Trina Machacek
The other day I was on a short road trip. Actually, I was traveling 120 miles one way to the dentist. On my way, as I usually do, I was eating.
But. Yes, a sugary sweet “but.” Not eating something that I would have to brush my teeth afterward; no, I was chomping on a piece of taffy. Cinnamon flavored.
I buy only one flavor when I find it available. If I buy a mixed bag there are too many, like black licorice, that I do not enjoy, ick. The icky ones all get thrown away.
So, I buy just the flavor I like. Just saying, sometimes life is a sticky wicket to get into. Chomping away and enjoying the drive it dawned on me the correlation between taffy and another wonderful, sweet treat I enjoy, cotton candy.
Here’s how. As the taffy in my pie hole was being enjoyed it got smaller and smaller. It’s not like a bite of a PB&J sandwich that gets chewed up and swallowed. Taffy just slowly goes away. It dawned on me it is like cotton candy.
Another of my vices that has turned me into the fluffy woman I am and have always been. As you pull off a wisp of cotton candy and put it in your mouth, it happily melts and disappears. Like magic.
Just like the cinnamon taffy was disappearing as I traveled northward bound on the road through Pine Valley. Traveling and seeing all the cows who had just been fed and were eating the lines of grass hay the ranchers set out each day.
The momma cows just about ready to pop with baby cows on meadows on both sides of the road up through the valley. Very serene on that cold snowless January day. Now to the correlation. Yes, taffy and cotton candy are truly just sugar, plain and simple.
Both melt in the mouth and both are sticky and, by me at least, both are enjoyed until the last invisible swallow. Even though neither are made the same way, and neither are sold the same way, they share a likeness.
A correlation. A family familiarness. Like? Flowers and girls. Well, there’s a swift turn to the left. Hang on it’ll come together. I was surprised by a gift of a bouquet of flowers recently. Oh, be still my heart.
In the dead of winter to be given a gift of life that is possible and is promised to us in such a beautiful wrapping. Yes, the correlation between flowers and happiness is undeniable. I might add here that Valentines Day is fast approaching — gentlemen: Flowers make girls happy. Another correlation is that of animals, all animals.
As humans we mostly think we are the only things alive that can think and as thinkers we have a purpose. Something that we herald and holds us up above the fray of life. Some, inexplicably think they are WAY up above everyone and everything else on the planet.
Humans are funny creatures to say the least. But I have tumbled off the dinner plate of this discussion. Moving on. The correlation here is that of man and beast.
Not in any way Darwinism. Even I wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot catch and release pole. I know where I stand and it’s between me and — well my maker. There is though something that we don’t understand that happens between humans and animals.
You can see it plain as the cold-wet nose on your face when you sit and watch hours of cat, dog, duck, squirrel and bird videos. Laughing and wondering. We all do. Not all watch these online. Some of us watch animals on animal planet or through funny TV shows on the boob tube. So don’t poo-poo the idea that you don’t do it.
Here is one correlation. Recently I watched as a woman opened the door to her duck’s house. Inside dozens of ducks quacking to get out into the sunshine. What the ducks didn’t know was that there was about 4-6 inches of fresh snow waiting to greet their bright orange feet as they duckwalked through the door.
Quacking. Shaking heads in bright sunshine. Happily pushing ducks in line to hurry up. Then? Well out the door they slipped and slid, quacking to find themselves in a world of white stuff. To the duck they came out, all the way, then in nearly the same order they duck-ran back inside to the warmth of their duck house.
Funny? It was hilarious. Especially when I thought that is exactly how I feel when I want to go outside in the winter. Me, taffy and ducks. What do you correlate to in life?
Trina Machacek lives in Diamond Valley north of Eureka. Email itybytrina@yahoo.com.