All Things Odd And Silly

 Lord help me, the crazy ideas that my brain conjures up!  A purple tsunami.  That’s what my brain said to me.  Hmm, what could that be?  A splash of new color for America?  Red, white and blue and purple?  Oh, what blasphemy?  Or maybe it could be a new political meeting place for the American people.  The red and the blue are both controlled by billionaires and their donations and favors that they must be granted in return.  The rich, of course, always need the security of knowing that they will remain rich and continue to have the means of becoming even richer.  Maybe America needs a purple party where the American people can meet and demand something different.  Oh, such wishful thinking.  But hey, nothing can be a reality if people don’t believe that things can change and that better days can lie ahead.  I honestly don’t know why the thought “purple tsunami” came into my head.  I guess it was just a wish for...

How are people supposed to know whether or not they are sane with all the crazy videos that they might encounter on a social media site such as Instagram? No.  There are no such things as domesticated sables that are available for people to own as pets. 🤒 What the hell was I even watching??? 😵‍💫 Or am I somehow just totally out of the loop for not knowing about Sables. 😲 😂😂  Well, I caught the part about how they love to chew through couches and other furniture and pull blankets inside and how this satisfies their natural nesting instincts.  Now who wouldn’t want to own a sable!!? 😲😂😂 https://www.instagram.com/reel/DH59MZ6SfHl/?igsh=

 What do I know about the history of the Texas Rio Grande Valley where I have lived for over 15 1/2 years.  Well to be an honest dumb shit, I don’t know shit.  Well, maybe one of these years I might find myself with time on my hands that I would like to dedicate to learning about the Rio Grande Valley‘s History and the lives of the people who have lived here.  Life is always so full of possible new interests and experiences. 

 I think I’m very captivated by this image.  That is quite a house filled with light.

With the year 2025 being a challenging year for much of humanity, I should remember to sit back and think, “My life is filled with blessings and I am on a lucky and blessed journey in life, and I wish to follow a path of my own best story with whatever chapters of my story remain.” I have a feeling that we can all find our own best stories without too much difficulty.  It starts by approaching our stories with a respect for ourselves and an unselfish concern for our own wellbeing.  The next step is to listen to our hearts and the guidance they can offer if we desire to open ourselves to viewing and relating to others with heartfelt goodwill and understanding.  This is my own guru storyteller speaking.  I guess I like the theme of goodwill.  Goodwill can even transform a man like Ebeneezer Scrooge when he is touched by the spirit of Christmas and Goodwill.  ♥️Christmas & Goodwill💚 🎄👵🏾👨🏻🧒👩🏻‍🦱👦🏽 https://music.apple.com/us/album/i-heard-the-bell...

 The insane files.  This is where stories get filed when they don’t live up to a decorum of sanity, and for myself, that bar is really low. 🫢

 Dear Mr. Trump.  You Should just kiss and make up with Chinese dictator President Xi that you admire and want to challenge.  You can’t have any friends if you don’t get along and play nice.  🙏  Goodwill to men even if exchanged between dictators in a trade war, is a choice made for harmony and peace. 

 I just had a thought memory.  It was about the album “Jesus Christ Super Star” and hearing it as a small child.  When my brother and I were very young, we had a babysitter who was either high school or college age.  This babysitter really liked to listen to my parents, “Jesus Christ Super Star” album.  After it was bedtime, and my brother and I had gone to sleep, she would listen to it and play the music very loudly.  Hearing it would wake me up, and the music would make me feel very anxious and frightened.  But then the beautiful song, “Everything’s Alright” would start playing, and it always took away my fear and anxiety and made me feel much better and I think put me back to sleep also.  When I got older and listened to the album myself, I found that I really liked the other songs that had once frightened me so much.  Gaining maturity and having additional understanding of things can certainly let one see and experience things in unexpect...

 I hope I don’t ever attend any events where I need to wear white gloves. 🙄 This is the freaking 21st century! 🫢🤐

  I found myself contemplating the value of lives and the following is the thought that came to my mind.  No person‘s life and path is of less value and meaning than that of others.  All lives matter and should be appreciated, respected and valued.  There is wisdom and understanding to be found in all human lives and human experience. I thought of an old college philosophy class paper and now I am still in a philosophical contemplation mode.  

 Mr. Trump reconsidering tariffs on China.  Good boy Donny!   That is good thinking!  It is good for people to listen to others because sometimes they might have good information that we need.  

 I was just thinking of a paper that I once wrote for a philosophy class in college.  A while back I had come across it and felt it was embarrassing as it was written by a younger and more inexperienced and naïve me, so I threw it away.  Now recently, I have thought of that paper again on a couple of occasions and I found myself wondering if perhaps I didn’t give the ideas of my younger self enough credit.  Maybe what I was thinking wasn’t so ridiculous after all.  It’s okay if I threw away the paper though because sometimes it is preferable to focus on the hear and now than to worry about what we didn’t get around to in the past that we still feel that we need to accomplish or examine in the present.  I guess I must admit to being an information hoarder which includes both real world stuff and lots of digitally created and saved stuff.  I have this insight tonight that perhaps it is not worth worrying about everything previously created and saved or l...

The theme of 2024 & 2025. Well, birds like crows are actually very smart so perhaps bird brains aren’t giving enough credit. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIPhqnDp0Wa/?igsh=dGhhcnlhcTJjeHdm Of course you are.  Look at that face! For the bus? Spooktacular! 🕯️ 🐈‍⬛ 🔥  A very nice Tea-shirt. The thought that just came into my head is, “Suck off sucky king!” 😲  Ah books!  What an old-fashioned but lovely idea!  Sometimes Wi-Fi blows.  Maybe balancing coffee while unicycling is a learned art.  You can do it Dat Boi!  Let the mice live! But the vets say, “Too much doggy is not good for doggy health.” I would like to hear your voice. I would say that is accurate. A kitties work is to nap in the sun, look pretty and curl up to take naps on their humans laps.  Not a bad gig. When you make it to the top, it’s a good place to take a nap.  🛌 💤   

 The end of 2025 and Christmas wish.🎄 Is there any chance that by the time Christmas comes around, at the end of this year, President Trump will be gone?  Is there any chance that something could take place that would have him removed from office by then?  It would be a Christmas miracle for the year 2025.  Maybe he could be kidnapped and deported to Venezuela and just disappear.  Maybe he could just finish his days there and then maybe Pope Francis could deal with him and work on saving his soul.  He could take him around like one of the spirits in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” novel and show him what he needs to know about the effects that he has had on the world. 

 Louis Schoeck.  I never knew him.  He was one of my three great grandfather’s that I never knew.  He was my paternal grandfather‘s father.  I thought of fathers and him tonight.  His father was Gottleib Schoeck a German immigrant who was naturalized.  I know from my father‘s cousin who has knowledge of the family that Gottleib was an abusive man and his children all hated him.  When he died and was buried, they did not give him a headstone.  My 2x great grandfather Louis was one of 11 children.   “Footprints in the Snow”.  Ode to a peaceful and beautiful winter sight.  How lovely to gaze upon natures trails in a beautiful white winter blanket.  And ice crystals.  Ice crystals are a part of the beauty of winter.  These were just my next thoughts after my ancestor and family genealogy contemplations.  I guess footprints in the snow and winter weren’t finished in my thoughts.  Thank you television screens...

“Footprints in the Snow.”   If I was Robert Frost, I would use this as a title for an ode to the cherished season of winter and mother nature‘s winter blanket of white and all of its beautiful imagery.  I guess I’m having a Robert Frost moment. 

It has occurred to me that if I was a citizen of Gaza, I wouldn’t last long.  Between the extreme stress and not having medication for my heart, my heart would check me right out of there.  How lucky is that?!  I wouldn’t have to stick around long and keep suffering under those circumstances.  Oh dear, this is called a brain candy thought.  I don’t know what other thoughts I’m in for.  There are a lot of angels over Gaza at this time.  Maybe they are all having a special meeting with Pope Francis.  I’ll bet it was his number one place to visit and offer his love and assistance.  Imagine still being on the job at 88 years old.  I wonder what the conversation was that took place between Pope Francis and JD Vance?  Maybe JD Vance asked him how long he had been working as a pope and then told him that that was good.   I heard that Pope Francis gave JD Vance some chocolate for his children.  Wow.  Imagine being a kid and g...

Dude.  Wow!  I think you deserve the prize for the most demented Happy Easter message ever! 🫢😲 ✝️ 🌷 Sigh.  Truth be told Mr. Trump is a supporter and accomplice, along with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel, in a genocide being conducted against the 2.3 million people of Gaza.  This is a terrible failing of the United States of America because of one man and his ability to use money and a lack of morals to gain destructive power.  If there is any good in him, it is buried deep and lost beneath the power and corruption he has succeeded in achieving. 

 Why did I think of this book and have the thought “read me” enter my head?  For some reason, it is a part of my audible.com account library. 🤔🫤 It has not been a priority on my wish to do list. 😛

 Donald Trump is a 78 year-old man.  How many more years does he anticipate continuing to live?  He surely must have enough money without having a need of acquiring more.  You would think that if he had a desire to do something good with his life and feel good about having done something good with his life, he would want to be sharing what he has with people in need.  I think any gestures of this nature, no matter how late would be very good for his soul and lead him toward wanting to be a better person.  He needs someone to sprinkle him with a little empathy, fairy dust.   Well, these are the thoughts that I just found myself having tonight.  Sometimes I feel that I don’t choose my thoughts, but rather my thoughts choose me like they are a gift.  I like nice thought gifts! 💜 💜  Yikes, don’t tell me I could find myself wishing to have a greater understanding of Donald Trump.  That would be like blasphemy. 😬 😲  Well  I ...

 Why Americans should be happy.  That was the thought that came into my head.  I think Americans should be happy because negative thoughts and emotions should not become a new virus that spreads around.  This is not what America needs.  America needs the opposite.  This doesn’t mean that people should just complacently accept unacceptable things taking place.  It just means that all that is good about America and the real heart of the American people should not be dragged down by a time and circumstances of very bad leadership.  It means that the American people should make an extra effort instead to stand strong and be their own best selves and a reflection of the very best that America can and should be.  The way for Americans to mitigate the threat to our nation and way of life is to more than ever be a nation of people who listen to one another, accept each other and seek to show kindness and be helpful to others.  In other words to ...

 The next president of the United States is going to have a lot of repair work to do and I pray that person is not JD Vance.  Although if Mr. Trump did not finish his term of presidency for some reason 🙏🙏, JD Vance would at least be better than him.  The Republicans congressman and senators need to exercise their brain cells and do some soul-searching and grow some cojones.  How much crazy shit will they let take place and how far will they let President Trump go in destroying the country before they say enough is enough and do something about it?   They definitely outnumber Mr. Trump.  Why can’t they all just agree to support each other in standing up to him when he is clearly acting in such extreme and outrageous ways that are illegal and unconstitutional, not to mention immoral?  When did they lose their minds?

 A modernized Easter bunny.  “ I don’t have to wear a silly bunny suit if I don’t want to!”

 The whole of humanity includes dictators who murdered children.  That was just the thought or insight in my head tonight.  Well I’m sure that has an important meaning, but I don’t think I will peer into that box.  There’s enough going on in the world to think about already, and people who deserve to not have a genocide against them be allowed to continue.  And I never knew that America had some big thing with Israel.  And I know there have been many wars around the planet that I never paid attention to (with the exception of Kosovo) but for some reason, this one between Israel and Gaza has totally captured my attention.  And again I’m wondering, why is Israel so important that American presidents will continue to be an ally and grant Israel their support even when Israel is committing war crimes and intentionally targeting and destroying civilian infrastructure and people.  And a final thought is that when I watch the news stories and see videos ...

 It is a weird contrast to go out anywhere and find that life in the United States just goes on with surprising normality despite all the chaos going on politically.  Let’s just pray that it stays this way! 🙏  I need to get myself more motivated to do all the normal stuff that I need to do and would like to accomplish instead of wanting to turn on and hear all the news stories all the time.  I guess I don’t need to hear everything unless any big news takes place.  I guess I don’t need to write about everything bad either because there will just be more and more of it.  I am waiting though for the world to do something to intervene and help the people of Gaza.  What happened to Mr. Trump’s claim and plan of giving the people of Gaza a new good and safe place to live where their lives could be good again?  He is of course, supporting and enabling the country that is killing them.  I’ll bet at this point they would take the option of relocating...

 My life has too many ridiculous stories.  They aren’t bad stories.  They are just stories with ridiculous themes. I don’t know why so many true stories, that to me are significant and stand out in my memory, just seem to be ridiculous. 🥴

 A dictator bromance.  I wonder if dictators have some kind of special affection for other dictators.  I mean if they didn’t how could they desire to have happy alliances with each other?  Ok, that’s enough crazy thinking. 🤪

 Hakuna Matata.  I think I would like to make that my philosophy for living in this, year of our Lord 2025. 

 Forgetting.  It is our human specialty.  We sometimes experience insight and enlightenment and a connection to something greater than ourselves, but we cannot hold onto it. We forget.  We know it’s there, but we cannot always connect to it.  I guess our greater level of insight and connection to a greater consciousness is just not quite wired into our human existence.  Our human brains can sometimes access a greater awareness, but we cannot hold onto or truly believe in it at all times.  Maybe this is the goal of our spiritual development.  I guess this is a tough challenge for human beings.  I think we human beings can achieve whatever higher consciousness we set our minds to.  We just need time to follow our paths and live in the now or the present moment, as they say.

 I am wondering what will transpire at the meeting between Mr. Trump and Netanyahu.  Will ending the deliberate starvation of the people of Gaza be the discussion taking place, or will it be about how Gaza will be divvied up and shared between them and their countries once the people have been cleared and removed.  It is even worth hoping that Mr. Trump might: 1. care to engage with the truth  and 2.  care about the situation of the people of Gaza, and consider it to be unacceptable and consider there to be a need to end their deliberate starvation immediately.  That’s two steps. Or is it four?  I’m afraid it doesn’t really matter.  I have little faith that Mr. Trump would care about anything unless it was necessary to help him achieve his own ends.  I hope he proves me wrong.  I used to not pay that much attention to politics and international events.  Mr. Donald Trump put a stop to that for me.   Update:  Supposedly the ...

 When the cake hit the wall.  Oh dear, it’s a cake story.  It just came to my mind tonight.  There was a time when my sister in law was having a summer picnic and a little birthday celebration for Grandma Dirrigl.  Well, there was a little cake mishap.  My sister-in-law went to carry Grandma Dirrigl’s birthday cake outside when she somehow slipped and lost the cake which then hit the wall before falling to the floor.  I can laugh now.  Actually, it was really funny then. 😂🤣😂 And it was also disappointing that the cake couldn’t be part of the birthday celebration and a perfectly good cake was lost. 🎂  😞 My daughter and her cousin though made the best of it.  They stood and licked and ate the bits of cake and frosting that remained on the wall. 😂 Well, at least they made the mishap even more humorous and got to enjoy a little bit of the cake. 😂

 Joplin, Missouri.  That’s a thought in my head tonight.  I guess it’s because earlier today I watched that documentary on Netflix about the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri.  I’m trying to remember if my brother and sister-in-law went there.  There was quite a story on the documentary about a precocious 13-year-old weatherman and meteorology enthusiast who traveled along with his mother to visit Joplin, Missouri, placing them there at the time of the tornado.  They were having dinner in a café when the tornado struck Joplin and the café was in a location remained unaffected by the tornado along with the hotel that they were staying at across the street.   Yes, it turns out that my brother and sister-in-law did travel to Joplin to help with rebuilding efforts.  My brother is the one of my parents’ children who did stuff like that.  They volunteered for habitat for humanity also. 

Actually today is Friday. 😃  No, it’s not Monday.  It’s Friday.  It’s a good day because it’s today and today is a good day. 😄 No, it is Friday for heaven sakes. 🤦

 What humanity needs from each of us and for ourselves and for each other now.  Be good.  Be good to ourselves and each other now.  It sounds like a no-brainer and an obvious concept.  It is something that humanity is really struggling with right now though.  I am reminded again of the viral advice that was going around social media a while back.  The advice was: Be kind.  It’s that simple.   We can at least all commit to make an effort to keep this as a valued sentiment within our hearts.  This doesn’t mean that people have to sacrifice anything to their own detriment.  It just means that it is to our own benefit as well as the benefit of others for us to desire to show kindness and give of ourselves in whatever manner we are capable and able and feel comfortable in doing so.   It is this intention that can transform our lives as well as the lives of others.

  https://www.instagram.com/share/_h85bKHjw Oh my! 😯 And I thought it was really embarrassing when one time (okay two times) I tripped on a space or obstacle in a walkway because I was trying to move too fast and wasn’t paying enough attention, and I fell to my hands and knees and then got up again and walk away. 🥴 I’m very good at being a dork but this lady made an even grander adventure of it! 😲 👍

  https://youtu.be/olanOJyvons?feature=shared Higher Selves.  What would they say to us?  They would say,  “Don’t ever question your value.  And be happy.  And there is one thing that money can’t buy or defeat and that is the commitment of human beings to desire to feel and practice kindness and empathy toward themselves and others.  This is called saving the world on a budget.  This is how human beings oppose and don’t give strength to powers that seek to feel and practice the opposite.  This is how people morally object to and don’t give support or strength to leadership of a destructive and dehumanizing nature.  People at this time need to make a personal choice to commit themselves to having perceptions of empathy & caring toward others.  This begins with oneself and then reflects outward.  It is the starting point of creating good will toward fellow human beings and a world at peace.  And this is how we shine the ...

 I just opened up my phone and saw this.  I don’t even know how or why my phone opened to this site (Substack), but I totally agree!

 Slaves to the pursuit of personal power and money.  This is who and what people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk are.  They have more than enough money to live very comfortable and privileged lives for the rest of their lives.  They could devote the rest of their lives to just enjoying themselves and doing good things with their money.  But instead, their focus and motivation in life is just to acquire more and more money and more ability to acquire more money.  Why?  Have they ever heard of Charles Dickens’ Ebeneezer Scrooge?  Have they ever read the book or watched this movie at Christmas time?  It seems that they are trapped in a diseased mind state that they need to wake up from.  Ok, maybe Elon Musk has grand goals like paving the way for humanity to expand their existence into the greater cosmos.  But what is the purpose of doing so if this is not for the benefit of humanity?  Does he really want to achieve goals such as ...

 Is America as a free and democratic nation doomed?  It is the question that we now must spend our days living with.  We have been let down by our government.  Who knew just a decade ago that we were in for such a treat.  Now there is nothing that we the mere American people can do, at least not until there is another election. 🥹 Our democracy failed us in being a system that allows a convicted criminal to run for the office the president.