Friday Odds and Ends

Today I am also blogging over at the Venture Galleries blog. Interested in what makes a criminal's mind different from ours?


Heard on the news the other day that Saturday mail deliveries will be discontinued starting in August. The media is all over this in a big way already, from national news shows to local. Some people sure are hot about the topic, with some predicting dire consequences, like senior citizens dying because they can't get medications delivered that day. 

Granted, timely medication deliveries could be an issue, but instead of ranting about it, why not just step back a moment, take a deep breath, and figure out a way for medications to be delivered Monday through Friday. It could happen.

Concern over business mail that would be delayed was also voiced. Bills might be paid late. Hmmm, maybe we could plan to handle that differently, too.

Just think, years ago, we didn't have Saturday deliveries, and we all did just fine. Even more years ago mail deliveries were on a weekly, or monthly basis, and everyone did just fine.

We will survive this latest deprivation. Trust me.

Raise your hand if you can relate to this from Sherman's Lagoon: Megan is tending to a potted plant and Sherman asks, "So Megan, you're also entering this tropical plant contest?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

"When did this come about?"

She gives him one of those looks. You know the one I mean. "I've entered it every year since you've known me!"

"And yet this is the first time I'm hearing about it?"

"I discuss it every year."

"While I'm paying attention? You know, during comercials?"

"Arrrrgh!"

This Literary Lesson is from The Weeping Chamber by Sigmund Brouwer   "… the distance between us makes my heart ache with sentiment, and it is easier to be weak for you when you cannot see how I tremble."

Sometimes emotions are easier to handle with some distance between us.

Friday's Odds and Ends - Funnies and Flowers

Before I get into the main part of this post, I want to ask if you have ever had trouble posting a comment here? On Wednesday, my guest, Mary Deal, could not leave a comment, and I know that was very frustrating as she wanted to thank me for hosting, as well as interact with visitors. I don't know anything about the technical side of what happens with the computer and programs and websites. I just know how to put words on a screen. Mary mentioned using an "atom" thing to try to post after she could not use the regular comment function. I don't have any kind of comment moderation set up. I've realized in visiting a lot of blogs that it isn't always easy to find where to click to leave a comment. For my blog, and several others I write for the comment link is at the end of the blog piece where there is a line:   Posted by Maryann Miller at 7:03 AM 6 comments:  Sometimes it will say "no comments" and you can be the first to leave a comment. (smile)

Let me know what your experience has been commenting here or on other blogs. 

In a recent letter to the editor in The Dallas Morning News a man suggested that the U. S. Postal service consider delivering residential mail on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and business mail on the other days of the week. Interesting proposal. It would save money, but would that work in this era of instant everything? People today would never have survived waiting weeks and sometimes months for mail to arrive way back when it was delivered by horseback and stagecoach.

Maybe we would all be better off if we took a few deep breaths and just.... waited.

Today I thought I'd share some great descriptive lines I copied out of a book I read. I made this note so long ago that I don't even remember which book the lines came from, and like a doofus, I did not write the book title on the note. I thought of just throwing the note away, but these lines are too good not to share.

"His eyes were ice blue. Hard. So sharp, Val could feel them cut."

"His eyebrows resembled a backwoods thicket"

I'm not even sure if the descriptions were of the same character, but they sure are vivid, and such a refreshing alternative to some of the common descriptions of cold eyes and thick eyebrows. If the author reads this blog post and recognizes the lines, I'd love a reminder of what book they came from.

Something just for fun from the comic strip Non Sequitur: The scene is a cemetery called Last Words Cemetery. One headstone reads: "Hey, why spend all that money on an electrician?"

Not so funny? Okay, how about this one from Pickles. Earl and his grandson are talking a walk. Nelson asks, "Grampa, do you and Gramma ever argue?"

"Argue? No. I can't say that we do. We disagree sometimes, though, and then she explains to me why she's right and I'm wrong.

"You might say we have one of those marriages where one person is always right and the other person is me."

Some time ago I noticed these wildflowers growing in and around a large branch that fell during a storm that blew through. This was on the side of the highway leading to our county road, so I had to be careful of traffic when I went to snap the pictures. I couldn't resist, though. It was so pretty.