howdy!

 I can hear you sighing now.... you're all saying to yourselves, "he's not going to go blathering along about that (expletive of your choice deleted) orchid again is he?  Should I even bother reading?"

Nope.  But I haven't been writing too much lately.  More accurately, I haven't been writing much at all... really, it's more like I haven't been writing.  Life is a little trying at the moment.  And by a little trying, I think I should probably just admit that it sucks.  Big time.  Not going into the gory details, really, I'll spare you. 

Besides, I think I should probably focus on the good parts. 

Some Pollyanna wanna be recently told me that "Life  is best when you follow your guiding star."

Don't you just hate people like that?  They descend from their little pink, sparkly clouds, drop some idiot platitude, smile beatifically, then float away like a particularly vacuous soap bubble, thinking they've done you some great good by dispensing the wisdom of the ages.

There's one lady at church who does this a lot.  Her favorite line is... "Just remember, wherever you are, you're exactly where God wants you to be."  I'm always tempted to throw a pillowcase over her head, drive her down town, and set her free to explain to the vagrants under the highway why God wants them to be living under the interstate.

But, I guess I was down enough, I decided to give the old guiding star a shot.  Looked everywhere, in the closet, the garage... couldn't find no star.  Finally, I slapped myself on the head, went out side and looked at the sky... and there's a whole bunch of stars out there.  I thought about it... I decided not to go with one of the famous stars.  Certainly not the brightest ones out there... after all, they're probably busy.  I mean, they're probably working with hundreds of people, maybe thousands.  And nothing too obvious, like the middle of Orion's belt, or the tip of the big dipper... instead I used Orion to line up another star... not too big, not too flashy, but a nice respectable star, and I introduced myself.

Of course, I felt silly.  It was silly.  Lets face it though.  sometimes being silly is the best medicine.  Really, a little bit of fun escapism, that has absolutely no purpose other than getting you off of the blue mean dreads that make up the rest of your life, is good for you, provided there's no drugs involved. 

So, I sat in the yard and had a chat with the star.  Now, he has a name of course.  I'm sure that the scientist have a string of numbers to identify him, and for all I know he has his own name in some incomprehensible and unpronounceable interstellar dialect that I'll never grasp.  But I don't know it.  So, with his permission of course, I know I had his permission because he gave me an approving twinkle, I call him Bob.

No relation to Little Goth Bob, whom some of  you may remember, and is sitting in my room seething with jealousy.

Now, you can call it fantasy, you can call it meditation, you can call the men with the coats,  All I know is that after my little chat with Bob, I felt much better.  Now, I can't say Bob is my
 guiding star, that position is still in the interview phase, but ole Bob is a good guy and he's definitely on the short list. 

and there we are.