Saturday, July 07, 2018

Staring at a blank page on the desktop...

You lose, ha! Routine found me watching the News... checking email... thumbing thru Facebook... finally meandering to the desktop to mebbe write a blog........

I couldn't thinka one dog gone thing to write about... so I stared at this blank page long enough I remembered about the kid who turned in 'artwork' to his teacher - a blank 8 and 1/2 by 11 sheet of typing paper... she quizzically stared at him - without her even asking him, he offered "Rabbit in a snowstorm."

So........ staring came to mind.

"Life is becoming no more than staring at the screen." Tom Hodgkinson (I was staring at the red line underlining Hodgkison, but looked again, and that's how the dude spells it.)

My newest granddaughter, Bella, turns two this month. Of course, outta the womb, the eyes are temporarily incapable of focus.. as she went from kicking feet, to turning over.. to on her hands and knees rocking back and forth.. that focus ability happened. For THE LONGEST TIME, it was very much a 'measuring up' stare 'asking' "who the heck is this person that comes into my world, some days, but not all days, and how am I supposed to react around him?"

Thankfully, familiarity won out - and now stare is accompanied with a heart melting smile (hers followed by mine).

Answering the doorbell ring brings about interesting forms of staring. Whothehell are you and what do you want? Are you going to rob me, or, try to force your favored religion upon me? Pardon me while I stare intently, figuring out internally the fastest way to get out of this form of staring and get you on down to the next neighbor.

"Goo goo gah gah" is a favorite form of staring of mine. There is a precious couple, friends of mine, and I'm always amazed at their capability to say, without saying, "go away world, we're deeply entrenched with each other, and we don't need your/any, intervention." Such goo goo can go on for a lifetime I've noticed - or - get rearranged after the first poopy diaper, fishing trip, or girl's night out. The really lucky ones ne'er lose that stare - mebbe, the reason why the emptiness of death of an aged spouse so frequently is followed soon after by the death of the surviving spouse.

"People will stare. Make it worth their while." Harry Winston

Disbelief stares. The people of WalMart. The 'hold my beer and watch this' folks. Visits to a foreign (to you) city/place. Finding one's self on the losing end of a three hour baseball marathon only to see the other team "walk off" with victory. The "I can't believe you really just said that" stare that maybe outdoes even what was said. Stares talk, uh huh, they do.

Staring with one eye here, and one eye on my phone, I discovered the many crossword puzzle answers to "Stare in disbelief": gape, agape, pah, ibet, cynicism, denial, what, awe, gapeat.

We gots abbreviations for staring responses to things........ OMG.. OMFG.. SMH.. STFU.. IMHO.. WTH.. EM?... TMI.. Really?-without saying so. What in tarnation?-without saying so. You've GOT to be kidding?-without saying so.

Onea my favorite commercials (Victor, they've probably seen it, why do you bore them? BM, which, is my stare back to you, 'bite me'.) Anyways, gorgeous chick in a bar.. She's being stared at by two men sending their most amorous stares at her. One, a balding fat, older guy is way outta her league, and the other is an admittedly handsome dude, but he's quite egotistical. (Egotistical ciphered by his stares, expressions.) So, fat balding outta-his-league guy, walks by her table, lays down his "Room 537" Hotel key.. she scoops it up, bald guy walks off.. She stands, walks over to handsome (but egotistical) guy's table, lays down the "Room 537" Hotel key - and makes her way to the elevator. If only we coulda gotten the chance to see the stare on the faces of old bald guy and egotistical dude that followed that knock on the door. Now I can't even remember what the damn commercial was even for, so, that probably means is was Geico.

"Something I like to do a lot is just sit by the water when there's a current and just stare into the water. I don't fish, I don't hunt, I don't scuba, I don't spear, don't boat, don't play basketball or football - I excel at staring into space. I'm really good at that." Iggy Pop

People watching. It's staring too. When one is alone staring, you see something kinda cool or kinda outta the ordinary, the reaction is to swivel head, stare, and see if anyone else noticed that. When one is coupled, and you see "kinda cool" or "kinda outta ordinary" you simply swivel and stare at your mate, and your reciprocal stares say "holy shit", "did you see that? You did!".. Stares talk, silently. Sometimes they're accompanied by smile, laughter, skepticism, eye-rolling.

I catch myself occasionally staring, and it has ZILCH to do with visual - my brain is in deep thought about something else (scary, I know) and I have no comprehension of the events my eyes gaze out at.

Farts bring stares (and laughter from children.) Pee Wee's Big Adventure brought us "Why don't you take a picture, it wlll last longer?" - and, kids - as they age, learn inappropriate staring from mom/dad.

I remember from coaching, teaching - going over a learning example/situation - then, following with the requisite look out at the audience, to see, who took it in/understood, who was not paying attention, and the final group - lost in space, staring at you - but you could repeat the message a hunnerd times and they'd still be lost in space. Tina, on the 8th grade girl's basketball team was an example of 'lost in space', VICTOR, you can't do that! Just did! Sorry, kinda, Tina. One of my alltime favorite teachers, Dr. Keith David - he "added to" the requisite look to see who ciphered: He'd turn, stare out, and add "Dig?".. it brought him answering stares. He was so fun.

This has been pretty boring, sorry.. but sometimes that's just what staring is. I'm off to breakfast, staring at the KC Star, then pulling my pen out to attack the Saturday Sudoku puzzle, the hardest damn one of the week. It often ends with me staring, and staring, and giving up.

Soon after, I plan to roll to the City Park, take my newly purchased log chain out, wrap it around the big oak tree there, then affix the other end to the bashed in bumper on my car - and PULL, or, hit the gas a tad, in effort to 'unbend' the damn bumper. I would imagine I will attain stares from the local yokels - I just hope they ain't gotta cherry on toppa their car.

Go. Do. Stare. It can be fun. I planta.

Love, Victurd

No comments: