Excentric

Time to cut back the rose bushes. Mild temperatures have kept me from trimming the roses, but today my wife and I venture out back and cut those babies back. Having state forest behind my houselends to some incredible views and offers the animal kingdom space to play and fight. Today, 3 ferrel cats were going at it, 1 male with gals fighting over his manhood. After 23 blissful years of marriage, I think my wife is of the "if you want him, you can have him" frame of mind. So far, I only seem to be attracting elderly women at the grocery stores wanting my pony tail. Ah, if they only knew how well I cooked.

Had some friends from idaho stop by yesterday. Was amazed what I could do with garbanzo beans - one recipe with garlic, tahini and roasted red peppers and some flavoring, and the other an experiment with parsley, basil, garlic and cream cheese and some spices. Everyone raved. I had somembites, but am not a hummus fan, although I thought my recipes were more than palatible, which I can't say for store bought stuff. I told my friends I knew little of idaho, excepting a quote from someone, and I'm paraphrasing, I was 35 before I realized we could leave Idaho. At least I think it was Idaho. Anyway, the evening went much better than anticipated and the conversation was kept light.

My wife knows to sit within kicking distance of my legs whenever we get together with anyone for any reason, just in case the topics go political or religious or social or anything I else I have strong opinions about. It's not like I don't appreciate the opinions of others, I just think many people are not informed enough to offer any opinion on just about any topic, and should therefore keep the conversation about theselves and their lives, something about which they at least have some first hand knowledge. I would have a difficult time disagreeing with somone who talked about how they felt about their work day. Unless they had an interesting job, I might get bored after a while, but at least I know they could back up whatever they felt.

I've noticed the older I get, the more tolerant I have become. That may seem like a contradiction to the sentence preceeding it, but I feel there is a difference in listening to people spout off about the material world and their involvement with it and subjects leaning toward the ethereal nature of humankind. I have always considered myself a spiritual being, but now I see my influence in others' lives as being significant. Actually, I think I am learning to understand better each other's influence in each other's lives. My former business partner used to say, "If we are all one, which one are we?" I love that. But as I age, I realize that not only are we all one with each other, but are all one with everything that exists, known and unknown.

Well, this has gotten way more philosophical than I intended. So, I think it's time for some earthly grounding and cutting back the rose bushes.

That's all for now . . .