When a photo takes you on an odd adventure...

I grew up with the phrase "Lights on, Nobody Home" -- usually used to indicate a certain vacuousness in someone who appears at first to make sense. And flipping through some random images this morning, this one called out to me and brought that phrase along with it (although clearly there could be no confusion about this building's occupancy; there are no lights to be had anywhere).

At any rate, I was so pleased to be awake and blogging, feeling a little better -- if still pretty stuffed up and coughing rather a lot -- that I thought, well, I'll follow this trail and see where it leads.

I vaguely remembered that the phrase was also part of a Talking Heads tune we used to play a lot when the girls were little, so I googled it -- and came up with numerous references to Sarah Palin. Ouch!

But the first one led me to a blog on Beliefnet. I'd gone to Beliefnet just a few days ago, following this trail from my friend Joyce's blog to find out what denomination I most match up with (it seemed to think I'd do well as a Unitarian Universalist) so I thought I'd go see what a Beliefnet blog had to say about Sarah Palin.

Once I clicked on it (and this probably had something to do with the fact that I couldn't seem to dump the ad that was obscuring part of the blog) the remarks themselves seemed inconclusive, but I found myself wondering how you get to be a beliefnet blogger. I mean, I blog about faith, right? Maybe this could be an option for me, a way to broaden my readership...

So I poked around a bit, looked at their blogger collection -- which appears to represent a fairly impressive array of religious stances and interests -- and finally clicked on "Contact us" to see if there might be anything there about how to get approval as a certified Beliefnet blogger. Still no indicator, but there was a link to "Careers" and when I clicked on it, lo and behold: it was a link to careers, not just at Beliefnet, but at the Fox Network!

Whoa. That was a surprise.

Okay. No comment. Stop here.

I decided to backpedal and see if I could track those Talking Heads Lyrics. Hmm. Kinda creepy, actually -- and as confusing as the blog entry on Sarah Palin. So then I'm thinkin -- maybe the cabin in this picture -- the empty-headed one -- is just me this morning? My eyes are open, I'm taking it in, but my mouth is kinda hangin open, too.

I sat with that for a minute, and then it came to me. I just started with the wrong Talking Heads song. The one that really works here, and explains that curious sequence of events, from the picture of the cabin all the way to Fox, is called "Once in a Lifetime" and seems perfectly apropos...

You May Find Yourself
Living In A Shotgun Shack
You May Find Yourself
In Another Part Of The World
You May Find Yourself
Behind The Wheel Of A Large Automobile
You May Find Yourself In A Beautiful House,
With A Beautiful Wife
And You May Ask Yourself-
Well...How Did I Get Here?

... And You May Ask Yourself
How Do I Work This?

You May Ask Yourself
Where Is That Large Automobile?
You May Tell Yourself
This Is Not My Beautiful House!
And You May Tell Yourself
This Is Not My Beautiful Wife!

... You May Ask Yourself
What Is That Beautiful House?
And You May Ask Yourself
Where Does That Highway Go?
And You May Ask Yourself
Am I Right?...Am I Wrong?
And You May Tell Yourself
MY GOD!...WHAT HAVE I DONE?