Tuesday - I got nuttin

I would imagine that each and every one of us have at some time or another been hurt by a careless remark made by someone we admired.  I can still remember my uncle telling my cousin and me that "neither one of us had sense enough to pour piss out of a boot."  We were teen-agers and on vacation and I am sure that he thought he was being funny.  It wasn't funny and it has stayed with me all my life.  I know that I should let it go and for the most part I have because there are a lot of other memories that were good but that smart ass remark did not build me up and still hurts today.  So I am very careful what I say to a child and try to be when I say things to anyone.  Sometimes I fail but  I never consciously try to hurt someone.

Full Quote from a 1615 letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany - "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them."

I am in a "reading mode" right now.  Finished one book on Saturday, read another on Saturday and Sunday and started the next one on Sunday.  I woke up at 2 AM Monday morning and could not get back to sleep so I read until 4:30.  Then I had to have a nap in the middle of the day.  I hate it when I have nights like that. The book is good though.  It is about Theodore Roosevelt after he lost his bid for a third term and went to South America to explore a river known then as the River of Doubt. (Click on the link in the sidebar to learn more about it.) It is a well written book and exciting and so it was easy to stay awake to read.  I am going to have to start thinking about the next book if I keep going like this.

As I said I really don't have anything to write about. Things are pretty tame right now.  Just Molly, Cassie and Me and we aren't doing much in the heat.  Stay cool.  HUGZ.

Well, I've already missed two of them

I can remember one time when I was much younger I was driving home from Des Moines late one night (after being God only knows where) and looking up to my right and seeing a comet. I mean it was wonderful.

I think I went home and woke my mother and sister up and took them out to the country so they could see it also.  We used to do that with the Northern Lights.  We didn't see them often here in central Iowa but occasionally we did.  There was an astronomy group here in Ames that would ring your phone and play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on your phone to let you know that they were out.  We would then call my great aunts Ethyl and Kate Mike who would throw their coats on over their night gowns and get in the car and drive out to see the lights.

We could see them better when we were on our annual Vacation trip to Leech Lake Minnesota.  One night I was at the local Drive In Movie Theater to see a movie and I looked out and saw the most beautiful Northern Lights I had ever seen.  They were a snaky curtain of greens and reds and they sparkled.  I drove the car to the ticket office and asked them if I could get back in after I had driven up to the gas station at the "Y" to use the phone to call back to the resort so that the folks back there could see it.  Then I went back and watched the rest of the movie.

It is easy for me to understand why early man was obsessed with and wrote myths about the constellations.  When I was a kid and before my eyes needed glasses I used to lay out on the hill at our place just North of Ames and look at the stars.  I even saw Sputnik go across the sky one time.  I wonder what they (primitive man)  would have thought about that.

Speaking of Stars.  The Annual Oscarfest was last night.  I started watching it and soon got the computer out to work on one of my blogs that I keep up.  Specialis Procer had a wonderful Festive Board and I wanted to get the speech put up on The Papers Blog.  I could work on it and still watch the Oscars.  The only comment I have to make on the "Stars" there was this -

Quvenzane' was the most beautiful female on the Red Carpet, certainly the most poised and least posed.

I would recommend you read this article about her.

They need to bring back Neil Patrick Harris as host.


I guess I have babbled on long enough.  I guess I should quit or I will be accused of being as boring as the Academy Award Show.

Oh,  and I woke up at 4:00 AM this morning and then went back to sleep after about an hour of thinking and woke up the second time a little before 11:00 AM. I am writing a talk for the April Festive Board and am in the rumination phase so I have all these ideas bouncing around in my head and they wake me up. Such fun..

A- Team

I wanted to go to a movie on Sunday but my sister needed me to take her to Costco so I did.

Yesterday was not a good day and last night there was Lodge.

Today I had to get my hairscut, go see the eye doctor for a check-up and go out to the Lodge to lock up after the grand lodge committee meeting and my sister was supposed to stop by the house. Unfortunately she stopped by at the same time that I was gone so we did not connect. That is no big deal but I sat and waited for her and I had to get my estimated taxes in the mail today. I finally sent her a note and went to mail my letters and went to Borders (got two books - one 40% off and one 30% off and went across the street to see The A-team.

Now I am old enough that I used to watch the A-Team on television so I was curious as to what this one would be like. I liked it, I really liked it. Not so much for the action although there was plenty of that but for the repartee that had me laughing out loud (which was fortunately covered by the noise of gunshots and blowing up things) all through the film. One of the blogs I read said this of the film:

What a superfun summer action movie! Lots of action. Lots of intrigue. Explosions and destruction galore. Delicious villains

I totally agree. Kurt and Lyssa went to see it Sunday and they both liked it... I was skeptical but I should not have been. They have good taste and they were right.

I put my status up on FB while I was waiting for the credits to run because I had heard that you needed to wait until they were done for one last scene. I put up the last line of the film.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

Kurt knew what it was and put a "like" on it.

When I got home the person that Jon arranged to take Miles walkies had been over and taken him for a walk. They must have gone to the river because I came home to the smell of WET DOG. He needed it. He drove me nuts playing last night. Today he crawled up on my lap while I was resting my eyes (that is called napping) and I took a couple of pictures of him - watch for them next Monday. After he god down (my he is heavy) Miss Cassie did the same.

After I got home I got a letter out for the SRICF and watched the Presidential (clips) from the Oval Office speech. I was glad I had gone to the movie. I agree with most of the people I was underwhelmed. I thought he spoke as if he was speaking to a group of schoolchildren. (others have done the same thing) He really needs to talk to the oil company executives that way because they obviously cannot understand that they need to step up and take responsibility. It is unconscionable what BP is doing to try to cover up. I read where they will not let clean-up workers wear hazmat suits and other protective gear, that they are driving along the beaches at night and picking up the dead birds so that they can't be seen.

We elected him to do something and so far he has done a lot...but this is just not enough and not fast enough and he needs to state emphatically that there will be no more drilling until technology is there to protect from disasters like this. And he should do what Kennedy did when he set a goal to "go to the moon and do the other thing" (whatever that was) and then like Kennedy put the resources of the nation behind it. And the goal(s)... To build high speed rail transportation that does not use oil and to demand that something besides the combustion engine be developed if we are going to continue to use automobiles. I don't state it very well but you get the idea. He said something about this country being able to rise to the occasion and accomplish what needs to be done. Oh yeah and he mentioned prayer. The end of his speech was almost like a preacher giving a benediction. I think we need more action and less prayer... Perhaps a PLAN.

Let's also declare a moratorium not only on the off shore drilling but how about a moratorium on big corporations donating tons of money (buying) to politicians who are then afraid to do the right thing. Yeah, I know I am naive - it ain't gonna happen.

While I am working on this post Katie Curic is on David Letterman and she just said that one of the mistakes being made is that the Coast Guard is not in charge. They are letting BP run things. BP should be taken over by the Federal Government and it's assets frozen until the mess is cleaned up and the people who have lost businesses etc. compensated. Somebody needs to take charge and it should not be the company that is responsible for this mess. Maybe they need to get the A-team in to run things. Just my thoughts. Thanks for stopping by. Hugs. j

Sunday, Sunday

This is the radar on the screen right now. It is 6:50 PM and I have just finished my Black Market Reuben Pizza supper and am watching the Iowa/Iowa State wrestling on TV waiting for the snow to get here. The picture looks like a giant dragon with its jaws open waiting to devour Des Moines and Ames. The weatherman says we could get up to 4 inches. I am not worried I finally found the paper for my snow removal guy and called him and signed up. It had been buried on the kitchen table I use as a desk. My desk in the office is falling apart and I really don't go back there much, I need to clean up and throw away, If anybody wants to come and help I will be glad to supply the booze while we work. I will need to do it before I turn over all of the material for the Arcadia Lodge Secretary sometime after the next week-end.

Things have settled down and I don't have a lot of activities on the horizon so maybe I can get caught up. Actually I am disappointed because of a cancellation but that is the way things go. Next week there is an Installation for the Scottish Rite, a Holiday Party for Arcadia Lodge and I am going to go to Sioux City to see their KCCH Investiture.

Miles went nuts this afternoon. He generally does not bark but this afternoon while I was on the phone he started barking and barking. I thought for a minute that someone had come in the house but finally figured out that Bailey's Soccer Ball (the big blue one in the banner above) was in the hallway and he saw it and evidently got spooked by it. He finally quit after I got up and moved the ball. It would not have been so bad except I was on the phone. Crazy dog. There is not really much else to report. Right now the reconnection with former students is the highlight of the week and of course the puppies make me happy. Have a good week and thanks for stopping by. Hugs, j

I have spent the entire day ( well since noon anyway) doing "stuff" to get ready for the Lodge meeting tomorrow night. It seems as if I have been interrupted by phone calls, e-mails and dogs wanting to go outside. I also had to get the monthly reports for Arcadia and Specialis Procer Lodge ready to send in. I had hoped to go to the Opera at the movie theater tonight but that was not to be.

Jon came over and took Max for a walk. When he got back I took him to Battle's Bar B Que for supper. I had Beef and he had Ham. It was good. And it was good to spend some time with Jon. He is here now and since he is using the Word program I can't. I have it on my computer and it is on his also and when we are in proximity to one another his cancels mine out and it won't work, so I have to wait until he is done so I am taking this opportunity to blog. I really don't have much to blog about. I am really upset with the situation between Israel and the Palestinians but I won't blog about that because everybody seems to be able to do so.

I look at the people in the political spots (both outgoing and incoming) do some really stupid things. Harry Reid is showing very poor leadership as is Nancy P. It seems that egos are more important to them than moving the country forward. I am still upset with Mr. Obama for asking Rick Warren to the Inauguration for the Invocation. The more I read about him the more I think it was an abysmally poor choice on Mr. Obama's part. Read this:

Rick Warren, update
by Tengrain
From the redoubtable Max Blumenthal:

Team Obama likes to cite Warren’s work on AIDS in Africa to combat criticism about the controversial pastor. But how does burning condoms in the name of Jesus save lives?

…But since the Warren inauguration controversy erupted, the nature of work against AIDS in Africa has gone unexamined. Warren has not been particularly forthcoming to those who have attempted to look into it. His website contains scant information about the results of his program. However, an investigation into Warren’s involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren’s allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent’s most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is “resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred.”

Warren’s man in Uganda is a charismatic pastor named Martin Ssempa. The head of the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation, Ssempe enjoys close ties to his country’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House. In the capitol of Kampala, Ssempa is known for his boisterous crusading. Ssempa’s stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison them.

It goes on for quite a while, and the evidence piles up that Rick Warren is truly a monster in Tommy Bahama shirts.

It just gets worse and worse and I am still standing by my resolution not to watch the Inauguration. (I will watch the other coverage of the day, however.) I also think that Bush and Cheny should NOT get a pass from the crimes they have committed during the past 8 years and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But it won't happen.

I got a new Bluetooth to use with my phone tonight. This one is a little larger than the one I lost so i hope it will not disappear. I really like the bluetooth. I use it when I am driving and also when I am at other places. It is convenient and allows me to have both hands free. -

I love Keith Oberman. And Rachael Maddow. And you. Thanks for stopping by. Hugs, j-bear