Sometimes Life Can Be Very Interesting

Just When You Thought...

Who knew? (photo credit-email from Jo Anna)

When I got an e-mail from Jo Anna that explained that there is a tab on the end of foil and other wraps to secure the roll, I went to the kitchen to see for myself. I couldn't believe that I was so unobservant! All these years of the roll falling out, unraveling across the floor, me rolling it back up, stuffing the crumpled mess back in the box, and not once did I ever look on the end and see there was a lock to keep the roll in place.

I am glad I'm not the only one.
I sent the e-mail to Marian, (celebrating 89 years last month), and she hadn't known about it either!

Great Month in the Night Sky

Just before dawn on February 22, look to the east.

Tonight as I was headed to the store around 6:30, there was a dramatic hail storm that accompanied lightning and thunder. It was fun. When I came out with my bag of food, it was raining very lightly. While walking to the Buick, I looked up toward the western sky, and there was Venus, brightly shining through the clouds and rain.

To quote Joe Rao, (Space.com); "If you ever wanted to see a planet so bright it will take your breath away, this is your week and Venus is the planet."

I cant remember a time when I have seen Venus as bright and eye grabbing as I have in the last few weeks. I am glad to find out that it is that way for others, as well. It should be perfect for valentines evening. As my Dad would say to Mom at times like this; "I ordered this brightly shining Venus just for you dear."


Penguins Move With Food

"Did you pack my tuxedo?"

From a Discovery News article by; Emily Sohn.

Their prey, which includes squid, anchovies and other small fish, have moved north. So, the birds are now swimming an average of 60 km (37 miles) further to get food for their young, Dee Boersma reported last year in the journal BioScience. Chicks are often left hungry for up to two weeks. Many don't make it.

These findings suggest the need for a major shift in the way we think about protecting penguins, as well as other marine creatures, said conservation biologist Dee Boersma, of the University of Washington in Seattle.


Another Crash Landing

British Airways flight BA8456 from Amsterdam with 67 passengers and four crew on board crash-landed at London's City airport. All 67 passengers were evacuated safely although four people were slightly injured according to the London ambulance service. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters

Cute Coal Video

Parody of anti-global warming ads...See it HERE

More About Space Junk

Space junk surrounding the Earth

I was reading an article about 8 strange pieces of space junk we have circling our planet, (http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/spacestuff.html ), and the one that caught my eye was, Pee!

6. Pee
Over the years, most of the urine produced by astronauts has been simply dumped overboard. Once pee hits the cold vacuum of space, it quickly freezes into tiny crystals which then float around as debris. (Astronauts have described watching urine being released into space as one of the most beautiful sights in orbit). Recently, however, a new pee-recycling system was brought up to the International Space Station to turn urine into drinking water, cutting down on the pee debris.

Good picture of the space station

"Is That You, Joe?"

I was ready to go to sleep early on this Valentines Day-night, and after answering a couple of phone calls, I turned out the light, said goodnight to God and Chrissy,got the covers and pillow just right, and dozed off. At some point, I came to the surface with the thought,"I bet I could find Joe Shamwell using Google search."

"That's true", I said back to myself. "But, I am sure it can wait until the morning, it feels really good here in bed. Let's go back to sleep."

My inner dialogue continued as I tried to reclaim my soothing slumber, until I finally compromised by bringing my laptop to bed so I would be all set to go back to sleep after I checked to see if I could find an address for Joe. I found 2,090 results on Google, but I soon realized we wouldn't be doing a lot of e-mailing...

Songwriter and radio broadcaster Joe Shamwell dies at the age of 62

(October 18, 2006) ABC Radio/Washington, D.C. research director Joe Shamwell died in his sleep Tuesday (Oct. 17). He was 62. Before joining ABC Shamwell was research director for crosstown Howard University urban AC WHUR/Washington.





Joe was my friend and co-songwriter back in Jackson, Mississippi.

When I was doing my radio show on WJDX-FM in 1968, he was doing his show on WOKJ. We would get together and listen to music, write songs, and share as much as we could of our black and white cultures. When Fred Mitchell and I built Jackson Sound Studios, one of my productions was an album that I co-wrote with Joe called, "Natural Blackness".

I noticed that all the sites were using the same biography of Joe, and that it was wrong. I found one site that encouraged additions and corrections and I did my part to set the record straight. If it was Joe who contacted me in my dream state, was that what he wanted, or is there more to this than getting the historical record straight?

Thanks for waking me up, Joe.
I remember great times we shared as young idealists in Jackson.

Speaking of Google

My Humor page theme

I have many Google products that make my computer life easy.

iGoogle is like a Home Page portfolio. I have collections of, "gadgets", (also known as widgets), that display information, pictures, videos, mailboxes, newspapers, etc. in small boxes that I collect and arrange on pages with names like; Home, Chico-Redding, News, Humor, Technology, Art, Music and more.

This gives me the ability to quickly scan hundreds of items, in specific catagories, for something that I might find interesting. I can then read the story, hear the song, watch the video, look at the pictures, digest the information and comment, act upon, or respond in someway to many of this worlds marvels I might otherwise have missed.

Some of Google's stuff is just for the Mac, and some is just for Windows, but most of what they have, (and it's alot), works on both operating systems. I love this stuff.

Todays Relatively Appropriate Song;
Sabre Dance
-Vanessa Mae

Happiness

Intuition and Instinct

Intuition is knowing. ( Me )
Sometimes referred to as a sixth sense or second sight.
Intuition is the act by which the mind perceives the agreement or disagreement of two ideas. When using only intuition, the truth of the proposition is immediately known right then, the moment it is presented. This is without the intervention of other ideas or deductive reasoning. ( Wikipedia )

Full Buck Moon and Jupiter 7/18/08
This evening as I was starting to write about instinct and intuition, I went out on my balcony to meditate and collect my thoughts. When I saw the moon, I knew if I took a picture, I would be glad later. At the same time, I knew the picture I was seeing in my mind would not be taken until 4:00 in the morning. My intuition told me I would wake up around 4 and go out on the balcony to take a moon picture. Could it have been instinct that woke me at the right time?

Full Buck Moon 7/18/08

During a sunset in May, I looked to the east and saw Mt. Lassen glowing in the last rays of the suns direct light and took this picture by holding the binocular eyepiece against the lens on my camera. It was hard to keep the image in the viewfinder because the tiniest shake would put the lenses out of alignment.

Mount Lassen through one side of binoculars

I am still looking for a good way to attach my binoculars to the camera. A piece of rubber tubing would work, but so far all I have found was expensive radiator hose. One day I will see just what I need and I will intuitively know it will be perfect.

Instinct is doing without knowing. ( Me )
Sometimes referred to as a natural tendency or compulsion.
Instinct is the inherent disposition of a living organism toward a particular behavior. Instinctual actions have no learning curve, they are hard-wired and ready to use without learning. Instincts are inherited fixed action responses or reactions to certain kinds of stimuli. ( Wikipedia )

Sometimes people will say, "Trust your instincts", when in fact they are referring to your intuition. To trust requires the use of a higher brain function and instinct operates without thought. So you would actually be trusting your intuition to know that the stimuli for an instinctive behavior is imminent and the result will be benificial.

Intuition is more of a perception than a behavioral action. Instinct is more like automatic behavior, but not necessarily a reflex. A reflex would be sneezing or other involuntary acts.

Intuition tells me I should explain the Buck Moon, for those who haven't read some of my earlier posts. The Algonquins and other tribes had names for the moon related to events that would annually occur during a particular month. In July, a buck's antlers would begin to show as they pushed out from the deers forehead. This moon is also called the Thunder Moon for the many thunderstorms that would occur each July. It is sometimes called the Hay Moon. Instinct is me wanting to lie down and sleep now.

Chris and I say goodbye

What a gift

Two weeks after Chrissy was killed, we were given the gift of seeing each other.

She was sitting in an easy chair, wearing a blue shift and surrounded by a sea of white. She seemed bewildered as she looked around our room, until she saw me. The instant we looked in each others eyes, I could sense her relief at seeing me. She understood what was to become, and let me know she would be alright now that she knew what was happening. She had been confused by the circumstances of her demise and needed to see me to help her understand. We normally communicated with our own form of esp in life, and so it was during this visit that we "spoke" volumes without uttering a single word.

She let me know she was alright and was glad we were having an opportunity to say goodbye. She comprehended what was happening to her and could now proceed peacefully to what ever was next. My broken heart wanted me to go to her and leave this empty world behind, but when I made a move to join her, she dissolved.

I am not the kind of person who believes in visions or apparitions. I still find it ridiculous that people will make a shrine to a tortilla with the face of Jesus toasted on it's surface. I try to be open to the idea that the emperor has new clothes, but all I ever see is the naked truth and a bunch of delusional nitwits. I have had some pretty vivid hallucinations on LSD, but my moment with Chris was not like a hallucination. When we saw each other it was as real as this moment by the river as I write with this #2 pencil. What we experienced was not drug, alcohol, or dream induced.

I was blessed to spend 16 years living with and caring for my,"other half". She was as open and loving as I was stoic and cynical. Together we radiated a powerful force of goodness that attracted people like moths to a flame. Chris was my purpose in life. She was the other half of me that I had spent my life searching for. It took me several meaningful relationships, 3 divorces, and at least a hundred one night stands to find her, but she and I knew when we were introduced and looked in each others eyes, that our search was over. We had finally found each other.

During our 16 years together, we never had an argument or an unkind thought toward each other. The only time we were unhappy was if we were apart for more than a couple of hours. One time, in our first year together, her folks took her up to Richmond for a visit. We were miserable the whole 2 or 3 days until we were back together. We would never be separated again.

The night before she was run over and killed, we made plans to go to Richmond to pick up our new van. Chrissy's mother and family had picked out and purchased a mini van with a wheelchair lift for us. We were looking forward to the good gas mileage and the lift would take some of the strain off my deteriorating back. Our present van was an 84 dodge that got 10 miles to the gallon, city or highway. I would lift Chris out of her chair and set her on the passenger seat. Then I would place ramps up to the van to drive her chair inside. When we would get to where we were going, I would pull out the ramps, roll out the chair, lift Chris out of the van and set her in her chair.

I loved doing this. She would wrap her arms around my neck and hold on tight as I carried her from one place to another. It felt so good. I never tired of holding and carrying her, and we would do this several times each day. In the year 2000 I injured my back, and it further damaged an existing problem that I didn't know I had. I became a member of the chronic back pain club. Physical therapy only caused more damage and an operation couldn't help replace the insulation that had been scraped off my sciatic nerve by bone spurs. So the new van would have a lift.

We spent our last evening planning a shake down cruise to Las Vegas, (She loved it there.), we talked about how we would spend the next 16 years, went to bed, made love and dreamed of the wonderful future awaiting us.