Trainride Of The Enigmas
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
The Funambulist
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
in progress
I don't know what to do with this post; don't know what to title it. Over the past week it's been a blank draft page labeled "in progress" but I am brave and foolish enough to proceed at random. Let's look at photos. These are Normaphotos of her kitchen counter. I'm behind the silver teapot on the right. My glasses are on the table, so you can't see me.
I don't know how this 2nd photo got in there but getting persistent pop-up declaring "update failed". It's another Normaphoto so I'll leave it because, for some reason, I can't knock it off the draft. Anybody else having this problem?
Monday, December 7, 2020
The Enigma of Incoherence
There are times when I am needed --when one appliance, waterpump, vehicle, toilet or another is churning in disrepair. My talent with such events is mirific. I excite wonder and astonishment among relatives. They mainly leave this hick alone. However, a wooden fence I built 40 years ago recently showed signs of wear. It ran about 90 feet down our lane back to the barn I built 35 years ago. Norma wanted to rebuild it. Because I too was churning in disrepair, I suggested she hire it done. She emailed her brother, Bill:"The fencers are here planning to fence all morning!"
Bill replied, "En garde!"
I sure like Bill.
Saturday, November 7, 2020
Ensemble and Job Safety!
It is not Spot. Don is an early 21st century gift from a beloved occupational-safety consultant. Despite my having retired from gardening public places in 2009, we have kept this outfit. As a wearable collection of hinges, levers, inclined planes and other safety devices it is unparalleled. I should have worn it oftener.
Friday, October 16, 2020
Looking For Answers Above
The enigma of mind that seeks information and guidance above and beyond one's own perceptions puzzles me. I try to reply to such questions with respect, compassion and rely on what suave elocution a man of my age ought to have.
"Duh, hamina hamina hamina." I reply suavely. Then Norma sends me a photo:
It's as if we are in submarines, needing to see what's on and over the surface. We want periscopes. Cats already have them.There are admittedly some puzzles we can solve with guesswork and logic. Example: What is the chief commercial export of the Arctic?
Frozen fish, of course.
But other questions need Science: like what happens when sunlight strikes an atmosphere of water, methane, ammonia, in combination with molecular hydrogen and atomic helium floating around a rockbound planet?
Why, it causes Uranus to turn blue.
For all other speculation, spiritual and otherwise, I confidently refer readers to one of my favorite C&W performers, Slim Whitman:
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Mysterious Movements Afoot!!
There are mysterious movements afoot! They are social, political, individual and seldom, if ever, addressed by news media. Surely we have all seen this sign protesting road work:
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When I was young, we used to contract dinosaurs to discourage unfair excesses of highway maintenance. It worked until their tails fell off and their teeth grew to where I couldn't tell them from relatives. It's getting rather late and I ought to include at least one more event anent this subject. It is a demonstration conducted by strangely-dressed foreign people concerning Baron Geo.-Eugène Haussmann's 1853 urban renewal program in Paris. He retired in 1870 after snapping the curly streets straight but the work wasn't complete until the 1920s --which, as we were all taught in grammar school, touched off the French Revolution in 1789.
Their sign reads, of course, "END ROAD WORK!!!!!"Strange thing (enigmatic thing even) is I approve of road work. I mean people are safer without potholes and but sometimes I have to try looking at the other side of a thing and...well, it's getting on to 2 a.m. and I need to go to bed. Anybody else going nuts in quarantine?
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Devil In The Details
I don't begrudge this confusing feature. I accept surreality, and yes reality , even though I don't always approve of it. A detail. Let us consider another detail: paper towels and the 20th century:
Caption: He's one of the few physicists who has
conceptualized Black-hole Theory:
I drew this on a paper towel many years ago --during my 1/2-hour lunch break at someplace I worked, possibly in the early 1970s. It may easily be the last surviving paper towel of the 20th century. I never made a fair copy of this doodle to submit to a periodical, as I sometimes did. It is just a detail.
Then there's the big detail of the California sky. It has been brown again, very brown. It turns brown every summer and every fall brings out a tremendous amount of painters and scaffolding. Here is a photo over the Vineyard:
It usually consumes 8 or 9 months for crews to get the sky blue again, but this summer's been bad. Could take 2 or 3 coats. So our taxes go up. Small price to be penniless under blue sky.
Point is, Brain sometimes yields a pleasant, fun memory or constructive fantasy, even in these hard times. It's Brain's way of saying, "Just details. We got this." Don't forget to thank your Brain when that happens.