Bag of Randomness for Thursday, July 28, 2022

  • Most of you know DaughterGeeding has a pet bunny. He’s named “Buno” after Bono (I merely suggested the name, she was free to name it whatever she wanted). Somehow through the divorce, I got stuck caring for the damn thing. Yesterday, I decided to steam some broccoli and thought I’d give the scraps I trimmed off to the rabbit. I thought it would be harmless, afterall, I’m sure bunnies in the wild eat broccoli that’s being farmed. But, I did my due diligence and googled what you see above and laughed my arse off. I mean, not only does broccoli give rabbits gas, it specifically gives them “painful gas.” I couldn’t help but imagine what Buno’s face would look like trying to pass “painful gas”. Of course, all of this reminded me of Dumb and Dumber‘s Turbolax scene (sorry for the potato quality, it was the best I could find). No doubt, Jeff Daniels’ best work.
  • Do they allow loud laughing in Hawaii? Or just a low ha?
  • Sprite will no longer be sold in green bottles – Sprite is retiring its green plastic bottles after more than 60 years. Coca-Cola said Wednesday it’s changing the packaging from green to clear plastic beginning August 1 as part of broader efforts to become more environmentally responsible. Sprite’s current plastic contains green polyethylene terephthalate (PET), an additive that can’t be recycled into new bottles
  • Mom claims Alvin ISD said daughter with special needs consented before alleged sexual assault
  • I go to trivia night with my three of my closest friends every Tuesday night, but it really disappointed me in how I handled myself. We got third, but we should have had a better time. One friend was razzing me for how I ordered my meal, which confused our server. A lot of times, I feel this friend doesn’t know when to let things go and how his jokes may make those in the service industry feel uncomfortable at his expense. Part of my concern was that I didn’t want the server to feel she was being made fun of. But really, I should have played it cool, relaxed, and took some good-natured ribbing. As my dad said, you only tease the ones you love. I was being teased, and I took it as an insult when it wasn’t. One of my other friends, who knows me best, could tell I was becoming upset, let the other friend know, and questioned why I would be upset over this. I said it’s because everyone knows I’m the dumbest one at the table and he was exploiting it. I apologized to him on the spot, and at the end of the evening, telling him I’m sorry and I have a lot of growing to do. But in some ways, the damage was already done and it made me and I think all of us feel awkward about it. There’s a little history there. I think I take too much of his ribbing. Perhaps he doesn’t realize how I feel or how often I feel he does it. A lot of times, it’s liberal jabs, and he probably doesn’t know how tough it is having these convictions of supporting certain views in this heavily conservative dominated area. I feel like I let things go all the time. He’s also the type that if he disagrees with you, he won’t let it go. He will look it up on his phone right away to prove a point. Over time, that gets annoying. But in retrospect, it was over ordering a cheeseburger. I should have just said, “You’re right, I should have phrased it differently.” Like I said, it was over a cheeseburger and friendships are bigger than cheeseburgers. But, this is more likely a symptom of a bigger problem. Probably my insecurity, because I said I feel like everyone knows I’m the dumbest one at the table and he was exploiting that fact. To be fair, he said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Hey, just to clear the air. I don’t think you’re the dumbest one at the table and I didn’t mean to be insulting or anything like that.” That’s when I said my first apology, that I should have handled it better and I’m still growing. But I felt bad because it kinda set the mood for the rest of the night.
  • That problem made me realize the attachment issue I’ve been working on. I hold on to things I don’t want to let go, and hold on to things I want to let go but can’t, or unintentionally should, let go. These “things” aren’t always physical, but can be. Sometimes, our refusal to let go means that thing has ownership of us. It’s an interesting thing I’ve been exploring.
  • I bet some of you are screaming at me to check out mindfulness. Trust me, I’m working on it. Here are two great audio books on it you can listen to for free, The Power of Now, and 10% Happier (GoldenAudioBooks is an overlooked and undervalued site). My more religiously conservatives will tell me just focus on the Bible and not this new age stuff. But I argue this isn’t new aged, Jesus practiced it, and God is not limited to teaching us things solely through the Bible.
  • Life is meaningless, says the teacher, so says the book of Ecclesiastes. Yesterday I stumbled upon this book about it as I went down a Twitter worm hole. I may download a sample and give it a try.
  • I also know a lot of you are telling me just to act or think a certain way. Trust me, I want to, but it takes work to get there, so I have to blog about the bad so you can understand what I’m going through in order to grow and get there.
  • I find this old story amazing – Rotating the Indiana Bell building
    Between Oct. 12 and Nov. 14 1930 the eight-story 11,000-ton Indiana Bell building was shifted 52 feet south along Meridian St. and rotated 90 degrees to face New York St. Workmen used a concrete mat cushioned by Oregon fir timbers 75-ton, hydraulic jacks and rollers, as the mass moved off one roller workers placed another ahead of it. Every six strokes of the jacks would shift the building three-eights of an inch – moving it 15 inches per hour.

    Gas, electric heat, water and sewage were were maintained to the building all during the move. The 600 workers entered and left the traveling structure using a sheltered passageway that moved with the building. The employees never felt the building move and telephone service went on without interruption. And yes, the move took less than 30 days.

This entry was posted in Personal. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.