Toto the Magnificent!!

This is about toilets, so if you are not up to the task of straight talk maybe you better pass on this one.
Years ago we moved into an old farmhouse that had a toilet with the tank bolted to the wall. This was an early 1900’s era fixture and glazed into the porcelain was the name: “Standard Ejecto”. And boy did it eject. We called it “Ejecto the Magnificent”. Only once in 25 years did it fail. Since then we suffered through 4 Kohler units that would fail to perform if you tried to flush a gnat. Terrible action considering the reputation of the company.
What to do? Ahhh, the internet!! And after some deep digging the solution emerged: the best rated unit on the market, hands down, was the Toto “Drake”. Best rating in all categories. I ordered the ADA version and installed it last month and WOW!! What a beauty. I think you could flush a small cow without getting out the plunger. And on only 0.75 gallons of water. How the HELL do they do that? You know what? I don’t know and I don’t care. What I know is the plunger is lonely in the garage and I am a very happy camper. (I know, it doesn’t take much to make some people happy, does it?)
Image: www.midvalleyplumbing.com/toto_toilet.htm

An Unfortunate Beauty

There on the roadside for dozens or maybe hundreds of passersby to see and enjoy: a coal black fox squirrel just sitting erect in the grass in rural Georgia. As I drove by and slowed down I thought “you are beautiful with your lustrous black fur and nearly white nose .“ This morning I told Sal about the black beauty and thought (and said) “some hunter would love to kill that squirrel for a trophy, to lock away in a room somewhere, get dusty and finally go in the garbage” An unfortunate beauty. The price paid for standing out is high, no matter what the species. Trophy deer, fish, rodents, snakes and yes, women and to a lesser extent men are all captured and displayed. For the crime of being beautiful.
Image: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/3332167524_0c79a401e1.jpg

Yesterday

“Yesterday came suddenly”. (1)
Ever stop to think about that? How many times have you said or thought “It seems like only yesterday- - -“? Well, think about it again. Except for a nano second or less, your entire life is “yesterday”. The illusion of “now” is, well, an illusion. You finish a great meal and think “that WAS a great meal” (yesterday) or have great sex and think “Man! That WAS great sex” (yesterday) and the list is endless. “Yesterday” is really a stand-in for any past and every past in this context and not literally the day before today. What is the point here? Well, the point is that before you even notice or know it, yesterday is here and gone so you better live your “today” like there is no “tomorrow”.
A word of caution though: everything you do “today” will live in the memories of “yesterday”, not only yours but everybody else’s too. The urge to enjoy the moment without regard to the future is not necessarily a smart urge. Planning for the eventual “today” that will follow the stream of “yesterdays” is a good idea. That way at least you will have some resources to get through the next “today”. Ha.
1. http://www.metrolyrics.com/yesterday-lyrics-beatles.html
Image: http://www.yesterdaythemovie.co.za/

Polka dots and Moonbeams

A wonderful old song that has been covered by Sinatra, Denver, Vaughn, and probably dozens other artists over the years since it was introduced:

“A country dance was being held in a garden

I felt a bump and heard an 'oh, beg your pardon,'

suddenly I saw polka dots and moonbeams

all around a pug-nosed dream”

The interesting thing about this song is the total lack of gender identification of either the persona “I” who felt the bump or the “pug-nosed dream” being bumped. And it never computed until yesterday when I heard a woman jazz vocalist sing a really good jazzy version and it was pretty obvious by her intonations that she was singing about a woman. Then I got to thinking about all the other times I have heard this song, mostly by men, and wondered if they could have been singing about a man? Why hadn’t this occurred to me before? The lyrics certainly open the door: Why wouldn’t there be “questions in the eyes of other dancers” if a same-sex couple was in there midst?

“There were questions in the eyes of other dancers

as we floated over the floor

there were questions, but my heart knew all the answers

and perhaps a few things more”

The answer I think is not that the song or delivery has changed, but my “life filter” has changed. I always viewed the world as a heterosexual and made all the assumptions that fit that view. For many years my view has been drifting toward a more inclusive and less dogmatic one.
And once I shed the filters of prejudice (1) (malignant or not that’s what we all have) and simply allow the realities of life to express themselves without filters, the whole world suddenly shifts and lots of new possibilities open. What I wonder and worry about is the sudden understanding of something that has been staring me in the brain for decades. Maybe we are never too old to learn, huh?

http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/cassandra_wilson/polka_dots_and_moonbeams-lyrics-1229273.html
1. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/findword?query_type=word&queryword=prejudice
Image: http://keltic.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/1st-dance.jpg