The ice under the covers


See that picture? Every time I get into bed, my bare feet feel like that arctic cold you are looking at!

I need a hot water bottle to cause some localized thawing in the Southern hemisphere of my bed.

Good night.
~Lavada Chilblain



This photo courtesy of the extreme temperature loving folks on the USCGC Healey icebreaker. Taken Aug 12, 2005 and can be found at arctic noaa brrrrrr!

What is your calling?



You are what you Quizilla aren't you? Darn close to hitting the bullseye with this one. Although I thought that the What is Your Secret Name? quiz wasn't quite feeling me. I mean really..."Lavada?" The image of a bar of soap came to mind. Anyway, the What is Your Calling had an interesting blurb beneath the photograph (shown above) and it went something like this:

Art, It is all in art. You want to express yourself through art. You have a hard time expressing yourself otherwise. You probably re-invent yourself many a time over. You are very talented though, in the art category. You seem aloof at times or the weird type, but really you could not be a more complicated soul.

Pros: Your creativity is at an enormous high, and others envy that.

Cons: You can get ignorant at times because of your work, making people doubt your loyalty. But otherwise, you are a right and true friend.

My response:
Yes, somewhat. Yes sometimes very much. Well.. um.. I do have trouble being articulate from time to time. Yes I think I have. I've been told I am, but don't always believe it. I've been told this too, especially the weird part. I think we are all complicated souls and I am no more special or complicated than anyone else.

I'm not so sure about this. Ditto.

I get so caught up in what I am doing that I forget everything and everyone else? I do but it isn't intentional at all. My loyalty is steadfast, and you are right on.

Thanks for reading.
-Lavada

Advice


Open your eyes and look around you. Pay attention to your surroundings because you may find little gems that you would have otherwise missed.

many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. to handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. anger is only one letter short of danger. if someone betrays you once, it is his fault; if he betrays you twice, it is your fault. great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. he who loses money loses much; he who loses a friend, loses much more; he who loses faith, loses all. beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art. learn from the mistakes of others. you can't live long enough to make them all yourself. friends, you and me... you brought another friend.... and then there were three.... we started our group.... our circle of friends....and like that circle there is no beginning or end....yesterday is history. tomorrow is mystery. today is a gift, that's why they call it the present.
[unknown]





Quote for a lifetime

The master in the art of living makes little distinction
between his work and his play
his labor and his leisure
his mind and his body
his education and his recreation
his love and his religion
He hardly knows which is which...
He simply pursues his vision of excellence
in whatever he does
leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing
To him he is always doing both.

- Zen Buddhist Text

copied from the page of: The Brand Builder

Hello

Heaven.. Hubcap Heaven

Bad news to find out that the rim on your car is cracked. Worse news is finding out how much the dealer wants to charge you to replace it. The service rep says I could try to find a wheel on Ebay. Ebay!! Dude, I don't have a car to drive around and you want me to shop on Ebay? Well maybe high level cognitive skills aren't needed to be a service rep. so I cut the guy some slack and take matters into my own hands. I found my wheel 25 miles away for a lot less than the dealer's price. Off I went to Hubcap Heaven to pick up my prize.

Standing there in HCH I was enveloped by visible layers of cigarette smoke oozing around the room. I looked around and wondered which would kill me first, the second hand smoke or a falling wheel. There were shelves 15 feet off the floor with wheels of all types on display. All I could think about was how this store would come apart in a 5.6 earthquake and how all the wheels would be launched off the shelves like bombs killing all smoking, snaggle-toothed men who stood beneath them.

Mr. Snaggle-tooth came around from behind the counter in a stiff peg leg limp. I was wondering where he was going to find my wheel when I noticed he was going for the.... ladder.
He climbed up slowly, his right leg bending at the knee while the left leg remained ridgid. He would step down on the ladder tread after he raised his hip high enough so that the left foot could reach the step. Up he went. His climbing looked painful. I nearly asked him how he had gotten hurt but thought against it. It could have been Vietnam, or maybe a motorcycle accident. He clearly was a fan of the Harley Davidson.. he had a Harley logo ring, belt buckle and there were leathers hanging near his chair. Odds were good that the leathers belonged to him as well.

By the time I finish scanning the room for my wheel while fanning the air to carve out a space with less smoke, "Snaggles" has found a wheel and is wrestling it into a graspable position with one hand. I quickly note my distance from the ladder and deem myself to be in a safe location should the worst occur. He comes down with the wheel and lifts it up onto the counter. Mission accomplished! He walks back stiffly to the cash register and smoldering cigarette as I examine the wheel on the counter. Wrong price... wrong part number... wrong wheel.
This time he doesn't climb the ladder for another wheel. Apparently the data base shows him he has a couple of wheels with this part number and the other wheel is out back. He returns with a reconditioned wheel in a box. As long as it is in round, I don't care. I pay and I leave with my wheel in a box.

Outside I breath in the fresh cool air and put the wheel in the truckbed behind the cab. All of a sudden I feel as though I am a parts delivery person.. next stop... Audi dealer.
I drive by the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop and consider buying a few doughnuts. I pass on the doughnuts because I have this vision of them floating in oil. Now there's a great supplier of oil for a bio-diesel fuel producer. Can you imagine driving down the road powered by oil used at a doughnut shop?...the cops wouldn't leave you alone!

Hubcap Heaven thanks for an interesting afternoon.


photo©Mallow

Quote of the Week

This week's quote comes from CNDC and his post of 10.25.05

"Doing what you think you were born to do is the only form of freedom left in this country."

Quote of the Week

The following quote comes from the blog of oakparkmastermind. The post is titled he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts

i'm obsessed with books. if i could marry fictitious novels i would but i would totally be a philanderer and have sordid affairs with periodicals and biographies.

You can't stop it


Winter.
I don't like the change. My internal thermostat isn't following along with the shorter days. It does not know that the highs tomorrow will be 57 degrees Fahrenheit. At night I shiver in bed under a polar fleece blanket and down comforters, wearing socks and spectacularly non-sexy but cleverly decorated flannel pajamas - breakfast motif on my shirt, and numbered sheep jumping fences on the bottoms.

One would think that I'd suffer from insomnia caused by my pajama outfit decorated with toasters, bagels, coffee pots, and sheep but that's not the case. So there I am all decked out in flannel ready to sleep and I can't. I'm cold... cooooolllddd I tell you. It's not time to use the heater just yet, so I will have to make do with the layering system I've developed and perhaps consider wearing a polar fleece cap.

Strange.
I felt so at home in Iceland.


photo©Mallow

The wheels are in motion?


A new blog hatches today.
Who would want to read this bunkum? I don't know.. maybe I'll find some fans. Besides I understand that rot makes good compost. So join me on my mental composting journey, won't you? I may disappoint you, but I might also entertain, and inspire you with my wit and observations of the world around me.


photo©Mallow