Leap Day: A Free Shot!

American football fans know what a quarterback is likely to do when a flag is thrown early in a play and he knows it is against the opposition.  He will take a big risk and try to pull off a big play!

Why?  Well, in the worst case, the play comes back and his team chooses to accept the penalty against the other team and his team comes out ahead.  So, even the downside is an upside!

But … if he pulls off the big play, he may get a score or huge yardage.  So, his upside is a huge upside!

Leap Day, February 29th once every four years, should be seen like that.  First, we should all be off today.  Second, we should do something that has a huge upside like winning the lottery or getting a Nobel Prize - and the universe should give us a downside that is actually an upside!

We should get this because it isn’t a real day.  Look at last year’s calendar and see if you can find February 29th.  Look at next year’s calendar and see if you can find February 29th.  You can’t, because February 29th is not as real a day, the way I see it.

Besides … the universe owes us one!

This logic supplied as a public service announcement in the spirit of Gracie Allen.

The Feds Monitor Facebook and Twitter

Surprise!  Not.

The keywords being monitored have also been published.  Of course, I can’t publish them here or … well … I’d get monitored.

My Tax Appeal Has Been Declined

Not only that, my CPA license has been revoked!

Before any of my readers elevate their blood pressure and try to collect for bail money for me, I need to tell you that these are just spam messages received in the last week.  There are a few plausibility problems:

• I haven’t made a tax appeal.
• I’m not a CPA to begin with.

Other than that … they have me pegged perfectly.

The Alps still await

While the Lady F and I have been helping her mother with life rearrangement, I suddenly noticed that our most recent Alp trek elephant has been busy! He has gathered a dog - a Big Dog to be exact - who should be good for scouting and carrying brandy. He also found a boom box, knowing that the only native music in the region is yodeling and great big, long horns.

I like the initiative this elephant shows!

Serenity

This topic has been brought to our Friday gathering of the Loose Bloggers Consortium by my good friend Ramana.

People dying all around us – four major players in my family's world in the past year, with a fifth to come – and all the minor irritants of every day life.  Where does a man find serenity in the midst of all this?

In a nutshell, right here:

Paul McCartney

Senior Citizen Texting Codes

Today’s entries for this Fossil and all the other Fossils out there came from a fellow Fossil – and good friend! – Ramana Rajgopaul:

A bar too low to limbo under

Limbo!  How low can you go?  I hope anyone reading this is aware of Limbo, the contest to see who can go under the lowest bar without placing their hands on the ground behind them.

Earlier today, I saw the imagery used in a different – and most appropriate – context, one that I will no doubt use as part of my internal verbal tool kit henceforth.  Someone lowered culinary standards so far in a concoction that another commented in criticism that they had set a bar too low to limbo under.

We all see it.  Standards so low, considerations so inappropriate, crude or nasty that we are left astounded.  Do we stoop to the level of the problem and fight it?  Do we try to raise the consideration back to acceptable heights?  Or do we simply observe, “That’s a bar too low to limbo under!”?

More and more, I am evolving to the latter.

Does this sound appetizing to you?

Inside joke for those who actually know The Old Fossil.  As though you actually could …

My Idea of Fun

This topic is brought to us this week by Padmini.

My idea of fun?  Hmmm…

This is a hard one.  I just kind of have fun spontaneously.  But, it usually has certain key ingredients, not all necessarily there every time, but some of them need to be present:

• Doing things with friends
• Sharing ideas, especially BIG ideas
• Sharing laughter and good humor
• Sharing the joy of accomplishment
• Bathing in the sensual luxuries this world affords
• Doing something stimulating and interesting
• Watching someone or group of people express an amazing talent or gift
• Traveling and seeing new places
• Not being pressed by schedules or expectations or any feelings of guilt
• Playing with kids and animals
• Watching my kids, grandkids, nephews and nieces as they create their worlds around them

I know this list isn’t exhaustive, so what would you add to it?  Have some fun with it!

Male Thinking

Men are accused of being primitive creatures.  We are accused of this by women.  We are not accused of this by other men, because other men are too primitive to make the accusation.

One of the prime accusations is that men around women are often not thinking with their brains, but somewhat south of that region.  I decided to investigate the science behind this and began looking for patterns.  First, I received this from Mayo:

At first, I was a-mazed.  But, that was simply the primitive part of me taking over temporarily.

To snap out of it, I decided to read my Scientific American.  That is when I discovered their logo:

Finally, the link between the two regions has been found!

Thank you. More please!

I was watching a movie last night where a cab driver told a female passenger that she needed to live her life continuously as, “Thank you.  More please!”

There are times when you really don’t want more.  Like when violence is involved.  But … the times when you DO want more are plentiful.  While staying in Napa with last week’s events, there was plenty of time on my hands.  One of the things I like to do when I have time is walk and take in my surroundings.  Here are a few of the images I applauded while absorbing:

Ornamental grape vines in the winter:

The vineyards in the winter:

A neighbor’s Scotty:

And then, magnificent sunsets two nights in a row:

After the return home, alone in my own house when it wasn’t work hours, an extreme rarity, I watched part of said movie, but switched away to something I NEVER watch, the Grammy Awards.  Much heralded was Adele, who swept every category she was entered in.  6 Grammys.  And, you know what?  I never heard anyone complain.  If they do, ignore them.  The woman is magnificent.

Here is a YouTube recording of her performing live, singing “Rolling In The Deep”:

I wanted you to see her live because it always communicates more than just the studio recording.  Then I want you to purchase her music.  We almost lost her voice this past year when a surgeon saved her vocal chords after a hemorrhage!  Give her your love and let’s nourish this phenomenal developing talent barely in adulthood!

Thank you.  More please!

Misconceptions about centering and waiting

Waiting doesn't mean that you do nothing. You don't pick fruit or harvest grain until it is ripe. You don't push events, you let them develop. But, in both cases, there is always current activity, because other developments have caught up with your experience.

In the meantime, staying centered, balanced and patient in the present is the ideal.

People on various blogs are creating false objections this week, some of them propelled with great anger. It is a shame, because it is coming from the distortion of a simple idea.

Wait

This topic brought to the LBC this Friday by Grannymar.

Events. We love them, we fear them, we embrace them, we try to avoid them. None of that matters, for we are tossed into their midst as we hurtle into the future relentlessly, right?

As my son put it yesterday, it's a roll of the dice, Russian Roulette. Some win the lottery and others get cancer. Totally luck of a random draw.

Perhaps, though I don't believe it. But we need not feel like twigs spinning down the stream or leaves tossed on the wind. It is just as valid - and much more effective - to center on our experience and wait for events to catch up to it.

One of the funnier takes on this perspective was given us by W. C. Fields in a movie when he pilots a plane to somewhere in the Arctic. Upon landing, Eskimos with the obligatory white teacher rush to the plane. Fields is asked where he is going and when he replies, "New York," he is informed that he is lost. He replies that he "is right here. It's New York that is lost!"

We are focused and at ease here. Let the events do the work and find us.

You have found release

It is a blessing you didn't have to linger and suffer.

A good place to spend a life

The eldest Fossil has lived his entire life in the Napa Valley. I took the picture you see here yesterday while walking behind his home. It is a peaceful, beautiful valley.

The Wheel Keeps Turning ...

... and God's mill grinds exceedingly fine.

They determined what it is. My father-in-law has liver cancer. They estimate he has two to three weeks left and he will go into hospice care.

Thank you all for the support you give. I love you guys.

Older Fossil Update

Last I talked with you, we were looking at a Skilled Nursing Facility for rehabilitation. Things have changed considerably since then. My father-in-law is following a very serious and simultaneously atypical pattern. It is now believed that there is quite a combination of factors at work and the sense of urgency by the medical staff is to be applauded.

He has Parkinson's, but the belief now is that this is almost a bit player being magnified by other factors. They have discovered he has hepatic encephalopathy, where the liver is inadequately clearing toxins from the system. This leads to neurological failure. They are purging his system to clear the toxins manually, so to speak, for the neurological failure magnifies the effects of the Parkinson's.

Still, that isn't the whole story. He shows certain enzyme elevations that show cardiac problems and he may in fact be having a slow heart attack. They also have him in this morning for MRI testing searching for clots and other clues. This is like having all of us cast in an episode of House.

The Lady F's mother is very weary at this point and I am staying with her at her house while Lady F is at the hospital. We maintain contact as we go through the day and this is the optimal solution right now. Everyone is doing their part on the team. I will be trimming shrubbery, for this is what will ease Lady F's mother's mind.

Like the doctors and my FIL, we are all on a voyage of discovery. I will keep you posted.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What do you do while you wait?

Fossils preparing to cross the Alps gather more elephants.

Fossil Testing from my iPad

If you can see this, the test is successful. If not ... well, just ignore it.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Fossil Detour

The Lady F's mother and step-father had a bad week and we received an emergency call early yesterday morning. Long story short, after an ambulance trip, we spent all day at the hospital and he will be transferred to a skilled nursing facility today.

The wheel of time keeps turning. Along the way, it generates challenges alloyed with gentle grace.

I will send micro posts like this as the events catch up with experience. That last line is for Rummuser to consider. :)

The Old Foss is comfortable in his skin

Sorry, Mayo.

Perceptions

This image fits nicely with the concepts in a book sent to me by my good friend – and the producer of this LBC topic – Ramana Rajgopaul.  Consistent with Eastern understanding, the individual is but one ripple on a sea of consciousness.  There are certainly lesser understandings than this - and less accurate understandings - in all cultures.  Working with it raises the level of my own perceptions and that can’t be bad.

But, wait!  How has The Old Fossil known Ramana long enough to be engaged in a private philosophical / spiritual discussion?  And, why is The Old Fossil writing about a aConsortium topic?  Because I am a long-time Consortium member invited back into the fold by Grannymar.

Projecting The Old Fossil has allowed me to place my identity at arms length, allowed me to look at the ripple from afar.  Physics teaches us that observation does indeed affect the observed and it is affecting me.

I have less attachment to those parts I will leave behind.  Parts now unnecessary, parts of another time.  It is a spiritual metamorphosis and it feels good.

All of this even though the blogging product is mostly silly fun on my / The Old Fossil’s part.  The Old Fossil is lighter and prone to taking himself less seriously than I have been.  Old Foss or Tee O or TOF has a certain comfort with himself that I like.

He is teaching me.

I want this dream

I’m a good sleeper.  But, on the trip across India and the Alps on an elephant, I suspect I will need all the energy I can muster and that means some top quality dreams.

This looks like a good one and I’m going to order it.  Where do I go on Amazon to do that?  And can you get it in stereo so Mayo and I can both be in it?  Grannymar, Rummuser – you want to be in it?  Gail, Red Top, Violet?

Of course, I get to be the sun god.  I saw it first.

Mayo and I will take our show on the road!

I figured that if Mayo and I were going to be taken seriously as showmen, we would naturally need an elephant.  Then Grannymar mentioned the Alps and Hannibal and I got to thinking that we could kind of re-enact that and it would be impressive.  It made me think of the dramatic movie with Victor Mature:

I mean, Mayo and I are those kinds of men.  Rugged, exceptionally handsome.  Action oriented.  I had already purchased the eye patch!

So, I checked to see if one of those spectacular elephants from the movie was available – and it was!!!  So, I got the elephant.

The problem is that I had no idea how much makeup they use for these movies.  Here is how the elephant looks without the makeup:

What do you guys think?