Old Friend

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This was an hour ago. I was alerted by Anna barking. He stood their calmly, not placid, eyeing Anna with concern but not fright.

He stood still as I took pictures, took the time just to look at him. The intelligence in his eyes reminded me of wisdom, an idea supported by the white shading his brown coat.

My Story 1: “The Missing Antler” He lost the antler but won the fight.

My Feelings: Blessed. Fortunate. Aligned. Humbled.

My Story 2: “Grey Mein” Age withers but does not defeat.

My Fantasy: Spirit of an old god. Patron of flight and fight. Master of camouflage.

My Feelings 2: Fear that if I step out of line this kind of thing won’t happen to me anymore.

My Belief: Be an animal.

I called him “Old Friend” maybe 6 times. The last was when he finally ran. I said it and he stopped and looked back at me. I said “Goodbye, Old Friend.”

You Got This

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I started noticing these painted stones on hikes during the pandemic. The messages were always encouraging, sometimes heartwarming, sometimes funny. I loved the sense I got of the person behind them: empathic, positive, artistic and creative.  

Though it is only a painted stone, for a moment I felt connected to someone else, a person who wished me well, just as I did them. This is an important feeling to have, and these stones genuinely helped me on my way. 

I’m happy someone is still painting them. We still need these messages of hope and solace.  

Ask Boz – Chicken or the Egg

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Dear Ask Boz,

Chicken, egg, or other options?

Glen

The answer to “other options”? The Egg and Chicken sandwich. 

See, God had just created the Earth, and saw that it was good. He called down the angels and gave them physical form, so they could enjoy it before He made more stuff. But it turns out that anything with a body gets hungry, so God had to feed them. That’s when He made plants, but they got super-tired of roots and tubers pretty quick. And they’re allergic to nuts. 

You know how angels can complain, and God figured “I’ll just skip to making animals.” But then He’d have to slaughter them, and process them, and cook them, and He had other things to do, you know? So He just went ahead and made them chicken and egg sandwiches.  

The angels LOVED them. But they have huge appetites. So, He was spending all his time making sandwiches. 

Realizing this wasn’t sustainable, He returned the angels to their spiritual forms. Then, on the sixth day when He created animals, He created them pregnant. See, He didn’t want the first thing Adam and Eve saw to be a bunch of animals carrying on with each other. He wanted to keep them innocent. We all know how that worked out, but anyways.  

So, the answer to “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” is BOTH.  

Yours,

Boz

Teacher Talk Tuesday

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Short one today because this teacher is overwhelmed. It took me a while to realize this, but kids are really motivated by stickers as a reward for their work. You can purchase a pretty cheap pack on Amazon that the kids really love. And yes, non-teachers, we really do spend a lot of our own money on supplies, even if we live in a reasonable wealthy town.

Dear Ask Boz – Periodic Table

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If you could be any element on the periodic table, which one and why?

Claudia

OK let me take a look at the chart. Mmmm. Let’s see. I’ll let you know my thinking about it and make a choice about which one I will be.

  • Well, there’s Krypton, and I coulda used it in the 90’s, but Clark stopped bullying me a while back so I don’t really need that. 
  • Ohh! Fermium!! Reminds me of Fermi High School, which was the cross-town rival of Enfield High where I went. And this one time in a 5K race this kid wanted to beat me so badly that I kept pushing him until he ran off the track and got sick! It’s terrible how good that made me feel! So Fermium has a chance. 
  • I like Tantalum. It sounds like an element needed to make every Greek tragedy.  
  • No, you’re a Boron! 
  • Not Aluminum, of course, but why do the British pronounce it “AL- You – Mini-Umm” Like, blokes, there’s no “I”. Don’t Over-British, please.  
  • Scandium sounds like a show where all the scandals are happening live in a stadium. “Tonight, on Scandium: The Kardashians vs the Duggars.”
  • I pretty sure Yttriam is a really obscure Tolkien character. His besty was Ytterbium. Tolkien references always stand a chance.
  • Whelp, Moscovium didn’t age well, did it?
  • Americium? Really? EWWW 
  • I could be a bro that says “What’s up Bromine?” I like that, being an aficionado of the double entendre. Like it’s “bro” and “bro of mine”.
  • That had a chance until I saw:
  • DUBNIUM  
  • It’s gotta be Dubnium! Sounds like a place people are dubbing music and doing the dub step and getting W’s for wins. And you know I’m all about getting those dubs! And I can be Dub of Dubnium!

Thanks for asking

Boz