DAH: Stupid fireworks.
Monkey: Are there smart ones?
DAH: Pardon me? Smart what?
Monkey: Are. There. Smart. Fireworks.
DAH: No. Or, rather, I don't know. Anyway, that doesn't matter. I'm just annoyed by them.
Monkey: The stupid ones or the smart ones or both?
DAH: All of them. They're loud, and they've been scaring the dogs for weeks.
Monkey: That reminds me, you need to have a word with that little black dog, Lucy.
DAH: About?
Monkey: If you leave me on the floor, or even near the floor, she sneaks up and carries me away.
DAH: Oh, right. Sorry.
Monkey: It's like she thinks I'm her little sock monkey toy.
DAH: Yeah, well …
Monkey: Yeah, well, it's disrespectful, is what it is.
DAH: We'll be more careful.
Monkey: Now, what's this about scary fireworks?
DAH: The loud noise, the booming. It makes the dogs shake and drool and hide.
Monkey: That Jacque dog doesn't seem to care.
DAH: He's older. Maybe his hearing isn't as good.
Monkey: He just keeps sleeping.
DAH: I know. And the fireworks, if they were just one night, we could cope.
Monkey: But weeks? What's up with that?
DAH: Bored people with fireworks available. But we have a new thing to try.
Monkey: With the fireworks? Don't you think they've pretty much stopped?
DAH: Probably, but my friend Cathy suggested reggae music.
Monkey: Your friend Cathy wants to party with reggae music?
DAH: Ha! Well, maybe. I don't know.
Monkey: Are you going to have a big reggae party?
DAH: Probably not. It's just that Cathy suggested that Bob Marley might soothe the dogs.
Monkey: Bob who?
DAH: Bob Marley … it's reggae music.
Monkey: Is this Bob guy going to play at your party?
DAH: Bob Marley is dead.
Monkey: I don't think your party will be a big success.
DAH: What party?
Monkey: Your big reggae party with the dead guy.
DAH: That's not happening.
Monkey: No party? Dang. Couldn't you get anyone else besides this Bob? Won't the dogs be disappointed?
DAH: Stop, just stop with the party stuff. The idea is that reggae music, like that played by Bob Marley, and others, might have a soothing effect on the dogs, during the scary firework times. I read an article about it.
Monkey: Hey! I have an idea!
DAH: Yeah?
Monkey: Next fireworks time, have a big party with reggae music and lots of dogs.
DAH: I don't think so. Well, we'll try the reggae.
Monkey: Just keep me away from Lucy. I'm not that sort of monkey.
DAH: OK.
Monkey: And don't plan on that dead Bob guy performing.
DAH: We won't. But we will have music. Maybe the dogs will dance!
Monkey: Nuh romp wid mi, Lucy girl.
DAH: Where are you from, again?
DAH is me, David Anthony Hance. dah@dahance.com
Monkey only acts obtuse.
MONKEY: What the heck have you been doing?
DAH: Stuff. Being. Living.
MONKEY: Wow. Lots of details there. How long has this been going on?
DAH: All my life.
MONKEY: No, no, no. You know what I mean. How long has THIS -- what you're doing now -- been going on?
DAH: I guess since sometime early in 2016.
MONKEY: That's, like, more than two years ago!
DAH: Yes.
MONKEY: And what explanation ... wait, I mean EXCUSE ... do you have?
DAH: I think I took a couple of turns and ended up in a cul-de-sac.
MONKEY: Cul-de-sac? What is that? French?
DAH: "Bottom of a sack."
MONKEY: I don't get it.
DAH: That's the literal translation. It means a dead end street.
MONKEY: Dead. That isn't good.
DAH: Nor is end.
MONKEY: So, what do you do? Bust out through somebody's yard?
DAH: I think I need to turn around and go back, actually.
MONKEY: Why? Not tough enough to bust out?
DAH: I guess that's a choice, but busting out can do a lot of damage.
MONKEY: Yeah. Nobody likes a loser wrecking their property.
DAH: They don't. And wrecking something is what might mark me as a loser, at least in my own mind.
MONKEY: You need to get out of your head, man.
DAH: I'm thinking ...
MONKEY: Thinking? I just told you to get out of your head!
DAH: If I go back and make a different turn, maybe I can find a better road, and I won't have to wreck anything by busting out.
MONKEY: I still think busting out is an option.
DAH: Yeah, me, too. But not my first choice.
MONKEY: And what about that old saw, "you can't go back."
DAH: I can't go backward in time, that's true.
MONKEY: Like to early 2016?
DAH: I can't do that. But I can reconsider my situation and decisions, and maybe make some choices that get me going on a new road.
MONKEY: Turn your car around and get out of the dead end?
DAH: I don't think the road closed down behind me.
MONKEY: So, you can still take a different route?
DAH: And look at this as a side-trip, I guess.
MONKEY: A pretty long side-trip. More than two years!
DAH: Maybe I just had to park for a while, look at the map, that sort of thing.
MONKEY: Maybe you took a nap!
DAH: Maybe I did.
MONKEY: Well, wake up! It's boring here at the bottom of a sack.
DAH: OK, OK. I'll see what I can do.
MONKEY: Thank you!
DAH: My pleasure, I guess.
DAH is me, David Anthony Hance. dah@dahance.com
Monkey is pretty helpful, actually.
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DAH: Want to walk up the hill?
MONKEY: What's up the hill?
DAH: I don't know. I just looked at it and thought I'd walk up it.
MONKEY: There's no point in walking up the hill if you don't even know what's up there. There's no incentive.
DAH: It's a nice day.
MONKEY: Nice day? What does that mean? And what does it have to do with the hill?
DAH: Well, it's sunny, and not too hot. There are some interesting clouds, fluffy clouds, blowing around. I looked out the back window, and thought it might be nice to go up it. Closer to the sky, too.
MONKEY: Incrementally closer to the sky, I suppose. But not much closer, in any kind of real or useful way. And still no incentive to go up the hill.
DAH: I just want to.
MONKEY: You just feel good.
DAH: Yeah, I guess I do.
MONKEY: Why do you feel good?
DAH: Looking out the back window and seeing the hill, I guess. And the blue sky. And the interesting clouds. It just made me feel good.
MONKEY: I don't understand how just looking at stuff can make you feel good.
DAH: I'm not just looking. When I take the time to look, I get feelings and ideas. I see possibilities, in my head. And the more I look, the more possibilities I see.
MONKEY: Possibilities for what?
DAH: For anything, for everything. They change all the time, the more I look.
MONKEY: When you look at anything?
DAH: Pretty much. But when I look out, at a big open view, like at the ocean, or up the hill at the sky, I tend to think bigger, happier, more hopeful thoughts and wider possibilities. More optimistic.
MONKEY: Usually you're looking at your desk and your computer screen.
DAH: Then my thinking gets smaller. I focus on all the stuff I have to do.
MONKEY: That doesn't sound too great.
DAH: It isn't.
MONKEY: Sounds like you ought to spend more time looking at the ocean and up the hill.
DAH: Bigger thoughts there, and more opportunity and hope.
MONKEY: So, why do you ever look down, at your desk, at your computer.
DAH: Because they're part of it, too, somehow. Part of it all, part of me. Plus, that's how I share.
MONKEY: Share?
DAH: All the ideas and hope and opportunity of the big view.
MONKEY: Oh, right. I get it, I guess.
DAH: I have to capture the big stuff from the hill and sky and ocean. I have to capture it somehow and share it with other people.
MONKEY: So they can see it, too.
DAH: So they can see part of it. Or so they can see what I see, or part of what I see, and understand why it matters, and maybe care themselves, too.
MONKEY: Think big, then focus.
DAH: What's that?
MONKEY: It's what you used to have on your business cards.
DAH: Right, that's right. I've got to have that again.
MONKEY: So, shall we go up the hill?
DAH: Ready?
MONKEY: Ready.
DAH is me, David Anthony Hance.
Monkey is.
Originally posted somewhere else 29-Apr-2009.