cheerfulmonk.com

The great man is one who never loses his child’s heart.
—Mencius

May 22, 2024

Sunday Beau, Sandra/Mad Snapper’s heart dog, wrote,

MY HEART MAMA IS TAKING MONDAY OFF TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO PLAY A SONG ON GARAGE BAND! BOTH BLOGS!

In fact, Sandra ended up doodling on her iPad with the Procreate app. The details don’t matter. She reminded me of this story about Kurt Vonnegut that I repeat from time:

In 2006, a teacher at Xavier High School in New York had her students write a letter to their favorite author inviting him/her to come speak to the class. Only one author, Kurt Vonnegut, answered. He turned down the invitation, but his reply is heartwarming:

November 5, 2006

Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:

I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana. What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and
sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula.

Here’s an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net.
Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms.
Lockwood. OK? Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacles. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow.

God bless you all!
Kurt Vonnegut

So hurray for Sandra, and also for Ann who inspires us with her doodles. They not only feed their souls, they make the world a happier place.

May 21, 2024

May 20, 2024

Early voting started May 7, and I’ve had it on my calendar nagging at me. I was planning to go next week, but I found out that starting yesterday the polls are also open on Saturdays now. So off I went. Partly I do it because I treasure the right to vote, but even more because I’m touched by the poll workers. They were happy to see me and thanked me for voting. (I was the only voter there at the time, but a fellow was walking in as I left.) It made me happy to tell them how much I appreciated them. I was on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day.

May 19, 2024

We had an appointment in the afternoon, so he worked on doing research on batteries for our photovoltaic system.

The present batteries are 10 years old and towards the end of their warranty. They are starting to show some signs of age, but they should be good for a couple more years. So he’s looking at the same kind of battery plus another kind of battery that would need less attention once it’s installed. Kaitlin and Torben will decide whether to wait or try to put new batteries in now…assuming our solar fellow can do it, of course.

Anyway, Andy has done his part and we’ll see what happens. Needless to say, the project has given his little grey cells a good workout.

May 19, 2024

Yesterday’s post reminded me of two years ago, when we were down here watching the maps and briefings of the fire threatening our land. In my May 1st post, I Know How to Pick ‘Em I wrote,

Andy said,

I wouldn’t mind being ten or twenty years younger so I would have more time to rebuild.

He’s handling it well, but I’m not surprised. When I got married I was marrying for life and wanted someone who would wear well. Yep, I know how to pick ’em.

We lost some of the trees Andy had planted after the 2011 fire, but the house, shed, etc. were fine. The fire fighting crew not only fought the fire, they tried to keep us informed and sent this picture of our house on May 5th:

How impressive is that?

We were allowed back in exactly two years ago, on May 17. Here are three pictures:

There are a lot more in this Flickr album.

May 17, 2024

I came across these yesterday:

Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.
– Vivian Komori

When it comes to life the critical thing is, whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.
– Gilbert Chesterton

Amen to both of those! I especially like the idea of being bounceable. 🙂

It was another great day here — sunny in the morning, some nice rain in the afternoon:

How was your day?

May 16, 2024

It was gorgeous yesterday morning when Andy and I walked the couple of blocks to the health fair at the senior center. It started clouding up when we got home, and we had a gentle rain down here in the afternoon.

As you know, we love rain. It means we’re only in a moderate drought now,

May 7, 2024

Not like the exceptional drought we had in 2018:

May, 2018

Or the severe drought we had before our big fire in 2011.

June, 2011

Or the extreme drought during our last fire in 2022, when were were warned to be packed and ready to evacuate:

May, 2022

You can see why we love rain.

If you are curious about droughts in the whole U.S. or in your state go to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

May 15, 2024

creativeartworksblog

I love this poster, but I think the sentiment is wrong. Yes, we shouldn’t panic or catastrophize, but notice Pooh is paddling and Piglet is bailing.

The old British sentiment,

Keep calm and carry on

seems to be more appropriate. What do you think?

May 14, 2024

These were all taken a few weeks ago.

The fellow in yellow is apparently teaching the others how to shoot basketball hoops, April 28:

The skateboarder, May 2:

And a party, May 5:

The management did a great job with the picnic area and basketball court.

May 13, 2024