Monday, May 30, 2022

Political Differences Getting Old


 Find the cameras—tables pound

Point your fingers all around

Who’s to blame?—they must be found

Losers chosen Winners Crowned

The clock ticks for it’s tightly wound

Once again that popping sound

In the earth a tiny mound

  We place our children  in the ground


Political Differences?

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Sometimes You Have to Speak Out


SPECIAL EXCEPTION!!!


I try to avoid politics…. But sometimes…. It’s time for all of us to quit the apathy and excuses for the sake of others—well maybe most times we should consider it.  Well… I’m asking everyone who reads this to consider the lives of all children and to reach out to a government  person elected or appointed. And say  “get your priorities in order!”  We all have children past, present, or future… in fact we all were children…. Do you want to think about being shot in school? Well …. If not do something… If you need a prompt here’s this little 8-line Rhyme




We now have nightmares when we snooze

and shake as they tie little shoes

There’s no more time for subtle hues

Or special interests’ paid-for views

Be you “Reds” or be you “Blues”

It’s time for you to get some clues

the hell with close election news

No more children can we lose


Bells Ringing

Friday, May 27, 2022

Finding are ruby slippers


Time to Find Your Ruby Slippers?


It’s been a week since this town I now call home was (insert dramatic word for destruction) by a tornado.  Right up front I want to say thanks to all those who reached out to check on our welfare.  In fact, it is that “looking out” that comes into play later on in this entry.  

As do most things, the events of the last week prompted some thoughts about unexpected events that alter the lives of people and break up daily routines.  You see not every town gets hit by a tornado every week or year, or even  every half century.  Floods don’t wash out river fronts, hurricanes don’t come ashore, and the storm of the century doesn’t strike in all places all the time, however, I would bet real money that in nearly every life there is one or more than one event that abruptly shakes, or blows away the foundation of our belief systems, our family structure, our physical abilities etc…. And we wake up one day and we realize “we’re not in Kansas anymore.”  In these times we don’t all have the luxury of finding the yellow brick road right away and when we doit’s rarely a smooth straight road and we always run into a scarecrow who isn’t quite sure which way to direct us and some people who are very willing to tell us where to go are let’s say lacking in the brain department.   However, when we meet such folks it is good to remember that they can be brave and loyal traveling companions and fantastic dancers.  Oh and by working to solve some of the problems and emergencies of others you may just solve your biggest challenge by a strange twist to fate—or a bucket of water?   

Okay back to our local trip into Oz.   Over the past week there have been thousands of people reaching out to help our town and thousands of neighbors helping each other.  A lot of people are looking beyond their own little spaces and finding ways to make a difference.  this blog is not big enough to mention even a small fraction of the ways people have chosen to demonstrate the kind of love it takes to move forward.  It is, for example, incredibly fortunate that The Alpine Brick Exchange set up a space for kids to bone build things out of LEGO.  Why is this so significant?  Well….given that a lot of children have seen their homes, the places they go to eat, etc torn down and in a way that seems so out of control, they are being given a chance to use their imagination and time to build and create.  the county “mini-bus” system is offering free services to make up for some of the costs of getting around and the loss of vehicles and several hotels and motels are helping house those who no longer have a roof over their heads or floors under their feet.  There have been so many people around here who are proud of how their fellow human beings are stepping up and I’ve heard people say how hunch they are grateful to have this as their “home” town…. 


So… now for the slippers… You see in the Seeking Peace and Joy Universe we often feel like we are looking for that feeling of home and sometimes we all wish that. We could tap our own ruby slippers together and chant the magic words.  well….maybe we can Toto.  You see maybe we can do something everyday to show our neighbors they are appreciated.  Maybe we can give someone directions or be ready to dance with them or walk along on their challenging journey.  Maybe we can keep a bucket of water handy just in case someone is thirsty or a witch gets a little nasty and puts  a little fire in places where they cause dmage.  Maybe we can come along after the air has gone out of someone’s balloon or their hopes have been carried off.  And as you do for others… maybe you will find it is done for you.   So maybe in doing these things on a regular basis you are making it possible to find ruby slippers all around for you and for your neighbors and strangers who come into your land. 


To summarize.every life has a tornado, flood, earthquake, Tsunami etc…They sometimes are weather related and sometimes they are simply human tragedies.  We all have strange nonlinear journeys with complicated directions and solving the problems of others sometimes leads to the solutions to our own challenges.  Sometimes our wishes can be simple to grab expecially if we spend some time creating a world that feels like it is filled with the people we want to help and those who feel good about helping us…… 


In short, if you work at creating some peace and joy it might be easier to find even when you aren’t in Kansas anymore and when things don’t go as planned don’t be afraid to ask yourself in jest “what would I do with a brain if i had one?”  Then gather together your straw, get up, and start on the road again.  


GAYLORD STRONG


 

Saturday, May 21, 2022

Did You Hear the Warning?


 The whole thing is just a blip

It goes by at record clip

There is no script to flip

No GPS to map this trip

No bucket for the pipes that drip

So grap the cup and take a sip

Yu’ll feel the feathers and the whip

But you’re alive so let it rip


TORNADO WARNING

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Weaponized words some thoughts


 Fevered whispers no one spoke

Then the breaking story broke

No one laughed for it’s no joke

For with one quite careless stroke

countless giants they did poke

There’s all daggers but no cloak

Like burning gasoline with oak

Civil discourse up in smoke


SocialMedia 

Monday, May 9, 2022

How to fix a large screen door summertime do it yours elf?


 How to Fix A Screen Door


If you are a regular reader you’ll note we moved recently and it is not folly to repeat that whenever you move in life the things you thought you own own you and the stuff you haul around with you rarely fit neatly into the places you want to change them into.... life is just that way... Some other things happen in new domestic settings.  For example, the folding doors that were left off the upper and lower trackers near the door opening were left off for a reason.  Seeking peace and joy rarely implies making judgements about other humans, however, my will power is not hefty enough to hold back a couple here.  

The concept of a folding door is understandable.  In theory, you can fold a door and expose some of the things in the closet you wish to grab without having to have the swing radius of a traditional door.  Well...that’s all well and good until the door mysteriously and usually permanently gets out of the track which holds in the door.  How does it hold in the door you ask?   My first response includes words you may never hear in church and my second isn’t much better, yet both responses are true.  You see there is this metal track that weighs about as much as 19 mosquitos  and is always positioned just high enough that a shorter person needs a chair to fully operate the mounting procedure.  Now you position a 50  or 60 pound door with one hand while positioning these two spring loaded widget thingies and try to guide them at an angle into the track.  Luke’s shot at the exhaust port of the Death Star is infinitely easier than positioning  the door in such a way as to secure the door.  Some folks claim this is easier in you try it from within the closet..... This assumes the closet is empty and if you don’t have enough to fill the closet well what in the world do you need a door for?   Anyway somewhere  in the many levels of eternal damnation—just between the insurance corridor and the neck tie inventors’ pavilion there exists a reserved spot for the folks who dreamed up these doors.  Oh and across the sea of Milton cottage cheese there is the island of sliding  patio screen door creators.  


I’ve lived in lots of places and visited more where there is this large rectangle screen door that was designed to serve as a protector from bugs when you want to have your patio door open for fresh air.  Now millions of these doors exist yet in my survey of 9 fair minded people evidence suggests that les than 5 in a billion work more than 39 seconds after the original installation. However, being an optimist and problem solver I set out to fix the one on our new digs.  

What was need to build a screen door that may keep out 61.4% of the bugs?  Well first it requires the better. Part of what have been a. Pleasant day.  Next spend at least 29 minutes and 7 seconds with a thesaurus discovering synonyms for every curse word you know and practicing  some inventive ways of merging these words with adjectives related to your relatives and some impossible anatomical situations.  Run throughout your house slamming your fingers in a drawer or two and stubbing your toe on that closet door you couldn’t hang.  Now go to the screen door in question.  


Position the door in the desired opening (no not the backside of the door’s original inventor—or at least not yet.  Align the rolling spring loaded wheels near the track and slot in the bottom or the top.  Get out your old geometry textbook and read the section on acute right triangles and also be prepared to review Isaac Newton’s concepts of inertia and if you have a couple  extra minutes scan a mid evil interpretation of Euclidean mechanics and torture devices from the Spanish Inquisition.  after using a crow bar and a spatula  (no not that plastic non-stick one—the hee man Griller one with the beer opener  on one end to position one end of the door call NASA and ask for the engineers responsible  for getting Apollo 13 back safe.  Now position the door and start to depress the spring loaded wheels on the remaining side and discover the spring and the shell is rustier  than a sunken Chevy Nova fender lost when the members of the remedial auto shop club decided to see if they could recreate Chitty Chitty  Bang Bang.  


Anyway that wheel isn’t going into the track Any more than 500 smart people will actually get elected to congress.  


So... get out a very sharp instrument, a couple zip ties, a couple of hooks, and a sturdy pair of shoe strigs.  Put the hooks into position where you want the door to hang.  Take the zip ties and run them through the screen so that they basically are around the metal top side of the door Take the shoestring and run it through the loop you created with the zip tie and wrap it around the hook you screwed into the way or base of the deck/porch.  Now tie the string using a square not and leaving enough string to maneuver.  The door as needed.  


This will hold your screen  in place leaving a few gaps here and there.  If some bugs crawl or fly in remember these insects have been on the planet longer than humans for a reason and that you have a deck to be outside in their territory and they are just checking out yours.  

Oh and of course realize that all screen doors eventually get run into by something heavy like that deck chair, your favorite cooler, or Uncle Frank after he discovers said cooler.  


So... how is this seemingly frustrating adventure  connected to seeking peace and joy?


Well you see.... well you win some and you learn some.  When you attempt this sort of thing it allows you  to be inventive and to stretch beyond  the everyday routines and that’s where the muscles  of curiousity and persistence  get exercised.  Oh and you may need those new curse words again so there is some skill building ther.  


get outside and don’t worry about keeping outside out...


Happy Spring/Summer!

Sunday, May 8, 2022

Take a Sip of Peace and Joy


 The time is nye you think

At the wheel of fate you wink

As you stand here on the brink

You’ll dare not even blink

Or count how many shots you’ll drink

As the bright sun morphs to pink

And the blue sky turns to ink

Hope conquers as fears shrink


 Liquid courage 


Thursday, May 5, 2022

Peace and joy is”Welcome”


 Welcome to a “New” Town


Well in the last entry we mused about moving and somehow moving is suspiciously like life....you know....you haul around everything you “own” from place to place and find out  that what you carry with you doesn’t always fit easily in the place (or situation) you currently occupy.  Also there is some real value in leaving some  things by the curb as you move forward.  You also find that some valuable things break when you weren’t expecting them to and you discover some old memories  remind you of both good and not so sunny times.  And as the late Bob Mendenhall once said you find out that many things are like. U-Haul...that is...


You call You Haul.  You Pay.. That’s all


Sometimes when you move either in location or in your mind you wind up in a “new” town and get the chance to take a minute to decide your approach to hiding, fitting in, standing out, or so some combination of these.  You make a choice on how you will mix with the culture so to speak.  


Now we have lived here for almost two weeks...the time has flown by and things are going well.  In the two weeks I’ve wandered around enough to get reported by the local citizenry (a story for another day)—I’ve been out to a couple of great local dining places and discovered a chocolate/ice cream Haus (German for stuff that helps you gain weight just by looking).  More importantly most of the “local” folks have been incredibly welcoming.... which has added to my peace and joy in a big way.... and that’s the first point. In what will be a three part series on  this new town.   


Seeking Peace and joy is usually a more productive experiment  if you connect with welcoming people and you are welcoming to any new ways these people approach  you or what they are doing.  Don’t be afraid to consider the way they define things, the names they give to streets, foods, dogs...etc.  


There are, of course some familiar chain stores and even so the people within have been pretty friendly and provided “hometown” service.  As someone new to town I’ve been reminded that treating people like they are your neighbor or your neighbor’s friends is generally a good way to be open, to approach life with curiousity instead of fear, and maybe more important to be willing to offer what you have  to make this picnic we call life a more enjoyable event.  So far... I feel inspired to contribute to the culture here just to pay back or equal the treatment of many places and organizations including but not limited to”. The Downtown Merchants Association, Big North Bar Bell (thanks for reminding me about the muscles I’ve forgotten) A Couple Local Banks, El Patron’s, the Blind Squirrel just to name a few... oh and no one has frowned when I’ve mentioned I’m new here.  How often do we have the guts to be open when new ideas and people come along?  


Well... I’ll have more to say about these first couple weeks  in the next two posts as well.... for now I’ll wrap up this the first two verses of a song that has been inspired by my first couple weeks here.



I really don’t mind thinking

And I’ll listen to suggestions

I’ll question a few answers 

But be glad to answer questions


I’ll try to use my energy to turn around my fear 

And remind the folks love conquers hate

Right Now and right Here


Chorus 

People often ask me 

“Why the sunny mood “ 

I say it’s not about what happens

Ya choose your attitude.... 


So far this town has a good attitude....I’ll try to measure up...