This was a great learning day today.  I love to discover new things…  or in some cases, “knew things”… it depends.  Oh…. I am still filled with a great deal of angst.   But a little bit of optimism squeezed its way in. So today, I learned.

The first one, I already knew, but I reminded of it again and again…. ALL day long.

I have some pretty amazing, and extremely wise friends.  Yes, I received a lot of little messages and emails from people today.  Thank you for each, and every one.  My heart was touched time and again.

I also learned that the Universe …. or God.. or the Higher Power sends us messages (it makes no difference what you call your Spiritual Guidance (if you have one) … but I think we are capable of finding awareness through our Spiritual connections).

So. Tonight, I had dinner with a good friend.  We ate at a Chinese Restaurant.  It was a great sharing experience, a terrific meal and conversation.  And at the close of things, we received our Fortune Cookies.  I let him pick first.  Then I opened mine.  The message: “The person who will not stand for something, will fall for anything.”

Yup. Yep. And Uh-Huh.  Okay.  Got it.  Loud and Clear.  I’ve been Noggin-Knocked.  I can hear you now.

So tonight, I shall share some of the other things I learned today.  Not nearly as profound as my head-butt. Yet, pretty snappy, none-the-less.

The first cow to ride in an airplane was a gal from Elm Farm.  Her name was the same as my dogs. Ollie.  All of this happened in 1930. Milk she gave in-flight was sealed in containers and parachuted down over St. Louis.  I don’t know why they drop shipped the dairy products.  But.. I think this may have been the first milkshake.

Speaking of things dairy.  Who doesn’t love Ben & Jerry’s?  But here is the deal.  (I bet after reading this… I have a lot of friends who wouldn’t mind being pigs tonight.)  The waste from the Ben & Jerry’s factory is given to farmers to feed their hogs. The hogs apparently love Cherry Garcia but dislike Mint Oreo.  There is no word on Chubby Hubby, or Mud Pie.

Did you know Ben & Jerry’s is Headquartered in Vermont?  Did you also know that women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth… in the state of Vermont.  “Honey… can I put my Chompers in now?”  (Don’t even go there.)

Here is a thing to behold. Slow and steady wins the race… the sleepy-time race.    Snails can sleeps for three years.  Dream on.

And finally… yet, not least by any means…..

The Barcolo Manufacturing Company of Buffalo, New York, started the American tradition of the office “coffee break.” In 1902 they offered free coffee to their employees in order to boost morale.  (They made a diverse range of things… mattresses and box springs to summer lawn furniture, to a complete line of drop forged hand tools and special parts.)   I don’t think they make anything now.

But I am glad they made the coffee break.

So… now that this little coffee break is coming to a close…..   here is the long and short of it.

When you think all is lost… remember… stranger things have happened.

Cows fly.  Pigs eat ice cream.  And.  Nobody dreams like a snail.