Mondays Missives

• "He spent his 21st birthday behind bars at San Quentin State Prison, where he served nearly three years for burglary. In 1959, prisoner 45200 watched Johnny Cash perform there." msnbc
• The "He" in that first sentence refers to Merle Haggard who in November 2008 had a lobe removed from one of his lungs due to cancer.
• The coyotes that come up behind the house use a tree that's silhouetted on the skyline to navigate I'm pretty sure since I always hear them directly on line with it as they move in regardless of how far away they are.
• I went out once with a flashlight to try and get a look at them but, my stupid flashlight wasn't charged so it was very dim, as I pointed it downward to smack the back of it in the hope the connectors were dirty I noticed tiny glowing dots everwhere. They were wolf spiders most of them babies invisible basically until the light struck their eyes. The interesting thing about that is I never could replicate those conditions whether the batteries were fully charged or failing on other occasions- the spectrum was just right when the batteries were almost dead that night.
• Caught a mole in the backyard the other day whose tunnels went all through a fireant mound. My baby son loved playing with it before I released it near the compost pile to go on with his little mole life.
• Teach kids to love animals and reading- neither of you will regret either.
• Wanting a reader like an Amazon Kindle.
• I have read fewer than 10 non fiction books in my life.
• Reading Clear and Present Danger currently, holy smokes it's good.
• My house that burned down had over 2000 books in it some dating back to mid 1800s. The fire chief looking at the smoldering ruins said,"Wow, you had a lot of books."
• I need to quit reminding myself of that chapter in my life.
• A book reference- get it?
• I kill myself sometimes.
• The above creature I guess is the German equivalent of the jackalope.
• It really bothers me how Arlen Specters switch to the Democratic party is misused and misunderstood. He was going to lose in his primary to a challenger he barely beat in the last election. The challenger is too conservative for their state so he would probably lose the election making Specters seat Democratic anyway. However, you simply cannot turn on the TV, read the news or comments on blogs without people pointing to this story to demonstrate how hopeless the Republican position is, "The GOP is so bankrupt Arlen Specter left after 30 years as a Republican!" "Blah blah blah" And they applaud him for "Following his conscience" etc. I looked up. "what Specters switch means to the Republican party" and got over one million hits.
• Good grief
• He knew he was about to be sent home his career over if he stayed Republican so he went to Obama's staff and said,"If I switch to the Democratic party, will the President campaign for me?"
• I admire the mans political ability. This situation however, says nothing about his morality or the condition of the GOP. Compulsion not conscience drove his move to the Democratic party.