The Sunday Morning Muse, May 29, 2011

A brilliantly sunny morning as I hoisted the flag out for day two of a three day weekend.

-

Memorial Day Weekend

It's Memorial Day Weekend. I try to visit the family graves and see what needs done to make them look nice.

-

I actually went to Dad's grave last week. I took him some blue flowers. Dad

liked blue. He was in the Navy in WW II. I don't like the cemetary he is in. He knows this, as I told him before he died. It has too many rules-- like when you can put stuff on, when you have to take stuff off, etc. I hate the flat grave markers too, because unless you have all day to walk the cemetary, you can't just drive through and see people's names to know whether you could visit someone you once knew.

-

My mom's dad (pictured) was a World War I vet, but they always manage to forget to put a flag on his grave. He's buried in a decent enough cemetary. A church cemetary in the township, with mostly real tombstones. He fought with the Polish Army in France. I never knew him, as he died when I was very young.

-

My other grandfather wasn't in the service here, but I think he did serve in Finland. I think there is some rule that you couldn't leave unless you did military service. I know he wasn't in the Winter War, because he emigrated here way before then. His father, (my great-grandfather) did time in the service, because it was required before you could leave the country. This would have been around 1900. It said on his clearance papers that he served compulsory military time.

-

Looking back in time I have quite a few military pictures. Uncles, great-uncles and cousins from another time and country. Many unidentified. All looking quite dignified. The first and third men in the back row are relations on my Polish side.

-

Stormy Weather

After being bombarded with horrific footage of the tornadoes in Joplin,Mo and many other states over the past week, a tornado warning on TV right here did a little more than make me nervous.
-
The other day I flipped back and forth between TV stations seeing which breathless weather person/meteorologist or Chief Meteorologist could dissect the big red blob
with its hooks and swirly things more accurately. I thought of folks who live north of me and watched as the blob swept over their part of the surface map and wondered what the heck was going on. Because despite the mania and the kerfluffle, and the pontificating and sputtering going on, absolutely no one was reporting what was actually happening. Just what COULD happen.Therein lies the problem.
-
Fortunately no catastrophe to report. It got me to thinking though, how back in 1985 a terrible, devastating tornado occurred within 10 miles of me and, being a college student in a tiny apartment, I had no phone, no TV, and had no way of knowing anything had even occurred until the next day.
-
Now, there are countless ways to keep on top of things. Alerts sent to your cell phone, websites to watch the radar yourself and see the storm's path, radio and TV of course, too. But despite all that...as I dashed between Intellicast and three TV stations, I still felt at a loss to the actual conditions.

-

Years ago, I worked in radio and I remember having to sound the alarm...the EBS system it was called back then. Now it's the EAS system. I'd play those loud blaring tones and read that all too familiar speech..."the National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Watch
for the following counties..."and then you would read them and you would also say...
"remember. . . a Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for a tornado to develop. A warning would mean that a tornado was been spotted..."
-
And I'd be reading all that and thinking I sure hope I don't have to go down into the moldy World War II bomb shelter in the basement...that place creeps me out.
-
The point of all this....if there is one, is the immediacy of radio was what put us
in front of the coverage. People would call in and say they have quarter inch hail
where they are. Or they would call and report really high winds...or that their power was out. I could get a real sense of what was going on, and where, and could immediately tell people things.
-
As I write this there is a bad thunderstorm here, so I must go. Perhaps I'll put on the radio...

Steve McQueen Song

An oldie but goodie. I find myself coming back to this every now and then. I just like the feel of it. Steve McQueen was cool.

The Sunday Morning Muse, May 22, 2011

Rapture day came and went. No word from the crazy preacher yet who isn't making any public speeches or even answering his door. As the day went on and nothing "earth shattering" was going on, some of the "believers" tried to reassure each other of their "faith." Whatever that means. Faith in what? In this crazy preacher's calculator and numerology? Faith that the world will end? Or as one truck driver who quit working last week put it...

-

"I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth."

-

Hmmm... Maybe 72 virgins waiting for him? No...wait, wrong religion. But the thought process is the same. Perhaps his life is so miserable here that faith in something...even the end of the world, is better than going back to day to day life.

-

Personally I feel that the millions of dollars they spent on billboards and advertising all his nonsense could have been better spent helping the poor and attending to pressing needs here and now in this life. To make people here less miserable. Show a little love.

-

Maybe that is what I take from this side show. Wake up people. Appreciate the flowers...your loved ones...the beauty that you find here.

-

The rapture will take care of itself.

End of Times

Contemplating the Final Scene

NPR challenged listeners to name their song for the End of Times coming up tomorrow. I posted Queen's Innuendo--which is long and a very strong end of the world type song. The video is also very appropriate. Hard to quibble with that choice.

-

But if I found myself alone on my hillside overlooking the river... staring out into the gathering storm of the apocalypse, I would like something a bit more, well...I don't know, maybe personal. Something simple and pleasant to ease me. After all it will be a bit disconcerting. Perhaps some old Van Morrison... Into the Mystic, Queen of the Slipstream, Vanlose Stairway, In the Garden, heck he even does a Spiritual song called Give Me Back My Rapture. I can't find it on YouTube though.

-

Thinking about this stuff reminds me of the pointless conversations in high school about what song would you like playing on your tape deck if you were to go off the edge of a cliff in your car?

I suppose it is one final way of defining yourself.

-

How did I spend my next to the last day? Working, weeding, and now a beer while I'm typing on my blog. Maybe that is the way things should be. A metaphor of life. Earning a living, caring for

what I have, enjoying the beer, and reflecting about what is going on in life.

-

Of course I'd rather be slow dancing.

Not With a Bang But a Whimper

So... two days to go. Unless you have been on another planet this past week, you probably heard that some idiot who actually has airtime and a lot of followers has calculated that the end of the world as we know it will happen this Saturday. He's predicted this before and has been wrong, but what could he really do but go back to the drawing board, sharpen his pencil and recalculate? I suspect this Sunday he will be back on the air with some other prediction.

-

This whole rapture idea fascinates some people. Books have been written, movies and such. Personally I think there is a better chance of mankind blowing itself up with nukes than there ever being a rapture. But that's just me.

-

I'm more curious about the idiot and his faithful and what they will do on Sunday, when the birds chirp and the sun (not the SON) rises, and all is as it is...in the merry month in May. With a heck of a lot of rain.

-

Will they be disappointed? Relieved? Hard to tell. But I'm not giving it any more thought.

Election Day on the Phone

It's Primary Election Day... and I didn't get to vote. I blame Verizon.

-

We've had these lengthy, animated phone conversations today to try to address some billing issues, and by the end of the day, having told my story three times, I was ready to move up to the next level and perhaps motivate a supervisor to see things my way. Oh, I couldn't speak with a supervisor right now, they were all busy. But one would call ME back. Right.

-

So I waited....and waited...and kept people off the phone, and I fumed and reviewed my notes,

and practiced talking to myself for two hours. Finally at 7:30 I called the number again and found some soul who, though not a supervisor, informed me that supervisors don't call back until between 24 and 48 hours. THAT would have been nice to know. I snapped, wow, they must get a lot of complaints. I felt bad right after I said that because I really wasn't mad at the customer rep. I put him in an awkward position. Silence for a bit.

-

I then wheedled this fellow to at least look at my case and see if, perchance there was anything HE could see going on and could fix, that would put this baby to rest and clear up all my problems. Aha! There was something in front of that far away screen from wherever he was talking from. Someone put in a credit somewhere and it took effect.... today. But I'd still have to pay hundreds of dollars, because lo and behold the billing cycle day is the 23rd and it's full speed ahead. But... it would eventually be credited to me on my next bill. And the stuff I never really signed up for but was put on my account anyway?(internet security, 50 gig of storage, etc.) Gone with a quick email. (Though the pessimist in me thinks I'll be hit with a termination fee for that by mistake via some glitch. Note to self: Watch for it.)

-

At last, a battle won, but not the war. I was too tired to go on. I was too hungry to sleep and too tired to eat. And sick to death of holding a phone to my ear.

-

I thanked him kindly, and bid farewell. Now I'm back to where I was in April. And I'm "bundled" there till next April. In the plan I didn't like, but must now settle for, because a lesser one costs three dollars less, but would result in a 120 dollar "termination" fee from this plan, though I didn't really terminate my service. Oh it's a long story. I'm going to bed.

-

The polls are closed. And I missed my chance to vote.

The Sunday Morning Muse, May 15, 2011

I have spent countless hours with a magnifying glass pouring over old, blurry photographs and imagining what my grandmother's and great-grandmother's lives were like at the turn of the century. Many times I wished the photographs could speak to me. Tell me something more, tell me what it was like to, well...be THEM. What did they like? What did they think about when they were young and full of hope? Did they share some of my same dreams?

-

In the span of only a generation, we now have the opportunity to leave a detailed "record" of ourselves for future generations. Anyone with the least bit of curiosity will be able to Google us... and find our videos and blogs, or pour through countless hours of home videos, and see what we were "really like."

-

....which makes this disturbing on many levels... but it is compelling none the less:

-

What the Frack is Going On?

Well done!

Haiku

Cholesterol test:

Too late now to eat healthy.

It is what it is.

Saint Germaine

Way back in the Catholic days of my childhood, I was tasked with picking a saint's name to add to my own for the occasion of my "Confirmation." I selected a French saint, Germaine, a shepherdess born in 1579. I liked her name, and I liked that she was a loner, spending her days outdoors with her flock of sheep. I had no internet access back then, so I knew little about her.

-

I confess I haven't thought much about her since, until recently with the news about Pope John Paul II's fast track to sainthood and the miracle he was said to have performed after his death--curing a French nun of Parkinson's disease.

-

Well, it's not such a big deal. That is mostly how it works with Saints. Miracles seem pretty common place after death. St. Germaine is busy. Since her untimely death at age 22 in 1601, no less than 400 "miracles" have been attributed to her intervention...from blindness to spinal disease. Even so, she wasn't canonized until 1867. That would be 266 years.

-

Sadly she never cured herself. Born with a deformed hand she also suffered from Scrofula, which is a simply awful thing... that led her evil stepmother Hortense (great name for such a witch) to abuse her, and then send her to the fields to prevent the other children from catching it. The poor girl slept in the barn and was forced to eat table scraps.

-

Germaine shared what little food she had with beggars, helped others and did good in the world despite her terrible circumstances. Her sheep were never attacked by wolves. Miracles or not, I respect her and I'm glad I have her name.

Laurie Anderson Said

"You know, I could write a book. And this book would

be thick enough to stun an ox."

Lola- with Paloma and Ray Davies

Okay, so any spare moment I have I'm listening to Paloma Faith. Can't wait for her to release another CD. She's unusual. It's amazing how out of tune I am with the rest of the world, though. I have a Paloma Faith "station" on my IPOD.... so they keep throwing in other artists for me to hear and one of them is Adele. I had never heard of her, and didn't like her at all and kept putting "thumbs down" and then getting even more of her. Then I heard she has the top selling album in the world or something right now.
-
I still haven't cared enough to even see what she looks like.
-
Paloma deserves more attention.

You Better You Bet

The Sunday Morning Muse, May 8, 2011

It's once again that favorite day of the year when we really do get something for nothing. It's Junk Day. My numbers didn't come up for the Derby yesterday, so it's time to stop dreaming and get back to clearing out stuff and joyfully dropping it at the curb. It's a great thing.
-
In the past I didn't give too much thought into what I put out at the curb as long as it met the rules....no paint cans, tires, freon, etc. But now "scrapping" has become a way of life--not just poor people trying to make a buck, but thieves, drug addicts and general ne'er do well's, so I'm careful to put the metal where anyone can find it and take it without creating a big mess tearing through bags and ripping boxes. It's amazing how many 20-somethings who do not have any sort of job, just go around stealing anything metal left out in the open on a regular basis. Junk Day must seem like Christmas to them.They don't have to worry about getting caught. It's there for the taking.
-

Polled to Death

I hate polls. I think it stems from my belief that not everyone is entitled to an opinion. I may go as far to say I believe everyone is entitled to an enlightened and informed opinion.

-

But I can't say most people are all that enlightened or informed about much.

-

That's about it.

A Brief Moment in Time

This is not a typical scene at the house, but instead one moment of peace. Perhaps they were tired of fighting. Peace in the Mideast can't be far behind.

A Thought for Today

By choosing to hang on to your corner of freedom in even the worst situations, you can process your world with the energy of appreciation and beauty, and create an opportunity to transcend your circumstances.

-
Dr. Wayne Dyer

Smoke and Mirrors

New York- Paloma Faith

The Sunday Morning Muse, May 1, 2011

Soon to be Saint John Paul II was beatified today with one miracle down, and one to go.

Link

A place of honor was reserved for Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, a French nun who suffered from Parkinson's disease but whose inexplicable cure has been attributed to John Paul's intercession with God to perform a miracle, thus permitting the beatification to go ahead.

-

The Vatican will have to attribute another miracle to John Paul's intercession after the beatification in order for him to be declared a saint.

But wait! The nun wasn't cured until TWO MONTHS AFTER THE POPE'S DEATH. It doesn't seem quite right to me that we didn't hear of any great miracles from him while he lived. And curing a nun from Parkinson's while he is dead, well...that's disingenuous don't you think? Really can't prove that.

-

The deceased Polish Pope has been in his crypt these five years. They dug him up from his eternal rest under St. Peter's Basilica and put his coffin on display for awhile for visitors. Judging by the size of the crowd in Italy awaiting this event, a lot of folks are pretty happy about all this. I never had a problem with John Paul II. During his reign, he travelled all over the world. He was accessible. He had a Pope Mobile. He just exuded such a love and reverence. I saw a TV movie about him that really gave a lot of insight into his personal life and history. It is easy to see why people love him so much and are pulling for his Sainthood.

-

But... and I ask this out of pure ignorance...if you had a choice between eternal rest, and constantly, and uh, eternally, having to "intercede" with God to beg for favors, what would you pick? And if God was all knowing, he'd know which hard luck cases you would want to intercede in before you did, right? So the point of all this is...

-