Bombs Away

We took Rocco the wonder dog to park #2 this morning. We basically have three choices that are within easy driving distance. The choice of which park kind of depends on time of day (some are sunnier in the morning, etc) and other factors. This particular park is just a little linear trail alongside a now abandoned railroad track. There are plans to turn the railroad tracks into a trail so we’d have two trails almost side by side.

Anyway, Rocco likes this place for two reasons. First, sometimes we see bunnies on the side of the trail eating grass. Bunnies are exciting and fun to chase. Don’t worry, I keep him on the leash and he has zero chance of actually catching one. But it makes him feel like an apex predator so we let him run up to them. This park also has a drinking fountain with a dog level bowl so we don’t have to bring water. That’s a plus.

There were a few walnut trees along the way and it was a bit breezy – a nice warm not so fall like breeze and this one tree was carpet bombing the path with walnuts. They made quite a sound when they hit. A black walnut is perhaps a smidge smaller than a tennis ball so you probably wouldn’t want to be hit by one.

The green ball represents them in the raw, right from the tree bomb form. We had a huge black walnut in out back yard and had to spend many a fall day clearing the yard because the push mower would chop into the outer coating and get stuck. You would think you could harvest the black walnuts but you’d be wrong. Yes, in theory you can but the guts surrounding the center would dye your hands and everything else a lovely shade of dark brown. Then, you’d get down to the center and it would resist all forms of opening. Finally, you get frustrated and whack it a few times with a hammer and it splits into a couple of pieces and you have to dig the meats out with another tool. The flavor of black walnut is great but they were way too much work. Let the squirrels have them.

There are parts of fall that I do like. Driving or walking through a leaf storm is always fun. Yes, I will every now and then try to catch a falling leaf. Which I rarely do because (a) they fall in erratic patterns and (b) I’m usually doing it while walking the dog and he pulls my arm away just as I’m about to catch one.

Just for fun, lets end with two mini rants. I hate TV commercials. Kind of goes along with salesman – people trying to sell you something you don’t need. Normally, I just change the channel but, sometimes, when I’m watching sports, all you hit on are commercials so I’m stuck. Anyway, I guess some place now has these “warm grain bowls” and I saw part of this ad.

I can’t stand food commercials. I don’t like when they show people having foodgasms like whatever they are stuffing in their face is the best thing they have ever experienced. I guess bowls are trendy now and the commercial was trying to sell you on joining the trend. Healthy, real grains (well like rice and quinoa so we are gluten free because other grains are bad). They showed one typical hipster-esqe guy finishing his bowl while a lap top is open in front of him and he sits back smugly like he’s better than everyone else because he’s eating this wonderful bowl. You know the type of guy who bikes to work and they gives you the evil eye when you drive up. In fact, he was probably just finishing a power point presentation to argue somewhere for more bike lanes. Oops, I guess I got a bit carried away there.

And let’s be honest, if it tastes that good, it means they’ve dumped a bunch of salt in there because that’s what makes things taste good. Then they sell you the illusion of health. When you could just as easily make something like that at home and control what you put into it. This is when I realize that I’m not the target demographic for the “fast casual” eating places.

I’ll end with another LinkedIn thing. My career coach tells me to like and respond to things. I’m reading something by some thought leader type who tells us that we’ve all misjudged millennials. All they want is to feel wanted and be challenged at work. Oh and to have flexibility and fun. And if they don’t get it, they’ll leave. And a few other thought leader types had responded with “spot on” and other such things.

So I responded as well. Look, I’ve said before that you can’t group an entire generation into one bucket and you really shouldn’t try. But my point was is that I’m pretty sure most people want to feel valued at work and want to be challenged. And I managed a team of mostly non-millennials and they wanted flexibility and enjoyed having fun at work. Why does anyone suddenly think this is a new thing.

The only real difference may be that the some millennials put more value on those factors than on the “security” offered by a job. By that I mean that if you work long enough at a place, you rack up vacation and other benefits that kind of make it hard to leave – even if the fit isn’t the best. That may be the new part but it may also just be a reaction to the fact that companies really can’t offer security anymore.

Silly little rants about unimportant things. But if you can’t have a little fun with the world around you, what’s the point. Time to go off and do something different.