more normal than not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61tI38F31To

It’s Cyber Monday today.

It’s the online version of Black Friday.

That sounds like something to survive….like a time when the Terminator would show up in my driveway….naked in a cloud of teleportation fog….ready to find and kill me for some future transgression.

Or….it could just be a day when online retailers are setting the Postman up for a hard week with all their deep discounts.

Even knowing that I might be making it hard on myself if I ordered anything, I found myself gravitating towards sites that might show me what I could possibly want….or what I could imagine someone in my family might want.

And, like most folks in the world, I was working hard in my head to invent a need.

I need to sharpen the knives in our kitchen….but….wouldn’t it be nice to add to the collection and get something that was a little bit better….or….a little bit different if I already had what was good enough?

A new tool?

Something to educate me? Make me better than I am? A “thing” that might heal something broken?

Something better than what already filled my life?

I love that feeling of being able to say,”LOOK WHAT I GOT YOU!”….but….I don’t know what anybody in the family really needs right now.

I’m not ready to jump into the pool of consumption on a specified day.

I’m not ready for the pressure of inventing a need.

Still…it’s tempting to check out the deals.

It’s a national pastime….waiting for the day when availability meets invented desire and the consumerism that is everywhere explodes…..BAM….I WANT THIS! I WANT THAT!! OH!!! I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THAT I NEEDED THAT!!!”.

Ahhhhhh, who am I kidding? It’s hard to do anything after a rough nights sleep….much less be a good and energetic hunter/gatherer.

I guess that if you’re going to buy, it’s wise to “buy smart”.

Today is good deal day….why not jump in?

Anyway, it’s a good thing to join the horde and descend on the new grain….locusts eating when they aren’t really hungry, locusts caught up in the cloud of compatriots….strangers side by side, eating until they can’t fly and they fall to the ground, anchored by “need”.

Things will be different when I’m fully outfitted to live the simple life!

I wonder if there’s any good deals that will help me downsize my posessions?

I should look in the “simple life” aisle.

What do the people in my life need?

They need “new”….that’s what they need.

We need new.

What’s so hard about that?

New….for a moment.

New….and wrapped … a present.

A present….like an unexpected flower from a Winter field.

Good grief….just surprise me.

It’s Cyber Monday.

 

This is a YouTube video called “Underbid Tree Job” from a fellow named Reg Coates.

When you watch it, the low-key introduction will make you think that this is the most boring video you’ve ever seen.

That’s the nature of a man who is willing to be understated talking about doing something that’s really dangerous.

When a man isn’t squealing in fear he can make the terrifying seem mundane.

I’ve seen people take down trees before, and it always makes me hold my breath a little.

You don’t always know how things will go when you’re cutting down a tree.

Trees, especially one that’s this rotten, are unpredictable when you’re trying to take them down.

This guy’s a pro….and did a hard job well.

That’s thrilling, really.

No CGI, even.

A real….slow….thriller.

Here’s another video of the kind of stuff these guys do:

Man….the biggest thumb piano I’ve ever seen.

This one has room for all the fingers!

Pretty darn cool.

Nice Earthship in New Zealand….featured on a show called “Grand Designs”.

We lived in New Jersey for a couple of years….and when we moved down South I couldn’t understand the way the folks down here talked.

Of course, I couldn’t understand those Yankees when we moved to New Jersey from California a couple of years before that, too.

It’s funny, though, how some people tease me about being a Yankee for having lived up there….way up there….up North.

You know?

Now, I’d miss it if I didn’t hear people talking like this.

It’s home now….to hear those words.

When someone asks me, “How you doin’ ?” I say, “I’m doin’ good. You?”

Someone from a different part of the world would correct me in their heads by thinking, “he must mean ‘well’. Surely, he meant to say, “I’m doing quite well, thankyou. How are you doing today?”

That’s just not the way to talk sometimes.

Good people talk all different ways…sometimes.

That’s what I’ve learned, I guess.

You’ve got to look behind the words to see the good folks.

You have to be with them where they are.

And…it’s nice if they’re willing to be with you where you are.

What the heck? We’re all in the same place.

That’s a good thing.