"....You just put your lips together and blow......"

We all have our own set of regrets. That's what I am thinking about here on this Friday, January 18, 2013. I can whistle a tune but I never learned how to do that piercing blast that can be heard a quarter mile away. I was looking at an instructional video out on the internet showing how to do that type of whistle using your fingers. The fellow on the video took it slow, step by step, but alas, it may be a little late for me to get that one going this far into my sojourn. I did try. In fact, I tried so hard that I almost pulled a Charley-horse in my neck and throat. It locked up for a split second and scared the living daylights out of me. Who ever heard tell? That would have been a really hard one to explain but I've always wanted to do that loud whistle. At a ball game. Getting someone's attention. Letting everyone know that I could do that whistle. It's likely that on occasion I may have put my fingers up to my mouth and made a noise when it was so loud people couldn't notice that I was mostly only pushing air out. Maybe I should just carry a flare in my pocket in case I need to get myself recognized. What's that? Is it what? A slow news day? Hey, you deal with your regrets in your way and I'll work on mine in my way. I remember how Lauren Bacall described it to Humphrey Bogart in the movie, To Have and Have Not: "You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh maybe, just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." If it was only that easy.

I hate to share these very deep seated private issues but sometimes getting it out there is good therapy.  Think about it. People who read this who have been doing that loud whistle since they were about 9 years old are having themselves a really good laugh right now. Go ahead. I probably can do a lot of things they can't. The fact that I can't think of any at the moment is most likely due to my sense of humility, or my faulty memory, or something else entirely. Hey. Wait just a minute: I did teach myself to use the computer mouse with my left hand. The desk I use here at work was designed for a typewriter. It has a return and the way my PC is situated it works best with the mouse on the left hand side. It took me a couple of days but it's second nature now. However, my computer at home has the mouse on the right side. When I use it I often find myself trying to operate the invisible mouse there on its left side. I've told you before that I pride myself in working without a net. And, after all is said and done, what do you do to entertain yourself? As you can tell, I never have to go very far to find me some new material.

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It's amazing how sometimes you can blink your eyes and when you look up another work week has come and gone. I've killed off a lot of words this week, shared my viewpoints and opinions, and hopefully brought some encouragement and maybe even a few smiles along the way. I'm the first to realize that much of my material is dated. I am very familiar with the blank stare in response to a quip or a reference that I would think everyone could recognize. The problem comes when the people with the blank stare are 25-30 years younger. They are not clueless, just totally unaware. They could easily do the same to me. Quotes from modern movies, maybe some popular lyrics from a rapper, or other types of the here and now anecdotes that they trade forth and back with their contemporaries. So this is the generation gap being lived out, live and in color. Some of you will remember when they used that live and in color moniker as a lead in to a program on broadcast television. Now those signals can be watched in 3-D. So that's it. I'm a black and white TV fellow living in a 3-D world. That explains a lot. Or, maybe a little, but not why I can't do the loud whistle. Have a great Saturday and Lord's Day Sunday, and I'll try to have something when we meet up at our next scheduled visit. May God bless each one. Amen.    ....More later.