Gaining a little perspective

Today, AC takes us on a path to enlightenment, or at the very least partway down an alley toward what isn't scary anymore..... BONUS - terrific quote-age. ====================================== Writing is Easy. You Only Need to Stare at a Piece of Blank Paper Until Your Forehead Bleeds. (Douglas Adams) Guest posting! A sure fire way to create a writer's block out of thin air. Last week I could barely spell blogger and today, well, here goes. First off let me tell you all it is to be near 70 degrees down here, kind of close to where Mr. Mayor finds himself today. I hope he is taking advantage of the shirt sleeve weather to gather some rays of natural Vitamin D. I think there is some theory, maybe even fact, that the sun must be a certain number of degrees above the horizon for Vitamin D absorption, and whether that is occurring this time of year, I don't know. Still, everybody I see today is giving it the old college try. For a moment, nothing happened.Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen. (Douglas Adams) Guest posting! topic, topic......Hey, Could I just make a post of Douglas Adams quotes with little or no commentary in between? Except I need to do this today, now, this morning...... I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. (Douglas Adams) He shifted his weight from foot to foot, but it was equally uncomfortable on each. (Douglas Adams) Alright already. If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news? (Douglas Adams) The other night Mr. AC and I did something we have not done in years....we went OUT at Night and STAYED out Late. Now Biff says he has worked construction so he knows that lifestyle is early to bed, early to rise if you expect to stay clear of saws or atop a roof and sometimes you work Saturdays. Mr. AC generally hits the sack by 9:02 pm to rise at 5:00 am. I sleep less, but arise at 5:00 as well. This sleep requirement keeps us home a lot, and when we go out, its in the daylight hours. We're the late lunchers, the library in the afternooners, the movie matinee-ers. We're not boring people, though, I promise! But last Friday night we had tickets for a concert I'd been anticipating for months and the Mister was informed he Would Stay Awake and that We Would Have Dinner and Drinks Out at a Date Night Hour and that After, We Might Walk Around Downtown and Get a Coffee. Of course he agreed; he loves me and besides, it took care of his having to conjure up a Valentine's Day present. I always say, move out of the way, let me run it. I've lived in this area where I live since 1972 when I came for college. That is 35 years, a figure that really quirks my brow! Over those years I developed a love / less-loving relationship with the town -- I love the geographic beauty, love where I live several miles out and a county over from the City, love the friendly, generous natures of the people. But I have dissed the social, artistic, culinary and entertainment offerings as too few; have laughed off the attempts to finally turn the Old City into anything other than a place to get mugged on your way from a dark parking lot to a seedy bar with a rare blues band playing. Changes didn't happen fast but change nevertheless occurred. My daughter, who goes to college there, kept telling me the Downtown was exciting, while I kept telling her to NOT go Alone anywhere down there, in fact, to Not Go! She defied me. Go figure that! What we learned last Friday night is that the world downtown changed while we were home, tucked in, not just in our nice, toasty comfortable home, but tucked in our old, comfortable notions. We had convinced ourselves that nothing much would ever change. We found a vibrant, pleasantly crowded, well lit, safe feeling and yes I will say it, hip place to go. My town, that I pigeon-holed as satisfactorily commodious but kind of hopeless, actually made something of itself while I wasn't looking, while I was going to bed early, while I was staying home, enjoying stasis. Which led me to extrapolate to all sorts of other areas, to philosophize, to muse, to ponder....how I am ready for change myself. How I want to move on my own potential and make some exciting improvements to my life. It is not unimportant that I took these last 21 years to raise a daughter, get her through college (please God, see her out this last semester), basically hunker down and provide. Its just that now, I can see to a blossoming in the space that opens up. Maybe all it takes is changing one habit, breaking just one pattern. Maybe one walk-around at night, when lights and sounds and scents are changed and charged with a different energy, is all it takes to open my other eye, the one I had squinted shut. And so I end my guest posting...perhaps if I could have set it to music, choosing, say, Chet's Ramble as accompaniment, or better yet, Sanitarium Shuffle....readers might have been better served. At any rate, I'm honored to have been asked. There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind. (Douglas Adams)