Thoughts of a Twitterless Thinker 9-23-09

When Em got back from the Philippines last week, she presented me with a beautiful three-strand necklace with aubergine colored beads. She says when she put the necklace into the sack, it looked gorgeous. When she pulled it out of the sack to give it to me, it had been attacked by the chain sprites. Somehow they had gotten into the sack and played a rousing game of Jungle Knots.

I told Em I would work on untangling it at home. I’ll be darned like a sock if those pesky chain sprites didn’t sneak back into that sack on my way home, creating an admirably magnified tangled mess. I am not a visual thinker (I stink at chess and lose mightily at Risk) therefore after trying on and off for a day, I handed the knot to Computer Geek. He used his awesome manly thinking skills to untangle my necklace in a matter of minutes. Hmm…maybe he was a chain sprite in a previous life.

I was thinking, as people without Twitter are wont to do, about airports. Em was mentioning how she purchased Dan Brown’s latest novel The Lost Symbol, while waiting in the airport in the Philippines, a full fourteen hours before it was available in the U.S. (There are advantages to time changes while traveling. The disadvantage was that she didn’t get to have a September 9 this year.)

Back in the olden days, pre-Patriot Act, people could hang out in the airport while waiting for loved ones to arrive. This means they could sip a latte at the airport Starbucks, buy some cheesy souvenir toys for the kids, or yes—even buy the latest Dan Brown novel.

If your relative’s flight was delayed, then you could justify spending even more money—going back for another slice of pizza, picking up that pair of $14 socks that you always wanted, or actually buying a birthday card on time.

Now, the people waiting for someone to arrive are allowed nowhere near the airport stores. We have to bring our own games to play.

Having managed businesses for most of my adult life, I started wondering how keeping the flying customer sequestered from the general populace has affected sales in airport stores. Surely, the stores must have taken a huge bite when part of their clientele was no longer allowed access. Didn’t they?

And don’t you feel sorry for them?

There. I’ve spoken my piece against injustice in the world.

The end of summer always causes a feeling of slight melancholy in me. The days of splashing in creeks and pools are gone. Garden greenery turns crisp and brown. Days are spent with open textbooks instead of lawn chairs and sprinklers.

That slight sadness disappears the first time the temperature drops a bit. A few days ago, I looked out my living room window to see sun-highlighted golden leaves shimmering against the backdrop of a charcoal gray sky. A cool breeze rustled the leaves that had already fallen.

As the first raindrops fell, I felt energized by the change in season. Instead of regretting that summer had gone, I looked forward to the freshness of fall.

Last year, a group of friends decided to ring in the new season with an outdoor breakfast in the park. At eight a.m., almost on cue, it began raining—a light autumn mist. The fathers were assigned cooking duty and the kids were assigned to decorate their aprons. We snuggled in sweatshirts and under blankets as dads prepared pancakes, hash browns, bacon, sausage, orange juice and hot chocolate. Some of the mothers were on decorating duty, arranging luminaria on the tables and pumpkins and cornstalks around the pavilion.

If you find yourself dreading fall, pick a cool October morning to have breakfast in the park. Invite all your friends and their kids and enjoy what the season has to offer.

I watched The Biggest Loser last week for the first time. The show is amazingly good and I chastised myself for never having watched it before. The story of Abby, who had lost her husband, 5-year old daughter and 2-week-old son in a car crash, especially touched me. I couldn’t wait to watch it again this week, all the while wondering why I had never watched it before. When Tuesday came, I remembered. It’s Dancing with the Stars night. Sheesh. What was I thinking? Will someone tell me if Abby wins?

Kids give us such great perspective. After a day at the lake, creating moats and rivers, my son looked on his creation and said, “Mud is a good gift.”

There are actually days in my life when I think to myself, “In order to feel complete, a salad must be eaten.” And then I go eat one.

Here’s my nomination for Amazing Video of the Week. I could go through a hundred boxes of Tic-Tacs and would never think of doing this. (Hayden, here's an example of what we were talking about on your site, about the internet being a catalyst for creativity.)