Random things

Getting to know you

There's a challenge making its way through my friends on Facebook called "25 Random Things." You get a note saying you've been tagged—"you're IT!" and then it says:

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

I ignored the tag I got for several days, but read what others' had written on theirs. The 25 things are always interesting, sometimes silly, occasionally touching—the sorts of things you might talk about on a long road trip or late at night after too many beers. Here's what I mean:

- I don't know how to swim.
- I love to cook.
- I no longer expect to be famous. Ever.
- The 1st book I read in a library that I remember was about a Firefly and an Owl with great illustrations!
- I have five other siblings.
- My grandma had varicose veins and hairy armpits.
- I have done more regretful things in the past couple years than I have done in my entire life, purely out of being selfish. I realize how much I have hurt people that I love and know I can try and fix it, but it doesn't change the way I acted and how much of a jerk that I was.
- My favorite food in the entire world is cheese, I will try any cheese at least once.

You get the idea. It's a little intimidating to think about writing your own 25. For me it was partly because I'm a pretty modest person, usually reluctant to talk much about myself. There's also the usual fear of revealing yourself. The people who are your Facebook "friends" typically cover a wide range, from people you've known your whole life to those who's names you recognize but are really more friends of friends.

Finally it was the flattery—and I hope truth—in the last line of the instructions that won me over: "If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you." Fair enough. After I'd written mine I found choosing the 25 friends to "tag" was harder than I expected. I really tried to pick only those I genuinely did want to know better.

A few have posted theirs, and you've read a mixture of theirs and mine above. If you can't take time off for a road trip and are short on beer money, it's a pretty good way to get to know people better.

Imagine that

As I began digging my car out of the drive today I noticed this message.

I like to think that it's someone who's seen my inauguration photo, but I'm not sure.

Actually, now that I look at it more closely it may be a suggestion that I upgrade my choice of vehicles.

Color-coordinated?

There's an inherent beauty in the industrial shapes you see looking up at the bridge tender's cabin on the Columbus Road lift bridge. The colors are gorgeous. The green paint fades and then weathers away, revealing first red oxide primer and then yielding to rusted steel.

Did the bridge tender deliberately chose the curtains to match the colors of the bridge?

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