A happy birthday limerick for Cousin Mike

Okay, forgive the poor slant rhymes in the first stanza, and keep reading. It gets better.

{Ahem…)

A young man named Mike from Branson,
Was strong and smart and hansome,
“Too much praise”, the folks said,
“It’ll go to his head,
Then how will he get his cap on?”

One day at the county fair,
Young Mike met with Smokey the Bear,
The thing moved and spoke,
Not a very good joke,
He’d just as soon forget that scare.

On a visit at Mike’s house I’d stay,
We’d tell jokes or find some game to play,
The night would wear on,
We’d draw comics ‘till dawn,
And be worthless the rest of the day

Baseball’s the sport Mike knows best,
He’s ready for most any test,
Of pitchers and bats,
He can tell you the stats,
Both leagues; East, Central, and West.

To Springfield he went off to college,
To get his head stuffed with more knowledge,
Philosophy’s great,
But that endless debate!
The answer should simply be eight.

At college Mike met up with Kathy,
And this made him even more happy.
Then one day she’s his bride,
Now they walk side by side,
Raised a family that looks really snappy.

They moved state to state in this ordah,
Texas, New York, and then Florida,
They were glad that they came,
But it wasn’t the same,
They’re happily back in Missourah.

Limericks can really be tough,
I’m not sure when I’ve written enough,
With too much preamble,
It sounds like I ramble,
Never get to the point of this stuff

This August heat’s too much to take,
Better call off the trip to the lake,
Stay inside’s my advice,
“Have a drink with some ice,
And a big slice of mayonnaise cake!”

Some memories stay clear, others fade

I had hoped by now that I'd have a new image or two to post here. My scanner still works, but unfortunately my copy of Photoshop LE is acting up. It hangs up as soon as I try to open the program. My guess is that there's a link broken somewhere, whatever that actually means.

No problem, just uninstall Photoshop and re-install it. I thought I'd better find my backup disk first, and it's a good thing I've held off doing the uninstall. It's been a couple of days and I still can't find the disk. It's in this room somewhere...well, I've been needing to clean and sort anyway.

I could post about music, as I have been working on my 1969 list. Holy crow (as James Lileks might say), that was one busy year in rock music. A lot of stuff I like about equally well...this might take a while.

Instead, here's a short true story - not to be confused with a true short story, I guess.

I sat down in my reading chair a couple of evenings ago, and looked in my bookcase...what should I browse? Well, I haven't looked at that in a long time. I pulled out my college yearbook from my Junior year. As I turned page after page, I started to notice something. It's been enough years now that there's really a distinct difference between friends I knew well and have lots of memories of, and faces and names that sort of ring a bell. I think as recently as two or three years ago those two groups of people would have blended together, that is, I would have had stories to tell about everyone I recognized. Now I still have lots of stories about my close friends I ran around with, but the others whose faces I kind of recognize...I couldn't recall stories about them. I don't think I'm having any special memory problems, at least, no one's pointed out any concerns to me. I still remember lots of stuff from last week, last year, last decade, my childhood, etc.

Maybe remembering lots of faces and names is more of a challenge than remembering events; it seems that way to me anyway. I could say to myself, "That's sad" (and it would be if I started to forget people I was really close to). But actually, I think it's normal. Some friends are friends for a lifetime, some are friends for a season, a year, four years. Others were casual friends or acquaintances, and that's all okay.

Yeah, that wasn't all that profound, but it was bloggable (and if that wasn't a word, it is now).