A friend in need is a friend indeed....

A friend brought a little saying to my attention recently which had the undeniable ring of truth to it. I don't know the author but the words are profound in their simplicity. With apologies to my mother, it is, "Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend." I have expended a fair amount of mental energy in contemplating this truth, and I wanted to expound on it a little further.

We, as fallible human beings, have all stepped in our own mess at one point or another. Whether cow pie sized or a small rabbit pellet, life is full of mistakes that need to be cleaned up. We say things we don't intend, we take an action we later regret, we make a mistake that we cannot undo. There are many reasons why things go wrong, but the end result can be a mess of our own creation. The clean up is hard work, but I have concluded that sometimes doing the hard work on our own is the best way to cleanse the soul, not to mention make amends with those we've wronged..

Critter Crazy...

In an unscientific survey (okay, I googled Nestle Purina PetCare annual sales a few minutes ago) I have discovered that pet food and paraphernalia are an extremely lucrative business venture. Purina alone had global revenue of USD $12.5B in 2010, which is Big Business with a pair of capital B's. When you think about how many companies are in the pet care business, the revenue must be staggering.

If only I'd known. I love animals. I could have been the one to make all that cash, if only I'd thought of gourmet pet stuff sooner. Now the market is awash with premium options, and although pulling back on buying homes and other frills, people continue to spend money on their pets, making someone else rich beyond my wildest fantasies. I am always a day late and a dollar short. Story of my life.

Paying the piper...

I just want to go on the record right now as having said, "I told you so."  When winter finally arrives, and it will, one way or another, we are going to regret this little weather holiday from reality, guaranteed.  Of course, in the meantime, I, for one, am seriously enjoying it.  I'm not stupid.  I take the good with the bad every time.

I have been waiting for global warming to come to flyover land for quite awhile now, and it seems my wish may finally have come true.  (If I'd known wishes were being granted, I would have asked for something more practical, like a Swiss bank account, but oh well.)

Seasonal greetings....

Every country has its holidays, and wishes for a happy day are given in their own unique ways.  In the U.S. we celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks, we have Memorial Day and Labor Day to open and close the summer boating season, and most people recognize Halloween, AKA the kickoff for The Holiday Season.  Soon we hear "Happy Thanksgiving" as everything turkey and pilgrim floods the store shelves.  Then, before we have even plucked the napkins off the end cap, we are inundated with Christmas catalogs and a marketing blitz that would bring Ebeneezer himself to his knees.

Social MEdia

Everywhere you look someone is on a cell phone, a laptop, a device of some kind.  We no longer see people's eyes, because they are always focused in a downward direction.  We have launched a generation that has no idea how to have an ongoing conversation, because there are no silent spaces.  Every moment is filled tweeting, texting, e-mailing, or messaging someone who is not there.  They are constantly updating each other on every thought that passes through their minds.  What someone had for breakfast is suddenly equal to, even more important than, the real news of the world.  Why should I care that there is a famine in Africa?  I have breakfast to report.

Narcissus appears to be alive and well and living on planet Earth.