It is Friday isn't it?

I'm brain-numb, not the good I just hoovered a Glacier Mocha from Island Espresso kind either.

Has anyone else noticed how oddly long this week was? Was it a stretch in the space time continuum mixed with nearing Summer Solstice and being trapped between the line painter and the traffic cones, or what?

I keep catching myself doing a doubletake at the spikes sticking out of Pillar. Those props have some massively impressive wingspans. Although, I still think it looks like pieces of the Iron Giant have taken residence up there. I'm just waiting for it to up and walk away one day.

I've had to look twice several times at those owls they have perched all over the Kasheveroff building. Someone was telling me a story about having those at a cannery too, to keep the seagulls off the dock, only they apparently only worked in the dark - so you could hear the owl hooting through the night but the seagulls by that time were sleeping.

Now that I've wiped away a few more moments from the clock it doesn't seem to have ticked past as quickly as I thought it would. It truly is the week that would not end.

facespacebook tweeting and empty caloric value prayers

I was hovering over S.O.'s shoulder and their interesting dissection of classmates from every clique and posse in KHS. My friends list isn't quite as diverse, a couple of college buddies, a couple of family members, couple of work buddies, most just like me, occasional lurkers, but not really 'in-to-it' per se. I enjoy seeing the occasional status update, when someone is doing something especially adventurous, or remotely entertaining, but wow. . . . S.O.'s peeps are, are... hmm, remarkably, I don't even have a word for it.

The one that tipped the cow posts multiple status updates all asking for people to pray for her for one thing or another. I'm all for praying for people if they are sick, dying, needing a miracle... but it seems trite to pray for someone that they make it out of StarBucks with their triple non-fat latte moccacina. If there truly is someone listening, why would anyone want to waste a wishful thought on making it through a soccer game and a ballet recital all in one night? Sure, pray they make it safely, but don't pray for the strength to sit through the events. Although in hindsight, maybe neither were particularly talented, which I guess qualifies as prayer-worthy if it was torturous, but somehow I find that unlikely.

Promoting Nutrisweet prayers gives me all the more reason to avoid religion. I'll stick with my Magic 8 Ball, Birthday Candle, and Shooting-Star wishes. Save the prayer lines for the protesters in Iran, the flight crew whose pilot died in the air, the will to make the best decisions we can with the information we have...

On other absurd news. Did you see PETA is getting all riled up about Obama killing a fly? No chopsticks involved, but it was a pretty good move.

Nixed the rainbow ponies.

I got burned out on the color green on my profile. Of course I am reveling in its appearance outside from neon spruce tips to the unfurling alder leaves. Kodiak on the brink of green is a wonderful place to be. Yep, I'm high on the happy pill of a sunny day. Well, until I have to pull out the lawn dinosaur, but even the thought of the chore seems pleasant today.

Maybe not pleasant enough to leave the profile with rainbow ponies on it though. My dear friend "e" knows her way around that code jibberish, so when I asked her to upgrade me to a new hue, I should have known what to expect. Nice. Sorry, I couldn't bring myself to leave it that way. "e" says she'll update it eventually, but wanted to go outside and play today. Oh well, I can't blame her.

I was actually wishing I could trade places with a flag man today, they seemed to be having so much fun, or just were happy being busy flag people. They have some pretty neat toys crawling the streets. I like the new groove they've got for the yellow lines to get installed, I wonder if they are filling in the paint, or if it is a reflective material that is embedded in it?

Got paused by a flagman by McDonald's where I'm guessing they are fixing a water main or something and noticed a new green and white striped building is appearing next to Cy's. I'm told it is going to be a coffee / gift shop. Right now, I'm wondering why they chose design inspiration from a tube of Aquafresh.

Well, hopefully someone e-mails me if my profile all of the sudden has a kitten or Numa-Numa guy theme this evening. I'm wary now I've left my password in the hands of someone with the feverish desire to pick on me.

Reason free from passion

I got sucked into a Law & Order rerun, not so much watching it but contemplating the premise of passion. Part of my nature is to try to remember to look at things diversely, to accept that there can be multiple truths, and often there just isn't a right answer. Yes'm that thought is a bit profound to be pulling out of a court drama, but, all the good seasons ended and it was that or "So you want to be a crappy reality TV star stranded on an island"?

Being too fractured on the whole opinion issue puts me at odds with embracing any particular facet of religion, politics, or unending bureaucracy. (Although, I do have a slight leaning on the side of lame regarding Scientology-mostly because I couldn't accept Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt after that whole 'you're being glib' diatribe. Way to ruin a perfectly cool movie.) Unless there is a path of obvious choice, what drives one down one route or another other than passion?

It is another one of those words that can be contained in too many sentences, landing in cliche-ja-vu, because I've already written this before, or read it... multiple times. (I'm thinking this is why I don't post very often, there is so much information rattling around that it is starting to feel like it has all been said before.) But the fact that passion keeps calling attention to itself, must mean that part of life needs some tweaking into shape.

So, how to do that? Guess thinking of a few inspirational people and strolling back through history's heroes get me by for now. I'm thinking of the passion of the inventors and creators of the technology that I so embrace and admonish, the passion of our forefathers ditching the U.K. to homestead in freedom, the soldiers and men of honor who serve and protect, hand in hand with the takers-on of causes. They all have in common a certainty, a drive toward the direction that in hindside seems so obvious, but must have taken a thousand upstream moments.

This makes me think of impossible New Year's resolutions, and incomprehensively unattainable goals. That, and the ultimate question, "So, how do you eat an entire cow?". My answer: one bite at a time, as long as you aren't vegetarian or allergic to beef, or a cannabalistic cow, then I guess you'll have to get someone else to eat the cow for you, or compost it, since it is already dead - and isn't that the goal to have some good come out of it - even if it is just some really fertilized radishes?

I guess I do have a passion... for nonsense.