The infant boy in the cart ahead of me today in the grocery store check-out line was inordinately amused by my appearance. I think I was making a good impression on his mom and the cashier with my funny faces up to the point where the child’s enthusiasm caused a pretty impressive burp-up of his most recent meal.
There are a lot of young girls in my area named Ivy, after the invasive (but pretty cool-looking) climbing vine that grows all over houses.
There are an even bigger number of Jasmines, after the invasive (but rather nice-smelling) climbing vine that grows all over fences.
And yet I’ve never met a Wisteria
I’m saving this thread to re-read whenever I get sick to death of all the political bs and whiny people.
Nice! Now how I can shoehorn this into conversation and impress the shit out of people?
Charlotte is in a huge real estate and construction boom, so supply and demand kicks in. Contractors can pick and choose which jobs they want, and we’re getting the idea that so far the two numbers we’ve gotten back are indications that our job isn’t appealing enough.
We’re already making plans to scale back some of what we have planned for (e.g., plumbing in the garage), but I’m very much hoping that we’ll eventually get bids (2 more contractors yet to be heard from) that are within reason. If not, we’ll go back to the original plan of being our own general contractors, getting a slab poured and putting a pre-fab garage building in the back yard, then saving our money for our forever home.
When I was 12 or so, I had a phase where I was into codes. I came up with a type of code - my own invention!!
Not too long ago I found out that it was a form of a “Polyalphabetic cipher” which has been around since the 1300s or maybe before. I guess it wasn’t a new type of code.
Me too. I invented the book cipher, then found out that some asshole had stolen the idea from me hundreds of years ago.
My wife and I have been binge watching, “The Mentalist,” and every time someone hollers Simon Baker’s character’s name, I hear George Jetson:
Jane?
STOP THIS CRAZY THING!
Random thought: Guitars are better than mandolins because they burn longer.
I want to put on a uniform, a military dress uniform, and walk down the street without looking or feeling ridiculous, and without inciting comment. I just want to be able to do it, and have it be a normal thing, like immediately following WWII.
Things that can never be…
I have never known what a belaying pin is. I know it from an anthology of adventure stories for boys, nearly fifty years ago. What children’s author uses “belaying pin” without explaining what it is?
I shall now google it live on the SDMB.
Great. There’s a diagram that helps. But really not worth the wait.
j
My four year old grandson came to visit me this weekend. We were out looking at the animals and I mentioned that with the weather turning cold, we were planning to get the horse a blanket. “A blanket and something else I can’t remember right now…”
He said, “A pillow?” 
I’m starting in on the final season of Man in the High Castle, and that’s a jumping off point for this “random thought”, but it’s not a random thought about it, at least not in so many words.
I remember, when I was stationed in Japan (in the Navy, circa 2006), holding the door open for an elderly Japanese man. He stopped, said something stiff in Japanese, and then just stood there, motionless. He wouldn’t walk through. It occurred to me then, and has stuck with me since, that he was certainly alive during the war, and might have even been old enough to have fought in it. It must suck, living to see someone like me (quite obviously an American and in the Navy, just going by skin color and the fact this was outside a major US naval base) standing there holding the door like that. I mean, who the eff invited me into this country? The naval base at Yokosuka used to be a major Japanese naval base, with some of the first dry docks in Japan there dating back to the 19th century, still in use but now used to help maintain US Navy warships. We took it over during the occupation, along with the rest of the country, but it’s one of those parts we never gave back.
From the perspective of that older man, this is a reality where Japan lost the war, and now I’m just standing there, trying to be friendly as if I’m not there as the consequence of my country firebombing his into submission (and I’m standing there thinking his country kind of had it coming, completely unapologetic, for what it did during the war). Still, unapologetic as I am for the US’ conduct of the war, I could see how it could really suck to live on the other side of that reality as an older man, to be the guy having to stand there as my sworn enemy smiles politely and holds the door open for me, uncomprehending as I curse him and his people for what they did to mine.
I guess that’s kind of where my mind goes when I watch Man in the High Castle. It’s the roll reversal. Sobering stuff if you’ve ever stood across from an old man who doesn’t seem to like you very much, possibly because your people burned some of his alive.
ETA: I’m really tired right now.