The last two days have seen almost three inches of snow where I live. It’s always fun to experience the full spectrum of seasonal events throughout a year. Snow is the one that brings about the fondest memories. Just as long as it doesn’t continue for too long. I don’t need to remember that much!
This morning I got an email from the Risk Management department where I work. The email was a list of bullet points about how to walk safely during the winter months. The tips were common sense and should be known and understood without an “expert” reminding you about it.
I usually just delete “don’t be an idiot” emails like this without reading them closely. But this time, for whatever reason, I read all the way to the end. I’m glad I did. Otherwise, I would have missed the absolute gem that was the last bullet point. It read:
I can just imagine someone carefully inspecting the ground before each step they take and sprinkling kitty litter on the path just to make sure it’s safe. Or maybe, there’s a more efficient way of doing this. Hence the sketch above.
A few months ago I set a goal to post something, anything really, to this blog every weekday. Some days this is a photograph or a drawing or a poem that I wrote. Other days I have the time to buckle down and put something together with a little more substance.
Lately, however, I’ve been so busy that I don’t have time to get my brain into “creation mode“. Work keeps me glued to problems and projects during the day and family responsibilities keep me cranking away until it’s time for bed.
This stinks because I’m one who writes about being creative, not getting stuck for ideas and inspiration and how to motivate yourself. I’ll get back into the swing of things but I thought it would be good here to openly admit that sometimes I stink at taking my own advice.
I need a reset. I’m not sure what form that will take but I hope it happens soon. Maybe I just need to go back and read some of my own blog posts.
Yesterday I posted an image of the bottom of a glass jug being backlit and giving off a green hue. I captured a few other images of the jug and thought this one was cool enough to share. I like how the manufacturer’s marks come up from the bottom clearly while the imperfections in the glass cause a wavy effect toward the top of the photo.
I try not to get annoyed at too many things in life. Annoyances, left
unchecked, tend to make people miserable. But there are a handful of things
that still really get to me. One of those things is the displaying of Christmas
decorations before Thanksgiving.
We play up Halloween as if it’s a real holiday and then start throwing up
the lights and plastic reindeer before the sugar rush has even begun to wear
off.
I understand why stores skip Thanksgiving. They haven’t figured out how to
make money from it (yet). But let me here plead with my neighbors and anyone
reading this to forgo tossing up the tinsel until after Thanksgiving.
Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. But Thanksgiving is a close
second. It’s a great time to get together with family and friends and show our
gratitude to God for providing us with so much in our lives.
But too often it gets ignored until that fateful Thursday when we stuff
ourselves with food, watch a football game and then go to sleep early.
It’s no wonder that we give the day such short shrift though. There’s no
build-up, no anticipation and no backing by all those people playing holiday
leap frog by putting up Santa knickknacks the day after we celebrate evil,
death and mayhem.
To these people I say: take a cold shower and rid yourself of the urge to
dilute one of America’s finest days for celebrating all we have.