I have a really good friend who works for the Ohio Department of Transportation.  ODOT.  (Sidebar:  I think the acronym ODOT is one of the best ones ever.  I just like the way it sounds.  Oh Dot!)  Anyway.  He works for the them.

He called me last night.  He was very upset.  He cried and cried, but I finally got him to tell me what was wrong.

You see.

My friend was fired from his job at the road department for stealing.

But……

I have to say I saw it coming. The last time I was at his house all the signs were there.

“Lots of people pray for a sign.  But do they ever really see them?” – Psychic Dory Belle

A friend of mine recently visited the Creation Museum.  I think it is somewhere near the Cincinnati Airport.  Now, I hadn’t heard much about it, prior to my friend’s visit.  But now that I’ve heard some details, I am really itching to go.

It appears that we don’t have dinosaurs anymore, because they missed the boat.  Not just one set, but every dang set of dinosaurs.  At least, that is what my friend discovered at the museum.

I have a theory on this.

You see… Noah and his wife… I think her name was Marge…. loved to cook.  So Noah and Marge decided to charge the animals in “spices” to get on the boat.  A big basket of spices, or herbs, would buy you a ticket.  So the rabbits brought Dill Weed, and the penguins paid in Tarragon.  The squirrels gathered Rosemary (not Clooney), the mongoose found lots of Parsley…. and on an on.

The dinosaurs were all over the place in trying to decide what to bring.  So, they settled on gathering a wide variety of spices to pay their way.

And when they showed up for the trip.. they had a bit of this spice, and a bit of that… almost enough to fill a basket.  But… But in the end… it appears they ran out of Thyme.

Yes.  That is how I think it happened.  And of course, dinosaurs can’t swim.

The old saying goes….. Variety is the spice of life.  But not so much… in this case.

I promise not to go on and on about this.

But I have been affected greatly the past week, or so.  My life has been touched, again and again, with an outpouring of love and kindness.  From friends, family, acquaintances….  even dogs.

You see…. Each day I am stopped in my tracks, by some person’s gift from the heart.

I cannot thank you enough.  Every one of you.  It has meant a great deal to me.

And it continues.

Yep.  Tonight, when I got home from moving some furniture with my sibs, and a visit with my Mom… I stopped to open the mail.  I peeled back the flap of a bulky envelope.  Inside….  a hand made note… from a little girl with an incredibly kind heart.

I stood in the kitchen and cried.  For a hundred different reasons.

Oh. What a world we live in.
And how very lucky we are…. to experience its goodness and blessings.

Tonight, I think I shall write an enthusiastic letter, to my friend the Tooth Fairy…. on this young lady’s behalf.  Yep.  She’s got a big heart… but she is dropping teeth faster than a cheap comb.

“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” – Scott Adams

Food cravings are a bit of a mystery aren’t they?  All of us have experienced them at some point in our lives. I mean.  Who hasn’t been watching The Werewolf and Frankenstein Invade Syracuse, at 2 o’clock in the morning, and had an overpowering craving for a Limburger Cheese and Mayonnaise Sandwich?

That’s what I’m talking about.

I tried to research this a bit today, and most experts agree, Cravings can be caused by a number of things.  Yep.  The guys in the lab coats don’t have a pinpoint quite anywhere.    They say these reasons might include a hormonal imbalance (depression, irritability, or mood swings); or cravings due to attempted weight loss; or an adrenal imbalance  (stress, feeling anxious much of the time, bouts with  insomnia), etc.  Or it could be the House of Capricorn rising in Libra.

The medical and scientific articles go on and on about this holy crap.  I am not sure if any of it is right or wrong.  But one thing is for sure… today I had a serious, serious craving.

For carrots.  Yep.

Carrots.

Not just any carrots, but fresh, cooked carrots.  I bet I ate a pound of carrots today.  Freshly picked right from the produce section…. and lightly cooked.

Who knows why, really.  I mean, the Medical Industry has thrown speculation all over the place.  Their ability to avoid definitive answers is impressive…. to say the least.
But I have to ask the obvious.

What’s Up Doc?

“It is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.” – Gerard Patrick Roeling

Today I heard a beautiful Eulogy.  It honored an unselfish man…. one who was a Seeker of Peace.  A believer in Goodness and Equality.   But I cannot talk about that tonight.  Not really.  So.  Maybe some other time.

But  tonight, perhaps it is a good thing that I have a story about a lot of things.

Yes, there is probably not a day that goes by, that I don’t think of some little thing that has happened in my life, that I’d like to share with something.

I drove through my old neighborhood today.  I grew up in Dayton, Ohio.  I guess the section of town was called…. well….  do no know what it was called back then.  Today, I would call it dangerous.

But it was right near Shawn Acres Orphanage, just a bit north of downtown.  That neck of the woods. As I drove through…  I was reminded of the corner market store on Theodore Avenue.  We would go there for penny candy and orange sodas.  I saw the first garage-hub, where I started my afternoon newspaper route.    Lucille Connor’s house.  Strit’s.  Tuck’s.  Oh. The whole nine yards.  I saw the house where I used to beg the neighbors (a Lithuanian family) for Kugelis (Potato Pudding)… pretty much on a daily basis.

It all came back to me in a rush.

Yet, our old house, didn’t look at all the same to me.  Not one bit really.  But it holds an incredible amount of memories.  I mean… THAT many kids sharing THAT little bit of bathroom space.  Whew boy.  You are bound to make a bunch a memories there.

But the story I REALLY want to share is this.  When we were growing up, our parents instilled in us a sense of fairness and consideration when regarding others.  Love others.  Be kind.  We were taught to believe in Human Rights.   All people are created equal.  And the human rights movement was beginning to take hold during my youth.  When I was just a babe…. I told my Dad (I was an early talker)… I said … …. “Dad.  I am going to try and come up with a signal for solidarity among us common people.”  So one day, while sitting on his lap… I showed my new sign.  It stuck.  I started doing it everywhere.

Before I ate my Gerber’s Blueberry Brickle.  Or…. after my nap.   Anytime I was in a large group of people… I would throw up my saluting fist.

And look what happened.  Four years later….   Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a gesture of solidarity at the 1968 Olympic games. Both Americans were expelled from the games as a result.  But a least they made the statement.

Yes… just another little tidbit from my life…..  that I remembered today.

Rock on, my friends.  Rock on.

“What is true of every member of the society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals.” – Thomas Jefferson

Common occurrences seem to exemplify the bigger pictures in life.

There are little things which pop up from time to time.  It makes me want to say…. Holy Smokes.  Is that thing ever metaphorical, or what?

You know.  Like when someone plucks a fading dandelion from the ground… and proceeds to blow on it.  Then all the little swirly-gigs go floating through the air…. in every which direction.  They float up and away. They go all over the place.  All over.  Some of them travel out of sight, others land on the ground, and some alight on the tips of dogs’ noses.  Who knows.

Those Little-Big Pictures of Life come about any where.  Any time.

When you pass an old, long, stone wall… and there in the very middle… is a little green growth of leaves.  Right in the middle of nowhere.

It stops you in your tracks when you notice the beauty of it.

You say out loud.  “Holy Smokes.  How did that ever grow right there? I wonder why and I wonder how.”

There is no logical answer.  And you really didn’t expect to get one.  But you had to say it out loud regardless.

I wonder how and why.

“The few wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them.” – Charles de Lint

“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to” – John Ed Pearce

I know I have said it here before, but it bears repeating.  I’m not so crazy about the phrase “It is what it is.”

To that I say… “Wellllll…….  Is it?   And IF it IS what you think it is….. just how can you be so sure?”

To me, the better phrase might be:  We don’t know what we don’t know.

I am always reminded of something like The Land of Oz.  You know…. when Dorothy steps out of the wind swept house… and in to the land of lollipop flowers and toadstool houses.  Then it all goes…… from Black & White to Color.  And she looks at her little dog, and says… “Toto.  I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Oh.  You might be walking down the street tomorrow….. on the corner of Main and Maple….. and are absolutely sure about things like blue mailboxes, and traffic lights, and corn flakes…. you might even walk around saying “It is what it is.”   Then.  Suddenly,  you blink your eyes…. and  everything looks extremely different and foreign.  Like….   Yellow Brick Roads, and Flying Monkeys.  Poppy Fields.  Horses of Different Colors.  Scarecrows who can talk.

The Lollipop Guild serenades you.

And you are not quite sure what it is you should do next.

Yep.

Simply.  We don’t know, what we don’t know.  And we welcome you to Munchkinland.

Many of you know that my Father passed away, a little over a day ago.

This afternoon, someone asked me how old he was.  I said “He was 90.”

They responded… “Ninety?  That shouldn’t be so bad.  I mean, at that age, what do you expect?”

Well, at age 90, I then expect 91. And so on.   Because I loved my Dad, a lot.  I know we can’t live in our human bodies forever.

But no matter how many years you have with someone you love, you still experience an incredible emptiness when the leave.
The empty pit.  An ache.  A terrible void.  An abyss.

… …. … ..Just ask my Mom.

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” – C.S. Lewis

Oh, we are all looking for THE answer.  The secret of the universe.  The way of the world.  The reason “Why” of it all.

And who better than Mr. Smarty Pants to tell us.  Yep.  Here it is.  Today is the Anniversary of Albert Einstein’s Birthday.  There he was.  Born on March 14, 1879.   He died some 76 years later on April 18, 1955.

What a man he was.  Very smart.  Incredibly kind.   Extremely wise. (Albeit, not so faithful…)

Yet. The world has always wondered what his last words were.  But here is the whooping deal of it.

When Albert Einstein lay dying in a Princeton Hospital, the dang nurse assigned to him didn’t speak a lick of German.  And guess what Al’s native tongue was?  German.  And guess what people do when they die.  Well.  It depends on the person.  But Albert, old smart Albert, spoke his final words auf Deutsch.  (In German, the language of his birth).  So the great physicist’s last words have passed by without meaningful comprehension.

Until now.  You see, I just learned that the nurse said it sounded like Albert Einstein said “That side’s bitter.”  Well I know German.  And this one is easy-peasy.

That side’s bitter.  In German, that sounds just like… “Das Salz Bitte”

And that means… Pass the Salt Please.  Hmmmm.  Pass the Salt.  Puhhhhhlllleeeeeassssse.

And there you have.  The ways of the universe.  Explained.

Just as I suspected.

“I want to know God’s thoughts…the rest are details.” – Albert Einstein

…. And just like that.    He was gone.