Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

I thought I’d be wiser by the time I reached this age.

You must know something.

I know I should never underestimate winter.

Driving by Bruce’s drive

I have a wonderful neighbor named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: I drove down a road not far from my home that I didn’t recall driving on before. I try to remember smooth roads more than potholes. It’s a work in progress. Potholes jar memories. Minnesota is 12th amongst the states in area, but fifth in road miles. Iowa is 26th in area and 14th in the number of road miles. Texas has by far the most road miles and Hawaii the least (unless you count the District of Columbia). The Federal Highway Administration found Rhode Island to have the worst roads. Iowa had the 13th worst and Minnesota the 29th worst. Florida had the roads in the best condition.

It’s how we roll

I used the necessary at a huge clinic. I noticed the toilet paper. I notice things like toilet paper because I’ve looked through an empty toilet paper tube and discovered land. There were two rolls of toilet paper at the service of those in need. There are two ways to hang toilet paper: Over with the loose end draped over the top and under with the loose end hanging inside next to the wall. One of the rolls was over and one was under. Unintended, or was someone trying to please everyone? No matter, it’s good to have choices. I wonder if it was 1-ply or 2-ply? Toilet paper is like many things.  I don’t care which way it hangs as long it’s there. You never know what you have until it’s gone.

A few days later, I received a survey from that clinic with a request for completion. If you leave your house, you’re going to be asked to complete a survey. It’s homework for grownups. I read the survey twice; there wasn’t a single question about toilet paper.

Aussie bites

I wolfed down a couple of Aussie bites for breakfast. I’ve heard them described as the offspring of an oatmeal cookie and a granola bar — packed with oats, nuts, seeds, berries, fruits, honey, vanilla, cloves, and anything an Australian might find while foraging in the bush. They’re chewy and sweet, but not too sweet.

Properly fueled, I walked through a heavy rain. I was a big drip, dripping rain. I carried no umbrella because I’m an adrenaline junkie. I was unarmed when encountering those jousting knights armed with sharp umbrellas. The most dangerous of those were the people texting while walking and carrying an umbrella.

The bank was open

I watched a granddaughter bank in a long 3-pointer in a victory over Bethany Lutheran. There is always giggling when a 3-pointer is banked in. It doesn’t matter, as the secret of scoring in basketball is to put one round thing through another round thing. I heard on the radio that Ben Simmons, a 6-10 point guard (that’s right 6-10, not 5-10) for the Philadelphia 76ers made his first 3-pointer of his pro career in his 172nd NBA game. That puts him one ahead of everyone I know. In the next game, Joey (my granddaughter) led Minnesota State in scoring without banking in a single 3-pointer.

Nature notes

I walked by a talking oak. Its limbs moaned and groaned in the wind. A tufted titmouse visited my feeders. The weather changed for the worse. When the going gets tough, I hoped the tufted didn’t get going.

Snow buntings flew up from a roadside field. They flew along with my car as if we were racing for pink slips. I’m glad we weren’t. My slow moseying would have resulted in snow buntings driving my car.

I wore a cap bearing the image of a Caspian tern, the largest tern in the world. The Caspian Sea is the Earth’s largest inland body of water. I wore that cap as I watched goldeneyes in Alaska. Ernest Hemingway wrote that the wings of this duck make the sound of ripping silk. It’s a wonderful time of year. An appreciation of nature means that presents aren’t just under a tree. They are over, on, in and around a tree.

Big Bird, the towering Sesame Street character is 8-foot-2-inches of yellow feathers. A black-capped chickadee is a bit smaller, with wing beats of about 27 times per second.

Meeting adjourned

“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” ―

— Henry James