Life's funny that way.

Musings . . .

1. At some point, I decided that I was going to be very selective about the new things I learn. Every time we get a new cell phone or audio/video component or computer, the learning curve changes. Not that it's necessarily harder - it's just new. I'm tired of having to reconfigure, input, troubleshoot, explore options, set my preferences, download, rewire, and customize technology to make it as simple and straightforward as possible. It's like a recipe: if it has more than six ingredients and more than one isn't already in my pantry, I'm just not interested. I'm capable - I'm just not willing to invest the time in every single cool new thing that comes along.

2. In this age of online mapping, websites loaded with instructions and information, and the handy dandy phone, why do people get in their cars and head someplace THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET TO?  My favorite telephone calls begin with "can you tell me how to get there?" when they're EN ROUTE. Well, where are you now? Do you have access to a computer? Do you have a road map in the vehicle? Can you pull to the side of the road so you can safely write down the directions? Oh, you don't have something to write with - or on? So you're calling me at every intersection to make sure you're going the right way?

This happens all the time.

3. One of my favorite people has the most marvelous attitude about challenges: you can fight, flight, or flow. She chooses flow every time. So as tensions mount and confusion reigns, she's an oasis of calm and can-do. She reminds me of that tortoise in Aesop's fable: slow and steady win the race.

4. Nature has its own rhythm that is contrary to the Disney-esque expectations of our somewhat cloistered daily lives. Weather isn't always picture perfect, animals and insects don't perform on cue, baby birds and squirrels fall out of nests and become prey for hawks, mosquitoes like the early evening as much as we do, poison ivy and poison oak lurk everywhere, and rabbits like the same vegetables we do. Rather than try to control nature, it's best to go along with it.

5. I've learned a new dress standard: "Dunwoody Casual." A friend asked me about appropriate attire for an evening garden party. "I assume Dunwoody Casual is fine."  I'll have to look that one up, but I wonder if it includes a tennis skirt?  

6. A Dunwoody High School student named Danny Kanso organized a brigade of volunteers from the DHS rank and file to help before and during the Butterfly Festival. He showed up early, kept a list of the ones who showed up, tracked their hours, made a copy so I could log them into Dunwoody Nature Center's database, and checked on everyone to make sure they were on task. I highly recommend him to every future college and employer.

7. Camp trunks leave home perfectly packed. They come home looking like my kids' bedrooms.