Skip to main content

Juniors Fan Club

First of all, we want to thank you all for your warm, heartfelt wishes and kind words of encouragement about the loss of our dearest member of the family, Junior.

I realize with all that’s happening in the world, the war in Israel, and Ukraine, the ridiculous amount of school shootings and gun violence, and in general, the Bad News you hear about every night on the television, the passing of a cat may seem quiet trivial in perspective. However, I’m afraid our TV generation of violence and killings has calloused our emotional system, and somehow, we’ve become the automatons we fear in the AI sector of our world. Allow me to remind you of something: when you lose a family member, that shield disappears completely, and if you are human at all, you can’t help but break down suddenly at any given moment into a blubbering mass with tears and uncontrolled sobbing. Thank God for our pets, family, and friends and for building into the human spirit that emotional thermostat.

In a recent discussion with my good friend Dr. Hanley, he reminded me that you can only experience the true joy of life by riding that emotional rollercoaster. Pain, sorrow, loss, and anger are natural emotions. Remember to always look for the Life-Giving reminders that bring, love, happiness, and joy.


We also want to publicly thank our neighbors, for the thoughtful gift (see the Cat Chimes in the photo) and kind words of love and support during this time of emotional healing. For Jr., there were many locations in our home where he curiously viewed the world. He would follow the warmth of the sun's rays from room to room during the day - but his favorite, as mentioned, was our front window perched on his soft, red, fuzzy blanket. Friends of the neighborhood Juniors' spirit is still there with the comforting sounds of tinkling chimes as a soft breeze caresses him.

Again, thank you from the bottom of our broken hearts - All our love.


I’m Patrick Ball, big hugs. Thanks for your prayers and well wishes. I’ll see you in the next episode.

Comments

Most Popular of All Time

Night Before Christmas

I n this episode, Night Before Christmas . . .  (In the spirit of Edgar Albert Guest) I’ve wrestled with the tangled lights the way I always do— With just enough patience left to see the project through. I climb the ladder carefully; the years have taught me how. To take my time with every step and keep a steady brow. We hang the faded ornaments I’ve known since I was small, the chipped, the cracked, the tilted ones—I love them best of all. Santa’s lost a bit of paint, the stars’ leaning right, but oh, it casts a holy glow across the room tonight. The kitchen hums with activity, with laughter, and with cheer, as voices drift like echoes from a long-forgotten year. The floor is strewn with paper scraps, the clock is ticking slow, As Christmas finds its own sweet pace and sets our house aglow. The hallway grows a little still; the lights are dimmed, and low, Small shoes are lined in messy pairs to wait for morning’s snow. The fire's warm, the room is full, the world is deep and wide,...

Un-Work the Old-Fashioned Way

🎩   In this special episode. How to Un-Work the Old-Fashioned Way It’s 2026! Yes— this is the year! A different kind of start—you feel it right here? No lists! No demands! No fix-all-your-flaws! No “New You by Tuesday!” No rules! No laws! Those resolutions? Bah! Dusty and dry! We’ve tried fixing everything —so let’s ask why. Why rush and correct and improve and compare, When noticing quietly gets you right there ? So here’s a new project—no charts, no clocks, No boxes to check in your mental inbox. It’s bigger than busy and smaller than grand, It’s called Un-Working —now give me your hand! Un-Working’s not quitting or hiding away, It’s setting things down that shout “Hurry! Hey!” The hustle! The bustle! The faster-than-fast! The gotta-win-now or you’re stuck in the past! That’s the work of Un-Working— plop! —set it free! The titles! The labels! The “Look-At-Me!” The crown that kept sliding and pinching your head— You never looked comfy . . . let’s try this instead: Pick up a tel...

The Thought Experiment–Revisited

In this episode. The Thought Experiment–Revisited The Boy on a Light Beam In 1895, a sixteen-year-old boy did something we rarely allow ourselves to do anymore. He stared into space and let his mind wander. No phone. No notes. No “Optimization Hacks” for his morning routine. Just a question: What would happen if I chased a beam of light—and actually caught it? That boy was Albert Einstein . And that single act of curiosity—a Gedankenexperiment , a thought experiment—eventually cracked open Newton’s tidy universe and rearranged our understanding of time itself. Not bad for an afternoon of daydreaming. Imagine if Einstein had been “productive” instead. He would have logged the light-beam idea into a Notion database, tagged it #CareerGrowth, and then promptly ignored it to attend a forty-five-minute “Sync” about the color of the departmental logo. He’d have a high Efficiency Score—and we’d still be stuck in a Newtonian universe , wondering why the Wi-Fi is slow. In a post I wrote back in...

Boy on a Beam

In this special bonus episode, Boy on a Beam. In a world long ago, when the days moved quite slow, Before buzzes and beeps and the fast things we know, A boy sat quite still on a very fine day, Just staring at nothing . . . and thinking away. No tablets! No gadgets! No screens shining bright! No earbuds stuck in from morning till night. No lists, no charts, and no chores to be done. He just sat there thinking—that's quiet-time fun! His name was Young Albert. He sat in his chair, Thinking of things that weren’t really there. “Suppose,” said Young Albert, with eyes open wide, “I ran super fast with my arms by my side! Suppose I ran faster than anyone knew, And caught up to sunshine that zoomed past me—too! If I hopped on its back for a light-speedy ride, What secrets would I find tucked away deep inside?” “Would stars look like sprinkles, all shiny and small? Would UP feel like sideways? Would BIG feel like Tall?” He giggled and wondered and thought, and he dreamed, Till his head fel...