Picture and Story 7

To the reader perhaps this picture just looks like a goofy collection of interesting looking people with bad hair. To me, its family. With bad hair.

A few things jump out at me immediately when I see this. Firstly, anything even remotely related to air travel is a sort of sleeping pill for me. I get on a plane, I fall asleep. I get near a plane, I fall asleep. I go to the airport to see my mom and dad off on a trip…I fall asleep. In this picture- sound asleep. I even threw in the “bed head” look for full effect.

Michelle and her sister are proudly exhibiting their best hair of 1995, while little K appears to be frightened and seeks escape from the big hair monsters on her mom and aunt’s heads.

Mom was into the Brillo look at the time, while my sister Carla appears to have the most timeless hair of the group. What woman can ever go wrong with flowing unmade hair? It seems that would be the cut of choice when you know you will be in pictures that are meant to last a lifetime (graduations, marriages, sitting at airport gates, etc).






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Carnivore Love

I read this article about Vegans swearing off relationships with Carnivores with great joy and laughter.


Apparently we are seen by them as nothing more than a reorientation of the dead animals consumed.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/AAMB4/aamsz=300x44_MULTILINK/4147483a6009.html

If Carnivores are a dead animal carcass in their eyes, I would assume that a Vegan would be a compost pile.






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Christina

An old friend passed away last night. Michelle knew her first- from youth group in the church where we met. Christina’s father was the pastor, but that didn’t stop her from being real. As in real funny, real goofy, real sweet.

Michelle and I never kept up with her over the years…until recently when we got news of her terminal illness. She was expected to live until about Christmas. The news of her passing arrived in an email this morning.

I realized I don’t have any pictures of Christina that I can easily find. There is this one I took of her in my B&W photo days, but she deftly avoided the camera with a swift duck and swoop of the hand. I am sure I will find others over the next year as I scan all of our old photos to our network.

This life is so fragile. So swift it moves by. It does not seem real sometimes.






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Now We Know: Cowkillers

We discovered a new bug-neighbor last summer running at a fast clip across our driveway.

Its kind made a sudden appearance again just a few days ago. It’s a frightening looking bugger- a giant ant-like thing with shockingly bright red velvet fur interlaced with black. A good inch long and very aware of its surroundings.

When we approached the few we’ve seen, they turn, look up at us, and triple-time it at a full-on run across the ground to get away. When you get close to them they make a weird clicking sound and seem to get rather agitated.

I found out this morning what they are- Cowkillers. There’s a great website called http://www.whatisthatbug.com/ that identifies creepy crawlers for you. Just send in a photo and get a quick post to your photo telling you all about the bug. I used Google and searched “black red furry ant bug” and bingo- there was a gorgeous portrait of our new neighbor. They are actually flightless wasps.

Why are they called Cowkillers? Apparently because their sting is so painful, it is said to be able to kill a cow. It wouldn’t actually, but I can see a parent a hundred years ago telling that to his little boy to keep him away from the attractive little killers.






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Schedules: Order vs. Chaos

When it comes to scheduling, I am one for order and clarity. If a phone call has to happen and there have been several back and forth voice mails, I ask to schedule a call. Regular family outings? Scheduled. Date night? Scheduled. A lunch meeting with a friend? “What do you have open next week or the week after? Lets get it scheduled.”

Outlook is my friend. Outloook is my friend. Outlook is my friend. I keep telling myself that.

Over the years I have encountered a number of anti-schedulers. I like to call them ChaosCreators. I totally get living for the moment, seize the day, be spontaneous, and all that. I dig it. Really I do.

But not when a friend calls me at 9PM and needs me to lend a hand the next day for a couple hours first thing. That’s not “seize the day.” That’s called “nuke my day.”

I recently had a client come to town and was trying to set up meetings with several local people so I could connect them to my client on a few ideas we are working. Most of the meetings got set up easily enough, 2-4 weeks out- no problem. One ChaosCreator that I REALLY wanted to connect with didn’t get back to me for 2 weeks despite several emails and phone calls. He emailed me the night before the meeting day (I had already filled up the whole day with 7 meetings leaving just enough time to get them back to the airport for their late flight back to LA) and informed me that he was sorry he hadn’t got back to me, he had been really busy, and great news- he has lunch open the next day.

I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m the crazy one. Should I eschew all calendar bookings more than 24 hours out? Is that how I keep my world free of commitment and tethers so I can be spontaneous? Just seems crazy to me.






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