Brian Mountjoy - LIFE ON THE DASH

WAITING

“What do you do when you wait?”
 
Now, I’ll ask the question again, with a few additional words.
“What do you do when you wait, but without the distraction of using/holding/caressing/watching anything with a screen on it?”
 
Yet again, I’ll ask the question, with a few more additional words.
“What do you do when you wait in a waiting room, let’s say the office of a Doctor, minus the distraction of using/holding/caressing/watching anything with a screen on it, and without picking up any of the magazines?”
 
Now, I’ll answer the question, sort of. Try it. Try this as you wait: going “screen-less” and “read-less.”
At first you may think the wait will kill you. Not the actual waiting, but waiting without the screen or the read. Although it may take some time, and, depending on the length of time you are waiting, your mind will become free. Free to breathe. Free to be creative. Free to imagine. Free to laugh with trueness. A burst of circulation, combined with nourishing input will begin the healing process to restore your atrophied imagination.
 
The picture is what I did. I thought about what to do before the doing. The doing occurred when no one else was waiting.
 
Your imagination will impact you.
And a few others.
 
“What do you do when you wait?”

 

SNACK MACHINE

Just a quick snack.
Ten things to chew on.
Nothing very filling.
 
1. Have you ever inserted the proper amount of change and the machine kept the coinage but left you with nothing?
2. Have you ever pressed E7 for the generic animal crackers and ended up with the Funyuns?
3. Did the item that you selected get stuck on the rotating metal coil and never drop?
4. Have you ever shaken the machine and have the item finally fall, the item that you actually paid for?
5. Have you ever shaken the machine and have the manager of the store get upset with you?
6. Have you ever not put any coinage/bills in the machine and try to rock and/or shake the machine and have something fall out? And then get in trouble?
7. Have you ever had a difficult time deciding on 2 different items that you equally had a strong desire for?
8. Have you ever won the “snack machine lottery” from the machine, giving you a bunch of change when you shouldn’t have ever received any?
9. Have you ever looked under the machine for some change?
10. Have you ever put in money for only 1 item, and 2 or 3 extra items came down? 

MUSKRAT LOVE

They do not have to be the best.
They do not have to be the “top-selling.”
They do not have to have had won a Grammy.
They do not have to be the Critic’s Choice.
 
They do have to be the ones that are remembered more than any others because of the “trigger-effect” that jolts the memory cells.
 
What is/are the song(s) that do this to you?
 
Although I will not admit to which one, and there are many, one of the following tunes of yesteryear listed below has impacted me in such a way that the heart memory receives a defibrillation. Please note, I am not confessing and/or admitting that I actually like or don’t like, that I actually have or don’t have these tunes on any of my playlists. Selah.
 
“Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree”
“Seasons in the Sun”
“Undercover Angel”
“Dancing on the Ceiling”
“We Built This City”
“My Heart Will Go On”
“Hold On”
“Who Let The Dogs Out”

 

FIRE

It started with a match last night.
With that match, the fire was started.
 
The picture above was taken at a Super Bowl, er, Exceptional Hippodrome Party.
(With all of the trademark issues surrounding using the term “Super Bowl”, the world has had to resort to using other odd or overly generic names)
So, it is with this fire at the Exceptional Hippodrome Party that illuminated a slice of the past.
 
Several fires come to my mind. The type of fire I am alluding to? A fire that does NOT yield a negative outcome, but a fire that can emit humor or “good times.”
 
1. A Fire on The California Beach Growing Up-
The sound of firewood crackling mixed with the waves breaking on the earth.
The smell of the West coast sand mixed with a thick unique ocean air.
The sight of people exploding in laughter mixed with seeing a marshmallow enter the flames.
 
2. The Hotel Fire Yell
As a college-aged person, both naïve and idiotic, I never realized the enormity of yelling “Fire!” in a public area, as in public, as in indoors, as in a resort hotel.
It was Colorado. It was in a large room. The room contained about 50-60 people, filled with high school and college students, along with 6 or 7 adult-like people.
So, what’s the best way to get the attention of all when the “all” are rather noisy? One method, I believed a brilliant method at the time, was to yell, “Fire!” (unless, of course, there actually is a fire)
Not a good method.
Could have been bad. Could have been costly. Ended up being something to laugh at, because I was laughed at by others, who were gracious to understand my unintentional uneducated cluelessness.
 
 
Maybe you have a fire story of humor or “good times” of your past.