Working within an "attitude of gratitude" I can walk out to the curb after the trash collection truck has come and just pick up the bits floating around that didn't make it into the truck and still be really grateful for trash collection. Most of the escaping trash isn't interesting and usually paper from our trash bins the Airedale didn't manage to gobble down. Unfortunately, she's developed a taste for paper as her predecessor did. If we don't keep the bathroom doors closed, the dog will empty the trash, pull down the tissue box, empty it and then get started on the toilet paper roll. All eventually comes out in the end . . . we think.

In any case, last week after the trash truck rolled down the street, I walked out to collect the can and found something very strange in the middle of the front lawn. Not the usual trash and not ours. The piece of lined notebook paper was clearly a writing exercise from the Universe. Or at least an elementary school somewhere. Stapled to the page was a hand-drawn sign, ELECTRONIC BOY, outlined in pencil in those fat, semi-block capital letters that kids do then color in--this one in bright yellow. The kid had also drawn glowing light bulbs and a inside/outside view of a box of some kind, maybe a computer CPU? I think he drew those first as the lettering started out big then squeezed up to fit the right edge.

Perhaps it was the notebook page itself that was the most interesting. This was clearly an assignment completed by Alex (written in cursive) #30 on 11/3/05. The assignment must have been something to the effect of: What would your name be if your parents renamed you? I thought that a clever one and imaginative on the part of the teacher, casting about for something to get the kids to write about.

Here's what Alex printed: If my parents renamed me I would be Electronic Boy. My parents would name me that is because I am an expert on electronics. Another reason I would be renamed into Electronic Boy is because I can take a part an electronic item and rebuild it. I can also fix any uncomplecated electronic item.

So, we've some choices for you to make in what to write about should you care to. The first would be Alex's assignment: What would your parents rename you TODAY? Another might be: How did Alex's Electronic Boy piece from November 2005 end up on Mmmm's lawn last week? And WHY? In answer to that, from my experience mothering a nine or ten year old boy, I'd say Alex was stuck in his room because he never put away toys, clothes, books and paper or that electronic stuff he'd taken apart. His mom shoved folded black trash bags under the door and told Alex to fill them until a pathway was made for his escape. All his old school stuff from first to four grades went into the bags and into the trash truck, which left a trail of Alex detritus through the neighborhood.

Or Electronic Boy invented a time machine and dumped this teaser on my lawn to screw with me. Yeah, that's what happened.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmelinda

The son of Mmmmmm dropped off his old laptop last time he was home. I cruised around on his programs and found a 2002 version of MS FrontPage. With great intentions I bought a used step by step how-to on Amazon, but haven't cracked the thing yet. I hired a fellow writer and super web designer, Connie Cox, to design some forms for me to update a couple of pages on my website myself. I haven't tried to work in that nebulous zone yet, but she's sent me an invoice for the work so I better give my investment a go.

I've always been big on DIY. I like the challenge of trying every type of crafty thing out there, but smart enough to not "gift" my friends and family the results. I did manage to sell a couple of my oil paintings once and that felt really great. But for the most part, my crafty stuff is more experimental than practical and people with any sort of sensibility can't usually "get it" or want it. I love to play in the nebulous zone of ideas, but execution can be problematic. However, I always learn something and that's the important thing, I'm told. So, that in mind, I'm off to update the Schedule page on my website. Pray for me.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmelinda

It's true. Comcast Entertainment News reported today that CW network has cancelled my favorite show, Veronica Mars. VM boss Rob Thomas says the decision has not yet been made regarding Veronica's fate, and the show could return for mid season. Meanwhile, Kristen Bell, the VM lead, is the voice of the replacement show, Gossip Girl, who isn't actually seen on the show. The pre-show buzz is that the show is a glitzy teen soap a la O.C..

I'm pretty much de-buzzed about this development.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmelinda

The Airedale takes the DH and me for a long walk everyday, rain or shine--mostly rain. However this spring we've had some lovely warm, sunny days like yesterday. All around our five year old neighborhood, new starter castles are being built and we happily sidewalk superintend each of them. A new development that's been posted since we moved in has finally broken ground for 48 houses. Everyday we check out the heavy equipment, well, the DH does while the Airedale sniffs around for just the right place in the newly turned up soil. I stare all agog and marvel at the fifty foot trees now laying in limbless log piles.

Yesterday we met one of the neighbors who lives on the boundary of the new development. He was staring up into a tall fir, listening to a woodpecker trying to get a last meal before the tree was felled. When he greeted us he immediately explained the craziness of the environmentalists clearing all the trees on the acreage but leaving only a handful of sixty foot firs. These lonely trees will come crashing down in the first big windstorm as their root systems are shallow and they'll no longer have buffering trees to protect them from the high winds we get in the winter. I envisioned Tree Beard, the tree herder or Ent from the Lord of Rings, creeping across the destroyed forest exhorting, verrrryy slowly, his four or five remaining friends to march with him to the developer's house and sacrifice their lives upon it.

After we commiserated at length, the neighbor guardian of the forest launched into the story of his serious health issues and wish to sell out his property that includes four outbuildings full to the roof with the stuff of their lives. He and "Momma" want to hit the road full time in their RV. The DH and I wished him well and resumed our walk, talking about trees and dreams of happiness often delayed by life's new developments. I recalled what marriage and family therapist, Neil Rosenthal, once wrote: "Vow to live life to its fullest, and follow your own interests and passions wherever they may lead. The secret to happiness is to make sure you're really living."

Mmmmmmmmmmelinda