The Things that Go through Your Mind…

…when you are getting dressed… Shows you what a little stress and caffeine deprivation will do:

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town
Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown
Tapping at the windows, crying through the locks
“Are all the children in their beds? For now it’s eight o’clock!”

Yes, It’s About Food and Drink…

…but put down the food and drink; you’ll thank me!

The Brave Lass: Friday Frivolity: Laws Concerning Food and Drink

What’s Important

Today’s Daily Thought from Real Simple:

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

― J.R.R. Tolkien

Pause

Gratefulness.org’s Word For the Day today:

Try pausing right before and right after undertaking a new action, even something simple like putting a key in a lock to open a door. Such pauses take a brief moment, yet they have the effect of decompressing time and centering you.

A life practice from Br. David Steindl-Rast

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Now playing: Polyphony, Britten Sinfonia/Stephen Layton - Ave, dulcissima Maria
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Achieving Happiness

From Quotes of the Day, today:

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.

- Aldous Huxley

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Now playing: Classical WGBH 89.7 - HD2
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Happiness Is What You Make It Of

From Quotes of the Day, today:

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.

- Robertson Davies

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Now playing: kuscaudio96.mp3
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Life, or Not-Life, Can Be *So* Complicated, Somtimes…

On Reuters Tuesday:

French near-death case stirs debate on organ donors

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Now playing: Mariss Jansons; Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra - Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”, II. Largo (opening)
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Dadsense…

…according to Anita!

Mom’s Overture

Put down the snack. Put down the drink. If you don’t, you will be sorry…

Gratitudes Interuptus?

Gratefulness.org’s Word For the Day today:

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

-William Arthur Ward

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Now playing: Matthias Eisenberg; Michel Plasson: Orchestre Du Capitole De Toulouse - Symphony #3 In C Minor, Op. 78, "Organ" (Conclusion)
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Do What You Can

Gratefulness.org’s Word For the Day today:

However much concerned I was at the problem of misery in the world, I never let myself get lost in broodings over it. I always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of it to an end.

-Albert Schweitzer

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Now playing: Willi Boskovsky; Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra - Radetzky March
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A Blessing

Gratefulness.org’s Word For the Day today:

May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being.

-Apache Blessing

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Now playing: Grateful Dead - Attics of My Life
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Exquisite Imponderability

Gratefulness.org’s Word For the Day today:

Love is so exquisitely elusive. It cannot be bought, cannot be badgered, cannot be hijacked. It is available only in one rare form: as the natural response of a healthy mind and healthy heart.

-Eknath Easwaran

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Now playing: Bryn Terfel, Gareth Jones, Meinir Heulyn, The Black Mountain Choir, The Risca Choir & Welsh National Opera Orchestra - Hiraeth
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Wonder

Gratefulness.org’s Word For the Day today:

To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe — to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it — is a wonder beyond words.

-Joanna Macy

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Now playing: The Tallis Scholars - Credo
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Living Life

Gratefulness.org’s Word For the Day today:

I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.

-Diane Ackerman

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Now playing: Makem and Clancy - The Cobbler
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Midwest Weather

A short-lived thunderstorm cell blew through the south side of Indy this morning about 3:00? 3:30?

It was spectacular! The sound was huge; not just loud, but huge!!! I saw mostly sheet lightening; there was just one strike, to the north. The thunder was quite interesting: when the bolt struck, the thunder clap was a big, loud bang; when the sheets struck, the sound was loud, but quite a bit more difuse…

We (in Boone, Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, and Tipton counties) are currently under tornado watch 45, in effect until 7:00 (EST) / 6:00 (CST) this evening. Check USGenWeb’s map of Indiana; the counties are labeled.

Until recently, Marion County were also under flood watch; in addition to up to an inch of rain today, snow melt is still happening. The flood watch area has moved to north of Rockville Rd.

We also have a wind advisory in effect tomorrow from 9:00a to 6:00p (EST). Sustained winds of 35 mph and gusts up to 45 mph are expected.

Ash Wednesday Strikes

We went to lunch at the Airport Deli, planning to get either their Wisconsin Cheddar soup or a tuna melt (or maybe a tortellini salad), in honor of the day; they close at 4:00p, we arrived at 2:00p.

The specials board was off the wall, the salads were pulled from the display case, and it got worse: they’d prepared two trays of egg salad and two and a half trays of tuna salad (about 25 sandwiches worth), and had none left!! Fortunately, RenRen noticed grilled cheese on the menu…

Good thing we weren’t planning for lunch to be the meal of the day!

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Now playing: Trammell Starks - Creature Regions
via FoxyTunes

Boots Through the Snow

Got up this morning (late; it’s a snow day, and yes, it’s snowing…) and puttered around the doghouse for a while. About 1:30p, I wandered over to the cathouse, leaving a trail of boot prints behind. About 6:00p, I went back to the doghouse to get something to drink with dinner, and… no footprints. Back to the cathouse for dinner and sociability until about 11:00p. Back to the doghouse, and… no footprints! (Next morning, still no trace of having wandered back the night before).

Il Papa’s Rose

GardenMessenger:



“Another important rose launched recently in the United States, just before I started this blog, is named for the late Pope John Paul II. It was raised by Jackson and Perkins, Medford, Oregon, who this year are celebrating 130 years in the nursery business. The rose, which was especially selected by the Vatican to honour the late pontiff, is a luminous white with refreshing, somewhat citrus-like fragrance. Ten percent of the net proceeds from the sale of each rose will be put at the disposal of the Vatican, who have indicated that it will be used for charitable work amongst the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa. This first year there are a limited number of 2,500 bushes available.”

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Now playing: Led Zeppelin - Hot Dog
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Life and Its Twists and Turns

Roy scheduled this week’s rehearsal for last night, because the gang at work was going to the Giants’ game tonight, and had a ticket for him. While we were waiting in the vestibule for the after-Mass Rosary to be said, Fr Mike asked if one of us could be at the church today to offer assistance with the sound system and setup to the out-of-parish musicians for the scheduled funeral. I raised my hand.

The funeral was scheduled for 2:00p; figuring the musicians could be arriving about 1:00p, I bugged out from home about 12:40p. There was already plenty of bustle about the church when I got there, including a San Jose Fire truck and a paramedic bus; a white Ben Lomond Fire vehicle appeared some time later. When I walked into the church, the front was stuffed with flowers, and more kept coming, both from the funeral directors and a florist.

There was also a portrait of the beloved deceased, who didn’t look that much older (in the portrait, anyway) than Marisa…

He was a local boy, Benjamin Richard Gutierrez, who graduated from SLV High School in 2002; a paramedic, working his way to being a fireman.

The church was jammed with mourners: the pews, SRO, the vestibule, the steps outside the front door, the passage from the church to the parish hall, the two front parking lots…

May he rest in peace, Lord; comfort his family and friends in their hours of need.

Benjamin Richard Gutierrez
Tributes