Random Thoughts- Do They Have Meaning?

Monday Mornings- Bah!

I woke up far too early this morning. It wasn't just a few minutes before the alarm, but hours. Got up and made my way through the house to the far bathroom, one of my personal sanctuaries. There in my Fortress of Solitude I took care of my business and slowly shuffled back to bed.

Eyes half closed I used Jack's radar system to carefully navigate around the kid's shopping cart, kitchen and and toy cars. Even managed to get back to bed without stubbing my toe. Climbed back in and spent a few minutes rolling around from side to side, trying to convince the body that it was time to sleep again.

Ended up on my back staring at the ceiling. There in the dark I felt my mood begin to darken. I wasn't ready to be awake. It wasn't one of those mornings in which I was going to jump out of bed and get an early start. Reminds me of a woman I worked with years ago who used to take great pleasure out of singing "Put on a Happy Face" to all who walked in. I used to think that if cartoons were reality I would walk over and pull her lower lip over her head. It would make a great hood.

Sometimes you need to give people two minutes to come inside and get settled before you assault them with such noise. I remember telling someone about this story and she responded angrily to the lower lip as a hood thing. She chastised me and suggested that I was mean. I asked her if she had ever wondered if perhaps the irritating lady with the loud dress and terrible singing voice was intentionally trying to piss people off. It hadn't occurred to her.

Still she didn't care and resumed chastising me. I glared at her and she asked what I was thinking. Told her that I was imagining her wearing her lower lip as a hood. She started to speak and I said that I was serious and she shut up. Later on I received a visit from someone else who asked why I had threatened her. I laughed and asked if anyone really took that seriously. I mean really, how would I pull her lower lip over her head. She laughed and said "you're right."

Good thing, because I was imagining her wearing the old lip hood too. Not that it matters cartoons are not reality.

While back a lawyer friend told me that I should be careful what I blog about because someone might try to use it against me. Well, if you want to take silly ramblings like this and claim something I suppose you can try. Just remember if cartoons ever become reality you might find your lip pulled over your head.

So there I lay in bed cursing to myself. This doesn't happen to me. The Shmata Queen has this sleep issue, I don't. I sleep. If I am stressed out I work out. I go play ball or hit the heavy bag until I am too tired to be awake. Lately I like to pound that bag to the sound of the symphonic version of The Battle of Evermore.

It is good to have a beat to accompany the flying fists. Right, left, right left, you begin slowly and develop a rhythm. Gradually you begin throwing combinations and when the moment is right you start pounding the sand out of that bag. There is something really satisfying about the sound of the gloves smacking that bag.

Nothing like a little sweat to make your mood change. In and out, in and out. Dancing around like Ali I pound the bag and lose myself in the moment.

But at 4 am you are not going to find me out in the garage. Nope, at that time I am supposed to be asleep dreaming about the many adventures I had and am having. That's the time where I am laying a beating upon the dragon and enjoying the gratitude bestowed upon me by the queen that I have rescued.

Nah, see me in the garage at 4 am it is because I am grabbing a shovel to use to beat the car thief with.

Monday mornings are just not supposed to begin this way. I am in a foul mood. Granted this silly talk about lower lips and hoods has lightened my mood, but just barely. I am not ready to be awake, not yet. I may try to sneak in another twenty minutes of snooze time, a do over.

Don't ask me why, but at the moment aside from glaring and grumbling I just have this thought that this is not the life that I am supposed to be leading.

Ok, enough bitching, it is time for some coffee.

Crossposted here.

Palin Pranked

And your blast from the past:

The Story of Two Souls

My Brother- A Simple Lesson of Physics

Politics- I Don't Care

With the election literally around the corner the amount of noise has increased tenfold. Noise is the term that I am using to describe all of the new coverage, campaign ads and conversation that is specifically about the election.

Frankly I am tired and bored of it all. I made my decisions about who I am voting for, what my positions are on the various measures and now I am ready for this all to end. It is time to be done with it and get back to living our lives.

That being said I want to make a comment about political discussions. I readily admit to at times being a gadfly and someone who will provoke conversation. It is my nature to push the envelope and test my limits. It is not necessarily the most mature thing, but it has its moments.

If I buy the story that some of my friends are selling this is the most important and most divisive presidential campaign ever held. I won't spend much time on whether it is important or not because I think that every presidential election is important. When you have the ability to pick up the phone and send troops into battle you swing a big stick. So it really doesn't matter what the situation is, a bad president can do a lot of damage.

The thing that really gets me about this election is the number of times I have heard people say that they can't stand Democrats/Republicans. Call me what you will, but I don't make judgments on whether I like people based on their politics. I suppose that you could argue that politics delineate value sets and that based upon those value sets you can say yea or nay, but I don't really see most of these conversations going that way.

I really don't care if my friends have the same political views as myself. Now maybe that is because I cross party lines, I have voted for both Democrats and Republicans. I'll have to think about this a little bit more.

Crossposted here.

Pieces of a Larger Puzzle

One of the joys of parenting is the challenges presented in trying to answer the 1,872,986 questions they kids ask. What happened on August 31, 1968? Why is this street called Hampshire and not Burninglog? Was there really a burning log there? Who was Jack The Ripper and why wasn't he called Jason?

You get the point, there are just a ton of questions that come at you from every which angle. At times it is a real challenge to try and keep up with them. It is not just because sometimes you are tired and your brain hurts from being used far too much, but that many of these questions aren't the kind that have simple answers. And even if they do have simple answers, sometimes those don't suffice.

Since I am a boy trapped in a man's body I haven't completely lost the question bug. I very much enjoy learning about lots of different things and trying to figure out how pieces fit into a larger puzzle. That curiosity has served me well, but at times it has been the source of trouble as I have taken more than a couple of things apart to see how they work.

That leads into a conversation I had a number of years ago with some people about what things should really cost. It was one of those moments in which a group of people started ranting about how such and such cost far too much. Since I enjoy these discussions and am sometimes guilty of pushing the envelope I started to debate with them about pricing.

As I recall we began to talk about the cost of office chairs. One of the others said that they thought that the margins must be really big because a chair was nothing more than a frame, some fabric and wheels. I disagreed with them and asked if they had really thought about it.

If you start to break it down you find that the chair is more complex. Someone had to find the metal for the chair. They had to find a way to manufacture the frame. It could involve a mold and machining of parts. They had to find someone to supply the wheels. Sometimes the wheels were made of several parts. Someone had to find the materials for those parts. There could be a mold and machining for those parts. Someone had to find the material for the chair, be it fabric, leather or fake leather.

And of course there is packaging, shipping, storage and a number of other items that are most likely involved here as well. Not to mention the question of how these chairs were being sold. What sort of distribution chain was involved.

I find a lot of that kind of stuff to be interesting. How many different people and places are involved in the manufacturing process. In theory the computer I am using right now could be a global computer with pieces from every corner of the planet.

On a side note if you want to get into trouble tell your high school English teacher that the planet is a sphere and cannot really have four corners. They'll love you for it.

Ok, me and the U.N. 'puter are going to move on to the next post.

Crossposted here.

Ring of Fire- A Broken Heart?

Love Is A Burning Thing
And It Makes A Fiery Ring
Bound By Wild Desire
I Fell Into A Ring Of Fire

CHORUS:
I Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
I Went Down, Down, Down
And The Flames Went Higher

And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire

I Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
I Went Down, Down, Down
And The Flames Went Higher

And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire

The Taste Of Love Is Sweet
When Hearts Like Ours Meet
I Fell For You Like A Child
Oh, But The Fire Went Wild

CHORUS
I Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
I Went Down, Down, Down
And The Flames Went Higher
Cool New Version of Johnny Cash
And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire

I Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
I Went Down(down), Down(down), Down(down)
And The Flames Went Higher Higher Higher

And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire

And It Burns, Burns, Burns

The Ring Of Fire

The Ring Of Fire
Oh Yeah!
The Ring Of Fire
For Johnny and June
Written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore

In a number of posts I have mentioned how a number of my friends are splitting up with their wives. As a consequence I have had many conversations in which we have discussed love and relationships, not to mention the time that I have spent thinking about the topic on my own.

If you have spent any time hanging out around here it should be apparent that I have never been afraid to share my opinion with others. However, the beauty of age and the wisdom you acquire (Hah! I know who am I to claim wisdom) is that sometimes you learn how to keep your opinions to yourself.

So here are some thoughts that I didn't share and some that I did.

Many people have said that sometimes love just isn't enough to keep a relationship alive. There is a lot of truth to that, especially if you don't like the person you love. But I think that if you are very lucky you have the kind of love that I hear described in Ring of Fire.

It is the kind of love that you can't quite describe. It is the love that takes your breath away and makes you willing to walk through fire for him/her. It is the kind of love that makes you act like a fool.

Some people might claim that what I have described is a young and immature love, but I don't necessarily believe that to be true. Sometimes a couple goes through hell and comes out the other side. Sometimes circumstances help to forge their love into something that just doesn't break.

Ring of Fire is one of my favorite songs. It has a quite a bit of meaning to me. Here are a number of different versions of the song.

Ring of Fire- George Canyon
Ring of Fire- Ray Charles
Ring of Fire- Social Distortion
Ring of Fire- Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson
Ring of Fire- Wall of Voodoo
Ring of Fire- Dilana
Ring of Fire- Dwight Yoakam
Ring of Fire- June Carter Cash
Ring of Fire- Coldplay
Ring of Fire- Lucy Kaplansky
Ring of Fire- Blondie
Ring of Fire- Leningrad Cowboys

Now as I have had these discussions with the boys I have had occasion to consider the times in which my heart has been broken. It has happened more than a few times. And each time it has happened I have gone through moments like those described below:

"No one knows what it's like to be the bad man
To be the sad man behind blue eyes
No one knows what it's like
To be hated, to be fated to telling only lies

But my dreams, they aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance that's never free

No one knows what it's like
To feel these feelings like I do and I blame you!
No one bites back as hard on their anger
None of my pain and woe can show through

But my dreams, they aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours only lonely
My love is vengeance, that's never free

When my fist clenches, crack it open
Before I use it and lose my cool
When I smile, tell me some bad news
Before I laugh and act like a fool

And If I swallow anything evil
Put your finger down my throat
And If I shiver, please give me a blanket
Keep me warm, let me wear your coat

No one knows what it's like to be the bad man
To be the sad man behind blue eyes"
Behind Blue Eyes- The Who

Behind Blue Eyes- The Who

I think that I'll end this post here. I may pick it up and write more in a bit.

Haveil Havalim #189- The Elections Edition

The best of the Jewish/Israeli Blogosphere, our weekly carnival is now live. You are cordially invited to check out Haveil Havalim #189 - The Elections Edition.