"I'm a boat man!"

Took my grandchildren fishing this past weekend.  Annabeth is six and little Owen is three.  Annabeth has been fishing before.  Even caught her own fish, kissed it, and wished it a good life as we let it go.  Owen?  It was his first time out with Grandpa.

I suspected that he was having fun playing on the ol' pontoon and playing captain, but I didn't realize HOW much until I got a text from my daughter yesterday that read:

Owen woke up and said, "Take me back to the lake house.  I am a boat man now.  I need the water!"

I love it.

There is a lot to learn from fishing.  Or, at least, try to learn -- I'm not sure any fisherman actually masters it all.  But, here are some basic Carpe diem Life lessons:

1. Planning & Preparation.  This one is a tough one as I still go out fishing forgetting something back on land.  

2. Practice. Actually, it's all practice. Sort of like doctoring and lawyering.

3. Optimism. At least for me, the odds are stacked against us when we go fishing.  But, there is always hope.

4. Patience. Something that three-year-olds and six-year-olds don't understand.  To be honest, 58-year-olds don't either. 

5. Unplugging.  Just get out of the house, unplug the electronic devices and plug into the harmony of nature.

6. Accepting failure. Well, at least not catching any fish.  How can spending a day with those you love (even fishing alone) on the water be a failure?

9. Celebrating success.  As I mentioned above, we celebrate by kissing the fish, thanking it for letting us catch it, then wishing it a good life.  Crazy, I know.  I guess if I really loved the fish, I wouldn't even catch it in the first place, but . . .

10. Creating memories.  I know that little three-year-old Owen will probably never remember the exact experience, but hopefully, he'll remember that his Grandpa and Grandma love him very much and want him to be happy.

Here's to many more days on the water, Little Miss Annabeth and Mr. O.

Love,
Grandpa

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

And now for something completely different . . .

Was having dinner with some friends last week when one of them mentioned an obscure (at least to me) horror movie,   Night of the Lepus (also known as Rabbits).  Released in 1972, this science fiction horror thriller film  (I use that term loosely) is based on the science fiction novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit (1964) by Russell Braddon.

So, we decided to have our own Mystery Science 3000 movie screening last night.  Enjoy some pizza and couple of beers while watching Giant Mutated Carnivorous Killer Bunny Rabbits rain terror on a small western town (at least on models of a small western town).  Too funny.  Could never happen, right?  Or could it?

This morning I read:

By The Associated Press

RONKONKOMA, N.Y. — May 28, 2018, 3:00 PM ET
Officials on Long Island are offering a reward for information leading to the person or people responsible for dumping 27 rabbits by a Suffolk County train station.

The Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says it was notified on Sunday that a number of domestic rabbits were in the vicinity of the Ronkonkoma train station.

The SPCA and other animal welfare groups captured the bunnies, which don't have the skills to live in the wild on their own. [or so they say]
- - -
Coincidence?  Hare raising, isn't it?

Be careful out there.

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

Hello, Alberto

As I write this is southern Indiana, we're inundated with rain from Alberto a subtropical depression formally knows as Tropical Strom Alberto.  It's moving inland bringing a threat of flash flooding and even tornadoes to parts of the United States.

Storms and Floods.  Going with the flow.

Of course, the first thing to remember is that no storm lasts forever. 

Terry Gordon writes in his book No Storm Lasts Forever: 
 
There must be this maintenance of equilibrium in our lives, a balance that is manifested in the apparent dualities of life. The monsoon is countered by a calm, sunny day; perfect health is balanced by life-threatening disease, good by evil, and darkness by illumination. These perceived opposites are in truth conjoined with one another and must be embraced as one in the same.

I admit that I don't really understand all this Tao stuff.  But, if you look at some of the recent news footage of the flooding that Mr. Alberto is bringing, it does give a pretty good image of "going with the flow."   One who lives in accordance with nature does not go against the flow -- the way of things.  He moves in harmony with the present moment. 

Like those palm trees I see flexing in Alberto's winds, I need to remember to remain flexible. 

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

Who was Mr. Mojo Risin'?

Who was Mr. Mojo Risin'?

The Doors fans will recognize this name. 

So, “L.A. Woman” is a song by one of my favorite rock bands, The Doors.
The song is the title track on their 1971 album — one of my favorite of all time —  L.A. Woman, the final album with frontman Jim Morrison before his death.

In the song’s coda, Morrison repeats the phrase “Mr. Mojo Risin’.”

So, Who is Mr. Mojo Risin?  It’s actually an anagram of “Jim Morrison”. 

An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase.

Mr. Mojo Risin'.  Pretty cool.

Try it, there are dozens of anagram generators on the web to create your own.

Mine?

Carpe diem Life,
Hak Dud Vin  (not quite that same cool factor)

Mr. L'Amour Take 2

Another quote from Mr. L'Amour (see yesterrday's post):

. . . What do you wish to be? What would you like to become?” I did not know, and I told her so, but the question worried me. Should I know? “There is time,” she said, “but the sooner you know, the sooner you can plan. To have a goal is the important thing, and to work toward it. Then, if you decide you wish to do something different, you will at least have been moving, you will have been going somewhere, you will have been learning.

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

Who is Louis L'Amour?

While researching a line for a monthly newsletter I'm writing, I turned to my trusty big book of quotations.  I've opened it hundreds of times and plagiarized (um, I mean borrowed) many wise sayings to pass along.

One name that keeps popping up is Mr. Louis L'Amour.  Never heard of him.
So, I looked him up.  This from our friends at Wikipedia:

Louis Dearborn L'Amour (March 22, 1908 – June 10, 1988) was an American novelist and short-story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels (though he called his work "frontier stories"); however, he also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), non-fiction (Frontier), as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films. L'Amour's books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death, almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print, and he was "one of the world's most popular writers".

There you go.

Here are just a few of the quotes that I've come across:

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning.

Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen.

Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.

Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before - it takes something from him.

Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.

To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.

No memory is ever alone; it's at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.

To disbelieve is easy; to scoff is simple; to have faith is harder.

No one can get an education, for of necessity education is a continuing process.

I've been nothing . . . but there is tomorrow.

- - -

Today, maybe I'll run to my favorite used bookstore and pick up a couple of those "frontier stories".   After all, "Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content."

Thanks, Mr. L'Amour

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

What is it?

So, what is it?

One similar was found on display in one of the cabins at The Lincoln Pioneer Village in Rockport, Indiana. 

Early on in my marketing career, I read Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt's famous quote: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.” A lesson on selling the benefits, not the features.

I guess in the 1860s, a company realized people really wanted ruffles.
In the 1860s, when this one was invented, hundreds of thousands of households "needed" this. 
It's a Geneva Hand Fluter. The iron hand-fluter allowed users to quickly press fluted ruffles into cuffs, collars, and other trims.  Truly an important labor-saving device.

It has me thinking of all the "labor-saving" devices that I've purchased over the years that I just had to have -- needed!  It's an interesting study of luxury vs. necessity. 

Most are gone or boxed up now.  Perhaps, someday, my kids and grandkids will make a few bucks on eBay will all the stuff I believed I needed. 

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn