Entries tagged as ‘wisdom’
I was at a meeting recently where someone stood up and said, “Fall is here, so please remember not to drive through piles of leaves along the road. There could be children playing in them.”
I’ve heard that a hundred times, and a hundred times it sounded like something that grew out of urban legends. On the flip side, we were told as kids not to play in the leaves near the street for the same reason. As usual, this drove me to the internet. Low and behold, SNOPES.COM does not dismiss the warning as a myth, but cites several horrible accidents as proof that playing in the leaves can have deadly consequences.
But there’s a more pressing reason you shouldn’t play in the leaves, particularly not the leaves piled on the street in front of my house. That’s because they are filled with dog poop. Those are the leaves I raked from the backyard over the weekend, and while we try to stay one step ahead of the dogs, it’s tough in the fall. The problem? Their droppings are camouflaged by nature’s colorful bounty. That sounds very poetic until you stroll through the leaves, or worse yet, you spend three hours raking them up. Then nature’s colorful bounty is a stinky, disgusting mess.
So, don’t play in the leaves and don’t drive through the leaves, and for Gods’ sake, wear clean underwear in case you get in an accident.
Categories: Kids · Modern Living
Tagged: automotive, current events, dogs, wisdom
Billy Collins served two terms as Poet Laureate of the United States and was the New York State Poet for 2004. His poem “The Lanyard” sums up Mother’s Day better than I could in a million years. Watch him recite it here or read it yourself below. (more…)
Categories: Home · Kids
Tagged: wisdom, words
I can cook and clean and do laundry as well as my mother, but let’s face it: there are some things that men are not able to handle. No, I’m not talking about childbirth, I am talking about corsages. Do not trust a man to order a corsage unless he’s given specific and exact instructions. We don’t know what you are wearing or what goes with it, nor do we particularly care. Yet if we call the florist to order a corsage -like I did for Easter today- the conversation goes like this:
Florist: What color flower would you like?
Me: I don’t know.
Florist: Well…what is she wearing?
Me: I have no idea. What goes with everything?
Florist: White.
Me: White is perfect.
Florist: What color ribbon would you like with that?
Me: It comes with a ribbon? Does that cost extra?
You get the idea. I ended up with a single white rose and a pale yellow ribbon. The ribbon, by the way, cost me nothing but goes with most everything. I will teach my sons that on Easter and Mother’s Day, flowers are nice but something that your wife can wear around all day long is even nicer.
Categories: Home
Tagged: Marriage, men, wisdom
