Inventions, an American Passtime

 I am extremely messy in many areas of my life.  If anyone has been in my bedroom you know my boast is founded on reality. I am also good at allowing my drinks slip onto the floor of the car and spill all over.  Not a big deal, after all it's mom's car not mine.  But for convenience sake I have been considering inventing something which will stop car spillage and make me boo-koo bucks.  As an added bonus I may even manage to make some of the clothes I wear actually make it through a drive. But I  can't go into detail here, after all, I don't need anyone to jump claim on my patent.

I have known for a long time that there are no original ideas out there.  Great spins on ideas, lots of money flowing into someone's pocket because they took action on something that was floating out in the ether.  

Dad was a great inventor of a lot of gadgets.  None of them made fruition because like any Groves, we love to 'talk' not 'do'.  The one that stands out in my mind was his idea in the early 60's for a nail polish dryer.  You see, he knew that if we were able to polish nails, and then set them into a box of some sort with a heated fan we would have dry nails in no time.  Funny how within 1 to 2 years a device came out on the market that did that very thing.  I am sure we can all recall thinking of something and then within months someone has done it.

I have experienced this personally.  I have had an idea for a novel for many years.  I have even gotten a lot of the ideas down on paper (read: computer) for the book.  The name of the book came to me one night; I was extremely excited, it fit all of the areas of my story.  I was going to call it The Dream Walker.  Nine months later my favorite author wrote a character he called the Dreamwalker into his series.  It has caused me to completely halt my writing and  go back to the drawing board on what I will create as one of the characters in this story I am writing.  I don't want to infringe on what someone else used.  I need a little bit of  originality here.  Plus there is the plagiarism issue.  This just demonstrates to me that the ideas are floating around out there.  

We just need to tune in.  Use our dreams.

But, I digress from my main subject, which is inventions.  One of the local radio stations was advertising a pretty cool invention for those couples who have issues in bed.  I am sure, other than finances or straying, this is the single most cause for divorce.  There, I said it, and you all probably know exactly what I am talking about:  bed farts.  You see, evidently someone decided to utilize the technology used to protect our troops from germ warfare and applied it to blankets. Those bed farts will now be nullified of the power to drive a mate from the room.  Check it out.

Given that this is such a wonderful invention it has led me to research and discover what other unknown inventions are floating out there.  This one is cool:

I think a lot more kids would be willing to mow the lawn if only they had this great gadget.

Or here is a practical one that is probably a derivation of something in use:

I would use this!  Wouldn't you?

Finally, I will leave you with a youtube cartoon of some throwback crazy inventions.  Who doesn't enjoy a little bit of Boo boop ti doo!

PidgApeg: Email Issues...

PidgApeg: Email Issues...

Super Hero

Remember if you will the sound track from what was my favorite cartoon as a child:  Mighty Mouse.  (Here I come to save the day!, best portrayed by Andy Kaufman in his stand up routine. Check it out here.  Enter our modern day hero.

Who, you ask?

Well, let me just say I need a National Will Smith Day.  He has been our most versatile actor for the past 10 years or more. Yeah, I said it.  John Wayne always played himself.  For that matter, so does Bruce Willis.  We have actors that we love to watch no matter what they do, but it is because we love them.  I think Will Smith is different.  I find him more of a character actor than most of the mainstream actors, with a couple of exceptions.  Brad Pitt does an incredible insane man....so does Leo for that matter.

But, Will.  We should just take a day that we are all required (requested, sans penalties) to watch the man save the world over and over and over again.

To celebrate you could start with Men in Black, where he takes care of the socially acceptable aliens, then
onto Independence Day, where he vanquishes the evil ones.

Next, I Robot, and how Will saves the world from Robots running amok.

If you are still up for it, after all of that awesomeness, comes I Am Legend, our hero for curing the zombies who terrorize our dreams (and in this current society, our tv's and laptops).  I am sure this is just a watered down version of the current plague of zombies set to a sound track.

Onto Hancock, a superhero with human frailties along with a great cast to support him.
Can anyone forget his selflessness as he portrays a dying man in Seven Pounds? (was that TMI for those who have not seen it?)

 Throwback to a different style shows Will playing Hitch, the man able to connect true love for his clients; or finally, in the Pursuit of Happyness, we see him as one man able to overcome the odds and salvage himself and become a hero in his son's eyes.

 It seems to me that Will projects an all around hero, able to tackle anything the world needs him for.  We should hope he is planning on a routine drive-by focusing on vampires.

And for those of you who do not necessarily agree on him as the man of the hour, keep in mind my list offers you everything from comedy to drama, fantasy and science fiction.  The renaissance man of film.  Truly.  Mighty mouse, the man.  My hero.

So, Vacation

                                                               
                                         So, Vacation

Vacation can be a wonderful time to learn about yourself.  For example, I learned that things don't get done unless you take active steps to apply yourself.  I am an active procrastinator, therefore, mental goals I made never saw the light of day.

I did learn that in spite of  false starts, such as needing to go to the coast a day earlier than you mentally plan for, you can drive through snow to play at the beach on a sunny day.  Possibly common knowledge for most Oregonians, while at the coast I learned low tide is an awesome time to collect sand dollars;  to be fair to the sand dollar population, I also learned you don't take the ones with the little fuzzy feelers on the bottom.  This means they are still alive.

Once we returned from the beach my powers of procrastination kicked in -- there should be a super hero of procrastination; I would definately be in the running. I learned additional things once I got home...keeping the grandson and stepgrandson (to be exact, it is a great nephew who calls me Grandma, cuz it is easier than figuring out what type of relationship he and I actually have, as he is living with my ex son in law and my niece) is good for me, but slightly stressful for Mom.  So ya keep em busy with movies or playing around in the next room.  My vacation education from these two little guys took over.

From Caleb and Trevor I don't really get stars for doing gramma things:  such as (from Caleb) the other gramma, even though she is older is quite fun to be around, but of course, I am alright.  I also learned  from the almost four year old grandson that it really sucks bigtime that I didn't get him something for Valentine's Day, even though he brought over candy for me.  But I wasn't the only one that learned something from him today.  Caleb learned he should have gotten something bigger for Trevor since I suck. I am not a 'relationship' kind of person -- don't really have a close personal relationship with all of my children...heck!  I can't really count the friends I have, because that would demonstrate an active participation with people, and I am such a procrastinator that I really prefer being at home and 'doing my thing'. I suspect that these could be 'learned' abilities....be a bit more active with my grandchildren, with the people I would like to consider friends.

So perhaps the biggest thing I learned over my vacation is I should be open to learning and not procrastinate making changes; it might make me a more 'all around' person.  To reinforce that, I just found on a blog a terrific statement.  Check it out!

Hope you enjoyed the pics, all three of you readers, lol!  One final coast shot!

The Gife of a Perfect Moment

                                                   The Gift of a Perfect Moment

Occasionally there is a feeling of being in the right place at the right time -- I hate that phrase.  It is over used and it doesn't really describe the event.

Instead, I will describe the moment; you may interpret it as being in the right place at the right time; but I think of that phrase as a situation where a positive event benefits an individual, such as being in the right store to buy that particular lottery ticket, or assisting in something momentous as to help an individual who has been involved in  a car accident, or even something as simple as helping someone to the grocery store.

So, to be clear, perhaps I had a perfect moment.

The sky, wonderfully robin egg blue, enveloped the morning, and sitting on my deck gave me a sense of belonging to the day.  The sounds of birds floated through the air, one particularly close.  (I attempt to make sure the birds in the neighborhood have plenty of seeds, a bit of water for hydration, and I try to keep the deck free of cats.  This is an ongoing state -- me against the predators of the aviators.)

As I listened to the tweeting, the chirps, the talking back and forth of the species, I had an overwelming feeling of honor that they would choose my humble deck as a place to gather.

A junco hopped down onto one of the planters, empty of foliage.  I have placed a pie plate - thank you Marie Calendar - on this planter filled with a combination of black sunflowers, simple seed, and thistle, attempting a combination which would entice anything from my wonderful winter juncos, to the blue jays or chickadees and gold finches.

After nibbling for a moment or two this junco hopped back into the pear tree which is adjacent to my back yard.  From his beak I had the pleasure of listening to his song.  This was a first for me, something more than the quick little sounds, almost chitters like I normally hear.  His singing was for the day, as if expressing an accord with my spirit.  It was beautiful.  Here is a connection which will take you to the sounds the junco emits:   http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=37  If the link doesn't work (I have attempted to set it up a couple of different ways, just copy and paste in a new window.  It reminds me of just the songs they insert into the background noise in movies -- wonderful.

Because it was a perfect moment I didn't focus only on the junco but sat there and absorbed the day.  Sun was glinting through the branches of our maple tree/bush and strands of cobwebs glittered from branch to branch, trails of the pathway the friendly spiders traveled.  The branches were full of them, almost as if they held the branches together. As I looked I could see light playing with the individual webs.  My content was complete, and I felt the honor of being alive and part of the cycle, as if there was something in my life I was doing right.

February Challenge

I discovered a new blog today, love her thinking and her style.  She has started a challenge I am willing to  take up, so now that I have completed my 'self assigned' chores for the first day of my weekend, here is my response to her challenge -- something written in my own handwriting.  Will spend some time setting up a great blog tonight, if only for myself.  In the meantime, a pic of the birds.

This next shot is of my handwriting.  Following this link for the challenge:  http://www.edenriley.com/

Can't emphasize enough how much more fun it is being grandma than it was to be Mama.  I feel like all of my grandchildren are each children of my heart, and Riah is no exception.