my "Keep In Touch" pages
hi again... I'm mostly sleep-typing these days... it's much better this way, which infers that the other stuff hasn't gotten any better so focusing on what I can change is the best I can do... and adding more to the gardens ever so slowly... and still sending all the positive energy and love to my five pennies (a very old song cue) in Toronto... hoping they are safe and warm and remember they are loved... a new addition to the gardens and this current attempt to keep in touch explains a bit about where I've been lately (which is the new addition mentioned a moment ago)... quite literally walking on through the wind... to quote one area newspaper: "Most of the state's salt supply was headed Thursday to Buffalo, which has been buried by 60 inches of snow in the past week." ... wanna know more?... a lot more?...
... wait, here's some visuals for you graphics lovers...
so... work is life now and that's the new page just mentioned is about... sorta... well, it is... but then, who knows what it'll be tomorrow... anyway, it's a great distraction from the other challenges that seem headed to the kind of finality and sorta closure I'd have chosen last, given a choice... and after all, what else do I have to do with my time these days but work and remember I've got a life to live too and survival takes income and some sort of organization... waiting has become stagnation, so anything is better... as anywhere's a better place to be (song cue)...
I'm grumbling some cuz I'm in the midst of... well, a not fun period of this life... and besides, I've had a really unfriendly winter cold for the past week (walk on through the head cold too)... it's made all the plowing and shovelling of snow I've been doing recently all the more not fun... so why is some part of me still enjoying this latest challenge?... maybe cuz I live surviving?... excuse my giggles, it's my keep in touch page after all so I don't have to be appropriate... proper... or sane even... yes, old friends, I'm still in here under all the mud and slush and sleet and snow and ice...
I still love you for reading, for caring, and for being out there... I love ya even more for responding :} ... I hope you find the story of my life worth the time you spend reading and maybe worth returning to check up on now and then... one of these days it'll actually be written and then you're visits here might make a little more sense... if nothing else, maybe my survival might inspire you to try something new and appreciate what you've got a little more... just don't give up... it's not allowed in cartoons...
seriously, it's not allowed in my life either... if life's getting too heavy or too challenging or too painful or too anything and you're thinking of giving up, write me before you do... maybe we can figure out how to keep it going another day... I've got to, being part toon... and mostly crazy...
the love I offer you in words here is unconditional and serious... the survival is serious... the challenges are serious and they are not gonna win... gotta believe that... so make today different - do something good for yourself - and smile at someone who might not expect a smile... a whole lot of people even... help someone who needs a hand... give the gift of yourself... or next time I'll do an even longer impression of Stuart Smalley... somebody loves you... or I might even get evangelical on you... you've been warned... you WILL be saved!... by you, as long as you want it... I expect to hear you did something good for yourself now... go ahead, these words will be here when you get back... let me know how it goes...
honest love, ric
PS... cough, wheeze, sniff, sneeze... did you know a blizzard has many colours in the middle of the night?... or was that just the fever?... come on, laugh at my madness (just don't let impressionable children follow my example until they've passed the Anonanonanon safety course... they can sign up by writing to Anon.. remember, Anon is a professional looney toon, so please don't try this at home unless you've been certified too)... see you in the drifts...
PS... ok, here's something new stuffed into the previous babble for my friends who are as crazy about babbling as I am... still, you're gonna go out and do something good for yourself after you read (or at least after you babble on yourself a bit, right?)... remember, the toon town police are on call and will issue a summons for excessive unhappiness, procrastination, apathy, or all of the above...
so go on, you're not melting, the world isn't as cruel as the wicked witch said it was, I'll be right here waiting for your good news... I'll even tell the world right here if you want me to (or it can be our little secret... just let me know there's a smile and some worth for you somewhere in here or out there, ok?)...
the never ending closing continues... I add to the closing of this message and it keeps growing, but some things remain the same... like the laughter and peace deep inside... I figure if there is a hell and a devil and I happen to stumble in there for some reason, I'd probably frustrate the hell out of whomever is in charge by pointing out the silver linings... it's just one of the things I like to do, find silver linings... and one of the silver linings in life is that I can still do it... polish your horns?... that's it... I'll open a horn repair business... horns sharpened and polished while you wait... special 2 for 1 deal on Sundays... irreverence saves!...
I don't know if I have a bi-polar personality,
but I certainly have a bi-polar life LOL LAM... LAA? :)
anybody out there?...
well, like I say again and again cuz I believe it, I am still keeping hope alive (and writing rhymes again... the web pages linked below to my written gardens shows new growth... very slow these days due to the new worklife, but still breathing... barely breathing (song cue) due to major obstacles and a famine of inspiration and a constant drain on energy, but I'll still not give into fear (another song cue - a promise is a promise) or negativity, so the gardener is still alive and kicking... see, the toe just moved...
and the new asl page was very rewarding and a life-saver to do until it became a power trip for a few malcontents... you can still reach me about it at the mailing list administrator's address (like it or lump it, I'm tired of apologizing for other people's paranoid power trips... if you don't understand what I mean, feel free to ask as it represents why I'm not giving the project or newsgroup any times these days): asl-owner@egroups.com... maybe I'll get back to it in another form one day, but I've taken enough abuse from a few of the "regulars" in that newsgroup for now... those who actually cared to actually work on the asl pages are still great people... the undermining negativity came from others who refused to join in the ideas for the sites... it's just newsgroups politics and power trips, just like life... alas, everybody's got their own agenda and definition of support... for those of you who've cared and inquired about the asl sites, the addresses on the site are still valid and I'll do my best to respond... it isn't gone or forgotten, just on hiatus... my hope is those who voiced all the complaints will create a site in my absense, which will be a heck of a lot better than the negativity...
back to my life as priority... and cuz I'm learning a lot (the brain still works after all the vegetation)... writing (and music, and I found a small working clock radio on the line {thank you to whomever threw it out, even thought you're not recycling, I am ;} so I've at least got radio stations and I promised myself not to complain about the commercialism and repetitiveness (what, me repetitive?)...
like I was saying, writing has always been my primary release and solitary comfort... when I am not corresponding much, my friends know to ask for whatever I'm writing in my gardens so they can at read whatever I am finding time and energy to let out... and now anybody who really cares can check the gardens web pages and that has me real excited... feedback helps more than I can say, so if ya wanna help (for free) and have a little time and like playing editor and really care about words and maybe want to care about me or share ideals I've expressed (or just like being an audience :) ... applaud or booo or carefully critique as you wish... by the way, the editorial committee is still empty at the moment, ahem ;)
as long as the gardens keep growing, I'm doing alright... and except for missing my family and friends, everything is beautiful (in it's own way)... I know I am doing the right thing right now... I hope you understand... and please remember...
you get what you get when you go for it...
and what you get is what you put into it...
positivity inspires and creates positivity
negavitity inspires and creates negativity
it is your choice
or something like that...
you are loved and you are missed
and for a moment, you are kissed
you may have smiled, you may have shrugged
but for a moment, you are hugged
I send you good wishes, happy thoughts, and fun energy to share in your life while I'm gone and hope you remember this...
I think of you and I am caring
even when we are not sharing
once we give part of our heart
we're never really far apart...
knowing you care about me makes every step I take easier
I hope that knowing I care about you makes your journey better too...
I will wave hi more personally just as soon as I have more time (working 7 days a week at a 80-100 hour per week pace leaves little time, but I'm here checking in cuz I care about you and I know you're reading caring about me)... and while I am away, I'm still sending smiles everyday (from me to you, even ;)
and please take care of the smiles, they are full of vitamins and and sunshine and rainbows and lollipops and all sorts of good stuff... and every hug is full of honest love, lots and lots of honest love :)
and you can try (please please... mail makes life more fun... and it's very inspiring to know you're out there reading and caring :) to send email to (if you sent email to my "toon-town" address, please try the other address here, it seems the toon-town postal workers appeared to be on strike... something about arbitrary erasures... and then Disney sued and closed the toon-town post office because of some indescretions that have been hush-hushed and supposedly have nothing to do with the White House or cigars, but one never knows... still, the toon-town address is no longer valid)... and remember Anon's emergency address?... forget that address, it's almost never checked these days and it's just in case of emergency cut off from the web... use it if a month goes by without a response to the other address below... some of you know I haven't checked it in many weeks, months even... at least...
you're much better off sending email to anon's sister, Sysquash, who checks mail almost daily, at Sysquash, please give this to Anon, thank you =) (please and thank you and big smiles usually help get Sys's attention and she'll slip it under the pillow for a big wake up surprise =) ... there's also an address or few here and there in the written gardens if you stroll through there... and now, without further ado, I am undone... to the words, rhymes, and whatever me finds in the backs or the fronts or the sides of me minds...
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