Month: August 2025

The Roundup

Encounters: My wife and I were walking across a parking lot recently when an old man approached us from the opposite direction. We both slowed down as he turned to the nearest car and began to get in it. He moved so slow and wobbly that I wondered if he needed help and I moved closer in case he did. He finally made it into the car and shut the door. “You know why Smokey the Bear never had kids,” he asked us through his open car window. We smiled and shook our heads no. “Because every time Mrs. Bear got hot, Smokey would throw sand on her.”

Read: This Man Kept a Meticulous List of All 3,599 Books He’d Read Since 1962. I started a list around five years ago of movies and shows I have watched, as well as a list of books I have read. My dad did the same.

Observed: For years there was a dusty, untouched booth in a flea market mall we used to frequent that sold nothing, as best we could tell. The owner was just paying rent to store her junk.

Website: What Dan Read

Recipe: If you have some extra cucumbers from your garden you could try this recipe for homemade pickles.

Broken Arrow

Broken Arrow

By Robbie Robertson

Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow
Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of rain
There he goes, moving across the water (that’s right)
There he goes, turning my whole world around

Do you feel what I feel
Can we make that so it’s part of the deal
I gotta hold you in these arms of steel
Lay your heart on the line…this time

I wanna breathe when you breathe
When you whisper like that hot summer breeze
Count the beads of sweat that cover me
Didn’t you show me a sign, this time

Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow
Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of rain
There he goes, moving across the water
There he goes, turning my whole world around

Can you see what I see
Can you cut behind the mystery
I will meet you by the witness tree
Leave the whole world behind

I want to come when you call
And I’ll get to you if I have to crawl
They can’t hold me with these iron walls
We’ve got mountains to climb

Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow
Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of rain
There he goes, moving across the water (that’s right)
There he goes, turning my whole world around
Turning my whole world around
Turning my whole world around
Turning my whole world around

Just Swallow It

I usually shy away from cussing in this blog, but this quote from Arnold resonates with me and I think it should be read intact, as spoken:

Q: You seem pretty Zen now. So what gets under your skin?

A: We all know the rules of life: Hardship and struggle makes you stronger. So I always look forward to discomfort. Why do I go skiing in Aspen for three days in high altitude that wipes you out? Because it’s tough to do, especially at my age. Everyone is talking about their feelings. That’s OK if that’s how you want to occupy yourself. How I feel is irrelevant. I don’t give a fuck how I feel. What I care about is: What can I do to make it better? Sometimes I get out of bed and feel shitty. But I get on a bike or go feed the animals and suddenly I feel great. This country was not built by people feeling good. This country was built by people working their asses off. We have to work our ass off and stop worrying about feelings. Just swallow it. If you feel shitty, don’t think, just do things.

Arnold Schwarzenegger