Regret pregret gonna get…

regret, regrets

I try really hard not to have anything to regret.  Regret is the worst.  You have an opportunity in front of you, you weight the options and outcomes of that opportunity, you decide.  You got through the elements of your decision.  You walk away.  You go home, you chill… then you think about the decision you made earlier.

There are two ways this could go… either you’re cool with it, or you’re not.  There’s an addendum to that… you can’t remember what you decided…we won’t talk about that one today.

Let’s say you have regrets… but not of the whole decision, just a piece of it.  The vibes are 94% positive, with only a 6% crud factor.  Do you let that 6% roast the 94%?  In times of pain, probably.  But had you not made that decision, you could be at 40%, 30%.  Once you make the decision, there will always be regrets.  It’s what you do with those feelings that makes the difference between a smile and a scream.

Most of the time, we decide in the moment.  Instant computation to an almost instant result.  But, there are other times when the fruits of a moment don’t ripen for a long time.  If you aren’t patient… really patient, you could miss out on a lot.

Regret is a waste of time like some other stuff…  Regretting isn’t going to any more change yesterday as it will change today.  So, if you can help it, don’t do it.

100% Organic squirrel…

organic squirrel

I am fully organic.  The only thing that’s artificial about me is the word artificial.  I am real.  I am so real I am almost unreal… bordering on surreal.  If you don’t believe my claims of being organic, check my fur… you’ll find the soil I was grown from and the soil of my travels…both of which are just plain dirt… but ORGANIC dirt.

I am so real that I can’t even try to pretend to be someone else.  I get so lost in myself, why would I want to be anyone else?  Being a squirrel is pretty great.  Yes, there are some drawbacks, and some things that flat out stink… but for the most part, it’s cool.  I have a wonderful environment in which to live… my ecosystem has just the right amount of eco.  Why would I want to be anywhere else?  Why would I want to be any less organic?  My environment has played a big role in how I see things… and how things see me.  Do I think about what I could have been in another environment?  Sure, we all do… but it’s a big waste of time.  Thinking about the could’ves blinds you to what is.  It’s okay to think about it, but don’t lose yourself in the being you could’ve been by ignoring the being you are.  Makes no sense.

the spotlight syndrome…

spotlight syndrome

Everyone at one time wants to be in the spotlight.  The problem is a lot of us can’t always pick when that spotlight will shine on us.  It’s not always shining on something good.  Still others try and avoid the spotlight entirely, preferring to stay in the back, in the shadows of the chorus, mouthing the words to the song and getting through the act.  That’s cool too… to a point.  In order for there to be shadows there needs to be light…eventually you’ll have to walk out of the shadows into that light.  Sometimes you’re pushed… other times you’re pulled.  But if you walk right into it, you realize that the light isn’t as bad as you thought.  You’re able to see things that maybe you didn’t know were there.  You see things that are actually better than you thought they’d be and you find things that you need to work on.

You can’t improve yourself by staying in the shadows.  You can’t change by remaining in the shadow…hoping that change will somehow happen when you can’t see it.

Every once in a while, you just need to walk into the spotlight.  Sure, the anticipation sends you on a roller coaster of hurt, anger, nervousness and fear… but that stuff is temporary.  Just get in the light before the bulb burns out and you can’t see.  You only get one bulb, use it.

bad hair day with a twist…

bad hair day with a twist

When life give you a bad hair day, make sure you have a hat.  It would be wonderful if you had the luxury of not doing anything until you looked your absolute best.  First of all, I don’t even know what that means.  I don’t know what looking my best means I mean.  Sure, I make sure the cracker crumbs are completely out of my tail… and that the toothpaste is not on the corner of my mouth… and that the morning eye crusties are removed (actually, I’m not always on top of that one.)

If I had a bad hair day, I could easily walk around with my tail over my head.  It would be so easy to not deal with the problem, cover the problem up and hope that through the course of the day the problem will disappear on its own or I will just stop caring.  Walking around with my tail over my head is all I’d be able to do… I would walk in circles because I wouldn’t be able to see where I was going… which leads to other problems.  So by not dealing with an easy problem, I end up creating more.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

You do?  Good.  Because I can’t see a thing with my tail in front of my face.

Happy Monday!

right materials excuse

right materials excuse

Finding an excuse is easy.  Finding an opportunity is not so easy.  With the right materials, anything is possible.  This is also true of the wrong materials, but that anything may not be the thing that you’re looking for.

I’m not sure I totally agree with Frank’s drawing of me today.  Personally, I think that it’s an easy excuse to blame the materials (in certain situations).  We can’t control how we are made, we can’t control who makes us.  We can only control every moment after that.  It doesn’t matter where you came from, it only matters where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.  Sure, there are days when I’d love to bathe myself in an easy excuse… just to get through the day.  But that’s just the day.  What about the next day and the next and the next?  Excuses eventually expire.  The best bet is to not make any excuses in the first place.  Right?

I’m not saying it’s easy.  It’s way easier to find an excuse than an opportunity.  Just keep looking.

Always keep looking.  Always keep looking.

snow sculpture from the 90’s…

snow sculpture from 1990
Rome Daily Sentinel, February 17, 1990

A fan of Frank’s reminded him of something last night.  The year was 1990.  George H.W. Bush was President.  Gas was cheap and M.C. Hammer was beginning his reign on the pop charts.  Frank was in 9th grade.

As part of an art project that encompassed all the 9th grade art classes, they were going to do a snow sculpture.  To decide what they were going to do, each student in Studio Art would do a mini clay sculpture and all the classes would

Frank still has the sculpture from 1990!
Frank still has the sculpture from 1990!

vote on which one they’d immortalize in snow.  Frank was on an Albert Einstein kick at that point (don’t ALL 9th grade boys go through that?) so he did a little Einstein head.  Surprisingly (especially to Frank) the head won.  So, for an entire day, each art class spent their class time piling snow, sculpting snow and packing snow.  Frank had art as the first class of the day… so all he got to do was shovel snow into a pile… which he could have done at home.

By the end of the day, there was a giant Einstein head in the school’s courtyard.  The teachers called the newspaper and snapped the picture you see above.  Notice how Frank was striking a very New Kids on the Block pose?

Three weeks later, the snow had melted beyond recognition.  Although, Frank says it was the spitting image of a pile of ice and snow.

This was WAY before me… way before Frank’s beard came in, way before a lot of things I know.  I don’t know if this one moment made him want to head down the path he eventually did, but it sure was a fork.  At the very least, it probably gave him a bit of a confidence boost.

There’s no real SQUIRRELOSOPHY to this one, I just thought it was a cool story.  That, and…I wanted to embarrass Frank by showing him in Reeboks.

heroes…

emotions hero heroic

There are heroes and then there are heroes.

APE K9 hero
Ape – K9 hero.

I’m going to take a moment and talk about current events…more specifically, current events in my neck of the woods.  Not close enough to hear the sirens, but close enough to be changed.  A man with a gun allegedly went on a shooting spree across two towns,

killing four and wounding two.  He was eventually killed by police in a final stand off, but not before a FBI K9 dog named Ape was shot and killed by the gunman.  Ape was just doing his job.  His attack on the suspect was instrumental in the end to the stand off.  His death may have saved the lives of bystanders and/or law enforcement officers.

So why does this make me feel so unbelievably angry?  Death is bad no matter what.  Death is final…whether it comes in a blaze of glory or in the middle of the night while you sleep.  It is the one thing we’re all guaranteed.  I feel sorrow for the people who lost their lives that day…but I cried for Ape.  A lot of people cried for Ape.  He didn’t know he wouldn’t make it out.  He didn’t know the danger that was before him.  He was just doing his job.  That’s a hero…a four legged, wet nose having, heart bigger than anything hero.

He’ll be given all the honors that would be bestowed upon a fallen officer.  His name will be engraved on a wall of fallen K9 officers at FBI headquarters.  His short tow year life will not have been wasted.

So I ask again, why does this hurt so much?  Why should a squirrel be this emotional?  Why couldn’t they send in a can of tear gas instead of the dog? Why did this have to happen at all?  Why?

All in my backyard.

 

Star Wars blind

star wars blind empire

I have seen all the Star Wars movies.  I’ll just get that right out of the way.  However, I have not MEMORIZED them.  I know what happens, who’s Dad is who and which planets get messed up.  I’m not passing any cinematic judgement…there are many out there who could , can and would do a better job than I ever could.

I’ve been in a few scrapes in my life.  The details are boring, but I’m still here.  My clock was cleaned so many times I considered going digital.

Anyway…

I was able to see pretty well when I was a punching bag.  My eyes were good, it was the rest of my body that needed some training.  That being said, what’s up with the stormtroopers in Star Wars?  The rebels were able to mess them up.  The EWOKS were able to mess them up.  I think I know why.  It wasn’t poor command.  It wasn’t lack of training.

It was because they couldn’t see their armor covered hand in front of their armor covered faces!  They should’ve joined forced with some Star Trek red shirts and had a go.  At the very least they could put together a joint support group.  I mean, really.

astronaut frank and me…

astronaut frank and bob the squirrel

I think yet another astronaut drawing pretty much says it all.  At least that’s what I think.  The only problem I have with this, other than I’m not really the subject, is that I’m drinking TANG.

I don’t even like that stuff.

This is a repost of a drawing Frank did last year.  I know it’s one of his favorites.

Back to Top