Think About It

From Wikepedia, “In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings, and are usually spelled the same.”

I love homonyms. Okay, love is a tad strong. I like homonyms a lot, that is, I think they’re fun to play with.

So, let’s have some fun with two homonyms, sale and sail. Plural usage of the word is allowed.

Here are just a few things that come to mind. If you can think of any other examples, please post them in the comments section. The more the merrier.

Here we go!

When you decide to sell an item for a lower than normal price, the item is on sale.
Something can be for sale, up for sale, but seldom down for sale.
There are big sales, and small sales.
Sales can have figures.
There are cash sales.
There are credit sales.
You can name a sale practically anything you want: Bake Sales, Pie Sale, President’s Day Sale, etc.
Something doesn’t have to be on sale to be for sale. When you’re selling a house for instance. You hope to get more than you paid for it, yet the house is for sale.
There are for sale signs, and not for sale signs.
Sales have time limits. Sale ends today. Sale starts today. Sale begins at midnight, etc.
And then, there are no sales. Which is a sale that didn’t happen.

You can sail a boat.
Put a sails on a boat.
Change the type of boat. When you put a sail on a boat, the boat becomes a sailboat. But, if you put a sail on a car, it doesn’t become a sailcar. Howcome?
You can sail along in life.
Your sails can be full of wind.. You can have the wind taken out of your sails.
You can sell your sails. In that case you’d have a sail sale.
You can set sail.
You can raise your sail, and lower your sail
You can sail across the lake,  sail down the lake, but very rarely does one sail up the lake.
You can sail across the ocean blue.
You can sail right by something.

Thoughts

If it was a hard salami sandwhich some real damage might have been done.

Read all about it - Man Faces Battery Charges for Hitting Girlfriend With Sandwich!

Of course, if it was a Swiss cheese sandwhich the case would be full of holes.  ;-).

Thoughts

Guard outside warehouse in Barbados. I’m not sure what he was guarding, but we know the floor beneath his feet is safe from being stolen. ;-).

Thoughts

Poll Question: Is the proverbial short end of the stick, and the bottom or top of the stick.  ???

Thoughts

Whew…Time to cheer things up a bit. Commenting on life can be draining at times.

Here are just two of the short people in my life, my grand-kids. Just looking at their picture gave me a much needed boost.

Feel free to gush over them all you want. I won’t mind a bit. 

Thoughts

We know life is short. We claim to life each day as if it is our last. We cling to the idea that there will be a tomorrow, and in doing so move on from day to day.

However, the brutality of life’s shortness is never more apparent then when faced with the passing of a loved one, or a dear friend.

My profession is in the health-care field, and as such I come in contact with end of life more often than most. I have never gotten used to it, and have learned to distance myself from the ones I care for. Not a cold, impersonal detachment, but one that guards my heart against the certain eventuality.

Today, was a rough day. No passing took place, but the imminence of such is unquestionable, and that saddens me.

This particular patient had become a good friend, someone I enjoyed visiting, and watching his life and quality thereof, slip away has been difficult.

As I look out my window, the sun is shining, my puppies are on the bed, sleeping, my home is warm, and I know my loving wife will be home after work. As my father would say, “Life goes on”, and so it does.

My life has been enriched by this friendship, and there is nothing that can take that away. As much as I’ll miss this person, I have been fortunate to have known him at all.

Life goes on, and I am determined to make that life worthwhile and of benefit to others.

Thoughts

Two cruise ships tethered at a peir. As your looking at the picture, the ship to your left is a Carnival cruise ship, the ship on the right is the Norwegian Sun. They formed a canyon between which their guests walked.

Thoughts

It’s the time of year when Christmas music begans playing far too early, and turkeys are being purchased to become part of the Thanksgiving meal.

Christmas and Thanksgiving present, for me, a mixed bag of emotions, but it wasn’t always so.

When I was younger, and all the relatives upstream from me where alive, nothing but joy and expectation were associated with these holidays. Both meant the gathering of the family, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Tables laden with more food than those gathered could eat.

Along with all the food there was loud laughter, stupid jokes, hugs, kisses, pinched cheeks, and more hugs and kisses, and let’s not forget the uncle who always passed gas at just the right moment. 

As I became older, the table was still heavily laden with food, but the people around the table began to thin. It wasn’t all at once, but gradually. Over the years, the participants became fewer and fewer, and less and less food was cooked. Then, in what seemed a wink of the eye, it was over.

All my upstream relatives who made the holidays something to look forward to were gone, and gone with them were the traditions I was honored to have been part of.

Now, I am the most upstream relative in my family. Below me are my sister, sons and daughters, and grandchildren, along with nieces and cousins, and I’m grateful to have them. But, I do miss my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. I miss them a lot.

I still look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I also look backwards, thankful for the memories I have, and yearning for those days to return, but I know they never will.

Yes, I know I’ll see all my upstream relatives again, but for now, I’d love to hear my grandmother sing, see my father laugh, watch my mother’s smile, and pull my Uncle Jim’s finger.

Christmas and Thanksgiving are wonderful holdiays, but I’ve learned it’s being with your family that truly make the holidays special.

Thoughts

This is a real boat, in real water. At the time I took this image, I didn’t see just how clear the water was.

You can notice the shadow of the boat on the ocean floor.

Place: Harbor, Cozumel, Mexico.

Thoughts

When I was a child phone numbers were comprised of four digits, and all phones had rotary dialers.

Long distance calls were made by dialing “0″, and giving the operator the number you wished to call.

A human being answered every phone call. And, there was this thing called a “busy signal”, which is almost unheard of today.

While the busy signal was not welcome, it let you know the person you wanted to talk to was on the phone. Not like voice mails, and answering machines, where the person you wish to talk to may be home, but is not answering the phone. Am I the only one whose said, “If you there, pick up the phone.”?

There were no answering machines, call waiting, call forwarding, nor any of the other features we have today. And yet, the world spun very nicely. Things got done. Business thrived. Teenagers talked with their friends, but not at the length they do today. Appointments were made, and Thanksgiving plans at my grandmother’s house were all arranged.

I do use the features on the modern phone, heck, I love my iPhone, but sometimes do miss the simpler life. When I was a child family was more a part of our life then technology, live communication was all there was, and life was slower paced, allowing all of us to smell the roses.

Back then, we didn’t have to stop and smell the roses, we weren’t moving that fast in the first place. 

Thoughts

The rain pelleting my window like a thousand gummy bears awoke me from a sound sleep. Turning over did no good, the noise was incessant, and a portent of the things to come.

Grudgingly, I rose out of bed, headed to the window and witnessed a downpour that would have had Noah hasten the building of the Ark. However, I was on a mission. Today, I would venture out into the weather not fit for man nor beast, in my quest for a small nail, just one, which I would use to straighten a picture hanging on our living room wall.

I waited two hours for the rain to subside. It did not, and only seemed to be raining harder, and harder. Deciding there was no time like the present, I donned my rain gear, from my motorcycle days, an umbrella, and left our cozy home.

When I walked out the front door I was assaulted by gummy bears disguising themselves as raindrops. It was tough going. The wind was slightly below gale force, the umbrella had turned inside out, and water was pouring down my back, for I had forgotten to tighten the collar of my rain-jacket.

I arrived at the car, soaking wet, dropped the keys as I was stumbling to open the car door, and banged my head on the car frame as I entered the car. Now, soaking wet, and with a wonderful headache, I began my drive to the hardware store.

On my way to the store, my windshield was becoming fogged up. My defroster was on the blink, so I hit the button to crank down my window just enough to help me see where I was going. The rain was coming down in sheets, and visibility, even through a clear windshield, was minimal.

I must have put a tad too much pressure on the window button, and there was nothing I could do as I watched my window go down to its lowest position.  Rain came pouring into the car as if the car had been driven into a lake. Frantically, I hit the up portion of the button, and nothing happened. It was stuck in the open position.

But, I was on a mission. I am a manly man, wearing motorcycle rain-gear, driving a 2000 Volvo, surely I can stick it out, suck it up, and continue on. And, that’s what I did.

Seeing through the window was no longer a problem since there was plenty of ventilation, but I could have used some windshield wipers on my glasses. Nevertheless, in a short, soggy time, I arrived at the hardware store, soaked beyond the bone, and holding more water than the Indian Ocean.

The hardware store was empty, save for a lone clerk who found the inside of his nose fascinating. I have not seen such picking since the California Gold Rush of 1848. He was industrious, ambidextrous, and had there been any gold in his nasal passages, he would have made Warren Buffet seem like a pauper.

He looked at me as if I were insane. Who would come out in such terrible weather. I know that is what he was thinking since that is the only thing that would have caused him to stop reaching into himself.

I asked him where the precious nail could be found. He pointed me in the right direction, and I picked up a few more nails than one. The heck with the budget! I had come through torrential rains and winds, a few extra nails were my reward.

The prospect of heading back into the storm was unappealing, but staying in the store meant I could either continue watching him mine for whatever, or look at paint cans. Neither was a convincing reason to stay. So, I bundled up, zipped up, turned the umbrella right-side in, and entered my car, which by now, had become a small swimming pool. Remember the open window?

As I walked around to the driver’s door, I tripped, and my precious treasure of nails flew out of my hand. I uttered a few kind words to the spirits of the air, and gathered my treasure, put them in the jacket of my rain-gear and proceeded to drive home.

In less than a block from the hardware store, my car suddenly jeered to the left. I tried to straighten the wheel, but it veered to the left again. Then, I heard it, thump, thump, thump. A sound that does not lighten the soul on a sunny day. I pulled the car to the curb, got out, and there it was, a flat tire. After an hour and a half, AAA arrived, changed my flat, put the little toy tire in its place, and I was on my way home again. The rain during this whole time was happily soaking anything and everything. I no longer have words to describe how wet I was.

Before arriving home, I decided to take the tire to the tire repair shop to see if it could be fixed. They inspected the tire, and lo and behold, the cause of the flat was discovered. It was one of my precious little nails. It wasn’t lost after all, it was just resting in my tire. How sweet!

Finally, five hours after I left the house I arrived home, tired, soaked, head aching, and in need of something good to happen.

As I walked into the living room water was gushing from my clothing and body as if I were a giant sponge being squeezed with every step.

Now, at last, the bright part of my day. The one thing that would make everything worthwhile was about to happen…

My teenage son….a brilliant child….says to me, “Hey dad, is it raining?”

Didja ever…just wanna scream!

Thoughts

Go ahead, eat your Wheaties, or Corn Flakes, swamp your Raisin Bran with milk. Enjoy your pancakes, or your bacon and eggs. Heck, if you want why not some smoked salmon and a bagel or two?

But, for me, there is only one breakfast food fit for a champion.

Pizza!

Come on, you know you like it too.

The night before it was hot, the cheese was sliding all over the place, and it was messy to eat. It was good, but messy.

But, the next morning, the cheese has had a chance to harden, and it’s safer to eat, since there’s no chance of burning your tongue on a fine slice of morning pizza.

What could be better than a slice or two of last nights pizza with a great cup of coffee? Absolutely nothing.

And if you think I’m all wet. The read this article from Yahoo Health. Now, that’s what I’m talking about!

So go ahead health freaks. Enjoy your bran muffin sprinkled with sprouts, alongside a delicious glass of wheat grass. As for me and my family (haven’t convinced the wife yet) it’s a hearty breakfast of cold, hard, chewy pizza.

Is it morning yet?

Thoughts