(Found this brand-new pair of bike gloves beside the highway today, about 30 yards apart. My size and everything.
Normally, when this happens on a bike trail, I leave the lost article where it is, or hang it up in a prominent place for the owner to find. But you can't leave stuff on the road shoulder; passing cars quickly reduce it to rubbish. And, as is often the case on roadsides, there was no effective place to display these. Finally, when you lose something on a trail, you can retrace it, if you judge the time and effort well-spent. But on the road system, you're turning right and left and things get complicated fast.
And these aren't the most expensive gloves, to say no more. Had I lost them, I'd probably not re-ride a long trek, if I even noticed they were gone.
Sometimes you just have to accept the unearned blessings of futility.
May my involuntary benefactor profit from the karma points accrued.)
Appearing also on My Corner of the World.
"At a peace rally in Philadelphia in 1966, a reporter asked me, 'Are you from North or South Vietnam?'
"If I had said I was from the north, he would have thought I was pro-communist, and if I had said I was from the south, he would have thought I was pro-American.
"So I told him, 'I am from the Center.'"
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching.
(Photo courtesy of Luke van Zyl and Unsplash.com.)
(Dipsacus fullonum
, or common teasel, is an invasive weed here on the North Coast, with large cob-like seed heads that dry to a distinctive brittle brown when they die. The tall, stout stems persist into winter, looking very much like set dressing from a Star Trek episode as they become the only plant life still evident in that season.
These dried heads sometimes figure in decorative floral arrangements, but aside from that this Old World plant offers little we can use. Fortunately, we normally only find them bobbing in small sporadic bunches along rural roads and hillsides, but on a bike ride last week I encountered this fallow field – the better part of an acre – so entirely populated by Dipsacus
that it brings to mind a cornfield.)
Appearing also on
My Corner of the World.
"This isn't the final Buddhism; it's just ours."
Seth Zuiho Segal
(Photo courtesy of Carlos ZGZ and Pxhere.com.)
(My mom's favourite flower, seen here from her bedroom window. Since she died I haven't performed any maintenance on these, though a neighour did clean them up a little last fall. And yet they're still coming on strong.
Flowers were so important to my mom. I think I'll invest a bit more effort in these from now on.)
Appearing also on My Corner of the World.
July has ambushed us again, and you know what that means: another whack of rock groups.
As I've explained in the past, July is that month when readership plummets, Zen monasteries close for the summer, and I run about the house naked… figuratively, at least. Which is to say, I vary from the more serious business of this blog and indulge a silly whim or two.
Of which this one has become an annual tradition.
So if you're new to this ritual, click on the embedded link above for the particulars. For the rest of you, gird your loins for:
Rock Groups 2022
Debris
Manley Toggle and the Light Crew
Dipswitch
Quadruped
Reg-O-Matic (rapper named Reginald)
Mångata (ethereal electronica)
Petrovascular
Tom Collins and the Highballs
Shotgun Wedding
Peristaltik
Dead Right
Looseleaf
Solid State
The Plethora
Airship
Dish Rack
Moosemeat
Tazelwurm
FlashBang
Crossbow
Sparehead #1 (don't pronounce the #)
Turdücken
Bandsaw
Hi-Horse
The Whistleblowers (Irish folk-rock)
The Wheelers
Tomnahurich (Scottish folk-rock)
The No Code (accent on No)
Les Castors du Rhône
Bright Blue
Rockbound
Skred
Monkeynut
Tony Zamboni and the Ice Machine
Blatweasel
The Rescue Dogs
Homogenous Mass (rap group)
Stretch
Avvakum
Aqua Regia
Tan Ru and the Nomads
Onyx
Dirty Thieving Bastards
Sinlahekin
Cutter John and the Penguins
(Photo courtesy of Markus Spiske and Rawpixel.com.)
(Evasterias troschelli. Note that the tip of one ray has apparently been gnawed off by the starfish plague, but the organism's immune system has fought off the attack. This bodes well for the species.)
Appearing also on My Corner of the World.
