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It’s billed as a DAILY dose of freebies (ah, I remember freebies). And there are more than 500 posts. So this guy isn’t a slacker!

It’s the Freebie Reporter, a website dedicated to bring you daily freebies,coupons,hot deals and much more.Save hundreds of dollars monthly and get tons of cool stuff just by joining our comunity (says Haspel, an author on the site).

I remember freebies: I used to go through, literally, thousands of free offers. Most were cheap. Many were mail-ins. And that was 10 years, or so, ago. Before giving away things online was a big marketing ploy.

Plus, my friend would mail me “free” offers. He needed me to sign up on a webiste and give his name so he could collect HIS freebie.

So, I have mixed feelings about freebie sites. Especially directories. But this is a blog. And the webmaster goes through the trouble of finding the best freebies available. Then he writes reviews. Even includes pictures!

The first freebie I saw was “Kindness Cards”:

Description: Taking the tool of human kindness one step further, they’ve introduced the “Kindness Card.” This card enables you to present a tangible reminder of kindness to its recipient.

So, I thought I’d return the sentiment. Here’s my good deed for the day. But I hope he’ll thank me for my kindness. In fact, there’s this site he could sign up to, give my name, and ….

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As some of my readers know, I went to Gregory Palamas Monastery May 1 through May 3. It’s in Mansfield. That’s 79.9 miles from Cleveland (says Google Maps).

It was the first time I’d ever been to Ohio (I kept saying “Round on both ends and high in the middle”. LOL).

I was reminded of my trip again yesterday when, coming home from church with my priest and a fellow parishioner, I had commented on the “funny” name of the predominant river thereabouts: I liked the “Williewonka” river, said I (the real name is Monongahela. I couldn’t pronounce it — nor spell it … thanks Google). Is that near the Oompaloompa Mountains, said my church friend?

We had a good laugh!

Father Alexis had prompted these memories by asking me if I was “looking forward to my next visit to the monastery”. Odd, he didn’t say “looking forward to becoming a monk”. THAT’s RIGHT! Stay tooned for more musings about that tentative decision (My friends aren’t in favor of it. Ha).

Anyway, today I checked out the Cleveland Ohio Real Estate market. Well, I was also motivated by a contest listed in this Cleveland Ohio Real Estate Blog. A fun diversion. Gave me an opportunity to post about the lakes, rivers, hills, and forested areas I saw on my monastic journeys.

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rambling...

The lips are on the loose.

A colleague stepped into my office the other day to inquire about a set of lips left on his desk. He was told they might have come from our department. I gazed at him over the rims of my glasses, and shook my head, "Lips?" I repeated back to him. "Yes, they're some sort of gadget that you hook up to a phone," he replies.

"Oh, I remember those." There were three sets that someone had purchased off of Moot last year in the department. Some of my coworkers really enjoy the website and pick up unusal items from time to time. The gadget hooks up to a cell phone and the lips move when the person on the opposite end speaks.

"The problem," he says, "is that I don't own a cell phone. Do you know who gave them to me?" The lips likely moved on a while ago. I told him I had no idea where those lips had been.

He's a good friend and fellow photographer. He looked suddenly uncomfortable, imagining he'd have to ask someone else who left the lips, and the sorts of silly answers he'd get. It wasn't me. I don't own a working cell phone either. Someone was probably thanking him for doing a marvelous job on writing a program and presenting him a major award (like the leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" only a different body part.)

So to make things better, I changed the subject... to photography and told him about the most lovely scene I had just encountered outside the building on our first sunny day of Spring. The heat and the season had caused the cherry trees to drop their petals in abundance. There were two adorable children in the park scooping up the petals like snow and having a petal fight. It was fantastic watching the puffs of petals punching the air and scattering like fireworks and the children's delight. I'd left my camera at my desk, rats!

But someone else must have had a camera, and a photo of the scene was on today's front page of the local newspaper. I'm glad it was a moment not lost. There's actually been a ton of great photography in the paper lately. There must be a true genius at the beach taking pictures. A steady stream of artistic photos have been appearing for the last few months. This one was local, just on the block.

I'm hardly away from my desk this season and am focusing on the moments of other's introperplexion and joy.

Maybe Sunday I'll take some time for photos.

The eve of mother's day I dreamed:

that my mother and I were traveling in a motor home. I was in the back and our beds were set on either side of this part of the vehicle. She was driving and then came back to take a nap. As she decided to rest, I asked her, "Who's driving?" She said that the cruise control was set and this vehicle would drive itself.

So I walked out into the front of the motor home, which was traveling in a straight line. There was a curve ahead, and I stood there staring at the steering wheel and suspended my disbelief, convincing myself that the vehicle was beyond my understanding of the new technology.

It wasn't. At a high rate of speed, it missed the curve and dove out into empty air from the edge of a cliff. We were falling squarely to the ground which was quite a distance. I walked back into the sleeping area and told my mother that "I think we might die, but I love you," and got into my own bed, and fought the anticipation of hitting the ground, so that my muscles wouldn't tense.

We hit the ground, collapsing the vehicle around us, underneath and above, but we were safe.
---


I actually liked the dream, because I told my mother about it and got to say "I love you" for Mother's day. We don't express such things.

The dream stemmed from a trip the other day when she was driving and too close some motor home's bumper. She was using the cruise control, and really dislikes hitting the brake and turning it off. It makes me cringe to be so close to another car. I say something every time, but the best thing for me to do is drive.

I'll never own a motor home.

A movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

The hero is writing his “life’s work”. He becomes too old to finish. He is struck by lightning on his way (somewhere) with an envelope containing (something). And he becomes young again.

Another chance to finish his life’s work?

He meets a girl who looks like someone he loved when he was young: This lady experiences “soul migration” and regression. She speaks in ancient languages.

Another chance to finish his life’s work?

There are inferences that the scholar “knows things” (about time, language … “origins” / the meaning of life). But there is only ONE (total) revelation: You can’t finish your life’s work because you don’t believe in Nuclear Holocaust (something of the sort).

In the end he says that when he sees his friends again he will tell them “that thing that they all want to know” (not specified).

…

I’ve seen movies that purport to reveal great truths. Those movies fall flat because the revelations they make are not very revealing. This movie doesn’t reveal truths of that sort but nonetheless shows the mindset and tribulations of people who (at least claim to) know great things.

There are HINTS of paranoia, loves lost, sacrifices made; strange paradoxes (body doubles, visual incongruities, time warps); and great “evils” (Hitler, mad scientists, Nuclear bombs). But none of these are resolved to my satisfaction.

So, the movie leaves one with this “final” thought: Though there are suggestions that somehow love (or some other sort of gender confusion / identity crisis) might resolve “everything”; nonetheless, life is morbid. We psychotically BELIEVE in love, genius, greatness, and eternal youth as we EXPERIENCE bloody-red roses, Hitler, hallucinations, and finally death.

Romantic? Maybe not. But a lesson in really GOOD movie making.

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