"The gentleman and his wife have been reunited"

We had a missing person today for about two minutes. An elderly man, 76 yrs old, wearing a blue shirt. His wife said he went down the trail to go on a boat tour and hadn't come back up yet.

One of the rangers replied back saying that he had been on her boat tour and he was walking up with her just then.

Once they reached the top the ranger radioed in, "The gentleman and his wife have been reunited".

And I thought that was a very nice thing.

Fall things worth taking note of:

1. Auburn leaves
2. Earl Grey tea
3. Old fashioned books
4. Knitted sweaters
5. Comfy socks
6. Rumbling thunder from billowy clouds
7. Birdsong before and after storms
8. Crisp air
9. Nostalgia
10. Apple picking
11. Pie baking
12. Cider pressing
13. Instrumental music
14. Soft blankets
15. Poofy pillows
16. Leaf pressing
17. Exploring old haunts
18. Late afternoon walks
19. Silent thoughts
20. Hugs
21. Journaling

Hump Day

In unbecoming annoyance, she sat and looked forward.
Behind her sat the day,
Hot and contrasty, longish.

What she wanted was the sun.
What she wanted was the water.
Bliss: what she wanted.

Responsibility held her,
Like a massive spider web;
It held her and it choked her, and it told her what to do.
And she frowned,
Bared her teeth, but said "yes".

For she chose it.
It did not choose her.

Every bird cry was her own.
It sang her her soul, her mood, her anxiousness.
It whistled them down the lane and into the brook and under that sheet of metal,
That rusty sheet of metal that's been there for the summer long.

This day tasted like mango.
It felt like fiberglass.
It looked like what a normal day does.

She wrote it down because she was inspired.
People inspired her.
They "lifted her up",
They "gave her motivation"
They, he, did these things through words.
So in words did she give thanks.

33 minutes till a certain kind of freedom.
32 minutes till a Blazer game
31 minutes till a bathroom break
30 minutes till: radio on, window down, belt the Country Current Hits
29 minutes till a fresh cup of coffee? No.
28 minutes till the family says "hi!" and she says "hello" and drags her things down the flights of steps
27 minutes till she contemplates Pj's or normal clothes?
26 minutes till

Ah hell!

Boss walks down the hall.
Body becomes silent, rigid,
Professionalism: "Yes, have a lovely evening. Still working on that project. Results soon!"

Wednesday - ya ol' lump of difficulty.
Ya ol' lump of partial glee and half disappointment.
Bless you, you hateful thing.

Horses of courses

This happens approximately every six months. Or perhaps every spring. Either or both.

I fall in love with horses.

You'd think I would just go through a little phase, but naw... it comes back time and time again. I don't own a horse. But I know plenty of people who do. Is it abusing our friendship if I ask to come over regularly next summer just so I can ride their horses?

Oh poop. They won't mind...

Sitting on this desk is a half a cup of cold coffee, a textbook opened with the best intentions and ignored with the greatest success, and a notebook with a long, scribbly list featuring, precisely, one thing crossed off.

Sitting on my mind is "It's scary how easy it is to worship people", "I wish work was done", and "Gosh I miss New Zealand".

One tab at a time

Nope. Not talking about bar tabs. Although...I should probably cut those down too. ;)

Today I hopped on the computer to pull up my blog, and immediately after opening a new browser and typing in my blog address I opened a new tab for Facebook, a new tab for Gmail, and a new tab for Twitter.

I then had four tabs up and I clicked back and forth between them for about 5 minutes; waiting for one thing to load as I looked at another for 30 seconds. After those 5 minutes passed I paused and lifted my fingers off the keyboard. I couldn't remember why I had got on the computer. Oh - right! My blog. I quickly scanned my tabs for the title, clicked on it, then paused again.

What the heck, I thought...why do I have so many tabs open? This is so distracting. I can't focus on my blog like this.

So I closed each tab until I had my blog open on one page. And then I focused.

-

If you think I'm going to turn this little story into a life lesson, you would be right.

Too many tabs open  - nothing gets done. Or, more specifically, nothing gets done well. At some point what I thought was excellent multitasking become just poor concentration skills.

I'm for damn sure that I don't want to be mediocre good at lots of things and super-duper good at nothing. I don't want lots of little friendships and no few great ones.

At a gradual rate I began allowing myself to believe that more at once was better than one at once. No more of that.

One tab at a time, young'n. One tab.