These Thoughts Escape Me

Overhaul

2008-01-21T19:52:00.000-08:00

Ladies and germs, it has been brought to our attention here at Pendragon Hold that some of the functionality of this illustrious Blog, namely the comments and links, have been compromised for some strange reason known only to the geeks at Blogger. So, in the spirit of providing you, our loyal readers, all three or four of you, with the outstanding reading experience that fans of this Blog have come to expect, I have moved TTEM lock, stock and barrel over to a whole new blog, identical in every way except for appearance, content, layout, photography, and price of admission.

Now, since the links are not working for everybody visiting THIS site, I have provided this ULR (pendragonhold.blogspot.com) so that you can drift on over to the new location and record the new link. Please let me know if you encounter any difficulty in this transition.

If this does NOT solve our problem, please feel free to rise up in rage, frustration, and bloodlust, and storm the gates of Blogger, hauling the architects of this outrageous outrage upon our sensibilities to the guillotine, where their arrogant heads shall be parted from their body and donated to the "noggins of love" foundation, who will in turn provide them to unfortunate victims of decapitation accidents.

Again, thank you for your loyalty, patience, and bags of cash that you have and will continue to lend to us who love you all so much we stayed up past bedtime to fix this thing.

Dissent Ad Naseum

2008-01-17T09:35:00.000-08:00

I am watching an edition of "Front Line" on PBS concerning the abuse of presidential power in the Bush White House and it is making me nauseous. We are allowing this "president" to do things so outside the realm of constitutional sanity that the document, this very essence of what America is all about, is becoming dangerously irrelevant. We pretty much should have crowned Dubya "King George" when he stole the first election.

I really don't understand the politicians that presently occupy the halls of Congress. These men have been elected by the citizens of 50 separate yet united States to exercise their share of government oversight and power, and yet they allow what has amounted to an attack upon our constitution to go unanswered. Yes, there has been bluster and "investigations" and testimonies of the most outrageous conduct imaginable by White House officials, including the President and Vice-President. And yet no one has been held accountable.
Instead, everybody seems to be ignoring the cancer festering in our capital while we all focus on the upcoming elections, with the thought that we shall soon easily rid ourselves of this bafoon and replace him with a Democrat, who will miraculously repair all this damage and make it all go away.

Really.

Even as I type this post to my blog, there is a computer deep within the bowels of the NSA that is data-mining everything we Americans say on phones and type on computers. This computer is looking for catch words that hint at disagreement, disloyalty, and maybe, just maybe, the scratching of terrorist rats in the undergrowth of our society. Should this computer compile a collection of words from this post that the administration does not like, it is very possible that I could disappear without a trace, for presently there is no one in any branch of government with the balls to prevent such an atrocity from happening. This is a very real risk that you, I, and every American undertakes each time we get on our computer and dare to question our leadership. That is NOT the America we were born into, but it IS the America we shall hand our children if we do not stand up as a nation and put a stop to this bullshit once and for all.

We still have the ballot box, and hopefully, enough of the right people watching closely to insure that we are not subjected to another debacle that forced this idiot onto us as president. We are also capable of changing the entire status quo by getting rid of ALL the career parasites that now inhabit the Congress and replace them with citizen-legislators who can get us back to the form of government our forefathers gifted us with; a nation OF the people, FOR the people, but only possible with a government BY the people. We also need to return the appropriate power BACK to the people, such as ballot initiatives for Congressional pay raises, rather than this plunder that is presently going on. AND, for once, we need to divorce ourselves from this idea that we can only function under a two party system, and start giving our independents a chance to step up to the bat and prove their mettle. I personally have had enough of these two extremes tearing at each other rather than serving the people who elected them to do a job.

Perhaps you don't like me saying this, but we, the average American, has become detached and lazy, absolving ourselves of the responsibility necessary to maintain the freedoms we are taking for granted, which as a result are now under assault, with precious little protest from the heartland. Using the same tools that dictators throughout history have employed, namely FEAR and hyper-patriotic fervor, this government has scared you, middle America, into accepting draconian measures disguised as protection against terrorism, rather than the rape of our freedoms our forefathers paid dearly for in blood. You disgrace their memory when you blindly send off your sons and daughters to give their lives to ensure the profits of such monsters as Haliburton and Brown & Root.

This is my rant for today. I served my country once in the armed forces and proudly live with the knowledge that I helped win the REAL war, albeit a quiet one, that we fought against the Soviet Empire. Now I cringe in shame as my own country slowly becomes the new evil empire that the rest of the world has painted a target onto. This didn't have to happen. We didn't have to make the panicked and ill-advised choices we made which put us where we are now. However, we CAN make the right choices from here on out. Let's CONSIDER our choices carefully this time around and NOT fall victim to fear and bigotry. Let's act like Americans again.

Another Exciting Episode

2008-01-09T15:58:00.001-08:00

Hello guys, and welcome to another exciting episode of TTEM, the Blog that asks the question.........Huh? The following commentary IS the express opinion of the author of this Blog, namely Me, THE Michael, and yes, I am totally responsible for said commentary, and yes, if you don't like it, TOUGH! * And now, onto the Blog!

THE Wife has been felled by a killer headache, missed two days of work and had to be taken to the Doctor, whom, after poking, prodding, questioning, and thinking deep doctor thoughts, prescribed AND administered a cocktail of drugs designed to put an end to both her headache and heathen worship of porcelain Gods. It worked, although it zonked her out for awhile. So, I and the offspring, the infamous resident evil twin, ventured forth to the supermarket and brought home the groceries. Tonight, we get to sample THE Daughter's lasagna. Hopefully, you will hear from me again.

After several days of very low temperatures that actually caused our liquid water left outside to solidify, the mercury has swung back in the other direction and we now are enjoying our unseasonably warm weather that normally signifies that spring has sprung. I bought me a new warm coat, so, of course, the weather will now not require any kind of clothing heavier than a T-shirt, making my investment totally worthless. But it felt nice while it lasted.

THE Dog, the amazing Shiloh, has been REVELING in the cool weather, refusing to come inside even though the cold plays hell with his arthritic joints. The poor creature is Nordic at heart, just like his Dad, so I understand. Summers suck for a Norwegian Elkhound. I wish I could take him somewhere to experience snow. I think it would make him one happy hound.

Oh, and speaking of wonder dogs, our ever-vigilant protector started raising hell in the middle of the night a few nights ago, forcing me to get out of bed to see what the HELL was going on, because THIS dog was barking like a Republican was knocking on the door or something! I got on my bathrobe, flung open the front door and turned on the porch light, and my crippled canine companion took after one of the intruding creatures like a bat out of hell, I swear breaking Mach 2.3 as he streaked out of sight attempting to run down the interloper! I never saw this dog move so fast since I first brought him home! Anyway, satisfied that he had protected the Hold from enemy, he came happily back quickly when I called for him to return. He was granted a well-earned dog treat as he settled smugly back onto his dog bed. "Come into MY territory, dare you........." he must have been thinking in doggy thought as he enjoyed his treat and I returned to the comfort of my bed.

I can't believe how the prices of gas and groceries has gone up this last several months. If I don't get a SERIOUS cost of living increase this year, we are really going to be hurting. I imagine most of the country is suffering much the same hits as we are, so I hope like hell we can kick these conservative bastards out and get a handle on this fiscal mess they have left us as they retire on their handsome government pensions that congress hasn't got the balls to take away from them AFTER indicting them for treason.

I need to ask a favor of my remaining few loyal readers. I really need you to push this blog, to tell all those millions of readers that you guys enjoy to take a peek at us here at Pendragon Hold. I know that your endorsements will really bring the fan base that we want so very much. Matter of fact, for every ten readers you turn onto TTEM, I will award each of you one hundred warm fuzzies, which is the official currency here at the Hold. Unfortunately, we have not been able to establish an exchange rate between our WM's and the American Dollar, but we are in negotiations with Liberia, the same folks who will flag anybody's tanker or rust bucket freighter, no matter how unsafe they might be, for the right amount of money. We are also hoping to get some Nigerian government official to deposit a shit-load of our freshly minted fuzzies in one of their banks so that we can draw upon them with a debit card. Also, those who turn us onto 50 new readers will get a TTEM coffee mug, just as soon as we can negotiate their manufacture without the lead paint in China. We will keep you informed of any progress.

On the news front, we have had a tragically huge automotive pile-up on Interstate 4 North of Tampa. A combination of forest-fire smoke and fog conspired to reduce the visibility on the highway to almost zero, setting off a chain of collisions that so far has claimed the life of four people. You can see the full story HERE if you haven't seen it already on the national news.

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this episode of TTEM and will return next time when Timmy tells Lassie his job has been given to an illegal Sharpei. Will Lassie attack?

* He was just kidding, folks, he didn't really mean it.

New Year's Resolution Song

2008-01-03T04:51:00.001-08:00

I thought you guys might like this one.

Fast Eddy and the Four Shots (or a New Years that only I might Remember)

2007-12-31T20:20:00.000-08:00

It's 10.58 as I start this post on this New Year's Eve, and let me tell ya, the fun has already happened and is now being put to bed.

You see, I made the mistake of inviting my good friend Eddy, a young fellow PCT at my hospital who has a knack for making people like him simply by being so damn frigging likable, over to the hold to meet The Evil Twin on his way home from work. I should have known he'd bring a bottle of Jose Quervo with him, and it all went downhill from there.

Three, no, make that four, I think, shots later (I only had one because I don't do straight hard liquor but was bullied into it by the others, and I have to admit it DID go down alot smoother than I anticipated), Eddy said his good-nights, seeing that he, like myself, have to work tomorrow, and besides, his wife and kids were probably wondering where he was by then. It was shortly after Mr. instigator left that the full effect of the tequila began to make itself known by the increasingly strange behavior of my Soul Mate and my Offspring, Goddess bless them both.

The wife began a non-stop cacophony of laughter whilst sitting on her ass while the daughter struck up an online conversation with a girl friend she had left back in Arizona, who was obviously much more sober than this crowd and was enjoying the spectacle, via webcam, of my two drunk relations, while I, THE very much sober and ever-responsible Man of the Manor looked on and shook his head.

It is yet another hour before 2008 sashays its way into our time zone, and already the Daughter has emptied her stomach on our porch and THE Wife, Bob bless her, has passed out cold in the bed room, in the bed I somehow managed to get her into before she lost consciousness. My only regret is that the battery in our camcorder hasn't been recharged, robbing me of the opportunity to gather mucho blackmail material in living color.

As I type this and get ready for the New Year, THE Daughter is still upchucking in her bathroom quite loudly, and I am almost tempted to feel sorry for her. I won't, tho, because I am sure the fun she had tonight was worth every heave she is now experiencing. Would any of us in our heyday give back the experiences we enjoyed that led to our worshiping at the porcelain Goddess? I think not.

If this blog had been an enterprise that measured it's success by the numbers of faithful readers or some amount of money it might have garnered, you know and I know it would have been a roaring failure of utter proportions. Since you nor I have measured this vessel by visitations to ports of such kind of worth, I am proud to say that in such case this blog has been a success beyond measure, in that it has allowed me to vent my inner demons, tell a few tales, and share what makes me THE Michael with folks like YOU, my few and faithful readers who have stuck with me through thick and thin and allowed me to think of all of you as some sort of brother, sister, drinking buddy, or fellow sojourner, and I want to thank all of you for the pleasure of your company.

So, go forth and welcome in one more year, a year we are becoming fortunate to experience, as each one that now comes along might very well be our last as a species. Go forth and do what you can to somehow hold onto what made this planet the oasis in space that it has been for millennia, and still can be with a bit more careful stewardship. And last but certainly not least, may you all be blessed by whatever department in this universe has been handed the unenviable job of even considering such a thankless task. Blessed Be!

Not ANOTHER Blog......sheesh!

2007-12-28T16:13:00.000-08:00

Hi guys, if you would all (three of you) glance over at the links, you will notice a new addition, "The Perfectly Proper Pagan". Now, if you put two and two together, you might arrive at the suspicion that I have produced yet another blog bound to meet the same sad fate as all the other literary experiments I have engaged in, and you would be right, at least concerning the existence, however brief that might be, of another blog. There, you will be greeted by an examination of my experiences with Wicca, the path I have chosen to take me towards my own personal fluffy cloud complete with optional stereo harp, endless supply of fat free cream cheese spread, and genuine faux leather lazy boy. If anything I say there makes you angry or want to riot in the street, please move to Pakistan where rioting in the street is common and perhaps even encouraged.

Oh, and remember, the views and opinions expressed within the hallowed pages of The Perfectly Proper Pagan are strictly those of The Perfectly Proper Pagan, and have nothing whatsoever to do with These Thoughts Escape Me, the management of Blogger, or the United States Department of the Interior. Void where prohibited. Opinions may differ in Alaska or Hawaii. Read with care as contents may be hot and pose a scalding hazard.

See you there!

2007-12-20T11:07:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, I know, you don't have to tell me (and, incidentally, nobody did) that it's been more than a few days since I posted last. Well, c'mon, I was injured, and my life is sooooo exciting that I've been spending so much time living it that I haven't had time blogging about it. Would you believe I was too busy reading YOUR blogs to post to my own? Would you........oh, never mind.

Fine then, I'll post. I'll tell you that the evil twin is returning from her aborted adventures in internet romance and will be nesting here for awhile, all to the tune of "we told you so", which really pisses her off when she hears it more than once in the same day from the same person. I don't blame her, though. She's not the first person whose fallen for the soul-mate-on-the-other-side-of-the-monitor, and she won't be the last, and if I was her age (or younger) and alone I probably would have taken the same chance. That's life. And we ALL get to live it.

Back here, our new baby goat Pepper is settling in and learning how to outrun Billy, who's being a jealous bastard and trying to butt the poor little thing every chance he gets, just to show the little guy who's boss, who's got the horns, and who outweighs everybody else by about a hundred pounds. One day, Billy, one day......

THE Witch, also known as THE Wife, is spending all week preparing for our Winter Solstice/Yule celebration. There's this one part of the ceremony I have to memorize because mainly it will be done in the dark with no light to read by. I HATE memorizing anything these days because one, my brain is old and shriveled, and two, I thought I didn't have to study anymore. Then I married a Witch. Sigh......

The workman's comp quack has put me on conditional full duty, allowing me to return to work and still get in my last visit to the physical terrorpist. I really do not like being on light duty, since all they allow you to do is baby sit crazy or old and senile patients, and sitting on your butt for 12 straight hours staring at a TV is not all it's cracked up to be, let me tell you! Now, if I can just avoid another back injury this year........

The good folks in Ireland have named one of my favorite libations after none other than me, THE Michael. Yes, folks, you can now purchase "Michael's Celtic Irish Cream" at your local liqueur store and spirit emporium! You'll love it, or my name isn't.......ah........wasitsnameagin.....ah, YES.....THE Michael!

I am so jealous of THE Wife, though. This new job of hers is just fantastic. The two Eye doctors who own this place hold a Christmas party every year for all the employees and it is one fine shindig. It's a formal party so of course all the men folk (just about all the employees are female, so they get to drag their other halves to the party with them) wore suits, except me and a couple of others, because I, THE Michael, wears ties for NO ONE. I DID wear a corduroy sport jacket, though, so I wasn't a total slob. There were games, a really nice buffet, a gift exchange, and something I thought went the wayside of employers who actually gave a damn, a Christmas bonus check! Wow! This party was held in the Doctor's mansion down by the river, by the way. However, what really impressed me the most was the champaign toast he gave to all the employees. He really made them feel as though he credited THEM with all his success. MY Job? I get to keep my job.

We here at Pendragon Hold, being Pagans, do not celebrate Christmas, however, we do wish the best tidings of the year to all of you who do, and truly hope the new year approaches your hearths, holds, and homes with good fortune and bright blessings. May YOUR Deities smile upon you all, and may your path towards whatever nirvana you strive to find be smooth and worth every step you take towards it. For myself, THE Wife, and all our family, HAPPY YULE, and BLESSED BE YOU ALL!

Dying in the Winner's Circle

2007-12-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

I doubt very many people, if any, are going to like me very much after they read this post. There is always a great big downside to complete honesty, which is why I suppose we tend not to practice it very often. Admit it, the way your husband snores at night makes you want to choke the life out of him, but he makes up for it in the waking hours which makes you grin and bear it. And you don't share your homicidal fantasies with him, now do you? The feeling could be mutual and you really don't have time for a petty war, not with the kid's soccer and the holidays coming up.......

Apparently, the human race could never function under a cloud of brutal honesty; never has and never will. Governments all over the world throughout history have done things to their own citizens, as well as those of others, and then have attempted to cover up the fact these things ever happened, hoping that no one will have to deal with the painful, ugly truth until such time everybody would just as soon let sleeping dogs lie, much like the Turkish Massacre of Armenians that has strangely shared very little of the the spotlight the jews enjoyed for THEIR genocide. How many people know that the United States conducted over 300 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests before we quit doing it? Have any idea how much radioactive contamination that poured into our biosphere? Do you really care these days, since your children aren't glowing at night? I didn't think so.

Previous administrations here in the good old U.S. of A. have kept their dirty secrets close to the vest lest those uncomfortable truths resulted in some serious head bowling. Usually our heads of state are dead before the records are unsealed and we find out how close we came to Armageddon or why half our families came down with strange cancers. So, can anybody tell me why state secrets ARE state secrets? You, in the back, shut up. No one cares.

And that's the crux of the matter, really. Nobody cares. Not really. This administration has lied through it's teeth to us for two terms now and we KNOW they've been lying to us. Sure, we like to think that so much of this bullshit has been overlooked because we WANT to believe the fantasies the Bush administration has been weaving for us, or because we've been afraid, or because most of us HAS ours and we could care less about those who don't. We eat our young, and we spoil our own nests like there's no tomorrow, and guess what.....there really might NOT be, thanks to our rampant consumption of everything we can get our mitts on to sell to someone else so that we can drive our expeditions and live in McMansions and wear lots of bling because frankly we seem to have so little else to do with our empty lives.

I would give us all the benefit of the doubt if the nature of intelligence was such that it's really not all it's cracked up to be, but for Bob's sake, I have seen the paintings and sculptures, I have heard the music, I have read the poetry and that crap Shakespeare wrote and I have had the pleasure of owning an Apple computer, and to me all that adds up to so much wonderment..........

So why do we do what we do? Why has it turned out that evolving into sentience has become our very own frankenstein moment? How is it possible that we can commit the atrocities we do and witness what we do and not be driven instantly insane? Or ARE we insane, only we are too smart to realize it?

I have been watching that show Heroes on NBC about a motley group of misfit genetically advanced human beings who are attempting to not draw unwanted attention while at the same time either trying to do evil things or save the world, who wants to do which not always being clear. As the season finale draws to a close, we find out who wants to release a killer virus which promises to wipe out the human race, and why. He's been alive for over 400 years and has become fed up with watching the human race continue year after year avoiding it's potential while dragging the rest of the world down with it. Now, you're usual response to such a person is that he's the bad guy and we have to rid ourselves of him, this evil judas creature out to destroy mankind.

Why?

Tell me exactly what makes him wrong, about what he's trying to do, and why?

Why DO we deserve some special consideration?

The dinosaurs were pretty damn successful for their time and certainly weren't doing anything in particular to deserve the world getting whacked with a big rock and ending THEIR reign.

So what makes US so special, especially considering the fact that we can build and detonate nuclear weapons, change the very climate of the world, and poison the rest of it with all manners of chemicals and waste products? We can create the Sidney Opera House, the Statue of Liberty, Michaelangelo's David, A River Runs Through it, etc.........Big deal. We can allow one tribe in Africa to wipe out another tribe and not raise a finger to stop it because, DUH, they don't have oil. Feeling sick yet? Not in the slightest? Well, there you have it.

Fifty two years; that's how long I've had to grow and learn and experience and fail and succeed and fail again and observe and laugh and cry and somehow get to where I am now which is somewhere between the Buckingham Palace and the Shanty towns of South Africa. I am well fed yet maybe a couple of paychecks above abject poverty. How I got here has as much to do with my own efforts as much as the conditions I grew up in. It is what it is.

And I am so angry, so disillusioned, so fed up with what this species has done with it's potential that I have lost that basic species specific loyalty everybody takes for granted. The aliens invade, we stand together and fight back.........right?

Maybe not. Maybe some of us think we are on the losing side no matter who wins.

Because, after all, winning is everything, right?

Yea..........right.

2007-12-02T15:15:00.000-08:00

Introducing PEPPER, THE Wonder Kid!

You are now free to ohhhhhhh and ahhhhhhhhh.

Thank you and Blessed Be!

A Little Pepper, Please.........

2007-12-01T15:44:00.000-08:00

How long's it been since my last post? I lose track. It has been an interesting week here at Pendragon Hold. Lessee.....where to start.

Trying to be a nice guy and help even out the schedule at work, I moved my days around to help fill in the short ones and get out of the overstaffed days, only to find afterwards that I had scheduled myself for four shifts straight. Uh-oh....... Big deal, you think, a lot of people work more days in a row then that. Well, these are four TWELVE (12) (XII) (One Dozen) hour shifts, friends, and even though I thought it wouldn't really be so bad, I changed my mind about that by the morning after that fourth shift. The morning I woke up with shoulders and neck so sore I seriously thought I might have contracted meningitis from a patient. Well, no, I didn't pick up some deadly bug; it's just that I'm not the spring chicken I used to be and that four day stretch was something I wasn't used to. It's even rare that I find myself ever working three shifts in a row; I usually work only two with a few days off till the next run. I think I learned my lesson. No more mister nice guy.

The good twin and hubby came up to visit, and they got us a nice gift we had been lusting after for some time.......one of those metal fireplaces. It is painted black with moons and stars cut into the side, which is PERFECT for our shade garden/magik circle. We love it!

The Focus (our car, not a visual exercise) had been acting up electrically, so after a few episodes of having to beg for jumps after listening to the radio while parked, I bit the bullet and got a new battery. Five years plus is not bad for a battery, I suppose. The eighty bucks I had to pay for that new one kinda hurt, though.

The Wife has been after me to check into getting some stud service for our pygmy goats, the ones we affectionately refer to as "the twins". No, not THOSE twins......
Anyway, I was asking around at the feed store, then a local Veterinarian, and was directed to a dog grooming store which JUST HAPPENED to have a note advertising baby pygmy goats for a very reasonable price. I called the lady selling them and we'll be heading out to look at them when THE Wife gets off of work. I'll stop this post long enough to report back later as to what transpired.

Speaking of THE Wife and her work........I knew from the git-go that anyone who wanted an excellent employee would be very happy with this woman of mine. Her employer has become so impressed with her in the relatively short time she's been with them that they already want her to train hard to be promoted. One of the Doctors spoke to her of "being the future of the business....". Wow! Pretty heavy compliment! I'm so proud of her!

These Thoughts Escape Me almost disappeared from the netscape this week when Yours Truly, in an attempt to remove duplicate files and extra stuff from his hard drive, wiped out almost everything including passwords, preferences, photo's, a ton of music, etc. At the same time our backup hard drive decided to go on the blink, leaving me with an emasculated iMac.

So, after figuring out that the power supply to the hard drive was the real culprit, I invested in a couple of hard drive enclosures, and was able to get at all that data held hostage by these drives back into the computer, and now everything is exactly as it should be, including a much smarter, wiser THE Michael who has learned not to throw away things without much MUCH more careful consideration. I only know enough about computers to be dangerous. If I wasn't so math challenged I WOULD be a geek.

We Wiccans do NOT celebrate Christmas.......however.....we DO celebrate Yule, and the Winter Solstice, and this has given THE Wife an aggravating excuse to drag out all these Christmas ornaments and decorate the whole interior of the house with them...grrrrrrr. Yes, we used to do the Christmas thing, but long before I embraced my inner pagan, I was getting fed up with "tis the season to spend spend spend...". She has lot's of secular christmas stuff like snowmen and claims the Santa ornaments are actually the Holly King....sigh.......as long as she doesn't have me up on the roof stringing lights, I guess I can grin and bear it. If only it would snow..........

OK, this is all I can think of for now, so hang loose till I get back with THE Wife, and I'll let you know if we adopted any more babies.

Time passes....................

I'm back. There's tilapia baking in the oven, while Prairie Home Companion is playing on the radio. I went and got the Wife and took her to go hunt down this metaphysical shop we had learned about. What a find! This place has everything and then some, and the prices are very reasonable. So THE Wife acquires a new silver plated chalice for the alter and a new tarot deck. On the way back to the part of town we live in I called the lady with the goats and got her answering machine. Darn! I think we were running late so perhaps she had left. Then, after we got home we tried again and it turned out she was waiting on my call with her cellphone while I had her home phone number. Minor mixup, but we ended up at her place and boy was it a ZOO! On top of having a decent HERD of goats, mostly pygmies, she had geese and chickens and turkeys and donkeys and.......well.....who knows what else.

So, now we have a new member of the family here at Pendragon hold. We brought home a tiny, cute as hell little guy whom we've named Pepper. I would show you guys a picture but it was getting dark as we got him home and the camera battery died on me. Maybe tomorrow. Hopefully he'll be the future Poppa of our herd. Sorry, Billy, but I guess you are regulated to big bad protector.

Yes, it's been an interesting week here at Pendragon Hold. Thanks for stopping by. Blessed be!

Black, Black Friday

2007-11-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

I used to be one of them, more or less. Perhaps I was a lower form of life, due to evolve should I live long enough and actually think to look around and question my existence and how I fit into it. Yes, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I was young once, and I was a CONSUMER.

Yes, I know, you could argue that technically, I am still very much a consumer, no more innocent than those hordes of mutant capitalists descending upon the malls and Walmarts in search of commercial prey. Yet, I can smugly insist that one, I do not have the disposable income these creatures seem to have at their disposal, money they apparently have above and beyond what is necessary to live a comfortable life here in America. No, most of my moohlah goes towards food, shelter, and clo.......well, maybe SOME clothing, but I am still wearing apparel I bought 20 years ago and believe it or not, folks, some of this stuff really does last. Second, I would like to think that should I happen by some miracle be inundated by bushels of cash, that I could find something much more useful to do with it than running to malls and throwing it at retailers in return for tons of stuff that will not make me any happier than I was without it. There ARE still people starving that need not be. Or maybe we could use a pharmaceutical company that actually develops CURES for things instead of stuff that only manages symptoms, when fed with lots of greenbacks. And third, for Bob's sake, I would like to think I have a higher purpose in this universe than shopping and consuming STUFF for lack of anything else to do.

Yes, there are things I lust after, such as a better computer or a larger television or even maybe a nicer car. But sometimes you get to that point where good enough really is good enough and the bells and whistles aren't worth the extra money. Also, I truly believe that despite the fact that we can't actually rid ourselves entirely of commerce, we CAN spend our money much more intelligently than we do now, especially those of us who DO spend lots of it and can influence what gets manufactured and how. There is a really idiotic demand for plastic garbage that certainly could be directed in other directions. We could be driving low and no emission cars right now, relatively cheaply, if consumers had only shunned the gas-guzzling monsters Detroit has been giving the public, an entitled public that has insisted on the biggest, fastest, least ecologically friendly conveyances you could give them. We would have solar panels on pretty much every roof in America had Americans demanded we invest in the infrastructure that could deliver most of our electrical demand from the sun, the wind, or whatever other method not requiring the burning of fossil fuels, which will run out on us if it doesn't kill us first.

So, black Friday to me means just that, BLACK Friday, a day of mourning, a day of horrid realization of just how cheap and empty our values have become. So get out there, America, and shop till you drop. Isn't that what Jesus would do?*

*Or rather, what would Jesus HAVE done. He is, after all, dead, and has been, for a very, very long time.

You don't HAVE to read this, you know.........

2007-11-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

While searching for something witty, clever, and/or interesting to write today, I decided to simply call up textedit and start writing until such time that something witty, clever, and/or interesting happened to come out of my ass. Not that all things that I write that happen to fit this criteria makes it's way onto these pages via my ass, mind you, but today seems like as good an ass day as any. I know alot of you feel that you have to stop and wonder what the fuck I am talking about right now, but I assure you that that is not necessary, for the meaning of these words will gang up on you and beat their meaning into you very shortly.

Really.

In no time at all.

Just have a little patience.

While I'm waiting for whatever it is I promised up there in the proceeding (or is that preceding) paragraph to occur, I want to mention that this post was semi-inspired by a new blog I discovered via comments. I'm listening to a semi-awesome (sorry, but flat out awesome to me is Pink Floyd) video by a band (I assume it's a band, since it's three guys with musical instruments dressed in space suits playing said instruments) called SpaceShip One, either that, or the album they are recording, I don't know, I'm not paying attention, I'm trying to write here, OK?!

So go check out this guy at http://theessentialshot.blogspot.com/ and see what you think. I think he's worth a bookmark. Do you have any idea what it takes to make it onto my, THE Michael's, bookmark folder? You don't want to know.

So, back to the point of this post, which is that there IS no point to this post. I have just merrily wasted a good minute at least of your valuable time and I do not in the least feel guilty about it. Now, THE Michael, why would you do such a horrible thing to all those people who love you so? WHY? Because this is EXACTLY the kind of insanity my good friends expect from me, THE Michael, and I'll be DAMNED if I'm going to let them down! Nosirree, I am if nothing one dependable chap when it comes to less-than-steller expectations and sorta-surprises.

You may now return to your favorite sit-com.

Unless you want to stick around and maybe join us by a nice fire tonight.

Bring your own beer.

And an extra six of Corona for me.

What HE said........

2007-11-19T14:12:00.000-08:00

A recent visitation upon sweet Ms Cellania's realm hath indeed inspired me, to articulate this post in familiar fashion, to that of one dead bard, a cad indeed who did upon his employment do great damage to a language and the lives of students who would by any other name, be something other than a slave to an understanding of an oafs laments, such that most of us would have laid upon the definition of this foul persons' influence upon literature and our very lives.

Yet, you doth find me here, laboring upon key after key in such fashion that joined together, their labors dare add up and amount to such an array of ideas, and fashions, and travesties that assault one's eyes and understandings that a minority of thee should stare at this and think me insane if not an idiot, whilst those of you more cultured for some ungodly reason might think this a snippet of refinement, an attempt to lull the Gods of Muse to sleep and refresh them in their slumbers, but alas, tis only an exercise in finding a precise moment to insert a necessary period, thus ending this seemingly everlasting paragraph that would serve so many of us in much better stead as an abbreviation, rather than this abomination it has become.

I dare would attempt to impart SOME fashion of understanding during this exercise, which indeed it is, for even now my readers beg of me some resolution to this practice of a language never meant to be tortured so, yet, I would soldier on in some vain if not foolhardy attempt to instruct thee, brave observer, in some knowledge that would serve thee, if not me, in some fashion most charitable and of some snippet of value. Alas, what could one possible say here upon this page amongst this jumble of mumble that would impart to thee that I even now am aware of a waft of aroma that ventures from that room made famous by repast, and sustenance, that speaks of Italy, of tomatoes and sausages and pasta and a blending of gastronomic alchemistry.........ah, it would indeed drive thee mad and induce thee to reach forth thru your conveyance to this place and capture for thyself some example of this nirvana I do prepare whilst I toil upon this keyboard.

Escape, you foul interloper, and do not think to acquire this meal that shall greet my spouse as she returns from labors that bring to this stead the bacon we subside upon. Remove thyself, for thou shalt NOT dip into the treasure of the pleasure that I create with the fruit of our Earth. No, this night no invitation has been forwarded, not to this table, for you art far removed and would dare seek to find this a cold, cold plate upon which to gorge yourself, and thus your appetite would not be so well served.

However, I WOULD prepare such a feast, my dear visitor, such that you might never encounter in all your travels, not tainted with the fame of some able chef of consequence, but of my humble efforts, of my humble supplies, and my humble desire that it be pleasing to both your palette and your stomach. Thus, invite thyself to this table, ask of what travels ye might avail thyself of to find this place, and put upon yourself the task to come here and know fellowship, kindness, and what little I might offer one who would call themselves friend, even upon the most harrowing of moments and circumstance. It is warm, and tasty, and real.

Merry meet.

Merry part,

And Merry meet again.

Trickle Down Blogging

2007-11-17T18:32:00.000-08:00

With change comes challenge, such as the adaption pains I am experiencing breaking in this new Operating System on my computer. I have had a few hiccups trying to get all my old system preferences, passwords, etc re-integrated into the new one, which was complicated due to my upgrading the iMac's internal hard drive from an 80 to a comparative monster 500 gigs of storage capacity. Now the external firewire hard drive I had been running on trying to get things copacetic on the main drive has decided to go south on me, forcing me to go with the internal drive "as is". The problems I am experiencing are by no means the fault of the computer, since I did not use a straight-forward upgrade strategy as I have usually been able to do in the past when I did not have to juggle hard drives in the middle of an Operating System upgrade.

I find myself yearning for the glory days when this blog had a fan base that almost exceeded a baker's dozen. I know, I never have had a comment box that could run almost a hundred comments on a regular basis like the Buffalo or HE or Ms Celenia, but it WAS a heady feeling when I could count on at least 6 at a time on average. Sigh.......already I feel like Ricky Nelson on an oldies tour. Well, that's what happens when the content of your blog tends to be somewhat Chinese......you know......read a post and still feel hungry. My life wouldn't measure up against one episode of Gun smoke or the Andy Griffin Show, and my rants and raves have yet to solve any of the world's problems, thus you have a blog deserving of it's following, or lack of one, rather.

But some of you actually stick with me.

Masochism or simple pity, I don't care, I am so very appreciative of you that have stuck with me.

Glancing at my own list of blogs that I try and follow, I am surprised how narrow it is and how very few of them are new. Seems I know what I like and have found very few new reads that give me consistent pleasure as you guys have.

I'm listening to Austin City limits to yet another band/singer never heard of before but seems to already have at least a cult following. Some of these groups seem to by sliding by on being different, rather than on any real talent. Well, more power to them, the world needs such distractions, doncha think?

The wife is still having troubling avoiding things that cause an allergic reaction, and the Ford is having battery issues. I ripped up MOST of the carpet in the master bedroom, but don't have enough spare laminate planks to finish the floor off. I'll have to keep my eye out for wood on sale to finish it off with, and we aren't to picky about the color, as long as snap together properly. No one's gonna see it but us, and we won't be having Martha Stewart over any time soon.

I AM beginning to worry about how the economy is effecting us here at Pendragon Hold lately. Gas is now over $3 a gallon, and I've seen the prices at the supermarket creeping up steadily. Our income isn't going up anywhere near the rate our expenses are, and I'm sure this is effecting almost all of us whose incomes are almost fixed. Perhaps some of the billions of cash that the Bush gang has fed Haliburton will somehow trickle down to us. Oh......wait.......wrong Republican.

That was Reagan. I'm STILL waiting for HIS trickle down.

Thank Them

2007-11-12T04:59:00.000-08:00

Today we are going to pay lip service to honoring a class of American that is one of the most abused, glorified, misunderstood, ignored, and "celebrated" groups ever to earn a classification. These are the guys and gals who raised their hands, swore to defend the constitution of the United States of America, against ALL enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC, and survived that promise, not always in one piece or of sound mental condition.

No, not all of them necessarily took that oath out of patriotism or by choice. Many, if not most, embarked upon that great adventure with visions of heroism, of wearing the white hat and taking on the bad guys, of coming home to the adoring swoons of the girls they went to high school with who might now give them a second glance, now that they had proven their manhood. Most if not all of them went with the barest shades of possibility on their minds that they might return with missing limbs or not at all. The young are invincible, and only cold, stark reality can ever prove them wrong.

These men and women saved our collective bacon more than once, over the span of decades that promised to teach us lessons we refuse to learn. The wars to end all wars didn't, and short of a major alteration in the nature of man, never will. We are an aggressive species, and we thrive on banging the drum and proving dominance one way or another, up to and including the utter extinction of our enemies. These men and women did not participate in sterile wars where everybody obeyed the rules and no one bled when shot. These men and women witnessed and participating in things we do not talk about. We cannot talk about. We are, after all, civilized.

During the worst of this situation many of us still refer to as a war, the Pentagon bragged about how easily they were filling their ranks with fresh, eager, patriotic bodies. Today I am hearing how the recruiters are having to lower their standards drastically in order to fill these uniforms, even allowing the enlistment of those with felony criminal records. I'd be surprised if the lack of a high school education is considered much of a barrier to enlistment these days. It doesn't take an associates in science degree to get ripped apart by an IED.

Go tell the Spartans that the mighty have fallen. Go tell those who love us that now more than ever we need their love. Go tell those who once feared and respected us that for eight years, we lost our collective mind. And go tell a veteran you're sorry for the sacrifice you required him/her to make so that you could stuff your SUV with junk from China, where we will be sending them next to die for another really good cause.

It's Evening in American..........

2007-11-09T11:06:00.000-08:00

The news as of late has been rather overwhelming. Pakistan is in a higher state of turmoil than usual, with Bush's military lap-dog/dictator suspending the Pakistani constitution and jailing every lawyer in case one of them might want to practice law. While Musharraf is packing the jails with protestors (mostly lawyers), the Taliban is brazenly taking over one end of the country, apparently not the least bit concerned that the Pakistani army will use any of the new hardware we are buying them to take back that territory. Meanwhile, there are nuclear weapons sitting in a supposedly safe place within easy reach of Bin Laden if he really, really wanted them.

The economy is getting real stupid. Having given free reign to the capitalists, we are now reaping the benefits of a free market, which has freely been losing money down a deep, dark hole called the sub-prime mortgage market. What is this, you ask? Well, what you do is you go after people who are barely getting by as it is, loan them a ton of money they could never hope to repay, especially since you conned them into signing for a mortgage that starts out with a nice little interest rate which balloons into an outrageous rate guaranteed to put the borrower into default. Of course, a whole phalanx of middle men get nice commissions to generate these deals which in any other world would be recognized as the blatantly predatory deals that they really are and never allowed by law in the first place. Then, when the shit hits the fan and the chickens come home to roost, you report huge loses and shrug your shoulders and lay people off, grab yourself a nice golden parachute and retire to the Bahamas. Isn't that what the American dream is all about?

Add to that this strange mechanism we have which allows people to buy huge chucks of oil supplies, jack up the price on said supplies, and sell them BACK to the oil companies far in excesses of their true value, using such excuses as "the President of Iran cut a fart at the negotiating table; that's worth at least $1.50 a barrel....." The Republicans like to remind us how good they are at national security issues, while they conveniently overlook how their friends are threatening our security by artificially inflating energy and commodity prices simply to line their own pockets while we common folk wonder how we are going to afford to get to work or pay for that tomato that trucker is paying a hefty ransom to get to the supermarket.

Don't even get me started on the insurance companies, the ones who will soon begin denying claims filed by all those white, semi-rich Californians who got burnt out of house and home this summer. Or, maybe not, since DUBYA assured them that we Americans really, really care about them, as opposed to poor, black Americans in Southern Louisiana.

I honestly am beginning to believe that this administration has caused more harm to this nation than Richard Nixon could have ever hoped to. I truly believe that the entire Bush Administration and all his neo-con taskmasters should be brought up on charges, convicted by a jury of their peers, and sent to prison WITHOUT the benefit of any kind of pardon. No golden parachutes for Dick Cheney. No bronze statues of Donald Rumsfield outside the Pentagon. No pension for Karl Rove and his merry band of election riggers. If we cannot hold THIS band of crooks accountable for the mess they made of our government, then we might as well give up on this idea of America and what it always stood for, at least to those of us who truly loved her.

And let's give our wounded veterans first dibs on the firing squads.

The Attack of the Peanut Butter Sandwich

2007-11-05T05:08:00.000-08:00

Well, just as things ratchet down to a quiet roar here at the Hold, something rears it's ugly head to casually mention that the Universe is one chaotic SOB. The wife has been having problems with rashes and stopped-up ears, so we take her to an allergist to get tested, and sure enough, "test it and it will BE!"

Now we know why she broke out in a bright red rash on her chest when she had that peanut butter sandwich. She's allergic, to some extent, to both peanuts and wheat. She is also sensitive to dust mites, as well as just about every weed that grows like, well, weeds, here at Pendragon Hold.

Poor thing. Her arms look like a masochists' idea of a pin cushion and they are still sore. Part of her daily repertoire now is taking allergy medicines like claritan and benedril to tamp down the symptoms. We are waiting to find out if the insurance is going to cover allergy shots or not. And I get to tear up the carpet in the bedroom now. I get to do that today. My knees are arranging a coup even as I type this.

We had a nice little Samhain (that's All-Hallows' Eve, or Halloween for you monotheistic types) celebration, despite the ever present threat of rain, made possible by the brainstorm I had concerning stringing up a tarp between the trees over the alter area in the shade garden. For some reason, the forecast will predict great weather unless we are planning something like a ceremony outdoors, in which case monsoon rains will suddenly appear. The tarp solves that problem.

The twins (not the human offspring, but the pigmy fainting goats, Sorcha and Sanya) have been escaping the yard by lifting up the bottom of the wire fence that they have bowed severely outward by rubbing up against it. My neighbors are sooooo understanding, coming to get me to let me know the goats are on the loose. Well, I solved THAT little problem, at least for now. The fence is in such bad shape I really need to replace it with the woven type rather than the cheaper welded kind I have strung now. The two major problems with that right now is that a 330 foot roll of the good stuff goes for about $130 and is really quite heavy. Even if I can manage to get a roll of it into the car, I will still need THE Wife's help moving it around the property and stretching it out.

So instead I purchased an electric fence set up for half the price which was very easy to string up and seems to solve the problem. One wire stretched across the bottom of the fence on the inside and the twins are discouraged with extreme prejudice NOT to stick their heads under the wire.

One of my favorite bands has come out with a new album, and it proves that old rockers don't fade away, they can still pull off that magic, even if they MIGHT have to take some ibuprofen before a recording session. The Eagles are selling a double disk album out of Walmart for only around $11, and I dare say it's worth a lot more than that. They are all new songs and would be getting heavy airplay right now if only there remained a radio station that played that kind of music anymore. The oldies stations won't be playing it because, well, it's not OLD, and the new "rock" stations don't play what we old farts would call rock and roll anymore. No, nowadays its noise from whiny nerds complaining about their girlfriends doing their best friends, or some dark irrelevant crap that isn't meant to improve one's mood. I'm sure a lot of people would consider most of this music to be Country, but I would have to disagree with them, if only because I wouldn't listen to anything considered country unless it was the kind of music The Eagles perform. You gotta love a band that doesn't once question people's patriotism in order to come across as genuinely American.

Also, I performed some rather scary surgery on the iMac, upgrading the hard drive to a 500 gig monster and the OS to the latest, OSX 10.5 Leopard. I am happy to report that the computer did NOT explode, meltdown, or try to break into NORAD all on its own. It HAS been acting a little odd, however, insisting on being connected to what it claims is its counterpart somewhere in Russia, and insists that I call it COLOSSUS. Silly machine............

My Wacky Wiccan Ways

2007-10-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

After much contemplation, I feel I have to come clean about something. I am a "religious" person. This is not so much an admission as an affirmation, or perhaps a more narrowly defined definition of what my "belief" system amounts to. Now, I am being rather ironic with the term "belief", considering the fact that I rely very little on faith and much more on facts as I discover them. Facts are tricky things. Sometimes they can self-destruct on you, depending on where they originated in the first place. Take female hormones for example. Once, it was a "fact" that hormone replacement therapy could solve a whole host of problems that cropped up when a woman entered menopause. Later, low and behold, it was discovered that those same hormones could cause a whole host of new problems. The once touted "fact" that women should take hormones and avoid those hot flashes now became a hotly debated controversy that kinda ruined the value of any "fact" that was arrived at without all the necessary data to make such an assertion a "fact" to begin with. Thus, science, the new religion that promised to send superstition the way of the Dodo bird, has come under scrutiny for it's own faulty dogmas that make religion the mess that it is.

So, have I abandoned science like I abandoned Catholicism? Not hardly. Most of what science has given us has stood the test of time and scrutiny and cannot be contested by any new system of belief or discovery. Rock solid facts, one example being that granite is solid and will hurt you badly if you fall on it or run into it hard enough, have not nor will not ever be disputed by sane sentient beings. Yes, we will always be plagued by theories and assumptions based on math and physics as we understand them, leaving us vulnerable to challenge from the wackos who are determined to bow down to invisible men and point at demons whenever things go wrong, but that need not mean that we surrender to one extreme or the other. No, I will not give up the comfort of knowledge in exchange for the warm fuzzies of monotheism. However, I will not abandon my belief that via the spiritual I can know the science and vice versa. I "believe" the two coexist hand in hand, as long as one is not used to suppress the value of the other.

I could have claimed that as a Wiccan, one that does not believe in a invisible white male supreme being with a bad habit of staying out of sight and never taking responsibility for his works, I do not practice a religion. However, when it gets right down to it, even atheism is a religion. Atheists are as rabid about their facts and disbelief in ANY thing as any fundamentalist Baptists are about their Jesus. Perhaps the ONLY humans you could accuse of not being religious are those that are so self-centered and disinterested in their surroundings that the idea of believing in anything in particular is really beyond their comprehension, period. You can usually spot these people by the dead eyes in their blank faces.

So, does this "religion" of mine allow for good and evil? Well, yes, but not in the way a Christian would harness such concepts. Evil, in my opinion, is the controlled application of suffering and bad things by humans, nothing more, nothing less. Bad things happen in this world, be they accidents, storms, fires, drought, or anything that hurts and saddens us. But bad things happening are not by design nor are they personal. No one or no thing, God or Devil, wished these things upon us nor did they perpetrate them with malice and forethought. Bad things DO happen to us at the behest of our fellow man, however, that IS brought upon us with malice or malignant neglect. THAT, my fellow man, is evil. Bad behaviors that are perpetuated by bad people need not be attributed to some sort of demon or devil, for we need no assistance in that regard. Hitler was simply good at spreading the hate, and his followers were more than primed to revel in it. No, the devil did NOT make them do it. There IS no devil. Who the hell needs one?

The Church does. Not long after the word spread about the guy who got nailed to a cross and whose body came up missing, a mystical story was constructed about hope and transcendence that attracted a population long oppressed and bereft of any good feelings about life, the universe, or anything. Then came those who saw this as a way to control people through superstition and fear, and ran with it. Now the profession that paved the way to glory was the priesthood, and judeo-christianity was the perfect vehicle to control the masses without necessarily perfecting the police state. All you had to do was associate whatever behaviors you wished to control or eliminate with Evil, an evil specifically spawned by the opponent of God himself, the Devil, and you had whatever justification you needed to stamp it out, be it with the threat of excommunication, or burning at the stake, if need be. Of course, it never occurred to most people that the behaviors of those seeking to destroy evil reeked of evil itself, but as always, one man's evil was another man's seeking salvation.

Until rationality and the ability to question authority was made possibly by such atmospheres as the renaissance and democratic governments, the ability to think freely without the taint of religious dogma was fraught with danger, and was best done in the shadows. Thus, such pagan respect for nature and "the gods" that influenced human behaviors continued on out of sight of mainstream discussion, and is only now being brought out where it can be compared to what has bedeviled mankind for centuries. And, just like any religion which started out however innocently and with the best of intentions, many pagan belief systems have devolved into dogmas that challenge Christianity or any of the other "mainstream" world religions for a spot in the silly top ten. Wicca, as is practiced by myself and many others, is practiced carefully and with as much respect for the rational as is possible when one seeks to play with the forces of the universe. When we invoke "the gods", we do so with metaphysical tongue in cheek, for we are in fact addressing, thru metaphor and tools of focus, those processes in nature which have an impact on our lives. Some of us, like my wife, claim to have the sensitivity to detect and interact with other plains of existence (such as our dearly departed in the afterlife), while others, like myself, make no such claims, but have a measured respect for those that do. An atheist would "excommunicate" me for even suggesting that my wife might possibly be able to sense these things, which is why I consider him to be as much a fundamentalist as Jerry Falwell. I merely entertain the possibilities when enough anecdotal evidence exists to give such things the benefit of the doubt. Even now I still think UFO's might exist, despite the fact that I have yet to spot one. Yet, the only miracle I have ever witnessed is the fact that we haven't already killed each other off, so good at genocide as we are.

As a fictional character once quipped, "Nothing is impossible, only highly improbable." So, according to probability, I have no real fear of ending up in eternal damnation for daring to suggest the Pope go fuck himself. Likewise, chances are good that I can live a good life if I don't waste hours of it in church listening to fairy tales so I can go out and judge other people.

"Evil is as Evil does", and DUBYA, by that measure, you are downright fucking EVIL, no thanks to Satan. Same goes for you, Donald, Dick, and Carl. So where are the inquisitors when you need them?

That's MY religion and I'm sticking to it. Blessed be!

One Last Wish

2007-10-25T08:48:00.001-07:00

To see the stars before I die.

Deep Impact

2007-10-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

I don't understand this but it's the way it is. I have very few friends out here in the real world that I am close to enough to miss very much when out of their presence. Perhaps it's my stellar social skills at work, who knows. All I know is that for some reason, I DO happen to have some very close friends, or at least people I am very fond of, thanks to the internet. Now, I do want to assure you that I do not claim that these "relationships" are mutual; simply suffice it to say that there are people out there in the universe whom I never would have met otherwise that bring great pleasure to my life simply being who they are, even though I have never laid eyes upon them. Yes, I know it sounds like someone with issues....so sue me.

I and the love of my life have lived on the edge of lower-middle class, one bad day away from dirt poor, and yet I can honestly say that perhaps I might prefer it here in this rarified atmosphere than in the fast lane where people loose themselves and all perspective. I think perhaps it is because I know people like Buffalo Brown, a comrade-in-arms who understands many of the foibles of patriotism versus common sense and how nary the two seem to meet. Or Don Coppins, the "Homo-escapiens", a most brilliant "observationist" who has entertained myself and legions of fans all across the globe. Then there's the Whitesnake, a crusty old Aussie with the pure touch of the common man who tells it like it is and can still laugh about it. One man who serves my soul most deeply is Paul, whose "Wondering" fills me with wonder and makes me thirst to meet him and share an evening in the desert beneath the stars untainted by the glow of excess electricity.
One sweet woman we know of as "Kindness" is the sister we all wish we had. And as a Pagan, I know of no one who has provided me with a better grounding in seeking answers than Deo (of Deo's Shadow), a fellow pagan who like me dares not assume to know the mind of Gods.

Many of you, especially my fellow bloggers whom I visit on a regular basis, will come and go thru the corridors of my life, and I dare suggest that my life will have been richer for you having done so. Some of you have pissed me off and I have let you go, but nonetheless, you effected me in your own way and for even that I am grateful. Some of you have walked away of your own accord and I do not say goodbye to you, but wish you well till we meet again, even if it be on some other plain of existence, like a Grateful Dead Concert. And until we part ways in whatever fashion the fates deem appropriate, I will consider all of you, my "virtual" friends, a most vital and rewarding part of my life.

That's my view of a life somewhat well lived and I'm sticking to it.

Leopard on the Loose.......

2007-10-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

(Due to Blogger's Technical difficulties this night, the pic I had hoped to include with this post will not be posted. Thank you for your understanding. Please feel free to riot in the streets.)

Life has reached a sort of equilibrium here at Pendragon Hold; no looming disasters, no impending overwhelmingly good fortune. Life simply is......good.

I do have to admit to a certain restlessness when things have gotten rather static. Like any rational human, I am rather allergic to problems that crop up and threaten the stability of my world, but I also suffer somewhat when I have nothing really good to look forward to, such as some kind of monetary windfall or trip I get to take to somewhere I haven't yet been. Well, there is no money headed this way and as usual I am pretty much nailed down to the homestead here, but I DO have ONE thing I am looking forward to which is a rather narrow pleasure that only a select few get to enjoy.

I am a Mac Addict and OSX 10.5, Code Name 'LEOPARD" is about to be released and I pre-ordered a copy. If you are not a computer geek and/or you have the misfortune of being stuck in the Windows world, you probably have no earthly idea what I just said, but suffice it to say, the anticipation I am experiencing is somewhat akin to digital nirvana. OSX is the operating system of the premiere personal computer system ever devised, the Apple Mac (which comprises the Power Macs, the iMacs, the Mac Mini's, and the Apple notebooks). Any Microsoft Windows PC devotee who would have a bad word to say about this computer only is able to due to not having owned and used one, especially within the last five years. The company that Michael Dell once suggested should fold and return all it's money to it's investors now far surpasses Dell AND Gateway in yearly earnings and continues to grow in leaps and bounds thanks to the iPhone, the iPod, AND, yes, the desktop computers it is most famous (or) infamous for. Now, I realize that most of you, my otherwise wonderful and intelligent readers, happen to somehow find your way through the internet on a PC, but I don't hold it against you. As long as you can get your beige box to avoid a bug, virus, or "windows has encountered a FATAL error and must close now" long enough to read my post, I'm happy.

In the meantime, I have a three day stretch of shifts to work and then I am off for the week of Samhain, known to you gentiles as Halloween. THE Wife and I shall be making our pilgrimage to Cassadega, the Spiritualist town halfway down the Florida peninsula that hosts a pretty cool halloween walk. We'll be meeting the offspring there for the day. THE Wife is hoping to conduct a circle behind this one shop whose owner happens to practice the craft. I will be sending good thoughts out to all my blogging friends while the others connect with our dead ancestors and loved ones. Me, I am still somewhat unable to make that connection, but if the others REALLY can, then more power to them.

Tonight, we are taking advantage of a rain-free sky to sit out in the shade garden next to a nice fire and listening to nature and some music, the glow of a half-moon upon our shoulders. We will break out a bottle of red that is made in St Augustine, sweet enough to suit my palette, restrained enough to suit THE Wife's. We have this fold-out love seat that was given us as a housewarming gift way back in 2000 when we bought this place that still gives us great pleasure, and hopefully will for many a year to come. Aside from the fact that we can't afford much entertainment wise anyway, we really do have simple tastes, and enjoying a fire is one of them.

OK, we are back from the fire, and bedtime looms. I want to thank those few hardy souls who for whatever reason continue to follow the exploits of myself and those who call this acre of sand home. I know I don't have much to offer in the line of entertainment, but you can be rest assured that what you DO read here is the genuine article; 100% unadulterated life as we know it, without the fillers or the fluff.
We could jazz it up, but that would be sooooooooo Paris Hilton, now wouldn't it?

Blessed be.

Back to Blogging and All That Entails.......

2007-10-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing........AFTER they've tried everything else. A nice quote to start out my post with............

In order to handle the legal stuff and get our floor laid, I had taken the last week off of work, and tomorrow it's back to the grind. For almost the entire time off, it's been more like Bombay around here than Jacksonville. It has rained so hard and so steady that several times different places throughout the area have been flooded out, and several times I was worried about making it out of my own dirt road. All this water has really messed this dirt road up, putting deep ruts and potholes in it which make driving on it a real pain. It sure would be nice if the county would once and for all PAVE this damn road......sigh.

Once again the house looks like something habitable rather than the aftermath of a disaster. We are getting used to walking around on this new surface, and we do NOT miss that old moldy carpet in the least. We still have the carpet in the bedrooms, but they never suffered the outrages the carpet in the main room did, so it is in much better shape. All in all we are very happy with our make-over. I just wish our central air hadn't crapped out on us.

Since Shiloh, THE Dog, doesn't have the soft carpet to sleep and rub his hair off on, THE Wife made him a nice bed to sleep on. Shiloh has long nails that he prefers to chew on himself, so you can hear him "click-click-click" across the floor, and it's funny to see him try to get some traction on the new slick surface when he gets startled or tries to run in the house. The outside cat got startled once and I swear he was burning paws in one place for a full 5 seconds before he finally got moving!

It has actually begun to start cooling down a bit around here, especially with all the rain we've been having. I think we might actually see something resembling a Fall show up eventually, although the jury is out on wether or not Winter will really show up. As long as my cooling bill is driven down, I'm happy.

I'm watching a segment on World News Tonight about volunteers who are picking up the trash and garbage that tourists have been leaving, in of all places, Yosemite National Park. HUH? What in the FUCK are you people thinking, bringing your crap into this beautiful work of nature's art? You pack it in, you can damn well pack it back out again! I don't get it; when I hiked thru Denali National Park back in the 70's and 80's, the rules required that you bring back out anything you packed in. Anyway, I salute you folks who have given your time to help clean back up the mess that only humans seem able to commit. The world is indeed better for you having been here.

OK, but as of this paragraph it is the next day and obviously I have not posted yet. I worked yesterday and have today and tomorrow off before having to return for a three day marathon. I dread that. I bought a new pair of jeans today with an extra inch in the waist (sigh) and it fits, at least until such time that they might shrink in the wash. I am hoping that my expanded waist does not require any more surrender from me on this point....sheesh.

The wife is at work for a half day (she has to work 6 days a week but gets two of them as "half-days". Me, I'm just recovering from the "milk-maids" knees that I acquired from laying down this laminate flooring. I'm just fine walking around, but if I put ANY weight on my knees right now, I get a searing pain. A Doc at work assures me that it's a kind of tendonitis that should resolve itself with time.

I'm now out of stuff to cram into this post so I shall now go ahead and submit it for your approval. Blessed Be!

The Return of House Pendragon (or Zen and the Art of Septic System Maintenance)

2007-10-05T20:57:00.001-07:00

"Where should I start?", I ask myself, and sure enough, I reply, "How about at the beginning....."

Asshole.....

Lessee........"It was a dark and stormy night........."

Naw......

It all began I suppose with the letter from the collection agency informing us we were being sued for some ungodly amount of money that had built up over time, years upon years of time, and lots of interest charges and fees and who knows what. Once I had honest debt, honest debt that I was managing quite well, thank you very much, but it was that kind of debt that is only managed during the good times, not during those times when income suddenly gets bitch-slapped by unexpected expenses. Hell, it's been so long now I can't even remember what exactly precipitated our downfall, whether it was the well pump going out or the car breaking down or whatever, all I know is that I went from paying WAY more than the minimum monthly due on each card to trying to figure out which Peter to rob for the benefit of which Paul, until it all fell to far behind to matter. My attempts to get some sort of cooperation from the credit card companies was, of course, if you've ever had to deal with these bozos, met with stern "pay it all and pay it now" rebuffs, until it got to the point that I no longer answered the phone. No, I wasn't going to sell an organ or borrow money from grandchildren I don't even have in order to pay the increasing mounting interest and penalty charges. I asked to work it out; it wasn't until collection agency number 57 bought the debt that any deal was offered, and even that demanded HUGE hunks of change. FUCK ME? FUCK YOU!!!!

So, I grab the phone book, and while looking for a lawyer I knew I couldn't afford, I came across CREDIT COUNSELING. The promise is to work out payment deals with your creditors so that some day in the next mellenia your descendants can somehow pay off your debt and you can scrub your horrible credit squeaky clean. We got an appointment, we went, he looked at what we had coming in, going out, and laughed. You could never hope to pay all this off, he says, and tells us our only real alternative is bankruptcy. I was surprised, assuming that our fine legislatures in congress had made it all but impossible for the working man to declare bankruptcy anymore, but he assured us that even under the new guidelines we were a basket case and could easily qualify to get a fresh start. So...........

Around that time, THE Wife finally, FINALLY, found a way out of her retail job from hell, having been offered a job at an opticians shop, an offer that initially had been given to another younger (uh-huh) and more "experienced" girl who lasted all of a few days before disappearing. He agreed to her wage demand and more or less BEGGED her to accept the job....hehe. Let me tell you, THE Wife's tenure at her last job, selling shoes, was more like a sentence for crimes against humanity than any way to make a living. So, anyway, this segways into how we suddenly came upon the funds necessary to hire a lawyer to file bankruptcy.........

Of course, the wife conducts a circle under a full moon and casts a spell to somehow come up with the money we'd need for a lawyer...........

THE Wife had been at the department store long enough to be fully vested in her pension and 401K. According to the rules, since the amount vested in her pension fund exceeding $5 grand, she was required to receive the money in monthly payments, which only amount to just over $100 a month, so THAT wasn't going to be the financial windfall we really needed right now. HOWEVER........we didn't even think about the 401K, which was a different animal altogether, and when we found out she HAD one and that we COULD access the funds instead of rolling them over (just pay the taxes and penalties and it's yours), well, thank the Gods, we had the money we needed for the lawyer AND taking care of some festering wounds here at the hold, namely our broken down septic system and an old carpet that was promising to incubate the next deadly plague.

So, finally, at long last, we are getting a major monkey off our backs, and although this will not make us financially independent, at least the threat to our home and hearth has been overcome. This has sworn us off of any kind of credit cards forever, and the only borrowing we ever do again is for transportation. If we don't have the cash, we simply will have to do without. I would have much preferred to pay ALL these bills off, but they never attempted to work with us, instead inflating the amount we owed to the point we NEVER could have caught up with it. The cost of living continues to go up, but our wages barely advance at all, so now we are in subsistence mode, and the idea of having credit cards to deal with......forget about it!

In addition to the lawyer fees and infrastructure repairs, we also managed to have enough left over to purchase the laminate flooring we have wanted so badly to replace this awful carpet that's been growing how knows what beneath our feet. It took me almost a week moving furniture, ripping out cat-urine stained carpet and pad and pulling staples, but I managed to get the floor installed and now all I have remaining is to install the quarter rounds and transitions all around the perimeter of the room. This house looked like a hurricane passed through it, but it was worth the mess to get this done. It looks so WONDERFUL, don't you agree?

Of course, the universe demands balance in all things, so of COURSE, the central air conditioner decided to just crap out for good. The stopgap recharge of freon leaked right back out within a few weeks of putting it in so that's that. SO, in addition to all the other expenses we've incurred, I had to go out and grab as many window air conditioners as I could afford and put them in before the humidity destroyed everything inside the house. No, we didn't have the 5 to 7 big ones they wanted for a new system. The FIRST time the air conditioner crapped out the laminate on the countertops started to peel off. Humidity is the great killer of all things wood and electronic in a house, so it has nothing to do so much with comfort as for simply trying to keep things dry. Luckily, it's getting towards Fall now so the air conditioners were all on sale, so I got some really great deals. The caveat to all this is that I am dreading my next electric bill, as these window units do seem to be running all the time trying to keep up with the cooling load. I have every finger I have crossed three times over. If you all could spare a few fingers to cross for us I would certainly appreciate it.

I haven't had a cigarette since I quit a few months ago.

ANYWAY......THE Wife's new job has proven to be fantastic. Already she has commanded immense respect for her personality and work ethic. The ONE thing we DID fear was when and if her employers and the coworkers were going to discover that she was a witch, and how they might react to it. THIS is what happened..........

Her office manager pulls her to the side. Wife thinks, uh-oh, what did she do wrong? Office manager asks her if anyone had been giving her any trouble concerning her religion. Wife says no, not that she had noticed. Manager says "good, because you don't have to put up with any of that, and if anybody says anything to you, you come tell me!"

Wow.

THE Wife, unlike SOME people we've known, does not prosteletyze (even spell-check is having trouble with this word, so don't laugh if it's badly misspelled) her practice of Wicca, for we don't do that. If you are curious, just ask, but we have no interest in "converting" people. You can either check it out and accept it if it suits you or not, no skin off our ass. So, a few of the girls make minor little inquiries about it but the Christians give her a wide birth and don't give her any grief about it. In return, the wife doesn't cast any spells to turn them into goats or frogs or anything. He he. Just kidding. We don't, and couldn't do that, either.

No cats, dogs, goats, or lizards were harmed or sacrificed in the magik cast to get through all this.

While we have been dealing with heaps of issues here on the home front, out there in blogville two of my favorite bloggers (one of whom I consider a brother) decided they didn't want to blog anymore. Yes, folks, they DARED deprive me of the salve my soul has relied on to keep me sane while the fates were fating all over me. I'm sure they have their reasons, but I'm sorry, but once you achieve the heights of fame and glory these two have amongst us commoners out here in the real world, you can't just drop us cold turkey like that. We will hunt you down. We will kiss you on the lips or seek some other fashion of revenge. Because we miss you. Merry met, Gentlemen, Merry met indeed. We await your encore.

LIfe at Pendragon Hold has always been interesting, to say the least. It's always been two steps forward, one step back, but lately we managed to leap just a few steps ahead for once. The stress has been immense and how I managed NOT to seek solace in a fresh carton of cigarettes is beyond me, but I've stayed clean. We have gotten used to the fact that life is going to throw us curve after curve, and the best we can hope for is to stay ahead of it.....the curve, that is. Thankfully, I have a witch for a wife who is a natural at working some powerful magic. But, the most important thing is that despite everything, this witch still loves me. What more could a pagan ask for?

Cosmic Pie Filling

2007-10-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

This is soooooo wrong. You could have been an amazement in my life; instead, you are far removed and I do not really know you. I never will know you. But aside from that, I am not the amazement I perceived myself to be this year, as seen from a yesteryear. Back then I was excited at the prospect of having that Dick Tracy wristwatch on my wrist, but instead, I have a casio nerd watch which simply tells the world that I am no slave to fashion, a fact that does not shame me in the least. What DOES shame me is that $12 an hour is now a subsistence wage and that's what it seems I will be making from here on out. How I am affording my existence is beyond me.

So, instead of you, I have her, and she is damn glad to have me, for reasons I have yet to fully understand. Anybody could have done much better than being in my presence or even knowing me as opposed to knowing someone much more interesting or perhaps famous for having been important for some worthless reason. If ever I were to become famous I can promise the cosmos it would be for a NOBLE reason. Otherwise it isn't worth the hassle. Yes, as far as I can see, fame is nothing BUT a hassle. I'd rather be dead than be Brittany. Or Dubya.

I'm rather good at writing crap like this. I would much rather be good at writing profitable things so that I don't have to get up at 6 AM for a twelve hour shift smelling other people's shit but there you have it. Would you pay to read what I just wrote? I didn't think so. You'd pay John Grishom or Stephen King handsomely to read exactly what I have just said, which is similar to the fact that people pay a premium to carry around a designer handbag which if truth be told is flat out ugly. But what I write is either too ugly or not ugly enough to the right people so I give you this for free, and you will value it accordingly. No, you will not be telling that guy who knows that guy at Random House of this brilliant unpublished author that needs to be corralled before someone else nails him; no, you will read this, knowing full well in the back of your mind you'd have paid dearly to read this as long as it was sitting there under the New York Times Best Seller LIst at Barnes and Noble. Instead you found it here at the better than bargain rack in Blogville.
You get what you pay for.

On that note, I am going to cease and desist. This has been THE Michael talking to you. Because you're special.

Extinction Level Events

2007-09-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Within the span of a month, two of the best bloggers ever to put font to phosphor have retired from blogging, apparently forever, leaving a shocked and bereaved audience in their wake. I am not one of those bloggers.

I personally have taken a minor sabbatical in order to concentrate on getting through a major "circumstance" here at Pendragon Hold, but I intend to report on what has transpired as soon as I have the time and energy to devote to it in a manner befitting such a post. But I am NOT riding off into the sunset, at least not yet. When someone who does not like us has set off an electromagnetic pulse high in the atmosphere over this nation of ours and burned out all ability to blog, I MIGHT consider retiring, but until that time comes, I shall continue to allow these thoughts to escape me for your consideration.

Yes, I fully realize that life consists of more than blogging about it, and yes, I realize that sometimes blogging cuts into living life to it's utmost, but I personally have plenty enough room around the edges of the life I lead to write about it, perhaps because it has slowed down to a crawl compared to the hectic and otherwise action packed lives others appear to be leading. Besides reporting on the sleep inspiring drama that makes life so interesting here, I DO have ideas and opinions that I care to share on occasion. If nothing else, it's the one way I know to shout to the universe that I, THE Michael, was HERE! Whether or not anyone actually cares about that is, well, up to them.

Don the Homoesapian and Buffalo the literate biker extrordinaire have been a very important part of my universe since I met them so long ago, and they will be leaving a mighty big hole in my psyche as they go forth to do their own things and not share it with the rest of us. That is their prerogative. I wish them both the best in their retirement. I would indeed die a much better death if only I could share at least one beer with each of them before my time comes.

Stay tuned. I can't afford to retire, so you're all stuck with me. You have my condolences.

Listen...........

2007-09-09T18:36:00.000-07:00

Incredible things have been happening here at Pendragon Hold. I know most of you have given us up for dead or turned Republican, but believe me, we are still alive and well and ready soon to reveal what has transpired here on our humble little acre of sand. Stayed tuned, I should be able to somehow discribe our adventures before the month is out. Till then........

BLESSED BE!

Excuse me while I go puke............

2007-07-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

All hail the "Hip-Hop Culture"! Yes, that glorious, hip, cool, fly, whatever the hell you want to call it, lifestyle that certain people like to promote, mostly people who make money off of it. It usually has something to do with rap music, which isn't (music, that is) and being gangsters....oh, I'm sorry, that's "gangSTA's", which is the same as saying it's cool to commit crime with rhyme.

It is bad enough that one of the favorite pastimes these upstanding citizens seem to enjoy, the drive-by shooting (why, because they are too cool to get the fuck out of the car to murder someone?), tends to result in the deaths of 7 year old girls out skipping rope, but now we have a whole new low in depravity to lump in with this mindset. Dog fighting. Yep. Dog fighting. Once the purview of the redneck elite, that bloody, cruel sport that pits cruelly manipulated pit bull terriers (or any large, ferocious canine that can inflict alot of damage before it bleeds to death from it's wounds) against each other for fun and profit, this "sport" has been embraced by "the brothers" who thinks it's "fly" to let animals torture each other while they rest up from trying to off each other.

Now let's segway this sick cultural FUBAR into the NFL, the bastion of college educated, primo athletic young men who represent the best in sports in this country. Really? Well, I'm sorry, but if this is the best WE have to offer, perhaps we need to stop offering it!

We recruit these young "warriors" out of the "hood", and the culture of the hood has migrated into the culture of the NFL, and this is what we get. More and more players being arrested for various crimes you'd normally attribute to violent criminals who never had anything to do with higher education, unless that higher education happens to be in pharmaceuticals. Ever listen to your average NBA or NFL player being interviewed? Ever understand much of what they say? Yes, believe it or not, it's English, or some really terrible version of it. I don't think any of these guys have been tested for IQ because frankly I don't think they can fashion a test that can detect a negative number. It's not their fault, however, because they are NOT there because of their mental acuity. It takes braun, not brains, to get that pigskin down that field, past other hunks of hardened flesh. This idea of them being in college is simply a scam and always has been. These schools need the television money more than they need to educate these guys, which they don't. The only players that come out of this mess with genuine college degrees got them because of their mothers, not the school or their coaches.

So now we have have achieved a new low in the chase for athletic glory and lots of green. Unless the NFL or NBA chooses to or is made to clean up their act, I think sports as an institution belongs in the same category as the Jerry Springer show, and about as entertaining.

Bitch and Moan, Bitch and Moan.........

2007-07-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Catholics made up this place they called purgatory, a sort of half-way house to hell where sinners who really fucked up but could be judged as salvageable could do their time and perhaps make it into heaven after all. I've forgotten exactly what sins would qualify you for this place, probably something like masturbation in front of a nun or spiking a priest's sacramental wine with LSD or something fun but disrespectful like that. Or maybe a wife who killed her abusive husband.......naw.....Catholics were never THAT charitable. ANYway........have you ever felt you were already doing your time in purgatory? I know that so many totally unfortunate people have already spent time in hell right here on Earth; Africa, the Balkans, Iraq, and other fun vacation destinations, and to think THAT didn't pay their way right into this mythical nirvana the religious types call heaven.....well, that would just suck, on a cosmic scale. Since I don't believe in heaven OR hell, I feel kinda bad there's no payback for these poor souls, but if we are all really lucky and reincarnation happens to be real, THEN perhaps they earn bonus points towards a really nice life next time around. I wouldn't hold my breath, though. The universe doesn't create fairy tales just for our benefit. I'd be surprised if "the" universe even notices us.

Anyway, speaking of purgatory, I think I might be experiencing a mild version of it. Things have really gotten dicey on the financial front here at Pendragon Hold and although I am valiantly rallying the troops and flooding the moat and all that good rot in an effort to confront our demons, so far the demons are advancing steadily and our remaining defenses are weakening fast. I'd call on reinforcements from my allies or institute a draft, but the only citizens living here other than THE Wife and I are three goats, one dog, and two cats, and I don't think they are draft material. I know the cats aren't. Cat's by their very nature don't give a shit.

I wish I could be more specific, but we are already approaching the TMI area of blogging and I do not ever want to be accused of gathering sympathy for my plights when there are people who would die to have my plights. Bob, I hate plights!

So, if you happened to notice (yes, I realize that one must have had to have been motivated to even show up at this blog to ever have noticed) that my posting frequency has become somewhat infrequent, well, now you have some idea why. So if any of you were holding your breath, you can safely let it out. No one is dying of cancer, we haven't lost another animal (so far) OR relative, nor has anything combustible combusted. The hurricane season is taunting us by not having any storms show up when we most expect them, we are not in an earthquake zone, and tornadoes seem not to notice us. We ARE getting alot of rain, but not enough to flood us out, and that's only because we pissed Mother nature off by complaining about the drought we were suffering from. I know damn well that things could be worse; my only worry is that they might.

So, that's my rant. I know, I was supposed to expose the outrageous treachery of Walmart's funding of Red China's takeover of our country with our own money, wondering why republicans are even bothering running for office this time around, and predicting the end of an affordable way to get to work in this country, but believe me, I am fully aware of all these piddling, unimportant things going on all around me, so if you want me to worry about those things right now, send me lots of money to get me out of MY personal purgatory and I'l get right onto it, I promise.

Other than that, I think life is like a box of chocolates.........sweet!

P.S. I haven't had a ciggarette in over two months!

P.S.S. I've gained almost ten pounds.

Wow!

2007-07-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Generally, I really don't care much for "classical" music, but sooooooooometimes..............

Blue Man Group Stop Global Warming

2007-07-06T13:16:00.001-07:00

I know, if you just happen to be deaf, dumb, and blind, and don't believe we have anything to worry about as far as global warming is concerned, this cute video won't change your mind.......but it sure does get the message across!

The Prodigal Blogger returns.......

2007-06-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

I know what you are thinking. "Where have you BEEN, THE Michael? Did you fall off the face of the Earth?"

Of course not.

I'm getting to heavy.

Anyway, here I am, back to grace your retina with another exciting episode of "THE Life of THE Michael, his Loving Wife, his sidekick canine Shiloh, and various other terrestrial life forms sharing their little acre of sand on the outskirts of the largest metropolitan area unknown to most people." It's called Jacksonville, Florida, in case your interested. The area, that is.

I'm listening to RAM, that old classic album by Paul McCartney and Wings while I type this post. Anybody remember that one? Anybody willing to admit to it? He he........

All kinds of weird and not-so-wonderful things have been happening since I last reported. The conveyance was making all kinds of strange, buzzing, grinding, "something just might fly out the side of this car at any moment" type noises for the last several weeks, getting progressively worse with each passing day, while I'm wondering what the hell I'm going to do for a way to work if our baby craps out on us (a baby we are still making payments on, I might add). Then, here I am perusing thru my wallet for no particular reason I can think of and guess what I come across? The super-premium extended drive-train warranty we payed for when we bought our Focus used back in 2004. With only about 4 thousand miles left before it expired! For only a deductible of $50, all the engine and transmission mounts were replaced and now our baby is quiet and not about to explode on us. As my buddy Buffalo likes to say, "Life is sweet.......".

One of our twins, the one I have referred to as being the "Evil" one, decided to move herself lock, stock, and barrel out to Arizona to be with a gentleman she met on the internet. I say "gentleman", because if any harm comes to her through no fault of her own, he will cease to be one and will suffer the consequences accordingly. Like parents anywhere, we do worry about our offspring, no matter how old they happen to get. We HAVE met him, once, and he didn't APPEAR to be a serial killer, but first impressions can sometimes be so off..........just ask my mother-in-law. Grin.

In order to make this as epic an episode as possible, I have included several photos of various things having to do with life here at Pendragon Hold. This here is our idea of what a bar should look like.

This one is a pic of my shrine to The Beatles. No, I don't worship them. Well, maybe a little.........

these are things we grew in our garden.

This is a picture of THE Wife getting a gander at that one veggie. The long one with the bumps on it. Did I mention what a perv my wife can be sometimes?

This is the all-time favorite place in our household.

Anyway, if you didn't already know, the wife has a new job and although she is having to learn new things, she really is enjoying herself, and is doing very well. She even gets to wear scrubs, just like me!

Somehow I volunteered myself to be a guest author on a blog called "The Gun-Toting Liberal", a slightly left-of-center political blog with many talented commentators participating. I am humbled to be amongst them. These guys are talented, to say the least.

I'm sorry I made you wait so long for a post, but I DO have a life, a life so boring it hardly ever rates a post in a blog. However, feel free to stop in on occasion in case some sort of inspiration smacks me upside the head and I actually post something worth reading. Ya never know!

For My Wife

2007-06-17T06:36:00.001-07:00

I treasure you for reasons
you'd never imagine
and I love you
as an exercise
in being me
knowing you

Fixin' Things

2007-06-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

The "terrorist" was plainly uncomfortable. Well, actually, "uncomfortable" was an understatement. The way I had him hog-tied would have challenged the comfort level of a spry young gymnast, much less this slightly pudgy forty-something asshole with a penchant for tossing garbage on my lawn.

While adjusting the gag I had on his mouth to better allow him to breath (I hadn't passed summary judgement on him yet, so it would be not be good form to have him suffocate on me before that happened), he screamed something about me "not having the right" to have him laying on my lawn trussed up like a pig, which annoyed me to no end. So, I encouraged him to get with a program of good order and discipline, much like that which they use on a regular basis at Gauntanamo, our luxury holding facility to the South. I kicked him in the ribs.

I got the gag back on him right and proper before he got loud enough to bother the neighbors. When one is enforcing actions necessary to defend one's way of life, which in my case included peace, quiet, and a litter-free lawn, one does not wish to upset the neighbors with the messy specifics of such enforcement, so I was pleased to be able to spare them the noise and quiet him down. Besides, you never know when it might turn out that one of your neighbors happens to be one of those namby-pamby, bleeding heart, squeamish people of the liberal persuasion who just can't help but to butt in and lend aid and comfort to one's enemies.

Earlier this day I had decided enough was enough and that I was not going to put up with this kind of crap anymore, nosirree! So having witnessed Bubba toss another one of his pearl beer cans over the fence onto my lawn, I went outside and invited him over to my side of the fence for another brew. Nothing works better to get an unsuspecting "terrorist" into your sights than false pretenses that include an alcoholic beverage on a hot, humid day, let me tell ya. So, Bubba, he walks around the fence, all prepared to reach out for a neighborly brewski, and that's when I nail him across the side of the head with the six pack; the six pack of Miller Light, that is, not that cheap redneck shit he likes to drink.

He went down like the proper overweight, out of shape terrorist he was, much akin to the landing of a ton of bricks. Having caught him by surprise, off guard, and unprepared for flight or fight should he catch on to the truth of the invitation, I whipped out the plastic zip ties I usually used to attach things around the house and bound him up nice and helpless like, before he could come back to his lack of senses. The fear and fury in his eyes was something to behold as I kneeled down and read him the charges, as I made them up on the spot, of course.

"Asshole, you are hereby declared, having been judged quite able to take a swing at me had I given you the chance, to be an "illegal combatant", that being because I do NOT consider it legal for you of all people to lay a fucking finger on me when it was YOU, Asshole, who has been littering MY lawn with your fucking beer cans! Therefore, deciding that people like YOU make life for people like ME to damn miserable for people like ME to afford dickweeds like YOU the opportunity to defend yourself, perhaps weaseling out of trouble with the assistance of some ambulance chaser and a liberal, bleeding heart judge, I hereby circumvent all that bothersome bullshit and pronounce you guilty of being a fucking ASSHOLE, a crime for which the punishment is me kicking your ass all over this nice lawn of mine, and then taking your bruised and purple carcass out to the dump and leaving it there where it belongs! Do you want to bother to plead, because, honestly, I don't GIVE a rat's ass what you have to say concerning your guilt, your innocence, or how sorry your SORRY FUCKING ASS is about littering my lawn!"

Man, did that feel GOOD! I have seen many the Rambo movie and let me tell ya, my fellow Americans, none of those scenes of commies getting mowed down by the hundreds came close to the exhilaration I felt taking the law into my hands the way our President did in order to take the war to those scum terrorists! Nothing pisses off a patriotic American more than having the Supreme Court and it's criminal comforting pack of pussies muzzle our fighting men when all they want to do is keep America safe for Mom's apple pie and the Beaver! We simply cannot have all this jurist prudence getting in the way when we have terrorists blowing up planes with bottles of Listerene, of all things!

So, following the example set by our great President, I wrapped Bubba up in an old tarp I kept the lawn mower covered up with, and hauled him off to the dump as promised, before the wife got home. You see, the wife has this delicate disposition, and gets kind of upset when she sees ME get upset and do what has to be done, like the time I knocked that paperboy off his bike for breaking my window with the newspaper, making me think the terrorists where driving down my street shooting up the neighborhood. Having to deal with the kid's father was distasteful, to say the least, especially since he was of the insane opinion that I had responded in a manner excessive to the crime and threatened to sue me for my public service. So, I try and do what one must do when the wife is not around, as not to upset her, much like the CIA does with it's extra-ordinary rendition at it's secret prisons. I tend to be considerate that way; not that I have to be.

If Bubba ever extricates himself from his unpleasant situation before getting buried in garbage, I hope he learned his lesson and repents his behavior, coming to God and thus becoming a much better citizen. As for me, I'm sitting here on my front porch, reading the paper, and fuming at all these defeats the administration is suffering at the hands of the federal and supreme courts when it comes to it's war on terror and the methods it must turn to to keep us all free and our gas tanks full. I have my blood pressure medicine, so I should be OK. After all, I still have, what, a year and a half of safety, being protected from arabs and liberals by our great leader and good Christian patriot, George DUBYA Bush. After that I guess I'll just go back on the prozak.*

Folks, the what you just read was nothing more than parody, and I hope to Bob you would not think for one minute that THE Michael would behave in such an unsophisticated and primitive manner.

Or would he............?

Naw!

Grin..........

A Fresh Start

2007-06-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, it's been a few days since the last exciting installment of TTEM, and you guys are wondering if I went off somewhere and died. Well.......no.

I read alot of blogs and some of you guys seem to have this constant STUFF going on, like a soap opera, plenty of post fodder to keep your readership entertained. I have no idea if I should be jealous, because I know from experience that one should be VERY careful what they ask for, like, for instance, having a life chock full of blog post fodder. To tell you the truth, we DO have plenty of blog fodder going on, but sometimes I have to err on the side of "you really don't need to know this", simply because, well, you don't really need to know this.

However, I DO have something rather pleasant to report concerning my better half, known to all of you as THE Wife. Today was her last day on the job, the job she is joyously giving up in favor of a much better one, in so many ways. For many years she has suffered the indignities of working in retail, specifically, selling shoes, and you all know that when women and shoes meet, nothing good comes of it. This job has taken it's toll on her, ruining her feet and knees, causing her much anxiety, and the remuneration truly has not equaled the price she's paid being a damn good shoe salesperson. Her employers truly hated to see her go, but of course, where not willing to go the mile needed in her direction to keep her. They will instead replace her with three part-timers who will try and cut each others throat in order to garner those sales, only they will not have half the dedication to their job that my Wife had and never truly was rewarded for.

Monday she starts her new 9 to 5, off weekends and holidays kind of job, that will actually let her sit down for a change, and her wage will not be dependent upon a commission. She will, for once, truly be able to put her talents in customer service to use, instead of trying to juggle five impossible tasks all at once all the while being yelled at by entitled shoe hungry harpies who have nothing better to do with their lives than fill their oversized shoe closets. I really pity these women's husbands, I really do.

On a personal note, I would like to mention that I have become a contributing writer for a political blog known as "The Gun Toting Liberal". It remains to be seen whether or not I gain any sort of fame, or more likely, infamy, for the kinds of observations I make, but I am in good company,sharing the page with many great writers, including the Buffalo, one of the best home-spun writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading and commiserating with. So, if you would like to get a dose of plenty of provocative thought invoking observations, head on over and take a gander.

Summer Solstice is just around the corner, marking the longest day of the year, when the days begin to shorten and we head back in the direction of winter's cold embrace. As the temperatures have begun to climb and the humidity weighs everything down, I am already longing for cooler times. The storm season has just begun and I can only ask of Gaia to spare us one more season from a direct hit from one of the powerful hurricanes that man in his folly has helped to create, thanks to global warming. Still don't believe in global warming? Still deaf, dumb and blind?

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and may you all be blessed, in whichever manner suits your karma.

WAAAAAZUUUUUUUP!

2007-05-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

It's been an interesting week here at Pendragon Hold, our little acre of sand in the country/suburbs. After having been on the lam for two days, I managed to somehow locate Vincent, our escaped flying squirrel. Noticing the attention that Cricket the cat was giving to the washer and dryer, I climbed on top and peered down behind them and what-do-ya-know.........there that little critter is all snuggled into a baseball cap that had fallen off the pegs over the wash area and come to rest behind the dryer. I deftly and gently reached down, snaged the cap, and now Vincent is back where he belongs, with his partner Violet, in a safe and secure place where he is well fed and protected from cats. The wife, of course, was overjoyed, and very receptive to my directive that she never, ever play with the fur pilots outside their cage without me there as well.

Since my metabolism went to hell when I quit smoking, I have been trying to get into the "I gotta burn calories" mindset. So, THE Wife and I have been taking walks down our dirt road, which to the blacktop and back I think is about a mile and a half. It's not a boring walk, not with interesting things like THIS >>>> to see along the way......grin.

Speaking of my loving wife, she has handed in her two week notice and is both excited and nervous about starting her new job. Funny thing is, she gets to wear scrubs to work just like me, so imagine the great big smile on my face when I realized that her clothing budget is going to go down drastically, just like mine. That, plus the fact she won't have an excuse (or be able to afford ) to get new shoes damn near every other week is the kind of monetary nirvana any man can appreciate....hehe.

I'm letting the hair grow out on the old noggin, and right now I feel like a hedgehog. If I'm not happy with it as it grows out, I may just mow it all back off again and keep the old dome sleek and shiny. Either way, barbers despise my kind.

That's all for now. Blessed be!

Three Nights, Condensed

2007-05-27T19:43:00.001-07:00

I was desperate to post something tonight, so I went outside, pulled one up, and dragged it in here. Got sand all over my carpet. You can't cram eight feet of post into a 17 inch monitor, so I had to saw it into much shorter pieces. However, that gives me many more, albeit shorter, posts to upload. If I'd known it was this easy, I would have never bothered to learn how to write.

On a more serious note, THE Wife is sitting next to the squirrel cage acclimating our new gliders to her presence. Already the male, whom we have named Vincent, has been out of the cage and all over her. The female, Violet, is more reserved and is allowing Vincent to sacrifice himself if it turns out we eat flying squirrels. The females are smart that way. Just to be on the safe side, we have the dog and cats put away while we play with the flying furballs.

I found out courtesy of a DVD made by the Discovery Channel that the moon might very well be responsible for Earth even being able to support life, period. It seems that the moon keeps the rotational axis of the planet fairly stable, which keeps our climate somewhat manageable, thus allows us to live on the surface of a relatively peaceful sphere which otherwise would not be. It seems that there are so many conditions necessary to allow life to exist on this planet that the odds of planets existing in pretty much identical orbits and circumstances are much narrower than I would have previously imagined. Maybe we ARE special after all, and wouldn't that be a bummer............

I really have no earthly idea why, but I would LOVE a cigarette right now. I do take comfort in the fact that I won't be running out to get one and I don't have any available to me here at the house, nor will I bum one off someone tomorrow at work. I'm still really bummed out concerning the weight I've been putting on since I quit smoking. Maybe I should go with the flow and just say fuck it; the wife seems to relish the idea of me getting fatter than her.......NOT that she's really FAT, mind you. NO. I gotta exercise. These ten pounds are coming the fuck BACK OFF!

OK, I didn't post this last night because I really thought it had potential, that it coulda been a contender, so I will finish up tonight with all new material. Please note I did not specify BETTER material, just new.

I just watched a NOVA episode about the DARPA competition to see who could build an autonomous vehicle that can maneuver and navigate across rough terrain without a human driver. The idea would be that we could convoy supplies across hostile territory (can you spell IRAQ?) without risking pretty little girls in uniform, aka Jessica. Several of the machines made it. Performing while under fire, well, that would be an accomplishment.

OK, I'm back again having delayed the posting of this or anything remotely interesting till tonight, IF I decide to post it.

THE Wife was off today and while she was playing with the squirrels, one, the adventurous male, got away from her and promptly disappeared into the hiding-place-rich expanse of our great room, or at least as best she can determine. She tore apart the place trying to find him, mashing her finger with the couch (it's amazing how this woman hurts herself) and still no squirrel to be found. Sigh.

We watched the Flaming Lips perform on Austin City Limits. This group has been around since the early 80's, unbeknownst to me and probably alot of people who weren't paying attention to what was going on in the musical underground. I DO remember hearing this weird song on the radio called "She don't use Jelly". Now I know who was responsible for it. This is one weird group.

You may have noticed strange pictures spread throughout this post. I assure you that they have nothing whatsoever to do with the subject material discussed here.

It's a Zoo around here!

2007-05-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

I was going to wait awhile before posting again, to see if anyone else was going to venture a comment on my last one. I got one comment on it, period. There could be two very good reasons for it. Or maybe three, but here's the first two that come to mind. One, most everybody took it seriously, personally, and rather than tell me what a jerk I am, simply walked away. Or, two, nobody really could think of a comeback worth the font. I have to admit, I was full of attitude on that last one, but I can assure anyone who for some reason might have taken offense to it, that it was not directed at anyone I know or blog with save those who have had a lobotomy recently. Or were thinking that a vote for Dubya was a good thing, even at this late stage of the ongoing catastrophe.

Either that or Blogger simply lost my comments.

So, I am going to post tonight as though my last post was a roaring success and blogger was so overwhelmed with comments it simply melted down.

A guy can dream, can't he?

Grin.

Anyway, believe it or not, we have TWO new additions to the family here at Pendragon Hold. Yep, in addition to two cats, a dog, three goats, and a gecko, we now welcome to the family a pair of Southern flying squirrels. So far, I've not been asked by a disembodied voice in my head to build a very large ship in our back yard, but the way things are going I wouldn't be surprised.

AND, THE Wife has a new job. I'm not sure if I discussed this previously, but she has been on the lookout for something less brutal than the cut-throat retail sales hell she has been enduring for all these years, a job that would get her off her abused feet and give her better working hours. A friend who knows what a dependable and hard working person she is recommended her to her own boss at an optical shop and after not being able to hold on to someone younger for less money (Duh, you get what you pay for), has given in to her wage demand and has hired her! So, in two weeks, my loving and well-deserving wife will have a normal job with 9 to 5 hours with weekends and holidays off, as well as full-time hours instead of the thirty odd hours her present job calls full time. I'm so proud and happy for her!

Me, I'm stuck at my present job for all eternity because I like the paid time off, the three-day work week, and have to maintain health insurance for us, or for her, rather. Also, the chance of suffering a layoff in the health care industry is about as likely as the sun exploding. Oh fuck. I had to say that, didn't I?

THE Wife really took a shine to this shorn head of mine, and the reviews at work were pretty positive all told. I'm going to let it grow out a bit until I have experienced the various stages of hair length right up to short, then I'll decide wether or not I want to shave it back again or go hippy again. Either way, I'm not wasting money on haircuts.

The drought continues with plenty of fly-by showers that tease us with the smell of rain but drop it somewhere else. And, the state is still pretty much on fire. Stay tuned, when great big hurricanes come along to put out the fires.

This is our story here at Pendragon Hold, and I'm sticking to it.

Melinda should have won.

Soooooo Special........

2007-05-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

As species go, we, the apes with brains, are pathetic. Talk about squandering sentience! Here we are, supposedly blessed with awareness, innovation, the ability to think outside the box, the power to create art and music, and what do we do with all this advantage? Oh my fucking GOD (which I don't believe in, but it makes a great oath of exasperation), do I have some outrage to unleash on all you morons who have an opposing thumb stuck up your ass! (Yes, this applies, in varying degrees to me also, so don't feel special)

First big fucking mistake we made was wondering where we came from, as though our mother's vagina wasn't philosophically deep enough. Being the social pack animals that we are, only not as elegant at it as wolves, we decided there must have been some really BIG Kahona who made us and everything around us, and that if we didn't tuck our proverbial tails between our legs and somehow appease this big bad-ass, we wouldn't be left any scraps from the cosmic kill. Now, idiocy craves company, so when enough Cro-Magnon's with enough muscle mass to carry the bigger clubs decided EVERYBODY had to whine and whimper at the feet of some invisible Chieftain, it became a required cultural event, not an optional behavioral trait possessed exclusively by people with vivid imaginations and little to exercise them with. It's been downhill ever since. So, you create a need, then don the funny headdresses and fancy robes, and become the arbiters of cosmic truth, acquiring wealth and power while you're at it, because, after all, you have a membership that requires snowing and who snows better than a priest? Now, let's not confuse priests with the shamans whose territories they had to move in on. Shamans were simply those learned individuals who knew how cruel yet bountiful nature could be, and knew the ins and outs of gleaning good results, like survival, out of their hard earned knowledge, which they came by courtesy of PAYING FUCKING ATTENTION! Priests, on the other hand, just made their shit up on the fly; whatever it took to make them and whatever God-head they could conjure up look good, or at least scary. Scary almost always works when all else fails.

So, while fighting over whose God was THE God, mankind put his intellect to other good uses, like failing utterly to curb their natural tendencies to be aggressive, greedy, and breed like rabbits no matter the ability to feed all these hungry, demanding mouths. The measure of success for any civilization back in those days was how many people actually got fed as opposed to starving to death. Now, the hard way was to grow and/or hunt your own food, in whatever quantity was needed to support your village or town or kingdom. Trouble was, man was always MUCH better at TAKING something he wanted or needed than he was at actually producing that stuff himself. That's where our next great accomplishment came to the forefront.........WARFARE.

As dumb as waging war seems on the surface, it ranks barely below such population control measures as famine, natural disasters, and disease. When it comes to offspring, as far as mankind is concerned, it's the more, the merrier. More people meant more farmers, slaves, and not least of all, warriors. The more warriors you got, the less of the others you need, but the more you get of the things they produce. Armies also have the added benefit of enforcing the will of whoever happens to speak for God at that moment. Aside from claims in certain ancient texts to the contrary, these Gods never seemed able to express their will to the masses themselves; they always seemed to need a middleman to do that for them. Matter of fact, it was the need to put these worshipping the right dude rules in stone that probably led to the development of written language, something until then was the purview of the oral tradition of passing knowledge down via the elders. Way back then, elders where truly respected due to the fact that they had learned all the genuine rules of survival and proved it merely by surviving. "How old are you?" "Oh, this would be my 60th season so far..." "DAMN you're good!"

To give you an idea why priests replacing shaman's, who were usually the elders, was such a bad idea, here are two perspectives on how to feed one's self.

Person asks Shaman, "Oh great Sir, how do we feed our village?" Shaman says to person, "Well, person, you look in this fruit, there are these things called seeds. You take these seeds, you dig a hole in the ground, put in the seed, and cover it up. Seed needs water just like you, so you go get water and wet that ground around the seed, and next thing you know, you have a fruit tree. Give it some time, some water, and you'll have you some fruit."

Of course, person asks priest, and what does he get? "Son, you must come to this alter each day right before the sun rises, and bring a fresh kill, something delicious with garlic, and some grain, and some beer if you got that. You bring it and put it on the alter, and offer it to GOD, begging him to bring you and your family lots of food. Then leave. Don't take the sacrifice; I'll see to it that GOD gets it. Then if you get more food, well, fine. If not, then you didn't do it right, and will have to come back and do it again till you DO get it right, or starve to death. Me, I don't care one way or the other; I'll get my cut...."

History has proven that having a brain doesn't count for much if you don't know how to use it. You would think a brain would KNOW how to use itself, but sadly, it's not so simple as that. I think the more developed amongst us would agree that a willingness to learn from our experiences as well as having an ability to question and arrive at logical conclusions certainly comes in handy in the long run. Education, that wonderful thing we rely on to try and share our collected knowledge, is actually pretty worthless if we don't actually put it to use. That huge chunk of change many young Americans are spending on a college "education" for the most part seems to have been totally wasted if you actually notice what these people are doing with their thought processes. I only need point you at our esteemed President, George "Dubya" Bush, to prove that being taught, and actually learning, are two different things entirely. Plus the fact that Americans not only once, but TWICE, mind you, elected this person to the most powerful position in the known world, goes to prove that common sense and logical thinking are in short supply, at least in this corner of the world.

So, you might ask, am I proposing that I am so evolved, so intelligent, so aware in the right way that I am in any way superior to your average homo-sapiens, having pointed out so many flaws in my species? Hell no. I can assure you, my friend, that if I WAS superior, in just about any category that defines sentience, I would not be stuck here at this computer writing crap like this, accomplishing nothing, and not improving mankind's lot or my own by any measurable degree.

Nope.

I'd have found a way off this rock.

This is nothing but an insane asylum, and I suffer the delusion that I personally do not belong here with the rest of you nut-cases.

I'm special.

Bye Bye

2007-05-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

Over the last several years, many people I have admired in one way or another throughout my life have passed beyond the veil and it saddened me to see them go. Most of them have had a positive impact; a few, well, not so positive. Jerry Falwell was one of these. At the risk of sounding crass, I will not miss him in the slightest.

If there was a God, and he wished those he created to behave in certain ways and to bow down and worship him, he certainly didn't clue the human race in on exactly how he wanted this all done, and the reason I cannot believe that there exists a "God of Abraham" is very evident in how poorly this whole concept of worship and behavior is understood by us, the race of incredibly hateful and violent creatures that were supposedly made in his own image. For a holy man, a representative of what the son of God was supposed to stand for, I cannot imagine a more inept example to emulate than the "right reverend" Falwell. Whatever it was this man believed in, I for one have no use for it, whatsoever.

There are many men and women who make their marks on our lives by virtue of their personalities, their talents, their compassion, their ideas, and they truly do leave a hole in the very fabric of the universe when they leave us. Yet, others, such as Falwell, rest upon our awareness more as an irritant than as something inspirational. Yes, there are those who thought this person touched by God himself, and I will not argue as to wether or not he was basically a nice person to those who were close to him. The fact remains, however, that there are countless men and women whom he did not know yet dared to pass judgement on and declare less than worthy of respect, or worse yet, blamed for the evils that evil men did do. Personally, I thought blaming "the gays and the feminists" for 9/11 to be somewhat of an idiotic stretch, not to mention downright nasty. This, they would say, was a man of God.

His departure will not ease the divisiveness and intolerance that plagues us in this so-called enlightened age of ours. There are many who will fill his shoes and carry on in his stead, thus insuring that matters of faith will never find a safe, loving home in the hearts of men where they belong, rather than in manners of governance, where we go so far as to kill each other for believing in the wrong things, according to those who pass judgement with guns in their hands or bombs in their backpacks.

Jerry, Christ was purported to have said, "judge not lest ye be judged". You believed he was the son of God. Yet you ignored one of the most basic of his teachings. I do not believe an invisible man in the sky knocked up a virgin and then had his son tortured and nailed to a wooden cross "for our sins", thus I will feel no guilt or compunction in judging YOU. You were a bigot. Good riddance.

Feel the Burn

2007-05-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

It began as a day like any other day, save for the meteor that smacked into my neighbor's house and set off the meth lab he had set up in the kitchen. Just kidding. While the midwest has been getting flooded out, the drought we've been enduring here in the sunny South has encouraged a new industry; forest fires. The only real problem with forest fires is that they tend to creep into suburbs and such and burn them down as well. Fire is not very fickle. Then there's the smoke which is getting rather thick on those days that the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, wrong being the direction upwind of you. But, hey, at least it's not smog. I love my thick, respiratory system endangering smoke to be all natural, without all those artificial ingredients you get in train derailment conflagrations.

While all this burning has been going on, a cute little "sub-tropical" storm sorta appeared out of nowhere off the coast of South Georgia/North Florida and threatened to actually DAMPEN us. Yep, that's all 243 raging brush fires need my friends, is a smattering of moisture to tone all those flames down. Factor in the 45 mile per hour winds that brings that slightly moist air, and I think we could have done without the stupid "sorta-cane" altogether. I'm looking forward to hurricane season this year; we could really use the rain to put out the fires which are interfering with the clean-up efforts still underway from that last nasty hurricane season a couple of years ago.

Today's forecast is low eighties with the smell of rain in the air. Not much rain, if any, but there WILL be the smell of it.

I have been getting some really great sleep now that I've returned to the loving embrace of my own bed. It's almost like the bed performed a miracle healing on this pulled muscle. Maybe I should let the local catholics know I have a healing bed and charge them to spend a night on it. All I need now is to fashion a likeness of the Virgin Mary out of the wrinkles in the bed sheets, and I'm set.

I really love being married. Yea, I know, it sucks not having a variety of women to take various risks with (you know.....STD's and psychotic behaviors) or having to get someone else's grudging approval to do stupid or at least less-than-wise things, but the advantages are legend! The best one I am experiencing right now is this foray into the cue-ball zone. When one is single, there is always this nagging desire to appear appealing to the opposite sex in hopes that they will DO YOU, but being married relieves you of most of that angst; chances are she'll do you anyway, since she now knows, having taken the chance to find out, that sex with you is really not all that disgusting after all. AND, no matter what you do to your hair, grow it, or get rid of it altogether, she's still familiar with the baseline YOU she has come to love and tolerate, and you will continue to get the nooky. The only way you are not going to get the nooky is by doing something really stupid, which explains why married men do NOT get the 24/7 sex that single men assume they do. We bad.

Anyway, life is good, the blogs are good, it's all good, as long as you don't count the rising death toll in Iraq, the continuing insanity in Washington, and the ever increasing effects of global warming, now playing in more localities than ever. At least I am in great company. You guys have been really supportive of my existence and you'll never know how much I appreciate it. Till next time........

Blessed be!

Cueballs and Tattoos, Redux

2007-05-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

OK, by popular demand, here are more pics of THE Wife's new ink and THE Michael's new dome.

A Wilder Weekend than Usual

2007-05-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

Well, although THE Wife had this little jaunt planned for some time now, it sort of snuck up on me and next thing you know we're headed to St Petersburg to see the kids. OK, yes, normally I would say that there was no good reason to be burning three-buck-a-gallon gasoline to drive to Tampa and back but THE Wife had a real good reason for it; the kids bought her two new tattoos; a sort of early Mother's Day present. Stop laughing, dammit.

The first and only tattoo the wife has ever had was the one she got when we first met; a cute little rose on her chest. After fourteen years it's faded a bit, and now she's been chomping at the bit to get something Wiccan related, but we haven't had that kind of disposable income for quite awhile now. Anybody who knows tattoos knows they ain't cheap. And no, THE Wife is not one of your typical biker babes or alternative freakers who go crazy with the ink. She got the one on her shoulder and the other on her ankle, and they are kind of tasteful and neat if I might say so myself. AND, she endured the whole three hour ordeal with the same stoicism that women in general have while having babies, without the screaming and promising to kill the guy responsible for the pregnancy. Me, being the manly man that I am, would have fainted halfway thru the first one.........lol.

While we were on the subject of something different, I decided to go ahead and do something I was planning to do on my birthday anyway, and my daughter, the so-called "good twin", was more than happy to help me. I cut off all my hair. ALL my hair. All my very LONG hair. AND, to add insult to injury, we shaved my skull, which, I am proud to say, and no one disagrees with me, is a very NICE skull, as skulls go. Why, do you ask, did I do something so......contrary to my old hippy sensibilities? To be able to add one more thing to the list of things one should do before they die, of course! My own personal jury is still out as to wether or not I wish to keep this new look, but strangely enough, THE Wife seems to rather like it. Go figure. Now let's see what kind of reaction I get at work........hehe.

While we were in St Pete, the kids took us to the Salvador Dali museum, which was rather surreal, pun very much intended. Many of his most famous works are housed there, rather than in Spain.

Apparently, before we left the house, I must have pulled a back muscle (again), because I have not had one good night's sleep since, and I can only hope that my own bed can allow me to get some rest without the pain I have been trying to sleep thru on unfamiliar sleeping surfaces.

Last night the kids treated us to dinner at a VERY nice restaurant called the Bonefish Grill, where I had some of the best rainbow trout I have had in years. Actually, it's the ONLY rainbow trout I have had in years, but it was still excellent. While we were eating, we were treated to a rainstorm thru the windows, which is something we haven't had here at Pendragon Hold for to damn long now. We need rain really bad, evidenced by the wildfires breaking out all around us, much like what has been happening out west for awhile now with the droughts and all.

I sincerely hope that you all have enjoyed tonight's blog, including the visuals. If my looking ridiculous brings a smile to some faces, then so be it. I'm easy that way. Blessed be from the Hold.

P.S. I have no idea why I still LUST after the idea of smoking a cigarette, but I do. Bob protect me from human stupidity.

Joyous Misery

2007-05-02T16:30:00.000-07:00

It was with great hope and trepidation that I began my odyssey into kicking an addiction that had been a part of my life for over thirty years. Baring another episode of allergenic shock as happened with WellButrin, another chemical attempt at smoking cessation, I expected this round to either be a roaring success or another dismal failure. It turned out to be both and neither.

Two of the side effects mentioned most prominently was nausea and nightmares. As for the nausea, I DID suffer a mild amount of it during the first week of taking the new medication, but then that tapered off. It was the effect it had on my sleep that turned out to be the new monkey on my back I had to deal with. I wasn't having nightmares, per see, just really weird dreams which kept my mind racing and woke me up numerous times almost every night. In return for the moderation of the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, I was losing sleep......ALOT of sleep.

The dose at this time was two mg divided between a morning and evening dose. I tried cutting the pills in two for each dose. I tried one pill in the morning. No luck; I still was losing sleep and starting to get a bit loony. Having not had a cigarette for more than four weeks, I decided to just quit the meds altogether lest I go to work with my pistol and all my ammo and have intense discussions with everybody I didn't like. I could only hope that having the nicotine out of my system by now would be enough.

You are supposed to remain on this medication for twelve weeks, with another twelve weeks recommended to increase your odds of quitting for good. I could only handle it for less than half that time, but it DID appear to make the difference. I didn't have the panic attacks which crippled me every time I even thought of not having a cigarette, and it seemed to eliminate any nicotine fit altogether. What it HASN'T done, apparently, is eliminate the habitual behaviors one picks up having been a life-long smoker. Hell, I even bought shirts based on whether or not they had a pocket I could put my cigarettes in. I attended events with the caveat that I could survive not having a cigarette before it was over. My life has more or less revolved around these evil tubes of tobacco. Whenever I finish a cup of coffee, finish a meal, you name it, there is a trigger that makes me instinctively reach for the pack of coffin nails. And, I still have this empty space in my midriff I can't seem to fill.....even snacking doesn't do it.

And speaking of snacking.......Great Bob, I could snack to my hearts content and NEVER have to worry about putting on more weight than I could burn right back off the next day, so ramped up was my metabolism. Now, however, I have already gained five pounds and it's NOT burning off as usual. This is the real suck factor I am experiencing in my freedom from my addiction. I know that very few of you are feeling sorry for me in this regard; it's about time I joined the rest of the American population in suffering the pangs of outrageous consumption. What it has really pointed out to me is that even as little as I eat, I still must be eating to much and I somehow have to adjust my mind to this new reality, finding some new "thing" to replace the hole left by nicotine and sweets. And no, I am not finding a new comradeship with the obese or the addicted; both are examples of excess and illogic that I am happy to be forced to deal with and think alot more people should be forced to deal with as well. I know this is not a popular idea, this being REQUIRED to do the right thing, and yes, dealing with it as I am right now I do not find pleasant in the least. But it IS the right thing, if nothing else than for not exposing my wife to second-hand smoke in our house, or eating sweets like a damn pig when my wife couldn't do the same thing without packing on the pounds. It's not all about US, folks, unless, of course, we really don't give a shit about anybody else but ourselves, even how we commit suicide.

No, even now, I am not entirely out of the woods. Any day I could on impulse grab a cigarette and once again begin the slide into addiction oblivion. I am a realist, even as I am a dreamer. I want the easy way out, knowing well that the easy way is paved with bad choices. But I want to at least say that I TRIED to do the right thing. Thus, each day I decide I'm not going to smoke a cigarette, that I am not going to eat that cookie unless I'm damn well starving to death, and that I am not going to conduct an illegal sock-puppet show in New York City. Don't ask.

So, my dearest Kindness, if ever I have given you the impression that my quitting smoking is easy for me, I hope the above has robbed you of it, and please know that I know how hard it is for you right now. If you fail, then I suggest you dust yourself off and try again when you can. Even if you never quit, I for one will never judge you for it, but I will always gladly lend you my encouragement.

This is my long, long stroll down tobacco road. Bob get me to the end of it.

CPU CPR & The Death of an Idea

2007-05-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

It finally happened. She died on me. Dead. As in door nail. Would someone please research where the hell THAT expression came from? She'd refused to go to sleep for some time now, simply shutting down altogether and restarting if I tried to make her. Short of that she was running fine, so I lived in a state of denial, until that morning I came out of the bedroom to find her........DEAD.

After mashing the power button, unplugging and re-plugging her power cord, opening the back and staring at her innards, all to no avail, I knew it was time to take that half-hour drive to the other side of Jacksonville to the Apple store, that Mecca of the Mac faithful I'd always wanted to make a pilgrimage to, only under different circumstances, preferably with lots of money to spend. After finding a parking space something like three blocks away, I carried her lifeless corpse into the stylish store and was told by the kid less than half my age that I needed to make an appointment at the "genius bar", which had me standing around for an hour salivating at all the cool Apple stuff I couldn't afford until they could get to me. The 24 inch Imac looked like a St Bernard compared to my 17 inch Yorky, but hey, all that LCD real estate is overkill anyway; my baby gives me all the visual pleasure I need.

After a close examination and diagnosis by their resident geek who actually knew the difference between capacity and a capacitor, the kid took what seemed to be an inordinate amount of time on his laptop finding that yes, my computer had been cursed with the famous G-5 Imac Power Supply problem, and that yes, it was covered under a special extended warranty, so that the repair would be fully covered, and that I would have my baby back in no more than a couple of days. Once again, I knew why I would never own anything other than an Apple; never had, never will.

Now she's back home, running better than ever, and I'm trying to catch up on my blog. So follow along, my loyal fans, as I bring you all up to speed.

After a relatively short and tumultuous life, I have put Freedom's Place to rest. I will leave it to those who participated and those who read what resulted as to whether or not it was a marginal success or an utter failure in democratic literacy. What amazed me was how hot it got sometimes for no real reason other than someone's desire to stir things up, again, for no real reason, at least none that I was ever able to figure out. Sometimes I think that no matter WHAT one publishes to the net, there is someone out there who will dispute it with extreme prejudice, just to see themselves type. Some have tried to explain the phenomenon on the lack of body language, and that I can understand, were it not for the fact that some comments were made with such meanness ingrained within their font that no amount of body language would have altered their flavor. You need only examine the numerous contributions and comments that were made that did not rely on any kind of vitriol to see how possible it was to examine the human condition without all the drama. If you have two possible responses to what Jane says, one being, "Jane, I disagree with you, and here's why....", or the other, "Jane, you ignorant slut......", well, you can't blame that second choice on body language.

I also discovered that although I might absolutely ADORE the writing style of a person, I don't necessarily have to LIKE that person. Some I can even tolerate to some degree, because, after all, many of our friends have quirks that don't HAVE to be deal killers when it comes to putting up with them. Some I even discovered you can only like while they are ALLOWING you to, which sounds kind of strange unless you have experienced it the way I have. One thing I have learned getting as old as I have gotten is that not everyone can love me as much as I would like to be loved. Not unless I want to bend over backwards and kiss their ass, which I shouldn't have to. I am not always as smart as I think I am, I have been known on occasion to say stupid things that I regret later having said, and I have personality traits that I will probably never overcome to my own benefit, but when push comes to shove, I AM basically a nice, good person with good intentions, and given time, I think it becomes obvious to anyone without a personal axe to grind with the universe. So, those who remain loyal to These Thoughts will do so only because they find a certain comfort level that they know I can provide them, while those with issues will find my blog wanting, which is fine by me.

If I haven't thanked you, my steadfast friends, for being so, then allow me to do so now.

Oh, and the goats are fine. As is the dog, the cats, AND the gecko.

Kindness, it ain't easy, but it's possible!

Every Day

2007-04-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

Every day is one more day having to decide not to smoke a cigarette.

Every day is another day wondering if it's to late to make a difference.

Every day the alarm clock goes off and I decide to be a good soldier and get up.

Every day I somehow avoid homelessness.

Every day I worry about things I never did before, like an added pound.

Every day it feels like limbo.

Every day I am amazed at how many times we repeat our mistakes.

Every day I see something on my body age-related. That wasn't there before.

Every day is closer to the end than the day before.

Every day I bury my regrets and move on.

Every day I decide to love someone who loves me.

Every day is amazing.

The Return of the Smoke-Free Pagan

2007-04-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Germs, It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that THE Michael has decided to resume posting to his Blog, an act I assure you has not been initiated without some serious consideration for the effect it shall have upon this august publication. I fully realize the extent to which the quality of this Blog has risen since I stopped mucking it up with posts, but the purpose of a blog, after all, is to be mucked up, most importantly at the hands of it's author. I mean, I COULD, I suppose, bring someone else in to muck with it, perhaps improving the content tenfold merely by having someone else other than THE Michael going on and on about how his father didn't love him and his wife worships the ground he rakes and tills, but you know, it's the FLAVOR of my writings that really lends "Thoughts" its' evocative, profound, and deeply disturbed arrangement of vowels and syllables that makes it so easy to read, and just as easily, avoid like the plague. So, without further ado, (not that I ever had the slightest idea what the hell an "ado" is to begin with) I return you to your regularly scheduled dose of These Thoughts Escape Me, now in progress...........

.......and so I told him he could kiss my......oh......are we back? Ahem......OK, Hello, welcome back, my faithful! As you all know, I have been on a posting sabbatical for awhile now, and I am amazed at how easy it was to not have to assign a full 12 and one half minutes of each day to this insidious task. No, really, it DID seem as though my plate was full and I just wanted to not have to worry about getting something posted to the blog simply to avoid having one of my readers call 911 and tell them that one of their favorite bloggers was missing and that they suspect it may have been a murder/suicide or that I fell and broke my hip or something. Now, come on, be serious! My hips are pretty damn strong and I don't fall on them just because I'm over fifty! Besides, I have been without a cigarette for almost a month now and I didn't want anyone to witness me sobbing hysterically or morphing into a fundamentalist something or another just because my body was being deprived of it's nicotine for the first time in something like thirty years. Aside from not getting any sleep and dreaming really weird shit when I did manage to fall asleep, this quit-smoking medication has actually worked for me, well, at least so far. Now for the bad news. I gained five pounds. This CANNOT stand! I REFUSE to buy new jeans just because my waist is getting hard to cram into them. Hell, these pants are only about three or four years old; I can get another three or four good years out of them. So, in order to return my metabolism to it's former NUCLEAR rate, I have decided to start smoking again.

Just kidding.

But I guess I have to actually find more PHYSICAL shit to do now to burn calories, something I used to not have to worry about much, no matter how much junk I ate. This really sucks and is so cosmically unfair I am going to be unhappy about it.

So, other than ridding my self of one vice, I suppose you guys are wondering what's been happening around the 'Hold since I last posted. Well, since you asked.......

THE Wife is one shot short of completing her lubricant injections in her knee. How she can just sit there and let some maniac stick a damn needle in her knee without so much as a whiff of laughing gas is beyond me. She denies vehemently being a masochist but I think otherwise. Also, a friend of hers recommended her highly to her own employers, an optical shop, and she is interviewing for a job there now. Finally, she just might land some employment which gets her off her feet before she becomes TOTALLY disabled! It's one of those "9 to 5" type jobs, too, which is nice.

Meanwhile, back at the OK corral, otherwise known as the Critical Care Unit, where I have been ungainfully employed for something like 11 years now, we finally have a new director, which is bringing to an end the relative peace and tranquility we have enjoyed not having a boss to constantly screw things up. I was actually getting used to the feeling of not getting written up for something stupid every three months (like clock-work), but now I really have to get back in that frame of mind that says "You are a total fuck-up, lucky even to have a job, and there's nothing like being written up for no real reason other than a made-up one to remind you of that." Besides, I got my first real raise since I've been employed here since there wasn't a Director to interfere with it, so I guess I can kiss another one goodbye. Oh well, so what. I'm the best fucking PCT this unit ever has had and ever will have and they know it, I know it, and that's all I'm gonna say about that. Except that Momma always said that "life is like a box of chocolates......."

Well, I have decided to avoid addressing the latest occurrences on my return to blogging as not to dampen the enthusiasm with which you will certainly greet my return. Besides, it's gotten to the point that what's been happening lately is hardly shocking to anyone who has been paying attention anyway. After all, isn't this the generation that hardly blinks in the midsts of genocide, mass shootings, poison pet food, global warming, etc, because, frankly, it's all getting rather old? Yep, folks, we have actually gotten USED to this shit, and it takes something actually SHOCKING in it's sheer shockingness and magnitude to really bother us anymore, unless, of course, we happen to actually BE getting shot at, starved, sent to war, or warmed over by some really weird weather. We have our SUV's, and our conspicuous consumption.......what more do we need?

Anyway, I am happy to be back. And, while I am at it, I would like to welcome Amber, one of my favorite people, back to the fold. She swore she'd never do it again, but I knew she would, one day. That's cause I'm THE Michael, and I'm always right, only because this is the world according to ME. At least as far as I am aware of. Ya never know..........

Sabatical

2007-04-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

This is day five, I think, without having had one cigarette, and each day seems easier than the last. Aside from my knock-down-drag-out fight with this demon, the spring has brought with it much for me to do in the great outdoors, that being my yard. I envy you guys in the North, where the trees drop their leaves in the fall and get it over with. Here, many of these oaks keep their leaves year long, and do a major shedding in the spring. So, on top of the huge piles of leaves from last fall, I have a new dusting of oak leaves to rake up as well. Mulch, anyone?

THE wife has started her injections (she gets her second one today) in her knee, and last night decided to catch some sort of cold or flu. Poor thing! Add to that a very painful knot on the bottom of her foot, called a Morton's neuroma, and life has not exactly been fun for her. We can't seem to resolve one problem before another rears it's ugly head. That's life, I guess.

Well, gang, I really HAVE been pretty occupied as of late and I know it's been reflected in this blog as well as my contributions to Freedom's Place. Anyway, I have decided that I need a rest from the obligations of maintaining an award-winning web publication (that award has been in the mail for quite some time now, hee hee) and will take a short sabbatical. Hopefully, I can get back on an even keel and leap back into the blogging fray before anyone actually notices I'm gone. So, check back in once a week if you don't already have some notice thing set up and you'll be treated to more of the insanity you have come to love so well. I should be back up to speed in a week or two, or three, or...........whenever.

I will continue to visit all my brethren (AND sistheren) to see how you're doing, so you'll know I'm still breathing. If I kick this habit altogether, I might be breathing a couple of extra years. I WOULD like to be here when global warming brings the beach to MY little acre of sand as the sea levels rise. Wouldn't THAT be a hoot!

Until I return.........

BLESSED BE!

Kicking Coffin nails, Coming Clean, and Beggin Forgiveness

2007-03-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I have been so occupied by life lately, I have hardly had the time to read my favorite blogs, much less contribute to my own. When I HAVE gotten around to checking in on my faves, It takes me awhile just to catch up on all the posts I have missed. I really want to apologize to all of you for my lack of comments lately, but I assure you I am doing my level best to at least read your stuff.

I am cheating less and less with the cigarettes now, today being a day without even so much as a butt's worth of nicotine. I just might lick this thing, but I might have to add sleeping pills to the mix, as Chantix seems to be really screwing up my sleep patterns. To those other of you who are trying to kick this insidious addiction, I feel your pain, my friends, I really do.

I think I have discovered a dirty little secret about HD television. Last night, I noticed that a show that was advertised as being broadcast in HD seemed to be remarkably sharper and clearer than the other shows being broadcast on the digital channels. Now, although my new set has a digital receiver, it has only a 480i resolution, no different than the ancient analog set I replaced it with. But, I swear to Bob, that picture was as good, if not better, than what I have been seeing at Circuit City or Walmart on the large wide-screen LCDs and plasma TVs they were selling. OK, I have to admit that the picture probably ISN'T as good as 720 or 1080, but there's something about a cathode ray tube's ability to render shadows and color that I still think is far superior to LCD, or maybe even plasma. However flawed my perception might be, I am damn happy with this television, and at less than half the price of a small HD, at that.

The trees here at Pendragon Hold have decided it really IS spring, and are sprouting new, bright green growth accordingly, except for the two oaks in front, who are still being tentative about this weird weather. The plants in the shade garden are leaping out of the ground, and there should be enough growth of weed grass very shortly to start tying the goats out front again. The WIFE is getting ready to plant out the first two rows of her new terrace garden, and hopefully I can get that last third tier filled in shortly. I just wish WORK (argggggg) would get out of the way of what I want to do around here, which is, ironically.........WORK.....laugh....but at least it's MY work.

On a less than lighter note, I inadvertently caused grief and insult to a fellow blogger in one of my last posts for which I must accept some responsibility, if by no other reason, for not doing something as stupidly simple as dividing a paragraph so that I wouldn't attach one observation to another when the two were not meant to be linked. In the beginning of the paragraph I mentioned reading a blog that made a point to which I responded to, and then later in the same paragraph I made comments that were not meant to be applied to that same person. This is probably why I will never become an acclaimed author of anything written, as it seems I am not capable of what must be some basic rules of writing. There was even a "code" word that came out of an inside joke that I had completely forgotten about until she made reference to it in such a way that made it perfectly understandable why she would assume what I was meaning to say or who I was saying it about. Well, even though she misunderstood that paragraph and that subject, well, technically, it would have appeared to her to be an underhanded assault on her personally, and for that I am rather ashamed. She reacted in such a strong manner I am sure there is nothing I can say that would convince her otherwise, and I will accept her invitation never to grace her radar again, with much regret. If she should happen to come across this post, all I can offer is that I am truly sorry for the slipshod manner in which I tackled that subject which implicated her in a negative way, and I offer her the most sincere apology I can muster. I can only hope I have learned a valuable lesson and do not indulge in such literary laziness in the future.

Now that we know for sure that THE Michael can really screw up sometimes, you that always knew that can chuckle to yourselves and bask in his discomfort. In the meantime, those of you who truly know that he always means well, you can chuckle too.......I deserve it.

Blessed Be.

Still Dancing with Leaves

2007-03-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

It's been an interesting time here at Pendragon Hold, our little acre of sand. I am having mixed success with this smoking pill I'm on. I can handle the dreams, they are interesting if nothing else. I even appreciate the lack of panic attacks when I haven't had a cigarette for days. But it doesn't seem this medication is actually ridding me of my cravings, and I can't seem to get much sleep lately. Maybe once I've been on this stuff for more than three weeks it will get easier. I'm not giving up yet.

THE Wife took an additional week off from work and it was nice to have her home taking care of most of that domestic stuff while I returned to work. Now she goes back to work with me tomorrow, but the knee still hurts, and probably will until she gets that next round of injections.

I have some pictures of the terrace garden I completed during this down time, as well as one of a fountain I slapped together for the shade garden, which THE Wife just loves. I knew that old aquarium pump would come in handy some day!

Saturday, out of the blue after being out of touch for more than a year, my old buddy Joe called and asked us if we'd like to go with them to see "Classical Mystery Tour", a show performed by a Beatles tribute band in concert with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. All four of them were once with the show "Beatlemania" at one time or another. Joe works the stages at the local music and sports events, and sometimes scores free tickets to plays or concerts. I must admit, these guys were pretty damn good. It was hearing what it would have been like had the Beatles performed some of their best works in a live concert, complete with the orchestration. What was really hilarious was when this guy in the back row of the orchestra pulled out his lighter and waved it. Nobody uses lighters anymore in a closed, no smoking venue, but a couple of inventive audience members pulled out their cell phones and started waving THEM. Next thing you know, the whole place is lit up the screens of cell phones waving back and forth to "Hey Jude". It was nice to see Joe again and to get out on the town for once, something we hadn't done in ages.

I still have enough leaves piled up around here to cover the state of Texas. I will, however, deal with them eventually. That's what life is all about; "Dances with Leaves".............

Balance

2007-03-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

There are many people, my wife included, who avoid the stress of knowing what's going on in the world by simply avoiding knowing what's going on in the world. Looking at this avoidance strategy from a certain angle, well, it certainly works. But then there's the mantra that one who is forewarned is forearmed. I have never been one of those who can ignore what's going on outside my personal space because I know well how those events effect me in one way or another. Governance, the price of gas, food, strange weather or geologic events, all these things trickle down to you no matter where they happen. Not wanting to know about them won't make them go away, but knowing you might perhaps better fill that tank of yours with gas or stock up on some extra foodstuffs could make the difference when that disaster you would rather not know about shows up on your doorstep.

Along these lines intrudes that saying, "ignorance is bliss". Well, let's reverse that saying to read, "bliss is ignorance". Think about it.

I would dearly love to simply chuck my TV and radio out the window and never see a newscast again or listen to another talk show. I would dearly love to putter around my house, working on the garden, reading some good books, listening to music I like, never having to experience any kind of stress. And I know what would happen sooner or later. I'd go mad. Life isn't and never was nirvana. The human mind did not evolve to exist in a world of denial and sheer relaxation. The human mind was designed to survive, to strive, to excel, to seek, to question, to exalt. You can't do any of that weeding a garden 24/7. Sooner or later your world closes in on you and you might as well go into a coma for all the stimulation and relevance you are experiencing.

I read a blog post recently which decried the amount of time a person imagined she was spending in the virtual world of blogger, feeling disconnected from the REAL world and avoiding real relationships. Yes, if one actually became a hermit and never left the house, did not have outside employment that brought them into contact with "real" people, and had all their needs provided by delivery, I could see how this could be a problem. I also know that people spend time in these virtual worlds doing different things, such as gaming, chatting, and a host of activities which can be accessed by a keyboard. Me, I write to a blog, and I read other blogs, and I go to work, and I shop for groceries, watch TV, read books, work around the house, and interact with my wife, in more ways than one. Blogging is only a part of my total experience, and it adds much more to it than it detracts, at least in my estimation. Although I know people by virtue of blogging, I do not discount them as people I could never meet or get along with in the real world, because I understand that the world from which they blog is as real as mine is. They experience the "real" world in much the same way as I do, yet despite the disparity in our locations and cultures, we still get to share those experiences in a way that once was not possible. Yes, I understand that the internet is not the optimal way one should go about finding a love interest or a mate for life, but that is not a concern for me, as I have that one taken care of. But I also understand that to discount someone online as just another loser for attempting to find a connection via the virtual world is somewhat of an arrogance that can only make one's desire to find a connection ANY where a difficult proposition. If you think you are not going to have to suffer thru a date with a "loser" because you met him in the "real" world, you might be somewhat deluded. A loser is some one labeled as such by some one else who's requirements haven't been met. If your requirements include a sugar daddy with perfect teeth and a convertible, well, hell just might freeze over before you get real and realize that most of the population on this earth isn't as perfect as you, and aren't in any hurry to jump thru any hoops for YOUR benefit.

We all yearn to return to simpler times when we weren't overwhelmed with so much stimulus, trying to keep up with so many distractions, faced with more choices than we can make comfortably. Well, those times are over, and this is the world we have made for ourselves. They call it progress. It's really up to us, as individuals, what level of comfort we are going to have with our information-intensive society. As for myself, I have gleaned the best of this new world from what I have access to and can afford. I now pay my bills online, and never have to drive to the video store to get movies. I forsake HDTV for the cheaper yet vastly better SDTV which gives me a much better picture and more channels than I used to have. I can't afford cable but I live happily without it. We have one pay-as-you-go cellphone which we hand off to each other depending on who needs it most. I watch ABC World News tonight and listen to NPR in the car, which satisfies my news needs, although I can supplement that on the net as needed. I am connected, I am aware, and I am entertained; none of this overwhelms me.

I am at one with the universe, my home, and my wife.......what more could I want?

PS. My extended "vacation" is now over; I return to work tomorrow. THE Wife is doing well, and although it hasn't been as easy as I hoped, I'm still valiantly on the road to kicking my habit. Till next time, well, you know.......BB!

Digital Nirvana, Full Moon Frolics, & Cool Turkey

2007-03-03T20:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I had to remove the TV from the box to get it in THE Daughter's car, but that did the trick, and I got it home. After getting it inside, switching it out with the old set, pulling some cables and hooking a fewer new ones up, and letting the set scan the airwaves for signals, we now have a TV that not only displays a fantastic picture from the DVD player, but also brings in a few digital channels which are crystal clear. However, this is off the old rabbit ears that I've been using with the old TV, which DOES bring in a few strong digital signals, but not all of them, so I took those same rabbit ears and hauled them up on the roof, using an extension cord and extra long coax cable, and found that from up high, I can pull in just about all the digital channels. So, I guess I will have to shell out for some sort of outside antenna if I want to take full advantage of this state of the art wonder.

The numbing agents they used on THE Wife's knee must now be wearing off, because she is complaining about knee pain once again. Considering the state of her knee all told, I am not surprised, and I'm confident that the pain will go away once she's had those lubricating injections. Plus, she DID just have a couple of holes cut into her knee, then inflated with water, so one would expect some post-op discomfort from all that manipulation.

This anti-smoking medication is working, in strange ways. I am starting to get the same physical symptoms I usually get when I try to quit on my own, which is the feeling of a knot in my stomach, or a bloated feeling. I am having fewer cigarettes, and when I do, they don't seem to do anything for me, which I figure is the effect the pills are having in blocking my nicotine receptors. I'm not having the panic attacks I usually have simply thinking of the idea of not having a cigarette, but that might be simply because I DO have cigarettes available to me and am still smoking......I won't really know until the seventh day when I am expected to stop altogether. We'll see...........

There is a full moon tonight, so, you who follow this wicked coven might know, we will be having a full moon rite to honor the Goddess, and maybe cast a few spells.
I just hope the eclipse doesn't dampen the power, nor the cloud cover obscure her altogether. At least the rain seems to be over.

I know I am boring the hell out of my loyal readership by now, so perhaps tomorrow or the next day, I will try and construct something awe-inspiring to post over at Freedom's Place, which unfortunately will get buried by the already awesome stuff that my fellow bloggers are creating there. I am in such good company there, as I am sure you all agree.

Till then, Blessed Be!

The Joy of Logistics and Wounded Knees

2007-03-02T18:15:00.000-08:00

DAMN! I KNEW I should have gotten the wagon or hatchback version of this car of ours. I drove over to Walmart this morning to pick up that new SDTV I told you guys about, and guess what? Damn box won't fit into the car! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Took THE Wife to her follow-up with the knee Shaman, who was very pleased with how well it all turned out. She is actually doing much better pain-wise than she was before the surgery. She'll get her lube job in about two or three weeks.

It rained last night and all day, which saved me from the horrors of hard labor out in the terrace garden, although before the rains yesterday I did dig up about five loads of dirt (what everybody else would call dirty sand) and dumped it in with the shredded leaves already there. So today, after the doctor visit, we went to the supermarket, and THE Wife got to drive around in one of those electric carts, showing me what to pull off the shelves. Luckily, no one was injured or killed in the shopping of these groceries.

The smaller of the two twins has come from Tampa for a visit. I am hoping like hell that HER car doors are just big enough to fit that damn TV in the back, although she's driving a compact car that isn't much bigger than ours, if it is at all. She's doing really great at her new job and has been promoted several times already.

In his typical "I'm the decider, but it ain't my fault" fashion, Dubya has been "disappointed" by the Walter Reed Army Hospital scandal, and heads have rolled. It was bad enough for the poor schmuck who happened to be in command at the time the news media got wind of the piss-poor care our injured soldiers were getting, but the Army Secretary did the perfectly natural thing you'd expect a republican appointee to do and returned the guy who helped it get that bad in the first place. He in turn payed the price for doing stupid things with a democratic congress in control. Now the NEW general in charge of Walter Reed is going to have to figure out how to fix the problem under the same circumstances that allowed such an outrage to occur in the first place, much like the Iraq war, Katrina, and all those other stellar examples of Bush Administration management style. The lesson here for all you young, patriotic American kids just itching to jump into the fight: They are much more willing to break you than they are to fix you. If you are still in such a hurry to be a real "American hero", well, you only have yourself to blame if you come back in less than one piece and they don't seem to be in any hurry to put humpty back together again. You were shown the ugly truth of the matter. This goes for you to, Mom and Dad America.

Meanwhile, the El-nino/Global warming influenced weather is tearing up the nation with tornadoes and blizzards on a grand scale. OK, so some so called "experts" want to claim that this is simpy a "cyclical" situation. Fine. When this "cyclical" situation becomes such the norm that the toll in lives and property begins to mount like never before and it seems like we are under attack by nature herself on a more or less constant basis, maybe these nay-sayers will wake up and notice something ain't quite right. Imagine the White House having to be "hardened" due to high risk of a "catostrophic weather anomoly". Imagine property insurance of ANY kind becoming a thing of the past. Imagine reinforced concrete being the ONLY approved building material for new home construction. Imagine the evening weather report including the day's casualties. Oh, forget imagining it. You won't have to. You may simply have to survive it.

Well, already THE Wife has deemed that I have been on the keyboard much to long, so I will wrap this up. I will mention that this medication I'm on seems to be having an effect. Till next time, as always, Blessed Be!

Adventures on Vacation

2007-03-01T07:43:00.000-08:00

Today THE Wife had her knee "scoped". The doc went in with his fiber-optic thingamajigs, looked around, cleaned out some floating debris, did a bit of smoothing, and even took pictures. It seems the knee is not as bad off as the MRI's led him to believe, and she'll be getting her second lube job in several weeks. So she gets a week off to watch me work outside, which all you husbands know really turn those wives on. It's either that or simply perverse pleasure.

I am finally going to bite the bullet and replace this circa 1985 Sears LXI color television with a new digital model. Yes, I'd love to land me one of those 42 inch plasma jobs, but I haven't had that much disposable cash since around 1985. So, it looks like I'll have to settle for what they call an SDTV, which is nothing more than a regular TV with a built in digital tuner, so that although you can receive digital signals, you just don't get HD. However, for me, it's still going to be a great leap forward. For one thing, this TV we've owned for all these years that refuses to die lacks any of the higher quality inputs, such as S-video or component video. Just having those inputs alone, when viewing a DVD, will be fantastically better than what we've been seeing. Plus, I live out where I get all kinds of noise and ghosting on these analog channels, which will be cured altogether by digital signals, which you either get, in all their beautiful clarity, or you don't get at all. So, for less than $300, I'll at least still be able to watch a better TV than I do now, even if it isn't HDTV, which I'm not exactly sure I like that much better anyway, from what I've seen in the stores.

Tomorrow, barring any thunderstorms which have been predicted as a possibility, I will be getting out to the terrace garden to shred all those poor, innocent piles of leaves that have been lounging around, minding their own business. Hopefully, they will understand, in their own leafy way, that their impending doom in the maw of my shredder is for the greater good of all plant kind, at least the kinds of plants we hope to grow in this terrace.

I took my second stop-smoking pill this moment. I've taken two so far and nothing weird has happened, thank Bob. No seizures, no hair growing out of strange places, no sudden urges to sacrifice animals or local republicans. I still have five days before I'm supposed to go cold turkey, but for now I'm smoking as usual with no lack of my usual cravings. I don't think any real side effects (like nausea) will show up till I start taking the 2 pills per day or the 1 bigger dose pill after that, and I suppose the effect on my cravings won't show up till then either. I choose to remain optimistic that I am burning thru my last carton of coffin nails.

I suppose I could slip in some rage against the machine, but it seems so pointless lately. I haven't seen the Democrats make any real, concrete attempts to reign in King George, and it all seems as though that we are destined to follow the same course as of all the empires that rose and fell before us. Pax Americana. Hail Dubya!

UPDATE (Next day.....)

Didn't get this out last night. Woke up to rain showers, so there went my day shredding leaves. Instead I'll be taking THE Wife across the river to the Barne's and Noble Bookstore, a place she loves to browse. That is, if the rain lightens up enough for me to trust her on her crutches. Day three of my Chantix treatment. Why do I have this strange kinship with badgers all of a sudden?

Till next post, Blessed Be!

Catching Up

2007-02-26T05:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy few weeks here at Pendragon Hold, our little acre of sand in North East Florida. Today was the first day of a two week "vacation" which will include surgery, terrace gardening, leaf raking, carting, piling, and shredding, pain, and my Bob-knows-what-numbered attempt at kicking the evil nicotine addiction that's been riding my back for over thirty years now. Stick with me here, this may take some explaining.........

I know I have been somewhat lax in my posting habits of late, but I have every excuse a guy could come up with, many not even made up. I HAVE attempted to keep up with my favorite blogs, but have failed in that miserably as well, as you might have noticed by a lack of comments from THE Michael. No, he's not dead, at least not yet. I have been working a few extra shifts at work, because they have needed the coverage due to piss-poor staffing, AND due to my enjoyment of the extra green stuff they rewarded me with for doing so. I'm no richer now than I was a month ago, but I didn't have to contemplate selling an organ to pay the mortgage, thank Bob. And yes, extra 12 hour shifts, at my age at least, are payed for dearly. THE Wife has had issues with mood and knee pain, which hopefully the magic of pharmaceuticals will help with, mood wise, and she will be having her surgery this Wednesday, for the purpose of digging around in there to find out how bad it's deteriorated due to working hard and bad arthritis. We are crossing our fingers and hoping like hell he can clean it out, shoot some more of that chicken feather based lubricant back in there and keep her going for a few more years before I have to learn to live with a six-million dollar wife. "We can make her better; we HAVE the technology.....". Yea, sure.

One of the nurses at work discovered the new prescription Chantix, which is a new pill developed to deal with weight loss but has a happy side effect of helping many people quite smoking. She's not had a cigarette for four weeks now and hasn't tried to kill me or anyone else so far. And, get this; INSURANCE covers IT! So, before they realize their error, I got MINE and will be starting the regimen tomorrow. I am supposed to stop inhaling in seven days after starting the program. That was about the time I found out I was allergic to ZYBAN last time I tried to quit. If I find out I'm allergic to THIS stuff, I'll KNOW that fate is picking on me. I won't be amused to visit the ER once again. The doc doesn't think I'm likely to have that happen with CHANTIX, so wish me luck.

This week I was able to purchase the final number of landscaping timbers necessary to finally complete the terrace/herb garden that's been under construction for something like five years now, and all that remains to be done is to shred about 37 metric tons of leaves to make garden compost soil with. Oh, and I will have to dig up some actual dirt (which in my case is actually sand) to mix with all that. This calls for manual labor. HARD manual labor. PAINFUL at night requiring hot baths and advil kind of labor. But, it's a labor of love, so that's OK.

So, between taking care of THE Wife post-surgery, working on this garden project, cleaning house (DOG HAIR), cooking the meals, cleaning house (MORE DOG HAIR), listening to THE Wife complaining about the pain, cleaning house, and all those other domestic duties I try like any good husband to avoid like the plague, I should be too busy to notice that I took two weeks off of work and didn't go anywhere and probably will be so glad to get back to work and RELAX, that I won't notice whatever nicotine fit this medication allows to filter through. I love my life, I really, really do!

In an honest effort to cater to our feathered friends without having to get medieval on the squirrels, we shelled out for a squirrel-proof bird feeder. So far it seems to be doing the trick, either that, or these little bushy-tailed rats haven't noticed the treasure-trove of seed inside of it. The longer they can't brainstorm a way into our bird seed fort knox, the longer they live.

I am hoping that THE Wife is given major painkillers which allow her in her drug induced haze not to notice that I am trying to keep up with my blog. By wife doesn't really like my blog. She thinks I love this blog more than I love her. Nothing could be further from the truth. But face it, this blog doesn't require paxil, I enjoy reaching out beyond my almost isolated existence, and no, I don't do this 5 hours a day, like she likes to think it does. So, the number of posts you witness from this one onward will be a good gauge on how well I cope with domestic bliss, post-surgery drama, and being dog tired from terrace garden maintenance, amongst other things.

Admit it, photoshop just can't compare to the real thing, now can it?

Speaking of photoshop, I have been stopping by a once favorite blog for a good read when I had the time when I noticed that a certain link was absent. It seems I have been held to blame for a certain amount of hurt feelings that I had nothing to do with. Well, fine. I have feelings to. My link list reflects the fact that two can play that silly game.

OK, THE Wife is home from a hard day's work, I've fed her, and I have to devote my attention to her, so I leave you with the above. I will keep you all informed as best I can, but remember, a wife has an amazing ability to keep her husband off a keyboard when she wants to......so keep your fingers crossed.

And that's the latest from Pendragon Hold, where sand is plentiful, but beaches are far removed........

Crashing to Earth, and why it needn't happen......

2007-02-15T08:58:00.000-08:00

(Paul issued this challenge to me, which I accepted. Thanks, Paul.)

Picture the Hindenburg (Oh, the Huge Manatee!!!) catching fire and descending to the ground, only in extreme slow motion. THAT, my friends, pretty much describes our health care system, if you can really call it that. While more and more Americans lose any kind of affordable insurance, the cost of providing health care of any caliber continues to skyrocket. As the treatment centers of last resort, emergency rooms are being overwhelmed, as the uninsured and those who don't understand what a medical emergency really is tax a system that threatens to melt down under the strain. In the ultimate paradox of the 21st century, the most advanced nation on this Earth in terms of medical technology isn't able to provide the most basic health care in a rational and cost effective manner to a large and growing segment of it's population.

I could be wrong about this since I THINK I heard this on the news or in some article, and please point it out if that's true, but there are only two nations on Earth that do not provide SOME level of state sponsored universal health care, those two being the United States, and Australia. The only two. Maybe they didn't include Somalia in this study, but perhaps that's because Somalia hasn't even had a government for some time now. If this IS a fact, it's a sad, and totally illogical fact.

Anyway, the monkeywrenchs stuck in the gears here are so glaringly obvious, I can't understand why they haven't been dealt with long before now. The first and worst fubar that's making all this possible is this long-held delusion that the free-market and health care can possibly have any relationship to each other, unless you are deliberately dreaming up a guaranteed way to bring down that zeppelin. Can you imagine what would happen if we turned over the entire government to Haliburton to run for us? Yea, that's right, Senators and Congressmen dragging down obscene CEO salaries while services are cut left and right in the name of "efficiency". Forget being poor, you wouldn't live long enough to file your tax return.

When operated on a non-profit basis, a hospital is adhering to the principle that you try and control your costs within reason, you charge what is necessary to deliver that care in the best manner possible, and tack on enough profit to maintain your infrastructure while upgrading your services as needed. You don't throw money at executives just to do their job, and yes, they are EXPECTED to earn what they do get. You don't concern yourself with stockholders, because patients and those who are charged with delivering healthcare to those patients ARE the stockholders, and they are not there to get rich, they are there because they are needed, and are paid a decent wage to do their jobs. Unfortunately, we here in the United States think EVERYTHING is a tree ripe for the picking, and thus you have "for-profit" hospital chains attempting to reward stockholders and greedy executives while at the same time understaffing their hospitals and refusing to use what profits they do generate to enhance their ability to do what they are mandated to do. Meantime, the insurance companies are balking at paying even what it honestly costs to deliver these services without hiking up the rates for their policies, so determined are they to suck out their share of the loot for the benefit of THEIR stockholders, becoming nothing but money sucking middlemen who skim off profits while making the problem worse. Yes, there are certain services within our society that can clearly benefit from competitive free enterprise, such as package delivery and other such straight-forward services, but health care is a much more complex monster that does not fit that model. Capitalism requires big losers outnumbering winners. In health care, that is the worst kind of model you should be wishing to embrace.

It has already been proven by economists in study after study that the Federal Social Security and Medicare system has been able to deliver it's services much more efficiently and at far less cost than any private enterprise could hope to match, since it deals directly with the consumer without having to pay delivery ransom to some middle man. The shortest distance between two points, even in capitalism, is a straight line uninterrupted by middle men serving no other purpose than to add bottlenecks and suck out more money from the stream.

Another major problem we face in this country is this sense of entitlement and unrealistic expectations that the health care system has created by being as good as it has been in extending lives, without a corresponding increase in the QUALITY of those lives. We have also used this system to interfere with nature's mechanism of strengthening our gene pool by weeding out the weak and non-productive amongst us. People who a hundred years ago would not be expected to live long enough to pass along those damaged genes are now living and reproducing and creating a whole new breed of human that otherwise would never have survived to place such strains on the rest of us. We value life so much, yet we seem blind to the horrible quality of life that we promote by extending life at all costs. We can't even seem to accept that some people simply are not designed to live to be a hundred, and go to great lengths to keep people alive no matter how horrible and empty that life might become when we warehouse them in nursing homes and tend to our guilt by periodic visits to these people who were once such vital forces in our lives, but whom we refuse to grant the dignity of a good death when their own personal physiology's say it's time to go. This only drains more money from the effort to keep the rest of us healthy in the face of injuries, disease, and more easily dealt with infirmities. It's no wonder that the more "primitive" a society is in relation to us, the hardier it's stock seems to be. How many of OUR women squat down in their cubicles, have their babies, and go back to work after cutting the cord? I don't suggest it's a good idea to promote that kind of maternity, but that's just how tough it is in some societies and humans there are built to deal with it when necessary.

We also have a pharmaceutical industry, in all it's free-market glory, that focuses most of it's energy on developing drugs that MANAGE disease rather than CURE it. There is no profit in curing a disease, but there is plenty of profit in keeping the sufferer of that disease alive as long as possible, paying for those drugs forever. What is the ratio of cure versus management type drugs in the last forty years? Do we need a study to point out the obvious? Imagine the Federal government taking over this job, rewarding bonuses to research teams who actually produce drugs that benefit consumers more than they do a drug company.......can ya wrap you head around THAT? Imagine getting a drug for diabetes or heart disease for slightly over what it costs to produce, rather than what it costs some drug company CEO to buy a new yacht. Yea, I know, I must be some pinko commie just to even imagine it.

Despite the complexity of modern health care, there are remarkably simple and straight forward fixes that can be applied, but probably won't because it would remove the profit motive and we simply can't have that can we? Here are my ideas (which I will not take credit for in their originality) that won't make it very far, due to their logic and the incredible PAIN it would inflict on such an entitled populace which wants all the rights but none of the responsibilities.......

Universal health care delivered straight from the Federal government much like Social Security and Medicare, taking the premiums straight out of everybody's paychecks just like the rest of all those terrible taxes, based on income level, of course. Based on the claim that the larger the "group", the more affordable it is to cover them, well, what "group" is larger than all of America?

Nationalize all hospitals, using the VA hospital model. Pay physicians handsome, but not outrageous, salaries based on their time in service, their expertise, and their ability to deliver quality care to their patients, rather than how many lippo-suctions they can get out the door in one half-day. Pay bonuses according to specialties and how onerous it is to become proficient in them. We also have to take into account how much sacrifice most physicians pay in their training years and in their day to day lives when they have to be available to their patients at all hours of the day and night. As far as bad doctors go, remove any incentive from the system for any one physician to protect another from bad practice. Shared peer responsibility can go far in weeding out bad doctors, before the civil and criminal law needs to step in and intervene, after the damage has been done.

Provide for another level of national service on par with military service. Pay for the nursing school tuition of those who wish to serve as nursing assistants in national hospitals for four years. If at the end of those four years they have decided they weren't cut out to be nurses or some other allied health occupation, they can be given tuition for any four year degree, but they will have provided a much needed service to this country in the meantime, and didn't have to pick up a rifle in order to serve their country.

Provide for doctor's training in the same model.

Finally come to grips with our growing epidemic of obesity and other self-inflicted ailments which are placing such an inordinate strain on our system. I really don't see any inalienable right to gain 400 pounds and expect the rest of us to deal with it. Everybody should be required to have a yearly physical in order to be covered for health care, and those who are gaining weight should be required to control that weight, through diet, exercise, and whatever medical intervention should prove to be necessary. Showing up with a hundred extra pounds over what your frame should be bearing should get you a ticket straight to a Federal "Fat Camp", where you are treated for your eating disorder or whatever metabolic problem that might be causing it. If you think this is some onerous attack on your personal freedoms, fine, keep stuffing your face or refusing to deal with your problem even though you are offered help in dealing with it, and you can forget getting any kind of health care unless you also happen to be rich and can fly to mexico for your next heart attack. I for one am tired of the unproportionate effects you are having on heath care overall, and I have an equal right not to have to pay for it.

Yes, other countries bit the bullet long ago and nationalized their health care systems, and yes, some of them have had to rely on some degree of rational rationing, and there are always going to be complaints, yet you do not see those same countries rushing to copy this messed-up system we are laboring under. I agree that we are better off in many areas of our lives utilizing free markets to provide us with products and services, but health care is not a product or a service that can prosper under a free-market system. Like I have said, capitalism cannot really function without two extremes, winners, and losers. If we are really the caring people we claim to be, then we should not be proud of making a buck at the expense of the basic health needs our our fellow citizens.

There are probably many other sane and rational approaches we can use to address the growing problems we have with health care in this wonderful country of ours, but I sincerely doubt that those answers will be found under the guise of the free-enterprise system. Yes, you can buy an hour's worth of time with a prostitute, but it's not love you're buying. All we really need right now is love, my friends. All we need is LOVE. Even if it includes TOUGH love.........

Return of THE Michael

2007-02-11T07:38:00.000-08:00

I'm sort of in a funk, post wise. It's not that nothing at all is happening or that I don't have an opinion concerning things that invoke opinions, none of which ever seem to solve something or settle an argument once and for all (like global warming, which,incredibly, is still being considered an "argument" in some people's minds, or should I say, chunks of grey matter that seem to have no apparent function). So, bear with me here while I attempt to leave you with something to contemplate, rather than supply you with a resolve to never, ever visit this blog again and be subjected to a chain of words that never seem to lead anywhere (but, I assure you, they do. They lead, eventually, to the end of this post.).

There's not a hell of alot of advantage to being almost poor, except that this year, I was able to file my taxes online for free. I didn't have to buy a tax program, hire someone to read complicated tax codes and translate them into something usable, nor did I have to go to the post office and bring home more paper to burn once I was through with about 10% of it. If you scroll through the list of approved online tax preparers on the IRS site, you eventually come across one who will let you, provided of course, that you live in the right state, aren't to young or too old, make too much money, or are an avowed communist, to file your taxes right there on the screen and then have it deposited right into your checking account. They promise you that you should get your money within no more than two weeks, but I got mine within the week. Cool! Then I watched all that beautiful stuff disappear as I paid my property taxes and trash pickup fee with it. I DID have a little left over, which I hope to get some landscape timbers to finally finish off our terraced herb garden, which has been under construction for something like four years. It's not enough to deal with my poor defunct septic system, but that's OK, because I am firmly convinced that somewhere below the ground there, a strange confluence of events have occurred that somehow initiated the world's first cold fusion reaction. What else could explain where all this shit is going? hehe Now all that remains is to figure out how to harness the enormous energy this impromptu fusion reactor must be putting out..........

If you own a computer (well, of course you do, you're reading this blog!) and a printer, you know well how expensive these damn ink cartridges are. Get yourself one of those refill kits and refill those cartridges yourself. It's not rocket science and you'll save a ton of money. Unless you own an Epson printer, of course, in which case you're screwed. You CAN refill em if you pay extra for a "chip resetter", but that can be dicey, so since I wanted a scanner/printer/copier combo machine anyway, I found a not-so-expensive one from HP and it works great, refilled cartridges and all. I just can't seem to get those $20 bills to come out right........

Meanwhile, over at Freedom's Place, it's been a roaring free-for-all, having survived it's first civil war with minimal casualties. I'm rather proud of this thing I have created, as well as those hardy souls who have dove head first into it and made it a lively example of creativity and free expression. Thank you all so much for your support and participation. Does anyone know of any Rastafarians, Japanese Buddhists, air traffic controllers, or Muslims on Prozac that might care to join us? Just let me know.........

Anna Nicole.........nevermind.......already over that..........

NASA has proven once again that their people are indeed made of the right stuff. Using mission planning techniques that rival those that put Man on the Moon, an astronaut of the female persuasion has demonstrated that hormones are an untapped resource that could very well get us to Mars, provided of course we have an adequate supply of pampers.

We bought ourselves a couple of cool bumper stickers for the car, one that says "BLESSED BE", the other, "WHERE THERE'S A WITCH, THERE'S A WAY". A car with Virginia license plates honked at me on the road today, and at the stop light, the lady driver rolled down her window and yelled at me, no, not "Burn in Hell!", but rather, "Thank You!". I smiled and yelled back, "You're welcome!" That's certainly a refreshing alternative to road rage, doncha think?

We have two people at work that I am really worried about. One is a nurse whom I have worked with for quite a number of years now, and the other a young man, a fellow PCT, who is funny as hell and full of life. They are both Army Reservists, and they are slated to be mobilized to Iraq come 2008. I love and care about both of them. Please, Congress, put a brake on this juggernaut once and for all and don't take these two fine individuals from us.

Speaking of nurses and PCT's, we have had a shortage of both in the CCU where I work, since the company the owns us went "private" and started penny pinching, putting a hiring freeze on in the middle of a growing census that we are having a hard time keeping up with. The ER has been filled to overflowing almost every other day, there are only 16 beds in my unit and they are always full, and the hospital is already in desperate need or more beds to handle the influx of sick and old people. More and more often I am having to work the unit alone without any help and it can get wearing, especially since I have been trying to schedule extra shifts to help out. The money is sure nice, but it sure seems expensive when I come home exhausted.

Next Morning......

Sorry, I didn't get this out last night; it didn't seem finished. Which leads me to upcoming Valentine's day.....what do you get a witch for Valentines? Hmmmm.......a chocolate voodoo doll? A pair of fuzzy dice for her broom? How about a nice little nothing I'd like for her to almost wear? (wait, that's for ME.......grin) Maybe some chocolate covered strawberries and some bubbly stuff........and a nice, husband cooked dinner, candles and all. Yea, THAT's the ticket.

OK, let me wrap this up and post it. Sorry if it seems I'm slacking lately, I'll try to be brilliantly creative and post amazing things more often for your reading pleasure. It's the least I can do for my adoring fans. Yes, I actually said that. Me bad.

Do Flat Fish really Flounder?

2007-02-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

I suppose everybody has been wondering what in the hell happened to THE Michael......or rather, "what happened to WHO?" Either way, I have a good excuse. Notice I said excuse and not explanation. Back in my Navy days, every time I tried to supply an explanation for whatever it was I did or didn't do that wasn't up to standards, I was informed that no matter how valid my reasoning was, the proper definition of anything I could come up with was EXCUSE. Sigh.......eventually the consensus is arrived at that you had to have been smoking pot and screwing your own mother, instead of frantically trying to find an alternate flight back to base after yours had been cancelled, to no avail. Makes you WISH you'd done that instead.

Anyway, having digressed, I first got distracted by a little brush fire that erupted suddenly over at Freedom's Place. It was a test that we all aced admirably, or failed miserably, depending on your point of view, unless you are like me, who recognized it as a FUBAR just waiting to happen, yet would prove to be an illuminating experience for all of us who thought they knew exactly what freedom of speech was all about. I hope we learned something, I know I did. In the end we lost a very talented blogger, although I must admit that he was a reluctant participant from the very beginning, who will prosper regardless safe in the bosom of his own personal forum. I wish him the best.

Back here in Pendragon Hold, well, it's been weird. For once, our annual battle with the IRS finally came out in our favor, and we will be getting back at least enough to pay our property taxes and this new EXPLETIVE trash pickup fee we have been forced to pay despite overwhelming opposition to the plan by the citizens of this county. I can only hope we do to THOSE bastards what the American people did to the Republicans this time around.

Then, as though getting our clocks cleaned by multiple hurricanes a couple of years ago wasn't tragedy enough, a cute little storm snuck into central Florida and almost wiped quite a few communities off the face of the Earth. We've had our share of tornadoes before, but this time they had a field day with us. Please keep them in your prayers, it was really bad and their were alot of tragic deaths.

THE Wife's knee, the bad one, having last year received a series of injections of that stuff made of chicken feathers to keep it lubricated, started hurting again, so it was back to the orthopedic guy for another lube job. The first one was only promised to last perhaps six months, and it's been a year, so it was a pretty good temporary fix, but he ordered up an MRI to get a closer look, and the results weren't pretty. Her arthritis is pretty bad and he's going to have to go in and clean it out before trying the lube job again. My worst fear is that she's going to have to finally get that knee replacement that's been in the works for so long now. She damaged that knee when she was fairly young and it's rather amazing it's lasted this long.

I'm equally worried about my good friend and canine wonder Shiloh. His hip problem has really been bothering him to such a degree that he's nibbled the hair right off the spot right in front of his tail on his back. It sorta looks like a reverse mohawk. I treat him with liquid advil whenever he seems to be suffering the most, but there's not much else I can do. Sigh.

The winter that finally decided to show up here in America has been taking an occasional dip down into the South here and we have been having some faux cold days, even a couple of light freezes. The deep freeze that has the East in it's grips now will probably provide another excuse for the oil companies to jack up the price of gas again. This is against the obvious fact that this winter has so far been extremely mild and hasn't taxed the reserves at all. But then, since when has Exxon-Mobil needed any logical reason to suck even more mullah out of our pockets after posting the largest profits ever stolen from customers in history? Can we just go kill them all now? It would make us all feel SO much better.......

One of my coworkers has been taking a new quit-smoking medication and after three weeks seems to be doing pretty good. What's got ME excited though is that it seems that for some strange reason, our insurance actually covers this medication, so I'm going to be visiting the Doc to make sure I'm not likely to be allergic to THIS opportunity to finally free myself from the grips of this EXPLETIVE addiction. Wish me luck, OK?

If things would just slow down around here I'll try to get back to my normal posting pattern, and I really am trying to keep up with your blogs as well. As for Freedom's place, well, I am still trying to figure out if I created a monster that needs to be put out of it's misery or given another chance to live up to it's potential. It's sucks being being the administrator sometimes; you're damned if you do, damned if you don't, or the dam just breaks anyway and all you're left with is a bunch of pissed off beavers.

(THIS JUST IN: Seems our director of graffiti and cultural affairs has decided to leave our ranks as well, having decided we that we don't walk the walk as well as we talk the talk. She provides her reasoning, as did Tim, back at her own blog. I suggest you go visit, and give her outlook the airing it deserves.)

An Elder Statesman

2007-01-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

Just awhile back I stumbled across a blog written by a gentleman who is almost twice my age, and his mental agility puts my relative young mind to shame. I think perhaps Buffalo turned me on to it: I forget already (isn't that pathetic?) Let's set aside the fact that he is over 90 years old; his writings have a wisdom, grace, and continuing curiosity born of a lifetime of experience that seems to have gotten the attention of several generations. His blog is called "Don to Earth". If you fail to investigate this blog, you will have missed something priceless!

As far as popularity goes, well, I just went back to check him out after not having done so for a few weeks and I was astounded to see his last post garnering over TWO HUNDRED comments! Here I was thinking the Tim, HE, and Ms C were the comment kings, and this wonderful old gentlemen has put them collectively to shame! He has touched the lives of people of ALL ages, without any bells or whistles, simply the reflections of a life lived to the fullest, parlayed with a humility that even I wish I could lay claim to.

One of his recent posts examined his realizations and feelings concerning how close he is coming to the end of his journey, and what I admired so much about it was not any expression of fear, but simply a good, basic distaste for the idea of checking out before he actually wants to, and despite all the ills of the world, all the challenges he now faces in his advanced age, he's still very much alive and kicking with plenty to say about everything. I swear to Bob this gentleman is more alive now than I have been in the last 20 years of my life, and I certainly admire him for it. I personally do not expect to live past my late sixties, due to my own choices in life and how they are effecting my longevity, but I certainly do hope that I can approach my own ending (or transition to the next big thing) with as much style and grace as this man has displayed.

The thing I most fear, having been exposed to it in my job for so long now, is the loss of my mental faculties before my body gives up on me, for that to me is truly hell on Earth. I never understood why we didn't evolve to simply shut the whole shop down when the head office begins to act like a mental Bush administration. Don, however, has proven that one's mind CAN remain fully intact and full of life instead of reverting to that second childhood so many elderly succumb to, and it is refreshing to witness. I highly recommend you go witness this yourself. You'll be glad you did.

A Red Rubber Ball

2007-01-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

Having already made a contribution to Freedom's Place, I turn my attention to what damage I might create here at "Thoughts". I decide to go surfing thru my favorite blogs to see what's going on with the breathren, stopping first at Dizgraceland, and my attention is riveted by what's on Tim's mind today. I read it again, just to make sure I understand the sentiment. Hmmmmmm. Then I read the comments. HMMMMMM. Interesting. Excuse me for a moment, I need to go somewhere.........

Virtual reality being the state of mind that it is, I find myself strolling up the path towards the gazebo in the town square of Freedom's Place. The skies are leaden and overcast, and a gentle breeze sweeps the square, kicking up an occasional unswept leaf, two metaphors dancing with each other. Then, I notice a little boy, dressed warmly in a woolen coat and stocking cap, tossing a rubber ball at the bulletin board, bouncing it off the cork-board covered in posts. He doesn't exactly look happy.

"Hello, Timmy, what's happening? You thinking up a post?"

He doesn't say anything at first, just bounces that ball, back and forth, back and forth. His brow is pinched, like he's trying to think of the right thing to say. Finally, he catches the ball and turns to me.

"Maybe I don't WANT to post. Maybe I wanna go home. I like my place better."

I stare at him, taken aback somewhat, but I realize he has feelings about this place that aren't all that different from others who have passed thru lately.

"I like your place too, Tim. Matter of fact, I'd bet almost everybody who sees it thinks it's one of the best around."

He stares at me, that look of hopeful suspicion on his face, like he doesn't exactly trust what I'm telling him.

"You think? Well, if it's so good, why did you drag me over here?"

"Tim, I didn't DRAG you over here, I INVITED you. There's a difference."

"Well, fine, but I don't see the point. I have my own blog; I can say all I want there."

"Indeed you can, Tim. We all can. And we all do. Perhaps I can try to explain the point a bit better. Or, maybe I won't, but I'll try, if you give me a chance, OK?"

"Sure, go ahead. Whatever."

I sigh, and gather my thoughts. I glance over at the statue of Tim-Id/Braveheart. He follows my gaze, trying to look serious, but I can see the grin creeping past his serious demeanor.

"Tim, I don't know about the others, but I personally think that is one of the finest contributions we've had here in our town. And you know what? It does more for your blog than it does for us, to tell the truth. It piques a visitor's curiosity and makes them wonder where such a cool thing came from. So, from here, they are led right back to Dizgraceland, where they are able to discover more of what you are capable of. We're all proud of it, knowing we have such a talented member in our midsts. Everybody here in Freedom's place has their own unique contribution, that not only makes this place so special, but makes their own blog a place worth checking out. Freedom's place simply provides one more way for others like us to come together."

"Well, fine, " he grumbles, "but I don't have that much time to be coming here, and what am I supposed to say here that I can't say back home? And when am I supposed to do it? Don't we all have to take turns? It's kinda complicated...."

"Well, Tim, that's the beauty of Freedom's place. It's the very essence of the word. You do what you want when you want to do it, and so what if you are the fifth post in a day, or maybe once in a blue moon? The cool thing about freedom is that it frees you FROM things as much as it allows you to participate in them. You know, as many people came to America to get away from expectations as they did to have the right to tend to their own beliefs and desires. We welcome people of all persuasions and inclinations. They can come and go as they please, and if they feel they only have enough energy for their own personal blogs, well, that's OK too. As for what we talk about here, well, the same thing applies. Community means different things to different people. Some can't wait for the next parade; others you couldn't drag to one if you tried.....we all belong in our own special ways; one is no better than the other. Here, whatever topic floats your boat is fine, there is no format requiring you to speak of any one thing."

Then I point something out that till just now I hadn't even noticed before, a brass plague adhered to a granite stone next to the gazebo. It seemed to sum it all up in a way only the author could have said it......

"I Refuse to join any club that would have ME as a member!" Groucho Marx.

"My friend, if even HE can rest here in Freedom's Place without turning over in his grave, I think the rest of us can survive it."

I glance across the street and notice Whitesnake leaning against the wall of pub, and he raises his mug of Guinness in my direction, smiling. Shandi studies the wall in the alley next to him, wondering what she can do to it to make it more than just an alley, and I am happy to see her here even if she has her own doubts.

I turn back to Tim, who now stands tall and looking very much like the Tim that is all grown up, living in Seattle, and doing the things that only a Tim is likely to be doing in the real world. I offer him my hand.

"I apologize if I somehow invaded your space, but I hope you'll find enough purpose in this place not to abandon it totally. Maybe this will be a ghost town one day, but I think it was worth a shot, and I'll always be proud of the idea if not the execution. I guess if I was half as good at anything as I thought I was, I'd be president now, but we all know that ain't gonna happen. I just want to thank you for at least not out and out saying the whole idea was stupid to begin with. And the next beer is on me if you care to come visit karaoke night over there at the pub. If Whitesnake leaves us any, that is."

Tim shakes my hand, not committing to anything, but I think I see a glint of understanding in his eyes as he flings the rubber ball across the park and heads off towards Dizgraceland. I turn and walk across the street to join Whitesnake at the pub. It's another day in Freedom's place, and I cross my fingers, hoping there are many more to come.

Dances with Carburetors, amongst other things.....

2007-01-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here on a Saturday night, kinda mad at myself for not having come up with another FANTABULOUS post for this blog in so long, but I think I have a valid excuse, between work, launching Freedom's Place, saving the universe, and being a husband and all. So, in an attempt to keep These Thoughts Escaping Me, I will attempt to create something worth reading in the time I have between wolfing down some of THE Wife's fantastic chili ala' leftover and having to leave to go get her from work. Wish me luck.

Awhile back THE Wife had some of that miracle lube they make from chicken feathers injected in her knee to keep it working awhile longer before the dreaded joint replacement is called for. It was suggested that it would work for maybe six months, but it's been roughly a year now and it finally wore back down, the sad event heralded by new knee pain. So, it's back to the orthopedic guy to inject some more into her knee, hopefully for another year of lubricated, pain free function.

I'm about to add small engine repair genius to my repertoire of "figure-it-out-myself" abilities. The shredder wouldn't start for me, and I attempted to pull the carburetor apart to see what was the matter, screwing it up even more. The parts guy at Sears explained to me what was the most likely voodoo going on in this complex part, and ordered me the parts, explaining to me which part did what and why and how to put humpty back together again. Next time I'm off I'll clean it real good, reassemble it, put it back on the shredder, pull the starter cord, and hopefully continue my fine tradition of mucking my way through things as only a journeyman layman could. The back forty has a fine crop of leaves that have to be danced with, organized into neat piles, and shredded for the greater glory of our gardens, which we hope to get established once we can figure out when Winter has actually ended, Spring has finally sprung, and it is safe to plant seed and seedlings before Summer comes along and kills every living thing on the planet, or at least our little acre of sand.

Meanwhile, on the political front, it seems as though the whole country is holding it's breath, as we seem stuck between the intransigence of the Bush Administration and it's old, discredited right wing congressional dynasty, and the new, more centric hammer that's poised to put some hurt on it. Now, I say POISED, because right now the newly elected congress is taking baby steps, working to pass some much needed legislation that the old guard kept hidden in the basement, and making some "we don't like that" noises at Bush's stupid "damned the torpedos, stay the course" prosecution of this war that should never have happened to begin with. The main concern that everybody, even alot of liberals, seem to have is that leaving Iraq too abruptly could invite chaos and leave the Middle East in shambles, resulting in a breeding ground for terrorists...........HELLO? Am I the only one that sees an Iraq already in chaos, a Middle East in shambles, already a prime breeding ground for Muslim extremity, THANKS TO US? Geeze, I must be fucking seeing things! The only way I can see a "surge" in troop strength accomplishing anything is if we are given complete freedom to go into Sadre City, shooting anything holding a gun, and taking out anyone who even LOOKS like a member of a sectarian death squad. Enough of this bullshit! Put American and Iraqi cops and police on every damn street corner, and every time a bullet or shoulder launched grenade comes flying out of a building, you take out that entire block with a KC-130 Specter Gun-ship. Do that once or twice and I think the good citizens of that part of town will get the message. Don't allow it! If an IED goes off in a neighborhood, you tell everybody living on that block they have one hour to pack up their belongings and get out, because it's going to disappear, because no one reported someone planting the damn thing in broad daylight! Again, a message well understood; DON'T ALLOW IT! It's called the rule of law, folks. It's called social responsibility.
But, we won't do that, will we? So just get the hell out, and let them have at it. Last man standing gets to rule over a wasteland, and nobody is going to send them money to rebuild. They make their choices, let them live with them.

That's why I am so far attracted to the idea of Berack Obama running for President. Not only is it time to elect a man for his ideas rather than how light skinned he is, but this is the only man I have heard suggest that we should divide Iraq into three regions, one each for the Kurds, the Sunni's, and the Shiites. These people simply can't live together without the iron fist of some maniac tyrant making them behave. We can put a base in Kurdistan and sign a security agreement with them; they still love us despite how often we betrayed them, and they are the least bloodthirsty of the three. Let Syria and Saudi Arabia keep the Sunni's safe and armed, and allow Iran to keep the Shiites supplied. If the two factions down South want to duke it out even more, then fine, let them. All we have to do is mine the border up North near the Kurds and carpet bomb any move from the Sunni's. End of story, Goodbye Sadam, sorry we messed up your country, we elected an idiot.

Well, that's my rant, rave, and report on the goings on here a Pendragon Hold. I hope it was worth the visit. Any thank you all for the wonderful times we are having in our home town, Freedom's Place, where all the men are rock stars, the women all diva's, and the kids are behaving for once.

THE CASE OF THE TAINTED HAMBURGER

2007-01-14T18:04:00.000-08:00

I was running around town getting things done, and around noon I decided to grab a quick bite at a fast food establishment. Mistake number ONE. While I was perusing the menu, I decided that I deserved to have a nice, big Angus beef burger, something I NEVER eat (red meat, that is), figuring, what the hell, a walk on the wild side once a year was justified. Mistake number TWO. Of course, this sandwich was no where near as big in real life as "The King" makes it out to be in the commercials, but it filled me up, that, and the strawberry shake. What in Bob's name was I THINKING?

I am now paying the price. At first I thought the beef was simply not agreeing with a digestive system that normally only has to handle chicken, fish, and turkey. Plus, I had two glasses of "Real" Sangria with dinner later on that night, which sometimes loosens things up in the pipeline. Well, let me tell you, the Banzai pipeline is fully open for business, my friends, and I think I picked up one of those dreaded "bugs" that fast food places are now dispensing to the public. I knew I was in trouble when aside from a queazy stomach, I started feeling a bit warm, then cold, then.....well, you get the picture. I have a fever.

I hadn't even fully made it over this bad chest cold and this damn thing gets me. I was planning on taking THE Wife to St. Augustine tomorrow, but between the rainy weather that moved in and this damn stomach bug, I don't think I'm gonna be up for it, which makes me feel even worse, remembering how bright THE Wife's face got when I promised her this impromptu vacation. Well, who knows, maybe I'll be over it by tomorrow, thanks to Imodium, tylenol, and whatever other wonder drug I can hit this with. Or maybe not. I just hope it's not contagious. The wife's had enough sickness to deal with.

I've really been enjoying the contributions being made by the citizens of Freedom's Place. One side effect seems to have been that the links are bringing you guys some more readers, who might have not noticed us otherwise. Viral friendship, unlike viral running man syndrome, is a GOOD thing........lol......groaaaaaannnnnnn........gotta run!

Karaoke Blessings

2007-01-13T20:23:00.000-08:00

This has certainly been an interesting month. Global warming coupled with El ''Nino has made this one of the strangest Winters I can remember. George Bush is preparing to send more targets to Baghdad for the insurgency to shoot at. Candidates are coming out of the woodwork like flies to vie for the office of President when the present idiot's constitutionally mandated final term is finally up, and we've got a whole slew of good, or bad choices, depending on your political leanings, as well as the tendency of politicians to say or do something stupid before the primaries. Sometimes I think having to choose between Satan himself and Ghenghis Khan would be an improvement over what we've had to put up with over the last eight years. And on top of all that, bad judgment bit me in the ass and killed my cat.

It hasn't been all bad. I managed to work some holidays and overtime and brought home some righteous bacon. I bought us one of those $15, pay as you go cell phones so that we'd have a way to call for help in case of emergencies. I had to give up the Cingular phones a while back, they were just to expensive considering we hardly used them and the signal wouldn't reach out to the house anyway. Then, I somehow took a rather odd idea and turned it into reality. I created a virtual community, populated by people from all over the globe, and even attracted a "Big Name Celebrity" without spending a cent! Thanks, Ms C! Yea, I know, creating a "team" blog is nothing new; the net probably is crawling with them, but it's MY baby, and we all know that the ugliest babies are beautiful in the eyes of their parents. I am amazed, however, at how eagerly my friends joined in to make Freedom's Place such an instant success. I can't thank them enough. If this new blog is here a year from now, I can smell an award......can't you?

With just a tad bit of extra cash at hand, I'm taking THE Wife to St Augustine Monday, the only place within reasonable driving distance we go anymore when we want to pretend we are going on vacation to someplace exotic. There are cute little shops there that we love to frequent, including those that cater to us pagan types. Since the weather is so insanely mild, it should make for a very pleasant day. Such are the finer, simpler pleasures in life.

The best thing that has happened to me, however, is this realization that I am not cut off entirely from the world I once thought I had been exiled from, hunkered down as I am here on this little acre of sand in Florida, a place that fate deemed right to plant me on. I and THE Wife do not have an extensive circle of friends. We have acquaintances at work and we have some family. But, for the most part, it's her and I and the pets keeping each other company. THE Wife is happy with the status quo, and has no real interest in reaching out beyond this small circle. I, however, have found great pleasure in the relationships, however tenuous and limited, I have established with all of you whom I have come to know and care about over these past several years thanks to Blogger. I truly wish I could meet, in person, each and every one of you, if only to take the liberty of hugging you and thanking you for coming into my life and enriching it in each odd and wonderful, spectacularly individual way that you all have. I am a lower-middle class individual hanging by the razor's edge of outright poverty, yet I could not feel richer for what you all have given me. If this wonderful iMac of mine blows it's motherboard, the damage would far surpass the utility it provides me in areas such as bill paying, information gathering, record keeping, and entertainment. It would cut me off from YOU, and THEN, yes, THEN I would surely be lost. I cannot afford the 1200-odd dollars it would cost to replace it, so for the sake of my sanity I pray to Bob that she holds up until such time that fortune smiles upon me and grants me the wherewithal to acquire a new one and remain connected to this wonderful family that has welcomed me into their lives.

So I'll shut up now and finish this post by thanking each and every one of you for being in my world and making it so much richer than it otherwise could have been. I'll be seeing you at the pub in Freedom's place, hogging the karaoke mic. They used to claim I could sing. If they were lying, could you see it in your heart to keep to tradition? Just order a few more rounds of drinks.........I get better with each and every beer you down...........

A Failure of Stewardship

2007-01-11T20:35:00.000-08:00

Mankind has this strange relationship with certain other species, namely dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, goldfish, etc. These species of animals I speak of, most of them, at least, would not even exist in their present forms were it not for the influence of man. We call these animals "pets", an odd name assigned them due to our propensity to want to stroke them, which makes us, and sometimes them, feel good. Now, if we go back to the beginning, when we were just beginning to form this close bond we have with these creatures, our motives were somewhat more practical. There were certain benefits derived from our domestication of these creatures, and we put them to work, serving us in whatever capacity we discovered they were best at, depending on the individual species. Cats, well, they were good at keeping vermin at bay, such as rats and mice. So we kept them around, and fed them when the rats and mice were on short supply. Dogs, we discovered, had all kinds of talents, such as sentries, aids in hunting, herding our sheep, goats, and cattle, and even tracking. Back then, a domesticated animal only remained in our good graces so long as they performed some practical function, but beyond that, they were no more kin to us than the animals they helped us exploit.

Much later, as we ourselves evolved beyond fighting nature tooth and nail merely to survive on a day-to-day basis, some of us discovered another use for these creatures beyond mere utility. We discovered they could provide us with companionship, in some cases a kind of companionship preferable to that which we got from our fellow humans. What these animals gave us was an unquestioning, nonjudgmental sort of acceptance and love that many of us came to depend upon in our increasingly complex world. When's the last time your dog NAGGED you, or questioned your worth in this world? When's the last time your mate purred contentantly as you scratched their ear? Many has been the human who has existed solely on the loyalty and devotion a pet has provided them, when the humans around them have left them wanting. Thus, these animals we adapted to suit our own needs rose above mere utility to become our friends, and have become as much a part of our family as any human sibling, Aunt, Uncle, Mother, or cousin.

OK, so what in the HELL was all this about? LIke I haven't just told you something you didn't already know, if, I am willing to bet, you have experienced this connection to an animal that you have brought into your own life. Well, what I want to do here is discuss a very important concept......Stewardship.

When we adopt an animal into our lives and become responsible for them, we take upon ourselves a responsibility that is no less demanding than the love and caring that we assume with our human family members. Now, I know that many people, perhaps most, do not exactly see it that way, treating their charges as property rather than kin, and I will not argue the point to that degree. So I am speaking to those of you who know damn well that perhaps these pets of ours deserve so much more of us in return for what they give us than we usually impart to them. I'm sure you all have heard of devotion for a pet so deep with some people that they will spare no expense to keep them heathy, giving more devotion to them then they would any human they know, even related to them. I myself am torn between thinking of my pets as property and at the same time respecting them as fellow beings who have as much right to the same things I take for granted. I try to think of my dog Shiloh as my friend and not merely a dog that I expect certain things from. To tell the truth, I honestly don't think the love and loyalty this dog gives me is something I CAN take for granted, despite the social pack animal motivations that I know drive him to behave towards me the way he does. He's my friend, period, and there's no need for me to denigrate or study how he feels.......he's MY friend, and that's all that matters to me.

Well, speaking of stewardship........in that regard both I and the wife have just failed miserably. Our cat, Tuvak, has been with us, since he was a cute little kitten, for most of our marriage together. He's always been a "house" cat, never having been exposed to the cold cruel world outside of whatever dwelling we called home. The only life he's ever known has been within the boundaries of a human artificial construct, thus he has never experienced the vulgarities of the outside world, with all of it's temptations and dangers. So, when he recently began to behave in a very untidy manner, urinating and defecating almost everywhere but his litter box, we responded to his rebellious behavior in the worst possible way.......we kicked his canine ass outside at night.

Now, Tuvak had it bad enough when we brought Lola into the household and he had to get used to sharing his turf with another cat. But he adapted. Then recently we adopted another cat, a sweet little female that our son-in-law had become allergic to, called Cricket. Perhaps that was the straw that broke his tough-guy back. Perhaps he simply couldn't handle having to accommodate so many other contenders for his owner's affections, food, and litter box. So he replied to the situation, and not in a way that was acceptable to our neat and tidy expectations.
The wife began to discover the cat scat in front of the litter box, and angrily caught our now renegade child pissing all over the place. She demanded action, and in the spirit of appeasing her and not thinking more about the why, I took the easy way out and exiled this house cat to the strange and frightening world beyond our walls, perhaps thinking that the experience would make an impression on him. Now, tell me, just how STUPID can a man be? Yes, Tuvak brought this upon himself, yes, the wife had to be appeased, but, YES, as the man of the house with the final word on the subject, I became the judge, the jury, and.............yes.......sigh............

The wife called me at work, on the verge of tears. I had tossed the cat out the back door last night. She found his still body on the side of our dirt road when she returned from taking me to work that morning. What did Tuvak know of cars and the deadly consequence of being in the road? He probably was having a hard enough time digesting where he was and why he was out there in that world he had never had to experience. Yes, my friends, for all practical purposes, we killed our cat. This has been our hard lesson in stewardship.

Once again, on this night, there was a funeral pyre set ablaze on this sandy acre we call Pendragon Hold. Once again we sent a friend on his journey to wherever pets go when they die. Only this time I had to stand there and ask this friend for forgiveness. I do not fear any punishment for this sin, no fear of roasting in some hell for this deed I had a hand in. But I do fear suffering from some nonchalance of the loss of life of a mere animal, for this was no mere animal, this was a friend, and I failed him. All I can ask is that this has taught me a valuable lesson in regards to stewardship for a life that I took responsibility for by bringing him into our lives.

Go now to Summerland, my friend, and learn how to catch mice, and I promise that when we meet again, I hope you will allow me to scratch your ear, and that you will purr in contentment, and forgive me.

UPSET!

2007-01-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

First off let me inform you that I have precious little interest in football, which in my opinion lost all "cred" when the first team deserted it's mother city and moved to another, the ultimate betrayal of the sports fan. When the Baltimore Colts became the "Indianapolis" Colts, and then the Rams left Los Angeles for St Louis, of all places, I said the hell with it. TRAITORS! I compare that to the United States Marines moving their headquarters to Mexico City. When money trumps loyalty, it cheapens everything. The fact that some players are dragging down more moolah than the President, simply for getting an inflated pigskin from one end of the field to the other, has also contributed to my disdain for what I once considered a noble endeavor and source of community pride.

Which leaves college sports. OK, I admit it, the current bowl system is so totally screwed up that there's no way for the best of the best to rise to the top, especially if they don't belong to one of the major "money" conferences. A team with a 9-3 record could actually end up being declared the champion while an undefeated team gets shut out, based on an asinine poll system that every sports writer I know has declared to be downright stupid. However, there's no danger that the Fighting Irish will ever play for the University of Miami, and we won't be seeing the Crimson Tide representing Yale. These teams are actually tied to their schools, and you can't very well sell them off to someone else.

So this year the team most North Floridians call their own, the Gators, made us proud, pulling off the most unexpected and well-fought upset ever, beating the undefeated Ohio Buckeyes, and beating them BADLY! 41 to 14! If ever a team felt like simply dropping out of school in shame, I think the Buckeyes do right now.

I have quite a few coworkers who must be walking on air right now, and I feel good for them. Gator fans are about as fanatic as they come. Whenever the Gators take on the Georgia Bulldogs, every Florida fan expects a feast of roast dog, while Bulldogs always insist that Gator tastes like chicken. College rivalries sometimes make nations at war look like wimps.

So, OK, I'm smiling. I may not care much for football, but I am proud of these boys. These are their glory days, and I look forward to the movie that I'm sure some Hollywood type at this very moment is busy writing the screenplay for. It should be inspiring!

Now We Can Hang TOGETHER, as Well as Seperately!

2007-01-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

My fellow bloggohaulics, the deed is done! After carefully weighing the votes it appears that the name "Freedom's Place" has barely edged out all the others. I personally was rooting for it since it was suggested, even though I personally suggested "Reason's Refuge". FP is a fine name and I want to thank morningstar for seeding it, and Whitesnake for fleshing it out. Every name you guys suggested, with the exception perhaps of DILLIGAF (Whitesnake's initial ornery offering), was a fine one and would have served us well. Thank you all for your inspired participation!

Along with the launch of Freedom's Place, I sent out invites to participate to every member that I could get an email for. If you did not receive an invite from Blogger to participate in this blog, please let me know, providing an address, and I will get it sent out posthaste. Also, if your mug or graphic is not showing up in the slideshow, please send me something I can use to represent you. AND, if you are not a contributing member, but feel that you have been poking around this place long enough to be considered one, please do not hesitate to email me and say so. Also, if you found yourself in our group by surprise, and didn't exactly wish to be associated with us, please accept my apology for assuming that you belonged with us, and I will remove you, but I hope you'll wish to remain. If you happen to be here, it's because you matter.

For posting, please adhere to these simple guidelines. Include your pic or graphic with the post, sorta like a columnist would in the paper. Try to keep the obscenities to a minimum (something I have been known to be very guilty of....hehe) and please do not use our forum to launch any attacks that might reflect badly on the rest of us. This is not to say I am asking for any real censorship here, just a tad bit of respect. That being said, anything you wish to say about a certain emperor of a superpower is fine by me, as long as you don't mind having black vans parked outside your door.

So, welcome to your new community. Each and every one of you have been adopted into a family that could never have existed before Blogger came along, and I am very proud to be a part of it. I realize that your own personal blogs come first, all I ask is that you drop in on us at least a weekly basis and add your own two cents worth to whatever happens to be going on. Since you will be posting rather than simply commenting, you have the room to add your own take to the discussion, along with your own personal flavor, such as pics and poetry, and yes, even your face, Tim. Speaking of faces........if there are any enhancements you wish to contribute to Freedom's Place, perhaps with photoshop, feel free to email your concept to me and we'll work to get it incorporated.

If there are any other bloggers that you guys know that might be interested in joining our community, please feel free to recommend them. The more the merrier.
So, without further ado, please glance over to the links and click on the link to your new home. Just wipe your feet before coming in.........smile.

Birth of a Nation, the Continuing Saga.......

2007-01-06T19:28:00.000-08:00

I know it seems as though I've up and disappeared, but in reality, aside from the daily grind of my own reality, I have been working on the group blog and trying to get some consensus on the name of it, without much luck. I did not publish the votes for the community name in order not to influence the outcome, which in retrospect might have been a mistake, because, sigh, no two people voted for the same name. However, the choices so far DID get narrowed just a bit, so I am going to publish those, and try one more time. I am also going to publish the comments to the last post so that you can see the spread and each person's reasoning. I hope that helps.

I will need all of the contributing bloggers to send me their email addresses in order to "invite" them to contribute. That seems to be the mechanism Blogger uses to approve contributing members who can write to the blog. I thought that as Administrator I could just add your names, but it's not that straightforward, apparently. So.......if your name is on the list, please send your email to me at pendragonhold@yahoo.com so that I can get the invites out. I promise you will not get in return any sales pitches for penis enlargement or herbal viagra.

Please choose from the following.........

Freedom
Freedom's Place
Possibility
Lower Slobovia
Reason's Refuge
Lyonesse

and don't forget to forward those emails to me ASAP, please.

Sheesh, democracy is a messy affair...........

TRIBAL COUNCEL

2007-01-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Germs, I now present you with the nominations for the name of our virtual community. They are as follow, not in any particular order or degree of popularity.......

OK, now, three of these names where offered up by one kind soul, perhaps in jest, so that counts as one. So, I need to collect no less than nine votes. I will accept any vote from a regular, their "regularity" being determined by myself. After I have recorded the votes of those nine that offered up a name, I will determine the winner and announce it with the launch of the new community blog. I will provide the link to that blog when I have created it. Void where prohibited.

I want to thank all of you who embraced this idea, as well as those who did so with a tad touch of wit. I have no idea how well this new place will fare, since it adds an extra burden to those who already put so much of their hearts and souls into their own personal blogs, but I think it has great possibilities. Perhaps thinking of it as a place to make the mother of all comments might incline many to visit it often, since the usual comments are somewhat abbreviated due to the space alloted them. I do ask that you choose your favorite photo or graphic to include with each of your posts, since they will be somewhat like that of a newspaper column, so that those who visit us know us each by our faces and/or representative graphic as well as by our words. If the whole thing ends up falling flat on it's face, so be it, but I promise to give it my share of attention, and only ask that you give it your own. After all, it's YOUR town, might as well add your own unique signature.

Kindred Souls

2006-12-31T11:09:00.000-08:00

It's the very last day of 2006, THE Wife is at work, I'm at home listening to "This American LIfe", and having just read a comment, something pops into my mind that says "write me". It doesn't attempt to justify itself, it just insists on me doing so. Fine. OK. Chill. I'll write it. If it makes sense by the time I'm through with it, I'll post it. Why not? With the wealth of material my life provides me to post, I'll take ANYTHING right now to justify posting one more time this year.

Ever wonder what it is that makes you bookmark any particular blogger, giving them a chance to impress you enough to keep going back to see what they are writing about? It's not till later, if they return the favor and begin commenting, that you take that into account, so sucking up or making nice comments extolling your virtues isn't an initial consideration. But there IS something you connect with when you first click on that link and meet these people for the very first time. Accuse me of getting weird about it, but I honestly think these people occupy a special class. I'll call it "kindred souls". There's something about them you recognize and are familiar with that grabs you and it's all over; you've been adopted. Or vice versa.

These traits seem to be different for each person you find this connection with. Some of them even irritate the hell out of you for one reason or another, yet, they are perhaps similar to a baby brother or sister whom you find yourself stuck to, hate being around, yet feel protective towards. Some you'd never find yourself associating with voluntarily out there in the real world, yet here in virtual unreality, you couldn't even imagine not knowing them. Others you wish like hell you could somehow meet in the flesh, knowing one hell of a party would erupt, much like anti-matter and matter meeting and creating the ultimate bang, even if it would annihilate both of you. It would be worth it, something like the most satisfying illicit sex you could imagine having. Calm down, guys, I'm not being literal here, so let go of your crotch.......hehe.

Kindred souls. I can't think of any other explanation for it. Perhaps we've known each other in some other time, some other universe, some other life. Or, perhaps it's time to know them for whatever it is we are suppose to glean from knowing them. That's the karmic theory, but hey, it works for me. It might also explain why my wife stays with me, despite everything. I've given you guys glimpses of what "everything" entails, so you know what I mean. I'm one lucky SOB, doncha think?

Damn! I just read back over what I just wrote and I guess my muse really does know what the hell it's talking about. That's why I rarely argue with it. It's much like a wife; argue all you want, it's going to win in the end anyway. Save your breath.

So this is what THE Michael leaves you with on this final day of one very strange year. About the only good thing I saw happen this last year was most of us going to the ballet box to say NO to the status quo. We still have a long way to go. It remains to be seen whether or not we have the strength and resolve to complete the transition from utter lunacy to extreme political makeover. We will never reclaim our place in the hearts and minds of ourselves and the rest of the world until we admit that we really screwed up and are willing to do what we can to earn our way back into the collective good grace. New years is a time for resolutions. Let's hope we make the right ones. If we don't, we can describe 2007 and every year afterwards in two easy words.......GAME OVER.

Happy New Year, Kindred souls.

Out with the old, in with the...........?

2006-12-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is a rather surreal moment. I'm watching the State Funeral for President Gerald Ford (so far nobody's tripped hauling the casket up the Capital stairs) while listening to "A Prairie Home Companion". The wife has just come home having worked today while still in the grips of a bad cold (with a possible touch of pneumonia). The kids have headed back to their home bases down South and it took me many an hour to clean up the mess. Save me, I think I'm a househusband.

There have been some pretty good suggestions concerning the name of our virtual watering hole, with one in particular already having earned a couple of seconds. I will be posting all the names soon for your consideration, without the names of the authors, at which time I will ask for your vote. No, you may NOT vote for your own suggestion, just to be fair, but if your entry has grabbed that much attention, it won't need it. In case of a tie, I will drag out the wading pool, pour in the lime jello, and let the two contenders have at it, providing of course they both happen to be of the gentle persuasion. If it's two guys...well....the jello gets replaced by something somewhat nastier. A guy and a gal? The gal wins......don't they always?

I'm working on a new blog to represent our new home. I'm making it a team blog so that people can come and go at will, even Tim, who has gotten rather paranoid lately, thinking we are a secret society under the auspices of the New World Order come to rob him of his precious sovereignty. Once he realizes that the door opens both ways, I think he'll relax enough to paint the town with his face. We won't mind.

I've also decided not to hold it against anybody who might have been born and bred in the great State of Texas. Just so long as they don't invade any of our neighbors behind our backs, they are more than welcome to join.

It got cold for a couple of nights, then got warm again today. Don, your cold fronts are really wimping out this year. Something tells me that global warming is taking the wind out of your arctic sails. If this keeps up, it's going to get dicey down here. If I were you, I would declare war on the U.S. for pumping out gases of mass destruction. You would have a coalition of equally concerned nations more than happy to join you. By the time we've wiped the carpet with your pathetic "armed" forces, I think maybe we'd get the message and change things around here. The only way to make a bully alter his behavior is to stand up to him, even if you get a black eye for your troubles.

I'm beginning to learn the hard way that the only reason the fates allow me to garner some extra pay thru overtime and working holidays is because I'm gonna have to blow it all on some financial emergency. They car is making ominous sounds in the area of the transmission. At the rate things are going we'll probably be homeless within a few years. Thank Bob I still have my two man back-packing tent. Hopefully my wife will dump my ass for someone who knows how to provide better before that happens. I love her that much.

Ok, that's it from the desk of Pendragon Hold tonight. I hope your 2007 treats you better than 2006 did.

Breaking Ground

2006-12-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

It has been rather gratifying to see the response to my idea of creating a comfortable little fire for all of us to gather round. The comments have ranged from enthusiastic to ornery, which reflects the nature of our distinct personalities. As of yet not everyone has responded, or did not offer a name as of yet, but it IS the holidays and some people really have had better things to do, so I am allowing time for the idea to gel and for the rest of our humanity to get on board if they are going to. We have participants from all over the globe, but it sure would be nice to have a German, a Swede (preferably one in a fur-lined bikini) and maybe a Texan (well, I don't know about Texans, cause, well, they are from TEXAS, of all places).

Some of us have yet to post a photo of themselves, so please realize that you have not been excluded from citizenship in (name of place here), I just didn't have a pic to add to the slideshow. Which brings up an idea. I COULD start a blog site using that slideshow of everybody involved, with everybody added as team members so they can post at will. Everybody except Tim, of course, since Tim declared that he is his own country and demands taxes. We will negotiate in good faith, however, and hope that we can convince him to give up his weapons of mass destruction, let his people vote and wear boxers rather than briefs if they want. But no taxes. When he sees the great slurpy recipes a free and diverse community can post, I think he'll give in and join. We certainly could use his photoshop skills!

I had to take the wife to the doc today, her having gotten a bad cold, had to call in sick to work, and is coughing up her lungs. Doc thinks she might have a touch of pneumonia and prescribed antibiotics and a good cough medicine. I think she'll live. Well, I HOPE she lives.......she makes me a killer sandwich for lunch every day I work. I would really miss that.

I'm wearing an old pair of spectacles since I discovered that my glasses had no warranty because I didn't PAY for one. Sheesh! Was a time they made things to last at least awhile. Well, come January, I have access to my medical spending account and can get another pair, but till then, I am craning my neck back to see this monitor as I type. One must suffer for their art.........

I want to thank everybody for their positive response to the community idea. I am open to every suggestion you may have as to how we can construct our town square. But taxes? Read my lips..... That one is DOA.

Blessed be!

A Place All Our Own

2006-12-26T07:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know why this never occurred to me, or anyone else, for that matter, before. OK, every "community" of any note on this planet has a name, something you can call it so that everyone else, least of all the inhabitants, know what you're talking about in reference to that specific location, place, or even state of mind. OUR little, tight knit, diverse and eclectic community deserves no less! So, being the first one to notice this apparently less-than-obvious little conundrum, I, THE Michael, hereby do declare the incorporation of a new town, village, hamlet, spot on the map, insane asylum, special level of hell, or anything else you wish to call it, and while I'm at it, call to order it's citizens to nominate, second, and hopefully, elect a proper title for our new virtual community. Look, gang, we are here, we exist, we matter, we "know" each other, we wave to each other in passing, we share "secrets", cry on each other's shoulders, drink to much, and say things we regret as soon as we hit the "publish" button, so, you tell me, is this not an entity of note? If you prick us, do we not bleed? Have we not waxed poetic and been brutally commented upon by people who love us regardless? I rest my case!

So what if the physical bodies of our citizens happen to be laying around in vastly far-flung locations, some exotic, most not so; we all get rained on, snowed on, or otherwise bothered by some sort of weather we wish would just go away. We are all equally exposed to the evils of climate change in one way or another. We all breathe the same air polluted by the surging economies of the not-so-third world as well as the big bad polluter herself, the U. S. of A. We have all been dragged, some of us kicking and screaming, into the global economy, and probably have a Walmart located nearby to remind us of it. All of us understand English, even if some of us have to suck it up and communicate with it fighting nausea the whole time. Most of us live in something resembling a democracy, even if it doesn't quite live up to the real definition of it. And all of us take a crap sooner or later.

All of us came here voluntarily, even though it might have been a very bad decision overall. All of us remain here voluntarily, despite the effect it has had on our world view. All of us have heard the viewpoints and biographies of people who don't look like us and have come back for more regardless, which might imply most of us are masochists, but perhaps that's an apt description of those willing to walk on hot coals for the chance to get to the other side of a truly bothersome divide, that divide being ignorance, intolerance, and miscommunication. And all of us have discovered that regardless of our race, creed, or color, we are all one species, a species having very little going for it, but one capable of miracles nonetheless.

These are the kinds of people living in our virtual community, and I think that they have earned the distinction of being able to lay claim to an identify, no less than the good people of Cincinnati, Bombay, Bumfuck, Lexington, Paris, Ho Chi Min City, or Sidney. We have every right to proudly proclaim our citizenship of a new shining city on the hill, one anchored firmly in electrons zipping around in silicon, no more impermanent than Los Angeles or San Francisco, sitting so precariously on their geologic fault lines. So what if we don't need streets named after trees or dead presidents, good sewers, decent cable service, or a library? We leave all that mess to the "real" world. Here in OUR virtual community, we exist in a world that caters to OUR needs, such as comradeship, communication, understanding, humor, sorrow, hope, anger and all matters of angst, dirty thoughts, even dirtier thoughts, a good joke or two, validation, and tolerance. We have never agreed on everything and would think it weird if we did, but here in OUR little town, not one of us have felt the overwhelming need to pull out a digital AK-47 and force our singular viewpoints on the collective, like they do in that "other" world, the one that can't seem to just get along. Here, the voices of hatred, unwarranted sarcasm, and outright stupidity finds it's way into a magical trash can where it belongs. Some of my fondest friends in this place have said some things I wish they hadn't, but I have always preferred to hear such things from a friend and suck it up than hearing it from someone convinced of a sense of superiority to the rest of us. I have taken my own lumps, and I wouldn't trade one of them for all the ass-kissing in the world.

So, read this and weep, citizens of our wonderful little community, for you have been challenged; to assume responsibility for who and what we are - recipients of the greatest gift since the Guttenburg press. I now call upon all of you to come here to this temporary town hall, suggest a name for our fine gathering spot, and risk the derision of any or all of us on the off-chance that YOUR idea trumps all others and identifies us to ourselves and the rest of the virtual world. This will take awhile. There will be jokes, contemplation, poetry and idiocy displayed on this blog for awhile, which will be no different than any other concept which has graced the pages of this humble device. Big deal. We can handle it. So steel yourselves and let loose, let slip the hoary hounds of suggestion, and let's see what moniker consensus can craft amongst us. We deserve no less.

However, I must remind you that I will not seek any office. If elected despite this declaration, I will not serve. And if I find myself negotiating treaties with foreign blogs, I swear to Bob you'll wish you'd railroaded Tim into such a thankless job instead.

Blessed be!

Post Yule, Something or another Eve........

2006-12-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

Being the blasphemous pagan that I am, I am working a three day stint including Christmas day to nail down some lucrative overtime and bonus pay, so I don't have much time for posting. It's been an interesting Yule to say the least, and maybe I'll attempt to apprise the comedy later.

My glasses broke on me, at work, leaving me practically blind, but the wife and a twin came to rescue me and return me home. Timothy Leary would have envied the light show I was treated to in the passenger seat on the way home. If you are extremely nearsighted like me, take a ride through the streets at night in the passenger seat without your glasses, your better half driving, of course, and you'll know what I mean.

Have a happy whatever you're having! And may whatever God or Gods you acknowledge have mercy on your party-hearty soul!

He WAS a Contender.........

2006-12-22T15:48:00.000-08:00

I was quite a number of years ago, while I was still a relatively new PCT working in the Critical Care Unit of my hospital. Already I was used to the comings and goings of the elderly patients that make up the bulk of our admissions. Most are in such bad shape, either due to disease or the ravages of time, that you don't have much real interaction with them, other than the care you afford them. Some regain a modicum of health and return to home or nursing care, others succumb to the inevitable, regardless of our high tech interventions, and make their way to Summerland, where we will all end up, in whatever guise we choose to believe.

There are those occasions, however, that these souls pass by you with their minds more or less intact, and you interact with personalities, unique individuals with unique histories, and more often than not they are more than happy to share their snippets of wisdom with you, or spin you a yarn that really grabs your interest.

This gentleman I speak of tonight had had his share of hard knocks, said knocks encountered of his own volition and choosing. He once was a prize fighter, back in the day, or so he said, and waxed with me a few rounds he made with better known names of the boxing world. Yes, I suppose, he imagined once he could be a contender, but like most who put on those gloves and suffer the insults to gut and head, he made his mark and faded into obscurity, at least in my mind, for I had never heard of him, and doubt that many had, especially considering how old he was. But, this man had known his own glory days, and who was I to weigh and measure that glory? I listened to his stories as though I was in the presence of Sonny Liston or Mohammed Ali. And as far as I was concerned, his stories carried as much weight.

What made me realize how genuine, if not historic, this man's story was, was when he, in a most matter-of-fact-fashion, asked me if I wanted his autograph. Still not having a clue as to who this gentlemen might have been in his day, I informed him I would be honored to be given such. I handed him a slip of paper and he scrawled his moniker as best he could, with a shaky hand that spoke of his numbered days.

What bothers me most this day, as I write this remembrance, is that I do not remember whether this man made it back home alive or not. So many have, as many have not. It's hard to keep them all straight, there have been so many. Almost every day, they return to the unit on one of the many trips through critical care they will take on their way out of this world, and they will recognize me, greet me as an old friend, and I smile and humor them, embarrassed that, more often than not, I have lost their face in the crowd of souls I have encountered through these ten-plus years I have done this job. I do know that considering how long ago this meeting occurred, he has most certainly passed beyond the veil.

But I still have proof that you were here, that you might have meant something in your own way to people, least of all to me. I don't remember the name that you were admitted to my unit under, but I will always remember you, Kid.

You'll always be a contender as far as I'm concerned, as long as I'm alive to remember you.

December 20th, 72 degrees

2006-12-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

It's an unseasonably warm, laid back day here at Pendragon Hold. The wife is at work and I'm at home trying to keep myself occupied as Yule draws near and we prepare for the kids to come home for the holidays. The "Yule" tree glitters over in the corner of the room, presents piled up underneath, and I laugh to myself when I think how THE Wife has managed to hold onto the gift-giving habit although we no longer celebrate Christmas. She has been researching and quoting this and that concerning ancient pagan practices that support the idea of exchanging gifts during this time of year. Oh, well.....I give up......some habits are just to damn hard to abandon, I suppose. I had thought not to have to deal with the guilt of not putting much effort into this gifting thing, especially since I rarely have any money after juggling the bills to put into it, but THE Wife has pulled that little victory right out of the jaws of defeat......argggg.......now what......sigh.

One of the twins has us worried, not that we don't always seem to have something to worry about in regards to offspring. She's been having symptoms which my background suggests that she might be in the grips of new onset adult diabetes. Her doctor is running every test known to man on her, instead of going straight for the obvious and sending her to an endocrinologist, which is an aggravating cover-all-the-bases-and-thus-their-own-ass kind of medicine which only adds to the cost of medical care. Not that I WANT her to be diabetic, for I see the downside of having to live with that nasty affliction at work everyday. I just pray, in my own way, that's it's just a weird anomaly which can be corrected easily.

The OTHER twin, often jokingly referred to as the evil one, although she is anything but, bless her, has had her share of difficulties, mostly having an operating set of wheels to get her to a new job which so far she seems to enjoy very much. Getting around these days has become such a pain in the collective ass, especially for people of limited means who can't just saddle a horse or hop on a train to get to where they need to be. The South is notorious for providing precious little infrastructure for mass transit, instead simply paving everything over in favor of our lord and master, the automobile. Between gas, oil, maintenance, insurance, and car payments, you really have to wonder who owns who.

My crazy, intelligent, and young PCT friend at work has been loaning me some Dan Brown novels that I hadn't had a crack at before that I am enjoying immensely. Right now I am reading "Angels and Demons" and this one really has me hooked. It seems similar in so many ways to the Davinci Code, yet is sufficiently different to keep me wondering where it is going.

Overall, this "winter" this year in N.E. Florida has been so damn warm it has me worried about what we are in store for come summer. Everywhere else in the country seems to be having more than it's share of weird weather, plenty of snow, and winds that normally come with hurricanes. If by now you still think there's not something seriously wrong going on with our climate, then the only thing I can prescribe for what ails you is a good bitch-slap upside your head.

The post-election results don't seem to have had much effect on the DUBYA's thought processes. He continues "listening" to new ideas on what to do with Iraq, and will continue to do so until he hears an echo. The sound of his own voice is the only thing Bush seems to be able to hear, and he loves to hear it alot. And, so far, the Democrats haven't given us any real clue as to what they plan to do to try and repair the damage once this asshole goes back to Crawford to play with his crayons. Since the good people of the Middle East are so damn determined to kill each other, and there are plenty of slightly differing "each others" to go around, I really think just getting out of their way will help to keep them occupied for decades to come. For a religion that claims to be non-violent, Islam seems to be it's own worst enemy; it certainly doesn't need the rest of us to pick on.

We will be conducting a Wiccan Winter Solstice celebration for Yule, the Wiccan precursor to Christmas, and while I am exercising my intent, and asking the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the four corners to reinforce my will, I will be sending good vibes out to all my friends and loyal readers of this blog, no matter who you worship, if anybody/anything; no matter how you celebrate your holiday, and no matter what color/creed/nationality you happen to be. You are all my kindred in my eyes. Blessed be, Merry Meet, Merry Part, till we Merry Meet again........

A Little Info about Yule

I know I promised you guys a SPECTACULAR post by now, but a dingo ate it.

wink

We are experiencing blog-lag, please stand by.......

2006-12-17T14:56:00.000-08:00

I had another post ready to go, one of my very best, no, make that THE post of all posts, the post that is SURE to put me in the top 1000 of all blogs, but since I have already gotten ahead of myself, I have to wait until the comments have caught up with my last posts in order to restore balance to my karma and the universe, thus avoiding a catastrophic failure of the laws of physics, which will make posting this next, might I say, specTACULAR post, all but impossible, based on the laws of relativity AND probability, as well as a few 80-odd year old laws still on the books in Alabama that really should have been thrown out with the horse and buggy. So, please do not allow this non-post to register in your conscious mind; just promptly forget you read it and allow my suggestion that you catch up on your comments to those last posts as soon as you can access them overtake your purpose in life so that I can post this next great post of epic proportions for your reading pleasure. Well, I'm ASSUMING you take pleasure from them. Yes, I have suspected for some time now that masochists gravitate towards my blog in order to enjoy the endorphins that suffering through it can produce, but I am stating right now that this theory is nothing more than a nasty rumor started by someone trying to suggest that "These Thoughts Escape Me" should be captured and locked up for good, the key thrown away, and pure, innocent minds protected for all time from my poisonous propaganda.

Well, anyway, I need to curtail this non-post, lest it stray into the realm of genuine discourse, which would totally screw up the reason I began typing this drivel to begin with. Remember, you needn't worry yourself about what it is I need you to do, since embedded within this post-which-isn't-really-a-post are hypnotic suggestions which will take over at the appropriate time and cause you to rush over and comment like crazy, after which any guilt you might have suffered from having to be manipulated into doing so will magically dissipate. See? Now you know why you love this blog so much!

The Question

2006-12-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

Life. Existence. As in the meaning of it all. The mechanics I pretty much understand; the Krebs cycle, the passing of sodium and potassium ions through a semi-permeable membrane, RNA and DNA, the whole unholy schmorgesbord of processes that together make a man. Yet, basically, as complex as it is, the body human is no more remarkable a construct than a four cycle internal combustion engine, or a silicon central processing unit (CPU). In the end, they are designs, one sort perhaps by chance, another certainly by intent, each taking energy and converting it into action. But life, or at least sentient life, that's something beyond mere mechanics, biological or otherwise. An ant is a wondrous machine, part of a collective purpose, which goes about it's duties with nary a thought as to why. A merecat stands watch over the colony, with nary a thought as to what's in it for him or her. Life just is, and always has been, what it was, until eventually the brain of one species got large enough to make room for curiosity.

And that's where I arrive; the question. My ancestors, dating as far back as the ice age and maybe earlier, sat in contemplation around a fire, not satisfied merely with the fact that the fire provided warmth and light, but wondered what magic stuff these flames were made of. He looked up at the searing sun and wondered who was keeping THAT mighty flame going, and where did it go when it sank out of sight over the horizon. And he marveled at the moon, which shone so brightly without the golden flame it's solar breathren possessed. Yes, those questions arose and became much more numerous than the answers, and I can only imagine how such a curiosity unquenched could not have driven the first thinkers to madness.

Answers come in so many guises, from lucky guesses, from observations, from sheer deduction, from experimentation, and yes, in a pinch, from fancy. The most bizarre answers arose when there were simply no earthly facts to stumble upon, such as where it all came from and why. God is the fallback, the answer of last resort, when all those extra neurons with nothing else to do fail to put two and two together and arrive at anything near four. Sentience thirsts for order, for reason, for explanations for all things, and in failing to provide them for itself, will resort to creating it's own answers that only it's own manufactured evidence can support.

The simple act of living in this world produces fatigue; we tire of work, of chasing our dreams, of holding ourselves to ideals handed down to us by generations of people trying to live together in something resembling harmony. We expend so much of our mental energy on the task of daily living that many of us loathe going the extra mile to waste any of it on the asking. Yes, the BIG question is rarely approached when all the little questions nag at us long after we thought them answered. It's only when our efforts have blessed us with comfort in our existence or we simply do not care anymore do we surpass the mundane and venture forth to take on the unknown, especially when we have already convinced ourselves it is unknowable.

God, whom we created in our own image, as frightful as that can be, is that unknowable so many of us claim to know. They conveniently ignore the very definition of faith and proceed directly to claiming a direct line to the divine, and in doing so prove that intelligence does not always go hand in hand with wisdom. Yet, so many of us break free of these delusions, and return to the innocence of faith, or abandon illogical mythology altogether in favor of oblivion, a state of surrender to that which can't be known, therefore must not exist. Therein lies a sadness that can't be born if fully embraced with all of one's comprehension.

So I remain here, at this keyboard, facing down the question. the one thing that all those who came before me did not enable me through the process of evolution to take on and make my own. My breathren have conquered the Earth, split the atom, stepped foot on the moon, and have mapped out the very code that defines us, yet they have not even provided me with the right question to ask, much less the answer. This places me in great danger of utter despair, as I spend my alloted time on this Earth amongst tribes of humans dead set on destroying all the life this planet has nurtured for eons of time, perhaps towards some noble end. It's very much like watching helplessly as my brothers grasp the cord of the plug of the machine that took countless millions of lives and countless thoughts to build to arrive at some satisfying conclusion, and we kill the power perhaps seconds before it serves it's long awaited purpose. I can't answer the question. Noble laureates have not answered this question, although as a collective they have surely tried. Priests, Rabbis, monks and shamans imagine the answer, and even swear to have found it, yet the proof of uncertainty continues to be argued.

There IS no answer. Of that I will claim certainty. And I will rest warmly in it's embrace, knowing that when I have lived my alloted time, I will pass beyond this veil that I know so well, and if there IS an answer, then and only then will I even know what question to ask. And from my limited perspective, here at this keyboard, I imagine it will be the ONE thing I ever experienced that surpassed the wonder of sex, and if one can experience that, then one CAN experience nirvana.......

Let's try this again......

2006-12-16T07:40:00.000-08:00

OK, so my last two posts were total bombs, lessee......what can I do for an encore......

Well, I found this on my desktop and can't remember where I got it, but it says whatever it is it's saying better than I could, and believe me, I have tried.....and tried.....and tried......

Listen to this

On an entirely different subject, you know, I wouldn't mind advertising so much if they would just try and use a little imagination, like these folks did......

Well, it seems that our great "Decider" has decided to keep listening to more recommendations on what to do about Iraq until he hears what he wants to hear. Knowing our luck, he'll finally settle on Senator McCain's great idea of sending even more kids over there, as if the insurgents haven't already got enough targets to keep them busy. So, instead of just sending our convoy Northbound on a Southbound highway, what we'll do is add extra lanes......in the same direction. And while we're at it, we'll train more Iraqi's to become Shiite death squads, I mean, soldiers.

It could be worse, I suppose. Without Iraq, George would be paying more attention to making life here in the US much better for it's citizens. Even better than he already has.....

Musta been something I ate..........

2006-12-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

The icebergs were drifting by my picture window, the sunlight glinting off their blueish-white precipices in the perpetual Antarctic summer. My coffee cup slide down the table as the trailer rocked gently from side to side, and I grabbed it just in time to keep it from falling off. I contemplated taking some dramamine, while simultaneously wondering why I would have any and at the same time thinking it odd that home was floating in ice-cold waters South of the Equator. This wasn't really a problem until I noticed that I only had three cigarettes left in my last pack and I didn't see any seven-elevens floating along with me, or at least any that I could see from my dining room table. Even if there where, the prospect of jumping into frigid water and swimming over before hypothermia set in was not an attractive proposition. Yes, this was a fascinating dream, but it was getting old.

I was thinking it rather convenient, even in dream terms, that my electricity was still on, when one of Howie Mandel's beautiful models stepped out of the game show on the television and walked over to me, a pot of hot coffee in her hand. I eyeballed her up and down as she poured me a refill, thinking that cute miniskirt she was wearing would look better on the floor. She smiled, set down the pot, and took it off. It DID look better on the floor. I took a sip of the freshened coffee and thought that of course this would be the time you wake up, before the really good stuff happens, but I didn't.

Not that it mattered. Turned out on closer inspection that "Mandy" was actually more of a "Marvin", and I don't do drag queens. She, or he rather, gave an impertinent little snort, turned on his/ her high heels, and walked out the front door, a splash of salt wate announcing his/her departure.

Sure enough, as I walked up to close the door, I could see that my front porch, which I was so proud of building myself, had not accompanied the trailer. Well, damn, I thought to myself, that sucks, I put alot of work into that. Then I decided to go ahead and force an end to this rather odd dream and stepped out the door and into the ocean, figuring the shock would certainly awaken me so that I could get back to sleep and experience a more run-of-the-mill dream where the Deal or No Deal model would have been the real deal and the dream more productive.

No such luck.

The shock of the cold water drove the air from my lungs as I plunged below the surface, and I frantically clawed my way back to the surface, sputtering and yelling as every nerve ending in my body screamed "WHAT the FUCK did you just DO?!"
This was not going according to plan. I should have been awake in my nice warm bed, thinking what an odd dream this had been as I drifted off to sleep again. This was ANYthing but a nice warm bed; this was really ice-cold salt water and I had this nagging suspicion amongst all the other emotions running rampant in my brain that I could really be in trouble if I didn't make it back to my front door.

Then the killer whale appeared. Beneath me. Just rose up and there I was, sprawled across his back, hanging onto that dorsal fin for dear life as he took me for a spin around the trailer. This was getting much too fucking surreal for my tastes, but hey, it's not everyday you get to ride on an orca without paying admission to Sea World. As he swam over to my front door and I clambered off, I asked him, "So why didn't you just eat me?" I guess I was half expecting him to answer me, in perfectly fluent English no less, but he didn't, either because he couldn't or wouldn't. He just swam off towards a floating slab of ice in the distance hosting a pack of seals, whom I figured he wouldn't treat so charitably.

OK, fine, this was pretty interesting as dreams go, but I was more than willing to wake up right then and there, shivering as I was like a wet popsicle, but NOOOOOO, this puppy was persisting, so I made my way over to my wall thermostat and cranked it up to "make it warm, NOW". I suppose that the fact that a trailer heat pump is pretty much attached to the house neatly fit into my assumption that it had accompanied the house when it made it's way who-knows-how-or-why into the Antarctic Ocean. As the place began to warm up, I made my way into the bathroom, grabbed some towels, and started to dry off, staring into the mirror and instructing myself to wake the fuck up.

While I was attempting to alter my reality, which by now was seriously screwed up, A Chilean Coast Guard Cutter pulled up next to the trailer and offered me a tow. What I didn't know was that they meant to tow me over to one of their fishing factory ships, making me pay for the tow by dumping a load of freshly caught krill into my spare bedroom, which I couldn't actually spare, having converted it into a workshop for my wife. I knew if she came home to find her workshop smelling somewhat fishy, there would be hell to pay, that is, if the trailer was there for her to come home to. I was saved from this little bit of chicanery when an Iranian suicide navy rowboat came out of nowhere and sank the cutter, along with itself. I didn't even know Iran HAD a navy, much less a suicide one, which probably explains why they don't, usually.

After the fireworks had subsided and the sea around me was reduced to a salty slick full of Chilean and Iranian flotsam and jetsam, I fished a survivor out of the water and offered him some hot coffee. He politely declined, insisting he had to return to Punta Arenas to report the loss of the cutter to his government, in case they wanted to send an army ice-cream truck to join the Allied Coalition and extract some revenge on the Iranians by taunting them with dream-cicles in the desert. I wished him well and loaned him one of the bathtubs and a broom to make his way back in.

By now I was seriously in need of getting out of this insane dream and started searching for a Jerry Springer episode on the television, reasoning that anything Jerry Springer could come up with was always weirder than any dream I could have dreamt up. Unfortunately, the only station I could pick up this far south was the weather channel, which was showing how nice the weather was somewhere other than where I was presently located.

Then I tried reverse psychology, and accepted the reality of the situation, which promptly triggered a rebellious questioning of my circumstances, and I found myself wide awake. Leaping out of bed, I ran to the nearest window and was greeted with the scenery I was more accustomed to seeing from my trailer. That set off a severe case of depression, having hoped against hope that my reality was actually living in this trailer smack dab in the middle of Denali National Park in Alaska.

So I went back to bed and tried again.

All I got was Kermit the Frog singing "It's not easy being dreamed....."

Reruns aren't so bad.........

2006-12-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

This was something I posted awhile back that either got overlooked entirely or was so bad that everybody politely remained mum. Call me deluded, but I thought it was rather.....shall I suggest......funny?

In the beginning, the universe was created, which was regarded by many to be a very bad move. Some believe it was created by a God, but this God was never pinned down for a proper interview, so the jury is still out on that one. However, it is an accepted fact in some circles that since the universe WAS created, it stands to reason that it will end, thus a whole cottage industry was created for the sole purpose of predicting when and how this will occur. One consortium of various species have banded together to open a restaurant, aptly named "The Restaurant at The End of The Universe", which will open somewhere, sometime, to host a gala event to witness this very phenomenon, and since this is the very last phenomenon worth noticing that will ever occur, the guest list is very exclusive and the cover charge quite outrageous. However, a rather chipper little crustacean that is considered a delicacy on the planet Vogon will be on the menu, which to some degree should negate any distress induced by this extreme example of price gouging, a practice which was copied from merchants on the Planet Earth, who tend to get rather more prosperous in the wake of natural disasters, with the possible exception of the destruction of same said planet, which had a similar detrimental effect on same said merchants.

It is very interesting to note, at least to those who pay attention to notes to begin with, that none of this would have come to anybody's attention had it not been for a book, the second in a series, actually, by a fiction writer by the name of Douglas Adams, also, by coincidence, a resident of Earth. He became somewhat famous for having described in painful detail the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", a very famous publication known the Universe over as a bad copy of a very good idea. How this descendant of a primate happened to have guessed, however unintentionally, that such an instrument even existed, is still hotly debated by slug-like creatures that inhabit the second layer of a very scummy pond on a planet somewhere in the Crab Nebula. The story, which is actually quite factual in just about every detail, was even made into what humans describe as a "movie", which didn't quite make it to syndication and broadcast on terrestrial television in order to be sent into deep space along with other interesting cultural artifacts as "Amos and Andy" and "Friends", before the planet was demolished to make way for a hyper-space bypass.

Hidden somewhere deeply in all this is a true tragedy, for just 37 seconds before the planet was destroyed, Mrs Beverly Brokesdale of 3795 Martin Luther King Avenue, Port Sanders, Idaho (which incidentally has no body of water to host a port to) discovered cold fusion while attempting to program her coffee maker with the aid of a badly translated Japanese to English operating manual. Careful study of this event, most experts who study just this sort of occurrence agree, would have finally brought peace and prosperity, as well as perfectly toasted bagels, to the beleaguered planet, after years of strife and repeated elections of Republican Presidents. This method of energy generation, in fact, was so far in advance of anything that any other civilization had so far managed, that a superior race of beings on the planet upchuck (not to be confused with the Earth slang for "vomit") designed an advanced computer expressly for the sole purpose of recreated the conditions that led up to this discovery. Part of the Matrix, strange as it may seem, that comprised this computer, included the eventual birth of the exact duplicates of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, whose fight for the supremacy of the personal computer market would result in the galaxies' most advanced operating system failing miserably to win market share against the galaxy's worst example of computer code ever written, strangely named "Windows", which indirectly would have something to do with an indian programmer being hired to translate Japanese owners manuals into English.

A common misconception is that this amazing computer was "Deep Thought", which was created for a similar, but entirely different project altogether. The computer we speak of here was cleverly disguised as a blueberry Imac, whose insides were actually designed to hold a 87 billion million quadrillion ziga-bite hard drive spinning at 789 million RPMs, a processor so fast it arrives at conclusions before they could possibly be computed, and a nifty little bottle opener, which oddly enough, only works on Heinekens. Originally, on the false assumption that an auditorium full of chimpanzees working double shifts were responsible for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, twice that amount were bred to operate the keyboard, which they trashed within minutes. Then it was discovered that out of work American programmers, who had lost all their jobs to India, could be hired to do the job for half the cost, as long as they were supplied with pizza and at least one week of vacation at a Star Trek convention. Finding these programmers was the most complicated part of the process, considering no one was sure how and where these humans might be found now that their home planet had been vaporized, but it was assumed that at least a few might have been kidnapped by those infamous grey aliens with large heads and even larger eyes who enjoyed performing medical experiments on any one dumb enough to get talked into boarding an alien spaceship with promises of a lifetime of debauchery with blonde, large breasted women with the IQ's of toaster ovens. Just such a human was found on the planet Magrathea, where he was in the middle of a hunger strike to protest having been given a brunette, large breasted woman, instead of a blonde. The aliens were more than happy to part with him, as it turned out he rather enjoyed being experimented on, which ruined all the fun. One interesting offshoot of all of this is that having once worked for Microsoft, the programmer innocently incorporated the infamous browser known as Internet Explorer into the computer's matrix, which set off alarms all across the Galaxy, and almost resulted in the whole project being terminated.

The downside to all this was that Mr Douglas ended up dying, as humans have a bad habit of doing, and everybody lost interest in anything remotely having to do with his epiphany, such is the attention span of most inhabitants of the Universe, as measured in milliseconds on a very inaccurate device now out of favor with anyone wanting to time anything. Now, a very interesting thing happens when this many sentient beings lose interest in something simultaneously. The sudden disappearance of all that interest creates a sudden vacuum in the space-time continuum, which when it collapse in upon itself, causes such an upheaval all across all existence, that everything careens into everything else, which is a fairly close approximation of the end of the universe, which if you really want to get technical about it, IS the end of the universe, which incidentally occurred just five hours before the opening of the restaurant of the same name, which really pissed off those who had payed inordinate amounts of their planets' gross global product to attend the final show. However, it was finally agreed to amongst all the galaxy's philosophers just moments before the end that none of this would matter once there was no one around to worry about it. Which brings us back to this God character, who having been harassed for what seems an eternity to come clean on the big question, i.e. Life, the Universe, and Everything, finally agreed to an interview, which incidentally he did so only because he knew he would not have to carry through, and having such supreme foresight, took the advance and spent it all in one wild night at the Hard Rock Cafe in Miami Beach, without the slightest bit of guilt over the whole bloody affair, since in reality he had utterly nothing to do with the whole mess to begin with.

Now, I am sure that somewhere in your mind the question is being asked, "How in the hell could I possibly know all this, or even report it on it if it were true, if the universe has already ended? Well, I can answer that question, just let me program it into my Imac G-5, give me about 15 years, and you will have your answer. I will even set my processor to the "You're kidding me, right?" level just for you, because I like you, I really, really like you. All I know for sure is that it has something to do with relativity, like how time behaves when you are waiting for Friday to come along, which takes an eternity, and once it does, the next three days accelerate to 57 times the normal time it takes a weekend to pass, and you find yourself right back at work before you even left. So, if the Universe HAS already ended, that does not necessarily mean we are aware of it, since frankly ceasing to exist is not one of our priorities. Matter of fact, most of us will probably insist on finally getting our tax refund checks before we bother to acknowledge that there is no longer an IRS to send one from, which will have doomsday waiting impatiently in the wings so that it can do it's thing and put a stop to taxation altogether, which will please many people to no end, at least for as long as they are capable of being pleased about anything. So, let me get to work on this question so that I can answer it before it sinks in that doing so would be totally pointless, considering that I could spend such valuable time drinking Pina' Coladas and sunning myself on the septic mound instead.

Oh, and thanks for all the fish........

P.S. I would like to thank Mr. Adams for posthumously inspiring me to create this post, which was innocently created strictly for the purpose of producing some smiles in the wake of yesterday's sad atmosphere. I wish he was still with us.

Delivery

2006-12-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

Yea, I know, I'm an irritating little shit most times, the kind of know-it-all that loves to read himself type and can't seem to shut off his fingers before they fall off. I know people just like me and yes, they irritate the hell out of me too. Bob bless us all. Then there are those who just-can't-seem to loosen up and let it fly, to release that pressure building up inside in a satisfying explosion of expletives and perhaps some totally made-up words in an effort to make a point. They are mild. Annoyingly mild. Prim, proper, and oh so measured. Well, OK, mild is fine. It works for them. Some of the best writers are extremely restrained, and they produce excellent writings. But do those writings reach out, grab you by the throat and say 'PAY ATTENTION! You NEED to THINK about THIS!" ? Hardly. You'll forget everything they said before the sun has set, or has risen, whatever.

I know, this sounds alot like a put down. It's not really. Even in this tightly knit bunch we have here in bloggerville, we have some gentle souls who just don't have it in them to froth at the mouth when the urge strikes. They gently make their points, and most often they are the equal of anything I could rant, rave, or outright have a seizure getting across. It's all a matter of style associated with personality, which is why I believe the way a person produces their blogs is a pretty good indicator of what kind of people they are demeanor wise. Take Buffalo, for instance. (Put that gun back, old buddy.....grin) There is a fair amount of passion packed within his delivery, yet it comes across smooth, mellow, more like a lethal stiletto slipping ever-so-delicately between your ribs than a 44 magnum hollow point plowing itself through your delicates. The man doesn't NEED a megaphone or white-hot fonts dipped in molten ink to get your attention. You have it by the first sentence.

So, there you have it. We each have our own personal delivery vehicles, and they each deliver the goods in their own unique way. Mine is written in such a diabolically sublime fashion (as in garbage truck with flowers and peace signs plastered all over it) that you really have to hold your nose to really enjoy it, but enjoy it you do, or you wouldn't be reading this post today, having fled in horror at the things I've done to the art of blogging that no educated, sophisticated, god of grammar could dare tolerate. Which actually works out pretty good for me, to tell the truth......it cuts down on the amount of comments I have to answer, and being the lazy SOB that I am, that is a Good thing........grin.

Hearts of Gold

2006-12-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

To those of you virgins who are witnessing this Blog for the very first time, allow me to introduce myself. I am THE Michael. Short of hiring a private investigator or referencing my file at the NSA, CIA, or whatever entity deems it necessary to keep an eye on me, you will not know my true identity, for I have learned from the example of Salmon Rushdie that sometimes a small degree of anonymity is necessary when one dares speak his mind at the risk of offending those who seem to think that they are somehow so special that I nor anyone else should dare question their sacred opinions of themselves or what they hold to be God-given truth. If my lone voice in this wilderness is such poison to them, then may they die slowly and painfully of it, for I will not submit to silence while I draw a breath.

That little bit of "vitriol" out of the way, allow me to get to the major point of this post. As a proud proponent of the freedom of unfettered opinion, as well as the loud and sometimes grating nature of it practiced with reckless, if not well reasoned, abandon, I would beg your forbearance of my proclamation of my love for this forum of which I am a most humble and joyous participant, this medium of the modern age called the BLOG. Not since quill met papyrus has such a revolution in communications been visited upon us, all courtesy of the overwhelming need to reach out beyond ourselves and build a village free of the shackles of narrow minds that strive to sew our lips shut that they might have dominion over our very thoughts, that, and a few geeks good with code. Thanks to Blogger and other such portals, we now can venture out of our cultures and peek into others, those who despite skin color, latitude or longitude, religion, creed, economic status, or taste in music, are very much like us, in that they love life, seek love, comfort, purpose, and meaning. Most of them live in relatively free societies, some are hamstrung to some degree by the sensibilities of their cultures, while others risk their very lives and liberty to express their feelings. There are parents, grandparents, kids in college or middle school, convicts with special privileges, politicians and wanna-be legislators, teachers, firemen, pilots, and soldiers from many nations, all dipping their toes into these strange new waters and learning how to "swim" for the very first time. It's 1984 in reverse, the revenge of the nerd, the liberation of the timid, and the realm of the sublime and ridiculous all wrapped up in one wild party. You either won't do it, can't help but do it, or wish you could.

Within this vast new universe that arrived far faster than the spawn of the big bang, are cells, clusters, and whole virtual villages that never existed before, with diverse and eclectic characters that cannot be replicated exactly from one group to the next, for the total flavor of any one of these groups truly does exceed the sum of it's individual participants. When I painfully typed my first entry on my blog, I had no idea what lay before me, and felt I was destined to be a lone voice in the wilderness that no one else would care to hear, yet I was proven wrong as other voices responded, sharing the same fear of irrelevance, and reacting quite positively to the echos they heard. Along with our differences in opinions, experiences, socioeconomic situations, and geographic locations, we discovered our similarities, not always in lockstep, but still within the realm of familiarity, and it sounded good. It sounded GREAT!

I sat in awe and read the wellspring from the heart of a crusty old Aussie, shy of vocabulary, rich of wit, and wealthy beyond compare with a love of comradeship, express his desire that all those things we pined for ourselves be granted, courtesy of his gratitude for being so welcomed to our far flung commune of free spirits. Of all the remarkable authorship I have been witness to since I joined the cult of Blog, this moved me perhaps more than any I have enjoyed. His one disjointed and heartfelt post I think spoke well of all of us, the kind of people we are, with all our faults, all our delusions, all our aspirations and offerings of sage advice, and I am proud beyond measure to have met, albeit in such a far removed and roundabout way, a man I know as Whiteshake. His bite may be lethal, but his heart is solid gold.

Respite

2006-12-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

It's a quiet night here at Pendragon Hold, my little acre of sand and oak trees. I've just gotten home, nuked me a TV dinner, let out the dog, and perused my e-mail. "Prairie Home Companion" is on the radio, and most blogs haven't been updated, probably the dreaded weekend effect. So, while I wait around before heading back out to retrieve the wife from her job, I'll whip out a post, and maybe play a video game, since television is already in reruns or seasonal pap, and I finished off my Dan Brown novel, which wasn't bad.

I had to replace another tire yesterday that a bad alignment ate right down to the belts before I had the cash to replace it. Now I have two new tires up front, and two in the back that are on their last legs. I'll have to change my oil as well, as it is way overdue. I wish I could just feed this beast grass and hay like I do the goats....sigh.

I'm starting to adjust to sleeping on this new bed I put together. I seem to have solved the problem of staying on my side thru the night by hugging onto a king-sized pillow stuffed between my legs; it keeps me pretty much in one position, the result being that I haven't awakened lately in searing pain. I'm still hoping to get that memory foam overlay to complete the transition from the old waterbed.

I've been giving hell to a very conservative-minded commenter lately, but I must say I do admire his staying power and his decorum in the heat of disagreement. Despite his right-leaning philosophy, he has yet to suggest that I do not have the right to voice the opinions that I do, and for that he has so far earned my respect. In return I will not suggest that his world view is flat wrong, and I will defend with vigor his right to continue to think the way he does even in the face of what I would consider a narrow mindset. Such considerations are what made this country great to begin with.

The lame duck congress performed their last hurrah the way one would expect them to, catering to special interests and insuring that rich people stay that way. Like the scorpion said to the frog, "I can't help it, it's in my nature...."

I've been watching alot of Lou Dobbs on CNN and I swear that man is the perfect blend of liberal sensibility, conservative pragmatism, and libertarian zeal. If ever a public figure came close to the kind of man I think understands what this country is all about and what most of it's people think, it's him. He ought to run for President, but then again, to do so would probably ruin him. It's amazing what politics can do to even the best amongst us. It's a thought, at least.

I would be so happy to withdraw into the womb of my humble abode and ignore the world closing in all around me. It would be nice to stick my head in the sand (and I gots plenty of THAT) and just wish it would all go away, but it isn't going to. I sometimes envy the Wife's ability to focus simply on the narrow confines of our precarious existence and not waste mental energy on the woes of the world at large. I guess that's what she depends on me to take care of.......laugh. Bob knows I have this strange capacity to file the worst of everything in the background and deal with what has to be dealt with as it's coming at me. Practice, practice, practice.

Well, that's it for tonight here at Pendragon Hold, my humble little abode on the edge of the great big world, where all the inhabitants are royalty, the livestock lively, and the Queen a witch with fine taste in Kings..........grin.

In Praise of VOLUME

2006-12-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

" If my discourse puts a sour taste in your mouth, then so be it. That's what real life tastes like, my friend."

That summed up my reply to a commenter of Buffalo's who suggested that we work in the shadows of politeness and decorum to right our wrongs, lest we suggest to our enemies that we do not think in lockstep with one another. This is the same mindset I equate with those who received reports of abuse at Abu Graive, of mental illness manifest in the ranks of Irag war veterans, and decided that such things best be dealt with in the shadows, not out in the open where the horror of examination can test their validity. Tyrants and oppressive regimes all over the world wonder at our relatively transparent style of governance, puzzled that our leaders would tolerate dissent and not crush opposition, even mere vocal protest. They think us fools, and then lick their wounds in frustration when push comes to shove and they come out on the losing end of confrontations with us. At least that's the way it used to be.

Now I can imagine Vladamir Putin smiling when he reads the papers and finds that our president, an elected leader of the freest nation on Earth, convinces the coddled and self-important American people that they don't need to know what he does in the name of protecting them. I can imagine the premiere of the "Peoples" Republic of China grinning ear to ear when he is told the lengths a conservative republican will go to to keep up the pretense that he's fully in control of a losing proposition, that proposition being that you can shove democracy down the throat of a sectarian tribal society egged on by terrorists who win wars by having us search little old ladies for bombs before they get on a plane. Yes, such stories are quite telling. They tell those who value power over freedom that there is more than one way to stifle dissent. Just claim that one is not "patriotic", or even suggest we love our enemies more than ourselves when we raise our voices louder than we should in polite society. Yes, my friends, when one is witness to a fire in a crowded theatre, these people suggest that we should whisper "fire", rather than be boorish and unsophisticated enough to bellow it out in no uncertain terms that it's due to get hot around here real quick if we don't do something NOW.

Yes, I am fully aware of how this mechanism called democracy works. We elect people to represent us. They make promises to us concerning what they will do in our name if they are elected. If they do something that seems totally counter to what they promised during their campaigns, we are expected to write letters to them asking them to reconsider their positions. However, lately it seems that all bets are off once the winning vote is tabulated. It seems that special interests pay more than our votes are worth, and more often than not our "representatives" loyalties are sold to the highest bidder. However, there is a line that even in this day and age a politician will not cross, and the press keeps a close eye on that line, daring them to cross it. That does not, however, keep them from trying to do so, and it is in the shadows of double talk, deception, and the cloak of blind patriotism that these outrages occur. I truly believe that most Americans (well, nowadays maybe 53% at least) have had their fill of these naked emperors assuming that we are ALL sheep who can be led around by our noses. And they are getting more and more vocal, which apparently still offends those who believe that wife beaters should be dealt with by their buddies in privacy rather than paraded out in the criminal justice system where they should be dealt with openly for all to see. We can't pass judgment on what we can't see. We can't tell our sons and daughters to go and do their patriotic duty and serve their country proudly if all they are really doing is being fed to a meat-grinder with an insatiable appetite that can't be sated.

Remain politely silent and gracious if you must. Bear your grief equally in silence, for if you didn't have the guts to speak out before your sacrifice, you have precious little right to complain after the fact. Early on, in the days after 9/11, I might have allowed you your eagerness to be hyper-patriotic in your justified outrage. These days, however, I personally cannot allow you the excuse the Germans gave after Hitler committed suicide in his comfortable little bunker as the Russians closed in on him. "We didn't know......." Like HELL you didn't!