So, I've been developing a life philosophy.
You know. In my spare time.
Not sure philosophy is the right word to describe it, but I've got none better for the job, so....
Over 40+ years of life, I've honed, refined, whittled away until I ended up with this simple statement.
"Be kind to one another"?
"Use Sunscreen"?
"Stop and smell the roses"?
Good guesses, all, and all of them incorrect.
(I prefer the smell of lilacs, by the way)
Here it is.
your average day starts to go downhill, the moment you put on pants.
Take a moment, re-read it if you need to. I can wait.
You wake up in the morning. You're in bed.
You're.....happy there. It's a happy place.
You get up, shuffle around for a little while.
There's coffee; some scratching; a stop off at the bathroom, maybe a nice shower.
Things are going well for you. And you've not yet committed to screwing this up for yourself.
Another cookie, perhaps, to dunk in your coffee?
Why yes, thank you, that would be lovely.
But at some point, it becomes decision time. Make or break, do or die.
"Am I going to put these pants on, and venture forth into my daily grind?"
Choosing "Pants" means leaving your house.
There's risk, all the sudden.
Traffic
co-workers
bullies
peer pressure
stress
germs
failure
bad lighting
etc, etc, etc
By putting those pants on, you're opening yourself up to the possibility of danger, disappointment, and peril.
Maybe your day will be ok.
You don't know.
But you DO know you're day's going pretty darn well so far....
My daughter's two years old, and she's already starting to get it.
She'll walk into our bedroom in the morning, where she'll notice my clothes laid out on the bed.
"Daddy's pants?"
yep.
"Daddy goes to work?"
yeah..........
No wonder she's so adamant about her "naked" (no pants) time in the morning.
Fight it for as long as you can, darlin'.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
House On The Rock
Spent this past weekend in W. Wisconsin.
Decided 6-7 weeks ago to go to House On The Rock, in Spring Green, WI, this past weekend.
We've not done any traveling at all this year, save for annual jaunt down to my mother-in-law's house.
Hell, we barely went anywhere last year either.
3 days in N. MI sharing a condo with family, and a couple of nights in a bad motel in Holland, MI on the way home was the extent of it.
So was crazy-excited about taking this little weekend trip, even though we couldn't easily afford it.
6-7 weeks ago, we had no way of knowing that it would be freezing cold, or that snow (SNOW!!!!) was forecasted.
It did indeed snow on us a bit, as we drove toward Madison on Saturday.
And it never got above 43-44 degrees all weekend.
And none of this mattered at all, having no impact on our good time.
The House on The Rock, for those of you who've never heard of it, is a crazily-built home on the side of a cliff, in the middle of nowhere, WI.
Legend has it that the architect built it there, after being insulted by Frank Lloyd Wright, who had property and several (Beautiful) buildings just a couple minutes north of there.
I had never heard of it either, until it was referenced in what has become my favorite novel. In AMERICAN GODS, Neil Gaiman describes the House on The Rock as a place of power, one of the bigger ones. He explains that there are places that people find themselves attracted to, without knowing why, places where people will build a house on land they don't own, or create some random attraction that folks will flock to with great satisfaction and an underlying feeling of distaste.
And so was my introduction to The House on The Rock.
Imagine my surprise when I found out it was not a work of fiction. This piqued my wife and my interest, and when the time came to pick a getaway destination, we decided to go for it.
The original house is dark, and overly-ornate and strangely beautiful. It has no windows to the outside, save for occasional stained glass. A big waste of the panoramic view. After it became an attraction, the Infinity Room was added. It's a long, narrow walkway sticking out of the side of the house, several stories above ground. Walls are comprised solely of glass window panes. The view's amazing.
Also after it became an attraction, large warehouses were built, and the owner started collecting /creating a crazy array of.... stuff. Artifacts, forgotten amusements.... stuff.
Wonderful stuff.
You walk through a block of old storefronts, along a cobblestone street. go down a short hall, and enter a huge room where an almost life-size whale is battling with a gi-normous squid.
While an automatronic undersea band plays Octopus' Garden in the corner.
Because - why the hell not?
Feel free to wind a story or two up along the walkway that circles the outside of the room, looking at beautifully detailed model ships and other nauticaul items as the two legendary sea creatures do silent battle behind you.
Continue on, past the small room full of santa's, and you eventually enter a string of music rooms, each one containing a large and ornate coin-operated symphony. drop in a token, watch the Blue Danube Waltz being played on 60+ instruments. Go to next room, get another symphony.
Make your way out of there, and into a huge dark room that houses the world's largest merry go 'round. You find yourself standing in the dark, in awe of what you see before you, and wishing you could go back to stare at it some more, within moments of leaving it.
You simply cannot walk through the various sections of this place, and not experience a sense of wonder, unless you lost something, something important, as you left childhood behind.
Outside of the HOTR, that area of WI is pretty, but not a ton of stuff to do, though the various small communities will try to convince you otherwise.
Mineral Point is the cream of the crop, with cool looking little stores, and a # of fantastic and unique places to get a good meal. And after two days of dive-bar frozen pizza, and bad free continental breakfast at the hotel, you're SO ready for a good meal.
We had a great meal at a place called Cafe Four, after driving there to eat at the Brewery Creek BrewPub, and finding it closed on Sunday for dinner.
(a recurring theme for our weekend, driving to do something, and scrambling for a plan B when we got there)
The restaurant had a light, open dining area, a wood fired pizza oven, and a menu full of dishes made with as much locally grown items as possible. Body, meet vegetables.
Vegetables, meet my body.
Please be gentle.
Delish!
There's a gorgeous old hotel for sale, on the edge of town by these two restaurants. It was built in the mid 19th century, and looks like it would be fantastic on the inside. We found ourselves staring at it, before and after our dinner, and idly daydreaming...
Gov. Dodge State Park is also worthy of your time, if weather's agreeable. lots of beautiful trails, campgrounds and lakes, with woods and rock out-croppings and some of the biggest hawks you'll ever see, as back drop. Fall colors were just starting to really kick in as well.
nice.
The House On The Rock Inn was sufficient for us, and had a great pool area for little kids. A big submarine with fountains and waterslides coming out of it, set in 1 foot of water.
My daughter thought it was swell.
The hotel's about 10-15 years old, and probably hasn't replaced beds or carpeting since they opened. Our room actually had old cigarette burns in the carpet. But it also had a great view of the fall countryside.
Everything was spotlessly clean, and the desk folk were crazy-helpful. The free continental breakfast is almost, but not quite worth the price... If you like good coffee, you'll die just a little bit, drinking the coffee at their continental breakfast...
Overall- well worth the 3.5 hour drive and the reasonable expense. Might not go back to HOTR again for a couple years, as we've seen it now, but will probably camp at the state park when my daughter's old enough...
Caveats - Don't depend on locals for good directions to anyplace that isn't RIGHT THERE (It's the first road trip I've ever taken where I really wish I had a gps in the car),
and do NOT buy pizza from Dino's, in Dodgeville.
Decided 6-7 weeks ago to go to House On The Rock, in Spring Green, WI, this past weekend.
We've not done any traveling at all this year, save for annual jaunt down to my mother-in-law's house.
Hell, we barely went anywhere last year either.
3 days in N. MI sharing a condo with family, and a couple of nights in a bad motel in Holland, MI on the way home was the extent of it.
So was crazy-excited about taking this little weekend trip, even though we couldn't easily afford it.
6-7 weeks ago, we had no way of knowing that it would be freezing cold, or that snow (SNOW!!!!) was forecasted.
It did indeed snow on us a bit, as we drove toward Madison on Saturday.
And it never got above 43-44 degrees all weekend.
And none of this mattered at all, having no impact on our good time.
The House on The Rock, for those of you who've never heard of it, is a crazily-built home on the side of a cliff, in the middle of nowhere, WI.
Legend has it that the architect built it there, after being insulted by Frank Lloyd Wright, who had property and several (Beautiful) buildings just a couple minutes north of there.
I had never heard of it either, until it was referenced in what has become my favorite novel. In AMERICAN GODS, Neil Gaiman describes the House on The Rock as a place of power, one of the bigger ones. He explains that there are places that people find themselves attracted to, without knowing why, places where people will build a house on land they don't own, or create some random attraction that folks will flock to with great satisfaction and an underlying feeling of distaste.
And so was my introduction to The House on The Rock.
Imagine my surprise when I found out it was not a work of fiction. This piqued my wife and my interest, and when the time came to pick a getaway destination, we decided to go for it.
The original house is dark, and overly-ornate and strangely beautiful. It has no windows to the outside, save for occasional stained glass. A big waste of the panoramic view. After it became an attraction, the Infinity Room was added. It's a long, narrow walkway sticking out of the side of the house, several stories above ground. Walls are comprised solely of glass window panes. The view's amazing.
Also after it became an attraction, large warehouses were built, and the owner started collecting /creating a crazy array of.... stuff. Artifacts, forgotten amusements.... stuff.
Wonderful stuff.
You walk through a block of old storefronts, along a cobblestone street. go down a short hall, and enter a huge room where an almost life-size whale is battling with a gi-normous squid.
While an automatronic undersea band plays Octopus' Garden in the corner.
Because - why the hell not?
Feel free to wind a story or two up along the walkway that circles the outside of the room, looking at beautifully detailed model ships and other nauticaul items as the two legendary sea creatures do silent battle behind you.
Continue on, past the small room full of santa's, and you eventually enter a string of music rooms, each one containing a large and ornate coin-operated symphony. drop in a token, watch the Blue Danube Waltz being played on 60+ instruments. Go to next room, get another symphony.
Make your way out of there, and into a huge dark room that houses the world's largest merry go 'round. You find yourself standing in the dark, in awe of what you see before you, and wishing you could go back to stare at it some more, within moments of leaving it.
You simply cannot walk through the various sections of this place, and not experience a sense of wonder, unless you lost something, something important, as you left childhood behind.
Outside of the HOTR, that area of WI is pretty, but not a ton of stuff to do, though the various small communities will try to convince you otherwise.
Mineral Point is the cream of the crop, with cool looking little stores, and a # of fantastic and unique places to get a good meal. And after two days of dive-bar frozen pizza, and bad free continental breakfast at the hotel, you're SO ready for a good meal.
We had a great meal at a place called Cafe Four, after driving there to eat at the Brewery Creek BrewPub, and finding it closed on Sunday for dinner.
(a recurring theme for our weekend, driving to do something, and scrambling for a plan B when we got there)
The restaurant had a light, open dining area, a wood fired pizza oven, and a menu full of dishes made with as much locally grown items as possible. Body, meet vegetables.
Vegetables, meet my body.
Please be gentle.
Delish!
There's a gorgeous old hotel for sale, on the edge of town by these two restaurants. It was built in the mid 19th century, and looks like it would be fantastic on the inside. We found ourselves staring at it, before and after our dinner, and idly daydreaming...
Gov. Dodge State Park is also worthy of your time, if weather's agreeable. lots of beautiful trails, campgrounds and lakes, with woods and rock out-croppings and some of the biggest hawks you'll ever see, as back drop. Fall colors were just starting to really kick in as well.
nice.
The House On The Rock Inn was sufficient for us, and had a great pool area for little kids. A big submarine with fountains and waterslides coming out of it, set in 1 foot of water.
My daughter thought it was swell.
The hotel's about 10-15 years old, and probably hasn't replaced beds or carpeting since they opened. Our room actually had old cigarette burns in the carpet. But it also had a great view of the fall countryside.
Everything was spotlessly clean, and the desk folk were crazy-helpful. The free continental breakfast is almost, but not quite worth the price... If you like good coffee, you'll die just a little bit, drinking the coffee at their continental breakfast...
Overall- well worth the 3.5 hour drive and the reasonable expense. Might not go back to HOTR again for a couple years, as we've seen it now, but will probably camp at the state park when my daughter's old enough...
Caveats - Don't depend on locals for good directions to anyplace that isn't RIGHT THERE (It's the first road trip I've ever taken where I really wish I had a gps in the car),
and do NOT buy pizza from Dino's, in Dodgeville.
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