Ear's to Afterthought

I'd like to propose a toast to afterthought ~ you know, the moment you mull what was just said and finally "get it." In the spirit of Philippians 4:8 advice to dwell on what is excellent and praiseworthy and its popularized Johnny Mercer lyric "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative," I'd like to officially stop grousing about my failing hearing and laugh about the humor in it. Of course it's frustrating, but it's also often funny. Consider my conversation with a dear neighbor I encountered yesterday as he walked home from the train:

Me: Robert is dying to know how the Indy 500 was.
John: Great ~ there was a crash not far from where we were sitting.
Me: They still had a creche up from Christmas?
John: A car hit the wall and went up in flames. The driver jumped out and waved to the crowd while the fire trucks put out the fire.
Me: Oh ... crash.

If John heard my creche question, he and his wife will have a good chuckle. And Robert was indeed excited to hear about the crash; I didn't mention the creche to him. Guess there's a Mars-Venus element to this story I still need to learn to laugh at!

Cantigny

Here's my oh-so imaginatively titled poem about Cantigny Gardens:

Cantigny Gardens
by Jane Hoppe

out of the overflow
of vision and wealth ...
fountains

flowering chestnuts
like pillars ...
majestic

grape arbors
arching above ...
serenity

yellow hello, blue angel,
purple petals ...
play

Here's my takeaway from the First Division War Museum at Cantigny:
A World War II-era poster with the beginning date of 1778 and ending date of 1943 said "Americans will ALWAYS fight for liberty."