by Kevin Burton
I list these songs below, and chances are you’ll pick up right away where I am going with them:
“Laughing” and “Undun” by the Guess Who, “It’s Too Late” and “I Feel The Earth Move” by Carole King “Who’ll Stop The Rain” and “Travelling Band” by Credence Clearwater Revival, “Something” and “Come Together” by the Beatles.
Of course, these are some of the biggest double-sided hits in the history of popular music.
Well, I stumbled upon a double-sided hit of my own last week, when Jeannette and I ordered Chinese food.
Let’s me be clear that my “fortune” is written in the pages of the Bible and I don’t believe the “wisdom” one gets from fortune cookies.
But this is what I got:
The A side “Your resilience in the face of challenges will lead to unexpected opportunities.”
The B side: “Your next Chinese meal will bring you more cookies.”
Good news all around I say! The hits, and the cookies, just keep on comin’……..
Quick follow-up to one of the wedding anniversary stories we ran last week (“She’s Still The One After Fourteen Years,” April 11.)
Jeannette proofreads these blog posts. In that one I referred briefly to arguments within our marriage.
“Arguments? I didn’t know we had arguments,” Jeannette said. “I just thought whatever I said went.”
That’s the trouble with some of these proofreaders, they read between the lines……
Somewhere along the line the concept of control, or at least the notion that I could truly control much of anything, began to smell of folly.
The reality that the shards of my life are not controllable is not funny to me. Yet I’ve pondered control and been reduced to helpless giggling because there was a time I thought I was or could be “in control.”
And now, another light bulb above my head. To be “caught up,” is this possible?
Technically no. Unless you’re naked, for example, it’s not possible to be completely caught up with your laundry. And in your office, when your in-box is empty is that a good thing? It may mean no new customers, or bosses who stopped trusting you with new things.
It’s tough to even know what we’re talking about here, trying to define “caught up,” but I’ll try.
To be caught up is “a state of mental equilibrium regarding tasks at hand, vs time and other resources available to handle them.”
Based on that definition, how are you doing dear reader?
“Me? Thanks for asking, but don’t ask…..
Another restaurant tale: I granted Jeannette’s request to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant, maybe three weeks ago. It was her third request.
I looked to where the super-organized Burtons keep coupons and gift cards and discovered we had coupons that expired THAT DAY. We had two coupons, so no way we were going to use the second one.
My first thought was the dumbest, to cut out one coupon and put the other back in the glove box.
My second thought was to take both coupons in and give the other one to some other customers. This I did, giving the extra one to some people at the next table.
File that one under “nice guy Kev leaves the basement.” Not enough there for a Good News Network piece, but it’s something, no?…………..
I completely forgot to watch the March Madness Final Four games, until the first game was over and the second game was essentially over. This would have never happened in the old days. I did watch the final with mild interest……
“Between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, net international migration was 1.3 million, a notable drop from 2.7 million the year before (a decline of 53.8 percent), according the U.S. Census Bureau. “If current trends continue, net international migration is projected to be approximately 321,000 by July 2026, representing another decline of nearly 1 million since July 1, 2025.”
What would Yogi Berra say? “If they don’t want to come here, nobody’s gonna stop ‘em.”
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