Ghastly Count

It is ghastly.  We have begun to trace the news of the war in Iraq with a tally of Americans killed.

Last Week  20 killed

This Week 12 Killed

Today         5 Killed.

Soon we will print it like a box score:

Wednesday: Colts 16; Bears 11; Americans Killed 5. 

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is coming up on Friday.  That has become my special holiday.  I got out of the service on Groundhog Day 1946.  I used to enjoy reading Grandfather Groundhog stories to my children out of Highlights Magazine. One of my favorite movies is Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.

And recently, I have become Grandfather Groundhog myself, coming out of my hole once a year, looking around, and hibernating again.

A professor I know once started a study of hibernation using groundhogs.  He says, "You cannot imagine the mess they make."  He changed his study to chipmunks whose messes he could deal with.

Think of me on Feb 2, Groundhog Day

Righteous Indignation

Is it only I, or does everyone have a storehouse of RI, Righteous Indignation? 

This night, I pulled the plug on my RI storehouse and let the flames drain into the hall.  I am now trying to put the flames back into the box.  This mixed metaphor means only this:  We have a resident who roams the halls at night shouting.  I opened my door and shouted back, expressing my RI.

Once I had flamed, I cooled and reconsidered.  That poor old fellow has an incurable malady, Mesotheleoma. It was caused in his case by his occupation.  He used to work with automobile brake linings and they used to contain asbestos. Grinding the brake linings to fit the brake drums filled the air, and his lungs with asbestos fiber. Now he has trouble breathing...and it is not going to get any better.

No wonder he is in perpetual distress.  And I shouted at him. 

When I got over my Righteous Indignation, I began to reconsider: actually, I like to get up and write in my journal at night. He just gave me an excuse to do so.

My RI flared up at the dinner table one night recently.  Some slight made my temper flare and I tried to stomp out in RI.  But in  a wheelchair you cannot stomp out and slam doors.  Before I was completely out of the dining room I realized how ridiculous it was, trying to roll quietly out in RI.  Just can't have a tantrum in a wheelchair. Instead of swearing, I started laughing at myself.

I am sorry I have an over supply of RI.  I am glad it usually passes quickly.

Gay Marriage

No one has asked me what I think abut Gay marriage, but IF they did, I would say that I just don't know.

I do know that I believe everyone should have the same legal rights, whether they choose a same-sex partner or not.  But that is not what the Gay community seems to want.  They decline "domestic partner: laws".  They want to get MARRIED. 

So the question is "should we change the meaning of the word 'married' to include domestic partnerships." And I am still undecided.

Words change in meaning over the course of time.  Just because a word meant one thing at the turn of the last century, does not mean that it will mean the same thing at the turn of this century.  Take "square".  It used to mean straight shooting upright and honest.  Now it means feeble and old fashioned.  When kids told dad he was square, he didn't know whether to be pleased or offended.  No one wants to be "square" these days.   The word "gay" itself has changed.  It used to mean happy and carefree, but now it means homosexual.  Words change with useage, but can we change a word through legislation?  Can we change "married" from being wedded to a partner of the opposite sex to being partners with a same-sex lover.

AND who gave the government the right to say whom we could be partners with, anyway.  Government seized control of who may marry whom, at what age, and of what relationship and of what race, in some cases.  Also they regulate what sex your partner must be.  Who gave them that right anyway? 

Suppose some nice old lady wants to marry her pet cat, should she have the right?  They sleep together anyway, why not let them marry?  (I am NOT undecided about interspecies marriage...I reject it, but I just brought it up as an example of something that does NOT need to be regulated or legislated.  Maybe marriage does not need to be regulated at all.)

So, I discover, I am against a constitutional amendments pertaining to marriage, for or against.  Let the government butt out.  Marry whom you like, call it what you like, marriage or domestic partnership.  If you need legislation, let it be that all folks, partnered, married, single, separated have the same rights.

So I am neither for nor against legalizing gay marriage.  I am for butting out.  Call me an anarchist if you must, but I think we regulate too much already.

.

Dreamland

Off to make an entry in my other site:  Dream Depository (<<Link)

Wonderful

My spirits are rising already.

It is wonderful.  I make a journal entry... and WITHIN MINUTES comments start coming in.

And they kept coming in.... when I added this note there were already ten or more.  Thanks folks.  I do feel better.

It is really nice to be heard. 

Thank you, Loves, you are grand.

What Will Happen When ...

I am a little depressed.  (Maybe a LOT depressed.)

I went to parlor to hear live music, but became upset because, after years of suggesting, cajoling, complaining, people ate still seated in the doorway blocking the entrance.  There are empty seats inside that are not available because the doorways are blocked.  I could hear the music okay, but left after a few minutes.  Upset...for no real reason.

Thee are folks who live here who never leave their rooms.  They prefer to sit and watch televsion.  Today, I am one of them.  I prefer to sit atthe  computer to going out of my room.

I had signed up to go on a bus trip to a casino this morning, but cancelled that, too. 

This was the day I planned to go have my car "smogged" (certified smog free) so I could renew my registration, and I am doing nothing about that, either.

I have become a LUMP.  I sit at my computer day after day.  I play my keyboard for myself day after day. I nap in the day time.

What will happen when I become one of THEM? One of those recluses who, like Howard Hughes, prefer to sit in a darkened room watching mvies I have seen a million times before, playing the same songs over and over, typing feeble entries in my journal?

That horrible time seems to be drawng closer.  No wonder I am depressed.