"Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them. Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe." ― Lao Tzu

Today. It is Tuesday, February 6, 2018, and I find myself doing what I often do when I sit down to compose my blog. Grasping. Grasping for this, that, or the other to share. The most famous use of the grasping word is the idiom, 'to grasp at straws'. It dates back to the late 1500's where it was used as a metaphor describing a drowning man attempting to grab hold of anything to save himself including a straw. I can't say that I'm that desperate, however, it may appear that way in some of the stuff that ends up on the electronic page. Have you noticed all of these countdown memes popping up on Facebook and Twitter? They have one for nearly everything. I saw one site that had probably twenty different countdown clocks for upcoming movies that are yet to be released. There are countdown clocks for every day of the week. I would guess the one for Friday is the most popular. (TGIF) I counted 24 countdown clocks related to holidays in one way or another. You can customize your own personal countdown clock to track a special date in your life, like a birthday, or an anniversary, or some other important day of remembrance. I clicked on the one for Valentine's Day. It exploded with hearts prancing around. Just so you know, at the time I put the finishing touches on my blog this morning, here's the reading of the Valentine's Day countdown clock: 7 Days, 19 Hours, 46 Minutes.

I suppose chocolate is an all-time favorite gift for Valentine's Day. Hershey, the candy company, has some stores that sell unique versions of their popular brands. Huge candy bars. It doesn't take much thought to know that we do live in a supersized world, so, why not? I wrote one time about how I went into Wendy's and could not bring myself to ordering anything up on their menu board that had the name 'biggie' beside it. I just couldn't say that word. Just me. Would you like to supersize your order? No thanks. It's actually cheaper that way and you get so much more food. Like I need it. Right? I've actually seen people who could not hold in one hand the beverage they purchased. It was just too large. As a way of emphasizing the size of their soft drink cups, a convenience chain in Missouri set a Guinness World Record with their plastic cup that held just under 4800 gallons and it took a little less than 3 hours to fill the cup. I read one Harvard study that indicated a 20-ounce sweet fountain drink contains between 15 and 18 teaspoons of sugar. In 1955, McDonald's original fountain drink was 7 ounces. Today's supersized version at McDonald's is 48 ounces. The largest sold at 7-Eleven is called the Team Big Gulp at 128 ounces. The 128-ounce size would contain 2 cups of sugar. Since most of us have a weakness for sweets I thought I would share this information, not as a guilt trip, but, as a public service. I think I get credit for doing public service spots. I wonder if I can deduct something from my taxes. I agree. It would have to have some value, to begin with.

Grasping. Sorry. I know. It shows. Some days are like that. If I hit 100% every single time, well, there would not be a lot of room for improvement. In my case, I don't have to worry about that happening. Yes. I did see the score from the Super Bowl game. We didn't watch one second of it. We did, however, watch the continuing series about Queen Victoria being shown on PBS. Season 1 more or less got us hooked and now we are following Season 2, and they recently announced a Season 3. According to what I've read. it does take a few liberties with the historical account, however, it mostly reflects the young queen's ascension to the throne and the challenges she encountered. The wife and I both watch. Not long ago they ran an Agathe Christie 'Miss Marple' marathon, starring Joan Hickson. She will always be the real Miss Marple to us. We watched several of the reruns and even though we knew much about the plot and outcome, they are still entertaining because of how well they were made. I suppose I should quit while I am behind because I don't believe it is going to get any better, given the current level of brain fog I am experiencing. See you next time, and may God bless us all is my prayer. Amen. ....More later.