Happy Memorial Day

Is it appropriate to wish someone a "Happy" Memorial Day? Well...

It is a bit careless when you toss it out like that. Like... have a nice picnic! A day off work... Yay! Hey, enjoy the fireworks! 

But when you visit the cemetery and see all the flags on the graves, you can't help but stop a bit and think about the sacrifices our veterans have made for the love of their country. It's humbling really.

As a kid, those long ago Memorial Days meant remembering World War I that grandpa faught in. I never met my grandfather, but I have read about the Polish Army in France and how he went to fight for his homeland of Poland, even though he was already established here in the US.  I can also remember talking to dad about his time in the Navy during WWII  in 1944. He didn't see action, but he got to travel the world on a big ship, and  he said when he crossed under the Golden Gate bridge, he dropped a 50 cent piece in the water for good luck. I imagine it is still there.... under all the water and the layers of silt on the bottom. Dad's other "war" story was about taking time to comfort a seasick dog that was aboard the ship.  And he used to laugh when he told about  "visiting" his friend up in the "crow's nest" of the ship and how scary that was.

That 50 cent piece must have worked since dad made it through the service just fine. Others were not as "lucky.

On this Memorial Day there have been a few wars since. And we are still at war. Endless war. You would have thought humans would be further advanced by now. But no, we are still killing.... for peace.

I'll Take Care of You

The Sunday Morning Muse, May 27, 2012

It's gonna be another hot one. 90 degrees? And it is only May. This morning the weather guy on TV mentioned about conserving energy as Ozone levels are up and some people have a lot of trouble with that...breathing problems, coughing, shortness of breath.  On the screen was the usual list of "tips" about not filling your car with gas during the day, reducing vehicle use and lawn mowing.

I remembered last week on a similiar day, listening to a guy on the radio who said, "Who cares? I pay my electric bill! Crank it up baby!  I want that AC on!"  He scoffed at the notion that any of the above "tips" will
do any good at all. Not when you have places like China, he said, who do whatever they want.

Hmmm. If everyone thought like him would the world be a better place? If everyone DID conserve, just a little bit, would the world be a better place?

Seemed simple to me. Think globally, act locally. Our air is so bad here where I live, it is always in the top 10, if not the top 5 of worst particle pollution categories. Maybe it is like a piss in the ocean to try to help a tiny bit by, say, not filling up with gas today, or keeping the AC on 75. But I'm going to do it anyway. It can't hurt.

Romney Versus Reality

The Sunday Morning Muse, May 20, 2012

It's a wonderful Sunday morning with the sun rising over the city and the promise of an 87 degree day. I spent most of yesterday outside weeding and watering and "supervisoring" the porch painting job, while sitting in the sun sampling the newly labeled Straub Amber, which is supposed to be the repackaging of Straub Special Dark. According to the web site, the "dark" label was misleading because it is really an amber beer. 

Contributors at Rate Beer seem to agree with that. I do, too. I always felt it wasn't a dark beer.  I don't really like dark beers. They just taste bad. Even the phrase "acquired taste" doesn't seem to apply here. I think people just get themselves determined to drink it, and then do it out of habit. To show that they drink dark beer. Like it is a big deal. Like they are not part of the "common class" anymore that plops down and orders a Coors light and keeps them coming. Hmm. Not that I really care or anything. 

Unless they were born to it like the Irish who are known for drinking their Guinness. Maybe they really do like it.

Had a good discussion with the postman about beer. He is way more into beer than I am, but I tried to keep up while he rambled off names of all the beers he has tried. He likes Blue Moon, and various ambers and lagers from all over.I lost track. You can pick up six packs now at different places, including grocery stores who are stocking even more unusual beers.  It is strange how beer drinking as evolved.  I wonder what my Iron City drinking grandfather would have had to say about all this fuss over beer? 

Neighbor Al was watching with interest the mounting pile in my wheelbarrow. "What are you gonna do with that?"

I was puzzled. The wheelbarrow?  The weeds/sod/rocks?

Al is a packrat and doesn't let anything go to waste. Now he wants my wheelbarrow full of stuff to "fill holes" in his yard. Ya know, I never thought of that. I have plenty of holes to fill. Stump rot, mole damage, that sort of thing. But I'll give it all to Al. I don't really feel like taking on another project today. 

It's gonna be too hot.

The Sunday Morning Muse, May 13, 2012

It's Mother's Day.

Can you honestly remember a "perfect day" in your life? A day when everything went just as you wanted it to, and the world  appeared to fall at your feet, asking, "what can I do to make things simply wonderful for you today?" A day when money just seemed like no object, life was full of wonder and suprizes. A long walk on an exotic beach with dolphins jumping in the distance. A cold beer and a warm breeze.... Love flowing your way in all kinds of new forms....people being kind and hopeful, and even the birds singing in harmony? Just for you.  Remember that day? Me, neither.

But that is the lament of my mother. I hear it all the time "Why can't I just have ONE perfect day?"

To put it in context, her meaning is lot simpler than you or me. She doesn't waste time wishing she could win the lottery, or travel to exotic places or anything like that.  Her idea of a perfect day is not having to go to the doctor's office, not having a nurse have to visit and prod and poke around her, not dealing with  people in bad moods, not having to walk with a walker, not having to wear that stupid tubing on her face to have oxygen at night. Not having to take pills with every meal.

Humbling isn't it? Her perfect day would be one she had perhaps as recently as 2 years ago. When she could get down on the ground and weed. Or simply walk straight up the hill and pick the flowers on the edge of the woods. When she didn't have people traipsing in and out of her house all day to "watch" her.
Just a normal day, a perfect day, when she could do whatever she wanted to do.

So on Mother's Day, I wish her a perfect day. I know I can't make the pills or medical equipment go away. But I'll do my best to make sure that if she can't really do what she wants to do, she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to do today.  And maybe that will be a step toward a new kind of perfect day.

Supermoon 2012

Bro in law took nice picture of the Supermoon last night. My pictures, again, sucked. (But there is only so much you can do with a 5 year old Kodak EasyShare camera.)

The Sunday Morning Muse, May 6, 2012

Sunday morning is shining through the window as I finish up my second cup of coffee. A woodpecker for some reason is pounding away at the gutter above my window, and although it is amusing to the cat, I must put an end to it. (Pause, hit window, gone)

I'm reading a book called "Suddenly Psychic." It is not what I thought it would be. It was in a bunch of old books my sister was donating to the Salvation Army. Since I'm short of reading material lately, (still re-reading Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth, a nice manual on Trigger Point Therapy, and Wayne Dyer's Wisdom of the Ages), I thought I'd just flip through it while I drank a beer in the sun and take a break. Light reading, as you will.

This wasn't light reading. It was scientific approach to things like getting to the alpha state through the Hemi-Sync method, remote viewing and even remote healing. This is where it got kind of far out to me, when the author attempted to remote heal her cat's kidney problems by imagining herself filtering the cat's blood. (Since I know you will never read this book, I'll give you the spoiler. The little cat wasn't healed, but he did fare pretty well in his last few months. (He was only given days to live when her therapy with him began.)

I'd be the first to admit I'm in awe of the brain and any potential unleashed power that lies within. Science unravels more and more secrets of the brain all the time as we understand how memory works, what parts of the brain affect our senses, emotions, and even how people use their brain to defy pain or reprogram their "wiring" after severe injuries to gain back some of their losses.

Brain function versus mind function are two separate things though. The idea of consciousness. I feel certain that Sweet Pea is conscious, but I don't know if she has a conscience. She steals Sambo's food and I don't think she feels the least bit guilty about it.

Special Moon Tonight

I hope it isn't too cloudy tonight. It would be cool to see the Super Moon!

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