Desperation


I been wukin’ on de railroad
All de live-long day;
I been wukin’ on de railroad
Ter pass de time away.
Before dawn last month a skunk crawled out from under the fence and made me spill my coffee. Our cat Biscuit went right toward it but stopped short & stood his ground – lesson learned from a previous encounter.
I immediately blocked that dirt tunnel with bricks to stop another from weaseling its way into our yard again.
It’s not that the pungent mammal is unwelcome in our backyard. I’m only thinking of Biscuit and his short-term memory. One faceful of spray may not have been enough for him.
Personally, I get along well with skunks. We hold mutual respect & admiration for each other.
Ride we had planned to take last year.
My biking buddy and I were stretching the concept of aging. We were trusting our instincts to keep us out of cars’ way, and pushing forward in terms of distance, testing our survival chances one way & another.
“To a biker the sensation is real and pure and akin to something spiritual: you seek, and on the road you find.”
Caroline Knapp
EDGAR
Come on, sir. Here’s the place. Stand still.
How fearful and dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air show scarce so gross as beetles.
GLOUCESTER
Set me where you stand.
King Lear (Act 4, scene 6, by Shakespeare)
Hard hats and wet boots make for safe work on a weekday morning.
One character announces, “We’ll probably have to work all night on this presentation.” Another character replies, “That’s brilliant! Use inefficiency to make procrastination look like martyrdom!”
Dilbert Cartoon
Found this diagram in some library book.
Re: “termite castle” culture – Swarms of termites build castle-like structures without supervision or a centralized plan. Working independently without communication or a leader, they proceed using environmental cues.
Back in 2012, as we drove south on the Mulligan Hwy in Australia and got down on the valley floor, we must have passed thousands of little termite castles.
Unfortunately, my environmental cues were not strong enough to make me stop the car and take a picture of any of those many interesting insect homes. Not one closeup photo; sad.
Mulligan Highway
Everlasting Impressions of Australia
16 photos · 11 views
“Then came the Autumne all in yellow clad …“
“Then came October full of merry glee …”
The Faerie Queene (1590) by Edmund Spenser
Suffer no exceptions to the program, and maintain momentum. It’s critical to know what motivates, how to push that extra mile.
Stick to a regimen. To stay engaged, new challenges are needed. Repetition or comfort means it’s time to find a new target for one’s energy.
Garry Kasparov