April, 2003 Week 3

Monday April 14, 2003

Let me see if I can set the tone for the week with:

The mother of three notoriously unruly youngsters was asked whether or not she'd have children if she had it to do over again.

"Sure," she replied, "but not the same ones."

I got Mike to probation, Picked up medicine at Kaiser, shopped at Smart & Final, Picked up Calie, checked out my Bike at Riders Choice, Christy took Calie to the Dentist with her broken tooth, not really broken, it was a warn down remnant of a baby tooth, Christy also had Monica and Autumn, She had dropped Cindy off at her friend Heather's house. Heather is a year younger than Cindy and keeps an eye on her at school. Heather will be spending the night here. Christy took the other girls shoe shopping.

Tuesday April 15, 2003

It snowed yesterday and last night... on the Ides of April... fancy that. Screwy weather...

I took the car in to get a tire replaced and see if thy could fix the vibration by balancing all the tires, it worked, it rides like a dream again. I ordered a new rim to replace the bent one... It should be in tomorrow unfortunately I will be at Rick Galceran's funeral though... I am hoping to ride my bike over there, it is supposed to be fixed today.

It wasn't put back together... unfortunately... but the car works fine now... something was unbalancing the front tire, it was bouncing so bad that the clock in the dash-board was blurry.

Christy has taken Heather and Cindy clothes-shopping... Cindy needs help with clothes, that's why Heather is along, she is more tuned in to what is 'in'... I am still partial to gingham pinafores, high button shoes and bonnets so I am useless.

I heard from my buddy Jerry, apparently he thinks my views are one dimensional that I have poisoned myself with liberal bias by listening to NPR too much, actually I am beginning to think that NPR has seen which side of the bread the butter is on and has been a little too conservative of late... he is probably right... well he is right... I'm a liberal, I am sure there is a lynch mob forming in Acton as I type.

He asked me to post his views so...

You crack me up! In my Constitution, the First Amendment reads, in part, “Congress shall make no laws respecting…. Abridging the freedom of speech.” Nowhere do I read it denies anyone to tell another that their speech is offensive and to shut the hell up. But you take it to the next level and actually state the people that say, “Shut up” have no right to do that and they should SHUT UP! Now that is truly funny. Actually you can say what you want but be prepared to live with the consequences.

You say that people that disagree with you are Black and White and you are Fuzzy and Gray. Then how is it so easy to discern what side of an argument you will be on before you write or utter a single word. Could it be that you have lost any semblance of gray long ago? Bush has become your Devil incarnate and you oppose him or anything associated with him with all your will. Where is the gray there? You are truly Black and White.

So utilizing my rights under the First Amendment shut the hell up.

You accuse people of French bashing and claim not to understand why. One thing you have said is very true. The war was about oil. If the French and the Russians had done the right thing it may not have been necessary. But they were too worried about losing their lush oil contacts.

So utilizing my rights under the First Amendment shut the hell up.

You claim the Fox Network is ultra conservative and can be discounted as a pack of lies. But you quote ultra liberal sources and proclaim them to speak the truth. Fox is an American Network and presents the news to Americans. They don’t claim to cater to an international audience. The rest of the media has been outputting liberal lies for so long that their slightly Conservative (Read American) approach seems far to the right to you. But in your twisted logic you can no longer recognize the middle of the road.

So utilizing my rights under the First Amendment shut the hell up.

You love to quote, even if it hasn’t been true for a very long time, that fifty percent of Americans do not support Bush. Well eighty-one percent of Americans support the war of liberation in Iraq.

So utilizing my rights under the First Amendment shut the hell up.

I could go on but I know it is useless. You have become the true mega liberal and will listen to nothing if it disagrees with you. You have joined the ranks of the unthinking NPR Heads (Nipper Heads) and I fear you will never return. You deem viciousness, hatefulness and whining as legitimate arguments. So I leave you with this last thought.

Utilizing my rights under the First Amendment shut the hell up.

(Jerry worked hard on this picture so I won't thumbnail it)

Well, I guess that covers that subject... Normally I would have more to say but I am so grateful he is speaking to me again I will keep my mouth shut. He is a very sensitive guy.

O.J. SIMPSON JOINS IN SEARCH FOR BANNED WEAPONS

Takes ‘Much-Needed Break’ From Looking For Wife’s Real Killers

by Andy Borowitz

The hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq received a big boost today as former football great O.J. Simpson landed in Baghdad to join in the so far fruitless search.

Mr. Simpson said that he was taking a “much-needed break” from his ongoing search for the “real killers” of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

The Heisman Trophy winner said he had been searching “almost nonstop” for his wife’s real killers since his acquittal on murder charges in 1995, but when he heard about the hunt for Saddam’s elusive weapons he “dropped everything” to join the weapons posse in Iraq.

“I may not have found my wife’s real killers yet, but I’ve gotten pretty darn good at looking for things that other people say aren’t there,” Mr. Simpson said, explaining his unique qualifications for finding Iraq’s mysteriously missing weapons.

But in the hours after Mr. Simpson volunteered to aid in the search, murder suspect Robert Blake offered a theory of his own as to the banned weapons’ whereabouts.

“I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that Saddam’s guys fled into Syria, realized that they’d forgotten to take their weapons of mass destruction with them, and then went back into Iraq to get them,” said Mr. Blake, speaking from Los Angeles.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called Mr. Blake’s charges against Syria “intriguing” but cautioned that military action against Syria was far from a fete accompli.

“In order to be completely fair about it, the locale of our next war will be determined by a lottery drawing,” Mr. Rumsfeld said, adding that over one hundred nations were currently in the running.

It's an hour and a half drive to Colton, not looking forward to the trip or the funeral, funeral's are hard for me to go to but, lately, it seems to represent a significant segment of my social life. I will have completed my 60th year here on earth pretty soon, the folks I grew up with and worked with over the years are getting up there too so I suspect that I will be confronting this aspect of being a human being several more times before it gets to be my turn. Sounds callus but I hope I have a few more years left. Getting old is not just a state of mind it is a physical reality, there is no denying your humanity. I can't help being curious about the process. I said once before that I want to see it coming and prepare, I also want to document the the process. I know others far more literate and expressive than I have done a far better job with far greater insight than I am capable of but I want to share the experience with those that are interested.

I know more than I want to know about dying, I have been present at the death of both of my parents and I am glad for that. It is hard on the family left behind when they have not witnessed the end. Not sure why exactly. Cecil's death was a shock to me, but at the same time there is a surreal quality to it.

Wednesday April 16, 2003

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Hanlon's Razor

I read a movie review by A. O. Scott this morning and cracked up. I wish I could write like that.

I took the Lancaster kids to school, and drove over to Wall-Mart and got some clothes to wear to the funeral, then went to Kaiser and picked up Monica's medicine, stopped at Rider's Choice to check on my bike, it wasn't ready yet. I selected a sticker to cover the plastic weld though, it says, "BEEN THERE, WRECKED THAT"... I decided I was too old for the one that said; "RIDE IT LIKE YOU JUST STOLE IT". I went to Affordable Tire to see if the wheel I ordered to replace the bent rim was in... it wasn't. I went home and changed, picked up the movies to return to Blockbuster, the phone rang and it was Affordable tire saying that the rim came in so I dropped off the tapes at 11:55 (They were due at Noon) and went over to get the rim replaced... that took about 15 minutes.

Thursday April 17, 2003

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Walt Kelly, cartoonist (1913-1973)

0900, my bike is ready... finally. I'll have to hop from foot to foot till Christy gets back from her blood test, she has to have it done in the morning, once a week , the medicine she takes is nothing to mess with I guess.

Picked up the bike, it cost me $0.00... very cool. I rode it to home via back roads, it handles well but I didn't really turn it loose until I got to Acton... I took it up to about 9k and it crapped out again... I did it several times, it always seems to miss at the same RPM regardless of what gear I am in. Euphoria to Exasperation in a heart beat...

Mike came home with a Do-Rag... Christy said "No WAY!" Mike says "You guys are denying me the right to be who I am." I said "Excuse me? Three weeks ago you hated anything to do with being "Black"!" He said "That was then..." Now he says we are denying him his ethnicity. Go figure. Here we go... I am beginning to wonder if he is going to be around here much longer, I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to run away again. He is convinced that grass is greener out there in the big wide world and that Christy and I are committed towards making his life a living hell. Our soul focus is to see to it that he never has any fun again.. He will be 18 in November of 2005... I hope we all make it.

I read "Tim Robbin's speech to the National Press Club", I wish I was that articulate, calm and rational… damn. He said several things that I have been saying... only better.

Friday April 18, 2003

"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way."
Mark Twain

Bike ran fine, then it crapped out again. I took it to cycle rider and the mechanic tested it out... ran like a top, ran like a top all the way home too... I don't understand.

Christy met me at the bowling alley with the kids and we bowled for an hour... one game... six bowlers... Autumn bowled too, she got so excited. Cindy tried but we had to get them to put up the bumpers... Cindy would hit the bumpers three time and get strikes and spares,,, she almost beat me... Monica couldn't get the hang of it at all, she looked like she was playing 'Captain May I', she took big giant steps and held the ball till she got to the line and then stopped and launched it... I enjoyed it.

After the game Christy met me at Denny's with the kids, she said she didn't want to eat and took Cindy and Calie shopping while I had lunch with Christian, Monica and Autumn.

My Webpage was screwed up and wouldn't publish for me toinght... I will check it out in the morning.

Saturday April 19, 2003

The number weapons of mass destruction so far discovered in Iraq exactly equals the number of Enron executives who have gone to prison

It was two problems, thank goodness it didn't work, the Genealogy main page was really screwed up. It would open but it took about 15 minutes, I have no idea what was wrong, I worked at trying to figure it out for about 2 hours and finally gave up and created a new one, linked all the folders to it and deleted the old one, it published in nothing flat...

I watched my race, the kids were good, Mokie and Christian built themselves a really intricate fort to repel the neighbors dogs, they have an armory full of water balloons and dirt clods... I will try to remember to get a picture. I had promised them that I would build them a fort/playhouse but I am glad I never did, their forts are far more interesting than anything I could come up with, plus they are learning a lot too. I am probably rationalizing to get myself out work...

Calie is into her second day with a fever, she and Monica worked hard all day keeping Autumn amused.

We are going to Riverside tomorrow...

Easter tomorrow, Joke:

Three blondes died and found themselves standing before St. Peter. He told them that before they could enter the Kingdom, they had to tell him what Easter was.

The first blonde said, "Easter is a holiday where they have a big feast and we give thanks and eat turkey."

St. Peter said, "Noooooo," and he banished her to hell.

The second blonde said, "Easter is when we celebrate Jesus' birth and exchange gifts."

St. Peter said, "Noooooo," and he banished her to hell.

The third blonde said she knew what Easter was, and St. Peter said," So, tell me."
She said," Easter is a Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover. Jesus was having Passover feast with His disciples when he was betrayed by Judas, and the Romans arrested him. The Romans hung Him on the cross and eventually He died. Then they buried Him in a tomb behind a very large boulder . . .
St. Peter said, "Verrrrrry good."

Then the blonde continued, "Now every year the Jews roll away the boulder and Jesus comes out. If he sees his shadow, we have six more weeks of basketball."

Saint Peter Fainted

Sunday April 20, 2003

We all (except Mike) went to Riverside, I took a few pictures we had Mexican food... I was feeling a little queasy all day and I think the Mexican food sort of put the icing on the cake so to speak. When I got home I lasted about 15 minutes and violently ill... hope that's the end of it, I want to go the Kaiser when we take Autumn into see the Orthopedic Dr.