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Misty-the-Dog and Friends

March 29, 2026

Pearls Before Swine
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I disagree with the guru’s implication that you need to be a “success” in life in order to be happy. The comic reminds me of Stephen Covey’s,

Nothing is worse than climbing the ladder of success, only at the top to find it is leaning against the wrong building.

Being “successful” in the conventional use of the word doesn’t mean the person will be happy at the end.

Bronnie Ware was a palliative nurse and wrote a book entitled, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. She said those regrets were:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

So I agree with Pig about not focusing on worldly success, but that doesn’t mean not trying things and seeing what works and what doesn’t. If it doesn’t work it’s not a failure, it’s just more knowledge.

If Plan A doesn’t work there are 25 more letters in the alphabet.

Anyway, that’s what makes me happy. What about you?

March 28, 2026

Yesterday’s post was,

Shoe
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Have you ever wished you could return a day for something better?

I was surprised when Tom wrote,

…don’t be a downer.

I thought the comic was funny and wondered if anyone else felt the same way. So instead of asking people about past or present bad experiences, I should have written,

Does anyone else think this comic is funny?

Shug’s comment to the post was,

Oh yes…there are those days, but yet I know that even in the days that I wish I could trade out, the Lord is teaching me something..

Her comment, and the Shoe comic, reminds me of about 35 years ago, when both Andy and I were in danger of losing our jobs — both the divisions we were in were having serious financial problems. It was scary, of course, but I also remember it as an exciting and happy time. (See my 2007 post, What I Learned From Being Down-Sized.) I turned to my favorite empowering question,

What’s the opportunity here?

and to my favorite prayer for times like those,

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity. I sure hope You know what You are doing.

Life can be challenging, and sometimes it sucks. But — if we can do it — having a sense of humor helps a lot. In my mind it’s up there with curiosity as a superpower.

What do you think?

March 27, 2028

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Shoe

Have you ever wished you could return a day for something better?

March 26, 2026

Calvin at the doctor’s

Calvin and Hobbes

reminds me of this husky:

 
Shug and Myra got the answer to yesterday’s riddle — it was a map.

The answer to the math problem was 34 — the sum of the top three numbers times 2. I was amused that it was in a book for 8-to-12 year-olds. I wasn’t about to waste any time on it, but I was curious what the answer was. Hurray for AI — a boon to curious but lazy people like me. 🙂

March 25, 2026

One of the pages of our day-by-day calendar had this brain teaser on the back:

What has cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish?

Neither Andy nor I knew the answer, but ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude had no problem with the answer. Apparently it’s a well known riddle.

But, ah! I have a puzzle book with a problem I couldn’t figure out even when they gave me the answer.

How embarrassing. I bought the book over three years ago and forgot about the problem until today. Find the value for the question mark.

The problem for ChatGPT and Perplexity is there is more than one formula that fits the answer, but if I give them the answer they can tell me the rule for it. That’s a lot better than I did! When I told it the answer they were looking for, ChatGPT said,

Nice puzzle—and a good reminder that the simplest pattern is often the right one.

(If you are curious, the answer is this. What’s the formula?)

Anyway, bless AI for telling me the formula after all these years. I don’t know any 8-12 year olds who could solve the problem for me.

March 24, 2026

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Betty

This comic made my day. 🙂

March 23, 2026

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Pearls Before Swine

I love learning new things and developing life skills, but it’s not to accumulate “wisdom.” I do it because it makes me happy — feeling more fully alive in the present.

As I’ve said, my mantra is,

Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keeps learning and growing. Find what you love and find a way to share it with others.

That works for me.

March 22, 2026

Ziggy — July 13, 2018

Do you think Ziggy was right? Do you think 2018 was a better time than now? What about the future? Do you think we will have fond memories of today?

Whatever, enjoy what we have while we still have it.

I’m still enjoying playing with my plants. I cut off two of the three bean plants because they had stopped growing, but I left this one because it is still has a new little blossom. I don’t have the heart to toss it yet.

This is the last picture of my sweet potato.

I tossed it because it didn’t “spark joy.”

I planted some chick peas 10 days ago — this is what they looked like yesterday.

And I planted new mung beans 5 days ago — this is what they looked like yesterday.

I’m not expecting the new bean plants to do well — even though the days are longer, they won’t be getting the direct sun they would get in winter. I will let you know!

March 21, 2026

Yesterday’s post reminds me of these quotes:

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.
–Jane Austen

We do not remember days, we remember moments.
—-Cesare Pavese

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.
-—Omar Khayyam

Enjoy the little things in life, because someday you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.
–Kurt Vonnegut

I have to include this one, even though it’s a bit of a downer:

Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed.
—-Homer, The Iliad

Sorry about that, but it made me laugh. It fits too perfectly for Andy and me — nothing imminent, of course.

March 20, 2026