Deep Thoughts, by Crash Dummy

Look at this house!

This house was built in 1903 by my great great grandparents.

We call it the Mt. Carmel house.


This is the Mt. Carmel house today--107 years later:

It's almost exactly the same. How wild is that?

Original doors and windows. Original picket fence (behind the shrubbery). It even has the original linoleum floor in the parlor.


My great great grandmother Tait's flour bin still sits in the kitchen.

Walking into this house is like walking into a DeLorean car and going back to the future.

Or is it back to the past? It's so hard to tell on the road of life.

(Can I just wax philosophical for a sec?)

The road of life is funny like that. (So is the road of Kanosh, btw.) You have to look forward to find your way, but at the same time you have to look backward to make sure you don't get run over by a Mack truck.

You get me?


They say life is like a box of chocolates . . . (If that's true I hope they're Dove Chocolates because I like the little bits of wisdom written inside each wrapper. I just ate a Dove chocolate today which said "Remember, mistakes make life interesting." The next one said, "If nobody's perfect, then you're nobody." The next one said, "Be extraordinary in the ordinary things of life."


Susan from New Holland said that.


See that's what I like about Dove. Dove gives credit where credit is due. Most chocolate companies don't take the time to cite their sources.)


Anyways!!!!! 

I don't think life is like a box of chocolates at all. Life is more predictable than that. With life you always know what you're gonna get.  You're gonna get old. And you're gonna get tired. And you're probably gonna get itchy. With a b. 

 I think life is more like a filmstrip.


This filmstrip in particular.


This filmstrip illustrates the need to look forward and the need to look backward at the same time.  To make sure you don't get side swiped when changing lanes.


I didn't need to worry about getting side swiped on the road to Kanosh because noone else travels to Kanosh but me. 



(Does anyone else feel the sudden urge to buckle up?) 

Point o' this photo object lesson is this: You gots ta keep things in perspective because you're not the only one traveling the road of life. You gots ta keep what's ahead of you and what's behind you in balance.  

You hear?

And always keep in mind that things are often distorted when you look back.  

The details get all blurred and you have to add stuff to sharpen it up. 

After I read my grandma's family history book I was so charmed that I told her she should write romance novels. She shook her head and said, "Oh, no darling. I only like to write the truth." 

Is she implying that Edward wouldn't give Bella the time of day in real life?  

No, she's simply saying that she values truth. 

Pretty truth.  

But what was I talking about again? 

Oh, yeah. The Mt. Carmel house.  So on the way to the Mt. Carmel house I stopped at the side of the road to pick some flowers for my dad's grave.

My dad is buried in the Mt. Carmel cemetery with the rest of the deceased family. 

I sat at his grave for a while. 

Some people talk to gravestones, but I don't. Some people have profound experiences in graveyards, but I don't. I didn't feel much so I got up and wandered around and looked at the headstones of all of my relatives back and back and back--trying to feel connected, you know.  

And then I saw this headstone, and I felt connected.

These are my peoples. The peoples who know where to go. And aren't afraid to tell you how to get there.  (hee hee hee)

"It's all uphill from here," they're saying. 

In the snow, both ways. 

Ba dum bum.  

(Can I show and tell the rest later? I need some beauty sleep.) 

P.S. My ex-door neighbor Martha called me yesterday! Squeeeeeel! MAHALO, Martha. I miss you so dang much. Even though you tried to steal my hub. 

J/K, peeps--she just borrowed him. She always brought him back when she was done.