Talking points

Even though I know on some level how long it’s been since I last posted, I cannot believe it. Remember those old movies in which the passage of time was indicated by calendar pages flipping rapidly across the screen? That’s how my life has felt lately.

I’m blaming the distortion of time mostly on the heat. It’s been so hot and so humid that I’ve come close to melting on my way home from work each day. My best writing time used to be the hours between my arrival at home and the beginning of prime time TV, but lately I’ve been coming in and collapsing on the sofa to let the A/C blow on me, and that’s turned into an ill-timed nap every blessed day.

Since the heat has apparently melted some of the circuitry in my brain, rendering me incapable of composing more than a couple of coherent paragraphs, I'll just toss a few questions into the blogosphere. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.

Question: Should Barack Obama apologize to the nation for the fact that he was never a prisoner of war and, therefore, never had to refuse to divulge information to the enemy? I’ve never been a prisoner of war either, but I never realized that was a character flaw until I listened to Sean Hannity last week.

Question: Do you know that if you’re riding a bicycle in the street, you’re supposed to ride in the same direction as the traffic? Twice -- not once, but twice -- in the past week, I’ve nearly run over people who were riding bicycles. In both instances I was turning onto divided highways where traffic is supposed to flow in only one direction. The first time, I made a right turn, having watched to my left for a couple of minutes for a break in the traffic, then turning quickly onto the supposedly empty interstate entrance lane. The second time I turned left after waiting for the left-turn arrow. In both cases, as soon as I turned into the lane where I was supposed to be, I found a bicycle headed straight toward me. Both of them were way too close for comfort. I’m hoping that it scared the bike riders as much as it scared me, so maybe they won’t do something that stupid again.

Question: If you had a neighbor who insisted on standing right at the fence on the property line and taunting you day after day, would you feel like giving that neighbor a piece of your mind? I'm pretty sure that's how the dog next door feels when the peacock visits.


Question: When you look at the following photo, do you see three stacked laundry baskets, the top one of which appears to contain folded clean laundry?


That’s what I see, too. Kadi, however, thinks she sees a new dog bed.


Question: Did you believe me all those times I've written that Butch is a fairly large dog?