She has tagged me "Pajo" or "Pa Joe" ever since she was old enough to tag. So that will likely be what the whole heard of yet unconceived grandkids will stick with. That little firecracker just oozes enthusiasm , passionate emotion in every expression...giving great illustration to saying someones face just "lit up". So much like her mother years ago.

After sitting back down in my chair to nap AGAIN (its where most of the afternoon was spent)..it is startling to wake up and realize it is already past midnight. So about the time the day light is stretching itself out in just a very few more hours, we'll be heading for Texas, probably be dropping by Las Vegas Sunday afternoon, and then Sunday night in Los Angeles, and most of Monday probably... before heading back. Maybe thats what all this napping is about...just getting ready to run.

Life is good. It has taken some major changes along the way to make it shine, and probably have some more fixing to do to make it shine even brighter..but life is good. Would just kill me to miss out on it.

Hector the Collector

I'm regarded by many as a collector of junk. I say there is a reason for it, it is rooted in how I see stuff.

This poem I used to read often to my kids, and I could read it with very great emotional empathy...

HECTOR THE COLLECTOR
by Shel Silverstein

Hector the Collector
Collected bits of string,
Collected dolls with broken heads
And rusty bells that would not ring.
Pieces out of picture puzzles,
Bent-up nails and ice-cream sticks,
Twists of wires, worn-out tires,
Paper bags and broken bricks.
Old chipped vases, half shoelaces,
Gatlin' guns that wouldn't shoot,
Leaky boats that wouldn't float
And stopped-up horns that wouldn't toot.
Butter knives that had no handles,
Copper keys that fit no locks,
Rings that were too small for fingers,
Dried-up leaves and patched-up socks.
Worn-out belts that had no buckles,
'Lectric trains that had no tracks,
Airplane models, broken bottles,
Three-legged chairs and cups with cracks.
Hector the Collector
Loved these things with all his soul‹
Loved them more than shining diamonds,
Loved them more than glistenin' gold.
Hector called to all the people,
"Come and share my treasure trunk!"
And all the silly sightless people
Came and looked...and called it junk.

Today on Dr. Phil I saw a woman getting really put to test for being a junk collector piling down every room in her house to the point her husband couldn't take it anymore. She said "I don't see it as a pile of junk...but a store room of unfinished projects" and some keepsakes....It didn't appear to me that Dr. Phil picked up on this internal dynamic/revelation though.

I did, cause I could "relate" to much of what the poor fellow collector girl was trying to express. Some of us in this life tend to obsess with not letting go of something we see potential in...if we can just get around to it. I do believe I can organize it and shelve it and store it in ways to allow access and usability or provide interest. What I've seen on talk shows where "collectors" are raked over the coals...the counselors seem to miss something major. If there is a psychological issue here its probably not OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)...its probably something relevant or functional to the person's not completing projects, or not realistically limiting and selecting projects they can realistically get to.

Now many things are saved to be of use "as needed"..to fix stuff...to do stuff only rarely done...This can prove to be a valuable trait if such a person can obtain or build suitable filing and storage systems like shelves, cabinets, drawers....(if you notice in the photos of dwellings of "collectors of junk"...there is a great deficit of organizational furniture like bookcases, shelving...etc).

My goal is to step by step develop shelving and indexed storage system for those things of value (my collectors items)...and a system for those things "to be available when needed" like tools or spare parts....and a system for "project storage"...where it can clearly be seen that only so many projects can merit my attention. Maybe then and only then can I clearly see which stuffs fit in none of those categories and thereby should be discarded as junk.

A day of Mourning has Commenced

Having just learned that Comic Book Hero Captain America Dies
Mar 7, 1:11 PM EST
I am officially in Mourning.

Those who know my childhood will realize the tremendous weight of this.

Feeling Tired and Lazy

All my life I've fought very hard against laziness...I felt its temptation always biting at me and me working all the harder to make sure I wasn't "lazy".
But now, closing the first half century in a few more years....I'm afraid its caught me. I accept that as descriptive, but I accept it with annoyance, disappointment and confusion . But alas....I'm starting to really believe that I have become lazy.

That may not mean much to some, but think about it from my view...the fight against laziness is what compelled me all those years thru some pretty impossibly hard times, i kept fighting against laziness with effort I can't now imagine. Yet these days, like a bird entangled in thick ivy, I've become entangled in the trappings of laziness. I feel as if I've GOT to break free of its hold and get after life again...but I'm tired, so tired, and achy in the bones. But maybe I'm tired because I've let my stamina/energy deteriorate (out of laziness)....laziness has very tangly tricky tentacles.

Now we did travel like 7000 miles last week and get in only 2 nights ago, both of which we had a lot of catching up to do with that little 5 year old.
And I did take a nasty fall from about 3 foot up just as I was getting the last things to put in the car for heading home. Landing on the back of my head with what came dang near to being one of them internal inguinal hernia thingys....but its GREATLY improved now , though I still feel sore and stiff in my legs and arms. And that being overweight business is putting strain on my frame and joints as well....another area needing attention *sigh*, ...so got a lot of things i need to "whip into shape" to get to where i feel like "whipping things into shape". Think about that one. But I'm happy...and intent on staying that way.

My 5 year old teaching the dog to obey

There my youngen stood with her back to me, a ways out in the front yard, not knowing I was just down the hill watchin her...she was focused on the neighbors dog that always visits her...and she was swatting it on the flank because it just wasn't doing what she was commanding it, she was trying to encourage it.."C'mon come here" and then coming back to swat it (pretty gingerly for the reader concerned with that "swatting" bit.)

Aint that something. I can't get her to close the door or pick up her stuff, but SHES gonna swat that dog into doing something she commands. ROFL...maybe she'll have better luck getting her charge to comply than I do.

I wonder sometimes if thats not how God feels on occasion, overlooking His "creatures".