Memorial Play

Yea, the title is a play on 'Memorial Day'. One of the overbearing parts of social media is the endless sanctimony, especially around holidays that honor military personnel. Every friggin year I see a glut of 'holier than thou' rants about how we should be spending holidays.

"iT's nOt NaTiOnAl BBq dAy"

Or something like that.

Let me make myself perfectly clear: if someone fights for me, if someone dies for me, then the best way to honor their service and sacrifice is to cherish and exercise what I would have lost otherwise.

Now excuse me, I have a BBQ to fire up, because I can.

The (big) Doors

My workplace utilizes a forklift to accept large deliveries of heavy stuff. We, in turn, make it into many, smaller things, but that's not where I'm going with this. What it means is that my workplace has giant doors. Frickin huge doors that you can literally drive through.

Seriously. The owner once stored a car in there for awhile.

When the weather is miserable and, well, not nice, the doors make no difference. Until we get a large delivery of heavy stuff, in which case everyone gets an icy blast. However, on those delightful sunny days, my coworkers like to torture everyone by keeping them wide open, so everyone can see the wonderful day that they can't enjoy because they're stuck at work.

Also, there are such doors on opposite ends of the building, and the narrow space I occupy happens to be a choke point for the gentle breeze everyone else gets to enjoy. When it gets to me, it's half cyclone. Some days I have more paperweights than paper. I keep random tools on top of folders just in case the doors open when I'm busy elsewhere.

I'd set up a pinwheel in the doorway if it wouldn't encourage them.

Not out enough

I'm not exactly sure when I discovered my love of hiking, but it's there. I suppose it happened once I stopped working nights, and had a humane work schedule that allowed such things as "time off" and the ability to schedule events more than a week in advance.

So I've been doing more outdoorsy stuff with my family, and I discover that the further I am from any shred of society, the more peaceful I feel. Also, I realized that nobody can keep up with my natural pace, and slowing down is really frustrating.

Seriously, I'm an extrovert. Being out in nature is great, but being *alone* out in nature is creepy. I gotta strike a balance here somewhere.

My turn

So one by one I've been taking my kids to the dentist, and today was my turn. It seems that what I've been ignoring has only gotten worse.

Both the hygienist and the dentist thought it odd that I felt no pain in a particular region in my mouth. Their exam and x-ray indicated a problem that should, by all accounts, hurt. Sitting here, I can't even remember which side of my mouth they were talking about.

I'm not sure if this is really good or really bad. I'll fill you in right after they do.

The break of Sun

People are always so happy when the cold weather finally breaks. That awkward transition where you need a jacket in the morning, but then are stuck with it the rest of the day because it's too warm: it sucks. I naturally run warm, so I gave up on morning jackets years ago.

I'm not referring to My Morning Jacket. I'm actually completely unfamiliar with their music, I just happen to know they exist and my above parlance seemed like a reference.

Anyway...

I've never felt like I've experienced seasonal affective disorder. Winter never made me sad. Summer never made me happy. It was always situational. This year, the breaking of winter and all the extra sunshine seems to have coincided with an uncharacteristic bout of happiness.

I suppose planning camping trips does that.