This just gets stranger every week - Friday Fragments

Welcome to Friday Fragments, the place to say all those things you’ve been thinking all week. Mrs. 4444 from Half Past Kissin' Time is the Big Thinker who hosts this party, and her thoughts are some of the best around. She has links to all the FF posters – go check them out and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

* I have company staying at my house this week, and it’s not the casual kind of company that hangs around your house, reading and such. It’s the kind of company that requires MY company every single minute. Talk about finding it difficult to blog – it’s more like finding it difficult to complete a thought. I have to sneak off with my laptop to steal even a few minutes to read a blog or two! This may just be the shortest Friday Fragments in history.

* Mrs. 4444 awarded me the Favorite Fragmenter prize from last week, which is funny because last week, her FF post had me laughing for days. She linked this video, called Stuck in the Middle With You, which got me thinking about the subject of things that, well, get stuck inside people. Many years ago, I attended a conference with a woman from another non-profit agency whose agency provided family planning and women’s health care. She once told me (after several margaritas) that she had removed an amazing array of objects from women’s bodies. Objects that were not the normal things one might find in there. Objects that they would have obviously attempted to remove themselves first, before suffering the embarrassment of asking for help. The list amazed, impressed and disgusted me, all at once.

* She also told me that the most interesting and unique items, once retrieved, were placed in their ‘hall of fame’ (which was a shelf in their back room) for them to enjoy for years to come. Of course, I had to stop by her agency a couple of months later for a meeting, so I asked to see it. Let me tell you, it was EVERY BIT AS IMPRESSIVE AS SHE HAD DESCRIBED. The most interesting item was a plastic gargoyle, which she described as a “neon green, hard plastic, angry-looking gargoyle” and, in my opinion, was WAY too big to be even considered for insertion. You gotta wonder how bored a person has to be…I mean, how does that even begin? “Gee, honey, I’m feeling a little adventurous tonight. What say we take that green plastic gargoyle that your sister gave the kids, and see if it fits in your…”

* Earlier in the week, I did a good deed at Wal-Mart. I’m not going to tell you all about it, because the specifics don’t really matter. What I will do, though, is encourage everyone to be friendly, and patient, with elderly people when you encounter them at stores or restaurants. It will make your day – and theirs, too – and you might just make a terrific new friend. I think it is absolutely criminal how some people treat others, just because they’re slowing down a bit as they get older. God willing, we’re all going to get there sooner or later - let’s show a little love and compassion, shall we?

* That’s all I got today. I will try to keep better track of my random thoughts next week. Have a terrific weekend, everybody!