That apple did not fall too far from the tree

I need another bench because I am running out of room.

Kubota and I are both loath to expend excessive amounts of energy.

We can also be described as passive-aggressive.

Kubota keeps leaving his footware just inside the doorway.  He does so in spite of my admonitions and in spite of Mrs ERJ's purchase of multiple trays for wet footware and cubbies for dry footwear
.

The first time I tripped and kicked one of his sandals beneath the bench was an accident. Well, maybe it was.  It was so long ago that I am no longer sure.

Now it is a habit.  I automatically kick one of the sandals or shoes beneath the bench.  Or, if the offending footware are boots, one of them gets "accidentally" kicked down the stairs into the basement.

So if you see a kid walking around Eaton Rapids wearing mis-matched footwear, he just might be my kid.

Giving a sucker an even break

I planned to graft on the sucker that is in the foreground of this picture, the one that sprouts up from the base of the tree.

The rabbits girdled it during our recent deep snow when other food was not available.

It is possible to save suckers if the bark is not chewed back to bare wood.  Typically, the corky outer bark and some of the inner bark has been chewed away but there are still continuous runs of the delicate cambium, the growing part.

That cambium is vulnerable to drying out and newsprint is a reasonable substitute for the corky outer bark.  It breaths even as it protects from dehydration and further rabbit damage.

I have a better than 50% chance of saving this sucker.

I guess it depends on what "Everything" means?

CNN commented that the Republican Memo was a nothing burger because....

"...everything..." meant "everything but..."

This was swallowed by CNN viewers and readers because the alternative was too horrible for them to contemplate.

So "sex" is not sex.  "Is" is not is.  And "everything" is not everything.

Is that clear?

Celebration, Ceremony and Closure

Vangelis "Hymne" 2:20s long

The ERJ family attended a funeral today.

It occurred to me that we are likely to attend twice as many funerals as weddings, the other event that brings families together.

I am  not much of a "ceremony" person but I see the value in weddings and funerals.  They are passageways to The Next Thing and should be a big deal.

Please pray for MR SAM as they stitch their lives back together.

Oh, and there were no wardrobe failures.

Self Actualized

Maslow's Hierarchy is a motivational theory that contends that individuals are motivated to achieve the lowest level that the individual has not yet achieved.  By way of example, the person who is gasping for breath is not motivated by the pursuit of creativity.  Their actions are dedicated to getting more oxygen in their lungs.

The Marine recruiting slogan of "Be All You Can Be" is an appeal to the desire to be at the pinnacle of the motivational pyramid.

Small Business Owners
As a group, I believe that the owners of small businesses are among the most "self actualized" people on earth.

The small business owner never knows what skill-set will be called upon on any random day.  It might be running a marathon when a piece of equipment is broken, it might be first-aid skills or counseling or being a mechanic.  It can be accounting or tax law or conflict resolution.  Taking inventory or juggling production schedules or performing chemistry calculations.

At this point the small business owner would raise an eyebrow and say, "I am not motivated by those things.  I do them to survive."

Granted.  However, you need a tolerance, if not desire, for the exhilaration of outrunning the tiger.  It helps to be an adrenaline junkie but is not absolutely necessary. 

Regulators
I wonder how much of regulator's animus toward business owners is motivated by envy.

Surely they went to college and penned the usual drivel in their yearbooks about "...becoming self actualized..."  And there they sit in their anonymous cubicle, in an anonymous building in a boring city and answering to a no-nothing boss.

How could they not be envious?  How could they not be angry at themselves for not having the guts to start their own business? 

The answer:  Replace the envy with self-righteousness and a feeling of moral superiority.  That will smother the envy.  You bet.  Squash those business owners.

Note:  One of my coffee drinking buddies used to milk cows.  He got out of the business after a regulator wrote him up for having two, 40W fluorescent tubes beside the mirror behind the worker washbasin rather than a 100W incandescent bulb on the ceiling twelve feet above the wash basin.

Bureaucrats!

A "dad" selfie

Daughter's response: "LMAO. WRONG DIRECTION!!!"

Easy enough to fix

Photo credit:  Mrs ERJ

These guys should be hired as consultants

From the Washington Times:

He is the world’s most persistent illegal immigrant: One Mexican managed to get deported 44 times in 15 years — which means he also managed to sneak back across the border at least that many times.

The runner-up was ousted 40 times from 2001 to 2015. No. 3, 4 and 5 on the list were deported 35, 34 and 31 times, respectively, according to data provided to The Washington Times by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Did anybody think to hire these guys as consultants?  They qualify as experts in leaky borders.