Relative Something

Asher and I were at a low ebb of motivation yesterday. We did a fair amount of lolling about, though that’s not really that rare.

This is what it looked like back on a day before things shriveled up and turned brown. Sometimes I just wander up and sit down next to where he is lying and do nothing but keep him company. The thing is, if I lay back and close my eyes, sleep usually takes over, and when I wake, he will have disappeared. He’s no dummy.

It wasn’t too hot yesterday, but it sure felt lazy outside. Eventually a nice breeze developed, but that never did much toward motivating us to any productive action. I made several trips between the hay shed and the barn to stage more bales for convenience. That and one wheelbarrow of manure dumped was the only physical work I did.

Asher and I augmented that effort with a few rounds of play with his favorite yard toy, the Jolly Ball with a heavy rope strung through it. Then it was back inside to see if my recliner still worked.

While I was feeling particularly sedentary, I exercised my brain with a deep dive into some history of my school days in Eden Prairie. I discovered a variety of rabbit holes to get distracted by. Even though my focus ricocheted to and fro, I collected and compiled some details and numbers that will help me to present a fuller picture of our past on the reunion website I am setting up.

We had a private Catholic school and two public grade schools that fed our middle and high schools. I’m contemplating the possibility of featuring a list of kids who were part of our young lives but moved away before graduating with us. It’s tricky when all I have is an unidentified face shot from a class photo. I am struggling to come up with all the names.

I hope to rally assistance from classmates once the website is published to fill in missing people in the puzzle. Getting a dialogue going with folks would be a rewarding outcome for me. As a group, I imagine we could go a long way toward filling in the gaps in each other’s memories. That seems like a worthy exercise on the occasion of the passing of 50 years.

Going through the effort to set this all in motion feels like a good use of my lolling about time. I may be lying low, but I’m getting something accomplished at the same time. You guys know how much I value “win-win” opportunities.

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