I saw a billboard from the freeway that was advertising an inflatable slide that you could rent for your party. The billboard was in Spanish, so I don’t know what it actually said. It made me smile because Patti was talking the other day about getting an inflatable slide in our backyard. She saw that one of our neighbors had one in their backyard. I pointed out that our backyard is not flat enough for such a thing because whimsical fun is not my thing. Looking up how much it costs to rent one for the day, Patti found out it was $300. It’s fine if you’re having a big party but we never have big parties. The other problem is it’s mainly for kids. Climbing to the top of the slide alone would wear out most adults. The idea of it sounds much more fun than the reality.
One thing I will never say is, “I’m tired of thinking for myself.” I might say it as a joke, but I would never actually mean it. My free will is what makes me who I am. Some people don’t have the choice of thinking for themselves. It is a great privilege to be able to think for yourself. My thoughts are the only things no one can take away from me. I can forget thoughts, which I often do, but thoughts are all our own. We choose whether to express them or keep them all to ourselves. This Thoughts paper is me expressing my thoughts to you, the great and powerful reader. I have thoughts I don’t express here or anywhere. Luckily, you don’t have to read those.
You might be wondering from the last paragraph what thoughts I don’t express. There don’t seem to be many unexpressed topics I haven’t talked about in these writings. I withhold some thoughts because they would hurt others. One of those “others” is Patti. Too much information is sometimes too much to share. Other thoughts are just too boring to share. Who wants to hear the unfiltered thoughts of a nerd when he’s trying to figure out some nerdy problem? Some may say I’ve done that from time to time. If you can’t handle a little nerdy talk, I don’t know why you would be reading my words.
The one thing these Thoughts papers have done for me is fill in my downtime. Some people can’t stand downtime. If they don’t have something to do, they metaphorically die of boredom. I don’t get bored because there is always something to do. Other people need someone to tell them what to do. I can be told what to do, but I will always do it my way. It’s when someone wants me to do something in a particular way that I have a problem. Sometimes I become paralyzed by choices of what to do in my downtime. How much do I have time to do? What would make me happiest if I did it? These and other questions run through my head and stop me from doing anything but thinking about what I could be doing. That’s where this glorious thing your reading comes into play. If I can’t decide what to do, I can write about my indecision.
I feel like I just need a story about body odor now. Getting in an elevator, a smell slapped me in the face. It was as if a gorilla was just in the elevator before me. I was in a room near the elevator eating and a custodial worker came in. He looked nothing like a gorilla, but he was definitely the origin of the smell. Admittedly, it was a hot day, and he was a skinny older man. He walked by me, and it was all I could do not to distort my face in disgust. I wondered if he could smell himself. Maybe that was part of the problem. Thoughts were whirling around in my head about telling him so he could do something about it. My main thought was I wanted him to leave the room. When I left the room, I took the stairs. Later, I was walking by a woman who had on way too much perfume. Even pleasant smells can be too much. If the older man tried to cover his smell with another smell, it would have made it worse. In the end, I’m saying there is no pleasing me.
Thoughts from Life 
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