Posts in the “personal” category

“To complain is (your) nonacceptance of what is. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in power. So change the situation by taking action or speaking out. Leave the situation or accept it; all else is madness.

If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options:

• Remove yourself from the situation
• Change it
• Accept it totally

If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity.”

~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power Of Now (slightly edited by me)

Found a note today that I wrote on December 24, 2005. I noted that a friend went out of their way to wish me a Merry Christmas, and it was the nicest thing to happen recently and I never wanted to forget it. Reading it tonight made me smile again. Never underestimate the potential effect of the simplest kind word or act.

Here are two good articles on taking a tour of the Patrón distillery in Guadalajara, Mexico, one from traveldistilled.com and a second from distillerytrail.com. (This post is inspired by a tequila discussion with one of my nieces at another niece’s recent wedding.)

Suzanne takes you down takes you down
To her place by the river

You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night forever

And you know the girl’s half crazy
And that’s why you want to be there

And just when you want to tell her
That you have no love to give her

She gets you on her wavelength
And lets the river answer

That you’ve always been her lover

~ Some lyrics from “Suzanne,” written by Leonard Cohen in the 1960s. (In terms of a song I’d like to listen to, I prefer the Neil Diamond version.)

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.

The trouble with the maples
And they’re quite convinced they’re right
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.

But the oaks can’t help their feelings
If they like the way they’re made
And they wonder why the maples
Can’t be happy in their shade?

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream “Oppression!”
And the oaks just shake their heads.

~ from The Trees, by Rush

“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.”

~ Richard Feynman

I’m surprised that nobody I know knows the story Tiger Eyes, either the book by Judy Blume or the movie based on the book.

Probably the main theme of the book is about people who are afraid. Presumably they’re afraid of dying, and the result is that they’re afraid of living. Meanwhile, a teenage girl who has good reason to be afraid encounters these people who are afraid of life, and eventually realizes that a fear of life is no way to live. Despite a horrific thing that has happened in her recent past, she makes a conscious decision to live her life.

Dear Diary: Day 20 of not having a thyroid (because of thyroid cancer), not taking thyroid medicine, and the low-iodine diet.

I didn’t know if a person could lose weight without a thyroid, but I’ve dropped six pounds so far. In all I’ve dropped 20 pounds since I finished writing the Scala Cookbook (when I was working around the clock, not exercising, and eating crap).

Blood pressure is usually about 96/56, heart rate 48-54 BPM, and that’s without taking any heart meds. (I’d pass out for sure if I took those.) Low on energy and can’t take my usual long walks without getting the shakes.

Hopefully I’ll pass the blood test on Wednesday — my TSH level needs to be 30 or higher — so I can start the radiation treatment.

~ a note from June 16, 2014, after having my thyroid removed

True confession: My signature looks like my dad’s because I used to write my own notes to skip high school (and I did that a lot).

(Probably inspired by Juan Epstein.)

Two horses in Kentucky, June 1, 2019.

“If you have contact with pure consciousness even for a moment, you are liberated.”

~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

You’re not an official geek unless you’ve watched Firefly.

“Half of writing history is hiding the truth.”

~ Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity

While traveling recently for a niece’s wedding, I saw that John Cusack will be at the Louisville Palace on August 1, 2019. I was tempted to buy a ticket (or two), but managed to control myself. :)

Wow, after “Eleven Days of Hell” following my gallbladder surgery — I had a post-operative infection — I'm glad to say that I’m finally back to work from my gallbladder surgery. If you were thinking I haven’t responded to your comments or emails lately, well, you were right, and I’ll try to catch up soon.

I drove through St. Louis this past weekend, and made this 96-second video of the St. Louis Arch, more properly known as the Gateway Arch.

Right after I left Colorado ~3 weeks ago, I received a message that a package had arrived for me. I wasn’t expecting anything, so all I could think was that maybe the Nuts On Clark people had sent me a gift to apologize for a recent messed-up order.

I got back in Colorado last night, and when I walked to the front office today I found this “The Moose Is Back” t-shirt, which is an even better surprise than the free popcorn might have been. :)

One fun part of helping out with a niece’s wedding is that I got to legally park on a sidewalk on Saturday. When the people at the store told me to park on the sidewalk I had to repeat it back to them, “You want me to park on the sidewalk?”

I don’t know who originally put together this image, but I’m a fan of this “None of us are getting out of here alive” quote. It puts things in the proper context, imho.

I was listening to Must Love Dogs while driving yesterday (I’ve watched it so many times, I don’t need to see it to know what’s going on), and it reminded me that when I write about dogs in my books — Rocky, Zeus, Suka, etc. — these are some of the Siberian Huskies I’m writing about.