Month: October 2004

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Fire Damage

So, my family pulls a quick on me. They convince me that Tommy and I need to clean the trash cans out of the downstairs. I direct Tommy from the bed while watching a little tube. Sarah nonchalantly says, “Mom needs you to see what Molly has done.” So I casually start heading upstairs only to hear Sarah shout “hurry!” I bolt up stairs and there to my surprise is the sun. No that wouldn’t make sense. I know! I had a heart attack bolting up the stairs and I’m seeing the light. But it’s so hot. Shoot. I’m going to Hell! Wait a minute the smoke alarms are going off. OH! That’s my cake!

I am staring into a single flame. It stands about 4-5 inches high, covers the surface of something akin to the palm of my hand, and emanates from the 5 millimeter stubs of what at one point must have been 35 birthday candles. The plastic decorations on the cake that resemble balloons or 5 juggling balls have partially melted. My wife’s eyebrows are singed and a river of green wax flows like lava across the top of cake and dribbles to the wood floors. I make the hastiest wish ever (should a half naked blonde 23 year old and her fully naked twin sister show up on my doorstep I’ll know I should have put a little more thought into it before blowing out the candles) and blow the flame in the direction of my wife’s face fortunately extinguishing the fire before it grew too close and no wax splattered! It was quite a moment.

I have had it explained to me in no uncertain terms that all future cakes for me will have two candles on it. I optimistically hope that one day I’ll see a third.

Thank you my loving family for a wonderful birthday! (and please forgive the twins)

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Last Meals

When we lived in New Jersey (for me that was 8th grade – 10th grade), we were in a brand new neighborhood built on an old farm. The house we lived in, a two story Jamestown, had an older house behind it with an even older dog. The dog was caged in the corner of a yard with the old wire fence that surrounded the yard as two of the cage walls. Either the same wire of the fence or chicken wire was used to make the other two walls. It had a rotting dog house and about enough space for the dog to lay stretched out…not even enough space for the dog to walk about. If I recall correctly the dog’s name was Timothy (or at least now it is for the sake of this story).

Timothy was getting along in his years and not looking so hot. He was certainly did not receive much TLC.

There are some things I love. Animals, and at this time particularly birds, were way up on my list. Food probably came before animals. Our breakfast window faced Timothy’s house. We had a bird feeder outside that window and I kept it filled with a custom mix that I’d hand make from the feed store on Main Street. I’d ride my bike down to Main Street and buy some candy from the crankly lady in the ugly mold green candy store. Then I’d ride to a Andy Ward’s house and spend some time. Then it was off to the feed store and home.

The neighborhood had a cat that enjoyed my birds more than I and many a bird had its last meal while I had my breakfast. At this point in my life I had never experienced allergies but I rapidly developed an allergy to cats. That psychological reaction has long since gone.

My folks love to cook a fancy meal. One night my mother cooks venison (could have been lamb) and my father, my brother and I force it down and lie to her about how good it was. When she leaves the room my father looks up at us, collects our meat, and says, “Timothy needs a good meal.” The dog loved that food! Never had we seen it so perky! It died the next day.

Don’t eat my mother’s venison!

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What time is it?!

My calendar says Daylight savings is next weekend.

http://www.whattimeisit.com/ shows the time as 11:22.

http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html says the time change is next weekend.

Comcast has already set their clocks back an hour.

I cannot believe how dependent we have become on the clock on the cable box! I remember as a child how cool it was to call a phone number and get the time and weather. Of course, we still had rotary dial phones back then.

I think it is time to get one of those clocks that syncs with the military clocks.. wait a minute! Our GPS does that! Where is that thing?

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Missed Goals

10 years ago today I made a commitment to myself. One that somewhere along the way fell apart. I committed to sacrifice a decade of my life for early retirement. I saw completely feasible that on this day I could be economically unburdened and self-sufficient. My income would be through investments, interest, non-labor revenue and residual income. I would take my late 30s and do those wonderful thrill seeking, life threatening adventures that I enjoy so much. Sky diving, hang gliding, hiking the Appalachian Trail, kayaking the Intercoastal Waterway to Cancun, scuba diving and so much more were planned for my late 30s. My 40s would be world travels and publishing photo journals of my travels. The plans become vague after that.

At one point I wanted to live fast and die young. By that plan I’d be at my end today.

Obviously I have walked a far different path and am happy for it! There is no thrill described in the first paragraph to compare to hearing your child sing the alphabet song for the first time, or see the gleam in their eye as their name is called for that first place ribbon at the horse show, or to release some exuberant, over-confident pre-teen into a chaotic throng of delinquents at the mall, or watch a small boy suck the marrow from life. I have a very loving wife and a wonderful family! This is a very happy day!

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Political – Biased Paper Tries to Lull Dems into Not Voting

Today’s Knoxville News Sentinel (the world’s worst paper) ran an article on the front left read of the paper titled Pollster: Bush lead in state approaching a ‘blowout’ ( BugMeNot for a login )

George Bush’s lead over John Kerry in Tennessee has passed the “no contest” level and is approaching the “blowout” level, according to the director of a new poll conducted by the University of Tennessee Social Science Research Institute.
There can only be one goal here. The paper is trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy by telling people “if you support Kerry, no need to come to the polls.” What a horrible tactic! Save my America! Don’t be duped by such propaganda!
South Knox Bubba has exceptional words on this including this quote:
The Zogby poll ending Oct. 18th shows Bush 50.3% to Kerry 48.7% in Tennessee.
If it is truly that close then the News Sentinel article is really unfair to the democratic process.

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Valdalism is NOT Freedom of Speech!

Give me my America back! The America I grew up in promoted Freedom of Speech and encouraged the discussion of opposing views.


The location of the two signs. The Bush sign sits on a corner lot with a lot of traffic. The Kerry sign is the corner house’s neighbor on a lesser traveled street. Posted by Hello

This sums up the Republican attitude quite well for me. I feel the Republican party has turned quite Orwelling and has resorted to mob tactics, scare tactics and down right communistic behavior.

I know the valdalism has happened on both sides but my rant is beyond the specifics of this example. I began discussing the signs below with my 11 year old daughter.


Kerry Edwards with a W craved into it by vandals. Posted by Hello

Kerry/Edwards sign with a “W” carved into it.

Her math class did an exercise with bar graphs by counting the percentage of the class that was supporting each candidate. My daughter said she was supporting Bush so I took some time to put together a list of his accomplishments and failures (its since been overwritten by accident…is my daughter a Bush vandal?!). I opted to discuss politics with her. During a Girl Scount event the girls all said they were supporting Bush and my daughter jumped on the bandwagon. The main reason was that “Bush was cutier than Kerry.” So I discussed with my daughter that your own opinion may not be the popular opinion but that is no reason to not express it.


The Bush Cheney sign sits undamaged. Posted by Hello

Bush/Cheney sign undamaged in neighbor’s yard.

My daughter still sides with the Bush camp. I asked why and she responded with “because he can do a better job.” I asked her to site some examples. I even fed them to her “he can do a better job of managing the nation’s debt” “he can do a better job fighting terrorism” etc and all she could do is shrug. Our schools and government have brainwashed our kids!

I recounted for my daughter the failures of the last 4 years and the reasons I support Kerry. I noted the numerous relatives we have that are supporting Kerry. She is unmoved. So, you might ask, “How much effort should go into deprogramming an 11 year old?” 2 elections from now she will decide the president that will run my country. The deprogramming has to begin NOW! Our future is at stake! Now is when we choose to save democracy or give in to a communistic state.

The cold war ended and George W Bush was angered by that. GW wants the Cold War back and is disguising that as a war against terrorism. How much money, resources and lives were wasted on the Cold War? Why do we want it back?

Resources:

Records and Experience

Bush Resume written from a former Bush supporter

Voter’s Self-Defense Manual 2004 brought to us by vote-smart.org

The Crawford Texas Newspaper endorses Kerry!

Electablog

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A New Day! Let’s start the day off with a PayPa…

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

Ah! So quiet this morning! I wake at 6 to Noah’s shuffling but he decides to play quietly in his room and I easily drift back into a deep sleep. What’s that noise? Ring Ring Ring. Ah! The phone. I bound from the bed and with legs stretching like Plastic Man I make it across the house in 3 steps. “Umm.. I’m the last the one here and they like wanted me to call you.” “Uuuhh. Who is this?” “Your daughter!” “Where are you?” “At the YMCA!” OH! That was better than coffee. Time? 7:25. 25 minutes late 15 minute drive. “Be right over in 10 minutes!”