Apropos of Nothing...

IThat is good news, however it totally sucks to not know what happened.

Yeah- frustrating. Especially because no diagnosis means we can't get a waiver on the driving restriction. :(

It's gonna be a long 6 months.

Just to make sure you smile today (and maybe do a little dancing, too)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k&annotation_id=annotation_72265&feature=iv

Yaaaaaay for Flash Mobs! I absolutely LOVE that kind of stuff. :D

Yep, me too. Makes me cry (collaboration between strangers has always moved me). I've watched it about 10 times now. I love to watch the enthusiasm of the "mob" and the smiles on the faces of the strangers, who aren't strangers after all . . .

OMG- you too? I always mist up over stuff like that. I thought I was mental.

(Okay, I probably *am* mental- but at least I know I'm not alone. LOL)

I love how they threw in the techno beat on the last part. That was awesome.

Cute cats and a great dance.

Just hauled another load of busted-up concrete and rocks. My little truck is sure earning her keep.

I've run out of Tagro potting mix. This is very bad. Guess it's time to take the canopy off the truck so I can buy more...

All of a sudden there are grasshoppers everywhere. Can't walk through the yard without them sproinging up in front of me.

Back from a couple of hectic weeks of anonymity...sometimes work is BLECH!

Welcome LFS! Lurking is fine, but participating is much more fun! Glad to have you with us!

Love all of the critter pics, especially the ones at the table. Furries with good lives for sure! And Bea, I do think that that is the first pic I have seen of Fiesty on her feet. She is so darn Regal most of the time!

Kathy, the video was awesome!

Pony, sounds like your truck is definitely earning her keep! Downside is if you are ever planning on camping in her, you may want to use a tarp when you pick up the Tagro! Have you been listening to your pond in the evenings? Any singing? I am getting a few little choruses here and there these days and was hoping you may have heard at least one of your babies.

It's unlikely she'll get used for camping, I prefer my nice big tent. Not that we'll be doing any camping before next year anyway...

No frogs here. They're just plain gone. :(

***poor gone froggies***

Then we will definitely have to have a sequel to TGTC. I think we may be able to lure Pixy into participating next spring too.

I'll have my hat and trenchcoat ready! :D

Pony, I think you and I are normal and anybody who isn't openly moved by humans cooperating is mental. Hmphh. So there. It's too rare an occurrence and getting rarer . . .

Woah- it's been a while since anybody told me I was "normal"... hee.

Those flash mob/improv things are getting more common though, and I think it's absolutely wonderful. I wish I could take part in one. (and I will, if I ever see a call for one in our area. The group in the NW put notices up on their website sometimes.)

Speaking of humans cooperating, when I went to get today's load of concrete and rocks, there were two pieces that were just too heavy for me to lift alone. I knocked on the door of the house, and this tiny little Asian girl, maybe 20 years old, answered the door. I asked if there was anyone there who could help me get those two big pieces into the truck, and she said she was the only one there. Then she said, "but I can try to help you!"

I gave her my gloves, and the two of us managed to get those big heavy rocks into the truck. She was so excited that she had been able to help me, I almost cried on her. LOL! That kind of stuff gives me such a boost... restores my faith in humanity a bit, ya know? :)

I have a secret longing to "live" a musical. Where all of a sudden somebody breaks into song and dance and everybody else drops everything to do the same. Everybody happens to know the words and music and steps. This is the next best thing!

And I'll be that little girl still feels great that she was able to help you and that you were appreciative. It's good for her self esteem. That's what I like -- it just feeds on itself . . .

Sometimes it's hard for us to ask for help and I think it just means we're just denying others the opportunity to do something right and feel good about themselves. Asking for help and acknowledging it is sometimes just as important as giving it.

"Sometimes it's hard for us to ask for help and I think it just means we're just denying others the opportunity to do something right and feel good about themselves. Asking for help and acknowledging it is sometimes just as important as giving it."

Yes! People are so afraid to ask for help from a stranger. I've gotten to the point where I don't hesitate to ask though- with my physical limitations because of my back and shoulder, I just can't do some things by myself anymore. I'm so grateful when someone takes the time to help me, and they're always happy and smiling when I thank them. I have yet to be told "No" when I've asked, too.

When I see someone struggling with something heavy, or trying to reach an item on a tall shelf etc., I offer to help. That used to be the norm... what happened? Why is it so hard for people to be helpful and kind to one another without being asked?

I think people don't feel like they belong to anything anymore. What happens when you give people everything, they don't realize that they know how to earn it. And their self-esteem slips and they don't have the opportunity to get that sense of accomplishment for themselves. So they feel helpless. The concept of learned helplessness is usually referenced when people continue to suffer pain and can't stop it. But I think it applies equally in situations where people don't learn how to make themselves feel good.

And I think it's a lot more widespread than the other. We have generations of parents who were trying to give their kids what they didn't have. And in some ways it backfired - you can't give people some things, just as you can't teach someone a lesson by explaining it. They have to live it.

Some of the most successfull programs for rehabilitating kids end up being about making them a part of a functioning organism (family, company, farm, etc.). We are pack animals and we want to know what our pack is and what function we perform in it. We're not so far from the creatures with which we share the planet . . .

Giving help just turns us into a team. And being on a team is what we reallyl crave . . .

Yeah. Team, Tribe, Pack... that's it. Being part of a group makes us... better.

Oh Katie, you hit on my dream with that one. I've always wanted to dance like that or break out into song. Course I can't sing at all, but I don't care. I grew up on all those '40's and 50"s musicals and I loved them. Love dancing.

Yeah pony. Just like the DGer's

This message was edited Sep 18, 2009 6:40 PM

The DG Tribe. I like it. :)

Have you guys checked out "Glee"?
It's pretty good if you're a sucker for singing & dancing a propos of nothing.

Nevah hoid of it.

It's a new network show set in a high school but the show itself is a musical. Two outstanding leads: the very sexy Matthew Morrison & the untoppable chick from "Best in Show" who happens to be from Chicago but whose name happens to escape me.

I think a rerun of the 3rd episode is on tonight.

Yeah, it's on at 9 (in an hour) on Ch 12 here.
The actress is Jane Lynch, who also was in "Forty Year Old" virgin. Just a master of the deadpan ridiculous statement.

Oh! It's a TV thing. No wonder I never heard of it. I don't do TV. I thought maybe it was a movie.

Why so snobbish about TV?
I couldn't live without Animal Planet.

I'll bite -- and keep an eye out for it. Although I fear I'm too old for a high school musical. I'm with Willow on the musicals of the 40s and 50s (and60s).

Must fall asleep on the couch tonight. Getting over a cold and need to be at the neighbor kid's tomorrow morning at 7:30. Her folks are out of town and I promised to take her for her 8:30 am driver's test in North Bend. Should be fun!!

This message was edited Sep 18, 2009 8:47 PM

Driver's test: tell her to remember to set the parking brake after they have her parallel park. It rankled me slightly that I got docked for that. Who woulda thunk you should set the brake if you know you're about to drive back out into traffic and not getting out of the car. The thing is, I never forget to set it when I'm really parking somewhere.

This message was edited Sep 18, 2009 9:04 PM

Good point. I'll remind her of that.

*snort* Ain't nothin' snobbish about it. I just don't like it. :p

I don't watch TV either - haven't for years. Too hyper to sit still for very long.
Tough to accomplish what I want to do if my vision is being required to do something else.
Ads are beyond irritating, too.

I can sit still just fine, but I'd rather read books than watch the tube. I spend an awful lot of time surfing teh intarwebz, too.

Well I read a book while watching TV because most of it is either junk or ads, but I do love Glee. Very talented people.

thumbs up on reading: I stand up.

On the topic of asking for help. That can be a hard thing to do sometimes, especially when you really need help. Something about frustrated (and probably foolish) pride that you can't get along on your own power. But it is a good point that you are giving someone else a chance to feel good about helping someone. It really is true that helping someone in genuine need gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. I've been on both sides of the equation.

I have a funny story about asking for help. A number of years ago I had a severe back injury, such that I couldn't stand or sit upright for more than 10 minutes without being in excruciating pain (that is NOT the funny part). At first I had to ask for help, as I couldn't even cook a meal and sit up to eat it. Friends and neighbors, even those who had just had a house fire and lost everything, came over with food and even vacuumed my floor, which was in a terrible state by that time. After a year of physical therapy, I was doing much better, but still couldn't sustain many hours vertical. I had had so much help from folks that I was feeling embarrassed about it, so I told people I was fine and doing well when they offered yet more assistance. Then came the day I had to set up my classroom for the year (move furniture. lift boxes) and I had just told everybody I didn't need anything. I was lying on the floor doing my back exercises that morning and feeling completely overwhelmed, not knowing how I was going to get through the day and be ready for the open house that afternoon. I don't pray out loud ever, but I did then. Just a simple one, "Please help me" At that moment, I heard steps crunching on the path to the front door. Some young fellows in black pants and white shirts knocked and saw me lying on the floor. I got up to see who it was. First they told me their religious views and asked me if I needed saving or something. I said, no I had my Quaker views and was satisfied with them. I was shutting the door when they asked, "Well, do you need any help?" I opened my mouth to say no, then thought, wait a minute...Bingo! Yes I did need help. These 2 guys came to my class and pushed shelves and desks around, opened boxes of books and set them all in their places, put up colored paper on the bulletin boards, put up my alphabet and number line,,,all kinds of things...for several hours. I was extremely grateful, and I learned something about not judging people because they go knocking on doors. I also thought it was God's little joke with me. "O.K. if you are going to tell the Quakers you don't need any more help, I'll just have to send the Mormons"

That's an awesome story! :D

ladyfiresign- Welcome it is always good to have another nurse on hand.
I love those mob/improv things too and I'm disappointed 'cause I thought I was mental..always a good excuse for eclectic behavior.
Cute 2-leeged Fiesty!
I think people really do want to help....for the most part. Everyone wants to be needed! I saw that clearly when last year I had several foot surgeries and people would go out of their way to help at the grocery store or anywhere else I showed up on crutches.......... I figured that it must be therapeutic so accepted it thankfully.

Aggh! Linda, that reminds me of a story about how rude people can be. We had a paper delivery woman who refused to toss our paper onto the porch even though we paid for "porch delivery". We told her many times that we were going to cancel the paper if we kept finding our paper out in the yard.

Well, I had foot surgery, and I was sitting on the porch with my crutches, having a smoke. Paper woman pulls up, walks halfway up the walk, looks at me and my crutches, drops the paper on the ground 10 feet away from me and then leaves.

Yeah. We cancelled the paper that day.

the1pony- Maybe you should have crawled to the paper and nailed her with it!! Ha Ha! You're right people can be rude! Like when they flip you off or honk when driving..........I don't like for them to get away with that! I just wave and greet them like they are long lost friends..........I love their frustrated response!
I have been wishing we had gotten to know each other better at the RU. I like your way of thinking!!