Battle-Cry

I wrote this account a couple of years ago of an event in my life. I have never looked back, sadly I wonder what took me so long to come to my senses. ~~

Wearily I opened my eyes, somewhat apprehensive as to what this day would bring.

Yesterday I was so full of fire and determination about the agenda for today. This morning though most of the flames had dulled a little, as one more time I started to get myself into the survival mode.

Almost daily, I get reminders from my body of where I am today because of the cigarette. That causes me to think of how good things used to be like, oh so many years ago now. Such stupidity.

Of course this is my war against the dreaded cigarette. Like many others before me I have been humbled by the weed for far too long. It almost seems like this has been a hundred year war with no end in sight. So many battles, albeit the war rages on as I win a small encounter here and there.

There was a time when the cigarette was ruler supreme, as he had me puffing merrily away at the rate of thirty five a day hacking and coughing my socks up on a daily basis.

In looking back though I have come a long way since those days, but the war isn’t over quite yet and the hacking continues.

This is not the first time that I have tried to end this war and failed. In the past though, I realize now that I was ill prepared still being at the pack plus a day level. That’s when I reckon you could say I went into training and started my withdrawal routine to get the numbers and their strengths down to where I stood a fighting chance of success.

Now I know that there is some kind of a fallacy about regular strength and light cigarettes. It is true that with the removal of the filter, there is no difference in tobacco strength, however; it does show that with the filter left in place the filter does make some difference in taste. Despite all the semantics, the one unmistakable fact is, there is no minimizing the damage done to the lungs etc, regardless of regular or light cigarettes.

Through whatever means employable, I was able to cut down on the consumption numbers to an improving one pack a day. That was in the beginning of my resolve. Over the period of two years, I have got that number down to an all out attack of four or five smokes a day. But I can’t take all the credit for that achievement, I had a couple of scares along the way which any fool would recognize as an incentive.

Today I had elected to execute the coup de grace, kill this monster once and for all. But as the hours tick by this thing just eats away at you deep inside. I reckon that’s what they mean by craving, luckily so far I am in control and winning this battle today.

That’s what prompted me to sit down and write something about this, for everything helps to keep the Tiger at bay a little longer. Stay focused, face my enemy head on and it seems, get a little stronger by the hour. Nay! Even by the minute.

So what say thee Sir Weed!, feel like a joust today? What’s that you say? I can’t hope to win? Well guess what. Today I think I can!

E. Valentine March 28/06 ©

As a postscript, I finally applied this on July 3/06 and have not smoked since. It is my belief, that one has to really psyche oneself up enough to make this work. It did for me.

C'ya

Book-Ended

Swen ~ Karen

Both have tagged me for this little meme, ‘Open Book'. These were the instructions:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it at page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence/ phrase.
4. Blog the next four sentences/ phrases together with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig your shelves for that very special or intellectual book.
6. Pass it forward to six friends

My problem though, is I haven’t read very much of anything in a while. My wife on the other hand is a different story. Elizabeth is an avid reader and has probably read half the library.

It is just my luck then, that the nearest book to where I am sitting is the one she has just finished. This has turned out to be not just any book. This book is the latest book written by Ken Follett, the internationally acclaimed “World Without End.”

“World Without End,” is the sequel written 18 years later to the classic “Pillars of the Earth”. The books are English fictional history.

This one is penned in about the 14th century, that alone helps set the stage for some very exciting reading. Some of the things one can expect to find in the novel are cathedrals and monks, kings, knights, love and war, many memorable characters and who can forget the time of the great plague, which wiped out almost half the population of Europe.

This book too will become a classic, ~ it is a masterpiece.





Sentences 6-9 on page 123:

At the end of a rope,” he said. “Same way I brought the cow in.”
“Ah, but you didn’t have to get the cow past me and these people.”
Gwenda’s heart leaped with hope.

These are my tag victims:

Zirelda
Virtual Journey
Samrina
New North
The Ancient one
Augs Casa

Good Luck.

C'ya

Loose Ends and Friends

I can’t believe that September is almost over, where ever did the time go? I have been thinking recently that I had mentioned certain things in previous blogs and then left them dangling. Just lately I seem to have been so busy with online friends and ongoing business. Loose ends and friends, it’s time to tie a few knots and clear the decks for more stuff.



You will remember a little while back, that we ran into some transmission trouble with the truck and this, after we had, had a front end brake job done.

With the transmission if you remember where we left off, I was holding my breath that the problem wasn’t a serious expensive job. The o/d light was flashing and that could be indicative of anything from a hamburger to a steak. The good news turned out to be that it just needed the bands adjusting and they replaced a ‘Shift Kit’ for it appeared that it was skipping 3rd gear. The cost for that was sufficient, but certainly better than a new Tranny.

Some very good advice I received along the way with this saga was: Never take your tranny to a franchise dealer, for it is assumed that you could get set up etc. etc. The advice is to always pick a small non franchise dealer, you will fare a lot better, it certainly paid off for me at least.

For an encore to the transmission I was endowed with the plague of ‘Vista’ on my new computer.
There was of course the initial problem of no email service, which was resolved after much harassment of a number of people, ranging from Hewlett Packard, Internet explorer types and even the giant, Microsoft itself. So after much gnashing of teeth and resetting of half the hard drive, it seemed. “We Got Mail” since then the only problems we get with email is, sometimes they are just so slow to go anywhere, and other times they just go into orbit never to be seen again by man nor beast!

I have read and heard a number of times about that most elusive word, (usually found in divorce courts) Incompatibility, a week ago I ran into that monster full tilt.

We use a digital camera like most folks do and for us we run the Kodak easy-share program. Easy? Ha! Not when you hang out with Vista. It downright refused to accept the disc that came with the camera. I was almost ready to need a gasket job of my own! So off I went with my newly working email to get in touch with Kodak. After much detailed conflabation, we achieved success with another download. However I celebrated too soon at the newly installed Kodak program. As always when you get an upgrade, they always seem to mess something up that used to work oh so well with XP. With XP I used to be able to email out my pictures in varying sizes, which works great for the things I like to do with them. Not any more! What a botchup!

Between the differing ‘My Document’ files set up with Vista compared to XP, the Kodak too has to bring in its own set of file mis-management and manipulation as well. Trying to get the two to work efficiently together is so far, still out to lunch.

I am determined to get the better of these two adversary’s, by hook or by crook. To that end I got the Vista Dummy book from the library, I realize now though I will be better off to buy my own book, I cannot resolve all the challenges of Vista in just a 3 week span. At the present I have the 'Windows Vista book for seniors', which gives you more visual oriented explanations, until I get to the store. The battle continues.

October 21 is supposed to be closing day at the park we go to so much. We are going to miss that place tremendously over the winter months, but we will be ready with the ‘Bit firmly between the teeth’ come opening day in April 08. My thanks to all the volunteers that make Willow Park the haven that it is.

The final loose end my friends belongs to all of you, the friends and people who daily come along and visit my blog with such regularity, wondering no doubt or I hope, what did he do today!
Without the people to come and read/look/post, there would not be a lot of incentive at times to try and write anything. I don’t have a set piece that I do when I write here, but I do try to provide a little variety in an effort to keep things interesting and at times provide a chuckle or two. So to all of you out there a big, big thank you for all your support, interest and comments keep coming back ya hear!

C’ya

Oh Dear

We are up quite early this morning, things seem so quiet after all the turmoil and dare we say excitement of Wednesday. The sky is overcast with a slight early morning mist hanging in the air. The birds are just as chirpy as ever though, just a reminder to us that summer is far from over, well at least not just yet. To go outside the building today, one wouldn’t suspect or detect a thing out of place from the norm. The episode of the guy upstairs is over, and finished as far as we the bystanders are concerned at least, although special service crews are still working with the aftermath. ~ Life goes on.

Today we are up and at it for different reasons, I give a slight grimace when I say that, for at this point in time I don’t know what the end of this day may bring.

For a short while now our ‘Baby’ the wife’s ‘pet’ has been acting just a little strange of late. So today’s the day we had to take her in and get things checked out, hoping of course not to hear the worst.

The ‘baby/pet in this family is of course not a child or an animal but our truck!

At this point you may smile, I had you thinking there for a while at least didn’t I? As I was saying the truck has been acting a little rough for at last a week so Dave, that’s our mechanic took her in to give her the once over. I’m biting my tongue for I’m obviously hoping the news isn’t so expensive, at least not this time around, she was ready for an oil change anyway.

Turns out so far, they did the oil and lube, and we had to have a brake job on the front end $250. As far as the original clunk noise/ hard shift, well we still have that and so tomorrow it’s off to the transmission shop on a wing and a prayer !

Don’t even want to think about the possibilities with that one tonight. Yelp!
C’ya

Time & Tide

Well talk about a few rough days! We have had a few days where the weather has not been nice, actually downright hot would be more like it. The weather has been responsible for us not getting to the park this week since Monday. It has kept us awake at night for it’s too hot to sleep, even with a/c.

Today really kind of capped it all off. This morning we were up bright and early getting ready for rehab, Elizabeth had gone out to load the truck, that’s when the phone rang and all hell broke loose, so to speak.

We have a guy who lived in an upstairs apartment who is normally a creature of habit, the kind that you can set your clock by.

A week last Monday he missed doing his laundry, he missed again this week. When I came to think of it, I really hadn’t seen him around in a while now, not that he is my favorite person. I digress, this morning the phone rang and bedlam seemed to break loose outside. Very quickly the super’s truck arrived followed by quite an entourage. There were police cars everywhere along with ambulances and a fire truck, and finally an office rep.

John was on the phone to ask me if I knew this guy upstairs had died? I flipped back, of course not or else I would have phoned you!

Well the bottom line was this guy upstairs that you can set your watch by, wouldn’t be setting anything anymore, it seems that he passed away at some point in the last two weeks. Judging by the decomposition and the smell that permeated throughout the whole neighborhood, it had to be 10 or11 days since he died. The weather of course because of the circumstances made things around here downright awful, to say the least. Talk about gag!

The wife wrote this account for a forum she visits, I think it's worth reading here too. :)

A Weird day……

I went outside to start loading the truck with rehab gear…..noticed an unusual quite sickening smell in the air….went around the building and there were police cars, ambulances, fire trucks etc.

We live in a 2 story 12 plex…..apparently one of the tenants upstairs had phoned the super about a garbage smell this morning…..it turned out to be his neighbor...who had died.....about 10 days ago….the man lived alone, and like many, had no relatives or friends.

The apartment had been shut up and when they opened the windows….well, you can imagine…..I had to make several trips back and forth outside with stops for gagging….I am so thankful that we are on the bottom floor at the far end of the building where there is no odor. Got Eric out for rehab….said he couldn’t smell a thing….I think this has something to do with his 02.….When we returned 3 hours later the coroner had just arrived….the tired super followed us in and had 3 cups coffee (we always keep a can of Tim’s for him), gave a grisly description of the body (Eric wasn’t amused), and I gave the super some vicks for his nose (a nurse told me about this trick to mask smell) and cold spring waters to take out for the workers. They had spray cans that they used on their clothes after being in the apt…..it took out(or masked) the odor. One young fireman said it was the worst body he’s ever seen.

Today I learned what a decomposed body smells like…..I hope I never smell that again…..I hope none of us die alone…..

Elizabeth

The poor wife insists that she has this ‘decomposing dead guy in her nose,’ ~ this odor, that she cannot get rid of.

I told her that the mind is a powerful thing and if she thinks real hard about steak & onions cooking, pretty soon she won’t be able to get the smell of onions out of her nose! My poor honey. She of the weird dreams and now the probing proboscis.

C’ya

I’ve been Tagged!

TAGGED!


The rules are: once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with six weird, unique or unusual facts or habits about yourself.... at the end, you need to choose six people to be tagged and list their names and why you chose them.... don't forget to send them each a comment that says, "you have been tagged....go read my latest blog...."


1) Being an Englishman, I drink too much tea and like to make French Fry sandwiches. Two pieces of buttered bread with fries in between. In England they call a sandwich ’A Butty’ …….Yummy!!

2) I have been told by no fewer than three women that I have Sexy FEET! A definite turn on!

3) I can’t stand the ‘Simpson’s’ I’d rather watch ‘The Bugs Bunny show!’

4) I have an excellent memory for detailed stuff and numbers. At times though I forget what I had for supper last night!

5) When in the army years ago, I once volunteered for action. My first words when I arrived were: “Gee what the h*ll am I doing here, I could get killed!”

6) I like to have lots of ‘toys’ computers, DVD player, Digital camera’s etc. I never take the time to learn how to use them properly. The wife does that for me.

Now my six tags are!

Andrew I know you are a busy guy, but you are the first blog I read each day. Your life stories read like an adventure series.

Augs Casa You are a very likeable guy, your comments are always a bright ray of sunshine on what could be a dismal day.

SJ You are the one of a kind friend everybody should have in their life. Thoughtful, kind, and ever caring regardless of your own life’s situation.

Marthyan A new found friend whose writing I sincerely admire and enjoy, a fellow poet. A bright star on a new stage!

Margie I think everyone is familiar with Margie and her writing, simply sensational poetry. I know you are a busy lady having a break right now. But you just got Tagged!!

Blue Gardenia Our paths have only crossed a couple of times, but I still remember that beautiful blog you wrote, “The Waitress”. Very nice romantic piece.

Thet Dang Phone!

Sometimes I just hate early mornings, today was no exception. I had just started out with the usual COPD routine when the phone rang. The call was from my oxygen supplier with some information. All of a sudden there was static on the line and then nothing! The line went completely dead. To say I was somewhat ticked off wouldn't really cover it, for this was the second time we've had a breakdown with the phone lines in two weeks!.

I was thinking thank goodness that the internet connection is still intact, for we still didn't have a cell phone. I have always had this thing about cell phones and all the surrounding controversies associated with them. I figure it is unsafe for people to be driving around with one hand on the wheel and that thing growing out of their ear! I refuse to accept that people can concentrate on safe driving, whilst talking on a phone. More so if they were into some heavy discussion or argument with somebody!

Since I have developed this COPD and my health has gone down somewhat, I have had to rethink my attitude to the cell phone. Commonsense now dictates that we need one in case of any emergency, especially with my health situation.

I got on the computer and hammered out an email to the phone company asking for help, seeing as this was the only form of communication we had now. I explained the situation and the seriousness of my position with my health, plus the fact I was disabled and a senior at that. An hour later I got one of those Robotic replies telling me someone would contact me in 2-4 days time!! That's when I really exploded!


You don't really want to hear my profanity laced description of those Blah blah numbskull's, and a company that obviously just employed idiots!! It took two more ranting emails before I finally got someone who actually breathed real air, to respond to us. In the meantime I had seen a friend who lent us his moblie phone to use till we got things sorted out. After talking to the phone company guy, I was left with the thinking, that I had been far better off with the robot!

All he did was come up with all kinds of company bureaucratic BS, meanwhile I personally levitated three feet off the ground Grrrrrrrrr!!
To say I ate him alive would have been very much within my realm of possibility. Here I was trying to explain the urgency of the situation, all he could do was go into a sales pitch. I was livid, for no matter what I said, he stuck with his Robotic company chatter about selling me more phones and services. I swore at him and told him in no uncertain manner that they couldn't even service the phone I already had!! I hung up the phone in disgust.

Early next morning there came a knock at the door, and there stood the most cheerful faced guy one could wish to meet! It was the telephone repairman! After going over what had happened at this end of the wire, he went to work. I guess by now and after a few hours sleep, you could say I had mellowed out and my feet were no longer defying gravity.

Of course when the guy came back indoors to finalize everything, I was chattering his ear off about what had happened. All the time he had this happy smile on his face, you couldn't help but melt and forget the upset. Then he said that he would just make one last test to make sure everything worked now. He dialed our number and then said the strangest thing! As the phone started to ring once more he said.

“Isn't that the sweetest sound!?” After what we had endured, I guess it really was!

We have since bought ourselves a cell phone! Using a different phone service for that this time!!

C'ya

The Ears & the Bush

It has not been a very long winter here, but for awhile it did get pretty darn miserable. For someone like me the weather can make things a bit awkward getting around, so I don’t get out too much. Today though the wife said, we should head out to the mall for some much needed window shopping. I like that for it’s the best kind, other than just hanging around waiting. You know what women can be like!

Elizabeth had been bugging me for some little time now to get my hair cut. All of this has arisen ever since she recently lost her favorite hairdresser.
I have to tell you about my honey. She is one of those people who at times can take this togetherness a bit far! When she first came down here to where we live now; she had to give up her regular hairdresser, believe me, a thing I never heard the end of for the longest time!
So it came to be that after much searching she finally found one that would be okay for her. I soon discovered that this also had to be okay for me too! She sincerely believed that we should both use the same hairdresser! Grrrrrr So goodbye to my barber who I usually went to at the mall, of course I would see him working away, once in a while in passing.

The new hairdresser’s name was Peggy, and if you ever met her you would swear she looked and behaved just like Peggy from ‘Married With Children’.

Great! A bubbly hairdresser! That alone was a sobering thought!

After a few visits though you kind of get to like her, I even got round to thinking that she didn’t do a bad job with my locks. Let’s face it; when your hair gets as thin on top as mine has become, you really can’t do too much damage!

The first hint that disaster might strike should have been when she and her family moved further away to live, even though she continued to work close by to us. One day though the inevitable did occur and Peggy moved on. Once more, we were looking for a replacement for the wife. The new one eventually, actually turned out to be right there in the same salon, so that suited Elizabeth just fine. I had thought about what we went through before, so I finally said ‘not for me this time!’

Sometimes the way women do go on, one would think that I looked like a shaggy sheepdog! I don’t have enough hair to even come close to that, more like a shorn sheep I reckoned!

So finally off we go to the mall. Like the dutiful hubby that I am, I trundle along. Me and my oxygen bottle in my walker, and the thing on my face attached to my schnozzle, to do some shopping and get my ears lowered.
Things went alright at first; as we wandered around the mall and got into some stores, eventually ending up at the barbers shop.


It was busy when we arrived so I sat on my walker watching everything. My old barber was still there working snipping away. It wasn’t very long before he spotted me sitting there, he smiled. So I decided I would wait until he was available and give him my business. Sometimes payback is a crock!

I sat in the chair and he went through his routine of putting the sheet around me, to keep the cuttings off. Right away he started into the talking bit, I know that it is all part of the business and being sociable, however; I often wonder why it is that barbers and hairdressers assume a customer wants to talk!

He ran the comb through my hair, then picking up a handful of my locks, scrutinized them. With a quizzical look on his face, and in that well polished English accent that some love to hate.(He was mimicking me) He uttered,

“Have you been cutting your own hair Sir?!!” “Knife and fork was it?”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! Then we both burst out just a roaring, the rest of the customers must have thought we were mad!

Payback complete!

So the moral of this story is:

When you have a bird in the hand, don’t let the other bird cut your Bush!

C’ya!

A Whale of a Day

I had to go to the doctors yesterday afternoon, it was just another one of those things that has be taken care of. The outcome of which was to be sent downstairs to get some chest x rays. ~ That’s when the fun began.

A lot of you know that I have COPD and my biggest enemy is being short of breath (sob). You can well imagine the state I was in by the time I arrived downstairs (In the elevator) huffing and puffing. I almost left the x rays till another time, because the weather here right now being so unstable.
So in I rolled in with my walker and oxygen bottle at the ready, and my face attached to it all with the tube!
I knew I would not be able to handle all this undressing and dressing that they subject you to. So I do dress accordingly, with easy access things that way I don’t have to do zippers n buttons n stuff.

So as I went in I announced ‘I am only removing my top’ for I knew it would be easy for them anyway. No arguments there, they were very accommodating, I proceeded to get ready with the help of the wife. The radiologist was new to me, not the regular one that usually deals with me; this one was an attractive young woman probably around 21 yrs old. A real mod go-getter complete with a harpoon stuck through her nose!
I thought Blimey! Things are changing round here.

All went reasonably well for the first set of pictures, then “Turn to the left, hands above the head!” It almost felt like an Army inspection again from the old days. She took a second set of frames and I asked if I needed to wait. “Yes,” she said. So I just leaned, bent over on my walker. “Sit down,“ said she, for my walker does have a seat. I will be ok I replied. She said, “Are you sure? You won’t go down on me will you!!?” Bite your tongue Eric. I thought, oh the temptation to reply. (I knew what she really meant) No, I will be alright I said, again as she heads for the door, (one last time) “Are you sure you won’t go down on me?” Grrrrrrrr my naughty mind wants to take over with a fitting but humorous response. I could hardly contain myself, then she disappeared out of site. ~

I told Elizabeth what had transpired, after we were alone, she cracked right up all the way home. ~
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

We went downtown this afternoon, it’s that time of the year again sticker time for the truck and of course this year, a license re-newel for yours truly.
It had occurred to me that there may be a small line up after being closed for lunch so we arrived 10 minutes later from opening. So just like the above entry, I roll up literally with the wife, my walker and my oxygen. My new fashion accessories. :- ))

Well you know, normally people in general are pretty good when they see me and my snort bottle go by. You will always get the odd one who looks curious but all in all people are ok. NOT when you are in a drivers licensing office, lining up!
It was almost like a live cartoon. You can just visualize all these folks looking at me, thinking “and he’s literally on life support” for I’m at the counter by now, and the thought bubbles above their heads, I can imagine the remarks!

With a smirk on my face I head for the door, license in hand, the walker which assists me to shuffle along, and the oxygen tube still attached to my mug. ~

Did I tell you? I also wear glasses! ~

Supper’s up! C’ya.

Entertainment? Bah Humbug!

The other morning I was just muddling along on the net. One of the first things that I do when I start the day is go over the small news items. This one that I had in mind was one of them. Strange really how so many times you see something and it jogs your mind. It had been plaguing me about what to write for the next blog, and there it was!

Quite a bit this last few months I have been more than a little disgruntled at what is shown on the TV nowadays, under the guise of entertainment.
They faithfully take your money each month for your cable hookup and then feed you all this junk and umpteenth time around programming.

If you get really lucky on a given weekend in particular; you will get a channel that reruns the same movie over and over, all day and night. Then in case you missed out that day, you might just be lucky enough to let them catch you again the following day.

My take on that is all they are using are tapes and they possibly don’t even employ anyone to work the weekends. God help if the tapes ran into trouble, and I believe a few years ago I saw one that did just that! Zonk!!

Does ‘Dinner & a movie!’ give you any clues? I have never seen anything so useless and stupid as D&M. Imagine if you will, getting comfortably settled into a movie when suddenly they switch, POOF! GONE!
To a bunch of nincompoops sitting around a kitchen table, who babble on for an indeterminate length of time about nothing intelligible.
Thus virtually and effectively wiping out any dregs of what the original movie was about, that your mind may have been lucky enough to retain.
I think you get the idea; who knows, you may even be unfortunate enough to have run that gambit before too.

Yep! Great entertainment I must say. Right.

This last Friday night we sat down to watch a little idiot box, when I noticed a movie coming up at 8pm. It wasn’t one of those big bonanza epics either.

This particular movie was “Witness for the prosecution” made in 1957 with Charles Loughton, Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power. That was a marvelous movie, a classic in my mind. Good old black & white movies.

Then I started remembering so many other classic movies over the years. Such as ‘Casablanca’ starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and a whole list of stars. Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, Christmas Carol, with Alistair Sim Just to name a couple or so.

Then of course there were all those great musicals, Sound of Music, King & I, Westside Story, Carousel and on and on. You rarely see films of that nature these days. Those are what I call true classics. So many great stars of old; so where are such upcoming stars today? All I see most days are a bunch of generics playing a part with the odd name brand person thrown in.

My wife so far does not agree with me so I concede a little ground here.

So after the classics I guess you could find many a bunch that could be called pretty good movies. Epics kind of comes to mind, but even then, still not a true classic as in the term. Ten commandments, Robe, Ben Hur, I would even put the Magnificent Seven up there and who could ever forget the ‘Spaghetti westerns,’ Clint Eastwood.
I really have to look long and hard to find stars today who one would deem ‘Notable’, there could of course be the odd exception. Anthony Hopkins comes to mind with a few other honorable mentions.

Let me ask you, how many movies have you seen in recent years that you would give the label “A Classic”? One or two reasonable movies maybe, but a classic? Go ahead surprise me.

Now the TV entertainment, now there’s a nice title. Sitcoms, yuk what a word. I’m not going to delve too much into that area for obvious reasons, my time is too valuable to waste on the junk they call comedy.
Gone are the days of Carol Burnet, Bob Hope, Red Buttons, Jackie Gleason and good old Lucille Ball, now those were good shows with real comedians.
I now much prefer to watch the Brit shows these days, far superior programs. The nearest equivalent that I could concede here would of course be Seinfeld, maybe the odd Leno Show.

I will also pass on sports, too much has been messed up there already, you don’t really want my thoughts on that.

Nope I don’t have a great opinion of the entertainment stuff today. I get more entertainment when I go on the computer and write this junk! LOL

Tea’s up! C’ya

A Silhouette of Speculation?

Some dark and dreary night, a thunderstorm rages outdoors. The room is suddenly illuminated by the occasional flash of lightening, and an ominous clap of thunder almost jolts the little old lady out of her chair. The storm after raging for an hour, slowly moves on as it fades into the distant night. Things start to settle down again, slowly you start to drift off and your eyes heavy finally close. You wake with a start, it is pretty dark in the room now with the storm having gone.

The air is cool and clammy as the fire has long since died. ~

A pretty scary thought really. I wonder how many older people are out there on their own, maybe having experienced such a night scene. There no one near to help if they get into trouble of a medical kind.

Does anyone think about those kind of things? What about life after death?

I often think about what comes after life, what really does happen. Do we move on to another plateau or just remain here a pile of dust. There are many many people out there who steadfastly believe in a hereafter, I am one of them.

Having said that I sometimes sit and just speculate on what is going on in the World today and the obvious direction we all seem to be headed. Will there really be a doomsday, an Armageddon, will God allow such a thing to finally happen? I speculated, will somebody from outer space, another planet step in and bring us all to our senses before it is too late? ~

Recently I received an email showing just that. The correlation of the planets in the Universe. That once again set my mind to work thinking, not only about our galaxy but the universe as a whole. The result was nothing short of breathtaking. It showed images of our Solar System and the beyond right out into the universe proper. Initially we got to see the earth being the bigger of all the nine planets at that time, in our system, Then the nine compared to our Sun, followed by Sirius, Pollux then Arcturus. The earth at this scale was now invisible (of the map) because it was so small by comparison. The journey continues on for another four bodies out there, the biggest being Antares after Betelgeuse the second largest.

Arcturus, by now in comparison was down to the size of an orange pit.

Check this out, see what I mean.

http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_jul2006/AstronomyPerspective.htm

So now my question is, if God created so many wonders and there are some scientific types who will argue that point and perfectly so. Would he really let one of the Jewels (Earth) perish?

Well you might ask with so many Jewels in the universe, who would even miss one so small as Earth compared to all the giants! I guess that is an answer we will never know. My next statement then is pretty obvious, with no apparent answer to the question.

Don’t you feel then, that we should start to try to do something about saving our own World while we still may? If it isn’t too late already.

Nobody said it was easy or it could be done without sacrifice. Remove the need to have an answer to that original question.

Of course we most certainly have Global warming to contend with. It is here already and what are we, Nay what can we do about it? From what one sees today, too many people are busy counting their shekels to even care. They are so blind to all the possibilities, they just don’t get it! Come on! Wake up!

When will they realize that all the money in the World will do them no good if the World as we know it is a goner! Poof! Gone! Just like that and it can happen.

Yes most definitely, I worry and wonder about just where all this will end up.

One thing is ironic though. When one looks back through history at this wonderful World of ours, it makes me scratch my head. I see a World that has survived countless millions of years, having survived all kinds of disasters in that time. That’s if all we read is to be believed, and I see no reason not to.

Mankind as we know it today has really done a number on this planet in such a very short time, approximately 250 years. Technology? Progress? Poppycock is what I say, greed and avarice seem to be the driving force, like a runaway train. We now have to find the way to derail it! ~

The old lady picked up the cat, come on girl lets get ourselves to a nice bed.

A faint mew from the cat as off they went up the stairs. In the background there was still a faint but audible rumble as the storm went further on its way. ~

C'ya

Dilemma

I have another entry all ready to go, however; I can't get into my own Blog, through my computer! I am working on it and hopefully the glitch will be sorted out by tomorrow. In the meantime, I am making this entry from my wife's computer which is on the same link as mine.

Differences are in the security system, mine has the current system by Nortons which insists on throwing out a risk cookie and blocking my signing in to this site. The other computer has an older version of Nortons that does not block my signing in. I am looking for a way to get my 'puter to allow my entry to this site. Any suggestions would be helpful, meantime I will transfer all the material over here, if all else fails.

Suggestions of how to get rich quick could also solve the problem! LOL . C'ya