Unfinished Stories

Another day, another sinkfull of water wasted. Well not completely wasted. It was put to fairly decent use. (perhaps indecent from the waters perspective.) Okay I am just trying to find an interesting way to say another day, another load of dishes down the drain. Except that the dishes didn't actually go down the drain. The water did. And most of the gunk that was to small for the filter to catch. And hopefully all the bacteria and other microbial nasties that live on dirty dishes. My daughet once did a science experiemtn on that bacteria. Turned out it lived on the clean dishes as well, only not so much. Well....hmmm. Actually all the dishes had bunches of bacteria by the time she was done with them. The good news, however, well I could not say for certain it was good news. But the interesting discovery. It was interesting to me. And to my child. and to my wife. And to my wifes mother. And to my wifes father. And to many of her friends. And to....not sure who else, although there were a couple of people (parents of friends of my child) who pretended to be itnerested. Which is almost as good as actual interest, only takes less effort. Sometimes it takes more effort. Sometimes it just eats a salad and watches the television looking for opportunities to write letters to the newspaper, or the fcc, or michael moore. All of which are not particularly fascinating pastimes, but they might be a little better than growing bacteria on a plate in a home made incubater with suntan lotion on the back seat of the car. Oh darn that reminds me. I spilled coffee in my car today. The problem is it was not actually my car. It was a rental car because my car was being repaired, because of what happened. I was surprised that I spilled the coffee today, the problem is that I would have expected to spill it yesterday. Because of what I saw. Because when I saw it, my attention was pretty much absorbed, and so I paid little attention to the coffe. So anyway we have to return the car, and there is a pool of coffe in the back seat floor area. what to do, what to do?

Life is about the unfinished stories. If you think about all the little things that happen in a day. Not necessarily to you, because that story is never finished. No I am talking about what happens around you. The little snippets that you see part of, and then are taken to your life, so you miss out on the rest. This writing spot is actually working well for me. I have noticed that when I dump my brain here regularly, it is much easier to focus when I am elsewhere. That came in useful today when I was helping my daugher.

The thing aobut unfinished stories is that they surround us, and we notice them, and most of the time fill in the end of the story. Well not really fill in the end of the story. It is more like we are making up parts we have not witnessed. Judgeing characters we might not even see. For example whilst (that is another word that is never used enough. Although while works just as well, and is more common, and there is nothing wrong with While, whilst is more wistfull, and fun. It should make a comeback. Not because it is like Factotem. (which left a huge gaping whole in our poor abused language.) but just on sheer personality and good looks. In fact I think more words should have arbitrary l's stuck inside them. It would be good for moral. And the letter l gets very little recognition, except in initials, and acronyms. Forget about asking why, it's not my place to judge.) The point is that we tend to flesh out the stories we see. To give ourselves a sense of completeness, and order. That is how we form reality, and that is what life is all about. It is the little bits we make up. Rightly, or wrongly that we cannot know. Well okay we could know them, but then we would be way to busy to buy a hamburger, and if nobody bought a hamburger, then mad cow disease would not be as funny and popular, but more importantly, it would have a drastic effect on the national economy. It reminds me of the "generic hamburger stand" in Corvallis. I have no idea what the actual name was. but it was black and white, with the name "hamburger stand" it sold "hamburger" (in a black and white wrapper with the name.) "hot Dogs" (same treatment) and... well you get the picture. Just like generic stuff. and it was only like 39 cents for a hamburger or something. That is one of those things. Was it done for cost effectiveness? Was it a clever and successfull marketing ploy? Was it something I made up for the puprposes of this writing? Was it a random thought that had nothing to do with what I was typing, but I made it fit? nobody (save me of course.) knows. Well I am certain somebody does, but it would not be anybody I could name. But To you and to me, it will remain unfinished. Except for what we decide to fill in for ourselves. For example despite the fact that I have not been by, or looked for it for more years than I can count because I do not know when the last time I looked for it was. ya know it is not more years than I can count. I can count several years. If I had a proper time line, or even history book, or even incentive I could count more years than I have been alive. I could not have experienced them, but counting does not require experience. All it requires is numbers. It helps to have something to actually count, but I have found it is unnecessary. sometimes just the numbers themselves are good enough. The point is forgotten. Then remembered. It has been more years than I can adequately calculate, because I am missing vital information, such as when the last time I actually noticed the little black and white hamburger stand. And how come you never see any generic stuff any more. When I was younger than I am now, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting something that was generic. Cola. Beer. Bread. Milk. Tuna. and so on. Now there are generic brands. Well hmmm I do not know if that is completely true. But it is like the generic products are out there, but they have actual names. Except in drugs. generic drugs just have the name. I mean they do not just call them drugs. They call them dexamethasone. or potassium or levothyroxine or citalopram or felodipine or fosinopril or gabapentine. Because if they were just labelled drugs. It would be confusing, and probably unhealthy. So I can understand the names. But the bottles are colorful and flashy. They are not a plain black and white. They have many different colors. well some of them only have a few different colors, but taken collectively they all have astoundingly different colors. On the other hand, the patterns are pretty much the same from bottle to botlle of the same manufacturer. Ivax is pretty much blue with white lettering. (except where the label is white with black lettering) Sandoz (I had sanofi, but had to edit it, because sanofi was wrong) (which used to be geneva) is pretty much yellow with blue, and black, and white. So, there is much brand marketing of generic drugs. IF you look in a vitamin section, for example. You have all of the nature made (is that the right one? I do not often buy otcs) is yellow with brown (or black, or green I am uncertain, but I choose it to be brown, so it is.) Whereas Goldline is kind of khaki/tanish with orange. Rugby is always orange and brown with white lettering. And so on. so that when you go to buy vitamins, they are all the same. They have to be. But you can pick the cover you like best, and buy all your pills to match. which brings me to my favorite drug. Citrate of magnesium. It is not my favorite drug in the whole world. It is not even close. But for the time being and the purposes of this particular tangent it is my favorite drug. What are favorites anyway? How do they come about? With food it is pretty simple. something appeals to our taste buds, for example pizza. Well that may be a bad example, but I will go with it. No I change my mind. I will go with fettucini alfreado. That is my daughters favorite dish. She loves fettucini alfredo. And yet....(dum dum dum (dramatic music)) She does not order it every chance she gets. Nor does she request it for every meal. If asked, or if required to fill out a survey with her favorite food she will say (or write) fettucini alfredo. But she does not always want it. If it is her favorite, why would she not want it? Well if she has too much, then she gets sick of it. Sure. Then it isn't a favorite. It is a flight of fancy. A whimsicle choice based on what she remembers, and perhaps on her mood. And words. There is another thing. For example, my favorite word, as has been stated previously is defenestration. It's a fantastic word it feels tingly on the tongue. It looks distinguished and impressive. It is obscure enough that many people either ignore it, or look it up. And it behaves well when you take it out on a walk. Yet....yet....I use so many other words. Sure they are more appropriate for me to communicate what I am actually thinking. But....if it were truly my favorite wouldn't I want to just make a post with nothing but that word. Just to show that I cared? I mean that's what I did with my wife. Except I didn't make a post, but I made a life, and a house, and a commitment to just that one person. And she isn't even my favorite person. (okay I'm just teasing you sweetheart, you know that.) That is what a favorite is all aobut. Except now that I think aobut it. I do not spend all my time with her. I work in a different city. I drive a different car. I live in a different house. (teasing you again sweetheart) So perhaps I am mixing favorite with obsession. Or maybe I am jsut babbleing, because I don't want to stop typing. but sometime I have to stop.