It’s Raining Frogs

“Plop.” The sound came soft and clear from somewhere in the fading dusk. I looked around for what it might be and there, unmoving in the dark, was the shape of a frog. As I approached for a better look it shook off the fall and hopped away. It made me smile. Back to reading.

“Plop.” Seriously? Yes, another frog fell from the heavens and onto the same piece of lawn furniture. Siblings? Husband and wife? Probably the latter, as the second one took off in a different direction as the first 🙂 And I giggled harder the more I thought about the likelihood of not one, but two, frogs free falling into my awareness. The refrain from “It’s Raining Men” ran though my mind with new lyrics, about frogs of course.

Humidity is rising, barometer’s getting low
According to all sources, the RV’s the place to go
Cause tonight for the first time
Just about half-past eight
For the first time in history
It’s gonna start raining frogs, yep you heard that straight.

` The Weather Girls’ with permutations by moi.

Maybe I should get out more?  Just a thought.

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I spied a new-to-me bird this week in two different locations but was without my camera both times.  It is the swallow-tailed kite, of the Hawk family.  The bird life is abundant here in my new location and I am enjoying familiar species and discovering new ones.  Still unidentified are the small flocks of birds that sound quite like nuthatches, flying in small groups of eight to ten.  Nuthatches are much, much smaller though.  This groups chittering while they fly sounds much like a flock of  dog squeak toys has taken to the air and always directs my eyes to the sky to see if I can further identify them. So far, no such luck.

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An amazing find that I have to share with those of my readers that are sustainability oriented. I think this is one of the most incredible ideas I’ve seen recently! Give it a look, and support it if you too, find it of value to the world.

 

They also have existing models in smaller and lighter sizes for backpacking, primitive or homestead camping/cooking scenarios or simply using as a solar cooker without the ability to store your cooking power for later.

http://www.gosunstove.com/

I don’t do much cooking in my small quarters at this time due to the heat impact. But I believe I will avail myself of some form of one of these in order to cook my lunch in the back of my car, lol! Seriously though, it is an exciting concept to me, and one that makes use of free fuel, saves electricity, reduces heat in small living spaces and shows that there are still new ideas to be found and worked for good.

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Paul Theroux captures the ‘otherness’ of separateness that I often feel in his book “Fresh Air Fiend”. It is a feeling difficult to place into words, written or otherwise. Any attempt is often seen as a reasoning for ‘better than’ for some reason. I’d liken it to living in a parallel universe where everything looks the same but is called something different, in a different language and color and its value weighted differently. I’ve found this in others from time to time, as in casual conversations neither of us having a reference point for what the other person is discussing. At that moment, we are complete strangers and do not share the common base required for communication to move forward in a linear fashion. We nearly always assume that the person we are communicating with ‘sees’ the same thing in our word pictures as we do when we weave them. My vision is weird in real life and in thought life. I can spot a very tiny flower of a different color and step into a hole that swallows my foot to the ankle. In life, as in the example above, we can find our field of vision narrow, or exclusionary; and so when we speak to others we can forget that there are other experiences, other backdrops, a difference about someone else that we cannot fathom. I think that I enjoy Theroux’s writing so much because he is clearly able to explain thought life in an easily understood way, even though it is different from my own. The more that I read, and talk to others, the more I realize there is so much that I do not know! Of course, we have to separate and sort the amount of information that we take in as to useful and applicable relevance versus ‘neat information’ of which I will never probably call upon.

Nowhere do I see such a suspicion of ‘otherness’ as in the world of humans. If I grew only one flower type in my garden, would it be as lovely? If blue only hung out with blue, we’d never know the beauty of blue and yellow in combination; how complementary the pairing. True, one must make sure the shades, intensity and size of the colors are harmonious and not jarring. Never mind that the flowers aren’t truly that color, but only reflecting that spectrum so that our eyes perceive it as ‘blue’, ‘yellow’ and so on. It is here that I think the quantum world and the human one leap into bed together without even knowing so. What a person reflects to our perception is the way in which we color them. As with the optic nerve/brain ‘fill-in’ technique, so too, we do with people. We make assumptions, quick judgments, label and then either move away or towards another. And of course, we presume that our perception is always correct, and that the other person’s is flawed, if we choose to move away by what is reflected to us. It takes time to discover the true infrastructure of a person. Yet we live in a time when information, media sound bytes, Instagram snapshots, loaded language headlines and other such tools give us only an instantaneous reflection of something outside of context. We carry this into our interpersonal relationships too I fear. But if we call a table a chair because that is what our snapshot vision is of a thing, then we most likely will never fully utilize or value the table for its many useful functions, because we can’t sit on it comfortably.

Variety…the spice of life?

And that my dear readers, is your philoso-silliness of the day. I am off to explore the great outdoors on my bike and see if the mosquito hordes I encountered a few months ago on a trail in the woods are still just as fiercely intent on making a meal out of pedaling humans.

Till next time, make sure it is a chair you are forcing to support you, rather than a table 🙂

~SE ‘Brain on Fire’