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And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin' brown and golden under a sinkin' sun.
~ Roy Bean
TIME: 6:00 PM
PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Harvest
Most of the feed corn has been harvested, but this still stands.
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Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I'm tired.
~ Mae West
TIME: 6:00 PM
PLACE: Church
SUBJECT: Line
We try to corral the 350+ kids who attend the middle school youth group on Wednesday nights into nice, neat lines with these shiny stanchions.
It doesn't work ...
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I could not, would not, in a house.
I would not, could not, with a mouse.
I would not eat them with a fox.
I would not eat them in a box.
I would not eat them here or there.
I would not eat them anywhere.
I would not eat green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
~ Dr. Seuss
TIME: 6:00 PM
PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Eggs
I've started getting our eggs from a local farmer. There are times when I love Podunk! An old pie safe sits at the end of the driveway. Each morning the farmer fills it with eggs in recycled egg cartons, and a coffee can full of $1 bills. You take what you want and leave $2/dozen.
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I don't believe in angels, no. But I do have a wee parking angel. It's on my dashboard and you wind it up. The wings flap and it's supposed to give you a parking space. It's worked so far.
~ Billy Connolly
TIME: 8:30 AM
PLACE: Cubicle Hell Parking Lot
SUBJECT: Parking
I don't have a parking angel, but I do have a reserved parking spot at work. This past weekend they resurfaced and repainted the lot.
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It's okay to be fat. So you're fat. Just be fat and shut up about it.
~ Roseanne Barr
TIME: 9:00 AM
PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Diet
I did something I've never done before. Something I know better than to do. Something, thank goodness, that will only cost me the shipping charges and not the $200 + it could have cost me.
What was I thinking??
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“Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save gas, take your next trip in kilometers.”
~ George Carlin
TIME: 9:30 AM
PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Gas
Who knew there were so many rules involved in filling your gas tank?
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“They only babble who practice not reflection.”
~ Edward Young
TIME: 7:00 PM
PLACE: Podunk v2
SUBJECT: Reflection
You never know what you might find in a trinket machine ...
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“All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this -- as in other ways -- they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.”
~ John Berger
TIME: 7:00 PM
PLACE: St. Charles, Illinois
SUBJECT: Photo
I had an opportunity to see my photo on display tonight. Although I was proud to have accomplished my goal, I was humbled by the greatness of all the others that surrounded it!
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“A man is not an orange. You can't eat the fruit and throw the peel away”
~ Arthur Miller
TIME: 7:30 PM
PLACE: Church
SUBJECT: Orange
Middle school youth group is back in full swing and some patient individual skewered about 200 chocolate covered, tangerine segments to feed the kids. Now that is dedication.
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“Yellow-colored objects appear to be gold”
~ Aristotle
TIME: 12:30 PM
PLACE: Forest Preserve
SUBJECT: Yellow
One of the things I love about the forest preserve is that something is always in bloom!
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“I can't tell you if it's flood or rain, but I know it got wet.”
~ Rucks Robinson
TIME: 6:00 PM
PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Rain
We seem to be seeing a lot of this wetness as we approach the change in seasons.
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“Practical people would be more practical if they would take a little more time for dreaming.”very well."”
~ Unknown
TIME: 9:00 AM
PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Dream
I'll admit it, sometimes I am too practical, shushing my dreams. Today I looked a dream square in the face and instead of telling myself it was a silly dream, I started making plans of how to make that dream a reality.
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“I got in a fight one time with a really big guy, and he said, "I'm going to mop the floor with your face." I said, "You'll be sorry." He said, "Oh, yeah? Why?" I said, "Well, you won't be able to get into the corners very well."”
~ Emo Philips
TIME: 10:00 AM
PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Mop
Cleaning my house is like exercising - getting motivated to do it is difficult, but I always feel such a sense of accomplishment when it's done!
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I'm just starting to scratch the surface of what really makes me happy and it's taken me a while to admit that acting like a little child and being a jerk and a punk is fun.
~ Leonardo DiCaprio
TIME: 8:00 PM
PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Punk
I adore all of the Dogfish Head Brews I've tried, and their seasonal Punkin Ale is no exception. From their website:
A full-bodied brown ale with smooth hints of pumpkin and brown sugar. We brew our Punkin Ale with pumpkin meat, organic brown sugar and spices. This is the perfect beer to warm-up with, as the season cools.
It was the warmth and comfort I needed after a rough week.
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Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.
~ David Letterman
TIME: 6:45 PM
PLACE: Twin Lakes Recreational Area
SUBJECT: Fall
Even the sunsets change color as summer ends and fall approaches.
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If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad.
~ Lord Byron
TIME: 6:30 PM
PLACE: Twin Lakes Recreational Area
SUBJECT: Empty
Soon they'll be pulled from the water altogether, awaiting spring.
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Little men with little minds and little imaginations go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.
~ Zig Ziglar
TIME: 1:30 PM
PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Changes
Times (and leaves) ... they are a-changing!
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Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.
~ Samuel Smiles
TIME: 2:00 PM
PLACE: Kane County Courthouse
SUBJECT: Burden
I never thought I'd find myself with overwhelming financial burden, but then I never thought I'd allow myself to depend on someone financially either. Succumbing to the latter brought me to the courthouse where my burden was shifted to someone else. I am embarrassed and ashamed ...
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Children remind us to treasure the smallest of gifts, even in the most difficult of times.
~ Allen Klein
TIME: 6:00 PM
PLACE: Laundromat
SUBJECT: Treasure
... gifts like his $5 earned for helping the neighbor bring in her groceries ...
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Almost all my middle-aged and elderly acquaintances, including me, feel about 25, unless we haven't had our coffee, in which case we feel 107.
~ Martha Beck
TIME: 8:00 AM
PLACE: Cubicle Hell
SUBJECT: Coffee
It's September. My 5 days of sick time is LONG gone and I needed to make up the 4 hours of time I lost yesterday due to Cam's battle with Neosporin. Thank goodness there was coffee!
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Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.
~ George S. Patton
TIME: 3:30 PM
PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Rash
We finally had to address the crud on Cam's forearm after he was sent home from school and told he couldn't return until he had a doctor's release. Turns out what I thought was likely ringworm was actually a skin reaction to the overuse of Neosporin.
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I think space exploration is very important. I think there is very intelligent life on Mars. I believe that Martians are spying on us from the bottom of the ocean.
~ Annabella Sciorra
TIME: 12:30 PM
PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Clouds
And I believe that Martians are spying on us from the skies ...
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Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.
~ Missy Dizick
TIME: 11:00 PM
PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Scooter
Late at night, when I should be asleep, Scooter keeps me company ... and annoys the hell out of me. But that's what cats are for, right??
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Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
~ H.G. Wells
TIME: 10:00 AM
PLACE: Metra Big Timber Train Station
SUBJECT: Bicycle
Don't want to take your bicycle on the train? They've got a solution for that!
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The United States as we know it today is largely the result of mechanical inventions, and in particular of agricultural machinery and the railroad.
~ John Moody
TIME: 10:00 AM
PLACE: Metra Big Timber Train Station
SUBJECT: Railroad
I'm wondering if I made the train engineer nervous when I got this close to the train. I couldn't help it. I was like a moth driven by the flame.
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“Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses, which paint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
TIME: 10:00 AM
PLACE: Metra Big Timber Train Station
SUBJECT: Train
Oh how I love the power of a train ...
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“I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early.”
~ Yogi Berra
TIME: 10:00 AM
PLACE: Metra Big Timber Train Station
SUBJECT: Depot
Podunk is about 20 minutes west from the end of the Chicago Metra line that travels into the city. I happened to be running some errands this weekend that took me right by the Big Timber depot. It looks much different on a slow weekend than it does during a Monday morning rush hour.
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I've signed a few sneakers in my day.
~ Ja Rule
TIME: 7:00 PM
PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Sneakers
One of Cam's passions is art - specifically on his sneakers. I buy him plain, white canvas and/or leather sneakers (always under $20) and a pack of colored Sharpies, and he is one happy teenager!
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“Sometimes I want to clean up my desk and go out and say, respect me, I'm a respectable grown-up, and other times I just want to jump into a paper bag and shake and bake myself to death”
~ Wendy Wasserstein
TIME: 9:30 PM
PLACE: Tap House Grill
SUBJECT: Milk Stout - Left and Brewing Company
I got to do something I don't get to do often - meet up with a very special friend for some grown-up time, including great beer!
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Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress.
~ Charles Kettering
TIME: 8:30 AM
PLACE: Cubicle Hell
SUBJECT: Calendar
One of my very favorite things to do every 30 days or so is to flip over the calendar. It's a fresh start every month!
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