If you're gonna have the munchies you better have gas.....

OK let me start by saying I have not been drinking any alcoholic beverages and have never smoked dope - but if you're gonna have the munchies you better have gas.  I know one or two people who are already thinking shouldn't that be "you're gonna have gas."

Natural Gas has been a part of my home pretty much all of my life -  I'm talking the natural gas from the earth and not from your body.  Natural gas to heat the house, the hot water, clothes dryer and the kitchen stove.  

Both homes I've lived in have had the gas floor furnaces, no ductwork, no blowers, just the grate in the middle of the floor and the heat going wherever. Mom always hollered at me for standing on it, you knew not to step on it with your bare feet and in time you learned how to lay across it just right to warm up.  Last April i had a friend visiting who had not had the privilege of knowing how a gas floor furnace worked and walked across the grate in his bare feet just as the furnace was at it hottest.  

I took a vacation day today and when I don't work I usually don't eat until I'm starving.  So about an hour ago my body realizes I have not ate much today.  So I nuke a frozen french bread pizza, not bad but a short time later I'm still hungry.  I look in the fridg, pumpernickel rye bread and spinach dip, finished that off.  Carolina BBQ chips - gone.  Ever have one of those days when there's nothing in the fridg? I really did not feel like driving to Taco Bell and a pizza would be to much food.  Im going through the fridge and all I can find now is a frozen fettuccine alfredo dinner and some hot dogs.  Then I remember, "hey I got a gas stove" and if you've  ever had a gas stove you know that means you can have an indoor "wiener roast" any time you want 24/7 365 days a year.  Which takes me back to where all this started- " if you're gonna have the munchies you better have gas."  

Now I'm gonna go nuke that fettuccine alfredo....

breaking the rules.....

"...the same ole same "how have you been" 

 Ever get a song stuck in your head? I do all the time, or maybe just part of a song.  I got just this part from the Kid Rock/ Sheryl Crow song "Picture" stuck in my head all day today.  It's a pretty sad song but what stuck with me most was what I call "the rules." 

You know how it is, see someone you have not seen in a long time, and the follow up greeting is "how've you been?" they reply "fine." everyone has followed "the rules", you were being polite asking how they were doing.  You may not care how they really are doing, or have time to listen if they were to tell you, but you were just being polite and following "the rules."  They may be having the worst day of their life and be in desperate need of someone to talk to but they reply "fine"  because that's "the rules."

Another time "the rules" come into play is when someone dies, you know how it goes "if there's anything I can do for you..." "no I'm fine"  I remember an aunt who when my father passed away would not take "no, I'm fine" for an answer from my mom and helped take a great load off of her.  I also remember her sharing about how she no longer asks that question.  Seems a gentleman did not know about  "the rules" and had her cleaning his whole house.

So what's this got to do with anything? I've been kind of down today, I have a friend who was probably going through some troubles.  He is a friend I don't see often, and when we got together we both played by "the rules."  Did he want to share the problem with me? Could I have helped?  could I have changed anything?  Who knows!  

But what I do know is that it's time to start breaking "the rules." I can remember being asked in the past "how's it going" and my reply was "how much time do you got?" So the next time you pass someone forget the rules and don't ask "how's it going" unless you have time to listen to how it really may be going and really care enough to help.