Garden Variety Neurosis

I wonder how much we really see, and how much we just assume about the things we are looking at.

Recently, my brother came to visit the family. I took Jaden over to my sister's house, where the family was, so my brother could finally meet him. I told my bro to come over, because I had a lot of baby things to give him and my sister-in-law for their baby-on-the-way.

As I explained where I live, he told me he thought he knew the place, and asked me if it was the greyish apartment building that's the first place on the left after turning down my road. I said that he had the right place, but the building is white.

Now, I have lived here for nearly a year. The entire time, I've described the building as being white. I've told Charter techs to look for the white building. I've told friends the same thing. For nearly a year, I've inaccurately described a building I look at every day. It was never white. I am not sure where I got the idea in my head that it was white, but it never occured to me to question that assumption until I heard my brother describe the building as "greyish". I remember thinking the building must have been a different color when a friend of his lived here years ago.

Imagine my surprise when I realized my landlord had new greyish siding put on the house while I was out visiting with my family!

:)

It begs the question of how many other assumptions I've made in life about things I've only looked at, but never seen.

Moving on...

I heard that NASA is pleading for billions of dollars to continue their asteroid tracking program, which tracks asteroids that are predicted to come dangerously close to the earth.

My question is this...Let's say that NASA gets the money, and they find an asteroid that is going wallop us, and it's only a matter of time before it happens. Then what? Call Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis?

Seriously. I'm not sure what we would expect NASA, the Army, the Marines, the Air Force, the Navy, the National Guard, or the National Honors Society COMBINED to do about an asteroid that is heading for us. The best they could do is say, "We're all doomed, so make peace with God and your loved ones now, because it's curtains, baby, curtains."