Tiny Improvements

 

Original Photograph

by Z. Corwin

Cracks removed from sidewalk

by AI

I changed shoes.

Bait & Switch

 

Most of the string section had been there for years and knew their jobs quite well.  However, those adding knots to the long tails were relatively new, which caused issues with many of the kites during their flights.  

 

 

Starting from Scratch

 

I sat out in the driveway yesterday talking with my neighbor.  We discussed diets, world events, cars (the way cars once were) and all sorts of things.

For some odd reason, what I hadn’t noticed was that I was getting all sorts of mosquito bites.  They didn’t start to itch until I had been back in the house for a bit.  Then my arms itched like crazy.  I think that is what kept me awake last night.

I’ve heard of people dying from multiple bee stings, and I have heard of people getting malaria from mosquito bites, but last night I began to wonder if anyone had ever itched themselves to death.  It felt like I was on my way.  Maybe I would be the first.  I would be in the medical journals.  Z. Corwin – dying from scratch.  No, that sounds more like a cookbook.

As I write this, it is the following morning, and the itching hasn’t let up.  Those must have been the industrial strength mosquitos.  I think my days of sitting out in the driveway are over. 

I wonder how it would effect the food chain if we got rid of all mosquitoes?   Maybe I'll look it up and see if they actually do any good.  Go ahead and wait there.  I’ll be back.

 

 The short version:

Eliminating all mosquitoes would remove a major food source and ecological participant across multiple ecosystems. The immediate effect would be a collapse or stress in food chains, especially in aquatic and insect‑eating communities, because mosquito larvae and adults make up a large, reliable biomass for many predators. 

zc

More than a Feeling

 

For some odd reason I keep expecting something in the mail that is going to be life changing.  I don’t know what or why, it’s just a feeling I have had for some time now.  Being a positive and upbeat type, I don’t believe it will be anything bad. 

Maybe some rich Hollywood person is going to turn this blog into a movie.  Hey!  It could happen.

Or one of my ideas from years back will, through an add set of circumstances, land on somebody’s desk and they’ll see the genius of it and make it happen.

I can tell you the one I’m thinking of, it dealt with airline tires.  By putting small curved flaps of rubber on the sidewalls, the moment the plane put the landing gear down, the wind would catch those flaps and immediately start rotating the tires.  When the plane touches down, the tires would already be spinning.  There would be much less friction, no loud squeal and smoke.  The tires would last much longer, and the airline would consequently save money.  Also it would be better for the surface of the runway.

I don’t remember now which airline I mailed my suggestion to, but I do remember they wrote back telling me to suggest it to tire manufacturers and not to them.  I think by that time, however, I was on to other things and never followed through.  I’m like that.

 

I’ll let you know the minute I get something in the mail that isn’t trying to sell me hearing aids.

 

zc

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life's Choices

 

Cookie crumbs are most affected by gravitational forces.  That is universal.  Of course, there are some exceptions, although not around here. 

The very first time I put on my high school football uniform I began to imagine all of my body parts that hopefully this equipment would prevent from getting broken.  That quickly got me to thinking about high school budgets and the lowest bidder always getting the contract. 

It was then that I knew I wasn’t thinking like a football player, and maybe I was on the wrong path.  I stopped getting dressed and, on my way out of the building, I told the coach I had changed my mind. 

Over the course of my life, I changed my mind a great deal.  Now, looking back, there is no way of knowing how things would have turned out, had I just kept on the path I was on at the time.  I would have had different experiences and met different people.  Who knows where I would be today? 

With such flexibility of choices, it becomes hard to picture our lives following some predetermined course.   Then again, many people suggest things happen for a reason.  If Henry David Thoreau had not written Walden’s Pond. Many lives may have turned out quite differently.  You never know what is going to influence you one way or the other.

Some people see a cookie and think of the calories, while others might envision how wonderful it is going to taste.  I, of course, consider the carpet and the falling crumbs.

 

 

 

zc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q & A

 

I started to wonder, if the wind got too high in the sky did it find it hard to breathe, because the air up there is so much thinner?

 

I was told the wind didn’t breathe.  I found that hard to believe.

 

 

I understand that marriage is a union.  According to union rules, I am allowed two 10-minute breaks each day, plus an hour for lunch.

 

My wife said she wanted to see this in writing.  Where can I get a copy of the union rules?

 

 There is no logic in the wee hours of the day.  No one is up to argue or even flip on a light.  Philosophies lack the fresh air to inflate, so they never get off the ground.  I was wide awake at 2:50 am and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I believe that explains the reason for this nonsense.

 

 

Welcome to Monday

 

 

 

zc

 

 

 

 

Scout's Honor

 

Eventually they put a lie-detector on each one of the scouts, and still they never changed their story that a giant mosquito came and carried off the scout master.  Some even reported they could hear his screams late into the night.

 

 

 

 zc