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There’s a story about an old man who lost a horse, and the series of events that followed can be interpreted as “good” or “bad” at first– but everyone’s early conclusions are wrong.  It’s an old story that will help me in the coming days, weeks, and months as I process my own reality and how I perceive it.  Big thanks to Byrle S. for telling me about Sai Weng Shi Ma.

“…They will dig up these ruins and make flutes of our bones and blow a hymn to the memory of the orphans of God.”

His red eyes can sear through the toughest gnat! His silver legs are faster than a ladybug on her way home to stop a fire! His metallic body is able to resist being squished by a human twice his size… but a human that small would probably be considered a freak of nature, and most likely be held captive by secret research scientists.

The visuals make it cosmic, the random glowing insects make it enchanting, the whistling gnomes playing banjos make it real.  This ‘Spacefolk Campfire Jam’ is another happy place for me.  It’s good music to have in the background, but if you want a real treat, watch the video for the fireflies.  Hello November!

Last week our neighbor, Barb, asked Jenny & I if we wanted to carve pumpkins before Halloween.  We said “Sure!”  I got carried away and said “and then we can watch ‘The Great Pumpkin’ together!’  There was a pause before she sighed, shrugged, and said “ok.”  It felt like she expected to sit in a sincere pumpkin patch and wait all night while all the other kids went trick-or-treating.  I guess my Charlie Brown TV traditions don’t appeal to everybody.  After we took these pics, Barb was a good sport and watched The Great Pumpkin with us.

I always thought that “rhetoric” was a word to describe other words that were being used to brainwash, fluster, and cloud the mind. I’m familiar with the phrase ‘that’s a rhetorical question,’ and I know I’m not supposed to answer literally or quickly. Earlier this year Robin Reames wrote a book, The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times.  It goes deeper into rhetoric, and I’m hungry to learn more about it. Thanks Carlos for taking this selfie and going on this journey with me.

If you don’t get the joke, click the link below to watch the video. Warren Zevon was recording cool riffs before Kid Rock was stealing them.  “You better stay away from him, he’ll rip your lungs out, Jim…”  –WEREWOLVES OF LONDON!

There were skeletons twice as tall as us, candles in the stairway with notes to our loved ones that we miss, mariachi music outside, and t-shirts to commemorate the event.  Jenny & I loved our time at the Day of the Dead celebration, and we have the smiles to prove it.

Even if he’d never played the rumpled cigar smoking (seemingly) absent-minded detective, Columbo, this would STILL be a great photo of Peter Falk.  I can imagine him falling asleep after sketching for hours, waking up and sketching some more, and only leaving his sofa/bed for food or thumbtacks to hang more sketches on the wall.