Petdad

But is it really a quick question? Not usually. Is the reference ‘quick question’ relative to the question itself or is the intent looking for a ‘quick answer’? What if I didn’t want a quick question coming my way, then what? Am I obligated to answer your quick question just because you asked? Am I to think that you are being considerate of my time and busy schedule, and therefore to avoid a lengthy question and often lengthier answer you poise your words as something ‘quick’? If you are looking for a quick answer to your quick question, I am probably already burdened with being put in a situation of having to provide a ‘quick answer’. Generally one question generates a follow-up question. Then what?

Those two words have such a powerful passive-aggressive pathway of forced communication. Yet those two words are so often, and I do mean often, used as an exchanged lead-in for “I would like to talk to you about this topic…now.”

I wonder how many times I have been approached with ‘quick question…’, and then the resulting answer becomes a warranted involved dialog. I think the lead-in ‘quick question…’, has now graduated into my lifetime tray of annoyances. For me, it goes right along with the very irritating clackety-clack sound-effect that was so overused on radio and television airwaves of the late 80’s through early 2000’s to simulate computer keyboard use. Computer keyboard technology became a lot quieter before the CLACKETY-CLACK annoyance was for the most part put to rest.

So I’m thinking that the ‘quick question’ approach is a selfish introduction to a discussion that someone else wants to have. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.

‘Get off my lawn!’

A CMS, or Content Management System is used to create, house, and publish ‘content’ for any website. In my case, I write and then I publish my pieces which vary in length. Some of what I write are short essay’s and others are simply what I call written ‘pieces’, or Musings.

I write for my own cathartic exercise and not for anyone else. Not many people read what I have written which does not bother me in the least as I do not even advertise the site. It is what it is, take it or leave it. Most days The site gets a small handful of visitors and readers with the periodic burst in online traffic for a day. The CMS shows a statistical breakdown, no doubt for those who seek to learn reading patterns and high-traffic written pieces.

I believe for the most part, the data is accurate. There is however an outlier in the data I receive on a daily basis. One of the Published pages, Your House is Like a Museum, was receiving a very consistent and unusual traffic pattern on a daily basis. Either that piece is the best written example of American short literature or the page was long ago tagged by a ‘bot’ to ensure a daily visit and periodically multiple visits in one day. It was painfully obvious when I noticed an almost daily site visit from China, and Your House is Like a Museum was the number one ticket and most viewed page on the website.

Well, I don’t think so. I quickly became numb seeing Your House is Like a Museum as my most visited page. Then I got irritated in seeing the title listed on the stat page every day, but there it was so I just ignored it. Until today.

I am very curious to see how the bot will handle the fact that I unpublished that particular page. The page is still within my CMS, it’s just unpublished. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this solution before today.

Shoo-fly! Have fun with that you digital nothing.

Curious? Navigate to the Musings tab, it’s the top entry.

Capitalizing The in the title was intentional, as all things are. Maybe sometimes just not my intention. It didn’t make much of an impact on me with the ‘T’ being lowercase. I tried it, it didn’t work.

Significance in all aspects of one’s life is there, in The life. Significance is always there, noticed or unnoticed. It’s there. There were so many thoughts circling inside my head this morning about what I was going to write. I wasn’t thinking ‘hmmm I should write something, but what?’ No, it wasn’t that. My thoughts were ideas or topics that I wanted to write about NOW, but The time was not right not being at the computer.

Today is Monday and there is so much I want to do. I’m already looking at the clock thinking about the time I have left in The day. I won’t sit around. Today is The Day.

I will look at the trees and listen to their rustling leaves. I will walk in the sunlight and feel warmth I am offered. I will touch. I will listen to what is said, and what is unsaid. I will enjoy the company of those around me and will offer my words. I will lend my ear, and I will see as if it were the last time for me. I will do all of these with boundless gratitude.

I will do all these things, because Today is The Day.

Some days yes, and some days no.

I ask myself, why no today? What’s the deal? I got enough sleep last night, at least I think I did. Suppose I could do the math on that and figure it out, but I don’t even want to do that.

The outward appearance display calm and quiet waters, yet inside there’s a rushing wave of emotion and angst. Some days more than others. Yesterday the water current was strong and the push-pull undertow was a mighty driving force.

We ask ourselves at times if this is enough. Have I done my best? Have I exhausted all possibility? Did I achieve adequate results? And yet there is no right or wrong answer, there is no gradebook, there is no playbook. If one is looking for ‘answers’ then perhaps square one is the only appropriate solution.

Yet

In what seems like nothing more than my eye blink, the clock starts again. Some days yes, and some days no.

Back in the day of nothing but black & white television sets, we marveled at the accessibility of moving pictures, film, then video. I remember seeing an actual strip/clip of the tape and held it to the light to look for imagery of any kind. Analog technology was something new to the general public and this alone was a phenomenon in itself.

We all heard that someday ‘soon’ television sets would eventually broadcast in color. Oh my goodness, really?

Technology started to expand but it seemed like a manageable expansion, unlike the exponential explosion of technological advances of today. Full color did eventually come to television sets, but they were expensive and very large. It wasn’t the screen size that was large, it was the ‘set’ itself that was big and bulky. Any new color tv owner would need a couple of things: able to pay some serious cash for the unit, and have significant space in the room the unit would soon occupy. All for a color tv and the bragging rights it seemed to come with.

I remember screen sizes were 12″, then 14″, then jumping to 19″ and it kind of stayed there as the ‘norm’ for quite some time. Screen size eventually grew to 25″ and that was the cream-of-the-crop, until 27″ came along. By this time, tv units were much ‘smaller’ but the box-like size of the tv itself was large, bulky, and heavy.

We needed that, and then we needed more.

Picture/Image quality began to improve, but at a cost few could afford. Screen sizes continued to grow and technology brought new tv possibilities. And we needed more.

Consumer product makers were now experiencing the runaway trajectory of technology growth and ‘new’ television sets became monitors used for multi-purpose tasks. Broadcasting became all digital along the way and tv’s in general had a short technological shelf-life compared to their massive counterparts of yesteryear.

Black & white television quickly became a thing of the past. All for ‘the more’ of what we had to have, just because we could.

Now, those of us who remember black and white television enjoy watching some of the old b&w TV shows and movies. I know why this is so. It takes us back to a ‘simpler time’ in our lives. At the risk of sounding old, guess what, I don’t care. Nostalgia is something that is wired in us as human beings. I am a member of a people who long for a sense of balance and comfort.

I’m not sure what will be the ‘next’ nostalgic mark for society and our future generation. How about love and care for what is right in front of us?

How about equilibrium?

Honestly, I find it uncanny that there are so many people I personally know who share today as their Birthday. Dad, Aunt Charlotte, Mike, Mary, Marti, Jared, Janelle, Angela, Debbie, Mrs. Jones, Me.

Who’s next?

It doesn’t matter what I’m doing, I’m always in the middle of something. So do I allow myself to become wrapped up in frustration because I haven’t completed one task and now I’m starting another? Sometimes I do and sometimes I do not. Therefore, I must accept the fact that there is always something, some task, a book, a movie, a job, a sentence, something that I am always in the middle of working on, or in the the process of accomplishing.

That sounds dizzying. The reality of acceptance toward incomplete tasks. I don’t think I like that. Start – Finish, that’s how I like to operate. That’s how I ‘run the show’, my show at least. One can deduce that this programming method is not how all people run their show. And if that is the case, there will be a difference in plans thus creating possibility of clash amongst two individuals.

Alright, so what gives? How about an understanding that I am in the middle of something, you are in the middle of something, and neither one of those ‘somethings’ outweigh importance over the other.

Understanding + Compromise = Satisfactory Results

where Satisfactory Results = Happiness

Practice, practice, practice!

This is the *very first* time my piano teacher and I have played this piece together- LIVE. After months of working on this piece through FaceTime, we felt that we were at a point where it could be played, recorded, and used for further practice to getting the piece polished. There are a couple spots where I know that I made a mistake, **I just smile and play on**. THAT is a breakthrough for me because in the past a mistake would completely derail me and I’d either have to stop, or the ‘wheels would fall off’ and continue to make mistakes.

Also in the past I would:

1. be terrified to play alongside my piano teacher

2. be terrified to video myself

3. be even more terrified to post a video of my imperfection

……Progress, Not Perfection!

Four – Hands piano pieces are a thing. They are a type of duet, very difficult to play. Timing needs to be spot-on, and you find yourself often negotiating for key real estate that another hand occupies. In this classical Haydn piece there are eight variations of the initial (Primo) portion. Each Variation is written with increasing complexity resulting in progressively more challenging play as the original tune itself is kept intact. I thrive on challenges and work hard to overcome them. And I strive with everything I have to do just that. STILL able to improve over time, it is all about Progress, not perfection. Now watch!… 🙂

If everything is important, then nothing is important.

I remember the first time I heard that phrase used in speech and my difficulty in truly understanding what it meant. One day, I finally got it. I understood what it actually meant when assigning levels of importance to things in my life. Tasks, priorities, whatever it was I was prioritizing…it didn’t matter, because everything needed an assigned level of importance.

There was now a hierarchy, a procedure I could follow.

This stack of papers were something that deserved a closer look, perhaps some action on my part was necessary. Oh, but this stack too. Equally important but not sure which of the two, or three, or four, or… items in my stack should be accomplished first. I want to check all the boxes as highest priority but that does no good.

If there was no stack, if that stack did not exist, I would have nothing of importance to accomplish. Existence would have little or no meaning. Not so if the stack were regrets in ones life.

Nothing is important.