Chance and Luck

Just when I was getting a good start on worrying about kiddo moving to Europe, where there's a terrorist behind every tree and other perils I have yet to imagine, a building blows up in the town where she lives now.
Down the street from her house. Gas leak. Five people missing at first report. One person confirmed dead.

Poor mother's nerves. I'm going to end up looking like that cat.

I wonder if a nerve tonic would help?

I suppose this proves, the futility of worry. Worry about this, and that will sucker punch you to the floor.

Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of grief you endured
From the evil which never arrived.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thursday Thunks

This is a fun meme.

1. This cat - scary or cute?

Scary. Poor thing looks ill.

2. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes reproducing again. Good idea or don't care?

I think NASA should put Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston in a rocket and shoot them toward Alpha Centauri.

3. Do you smile at strangers when you make eye contact?

Yea, unless I'm in New York.

4. What percentage of your sarcasm isn't really sarcasm at all?

Since I am no longer a teenager, I am no longer sarcastic.

5. If you were to be a dog breed, which breed would you be?

I'd want to be a terrier so I could do whatever I wanted.

6. Go grab the closest book. Open up to page 27. Whats the 4th sentence?

1. the distant past. 2. an object from the distant past.

7. When's the last time someone put one over on you, told you a story that you totally fell for when it wasn't anywhere near true?

oy. This happens all the time because I never expect anybody to be up to anything, and as one of my EMT partners told me recently, they always are.

8. Ever seen Michael Jackson in person?

ick. Alert NASA, one more passenger for the annoying celebrity mission to Alpha Centauri.

9. Do you have a gut?

I beg your pardon.

10. What is one thing in your kitchen you have too many/too much of?

Dust bunnies.

11. Ever had a colon cleansing?

On purpose, no. Those accidental ones caused by bad Mexican food, yes.

Straight to Video

I heard about this film a year ago because a friend's daughter worked in the costume department. At the time, I thought, this one's gonna be good.

This week on Box Office Mojo, I see it went straight to video. How did that happen?

Rented and watched it last night. Screenwriters, if you want to see an example of episodic and why that's bad, this is the film to watch.

In The Electric Mist With The Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke is a beautiful book.

The film's a vehicle carrying a lot of talent going no where.

Alas.

Absence Breaks The Heart

I used to live across the street from a cow pasture. My kitchen table stood beneath a window, so I would gaze upon cow life while I had breakfast.

Seasons were divided by activity instead of weather for my bovine neighbors. Winters spent gravid. Spring, birthing the next generation. Summer, youngsters growing fat. Autumn, weaning and separation.

Autumn was worst.

Calves rounded up and trucked away. Mothers spent night and day, pacing the fence, bawling for what they had lost.

Eventually, mother cows moved away from the fence, slipping into the cycle repeat. Winter arrived to be spent gravid, and on and on.

When kiddo moved away to attend college, she occasionally asked, how was I doing with the change?

I told her, I am still at the fence.

Eventually, I moved on, ordering my year differently.

Kiddo has just been accepted into graduate school in England.

Suddenly, I’m back at the fence.

Moooooo.

Poppets

I heard about them from Fond of Snape. Took a look for myself, and was enchanted.

Poppets are the work of artist Lisa Snellings, and there is just something about them.

They go places.

And look at things.

This one gave kiddo a nightmare.

Proving what they say, poppets are sweet and a little bit creepy.