Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Tuesday Morning

It's Tuesday morning. I've just come in from watching the sun come up over the lake while drinking my coffee. My wife took me into town yesterday, so that I might put the rest of my tools away. It might be awhile before I can pick them up again. In little more then a years time I've gone from having the beginning signs of a cataract to needing surgery. My doc tells me that she will find "the experts expert" to fix my one remaining eye. A team. People with skilled hands to fix whatever damage might occur during the procedure. People that have been down this road before. The odds of a good outcome in normal people is around 98%, but I'm sure reader and friend John from Canada wouldn't be impressed. He landed in the 2% group.
The only odds of success I've found for people with my problems is around 25%.
It's Tuesday morning, and I'm going outside to be in the sun.

Monday, April 28, 2008

The right reverand Wright

Enough of nightmares and distant storms, it's time to get back to what it is we do here.
I've been watching The reverend Wright, and his effect on the candidacy of Barrack Obama. Seems whitey has misunderstood him. Turns out he wants a diverse but equal society. Heck he even wants equal education! You can read his latest drivel here . I as some of you know but others don't, was a student of The Michigan School for the Blind. Funny thing about blind folks: color doesn't matter much. I would never presume to tell you that they're not prejudiced because they are. They don't like certain tones of voice, and accent. Color? Nope, don't even understand the concept. So back to education. I went to school with a bunch of black kids. We went to class, smoked, played sports, hung out, and learned about life together. Some of us were close! How close? Close enough to spend the weekends together in each others homes. Close enough that my brother Michael Baily carried my butt off of the mat when I blew a knee wrestling out of town. It hurt so bad, all I wanted was my mama. All I had was Mike! Some days I miss you so much I weep. Everyone should have a big brother like Mike.
So back to Reverend Wright, and his ilk Reverend Al, I don't know what you want?
The world moves at it's own pace, and we are all judged on our character, even you.
I don't like to hold any man to a pedestal because all flesh is suspect if not rotten but there are at times flashes of wisdom. One of my favorites is from a man that used to run around on his wife. He had a dream, something about being judged on the content of your character nad not the color of your skin. I think I'll leave the judging to someone that can see your character, and yours too Reverend Wright! Meanwhile would you kindley get out of the political process and go back to your flock!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Storms


As you can see in the pic, there is a storm close to my home. I took the pic because I've been feeling unsettled. Not yet angry but you can see it in the distance. My energy is widespread and I'm unable to focus. It seems that every time I write something I let it sleep a day and then I can't stand to read it. It isn't that I've nothing to say, but I've plenty to say. Just not sure what it is. I can't seem to get angry.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Lines


The pic is of Bob and Betty Mallard. I think they have a nest in the bushes to the right.
It's been a tough week for my family this week. My Dad had hip replacement surgery and none of us could get there to help him. He is a very private person and didn't tell me until I couldn't do anything for him. He preferred it that way. He is an old wolf that I believe still could walk through hell on Sunday. He spent his time on the line. My Great Grandfather came to this country around eighteen eighty. Ireland to England to Canada, and then the UP. His son, my Grandfather was a cook for a while in Europe. The time was WW1; that's how he spent his time on the line. He would come home and raise four sons that would take their place on the line. Dewey, would dive for the Navy, and blow things up in WW2. Edward would fight at Iwo Jima with the ones that raised our flag. William, would be a member of the 11Th Airborne, and earn three purple hearts in Korea. Lenard would get as far as Japan on his way to Korea. They along with their sons and the sons of their sisters stood the line. Some didn't get recognised and some did. Cousin Wayne whose name should be on the wall but agent orange killed after the war. James who was supplying the Marines in Lebanon. Remember Beirut? Yep the Navy was there too. James died not too long ago after a long battle with HIV. Some folks stand the line a bit different than others. (chuckle)
I saw in our paper this week that the 218TH SC National guard is coming home. The first group got to N.C. this week. I read where a man spent the night at the airport to greet his wife when she got home after her time on the line. She had been gone a year to Afghanistan as a Chaplin. It would be five more days before she got home so her husband came to her. They had about an hour together. I remember when she left. Don't remember who they relieved. I think it was a group of folks from the NY National Guard. The line goes on forever, and it includes Cooks and Generals, Chaplins and Soldiers, and people from every walk and profession. This week I found out that the line will now include my Daughter. It is her turn to take the place of someone that hasn't been home in a while. As a father I'm a bit apprehensive but I couldn't be more proud.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Where did quality go?

I've been noticing that I can't get anything done well lately. Had a flat over the weekend and had to go to a tire store and buy some skins. I had to re balance them at work that week. Bought a dishwasher from Sears a while back. Nine hundred bucks and eight months later the motor went out. Warranty fixed it and eight months later.... you got it; the motor again. This time no warranty. Thanks Sears and Whirlpool for a great product. Next time it will be Bosh or someone else.
So we decide to put concrete under our deck instead of using decorative rock. So we got a couple of estimates and took one. Big company with five crews. Work is short so the price was good, and I was excited to get this done. Tom C was in the business of finishing concrete and doing masonry work for near ten years so I wasn't too concerned about the job. Slam Dunk; right? So after waiting a week we got a team of Mexicans with a truck load of trash that came to prep the site.They needed to put some fill down to build up the site. I had a pile of sand clay mix for that purpose at the side of the driveway. Next to their truck. After much leveling and such they needed product. Run up to the pile and get some right? NO! Lets instead take it out from behind the retaining wall next to the site of the slab! Ohh and we need more so we'll get some by digging a hole in the side of a small hill near by! Thus moving the dirt that I had put down over many hot days, compacting and seeding. Stay tuned for the conclusion of Where'd the yard go?

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Wednesday, March 12, 2008


Once again here on Lake Murray spring has sprung. The pic is of a stand of Bradford Pear trees in full bloom. The white flowers turn to green leaves in about a week.
Don I don't know if you're home or out west but it's time to get the clubs out here in Carolina.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Ruths page

I walked across the street to come around behind her, the feeling I'd been fighting all day starting to get the better of me. All the neighbors were with her, sitting in her driveway on lawn chairs watching the days proceedings. I put my arms around her neck and said,"I wish.... I wish" then my voice broke, leaving me the little boy that had always needed her. "I wish you didn't have to go!" She lived across the street and one house to the left, she and her husband Woody, when he was alive. They lived in a house that he built himself. It was red brick and neat as a pin, with a single car garage.
I remember helping Mr. Woody with his camper when he put it up for the winter. He liked to have it level, and resting on several points to hold through the long winters. He paid me in change and Diet Pepsi. I still think of him every time I have a diet cola.
She, was my own real life guardian angel. As a child I was all boy, and too rowdy to survive. She was a retired surgical nurse; she had other ideas.
As a young child I used to get sick every winter with a high fever that would require a trip to the hospital for a shot. I remember my mothers worried voice on the phone to Ruth, and then her hands with a cool cloth. I remember the time I jumped/fell off the top bunk of my brother and I's beds to land and gash my eyebrow. She patched me up before sending me to the hospital for stitches. She later pulled them out in her bathroom. I was born to fix things. I spent my summer days when not playing ball fixing lawnmowers, and then putting engines in cars. Ruth watched me do all of this from the picture window in her house. Every time I got tangled up in a piece of equipment she would fix it. Me that is! One day the top part of our garage door came loose and swung down just as I was passing under it. The door hit me in the back of the head, sending me to the ground. I saw the black as they say when you're about to go under. She was right there checking the lump on my head and calling my mom.
As I got older the trouble got worse. The point finally came when she had to run my butt to the doctors, covered in blood.
I as a typical teenager had stolen my dads bad ass dirtbike and went racing. At over eighty miles an hour a dog ran out infront of me while I had a friend on the back. I layed it down and lost most of a leather jacket and all the skin on my forarms and left knee. The knee was also broken and swollen like a basketball. the kid I had on the back was ok but for a skinned kneee so he picked the bike up and then me. I got the bike to start but couldn't drive it the block and a half home. The kid I was riding and the kid I was racing got me on the bike facing the wrong way and one rode me home.The other went for Ruth. good as gold she put me in her car and took me to my Dr. Yep she knew him! They cleaned me and stitched me while Ruth took great delight as Dr. gave her the syringe to administer the tetanus shot. So here we were on a warm summer day watching people pick through her things as she cleaned out a lifetime of memories, in preporation to going to live with her son. "I wish you didn't have to go" I said. She reached up to hug me and replied, "Me too, but it's time."

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Protection?



This is the view looking out the gate where I work. The large tree in the pics isn't usually lying on top of that truck, and it's not usually snuggled around that van. I and another person had just come back from lunch and gone back to work when Mike came by and asked if I had seen the fallen tree. It was like having the elephant in the room suddenly come into view. We cut the van out, but the truck was holding the tree up so we left it for folks with better equipment. The tree kept trying to roll in the gusty winds while we were cutting the van out, and I was reminded of something I'd read.
It seems many christians believe that we are all here for a purpose and that we will not be harmed until we achieve that task. By the standards of my life this wasn't a close call, not even on the same book. I nearly pissed myself when stuck on a cliff once because moving meant falling some seventy feet into a rocky river. I wonder though if I've a task; what is it? Did I do it already? Will I? If I don't, will someone else do it?

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Slavery, the human condition





As stated below, Mrs. C and I went to the low country oyster festival on Sunday the twenty seventh. The festival is held at
Boone Hall plantation
I've been to the plantation many times and have often wondered about the past inhabitants of both the big house and the slave quarters. I was raised to know that slavery was a bad thing; but did you ever wonder why? If it was so bad then why did many slaves stay on as servants of the same people? I remember reading stories in a book called "When I Just Can Remember". It was full of accounts of the lives of slaves before and after freedom. I don't really know what life was like for most Africans before slavery, but I presume it to be much like the American Indians. I do know something of the lives of the slave though, and thought I might compare it to the not too distant past of my family. Before I walk along on this journey though I must answer a question that I have wondered about over the years while always knowing the answer. Why did they stay? They stayed for the same reasons that you and I stay in jobs, marriages, homes, and other situations that might not be best for us. They were comfortable! Some days were good and some bad, but they were do able! They also had value! Even as slaves they had value, and were proud of that value. Value is as important to us as air! The amount varies, but fact remains. The slaves at Boone Hall had it better then some, I'm sure. They had housing with a fire place and tile roofs. They also had garden space to grow the plants that would spice their food and nurse their health. They also supplemented their food by fishing and hunting. They had medical attention to help them stay healthy.(though not good even for the times) They had a school to learn to read and write. By contrast my Grandfather had a wife and seven children in a small one room wooden shack in the northern Michigan climate. The old place didn't even have a solid door for a large part of the year! Heat came from a wood stove, as did the heat for cooking. Water was brought in from a pitcher pump in the yard, same as what watered the animals. Medicine was what you grew or knew, and cuts were stitched by Grandma with a needle and thread. Whiskey was the Betadine of the day as well as the sedative. I remember seeing a pic of my Dad as a bit more then a toddler wearing what looked like a flour sack with the arms and head holes cut into the bottom. Grandpa worked a shift at the quarry, and then tended the farm at night and on Sunday. Grandma did the hunting to put meat on the table because she was around home and the best shot. Ammo was a need that couldn't be wasted at that time. The farms first tractor came on a down payment by my Dad, with his Airborne jump money. This meant that Dan and Molly the draft horses could semi retire. School was about a mile up the road, but the cash crop paid for new shoes for the kids once a year. No school if your chores weren't done. Even as a child myself we were poor. We rented from Black people to have a place to live, and grew lots of food to see us through the winters. Mom made the bread that we ate each other day. How poor were we? I grew up fifty feet from the boyhood home of Malcolm Little, also known as Malcolm X. He could tote a gun and hate whitey. We had to work to live. What I would say of slavery is that its evil is in the creation of dependence, and an inability to make ones own way. Welfare is just another form of it. With few exceptions we are all slaves to something or some ideal.
One of my favorite memories is of helping my mom to make the bread for that nights meal. I was just four, but already kneading the dough.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Angel Oak




The pics are from Johns Island South Carolina. The wife and I went down to the coast for the low country oyster festival this past weekend and I thought we would visit this grand old tree. It is a Live Oak; scientific name is Virginia oak or something like that. This tree is the oldest living thing east of the Mississippi at one thousand four hundred years plus. It is twenty five feet around at the base with its longest limb at something like eighty five feet in length. The branches are so heavy that they grow low and sometimes rest on the ground. I've seen some that have taken root where the branch touched the ground and lived after the tree was dead and gone. Here in the deep south the tree isn't deciduous. I think it loses some but not all of its leaves. To stand under the great branches is to know that God is in his heaven.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Election Day

K so here it was the Saturday that we've all been waiting for, Election Day!
The day was wet; bigtime wet! Cold like up north too! So I was talking to a buddy that just happens to be the GOP Chair for our state. I asked him who he was going to vote for. Two days before the election and niether of us knew where we were going to put our vote! After a bit of comiseration we parted ways still not sure. I've a friend in Detroit that keeps sending me Ron Paul stuff to the point that I had to tell him that I thought Ron was a nut case. I hurt his feelings for sure because the emails started to fly. As stated my guy is and was Duncan Hunter. Don't know what is so hard about that but he had no chance. Non! I didnt take the time to debate my friend on the merits of Dr. Paul versus Dunc, or Huck, or anyone else. I was sure I'd ruin a friendship that is worth more then gold to me. After taking the advice of fellow reader Don, I had attended a rally in support of the Fair Tax. We were across the street from the first GOP debate when I got to hear from Duncan, and Mike , and Tom Tancredo. I knew then that Mccain was'nt my guy even though I believe him to be an honest and thoughtful person. Sorry once again John, but there is more to the pic then just the war. Sorry to Ron also but there is a reason to have troops over seas, and some of it is to spread american money in certain areas. Get over it!
So the wife and I go to the polling place in the rain; it's about 1:30 and there is a line but we don't have to wait outside the building like we do on the weekday votes. It was a steady line to get to the three voting machines, but no problems. After the vote we had a flat on the way home that caused me to change a tire in the cold rain before getting my car home. I don't think it was devine intervention though, even though I voted for Huckabee. What I would tell my friend in Detroit is that ideas and ideals are great; but we have to work within the real world. This means that if MCcain wins the nomination he will get my vote! The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

I scored first

This is going to seem like whining and I apologize but every once in a while....
I'm a good Irish Polish lad, I work hard I drink harder, and I compete with the best of them; but this latest thing....
What's it like to lose your vision, and know that there is scant reason to believe that you will get it back? Let me give you a brief overview of what I'm looking at.
I have a disease called Sticklers syndrome. It is a hereditary disease that affects Collagen and the connective tissue in my body. The outward signs are bad hearing and severe nearsightedness. We as young people can do things with our joints that others can't. We seem to be double jointed, and can bend in directions most can't while we are young. Things that will break your bones are dislocations to us. Our eyes on the other hand have severe nearsightedness along with glaucoma and cataracts, we also have retnal detachments. We don't hear so well either. We get osteoarthritis as young people and have a high rate of joint failure; mostly hips and knees. I've had a dozen dislocates on each knee before I was thirty. I used to wrestle against high school kids when I was in junior high. While I won a lot, and set records for pins I also took a beating in the knees. I exacerbated the damage by racing Moto Cross on the weekends. At that too I was exceptional. I don't have any way to know if the extra flexibility of my joints helped and gave me an advantage or not, but I beat folks that had very much better equipment than I. Folks that know me know that I have one eye that I see with, the other being artwork by a clinic in Grenville SC. At fourtyfive I'm losing the vision in my eye due to a cataract. The symptoms are loss of acuity and a haze around everything during the day. I am a mechanic by trade and a good one in my field of expertise. As of now there are many jobs that I cannot undertake because I can't see well enough to perform. Soon I will lose my ability to drive and then my job. The future at this point looks bleak indeed, so I try as I did on our trip to see as much as I can. One never knows when the end of a thing is upon them. I looked at the palm trees in California like I would never see the likes again, because I might not. I looked at the nearly bare breasts of the bartender at the Sweetwater Saloon the same way. I looked at the faces of my daughter and her family knowing that I might not see them as clear again ever. I am ever grateful for what I have, but I worked hard all my life; I've fought with everything I have, and dammit I scored first! I'm way behind at halftime but dammit I scored first!

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Our Trip




Sorry for the delays but it's bowl season, and I can't think until my Wolverines play. (Loved the smackdown on a man and a team I don't like)
I'm reminded of that John Denver song, It really is a long way from Charlotte to San Diego, and made worse by some child kicking the back of my seat all the way. Mom and two little ones were continuing on to India, god help the folks on that plane! I now know what jet lag is, and I'm not a fan; I was tired all week. This was the first Christmas We've had as a family in about five years I think. It was the first Christmas at the home of my daughter; This moved my wife more then me for some reason. One of my favorite treats is the lil Biscoff cookies that you get if you fly Delta Airlines. I've never found them in a store, but when I got to Daughters house there was a whole sleeve of them waiting for me. The trip just kept getting better after that. While there we went to the USS Midway Museum. This was my first time on a navy ship, and it was kinda cool to be on one that I had built a model of as a child. So now you know something about me that you didn't, I used to build model Navy war ships. My Son in law (jeez it seems weird to say that) was kind enough to indulge us by driving us and taking us anywhere we wanted to go, and knowing where Mrs C could find the things to complete her Christmas shopping. Thanks T. We also went to T's uncles house for a family lunch on Christmas eve. Uncle Cliff's wife is Vietnamese, and so was lunch! What a treat! We had chicken soup though I used a fork for the noodles and meat. Sorry but I would have starved if I had to use the sticks. :) I had my first shrimp chip (I could eat them for hours) and a mint salad. We had Vietnamese egg rolls that were to die for, and took a bag home with us. Mrs C and I snacked on them while waiting on Christmas dinner. Uncle Cliff is retired from the Navy, and so we had some of his stories. I wonder if I might be able to get an invite for next year. I have a step grand child that is a sweet human being, and Dad and step Mom are going to keep her that way I'm sure. Daughter cooked both Christmas eve and Christmas dinner; they had a couple from home over for the eve dinner that were new to the area. It was a bit tough seeing my lil girl all grown up with a life and a family of her own but I sure am proud of her and T. The pics are of a swift boat that I took at the Vietnam monument on base at Coronado, and the beach at same base called seal beach; where the bad men train. Last is the flight deck of the Midway. I had almost forgotten that we got to chat with a survivor of Pear Harbor from the Utah on the Midway. He told me that when they abandoned ship the Japs were strafing the water so they would dive under when they saw a plane until it passed thus avoiding the bullets.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Home

Thought I'd let everyone know that I'm home again.
We had a wonderful Christmas, and I found out my daughter can cook.;)
More later.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Happy Holidays


I was talking to some extended family the other day. It’s time to get the Christmas cards in the mail, and I needed some addresses. We spent some time catching up and reminding each one another that we do indeed love us all. In the course of conversation I did mention that I’m having trouble with my eyesight. My uncle asked what I would do? I said that I didn’t know but that I wasn’t going to lie down and die over it. I believe that problem can keep til after the first of the year. My friend and a fellow blogger Bea Furman is dealing with the death of her Mother, she passed on the tenth of December. I remember my Mother telling me that Christmas time was the worst time to die and should be avoided at all costs. Seems she remembered some kids she grew up with that lost a parent near Christmas, and they were a long time getting over it. I know what Bea is going through as I lost my mother on 12-21-98. She was right about it taking some time before the holiday spirit returns. This year the wife and I are going to fly out to California to spend a few days with my Daughter and her Husband. We’ve already mailed some cheer and hope to have a good Christmas as a family. It will be our first in years. I look forward as well to seeing another new place that I’ve never been. It might surprise some of you to know how often you are in my thoughts and as the holidays approach, my prayers as well. Sorry John, I don’t have time to pray for you the rest of the year! ;) Due to the trip we won’t be putting up a tree this year so I’m putting up the picture of the one we had last year. I doubt that I will find the time to write again before we return so let me say it now. Merry Christmas and may God bless you each and every one!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Home again

I grew up in Lansing Michigan, a solid blue collar town with solid Midwestern values, and lots of water. I am the son of a Upper Peninsula hillbilly. (otherwise known as a dirt farmer) I got a call from my ex wife the other day, (yes when I have to) she fills me in on things that she thinks might be important to me. She got a call from an old friend that thought he had seen me on the street. He wondered if I was home and would I be looking for a job. She then told me of the big changes in the town since I was last there. I got on Google maps and took a look around my old home town and remembered. I remembered childhood friends I haven't seen in ten years, and old girlfriends. I remembered family that has passed on, and some that haven't, and my special places in the woods where I went to think and be close to my god.
I remember that you can't go a mile in any direction without finding a tree I planted or a basement I helped build, or the sidewalks I poured and finished with a loving hand. Both my Dad and Uncle Len were concrete people too, teaching me to sign my work with the quality I put into it. I walked to school each day on sidewalks that my uncle built, while my ex walked on sidewalks that my Dad built. My first kiss first job first love happened in that town. I've friends that mean more then life, that I met in that town.
The auto plants where we all thought we would work are gone, leaving acres of concrete and asphalt in the center of town, and the kids are driving rice burners rather then the Olds Cutlass's that we grew up with. Some of the woods that I used to roam are now houses and more. Some of us are already gone to whatever awaits at lifes end.
I had one of my best friends visit the other weekend. I met him in that town though he also doesn't live there anymore. I was proud to show him the wonderful color and warm days of fall in my home, and as we went out to eat breakfast on the shore of the lake I realised the places don't matter if the people are important to you. I have a neighbor that I love with all my heart. We do so many things together, and I think of him as my big brother. Every project I get into I know I can complete because he has my back. Every problem too, he has my back. I can't even think of a time when he won't be there next door. I love him as much as I've loved anyone, cept my wife and so this begs the question...What and where is home?
for me it is where I am loved and can love back.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Old Sins

I was thinking about old sins the other day. Not the kind that Christians would think about but much bigger and deeper then the crap that the ten commandments deal with. Everyone knows not to lust after your neighbors wife or cow etc etc. Doesn't stop a damn soul from doing it anyway. The kind of sin I'm talking about is the mistakes that we make on the road we call life. simple misjudgements and bad decisions along the way. These are the things that we and others live with sometimes for many years with bad effect at some points. If I'm driving too fast and get in a wreck I might get hurt or hurt someone else. The results might be minimal or far reaching but soon apparent. What if I pick the wrong job? How long will it take me to change? What are the effects? What if I pick the wrong girl? How many years before I make a change? What then? What of my political choices? Can that affect me? It's funny how much we take for granted about the future, never believing in the long term effects. Sometimes I've seen the effects of some decisions twenty thirty even forty or more years later on some people. The reason? Hindsight! Hindsight is the only way one can see an old sin, and judge it for what it was.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Bendable minds

“Minds are like books, sometimes open and sometimes shut, and not always when they are supposed to be.” The quote as you know is mine, I've used it a bunch. Some here know that I have a brother, what most don't know is that I don't speak to him. It isn't because I don't love him because I do very much. The problem is, he has a bendable mind. I'm not talking about someone that can see the errors of his ways and learn another direction, I'm talking about someone that can see any ones point of view and follow along blindly. I lost my brother to the seventh day Adventist church. Most that know me well know that I'm a very spiritual person though not in ways that most Christians could ever understand. While I believe I have inside information I don't profess to be right. I don't choose to bend minds. I instead choose to look for wisdom. I get it from knowledge coupled with experience.
I told you about the warning I got about an up coming movie, The Golden Compass.
The warning came from a mind bender. The author of the book the movie is based on is a mind bender. Each in their own right believe that they are correct and thus have something of value to say. I took the time to see the movie trailer, and to read up on the author. Looks like another fun story written by another whack job. (see Dr Seuss)
I've got some friends that read this blog that are special to me for the very reason that they aren't bendable. I was thinking of John and Dcat for sure. I don't always agree with what they think and say but I love the strength that they have about them. Indigo red is a searcher of wisdom as well and not a mind bender. I have some friends that twist in the wind unable to confront their own wonderful minds, unable to step where the water is deep and you can't see your feet! I've always tried to guide people not to my point of view but to use that which they have to see the fuller picture. So this night I wonder which is worse, to be a leader and wrong or a follower and wrong? I don't have the answer but you can bet I'm going to be leading the parade!

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Wisdom and the stinky foot.

First I would like to thank all that thought of my wife and I as we dealt with the loss of her last parental generation relative, her Aunt.
With age comes experience, we hope. Sometimes I think I’m pretty damn smart and other times I am the king of duh. I was reading some mail I got the other day, and in it was a piece warning about a movie that was deemed offensive to the person writing the mail. I guess the movie was by a guy that wanted God dead or something or other. The problem was the person hadn’t yet seen the movie! I saw another person on a list warning against the evils of Harry Potter, the godless little pip-squeak! I expect this kind of thing from the younger more right wing set but these were older people. By this time in life we should know the difference between something that’s bad for you and something that is just entertainment. The first reaction to this stuff is to break out the I word and move on. Problem is I don’t think at least one of these people is an idiot. (yes that I word)
I would like to repeat myself by stating something I said to John recently, “Minds are like books, sometimes open and sometimes shut, and not always when they are supposed to be.” Knowing that we will one day be found with our foot in mouth, lets all try and watch where we put our feet because of the dogs out there.