Big realization for me: Some people believe in redemption and some don’t.
Thoughts
Did you ever read “I Heard the Owl Call My Name“? When I was in high school it was one of those “required” readings alongside “Jonathan Livingston Seagull.” The book is one of those meaning of life stories that work when you’re at a certain age.
Which is all much ado about nothing. When I was walking Snickers the Wonder Dog this morning an owl was doing its hoot-hoot very loudly. Volia! The book title. Funny how that works.
What would you do if someone you knew needed help but you weren’t the one who could necessarily deliver that help? Would you stand on your head and gargle peanut butter? Say, “Forget it”? Ignore it? Or would you do everything in your power to make it right?
My take: People should help each other in this world. And the more difficult it is to help the more it’s necessary. It sure would be easy to go with “it’s not my problem.” But it’s never really that way, is it? It’s just not how I was brought up. I’m okay with that.
Here’s enough reason to take someone’s driver’s license away. People who can’t park suck.
I took this picture at my train station. Check out “Omar’s” minivan. First, it’s not even close to being a decent parking job. Second, this is exactly the kind of putz who would think nothing of smacking your door with his piece-of-crap, scraped up door. Third, look closely at the back of that van. That dude has backed into more poles than Britney Spears and Paris Hilton combined.
I was walking up the stairs into Suburban Station today and caught the smell of shoe polish that was wafting over from the shoeshine stand nearby. I like that smell in small doses. Which made me think about a few others:
- Gasoline
- Latex paint
- PineSol
I’m sure there are many others. It’s funny, because I mean small doses when I talk about these. Back in the days when I used to work in R&D, I worked in lab where we had all the chemicals, from the sweet smelling to the foul. But you have to be careful around those ones that smell sweet….you can go from yum to yuck in 3.2 seconds. I used to be in Headache City every time I had to wash glassware in benzene. It smelled great, but it chews your liver like it has side of fava beans and nice Chianti.
Know why I got out of the polymer physics business? Because I read a study of life expectancy based on profession. Know who lives shorter than firefighters, dentists, or coal mine workers? Chemists? Yep, that’s right, people who wash glassware in benzene. The average life expectancy for those people is 58 years. They usually die of liver and associated cancers. Benzene is a mutagen. So, I like scents in small doses. Very small doses.
