Lateral Thought...

Kids these days! I was talking to a friend of mine, who has a teenage daughter, and they were complaining that when they were young, they would have never had the nerve to talk to their parents the way that she talks to them. This got me to thinking, when I was young, did I ever make demands of my mom? I'm pretty sure that I did not. Although I can assure you that it had nothing to do with fear of her wrath. That was reserved for Grandma. That woman can stop a sugar infested 3 year old at a 100 paces, from even thinking of doing anything bad with just one firm "Hey!" It had nothing to do with a fear of being belted, or even smacked upside the head, although I'm sure all of us deserved it at some point in our youth. It was more to do with the tone. Or I should say, it was the lack of that tone when she was just speaking to us normally. Both my grandparents were fairly calm people, so when they were angry at you, you knew it. I remember hearing Grandma use that voice on my grown uncles, and watching them stop what they were doing in an instant, and thinking "Man... I gotta get me that voice".

But, back to the teenage me. As I said, my lack of disobedience had nothing to do with fear, but more of a knowledge which a lot of my more rowdy peers seemed to ignore. As a teen, I had it damn good. Mom asked me one day why I never rebelled. I gave her an odd look and say "from what?". I had free room and board, money whenever I wanted it, I could go out whenever I wanted, and had a reasonable curfew, which I could get away with breaking, so long as they had notice. I had minimal chores to do, and I knew that if I needed it, I could call them to come and get me if I got caught somewhere without a ride. Why the hell would I want to rock the boat by tossing hormone driven tantrums about crap that, in the long run, didn't matter one damn bit. Don't get me wrong, I argued with her on some points, such as what I did with my money, but other than that, we got on pretty well.

I think that my lack of teen angst driven disobedience had a lot to do with my mental make up. I can see situations fairly logically. I am also pretty good at seeing things from other people's point of view. This does however tend to mean that I make a lot of sacrifices for the ones I love. Don't get me wrong, I don't let people walk all over me, but there is very little that I won't do for a friend or loved one, so long as the same respect is given back.

I am also a fairly calm person, much like my grandparents. I am slow to anger, excepting if it involves someone bugging my kid, and I am able to take things in stride. This has a lot to do with my "go with the flow" attitude. If life is taking me in a direction, I usually let it, and try to get as much out of the experience as possible. This is not to say that I will just sit on my ass and let things come to me, I mean, if I did I would have no job. However, I'd much rather enjoy the view than to waste the experience trying and paddle up a quick moving river, to keep the nautical metaphor going. For instance, if a friend were to show up at my house, tell me to get my stuff on, I'm going somewhere, but they won't say where, I'd be off and away with no problem at all.

People are always apologizing to me if we happen to be in a situation that they can't help, and that they think may make me uncomfortable. The way I see it is, they can't help the situation, and honestly, I am bothered by very little. In this respect, I am able to handle change better than most. When something comes along that I have to deal with, whether it be big or small, you don't think about how this could happen to me, or what did I do to be in this situation, you just deal with it. It's the same in emergencies. When I was young, I had seen one of my uncles take a chain saw to the leg. I was quite young, but I remember clearly yelling to him to stay there, and running to get help, as I knew there was nothing I could do but that. No panic, no standing about thinking "what to do what to do". I just did it. I went with the flow of the situation.

Anyways, enough of the self-evaluation. Here is what you REALLY read these things for...

Friday:

Liette got it spot on, the horse's name is indeed Friday... and the second Annon, I assume was Sam or possibly Katy, as I doubt that Peanut would go ooOOOOOooo....that seems more like a Sam prefix.

Two boxers are in a boxing match which is scheduled for 12 rounds, yet after 6 rounds, one knocks the other out, yet no man threw a punch. How is this possible? NOTE! This is NOT kick boxing, so I'll have none of that nonsense!

I promise there will be a better post next time...as next time the topic will be... *dun dun duuuuunnn* EVOLUTION! More specifically, what I think our next few steps will be.