Another License Plate ... This one with the real story!

Picture collected outside the restaurant where Dad, Cheryl, and I had dinner tonight!  Dad and Cheryl were already inside - I shot the pic in the parking lot, came in and showed it to Cheryl.  Took her a while to translate - she then said "Late for Supper" out loud!  A chuckle from a nearby table - "That's mine" followed.  I went over and talked with her a bit, but upon my return to our table I realized that while I had actually met the owner of one of my license plate's pictures, I had neglected to get the story!

Back to her table I went -

The story ---- I used to be a Dead Head, but discovered that having bumper stickers, etc advertising that fact led to being pulled over too many times!  Thus the more subtle license plate message --- Late for Supper is the first song on Jerry Garcia's first album!  Also, being a pastry chef, she had named her business Late for Supper also!

People have such good stories if you take the time to listen!

 

I recently created a one of a kind Candy Corn Top for a friend's birthday!  Being a "production" sort of guy, I don't create very many "one-of-a-kind" things, so  this is unusual.  I'll probably make one for myself sometime... I'm thinking about other candy tops, including trying some with Christmas Candy?

Some days just give us wonderful -- another reference to an old blog post

Almost 5 years ago, someone left a note on our front door expressing appreciation of the artwork on our front porch, and in our windows.  We were very moved by the note, and I scanned it and included it in a very early blog post here.

Saturday evening at a party for a friend's 60th, I was talking  with a couple about misc stuff.  While cycling through some pictures on my phone looking for the picture of my new Big Yellow Bike with grandchildren to show them, I went by a picture that showed some of our figures.  The woman exclaimed something on the order of "Oh you are those artists!"  A few moments later she said how much she liked our house, and that she had left a note on our door several years back!  Our mysterious stranger who made us feel so good years ago, had materialized right in front of me!

I love how the world works, connecting us to people and things that enrich us.  Those "out of the blue" moments that I've always said are really very specifically oriented and aimed at our soul.  I used to say, and may need to re-establish as a commonly used phrase, "Out Of The Blue" is a very specific place! 

Thank you to whatever forces are at work in the universe that make life so rewarding and exciting!  There are a lot of folks who seem to concentrate on the things in life that are not so pleasant, rewarding, or exciting, but I find most of my life organized by those "Out of the blue" forces.  Life is very good right now - Dad is doing well (for 3 months now), and I'm feeling quite creative.  And, even with my life in great shape, "Out of the blue" sent me another reminder.  On top of grandchildren, children, wife, dad, and my Big Yellow Bike, "Out of the blue" reached out and put a nice bright cherry on top of my sundae!

Dreidel Balancing Act

I'm very excited about my first three dimensional Balancing Act!  Previous designs, while layered, were still basically flat designs in the plane of  the rocking motion.  This one features a full three dimensional dreidel on top that rocks back and forth very smoothly and pleasantly!  I find the motion interesting additionally because while a dreidel is supposed to spin, this one moves but does not actually spin, which my brain finds pleasantly confusing?  See the video below.  Cheryl will have the first three of these at the upcoming show this weekend in Marlborough ( clicking on the link will enable you to print out a $2 discount coupon for admission!)  - stop by to see them if you are in the area. For the remainder of the year this design will be $40.  They are about 9" tall.  I'll post them on our Shopify on-line store sometime over the weekend.

Mushrooms along the bike path, and other creepy stuff

 Cool mushroom growing along side one of the parking lots  that I ride through on pretty much every bike ride.

 More cool mushrooms along the bike path in Genesee Valley Park - Rochester, NY.  This one I know the name of because I Googled them?  Omphalotus illudens The Jack O'Lantern mushroom.  The Jack O'Lantern part comes from the bright orange color --- they are even brighter orange in person!  Halloween is coming up soon .... a time for weird scarey things?  The story of Google and the Jack O'Lantern mushrooms.  Thinking that maybe I could find out what these were because they were very bright colored.  Also the size of the clumps.... the smaller clump was about 18 inches across!  I started typing --- b r i g h t  o r  -- and there it was!  Second on the list of Google provided options was "bright orange mushrooms"!  Pretty weird and/or pretty scarey!  Did Google know where I was, and deduce that Genesee Valley Park was a good spot for bright orange mushrooms?  Did Google have a record of somebody else having Googled "bright orange mushrooms" from that location?  Did  they somehow access  the pictures I had just taken?

And, in the scarey Google line of thought, the image above was the Google Logo on my Birthday!  Hovering the mouse over the image even made the little box say "Happy Birthday, Don".  Again - pretty cool, or pretty creepy!

An Inspiration To Us All!

This woman was moving right along with her walker. 

 Not sure why she needed it!  

I was thinking the wheels might start smoking!

She is a real inspiration to us all!

A day that gives me a good story is a good day!

A great ride on the bike today, and two great stories.  At an intersection in a local park, I noticed a young couple in a bright red pick-up truck.  Look exchanged with the driver as I rode by, and then about a half mile further on, the red pick-up stops as I pass by, and the young man says "Would you take our picture?"  Of course I reply, and they pull up a few yards down the rode, and as they get out, they don leather jackets, and motorcycle helmets!  My response -"Where's the motorcycle?  Are you going to photoshop it in later?"  Their response - "Well, the bike is in the shop.  See that long groove in the grass?  That is where we wiped out on this curve earlier in the week, and we thought it would be nice to have some pictures of us at the site of the accident!"  That is them above - sans helmets - at the far end of  the groove in the grass.  You can see them more clearly if you click on the picture.
Another story on my return home.  The 4 year old neighbor boy comes running over ..... "How far did you go today?"  I tell him 14.8 miles, and he says "WOW!  That almost all the way to St. Louis!"

The ultimate license plate holder

 Cheryl called me from our neighborhood diner to let me know that the Wienermobile was parked outside!

 Even though it was a rainy morning, I went out immediately to grab some pictures!

 Yes - I know I'm a vegetarian, but this thing even has personalized safety cones!

The neighbor kid drove it around for the summer a few years back!

Sort of the ultimate marketing internship!

Found and shared as it evidently has been for at least 114 years!

At a dinner for law alumni of New York University in 1907, Walter Lloyd Smith of the New York Supreme Court read “the most remarkable document that ever came into his possession” — the will of an inmate of the Cook County Insane Asylum at Dunning, Ill.:

I, Charles Lounsbury, being of sound mind and disposing memory, do hereby make and publish this, my last will and testament, in order as justly as may be to distribute my interest in the world among succeeding men.
That part of my interest which is known in law and recognized in the sheep-bound volumes as my property, being inconsiderable and of no account, I make no disposal of in this my will.
My right to live, being but a life estate, is not at my disposal, but these things excepted all else in the world I now proceed to devise and bequeath.
Item: I give to good fathers and mothers, in trust for their children, all good little words of praise and encouragement, and all quaint pet names and endearments, and I charge said parents to use them justly and generously, as the needs of their children may require.
Item: I leave to children inclusively, but only for the term of their childhood, all and every, the flowers of the fields, and the blossoms of the woods, with the right to play among them freely according to the customs of children, warning them at the same time against thistles and thorns. And I devise to children the banks of the brooks, and the golden sands beneath the waters thereof, and the odors of the willows that dip therein, and the white clouds that float high over the giant trees. And I leave the children the long, long days to be merry in, in a thousand ways, and the night and the moon and the train of the Milky Way to wonder at, but subject nevertheless to the rights hereinafter given to lovers.
Item: I devise to boys jointly all the useful idle fields and commons where ball may be played; all pleasant waters where one may swim; all snowclad hills where one may coast, and all streams and ponds where one may fish, or where, when grim Winter comes, one may skate; to have and to hold the same for the period of their boyhood. And all meadows with the clover blossoms and butterflies thereof, the woods and their appurtenances, the squirrels and the birds, and echoes and strange noises, and all distant places which may be visited, together with the adventures there found. And I give to said boys each his own place at the fireside at night, with all pictures that may be seen in the burning wood, to enjoy without let or hindrance and without any incumbrance of care.
Item: To lovers I devise their imaginary world with whatever they may need; as the stars of the sky; the red roses by the wall; the bloom of the hawthorn; the sweet strains of music, and aught else by which they may desire to figure to each others the lastingness and beauty of their love.
Item: To young men jointly, I devise and bequeath all boisterous, inspiring sports of rivalry, and I give to them the disdain of weakness and undaunted confidence in their own strength, though they are rude; I give them the power to make lasting friendships, and of possessing companions, and to them exclusively I give all merry songs and brave choruses, to sing with lusty voices.
Item: And to those who are no longer children or youths or lovers, I leave memory, and I bequeath to them the volumes of the poems of Burns and Shakespeare and of other poets, if there be others, to the end that they may live over the old days again, freely and fully, without tithe or diminution.
Item: To our loved ones with snowy crowns I bequeath the happiness of old age, the love and gratitude of their children until they fall asleep.

The original, it turns out, was written by Williston Fish in 1897 and published in Harper’s Weekly the following year. He had intended it as a poetic trifle, but newspapers around the country had picked it up and run it as fact, often embellishing the language, until, Fish wrote in 1908, “this one of my pieces has been translated into all the idiot tongues of English.” Charles Lounsbury was the name of an old relative of his — “a big, strong all-around good kind of man,” but not, evidently, insane.