We went to dinner tonight at one of my favorite restaurants on the island.  It is called Bombay.  Like the country, not the Gin.

At any rate, it is sort of this weird fusion of Indian Food and Chinese Food.  I am not crazy about Indian cuisine, but I love Chinese, Japanese, Thai. But here the two come together in a unique melding of combinations and flavors.

As I ate, I was thinking what a great collaboration of tastes, and foods.

So, we ate and ate.

Above and beyond that, the staff is funny, and great to be around, but they are not very good photographers…

You can NOT be all things…. to all people.  That is for sure.

Behind the place is a shell of a home, probably blown to bits by a storm in years past.

The lone stander……..  The commode.

And I am not sure what I am saying about any of this, because I am so tired tonight.

But we had a great day, surrounded with family and friends.  And finding this photo of the john on the slab, was like some kind of a super bonus.

We look, and we find.

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain

There is something about getting up at 3 a.m. to catch a plane… especially when you go to bed at 1 a.m. …. that kind of makes your mind wooly for the rest of the day.

I like to call it Fuzzy Brain.  You can almost feel it happening.  That very thin cap of fur which slowly encases the Cereberum…. when sleep has not visited.

And by days end… you find yourself standing in the middle of rooms, holding a ceramic owl in your hand…. and you are sure you don’t know why.  Or perhaps…. you turn on the TV and begin listening to the Spanish Channel… and suddenly… you think you understand.

That is what if feels like.  Oh…..Yep.  But I am not saying that I have that case of Fuzzy Brain… or anything.

Today was actually a pretty good day.  All and all.  Very full.  A lot of to and fro.  But best of all, great company.  In a great place.

Even though it rained in paradise when we landed.  The best part was… we landed.

And it might clear up in a couple of days.  But we are hanging with eachother.  And that is good.

Now….. if I could figure out where this dab nabbin’ owl came from…….

Today, someone asked me about a grammatical rule.  It was actually, the most commonly made grammatical error in English.  It’s the old …. ITS rules…..  whether or not an apostrophe is needed in a particular sentence.

But before I answered, I said… “Well, it’s the strangest thing.”

What a thing to say!   Of course it ISN’T the strangest thing.  The strangest thing might be Bigfoot, or Aliens in corn crops making freakish designs.   Or maybe even Chris Fultengocker, who was in my third grade class.   That kid was really weird.  Perhaps we think snails are strange.  Or ghosts.

But there is not a Law of the Land in this matter.  When it comes down to it, we all have different versions of what we consider “strange” or “normal.”  Some people think that being Gay is strange.  Other people find that the practice of Fundamental Christianity is weird.  And still others think Sara Palin, Matthew McConaughey, or The Beetles are peculiar and strange.   Like I said, there is not a single answer.

Yet.   How we respond to what seems “strange” to us is an entirely different matter.  Just because we think playing Cribbage is cool, others may find it completely odd.   How we behave towards others, who believe differently than us…… is paramount.

It is called a lot of things.  The “go-to” phrase is “Accepting Diversity.”  I call it being human.  I don’t know anyone who is smart enough to know everything about everything.  That would be like having a god among us.

No.  We are all humans.  Each of us has our high and low points….. our gifts and our faults.  With that being said….  I am not sure it is right to hold judgement on others.

Embrace the strange?  Hug the Yeti?  Not if you don’t want to.  But I think we should, at the very least, offer respect and understanding toward others.  I think in most cases…. that is how we expect others to treat us.

Yes, I think that displaying compassion, understanding, and deference toward our fellow humans is the best thing we can do.

Anything else….. would be…..just……  strange.

Or as the profound statement is going these days … ….  “Be Together.  Not Alike.”

We protect ourselves.  This is a huge part of life.
We have that precious part of us that we want to keep safe.  That little gem inside of us which is always…. “Right” and “Knowing.”

You see, today I was thinking about people changing their minds.

I wondered why changing our minds is often so difficult.  After all, everything is constantly changing.  And…. the world and our view of it….. are constantly changing.  There is never a circumstance which remains the same and static and motionless.

But why in the heck do we sometimes resist the fact that our responses might be subject to change.  How can they be forever locked in their origins?

Sometimes….. we seem to demand steadiness and consistency… that lethal stagnated static.  And we do this….  even when it makes no sense.  And most of the time…. WE like people to change their minds only when it benefits us.

A big part of this… could be…. I think…. that we get attached to answers like we do possessions.

Once we give someone an answer….. it is  no longer  just a little answer.  Once we have said it out loud…..  dag gone it…. it is OUR answer.  We’ve committed.  We now start becoming emotionally biased in favor of this incredible answer of OURS…. even if it isn’t quite on track.

IT seems we become very resistant to changing our minds because our answer has become part of who we are.   So… don’t question the answer… otherwise you are questioning me….. and this becomes a threat.

Well, dag nab it… today…. I am going to try to switch this up.  I’m going to realize that I am not always right.  None of us are.  And all and all and all of everything changes.  So it is okay… to change our minds.  It doesn’t make us weak.  Or wafflers.  It just makes us human.  And that is a good thing to be.

Tonight,  as I was leaving for an appointment, I was headed east, for a short period of time.  And I said to myself… “Holy Smackerels Polly.  That is one dang BIG orange ball in the sky!”  And it was.

The moon was epic tonight.  Actually, the moon is pretty epic every night.  It doesn’t change.  Just the light reflecting off the surface differs.  You know, the angles and such.

It is all very dependent on how earth is lining up with moon is lining up with sun.

Most people, on most nights, don’t even take notice of the moon.  But I like the freaky thing.

The Moon (or Luna) is the Earth’s only natural satellite.  And it is old…..about  4.6 billion years old.

Thankfully, the Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth meaning the same side is always facing the Earth.   Most people will never see the dark side of the moon.

But do you know what I think sort of stinks?  The Moon has only been walked on by 12 people…… all American males.  Not that there is anything wrong with American males…. it just seems wrong to me.  (Neil Armstrong was the first and Gene Cernan was the last.)

But, I digress.

This whole night I have been digressing.  So back to it.  As I looked up and saw that massive ball of orange and red up in the sky,…. the little trapdoors in my maze of a brain…. started snapping open and shut.

I went from seeing the moon, to thinking about Charlie Brown, and The Great Pumpkin… to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata… to mooning people in high school….  to Werewolves…. then on to Moon River….  and to my old neighbor named Moonie…. Moon Pies…. and on and on….. But my brain finally settled on this: “Why on God’s green earth did Michael Jackson name his famous dance “The Moon Walk”?

In all the footage I have seen …. of the 12 white American men who walked on the moon… None… NOT a ONE…. walked around backward grabbing his crotch… with sparkly white socks on.

And then… I heard a car horn.  An SUV was behind me… and the guy was waving his arms for me to get out of the way.  It appears I was a little lost in thought… pondering the mysteries of the Moon.

I smiled, waved, and made my left turn.  He hollered out the window… “Lunatic.”

And there you have it.  He knows one when he sees one.  Shine on, my friend.  Shine on.

Groundhog Day.  Another one has come and gone.

In my mind… Groundhog Day begs just one question:  “Why?”

Seriously.  Does anyone give this thing any credence?   It is merely a misguided superstition.   It has turned into a Freakish Circus of Interest.   You see…. the whole ball of wax got started on this day in 1887.   Of course it featured none other than  a rodent meteorologist.

The big celebration of this….. began at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania…. with a  furry dude named Phil. By a bunch of drunken Groundhog Hunters.

And.  According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow…. there will be six more weeks of winter weather.  Conversely….. no shadow means an early spring.  Oh yeah.  Makes perfect sense to me.

If people won’t believe in things like Wood Nymphs and Magic Faeries … why in the heck do they put water in the pail with this Groundhog thing?

GH Day is merely a superstition with tradition.   Superstitions come in many shapes and sizes.  The number 13… for instance. Most regard it as an unlucky omen.   The list is enormous….
A cat has nine lives
Eating fish makes you smart
Toads cause warts
A cricket in the house brings good luck
A rabbit’s foot brings good luck
To find a four-leaf clover is to find good luck
If you walk under a ladder, you will have bad luck
If a black cat crosses your path you will have bad luck
To break a mirror will bring you seven years bad luck
To open an umbrella in the house is to bring bad luck
To find a horseshoe brings good luck
Never shut a pocket knife someone else opened, they must shut it themselves…..

And of course… rodents seeing shadows….

Now, I don’t really buy into the whole superstition thing.

Although, I will say….  I rely on my Sock Monkey for some things…. which I like to call “Advice”….. they’re not really Superstitions.

Like…. on the morning right after a full moon, I watch my Sock  Monkey when he wakes up.  If he throws his Sock Monkey sheets to the left…. it means we should eat more Bleu Cheese.  But if he tosses his sheets back to the right… it indicates that I should put the utility bills in the mail.

And that is sound Sock Monkey advice.  Don’t ask me why.

Okay.  Maybe because my Sock Monkey has such awe-inspiring sheets.  The things dreams are made of.

Goldmines.  I’ll tell you.  Goldmines.

Tonight, it felt like being surrounded with nothing but treasure.  We had family over this evening, and all I can say is… “What Superbowl?”

Oh sure, we had the game on, and we kind of watched.  But the best part of the night… besides the pizza, and all the snacks….  and some of the commercials…. especially the one with the horses and the puppy….. was being with those wonderful people.

I know you get my drift.  So I won’t go on.  But it was golden.

I probably only saw about a quarter of the game, if that.  And only a couple of commercials.  But tonight, as I started making some of the snack-happiness-or-dervies, I pulled out a container of Kraft French Onion Dip.

Now… I have to tell you… somebody at Kraft must have thought they had a genius and awe-inspiring moment.  There, on the lid of the container… is a picture of a potato chip with dip on it…. and right beside that image… are the words…

…. ….. “Serving Suggestion”.

Yep.  Old Floyd Clemmens… he’s been with Kraft for nearly 3 decades… leapt from his desk one day… ran into Mr. Jenkin’s corner office, and announced … “I’ve GOT IT!  Let’s put the words Serving Suggestion right next to the picture of the chip with the dip on it.  Just in case someone doesn’t understand.”

Oh, nothing worse than the misunderstood Dip Container Lid.  Travesty.  Complete Travesty.

Which brings me to this.  Tonight was absolutely great, and happy, and fun.  But some parts of life aren’t so easy.  Some can be downright difficult, ambiguous, or even complicated.

At those times… wouldn’t it be great if our “Life Instructions” were printed clearly on the lid of things.  Our Serving Suggestions.  Those little clues about what we are supposed to do, or say, or think.  Yep.

Sometimes, life can feel a bit perplexing, and demanding.  At those times, I feel like I need a good Serving Suggestion.   At those times when I am either feeling like a Dip… or dealing with a Dip.

But tonight… we didn’t need a Serving Suggestion.  We had each other.

I don’t care about this Superbowl.
I bet a lot of you don’t either.
So I propose a Superbowl Challenge for anyone who reads this….
Consider donating $5 today to your local Homeless Shelter.

This may not be as exciting as the mass appeal of the Superbowl.
It will pay for a different kind of bowl.
Perhaps A Super Bowl of Soup.

And now… my gift to you… a tribute to the Ball.

Boy, I hope he doesn’t drop the ball.

Let’s get the ball rolling.

That’s the way the ball bounces.

No…. That’s the whole ball of wax.

But, the ball is in your court.

Well, give me a ballpark figure.

Oh, I’ll just eyball it.

Nonetheless… I had a ball.