Cut on left middle finger ~

I remember getting a cut on my left middle finger when I was young. I lived in Hawaii from the age of three to the age of eight. My dad was in the Air Force and we lived on base. It was a great experience!



I know that we lived off base also, but I don't remember that so much. I do remember the pictures, but I don't really remember living off base. But the cut on my left middle finger happened at one of my mom's friend's house.



We had driven to a different part of the island. I don't know if they owned or rented, but because they weren't Hawaiian, I imagine they rented. My mom was visiting with the lady in the kitchen or living room.



They were sitting in there talking and smoking. I was exploring because I was old enough to do that. I think my brother had been born, so I must have been six or older. But I remember going to their back door on the end of their kitchen.



I was looking out through the screen door. I was looking out at the mountain lifting up behind them. It was so green and so beautiful! And the clouds were kind of low but they weren't very thick so you could see the mountain. But part of it disappeared. It was just so lush and beautiful!



I was looking back there enjoying looking at the stuff they were growing in their backyard and looking at the mountain and the clouds and thinking how beautiful it was. I was a little short so I was holding on to the sill of the window in the screen window door. So the way it worked is a lot like doors that I've seen where it was a sliding pane window like in a window frame but on a door.



And it slid up and locked into place up so that you had a screen in the middle of the door and then a solid window underneath. It was a little higher than waist height for an adult person but for me being a kid I was having to hold on to the sill and kind of pull myself up a little bit to see out the screen window.



While I was sitting there or standing there admiring the view and pulling myself up to do it something slipped and the window that was above my finger came down rapidly and came down on my finger. I tried to pull my hand out of the way. But I was too slow and it caught my middle finger and gave me a gash.



It bled and bled. I cried and cried. I think I did like my dad did and shook my finger because it hurt so much. Mom and the lady came in and fussed over me and cleaned it up and put a bandaid on it.



In my mind it was a terrible experience and a deep gash but I don't think it was really that bad. But as a souvenir I have the scar to this day.



So if you ever see the scar on my middle finger that's where it came from.



+++

Moss in space ~

I read recently where an experiment was done on the International Space Station. They put green moss outside in the cold vacuum of space and left it out there for nine months. When they brought it back in and then brought it back to Earth, it grew just fine. Scientists are amazed and astounded that it survived the harshness of space.



But I have to wonder, will moss and algae be what helps us when we go to the moon and go to Mars?



One of the things scientists have been pondering and puzzling over is how to naturally produce oxygen while away from the plants of planet Earth. And it may be that we take moss with us and have a moss room in one of the side rooms of the moon base that we're going to build and in the space stations that we build. And make them like cooling towers where they're growing on multiple surfaces with some sunlight hitting them and we get air to breathe without having to do long chemical processes or carry lots of tanks with us.



Fun to think about.



+++

Social media effects ~

Since my life has slowed down quite a bit, I've been able to notice something about social media that I didn't notice before. For the most part, I stay off of it. During the day, I don't try to look at it very much, if at all. In the afternoon and evening, I'll scroll through and look at some things, but it's usually just diversionary, mindless scrolling, something I can be doing on my device and be interrupted.



But I've noticed that with Instagram, my breathing changes. My breaths get shorter, and it's like I'm anticipating the next thrilling post as I wade through advertisements and boring things.



I noticed it especially when I close the app and turn off my phone, I tend to take a deep breath as if I was not getting enough air and needed to deeply breathe just to get moving again. It's like my body is anticipating the next hit of dopamine, anticipating, and it's not respiratory because I breathe just fine otherwise.



There have been many articles on how they've designed social media apps to be addictive, to draw your attention and then lock it in with flashing things and new extremes, suggestions to take you down rabbit holes that lead to more ad revenue for the company and more sales for the companies that paid for the ads.



But it's weird to sense that respiratory change that I experience. Anticipatory and not respiratory.



Be careful out there.



+++

Littering today ~

Lately, I've seen more and more people littering openly. Power windows are rolled down on their cars and fingers come out with little bits of plastic or paper. People at a restaurant drop a napkin and don't even bother to bend over and pick it up, even though they're looking right at it.



People walk to business entry doors and walk around the bag or paper laying on the ground between them and the door. Even if there are multiple bags or papers, they walk around them.



The move that gets me the most lately is the intersection drop of a bag of garbage. A car pulls up to a red light. Usually a turning lane, but not always. Sometimes a "going straight" lane. Just before the light turns green, the driver's side car door opens up a couple of inches and then a neatly tied plastic bag full of fast food restaurant refuse is placed gently on the asphalt beside the car.



The light turns green, the door closes quickly and the car speeds off. I find it funny that the bag is neatly tied. It's almost like they can hear their mother telling them they need to clean up or be polite when they do things.



But it's not always young people. I've seen older ladies do it. I've seen middle-aged guys do it. It's like they don't want to be bothered to have garbage in their vehicle while they drive around. So they'd rather pollute the neighborhood.



Especially if it's not their neighborhood. Since they're just passing through it's obvious to me that this is an outcome of the balkanization of our entertainment media. Now that everybody's staring at phone screens and streaming on their as-big-as-they-can-fit living room screens (or bedroom screens as the case may be) nobody sees the commercial I grew up seeing with the Indian sitting on his horse with one tear falling down his cheek and the announcer reminding us that we should not litter.



Sad.



+++

Dinner at the aquarium ~

My wife and I recently went to a dinner thrown by the aquarium. It was an amazing experience!



They had delicious food and tables set up in the main viewing room so that we could sit there and look at the aquarium fish while we ate.



The people in attendance were very nice and well dressed. I enjoyed the conversation with the people at our table as we shared about our lives and the things that we're involved in.



The dinner was followed by a concert by six musicians from a symphony orchestra. They played some lively pieces that sounded great.



As we drove home after the event, I shared with my wife that everybody was so positive and how that's not what I grew up with. I remember growing up hearing "what a shame" over and over and over followed by how the people around me and my parents and family members that I got to see all missed opportunities and failed outcomes, how people took the wrong turn and ruined their lives. They only had one shot and they missed it.



As an adult, I talked that way also because that's what I had heard growing up. And I remember many conversations where everything was going fine and then I would drop a bomb in the middle of the conversation about something negative, a negative outcome, a negative thing, a missed opportunity. Yeah, but we didn't do this. Yeah, but we didn't get this. And it just cast such a negative light over everything positive that had been said.



Over the past few years, I've made an effort to stay quiet many times instead of saying those things that pop into my head. Staying quiet has led me to gaining better insights and having much more positive conversations, which I like a lot better.



+++

Reasons for everything ~

One of the things that I grew up hearing was reasons for everything. We use this because of that. We do this because of that. We eat this because... whatever. Everything had to have a reason.



Even driving around when somebody made a boneheaded move on the road, I would hear "oh, he must have seen something in the road", or "maybe it was that squirrel that rushed out in front of him that we didn't see until he was past it".



And I carried that into most of my adult life. Everything had to have a reason. I do this because my dad did it. I use this because that's what I was taught. Del Monte green beans are the best green beans in a can because that's what my mom said.



The flip side was true too. I don't use that because so-and-so uses it. I don't do that because I don't have the money or that's not what we learned.



As I get older, I'm finding that I really don't care about all those reasons. I really don't like to have to justify everything that I do. I don't like to have to explain. I'm eating M&Ms because I feel like the peanuts provide my brain with the proper balance of fat and fiber so that I can think clearly for the next 20 years. It just gets old. So now I tend to do things because I like them, or I don't like them, or whatever.



Yes, I still have things that drive me to eat things. The latest thing I've been hung up on is walnuts. I keep reading, if you eat a handful of walnuts a day, it'll help your brain continue to work well. I need all the help I can get in that department, so I've been eating a handful of walnuts every day. I'll do that until they do a study and it says walnuts cause toe fungus. And then I won't eat walnuts because I don't want toe fungus, or whatever.



I'm just tired of having to explain and document and justify and prove that I'm right and you're wrong. I just want to live.



Thank you God for the freedom just to live.



+++

Why I write ~

A friend of mine recently asked me how many books I've written. I told him three. He then asked me what had inspired me to start writing.



The question took me by surprise. I've answered it before. But it still surprised me!



I told him that I had listened to my grandfather tell stories about his life, and how when he passed away his storeis went with him. Same with my grandmothers on both sides. Same with my father. And that I didn't want my stories to disappear like that. And that I want people to know a little about them through me.



I've used my writing to work through things in my life, to share my thoughts and beliefs, and to share my experiences. Reading has been such a wonderful experience for me because I've learned so much, and now people can learn about me through my writing.



I hope my stories will go on after I'm gone.



+++