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It’s weird, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard someone say “these are weird times.” When things get really weird I tend to burrow in and find comfort where I can. What are my comfort zones? They are the happy places in my head where I can sort of escape reality. They are the arcade games and MTV videos in my lounge. They are the American Top 40 Countdowns from the 80′s that play in the background while I pay bills online. They are the podcasts that I listen to while doing dishes or driving around the metro.

Jenny and I have been spending more time in front of the chimenea lately. It just feels healthier than watching TV. The cracking, popping, and flicker of the flames is almost hypnotic. Wednesday night she said “No two fires are the same. They’re sort of like snowflakes. Each one is different.” 

“When May the 4th (Be With You) and Cinco de Mayo fall on quarantine.” That was the caption for this image that Chrisy Mull posted on facebook. It made me laugh out loud. This poor compadre doesn’t even have Chewbacca by his side!

Last week I finally did it. I made a breakfast that could eat itself. I didn’t know that a sausage patty could come back to life like that. It stopped chomping long enough for me to take a picture. The weirdest part was how it made the “wokka wokka” sound with each bite.

Back in 8th grade I drew a cartoon with cowboys and indians for the junior high newspaper, Moccasin Prints. THE WEST IS THE BEST was written on one of the comic panels, and my friend, Melissa West, said “I like that caption!” Well here we are 40 years later (sigh!) I’ve waited long enough. I can use that caption again for THE EPILOGUE CABIN featuring Melissa West!

Tuesday’s crossword puzzle had some pretty good puns in it. I can’t always tell if the pistons in my brain are firing when I wake up, but if I can figure out the answers to a New York Times’ crossword clue after Monday (they get harder each day of the week), I know the gears are starting to turn. Here are the ones I laughed at on Tuesday:
Where did the sitcom writers meet? TV reception
Where did the mathematicians meet? Trig function
Where did the pharmacists meet? Medicine ball
Where did the Google employees meet? Search party

The next guest on THE EPILOGUE CABIN said she was grounded most of her teen years. Melissa West talked about her memories of Seneca and about how she looks at life now. She also brought up some stories from high school that were clear to her but cloudy to me– and then she went on a rant because she wasn’t one of the first guests on the show.

Nostrils flared. Birds flew. All of a sudden the air was filled with the sounds of monkey screeches, lions roaring, and a Tarzan yodel. My neighbors were probably wondering how Kitch could make all those sounds while hanging on my jungle gym yesterday… at least that’s what I imagined would happen after he texted me and asked if he could drop by and swing on my monkey bars.

Sometimes I feel like a hunter/gatherer when I leave the house and say “I’m going out for provisions!” There’s something primal that stirs in me… like a caveman who is going to kill a woolly mammoth… or a Hopi tribesman praying to a rain god for a good corn harvest– but who am I kidding? My provisions don’t include animal hides or a tribal dance. I just need enough protein, dairy, roughage, and audio enhancements to get through the week.

Yep. You read that right. Those are live fish on the back of a motorcycle. This was the 2020 grand prize winner of a photo contest in Smithsonian magazine. Before we owned a washer I used to strap down an army duffel bag full of dirty laundry and ride 150 miles to my mom’s house. This guy in Hanoi has way more balance than I ever did. According to the article in Smithsonian “sights like this will soon be a thing of the past: Hanoi is planning to ban motorbikes by 2030 to cut down on traffic and pollution.” The photographer, Jon Enoch, says his next project will be in India where he will capture images of “cotton candy sellers on the beaches of Mumbai.”