Wednesday Digressions

• I've mentioned it before I know but, I really love coats and like having nice, interesting ones. It probably has to do with the goofy looking ones I had to wear as a kid that were often worn out hand me downs. Although I can really dress well I don't own all that many clothes but, I bet I own 10 coats/jackets.



• One time I really found out the difference dressing well makes in how people treat you was a Saturday I went with my children to get our picture made. While dressed for the picture one of the stops we made was at a grocery store. From the moment we got out of the car and a manager sent a kid to look for one of the play-car type buggies for the baby to the deli worker who stopped and gave us samples of cheese slices we were treated well because we looked like we deserved it I guess.


• I personally know someone who robbed a train at gunpoint. He made off with a worthless bag of mail and was promptly arrested and spent if I remember correctly 15 years in prison owing to the federal nature of the crime. I bought the first truck I ever owned from that man, a 1951 Chevrolet.


• Some people I know recently went to Jamaica where they were robbed and he was actually stabbed several times. The local police refused to even take a report and told them they must have ventured where they were told to not go and when they returned to the cruise ship and reported what happened and sought treatment they were placed under quarantine for 48 hours for a suspected virus and told if they violated it they would be put off at the next port.


• It would be interesting once to try making something out of ceramic (whatever that is called).


• Outside by Staind and Ugly by The Exies are two of my favorite songs. Look them up on the youtubes if your not familiar and you'll have two new songs to appreciate and think you know all kinds of things about my psychology.


• If you were my girlfriend I might sing It's Been Awhile by Staind to you.


• When I was in college I received the first A my professor ever gave in her class after teaching for over 20 years.


• I know way, way too many people who've killed themselves. One sticks out in particular because I knew it was going to happen but, couldn't stop it. She went to her family who I knew and went around visiting everybody after being absent from their lives for years. She had also been known for being so severely depressed she couldn't even take care of herself and had let herself go in those years. When she came around the people who told me about her visit said ,"She was wearing some makeup... was bubbly... she said she was sorry for this and that... wouldn't stop talking..." When I asked, they could not recount her saying anything about plans for her future. I told them if they cared about her they better get in touch with her that I didn't like what I was hearing. I was told I was crazy.


• She shot herself in the head in a motel 2 days later.


• That first bullet point was written about 9 this morning it's nearly 8 in the evening now as I write these last few- kind of a dark turn huh?

Fact Is Often Stranger Than Fiction

Ed Gein was a serial killer in the 1950s who was the model for others, subject of many documentaries, served as the basis for untold numbers of horror movies (Silence Of The Lambs is one), the inspiration for musical group and band member names and was just all around good old fashioned nightmare fuel. As a kid I worked myself into many nights of lost sleep by reading true crime books about him and other American monsters. Here's a list of items found in and around his house the night he was arrested.

Human skulls mounted upon the cornerposts of his bed;
Human skin fashioned into a lampshade and used to upholster chair seats;
Human skullcaps, apparently in use as soup bowls;
A human heart (it is disputed where the heart was found; the deputies' reports all claim that the heart was in a saucepan on the stove, with some crime scene photographers claiming it was in a paper bag);
The head of Mary Hogan, a local tavern owner, found in a paper bag;
A ceiling light pull consisting of human lips;
A "mammary vest" crafted from the skin of a woman's torso;
A belt made from several human nipples, among many other such grisly objects;
Socks made from human flesh. .


The following is an account related to his case I had never heard before today.


"Harold Schechter, an author of several true crime books, wrote a best-selling book about the Gein case called Devian. In this book, Schechter mentions that Plainfield police officer Art Schley physically assaulted Gein during questioning by banging Gein's head and face into a brick wall; because of this, Gein's initial confession was ruled inadmissible. Schley died of a heart attack at the age of 43 shortly before Gein's trial. Many who knew him said he was so traumatized by the horror of Gein's crimes and the fear of having to testify (notably about assaulting Gein) that it led to his early death. One of his friends said, "He was a victim of Ed Gein as surely as if he had butchered him."

Gein died July 26, 1984 in a mental hospital.

Picture and adapted text from Wikipedia

Deathly Deductions

• At a funeral I think one of the more important components that is often forgotten is the deceased should they come back to life during the service should be able to recognize who they are talking about.



• I think it would be good for all involved if there were shovels provided and at the end of the graveside service the family closed the grave completely.



• Instead, the dirt is covered by a velvet tarp and the hole in the ground has Astro turf mounded up around it to ostensibly blend in with the grass.



• Ridiculous, we try to fool ourselves to ease the pain when the best thing for the same pain would be to face it and act realistically.



• At a funeral it's mandatory: to have a young guy in a wheelchair, some lone skulled out thug wearing jeans and earrings, some lady that looks like a movie star, some lady no one seems to know who takes things way too hard, at least one hard core alcoholic staggering around with glowing eyes who reeks of his beverage of choice to fortify himself for the service, a community leader or famous person you'd never guessed the person would have known...



• Who else?



• Why or how does an after funeral visit become a contest to see who knew the person better?



• It's good to allow folks to randomly stand and share memories of the dead.



• The folks in the background could leave out the Thank ya Jeebus' when they do in my book- but, it's all good I guess.
• One of my friends who happens to be very smart I always thought shocked me once many years ago by saying to the effect,"I could never be cremated, I'm afraid of fire." I honestly do not recall what I said at the time though I know I would have found it strange- your dead at that point my guess is you couldn't care less what happens.
• Oddly, her wishes are to now be cremated. I've never asked her about that about face.



• Over a third of Americans are cremated every year I read the other day- very surprising I thought.



• An old friend after having her husband cremated took a small ceramic curio box about the size of two large matchboxes to the funeral director for the ashes to be placed in , the director who had a sense of humor and whom had been hitting it off with this lady said,"What are you going to put in there- his hand?"



• Depending on the size of the persons remains there are 3-9 pounds of remains after a cremation. This is composed of bone as everything else vaporizes.



• There is a company who will take cremated remains and make engraved pencils for survivors.



• The answer to your question is 240.



• When I was a kid there was an old cemetery we would visit that had mausoleums you could slip into and explore. I have no idea now where that place was, not even an educated guess but, I loved it- they were cool, dark and damp even though it would be blazingly hot and bright outside.



• The world is a small place and cemeteries are by nature quiet: when you gossip at one and say mean things- they won't have far to travel to hurt.



• Why would it occur to anyone to say harmful things about anyone at a time like that?

Mondays Missives

• It's cool to see comments here.



• Thought today again about the fact I have no favorite color. In the past it's made me feel so weird I've tried to adopt one and claim it when asked- then I feel like a low down liar. I'm the only person I know who has no favorite color.



• When I was kid we were so poor- how poor were we you ask? My favorite toy was a Ziploc bag of dirt.



• I wish I were kidding.



• I was reminded of a funny story last night about the time I was in the hospital. A homosexual patient care technician molested me by rubbing my genitals when he helped put those anti clot trousers on my legs when I came out of recovery from surgery.



• No, I know that's really not funny but, I learned a lot from that experience and peoples reaction to my telling of it. I was as close to death as a person could be so in the scale of things as wrong as it may have been it was hard to get too worked up over it at the time.



• I went to college with 2 sets of twins one stands out in my mind because one of them was a total plate head of a power lifter the other a total biology club geek. They must have both worked since birth to be so totally different. Oddly, I was friends with both and worked out with the jock. The other set was known for going to class for the other and dressing as the other and going out with each others new girlfriends.



• Something tells me in the real world that one isn't as cute as they can make it in romantic comedies and is in fact probably pretty creepy.


• Received an email: Doont be aganist gelatnig pleasure use Viagr Proo!


• I don't know why anyone would be reluctant to supply credit card information and receive medical advice from such an obviously reputable source.
• I saw a girl the other day who I used to work with I had not seen in years. She asked who I was to make sure then reminded me of who she was. I never would have recognized her, she was very hard looking and must have gained 200 pounds since I last saw her whereas the last time we were around each she was actually a young looking for her age cutey, very pretty, bright and a lot of fun. When she told me who she was I looked her up and down and said, "Really?" in a surprised tone with at least a shocked if not disgusted look on my face.
• I call that little trick How to destroy another human being in 30 seconds or less.
• I feel horrible about that incident, it was like a train or car wreck you have no control over and so your shocked, fumbled response shouldn't be held against you- right?
• When I was stationed in Germany an older lady cornered me and started saying things like ,"Oh, you are so young looking and so pretty- not like the other soldiers. I feel so sorry for your mother. Where is your mother? My heart aches for her, come let me hug you and you must take my picture so you will remember."
• I was out of film but, I acted like I snapped a pic or two and had a friend do the same with both she and I in the frame.
• Lake Titicaca not only is it the highest navigable lake in the world-it's also the most fun place name to say!

Had No Idea

Story behind Lynrd Skynrds plane crash.

"The legendary Southern rockers had just released their 1977 album, Street Survivors, when they chartered a plane to take them from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Engine problems caused the plane to run out of gas and crash into a wooded swamp in Gillsburg, Mississippi. Frontman Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and vocalist Cassie Gaines were all killed, and most of the rest of the bandmembers were seriously injured. Rumors that Van Zant had been decapitated in the crash by a Betamax video player persist today despite copious evidence to the contrary. Immediately following the crash, drummer Artimus Pyle ran nearly a mile with broken ribs to get help from a nearby farmhouse, but the farmer freaked at the sight of the bloodied drummer and shot him in the shoulder with a shotgun, further injuring him but sparing his life. " Blender.com

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Christmas Missives

• Had Christmas at our house this year. I killed with grilled steaks and smoked ham.


• The Christmas lights went up without a hitch- yesterday


• I lost my brother in laws present. I have no answer for where it was other than just misplaced from I thought it to be. When I told him I don't think he believed me but, now I think were good.


• Corn- what an abomination.


• Chicken Express yeast rolls are one of natures most perfect foods.


• I got a very nice coat and a good pair of gloves along with a nice winter beanie. Oh, almost forgot the really good quality socks.


• I think I was being outfitted for homelessness.


• My mind may be changed with other games and a better television but, I was disappointed in the Wii Sports on the Wii my children received.


• Oh man my kids great grandfather is back in the hospital. The stroke he had was a bleed type. Hope is gone for him in this life.


• If we lived every year and spent every gathering like it was our last we might find ourselves wishing for one more less often.


• Young women (way too young) have a habit of firting with me and I don't know why. My bald head gets rubbed a lot and I get told I Look pretty good for an old guy etc. More than one woman I've been around has said something to the effect,"If that chick touches you one more time I'm slapping the..."


• My neighbor died the day before Christmas Eve. It wasn't actually true I know but, when I went to the car for something yesterday evening the world seemed colder and darker when I thought of him.


• I can be as hard headed as any man about my health but, I promise if I ever start having chest pain to immediately take an aspirin and call the doctor or go to the emergency room.


• I have never made a New Years resolution.


• My niece told her husband she was bringing Pumpkin Tarts for the dinner he got Pumpkin Sours stuck in his mind and could not figure out what on earth that could be and why anyone would eat same and at first cringed when he saw people reaching for one.
• Smoked ham, broccoli and cheese cassarole, candied yams and yeast rolls with green tea- it's what's for breakfast, at least it was this morning.

Danny's Truck

This is my friend and neighbor Danny's truck. He died the day before Christmas Eve.

Philogelos (Lover of jokes)- Ancient Book Of Jokes

" An intellectual was eating dinner with his father. On the table was a large lettuce with many succulent shoots. The intellectual suggested: "Father, you eat the children; I'll take mother."



This is from a collection of 200+ jokes written in Greek about AD 400. It was compiled by Hierokles and Philagrios of whom very little is known. Supposedly the key to getting this joke is to understand lettuce was considered a powerful aphrodisiac in the times.

I still don't get it.

Musically Speaking

Accidentally rediscovered two bands I really like this afternoon and when I look at how different they are I realize I am schizophrenic. The first was Mad Season formed by members of Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam and Screaming Trees (who I also like A lot) 2 of the 4 guys who founded Mad Season ODd on Heroin. Layne Staley was the lead singer.

"When police kicked in the door to Layne Staley's University District apartment on April 20, there, on a couch, lit by a flickering TV, next to several spray-paint cans on the floor, not far from a small stash of cocaine, near two crack pipes on the coffee table, reposed the remains of the rock musician." The article also stated that the 6' 1" Staley weighed 86 pounds when his body was discovered. The autopsy report later concluded that Staley died after injecting a mixture of heroin and cocaine known as a "speedball"."

The Dresden Dolls are a duo formed in Boston by Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione. they remind me a bit of groups like Berlin from the 80s.

"The two describe their style as "Brechtian punk cabaret", a phrase invented by Palmer because she was "terrified" that the press would invent a name that "would involve the word gothic."

The band's first name was Out of Arms. At some point, the name became The Dresden Dolls. The name, according to Palmer, was "inspired by a combination of things," including the firebombing of Dresden, Germany and the porcelain dolls which were a hallmark of pre-war Dresden industry; an early song of the same name by The Fall; and a reference to the V. C. Andrews novel Flowers in the Attic where the classically blond and blue-eyed protagonists are called "the Dresden dolls." The name also evokes Weimar Germany and its cabaret culture. Additionally, she "liked the parallel between Dresden (destruction) and Dolls (innocence, delicacy), because it is very much in keeping with the dynamics of the music, which sometimes goes from a childlike whisper to a banshee scream within a few seconds."wikipedia

My Neighbor Danny Died This Morning

So sad- you could not ask for a better neighbor. He was funny, helpful and generous to a fault. Good guy, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with him. I've never personally seen anyone who worked as hard as he did spend so much time with his family. I don't know how many times I've seen him go straight to the pool or play ball with his son right after working all day.

Crash ends local man’s life
Danie M. Huffmanwdreporter2@yahoo.com
Traffic was slowed for hours on North Main Street when a man died in a crash near the railroad tracks at the intersection of North Main and Front streets. Weatherford Police Officer and Accident Investigator Eric Warren said the man was traveling near the railroad tracks in a white Ford pickup and crashed into a telephone pole on the west side of the roadway. He was pronounced dead on scene by a Tarrant County Medical Examiner. Police said the man appeared to be in his 40s. His name is being withheld until he is positively identified and his family has been notified. A train added to a traffic halt, which was diverted for hours. A Weatherford Electric crew repaired transformer connector wires which were downed and damaged due to the crash. Numerous emergency personnel from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, Weatherford Police, Weatherford Fire, LifeCare and a wrecker service remained on scene until after 8 a.m. investigating the accident, sorting out reports and clearing debris. Warren said it is unknown if the crash was due to a medical problem, but he added alcohol and drugs were not suspected as a contributing factor in the wreck.

Mondays Missives

• I love the new single serve Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Yes I said love- I would marry them if it were legal. My next thought was going to be I would eat them every day if that wouldn't be bad for me then I realized nothing that good can be bad.



• The only reason I ever tried the show Arrested Development was hearing so many comics and other sitcoms reference it by comparing people to the show- "Don't worry you'll find someone, you're just like Arrested Development- you take off kind of slow and a little hard to know how to take at first but, after people get to know you you're really smart and funny..."



• Just noticed mac and cheese shows up as a stored label in my tag bar, I must have talked about it before.



• I told you I love the stuff.
• I had a girlfriend once who was strikingly pretty with a little makeup on but, nearly gruesome looking without.
• I had another girlfriend who was also very pretty as long she went without makeup but, if she got painted up a bit- yikes.



• Another celebrity it kind of bothers me to think of: Steve Irwin, man that was sad. The only time rays attack is when something comes over it (it stays low mostly so any threat will be from above) he had to know better. Or was the problem he should have known better?



• A cute flashback I had today: one of my nephews mom had to look for something in his backpack one day and when she picked it up cash came cascading out of it- it looked like he had robbed a bank (as I recall there was 88 dollars in this 3-4th graders backpack). She asked where it came from, "My lunch money." came the sullen answer. "What have you been doing for lunch?" came the angry reply. "Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drinking a milk with the poor kids." he answered.



• I really bothers me when characters in movies act out of character for the real people they are portraying especially in forums I'm familiar with- having a soldier do something a soldier would never do or a medical person mispronounce something.



• I know of 2 different cases where the subject of a medically oriented tv show was used by hospital staff to treat patients they were having trouble diagnosing because the physician happened to watch a certain episode.


• I used to work with a girl about 10 years ago who ate pizza every night for dinner. It may sound mean but, I've often wondered what she looks like these days.


• A couple of the jobs I've had in my life I couldn't believe I got paid to do them. Everyone should be that lucky at least once.



• I'm having trouble nailing down exactly what constitutes a wasted or a successful life.

Never Give Up-Improvise!

Things I Don't Understand About Us

• Liberals love Jon Stewarts show and conservatives love Stephen Colbert's when there's not a nickels worth of difference between the two politically- they're both liberal/libertarian-esqe shills although, Stewarts show seems a little more well produced and I find it generally funnier.



• Cigarette smoking.


• How people can live to adulthood and say,"_____ could never happen to me!"








• People getting tattoos for the fads sake (esp. barbed wire,thorn vines and tribals)








• People literally killing each other bum rushing a Walmart to buy a bunch of junk they don't need with money they don't have regardless of what a deal they're getting.








• Folks living in a thirty thousand dollar shack with a hundred thousand dollars plus worth of new cars out front.








• I stopped once in August to help an extremely fat woman on the side of the road with car trouble. She had two children with her and told me she'd been standing there for 2 hours, all three looked like they were about to have a heat stroke. I got their car fixed. She cried. A couple of days later two extremely pretty women were broke down within two miles of the same place. I happened to stop within a few minutes of their breakdown. I looked under the hood and saw a broken hose. I called home to let them know I'd be a little late and before I could get back from my car with a knife to cut it down to good hose two different vehicles containing males stopped and started jockeying for their attention and trying to figure out was wrong with the car. One genius said,"I bet it's the battery!" while getting in the hotter ones face and while oddly, I thought trying to stand between me and her. I left it to them.








• People who can believe whatever they want to believe in spite of evidence to the contrary.







• When people get up in arms over plans to kill animals due to overpopulation that is hurting their own species and endangering humans. Hundreds of people are killed every year by misadventures with animals on the roads alone and billions of dollars of damage is caused. I think they have a vision of these animals growing old surrounded by a loving family as they fade away and go to deer heaven or whatever. They actually starve or freeze to death or die of dehydration if a coyote doesn't rip their guts out. An overpopulation also causes these thing to happen in an unnatural cycle so they aren't dying of natural causes anyway technically.







• Nope, not a deer hunter.







• There are still a lot of larger cities in this country that are very proud of their animal shelters spending easily upwards of a million dollars on their facilities construction and a hundred thousand dollars plus per year maintenance where a woman who is being brutalized in her home by a family member can't get shelter.







• That one makes me sick to my stomach.







• People who equate animals with people at any level, for any reason.







• How some people can never seem to let go.






• How some people can never seem to try to hold on.






• Why people won't support their local, independent businesses when you know they are going to emptily mourn there passing when they go under.






• People with extremist views.






• People who won't get passionate about anything.






• Why the last time I cleaned out my cabinet that the phone books which I have used exactly twice in the past 10 years (both unsuccessfully) have accumulated had 11 different ones, keep coming. Also, when I survey friends- to a person, they report never using them and often report dropping them directly in the trash.





• How there was ever a time we wore leisure suits.




• How anybody could buy anything they found out about through an unsolicited email- especially medicines.


• How people in a position of power engaging in any type of abuse from mass executions committed by hundreds of soldiers during war or a police officer on the street assaulting someone are not stopped at some point by the thought this could be me.


• How anyone could ever cheat an elderly person out of anything.
• Why so many people even bother getting married.





• How people will read this and I think I hate and am otherwise prejudiced about these people, places, things, thoughts and ideologies etc.- I said, I don't understand them.

Missives

• When people have been in the US long enough to have lost most of their accent it comes back if you get them laughing and and on a roll conversationally. I talked to a lady the other day from Ireland who has been here for nearly 40 years but, you would never know when you first meet her she hadn't lived here all her life. By the time we parted ways she sounded like a Leprechaun.



• As a hospice nurse I've been the only person present at the time of too many peoples deaths. No family, no friends.



• My last patient had only a velour pantsuit, a paperback Bible and a picture of a long forgotten family to her name at the time of her death. Seemed sad but, really it wouldn't have made a difference if the closet to that dingy inner city nursing home she died in was full of gold bars. She's dead.


• I had French Onion soup for breakfast. It's funny to me how it has become associated with tony, high class foods. Nothing I think would scream peasant to people a couple of hundred years ago like eating onion soup.


• It's a boiled onion.


• Freedom soup?


• My 17 month old said,"Thanks" when I handed him a breakfast bar this morning.


• Had dinner at a place last night for probably the 100th time. It was the first time though I realized the name translates into Two Big Peppers in English.


• My childrens great grandfather had a stroke recently. God, it was sad to see him that way. He was a Navy Diver during WWII and just always the epitome of tough and vibrant throughout his life. At age 75 I remember him cutting his thumb severely when installing a window while remodeling his house. His wife fussed at him to go to the hospital and get it sewed up- it was pretty bad. His response? "If I go to the hospital and let them put stitches in this thing it will be sore for a week and I'll never get finished with this project!" He wrapped it in electrical tape and drove on.


• Does it matter at all how people remember us?


• Is that the only thing that matters?

Some Flowers For You

Because I was thinking of you and knew you'd need a day brightener by now when I scheduled this picture 3 months ago.

Ghost Elephant Ears

This picture has been scheduled for months. I assumed some greenery might be now nice by now.

Fridays Dispatch

• Been staying in motels often lately and have been spending way too much time watching television- some thoughts: there has been an explosion of "Judge ______" shows since I've last watched tv, I landed on one, changed the channel in disgust landing on another- this happened 4 times including a Spanish language show. Good grief.


• Still love Jerry Springer, mostly because he's honest about his scumbagality.


• Maury Povich had an episode titled DNA tests prove who the baby daddy is (or something similar)- the same basic concept as the first I watched years ago and also a couple of weeks ago.
• There's a show Prison Break where the plot is basically: a young man convinced of his brothers innocence of a crime he was imprisoned for sets about freeing him by getting himself jailed so they can break out- it's entering its fourth season. With friends and family like that...


• The Cash Cab out of New York City show on The Discovery Channel is pretty cool. I watched two full episodes, I only missed two questions and one Video Challenge.


• There is a whole lot of air time wasted on ridiculous shows purporting to be scientifically oriented where they look for ghosts and also communicate with the dead. Ridiculous.


• Every movie on Lifetime still seems to end with some poor goob being sewed into the sheets, soaked with the gasoline then a match cascading toward the bed...


• If it says Stormchaser somewhere in the title- I'm down.


• I've known people personally from episodes of Cops (good guys and bad)


• Channel 13 should still be PBS wherever I am.


• Don't know why it meant so much but, it was interesting to watch WGBH actually in Boston when I was there a few years ago.


• I love 30 Rock.


• I don't do anything to try to keep up with celebrity gossip, don't care when they die and don't really have any favorite celebrities even but, every time I see or hear anything about Heath Ledger I stop dead in my tracks and feel sad, don't know why- there are plenty of died way too young people to go around in Hollywood.


• People will believe anything if its presented well enough and in a British accent.
• Kathy Lee Gifford looks different- older or surgically altered? Her guest the other day rolled her eyes at her.


• One of the few times I was physically ill from watching a tv show was an episode of Cops where the police dressed up as street dealers and sold pot to people in 5-10 dollar amounts and had the nerve (ignorance?) to talk about how it would keep the streets safer.
• There is a show called The Steve Wilkos Show. Every time I accidentally tune into it there's some big bald headed guy snarling at someone dead in their face, "You make me sick, I hope you burn in hell! Stand up, you don't deserve to sit on my show!" He then yanks the chair away and throws it across the stage- every time.
• The murderer of John Walshes son has been found I saw on the news. Supposedly Ottis Toole confessed and had info. only the murderer could know. Toole was Henry Lee Lucas' boyfriend.
• On one station I saw an ad for their lineup I forget the time period - there were four back to back different Judge _____ shows


• I Asked a taxi driver in Fort Worth if he'd heard of Cash Cab and then joked saying he should start a Texas version, he said it would never work,"Think about it this way, New York is the Big Apple- Fort Worth is Cowtown. We laughed.


• It made more sense in person, I guess you had to be there.

Hey Kids

I Blame You Pikachu

Fridays Digressions

• While placing my empty printer cartridge in the recycling envelope I noticed instruction #1) Place 1 or 2 empty HP inkjet cartridge(s) in this envelope without additional packaging, materials or notes.




• It's annoying sometimes to live in a world that requires that kind of instruction.



• Nearly everytime I go to into my children's bath after my son showers for school there's an empty Dr Pepper can on the side of the tub. Part of me says I raised him right something else tells me I've failed him.



• He'll be ok.



• I swear, the spaces between these thoughts comes randomly sometimes and if I go back and try to edit, it won't take and goes right back like it was when I publish.



• The Christmas tree is up and for I guess the 35th time (or whenever I saw it last) seeing it reminded me of the silver tinsel tree we had as a child that had a multi colored wheel that faced it and spun around by an electric motor casting red, blue orange and green? colors over that tacky tree. I can still hear it humming if I close my eyes.



• It malfunctioned and caught on fire once, no one was home- it's a wonder it didn't burn that old house down.



• Mom loved Christmas, I'd give anything if she had one more with us.



• When we were little some Christmas' dad would take us out to see the Kings family lights on Christmas eve while mom would stay at home and pretend she was going to bed to be ready for the big day. She would put all our presents out- some of which were stored at neighbors. We'd come home and the bottom of the tree would be overflowing. We still have a picture of my sister running for her presents- she is just a blur.



• The best part of the Kings lights was Santa fishing from a boat in the lake.

A Crazy Picture

of someone I don't even know

Wednesdays Digressions

• Headline from my news browser: Panda in China Zoo bites student who wanted a hug. Some things just make you go $%^&*#@ ! I wonder what part of that person did not understand the word Bear? And why would it ever occur to anyone to want to hug a wild animal of any type?





• I don't know which is scarier- the fact that the movie Kung Fu Panda probably had something to do with another humans perception of a large, powerful, fanged animal or the fact we can be so predictably stupid I can can sit here rocking back and forth and give myself a 90 % of being correct with such a goofy, off the cuff prediction.




• Just saw a blurb about Americas Most Wanted is responsible for the capture of 1000+ fugitives.




• The first show they did profiled a guy who owned the pizza place near where I went to college (Johns Pizza?). Immediately after the show a girl I knew went into the place and saw the guy and said,"Wow, this is weird, what a coincidence - I just watched this show called Americas Most Wanted and they did a story about a guy who had tattoos just like yours." He got a scared look on his face and ducked out the back. His body was found the next day, he had killed himself in a state park nearby.




• He made a good pizza.




• My spellchecker hi lights Kung Fu.



• A low power TV station in Cincinnati has changed its call letters to WKRP to promote its change to digital format due to widespread recognition of the old show. I would have assumed someone would have picked that up a long time ago. Everyone in their market and anyone who visits will check it out- pretty smart. I'll assume they get the joke to acronym of the last 3 letters.


• Hulu.com has WKRP in Cincinnati episodes.

You Should Know A Little About

Jim Abbott

"In 1989, Abbott joined the California Angels' starting rotation as a rookie without playing a single minor league game. That season, he posted a 12-12 record with an ERA of 3.92. His 12 wins in his first professional season were the most since Mark Fidrych won 19 for the Detroit Tigers in 1976, and he finished fifth in the year's Rookie of the Year voting.

In 1991, Abbott won 18 games with the Angels while posting an ERA of 2.89, finishing third in the American League Cy Young Award voting. In 1992 season, he posted a 2.77 ERA, but his win-loss record fell to 7-15 for the sixth-place Angels. No player since 1917 started at least 20 games, had an ERA under 3.00, and had a worse winning percentage. Abbott was also won the Tony Conigliaro Award in 1992.



On September 4, 1993 while pitching for the New York Yankees, Abbott pitched a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians.



In 1994, Abbott's Yankees led the American League East, but the 1994 Major League Baseball strike ended the season on August 12, 1994. The following year, after starting the season with the Chicago White Sox, he returned to the California Angels, who held a 11 game lead over the Seattle Mariners in August, but lost the American League West in a one-game playoff to the Mariners.


When preparing to pitch the ball, Abbott would rest a right-handed thrower's glove on the end of his right forearm. After releasing the ball, he would quickly slip his hand into the glove, usually in time to field any balls that a two-handed pitcher would be able to field. Then he would remove the glove by securing it between his right forearm and torso, slip his hand out of the glove, and remove the ball from the glove, usually in time to throw out the runner, and sometimes even starting double plays. During international play, Cuba once decided to repeatedly bunt against him, hoping that he wouldn't be able to manage, which proved to be an unsuccessful strategy."-Wikipedia





Strange habit you say? Oh, imagine my embarrassment, I forgot to mention he was born without a right hand!

Monday's Missives

• Few things in this world get on my nerves like anime` cartoons. This is so true that when I realised Speed Racer was anime` I considered hating it for a minute.




• I couldn't hate Speed Racer.




• It seems like the guys who like anime` tend to like it a lot and also have a thing for samurai swords and Japanese women. I knew a guy who was in to all of that and married a woman from Japan. She was way out of his league and I bet has wished for a do-over more than once.




• There is a type of autism that one of the components is an obsessive fascination with another culture. It also often involves a fascination with things like public transportation. I knew a guy once from a job I had who would travel to Europe to ride the trains of different countries. This wasn't to see the world by rail- it was to gather information about which system was the best to return to the US and try to kill coworkers by sheer boredom from stories about the superiority of Belgium's schedules over Luxembourg's.




• I've heard people finally resorted to just raising a hand up in front of his face anytime he got near and saying,"I don't care anything about the train service in Lichtenstein and I don't want to hear any retarded stories about it!"
• My thoughts regarding drilling here in the states got challenged a bit when a rig went up within 700 meters of my home. I was really tolerant of the noise, light pollution and the mud on the roads, what got me was the nearly new 700.00$ washing machine ruined by sediments kicked up in the well which my family now can't drink from. My neighbor had to replace a dishwasher and everyones water quality and pressure was affected around me. My ISP also had to replace my rooftop unit that picks up my internet signals because the oil company put a telemetry unit on that site that knocked my download speeds down to 1992 levels.
• It's official: I Hate Big Oil- whatever that is.
• I saw a video the other day done by a news crew in either NZ or Australia- I don't recall where they had a guy who had won the lottery scratch a ticket off to recreate the event. He did it, the color washed out of his face, he looked faint and began slumping over a bit an said, "I just won 250,000, oh my God..." He won another 250K. If it were me there'd be some way I'd owe the government money and the ticket would read, please send a cashiers check...
• Once when I was in college a group of us were lying around some studying, some half napping when the conversation got started, what would you do if you won the lottery? Everyone recounted strangely (I thought ) detailed plans for ginormous houses, boats and every kind of luxury car under the sun. I did not play the lottery and was one of those more or less napping so didn't think about it until I was asked directly to contribute. I said something like,"I don't know, well I guess I would help everyone in my family with their needs, pay for some struggling students college, put some up for my children, help homeless and hungry people and well, probably in general- ease a lot of peoples suffering every chance I got."
• They looked at me like I was crazy.