mebbe they’d like to know

December’s cool-down

Today’s river view—out the back window. It even looks cold out there, doesn’t it? I know it’s not much snow or anything, but I don’t know how ready I am for freezing in the house most of the days until spring. I sure miss those old turn-the-thermostat-dial days.

just rattling on…

Today’s horoscope seemed appropriate: “This task only seems overwhelming. Break it into parts. You can do it”. Well, I already did it.  I originally started this blog with the name of the blog (Cosmicbubbles) different from my screen name (paperbubbles), which makes for some confusion now and then. So, I decided to start another blog earlier today but haven’t figured out how to use it yet, other than I posted one comics collage that can stand on its own, meaning it isn’t necessarily tied to something in daily life as a synchronistic connection. It was not a repeat for anything I posted here today. I changed the name of this one to Paperbubbles and the newer one will become cosmicbubbles, using that screen name as well. It confuses me, too, and I am not even sure I can keep things separate. Sometimes thinking just makes things worse.  We’ll see how things go. Meanwhile, here is today’s comics collage for this blog. There is an anagram worked into the collage as part of the “conversation”.  Just another experiment in blogging.

a clean cardigan

“Could you wear a killer’s cardigan?” It was no coincidence I would make some kind of connection with that chapter of the book, but I can’t say it is fate or chance. I can say, I am aware of certain things in life that “connect” in ways that allow me to draw an art imitates life kind of line and, after a certain number of these one begins to figure odds. I gave up on meaningful coincidences as some unusual event in my life. At this point, I presume the cardigan I purchased for $.80 (including tax!) at Salvation Army yesterday did not belong to a killer, but instead to someone who took good care of their clothing and then donated it. Or maybe a family member donated it after a loved one passed on.

The sweater is an older classic cardigan, once sold by the Gillman Knitwear, Co., under the Brian MacNeil Sportswear label. I found one similar to the one I purchased, with a starting bid of $17 or so, on eBay. Not that I am in the market for this particular cardigan manufacturer, or even the style. It just so happened to be a quick in and out purchase. I rarely do that-go in and make a quick purchase without looking over other things-but when I do, I usually make some kind of connection from it.

So I will make the cardigan-book-synchronicity connection.

I run my usual comics collages from day to day, but had not yet done any for the week, and was thinking of combining a couple of them and leaving it at that. I was “aware” yesterday, when I plucked the comic balloons from various comic strips, that I had chosen two that said, “What next?” I don’t often use two of the same word text bubbles, so it was kind of a heads up to me, in my own unusual way of noticing things. I made a mental note. I did the comics copy/paste thing in the early morning (though I have not posted them at this point), then went to the library(checking out my books at 11:43 am) the Salvation Army (buying only the cardigan) and the local downtown grocery store. I completed my errands and got back home a little after one, when a friend from the library pulled up and assisted me with some of the groceries.

The rest of the afternoon I went about my usual day, and last night began to read “Supersense”. I have not been to the library in a while, but it did not take more than a couple of minutes to select the three books I chose: Our Lady of Guadalupe-Mother of the Civilization of Love, Origins of the Specious-Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language, and Supersense-Why We Believe in the Unbelievable. The author of the book I chose to start with asserts that we are “born with” a “super sense” and that we go through life seeking deeper, hidden causes or meanings. Basically, using the author’s own words on page 246, even though I only got to the second chapter, “Throughout this book I have been arguing that beliefs in the supernatural are a consequence of reasoning processes about natural properties and events in our world. This includes a mind design for detecting patterns and inferring structures where there may be none”.

Fine. My mind’s design notices there is a strange pattern in my life, and a certain expectation to connect things, whether there is something there or not. I let others decide how causal or a causal this might be. For example, since this post is about a library book and the connection I made, I will use similar examples, because I especially like when I pick up a new book and let it talk to me through some connection or synchronicity.

In my posts I usually try to show how I make the connections, like in the post, complexities of coincidence , where I connected something I read in a library book the night before (page 33 of The Quark and the Jaguar) with a comic strip seen that same day. I thought it was a hilarious connection.Sometimes I anagram a connection, like in the post, predictably. I used text from various comic strip bubbles in my collage, then anagrammed a quote in the book, Predictably Irrational and then went on the make the connections to another book brought home that week, Physics of the Impossible.

A few of those for your perusal…see if you can keep up.

The secret anagram language was fun, using Pearls Before Swine comics to prove a point. In the posts, string-talk, and sirappy-sweet, I make more connections to the same book, Physics of the Impossible. Maybe it was because of that title??? The post, looking glass, follows up. That same week I used comics to make the connection to other books I had at the time as well…still levitating.

Maybe the universe was trying to get something across…or maybe I am attributing too much to the connections some might call supernatural. I call it fun, often funny, even though it can get complex.

It will be interesting to see where this week’s selection of books takes me. It seems fitting that I should choose a book that makes me ponder the origin of a previously owned cardigan on the very day I choose to purchase a previously owned one. If I knew the cardigan (or some other item) I was purchasing had belonged to someone whose lifestyle or deeds repulsed me, I probably would prefer not to purchase it.

Conversely, I am not swayed to purchase items of interest merely because of someone’s fame or fortune, either…no value is added. I don’t think happenstance brought me to the Salvation Army to buy an article associated with “evil” per se, and even if some outside force operated on me to make such a connection, I would find a way to turn it around and use it for good. Some might say this is borderline “magical thinking” in the clinical sense, rather than playful supposition. Let’s not label this too much. In some sense I think I was “led” to make just the right purchase through some interesting timing ir coincidence…of which I have many. Just my supersense I suppose. 

So, skipping over the collages of a few days, I will give you the one from comics of the 15th, and post those, and today’s comics in other posts. I think you will like the anagram made from the red outlined texts, which refers to the library printout:

“They’d apparently give that exact time to show that woman’s find, that book titled “Supersense”.Witness “Supermind” in text, too!” 

You know, I just wanted a clean cardigan, and I don’t mind buying a pre-worn article from the Salvation Army. I also think I know a good connection when I see one. 

They happen all the time. What makes them “meaningful” is that I notice, nothing more. It’s all part of the game I play with and in this particular universe.

first week of december

Toons of the previous week…for your perusal.  Oldest to newest, top to bottom:

First

Second

Third:

Fourth

Fifth:

Sixth

and today’s toon montage:

at the end of November

11-27 toons

from the 25th/26th

Those who read my blog often find unusual anagrams that connect to something that occurs in real life. Sometimes the telling reveals names or other specific information, all coming from anagramming randomly chosen comic strips text bubbles. The comics shown in the collage below are from those gleaned over the internet on the morning of the 25th.

On the 25th of November, 2009, a beloved friend died. John Crabb, born July 10, 1953, died in the loving arms of his wife of sixteen years. Today would have been their anniversary. Theirs was a love story I hope she will pass on to others some day. The world is a better place because of their being a couple and sharing of themselves. The text which is outlined in red is that which was used for the anagram. The previous post is also connected to this one, with another anagram, the first done since July 10th of this year. This is how the coincidences of the last few days relate to my anagram.

John Crabb once told me he was a mason, so I was glad to hear he died within the walls a masonic facility rather than in a university hospital. Somehow it makes a difference. His wife of 16 years told me today would have been their 16th anniversary. People I had dinner with on Thanksgiving told me today was their 16th anniversary as well. Must have been a good day 16 years ago. Love has many coincidences.

The anagram, done from comics on the morning of the 25th, tells that John, often called by his last name only, would be gone on the 25th. According to his wife, he died at 11:45 PM. She called on the 26th to let us know.

The comics and anagrams do not necessarily go together in this blog, because conversations of sorts come together as part of the collages themselves. The anagrams are only randomly chosen text from within the collages, generally for separate context. Sometimes you can tell I am following a c ertain theme or nexus, either my own or one suggested by the comics themselves. Make of it what you will, the connections are there.

This short collage is from comics of the 26th:

 

anagramming again…for a reason

I haven’t done anagrams since July 10th…there is a reason for that, but it isn’t something I can easily explain. Like most everything else, it figures into my anagrams and coincidences. Though I have not done any anagrams since July 10th, I have done a few in the past few days.

I did an anagram from the larger collage I posted on the 22nd. The anagram was interpreted to refer to a friend named Beth Crabb, and her husband, John, who died  Wednesday evening. He had been in OUICU until he was moved a few days or so prior to his death. I asked her about him having a tooth out. She told me there was one out on his left side; it had been damaged when he went through chemo treatments. The tooth connection was my clarifier for this anagram. The comics were from those found the morning of the 22nd, the larger part of the collage is in the post, comics collective consciousness. John Crabb died on Wednesday,  the 25th, about 11:45 PM. John was born on July 10th.

More on this in another post.

mice are gone, and so is the cat

Another frozen form planted in the backyard. Albeit a short one, she led a good four years, doing what she wanted whenever she pleased, save for the time her humans kept her in the house when she wanted to go out. The cat was hit and killed by a car today. The road got another one; it’s the usual fate for animals not kept on a leash. She was here before I moved here so keeping her in the house was never easy. I believe cats should be kept as indoor pets for this very reason. If not out they don’t know what they are missing.

The dog will miss her; they played a lot. It’s hard to know if he understood the lifeless form on the grass and her being put into the hole and covered with dirt. It’s done, now. The cat’s name was Scuttlebutt, we called her Scuttle. I didn’t think her death would affect me, but I have felt waves of grief over her today…many tears shed.

A friend came by to take the remaining food and litter to a cat sanctuary, sparing me the temptation to get a replacement cat. I can’t do that anymore.

What do I need a cat for anyhow?The mice have all been killed by traps or by their falling into the dishwater.  Well…I did capture one live little mouse and let it go. Now I just need to let go and know that like dogs, all cats go to Heaven.

 

Today’s comics collage is a small one: