Don’t we often allow our thinking energy to leak into, “Which foot goes first,” instead of, “Which step comes next?”

I’ll admit it, I allowed a little tiny bit of pride to sneak in!
Did you ever try to put trash into one of those large plastic trash bags? One really needs three hands to do it gracefully. So, I set my thinker to “open and run” and came up with the brainy idea of making a stand out of PVC pipe that would be just the right size to be my third hand. I cut pieces and assembled them, the frame was a bit too large for the top edge of the bag to fold over. Luckily, I had decided not to glue the joints until I verified the fit was right and tight. I re-cut and re-assembled until the fit was perfect. I was finished and just a tiny bit proud of the results. I had just built a tube frame waste basket that surprised that flimsy plastic bag to the point that it stood straight up with its' mouth wide open.
My third hand worked very well, until I ran out of bags. I made double sure that I bought exactly the same brand that I had used for my pattern. The thing that very quickly squelched my tiny bit of pride, was that the bag company also had a brain storm, while my storm was still actively creative, and they did the unthinkable. They redesigned the tops of those bags. Now, I could build a second third hand, or simply try to find satisfaction in complaining!

My memory is still fresh from digging the hole to plant an eight ft. Weeping Cherry potted in a seven gallon container. At about four inches down, I hit a four to six inch thick gravel bed. Immediately, my digging spade made it quiet clear to me that this wasn’t in the original contract, and just as suddenly, it relentlessly began working against me. Right then I knew, that to keep from embarrassing the Weeping Cherry Tree to tears, I’d have to switch digging tools. So, instead of having that tempting face to face confrontation with my stubborn spade, I found the home made, hand crank, ice auger my son had made many North Winds back. I don’t remember if it had ever bored an ice hole or not, but I was impressed with how it patiently piled the walnut sized gravel chunks on top of it’s head as it determinedly worked it’s way down, through the layer of gravel.
All this time I was a thinking, It may have been easier to dig this hole inverted, from the bottom up. That way all these little gravel characters could simply jump down the chute in globs, instead of waiting to be lifted out in tiny piles, balanced on top of each other on the auger head.
All in all, the way I dug the hole, from the top down, may have been the smarter approach. If I would have dug that hole inverted, to allow for the loose dirt and gravel chunks to collect, I would have had to start digging from some point deeper than where the bottom of the hole is now.
I learned one valuable lesson in planting a Weeping Cherry Tree that I‘ll never forget, “A hole ain’t a hole, until you remove the stuff it’s made of!”

Yes, one quick episode of “cute” played out, right in front of me Tuesday.
A young mother parked her car, unbuckled her toddler, I’d guess he was about three years old, and parked him on the trunk lid. ( a very clever temporary baby sitter .) The sun was behind clouds so the metal trunk lid’s temp was ok with the toddler. What wasn’t ok with the toddler was, that while Mom plopped him onto the lap of the ready made baby sitter, his right flip flop flopped to the ground. This suddenly left his little right foot stark naked. He tried to get Mom’s attention, but by this time, Mom was bent on fetching the baby.
As soon as the toddler knew he was being ignored, he took things in his own hands. He knew the fact, his right foot had suddenly been stripped of it’s flip flop and his tiny mind reasoned that that needed fixed! Thinking very quickly, he slipped his left foot out of it’s flip flop, put the left flip flop on his right foot and smiled proudly at Mom as she was,
Bent on picking up the stray flip flop,
Changing flip flop and feet back left, right?
Reuniting right foot/flip flop cover-up,
While balancing the other child in the other hand.

If you were given the chance to pick three new toys, your favorites, from a list of things that, in and of themselves, can’t be seen, but are rather impressive in action.
Air
voice
Song
strength
Stretch
faith
Hope
distance
Time
love
Start
imagination
Alert
pride
Silence
shame
Thought
cool
Part
gravity
Magnetism
single
Pull
plunge
Mind
suggestions
Or, you name them, the list seems endless -
Which three would you pick to play with? Why?