And so it begins.

Today we swing into full gardener, lawn care, landscape mode. We are planting tomatoes, spreading soil and grass seed, planting flowers, spreading fertilizer, weed killer, and hope. Hope mixed with some prayer and topped with wishes. Watered into the fresh, earth, carefully chosen, and purchased, carried home in the back of a pickup, hauled around by hand to the back of the house, cut open and spread with care to cover the bare spots. Seed sprinkled generously over the dark, rich soil. 

But, the real good news is the emergence of my true calling, “travel videographer.” I know a trip to the local warehouse style hardware store with its endless aisles, vanishing help, and dizzying variety of styles, prices and milling, moving rivers of customers wouldn’t seem to offer much fodder for a video, maybe though, if you look at it right. 

Streams of people, all with huge carts loaded with lumber, tools, plants, bags, bundles and bales, piled so high they can hardly see around them. So heavy they can hardly steer. Big, unwieldy tanks left right in the middle of the path and rush over to look at the pallet piled high with something on sale. A huge basket, heavy, imposing and impossible to get around, a rock in the middle of a stream, laws of fluid motion fueled by anger, haste, and self importance. 

You can almost hear the indignity. “That is where I was going to leave my cart, you inconsiderate slob.” And, if the pallet of sale items is significant enough there will be a row of heavy carts, running down the aisle, around the corner, and back to the door leading to the garden center. From that point it becomes a phenomenon that feeds itself.  More people see the fascination and want a small piece, without even knowing what lies at the end of the rainbow. 

It doesn’t take long for the wait to increase the pressure. By the time people get to the display they are in a feeding frenzy, convinced that anything worth that kind of line, slow, interminable had to be valuable enough to buy several, no matter what it was. Supply and demand at its most primitive. 

Fortunes are made in those moments. A mad dash, in slow motion, a wide band of shopping carts narrowing into a laser focus at one spot and exploding out from a single point, for something, anything. It is a play that repeats across stores, across cities and states, driving up the value of companies whose products have stirred the interest of a random shopper whose tastes runs toward bargains in bulk. 

I like to wander, look, touch, pick up things, examine them, wonder if the product and I could have a meaningful relationship. My wife hates it when I touch things, but she knows it is who I am, I have to touch fence posts, stop signs, it is how I practice communion with the world, it keeps me grounded. And I like to look at things in stores, find out if it would be my thing, a thing I could use. Normally it isn’t, sometimes, though. My wife goes with a plan, she has studied the advertisement, she knows what she wants, and has a path laid out in her mind. But she is willing to wander a bit, to keep me in sync with things, she is good to me that way.

People, Memories, and Life.

Memorial Day, and I think of the people I lost. A parade of faces, memories, has it really been that many? You don’t really notice, it just kind of happens, but when you stop and think about it, really think about it there are too many. Each holds a special place, each carries their load of history, your history, my history. Too many faces, too many people. It is overwhelming. A lot of times the thing you remember the most is finding out, when someone told you they were gone. It was a punch, fast, unexpected, painful. It is a feeling that can last a lifetime.

In a lot of ways, though, the real sadness is when you think of the people who are still alive and you never see anymore. Times change, people change, places change, and people change places. But, deep inside there is always a part that remembers the people who are still alive and are long gone. They are the ghosts of modern society. And they haunt you too.

It is the ultimate revenge of mobility. We can move farther, faster and more efficiently but at what cost? Looking back, the friends who helped me through life are scattered around the country, and if I see their smiling mug on Facebook it always bring a pained smile. A smile because I see their face, the pain knowing I may never see them in person again. Some of these people were so close, so good to me they passed from friend to family. And some people are lost so completely I don’t even see them there.

But, it is a time of celebration. My parents are buried in a little cemetery close to where they grew up, so many years ago. It is a long way from where I live. My cousin and her husband make the rounds. Decorating graves all over, in small, almost hidden graveyards. It is a joyful practice, and they do it with love, and admiration, and respect for the people they knew and loved. It brings some peace knowing my parents are not being ignored. I can’t really explain why but it does. This year they even sent me a picture, and it brought a tear to my eye. I can never thank them enough.

One year we were fortunate enough to be there to help them go and gather the flowers and decorations, it may have been one of the most spiritual moments of my life. Watching them, driving from place to place, paying their respects, sharing their memories.

Memories are important, but don’t forget to remember the people who are in front of you, they are important, too.

Videos, Hot Tuna and Memorial Day, Life is alright.

One week from today, actually a week from Monday, is Memorial Day. It is a very solemn day for many good reasons. Most of which I ignore, I am excited by the three day weekend. I like my job, and right now it is pretty easy, but a three day weekend is a gift from the gods of leisure. It is a holiday provided through the beneficence of the US government, which almost makes me a little sorry for all of the bad things I've said about them over the years, almost.

But, my plans involve yard work, a trip to the gym, and a new video about going to the gym.  I have been working on the various sequences, and effects, and transitions.  It is going to be great, I just bought The Greatest Hits by Hot Tuna. So there will be cool music, if you like Hot Tuna.

Speaking of Hot Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen is from Ohio, and runs a guitar camp in southern Ohio. Which is cool if you want to play guitar with a legend and you can make it to southern Ohio.

Another interesting Hot Tuna fact, one time time when were visiting family in Sioux City Iowa, and we were staying at the Stony Creek hotel. We happened to be there during a festival, I think it is called Awesome Biker Nights, and Hot Tuna was playing at the festival, and stayed in the same hotel. Which is kind of cool.

I went to get some ice, and actually saw them come in to the lobby. It was a little sad, because they could hardly walk, they looked exhausted, touring as often and as long as they have takes a toll I guess. Still it was cool, if you like Hot Tuna, and happened to be in the lobby. If you were I didn't see you, sorry about that I wasn't ignoring you.

So, I will be busy as will Jorma Kaukonen, and I am sure you have things to do. But, if you see me say hello, and if you are Jorma Kaukonen thanks for all the great music, maybe I will run into you again, and that would be very cool.

Everything has a price.

Without a Monday the week has been thrown into chaos.  Days are crashing into each other, smashing up against nights, and things are looking bleak.  There is no order, no sense, and there is a lawless, violent attitude.  Wednesday, normally kind, polite, and considerate, actually pulled a knife on Tuesday night, and started forty five minutes earlier than was scheduled.  Some clocks were so confused they stopped working, and formed a small militia with the intent of straightening out the whole mess.

These clocks stole a mass transit bus, drove it through the Week Day Police Barricade and smashed into the Office of Temporal Management (OTM, in government shorthand).  Sadly, nobody was there, they had decided one day was not enough to celebrate the labor that had been performed over the course of the summer, the year, or all of history, they were not sure what period of labor was being honored on Labor Day.  But, they were pretty certain it would take at least seven days to pay a proper tribute.

Since clocks have such linear thinking they were unsure how to proceed and milled about the offices, making coffee, answering phones, filling in forms, and filing them away.  On Thursday the Superintendent of the Building of Reality Allocation where the OTM is located received a phone call complimenting the workers in that particular office.  It was the first time anyone had ever said anything nice about anybody anywhere in the building.  The caller actually said "my appointment went like clockwork, it started right on time, and a few ticks later I was on my way."

Now  it was the Superintendent who was unsure how to proceed.  After careful consideration, he issued an executive order firing everyone in the OTM.  It was the only reasonable course of action, he knew that the other offices were still filled with people just putting in their time, and one office filled with efficiency and swiss watch precision was going to make the rest of the place look even worse.

On Monday they accidentally hired the entire vacationing staff to fill the office, clocks are back to keeping time, and waking people at godless, terrible hours, and things are back to normal, at least until Memorial Day.

Hey, Friday is closer than you thought.

Since Memorial Day is so close and the week has been so hectic we, here at Life Explained, have decided it would be in the best interest of all of humanity cancel Thursday this week.

Sure, many of the Geochronologists felt it would be much better to just postpone Thursday until next week, feeling that eliminating a whole twenty four hour cycle could have catastrophic effects, possibly destroying the frail fabric of space time.  They warned that it could cause such rifts in our universe that it could shatter worlds, and "tear asunder the universe to such a point that the entire history of all that ever was would be wiped clean, and we would have rebooted time itself."

Maybe, and that could be bad, but Friday, and a three day weekend would be here one day earlier and that is worth a roll of the dice.

Of course, they reminded us of that incident when we traveled back in time to add another spoonful of coffee grounds to the pot we had just brewed, it was so weak it was practically undrinkable.  They were all worried about toying with events that had already happened.  Sure, the kitchen was destroyed by the monster that sprung from the anomaly in the coffee container from having beans taken so abruptly "out of time sequence," but, nobody died, sure some people are still missing, but nobody even remembers their names anymore.  Yes, the monster is still loose, and that might be a problem, but the kitchen is remodeled, better than ever, and that coffee was fantastic.

Obviously, this is not without risk, and we need to remember the consequences, but, Friday only comes once a week, and it always seems to be so slow in arriving.  And, three day weekends are so rare, and precious that a little risk is worth the reward.  If it works, we will see you tomorrow, on Friday, if not, well it has been fun, and we are sorry we brought such an abrupt end to all of creation.