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Monday, March 25, 2019

So at the approach of the first anniversary of the blog we are contemplating a celebration of some sort.
But first we had to do a calendar check because the first year was such a roller coaster ride of an experience that I was afraid I’d made a mistake.

I had.

Our first post was April 7, 2018.
So we’ve just lost six days of calendar life, reflected below in the postings count.
I made the adjustments to the calendars below.

Meanwhile, I thought for today’s post I’d post that first.
Few have seen it since from that day to this our followers have grown by 1500%.
Double what we had projected.

The background:
I’ve returned from my sixteen-day solo autotrip and am visiting my daughter Kat, a sophomore at Swarthmore College.
Sipping my coffee and, from the perspective of driving 3,000 miles in sixteen days, thinking of how easy the seven-hour car trip from Boston to Swart felt.

Here is that first post in its entirety, no images would be introduced to the blog for a while.

Saturday, April 7

Good morning, my friends.

This is my first daily posting. 

I’m at the Inn at Swarthmore feeling clean.
Just showered and shaved.
Dining room doesn’t open until 7.00am.
Waiting for my coffee a bit of torture. 

It is true, verified yesterday, that an extended auto trip changes our definition of a long drive.
When I first took Kat to school in Swarthmore, PA, ‘at’ Swarthmore, as well as ‘in,’ the trip seemed interminable.
Now that my sixteen-day auto trip to New Orleans is behind me, that seven-hour drive seems like a jaunt. 

If I got the right word.

I ask the internet to define ‘jaunt,’ and it does: “a short excursion or journey for pleasure.”

Yep. Good word.

tag

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Tick Tock : Marking Calendars and Deep Weather 

After 353 posts we’re at the 7.06% mark of my commitment, the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.

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Question of the Day:
What is a leopard?
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Chuckle of the Day
On safari in Africa with his owner, a poodle chasing butterflies discovers that he's lost.
He notices a hungry-looking leopard heading rapidly in his direction.

The poodle thinks, "Oh, oh! No time to run.”
Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he jumps down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat.

Just as the leopard is about to leap, the poodle exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?"

Hearing this, the leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees.
"Whew!", says the leopard, "That was close! That poodle nearly had me!"

Meanwhile, a monkey watching the play from a nearby tree, figures he can trade what he’s learned for protection from the leopard.
So he catches up with the leopard, tells the story, and strikes the deal.

The leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, monkey, hop on my back so you can watch me chew that poodle to bits!"

Now, the poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?"

He sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and waits until they get just close enough to hear.

"Where's that damn monkey?" the poodle says, "I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!"

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Love your notes.
Contact me at existentialautotrip@hotmail.com

This from Sally C on a couple of different posts:

Dear Dom,

I have heard that parrot joke before, but a good joke always bears repeating.  This is a good one!  Hee, hee, hee!

You have probably heard about that African Gray parrot named Alex that a woman was working with some years ago.
She conducted all kinds of training tests with Alex, something to do with determining levels of intelligence and discernment. 
Alex proved that his species, and maybe other species of parrots, is very intelligent and capable of abstract concepts and comprehension. 
I think a film was made a few years ago, based on a book the woman wrote about her studies and relationship with the bird, or at least a documentary.

With regards to stress, I initially disagreed a bit with your absolute analysis about stress being an enemy, but you did qualify it in the following text. 
My thoughts are that stress is good for us, in the sense that it challenges us, thereby strengthening us when we meet the challenge. 
You do address this early on. 
The real enemy is ourselves, when we ignore the stress without giving it an outlet, by swallowing it and never processing it.

Avoidance of unnecessary stress:  Let's take a page from the Boy Scouts' manual: Be prepared.  Prepare for the worst and anticipate the best.  A positive attitude is a real wet blanket on every-day stress.  I think you've got your finger on some kind of good pulse here.

Sally

Web Meister responds: Most jokes are old but like you said, some are worth repeating.
No. Didn’t hear of Alex but glad to find out about him. Thanks for your helpful comments on stress.

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And Victor P responded to the post of Oysterettes helping with swallowing pills by sending this photo:

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Answer to the Question of the Day:
What as a leopard?

The leopard (Panthera pardus) is one of the five extant species in the genus Panthera, a member of the Felidae.
The leopard occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.

The leopard is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because leopard populations are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, and are declining in large parts of the global range.
In Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuwait, Syria, Libya, Tunisia and most likely in Morocco, leopard populations have already been extirpated.
Contemporary records suggest that the leopard occurs in only 25% of its historical global range.
Leopards are hunted illegally, and their body parts are smuggled in the wildlife trade for medicinal practices and decoration.

Compared to other wild cats, the leopard has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull.
It is similar in appearance to the jaguar, but generally has a smaller, lighter physique.
Its fur is marked with rosettes similar to those of the jaguar, but the leopard's rosettes are generally smaller, more densely packed and without central spots.

Both leopards and jaguars that are melanistic are known as black panthers.

The leopard is distinguished by its well-camouflaged fur, opportunistic hunting behavior, broad diet, and strength (which it uses to move heavy carcasses into trees), as well as its ability to adapt to various habitats ranging from rain forest to steppe, including arid and montane areas, and its ability to run at speeds of up to 58 kilometers per hour (36 mph).

 

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Good Morning on this Monday, the Twenty-fifth of March.

Today we talked about the start of the blog: April 7, 2018.
We talked about the weather and calendar, and an upward adjustment to the number of posts we’ve already executed.
We posted a letter from Sally C covering several topics and a photo sent from Victor P.
And another cute joke. I’m laughing. Hoping you are, too.
Finally, we talked about leopards.
 
And now? Gotta go.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Your Love