Week 12 and

Still zero for the NFL!

Again, I'm not so much boycotting as trying to make a conscious effort to live my own life instead of donating my time to gazillionaire athletes. I would also include spending time on Facebook and news outlets in that list (I particularly find it interesting when people complain about "biased" and "fake news" news outlets ON Facebook). Fascinating.

Anyway, this weekend we've plinked around with a couple of new toys, worked on a few pre "winter storm" activities outside -- putting away deck chairs, covering crawlspace vents, cleaning up leaves, etc.
 
We also started Christmas Decorating!

As I've written before, my favorite decorations are some Christmas albums we frame and the homemade stars my two daughters made for several years (started three decades ago).  It was fun for them at first; however, as the years passed too quickly, it became -- like so many things kids have to do for parents -- a chore. Eventually, the tradition just faded away.  Now, all I have are memories and a box of fading, brittle old paper stars. 

I've recently seen a lot of these type of images pop up on social media:

Sort of like those stars, I guess. They're wrinkled, gray (faded), scarred.  And, to me, a yearly reminder of laughter, caring, living.   

Carpe diem Life,

David Kuhn

Week 11 and . . .

 Still NOT going strong.  I'm now zero for 11 weeks of the NFL (and college football).  

 

Sunday:  I couldn't work on the project I wanted to as we had a “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men" moment when I got home from work:  our dryer out of commission.  I worked on it until I conceded -- I needed parts and Lowe's was already closed.  Defeated for the night, I drank a couple of beers and hit it early on Monday.

 

Monday:  Dryer fixed (at least for now).

 

Then, I went to work on a few Christmas gifts.  I designed and built one of these for Suzanne last year.  I then received a few orders from two daughters and friend of the family.  

 

Each takes abound 50 or so boards of various length cut 45-degrees on each end.  Plus, three stars each.  Then glue, nails, stain.  

 

I still have some work to do on them, but I'm close.

 

The project utilized my Carpe diem Map:

 

Choose what I want to do

Action Plan

Resources (materials, etc)

Persistent Action

Evaluate Progress

 

Direction (change as needed)

Improvements 

Enjoy the process (I put on some music)

My Responsibility (no one was going to make them for me)

 

Now, regarding all the election, news channels, Facebook:

 

"Unfortunately, you have to listen to some people for a long time to discover that they don't have anything to say."   -- Annon.

 

Carpe diem Life,

David Kuhn  

NFL? Take a Hike!

It's Week 10 of my "Zero NFL Project".  Instead of donating my time to the NFL and mega-millionaires, I spend three hours (about the length of a game) working on a specific project.  

Today's scheduled projects have, unfortunately, been blown away by the wind:  40 to 45 mile-per-hour wind gusts as a result of a cold front moving through our area. 

 

“The wind is made of haunting souls
that moan and groan
in whistles and whispers.
This ghostly choir chills the breeze
and orchestrates a rise of goose bumps
on my skin.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year 

 

Today's project(s) TBD.

We're dog-sitting for our daughter's family.  Haven't had a little guy running around the house since our dog passed a couple of years ago.  Hauntingly strange to hear barks again.  In preparation for the week, I put up as much temporary fencing as I could -- just in case he wanted to wander.  Sure enough, first thing this morning he makes a beeline for a chink in the armor.  Fortunately, I was able to reel him in before he broke free.  There is MORE than enough room and new territory in our yard to explore.

Yesterday, I took a hike and picked up garbage at my adopted park:  Igleheart Park

on Evansville's North Side.  Except for a used fire extinguisher, I found the woods to be pretty clean of trash.  A fire extinguisher?  What the heck?

"It's only ideas gained from walking that have any worth." -- Friedrich Nietzsche.

And Dickens wrote, "If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish."

If you do get out today, watch out for the "widow makers."

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

Seeds

NFL / College Football:  Still 0 for the Season!

A few months ago I planted just a couple of tiny seeds at the back of our property.  

This week, we had a pretty hard frost.  When I looked at the back the next morning,  I discovered:

 

I knew I had a few, but I didn't realize that I had this many in all the growth and weeds (16).

So, I thought I would post of couple of pictures and some quotes.  

Cultivate Resilience in the Hard Seasons
    1.    “The tiny seed knew that in order to grow it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, and struggle to reach the light.” — Sandra Kring
    2.    “For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” — Cynthia Occelli
    3.    “Life does not accommodate you; it shatters you. Every seed destroys its container, or else there would be no fruition.” — Florida Scott-Maxwell
    4.    “The seeds of resilience are planted in the way we process the negative events in our lives.” 

            — Sheryl Sandberg
    5.    “When your heart is broken, you plant seeds in the cracks and pray for rain.” — Andrea Gibson
    6.    “Love is the seed of all hope. It is the enticement to trust, to risk, to try, to go on.” 

            — Gloria Gaither

 

Have Faith in the Process

    1.    “To see things in the seed, that is genius.” — Lao Tzu

    2.    “A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.” — John Ciardi

    3.    “Keep planting new seeds until your mind becomes the earth that gives birth to new worlds.” 

            — Curtis Tyrone Jones

    4.    “Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” 

            — Hamilton, the Musical

    5.    “Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” 

            — Henry David Thoreau

    6.    “A seed knows how to wait… a seed is alive while it waits.” — Hope Jahren

I have NO idea what I'm going to do with the fruits of my labor, but I did reap what I sowed.

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

Sun Came Up

Went to bed Tuesday night with the election still in doubt (as of today, it still is).  But, funny thing: Yesterday morning the sun rose.  

Yesterday, after checking to see that YES the election process was still going through its phases, I spent day in the yard -- working under the beautiful blue sky and wonderfully warm sun (today, my back is barking, but . . . ).  After the sun went down, I decided NOT to check the Election results again (it will be what it will be).  Instead, I built a fire and relaxed. 

In the southern sky I could see Jupiter and Saturn.  So, playing with the phone camera and a sky view app, I took this.  

Phases.  Keep rising!

 

Carpe diem Life,

David Kuhn

Week Eight and Voting

I'm officially eight weeks into not watching a second of the NFL.  I didn't have any specific projects -- just played with the grandkids. 

Voted today. Reminded me of that old joke, "When he asks you to vote for him and for good government, he's asking you to vote twice." Wow, how did we get here?

Mort Sahl once wrote that Ronald Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter.  If he had run unopposed he would have lost. 

One final thought.  It is not lost on me that the little voting stylus they hand out when you vote very much resembles a crack pipe.  Fitting?

 

Carpe diem Life,

David Kuhn