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 |  My second blog. What you get are pieces of me; my humor, my memories: be welcome. |
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MY BOOK! http://www.lulu.com/davidmac73 This picture was in the header of my first blog and I wanted to bring it back. Me and my sweetie on our wedding day....it is my favorite picture. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This is my second Blog on WDC. The first Blog, Random Thoughts, is finished and done and I loved almost every minute I spent doing it. This blog will be somewhat different than the first because I want to use this space for my humor and my memories. The humor may sometimes fall flat and the memories may, at times be boring, but isn't that the way it is with life. Please join me here and partake in these pieces of me and if sometimes you find the jokes unfunny or the memories dull, then please come back another day and maybe you will find something to your liking. After all, like my daddy always said: "Some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you." Thank you, vivacious   for this neat new logo for my blog! Yup, this about says it all, I think!** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I thought that Independence Day was the appropriate day to put this great new siggy in my blog....Thank you sultry ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please check out Scarlett's Newsletter for Bloggers: The Blogville News
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Thank you, Startiara  for this lovely Siggy!! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| I am very busy at the moment, planning a special vacation that we hope to take in August or September. Now when I say 'special', I really mean SPECIAL. You see, me and Mel plan on joining PlannerDan and his lovely wife Linda in a great adventure East, to visit a few Civil War battlefields! Now I know, when measured against our Nada 's grand, global, tours on The Good Ship Lollipop, this vacation might seem a bit mundane to most of you but we do have something special to spice up the trip.....ccstring has agreed to meet up with us and spend a couple of days showing us country boys around Yankee Land! Can you imagine the fun we are going to have? Dan and I have been busy planning all the stuff we wanted to do. We figured that it would be neat to reenact some of the pivotal battles of that war, having CC play the part of the despicable Yankee forces, while Dan and I would be the stand in for the valiant Son's of the South. At Gettysburg, we thought we could have CC stand at one end of the great field where the pivotal clash of that battle took place, then Dan and I would stand at the other end. At a signal given by Mel and Linda (they would throw rocks at us) Dan and I would charge across that field toward CC's position. We will have to remember to have our power chairs charged up or we will never make it across the whole length of the field without a couple of oxygen breaks. We considered having CC charge us, thus saving us a lot of running, but as Dan pointed out, there was no way CC would have made it across the open space without getting turned around and lost, so it's up to us, I guess. We have also considered putting CC in a canoe while Dan and I stand on the fortification walls at Vicksburg and chunk rocks at him, thus reliving the stirring yet doomed defense of the major Mississippi River strong point. Hopefully we will be able to talk CC out of wearing his big rubber ducky floaties...that would sort of ruin the effect. For his part, CC has graciously consented to show Dan and I around when we get to his house. Among the highlights of this tour he wants to take us on is introducing us to Miss Crab Cakes, Maryland. It should be a real treat, she actually carries her personal notice from the Maryland Health Dept. declaring that she is to be shut down due to health reasons at the end of her reign.....Heady stuff, ain't it! CC also has promised to take us to visit his twin brother. What? You guys didn't know CC had a twin? Well not only a twin, but they were actually born, co-joined. Sadly, the parents gave them up for adoption and, after the doctors separated them, the two brothers went to different families. Our CC was shaved then adopted by a loving family in Maryland, while his twin brother went to a family in Hollywood where, after he got older, he found fame acting in the movies. You remember all those Tarzan movies? Well CC's twin brother was the hairy one that followed Tarzan around....CHEETA, THE CHIMP!! Of course the highlight of the trip for Dan will come when CC takes him to a meeting of the Maryland chapter of the MENSA Club. I don't have the heart to tell Dan that they hold the meetings in a broom closet at the bus station.....why spoil the surprise! |
| Today the Mail man delivered my copy of my book: Keeper of the Word to my front door. I can not tell you the feelings that went through me as I finally held the proof, in writing, that I was now a published author. Those who have done this know just what I am talking about...that first time...seeing your words in print. There is no feeling in the world like this. Of course I took a picture and I wanted to share this moment with my friends here. It is only because of some of you fine people that this book is now published...Thank you. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Being an old fart, I tend to indulge myself in a pastime that is popular with old farts the world over. I tend to spend time, ever so often, contemplating what brought me to the place I find myself now. I think about all the contributing factors that worked in concert and molded me into the proud, old fart, asshole that I have become today. After considerable thought on the subject, I feel that I owe what I am today, mainly to one influence...my father. When I think of my dad, I remember most the contrasts in the man. He was hard as nails, but at the same time he was fair and even in his dealings with others. He was reserved and quiet, rarely talking much, but at the same time he managed to convey to his children that they were loved. Many times that proof was of a non-verbal nature. You got a look, a hand gently patting your back, or just the ghost of a smile....these were his "words" of love and support which he offered his sons and we lapped them up like puppies at a milk bowl. There are some life-lessons that he taught me that stay with me to this day. First and foremost, dad taught each of his sons the importance of respect. He drummed into each of us the fact that it was our obligation to live our lives in such a way that others would respect us. "A man may not like you, but he should be able to respect you for the way you have lived your life and the choices you have made." Now that I have reached this age, I understand what dad was trying to say and I have tried, with varying degrees of success, to follow that advice. Going along with respect, was his other lesson and that was that: "Your word is your bond. If you tell someone you are going to do something, you better damn well do it." I guess that would be called being trustworthy. "Respect and Trust is about the only gold a poor man can ever gather." he used to tell us. "So take care that you betray neither." Dad showed us by his example another lesson: Be plain spoken. He always told people exactly what he thought and never sugar coated his words. You always knew just where you stood with him because he would tell you honestly....like it or not. To this day, I always admire that in a person. By today's standards, my father's parenting skills would not be well thought of. He did not coddle us, he did not make excuses for our failures, and his punishment, when we earned it, was swift and final. I am so glad he was the man he was. It was this upbringing, and the iron he put in my backbone, that saw me through some life storms that would sink others, and for that I thank him every damn day. Before I close this entry, I would like to personally thank everyone who left a comment to yesterday's blog. I know that each of us judge our entries by different criteria. I judge mine by the comments that it garners. If I can write a entry that causes people to want to leave long and detailed comments...even if they disagree with me...I believe that entry is a success. Yesterday's blog was made much better by the thoughtful comments that were left to it. Because of my own personal time crunch, I rarely get to respond to each comment so I just wanted to say "THANK YOU" to all who shared their ideas on my blog topic yesterday...YOU GUYS improved the entry with your comments. |
| "I just don't care." I find myself saying that more and more of late. I suppose this is the ultimate in Politically Incorrect attitudes, but again...I just don't care. Presidential candidates are busy calling each other names while studiously side-stepping any inquiries as to what their own SPECIFIC plans are if elected. I just don't care anymore. I have long held that this country usually gets the kind of leadership that they deserve and this election is no different. Kids go on shooting rampages on college campuses, sometimes for something so silly as a romantic break up. To be brutally honest....I just don't care anymore. I have seen it all and seen it so many times and no one is willing to try and combat the issues that contribute to this problem so I have just stopped wasting my time being effected by it. I have to laugh when I see people blame guns every time something like this happens. The gun is the instrument used...the tool. The reason for it happening is rooted more in our Society that has desensitized our youngsters to violence. A society which has devalued human life through movies and video games and even music. A Society that has drummed into our youths that whatever they do, it is not their fault. A society that refuses to take responsibility for anything they do....IT'S NOT OUR FAULT. For every bad thing we do, for every bad decision we make, there is a Syndrome to explain WHY we do it...we can't help it, it is an illness. BULLSHIT. I have just stopped caring, stopped getting all worked up over it....is there a syndrome for that? Maybe it is called LCTS: Low Crap Tolerance Syndrome....Yeah, that's it. See even this Politically Incorrect attitude of mine now has a syndrome to explain it. This syndrome usually strikes people of my advanced age, it would seem. People who have stopped expecting the best from people and rather have learned to expect actions more akin to the lowest common denominator. You will probably find this disturbing, but yesterday I watched a Fox News talking head interview some 19 or 20 year old young man. He was visibly upset and he said: "I have witnessed 9/11, the Virginia Tech shooting, and the Columbine shooting. Kids my age should not of had to live through this kind of violent history." I couldn't help it...I let out a laugh. I would have gladly traded the history I lived through at this young man's age, for what he has lived through. Yeah, I'm an old asshole and I find myself more and more saying..."I just don't care." Personally I feel like society as a whole, needs a good flushing and a chance to just start over. |
| Does anyone else have the problem with e-mail that I have? You see, I have this love/hate relationship with my e-mail. Not so much here at WDC, that e-mail is usually only WDC related. No, it is my other e-mail that I sometimes hate with an all consuming passion. I have a hotmail account for my other e-mail and at times that thing just drives me to distraction. Why do otherwise intelligent people feel the lemming-like urge to send out mass mailings of those dreaded "Forwards" to me? I HATE those things. You know the ones I'm talking about. There is the "Getting to know you" forward. These consist of something like one hundred mind numbing questions such as: "What is your favorite color." or "What kind of Book do you like to read." It is bad enough when complete strangers send this crap to me and actually EXPECT me to answer them, but when members of my own family send it to me...that is just too much. I have two daughters who send stuff like this out constantly. Hell if they don't already know this stuff about me, then it is quite possible these two girls have been in a coma for the last thirty years! Besides, I'm their father, if I want them to know this stuff, I would have already told them...dang kids. Another of those famous Forwards are the personality tests, like the Dr. Phil test. I don't need to fill out some cockamamie Dr. Phil personality test to know I am an asshole, and anyone who knows me can vouch for that fact....so why do people keep sending me these tests to confirm the fact? The only Forward that I don't mind getting are the jokes that make the rounds...some of those are classics and I use them from time to time in this space. Besides Forwards, the other type of mail I hate to get in my inbox are the Scams. Do these people think that having an email address means you automatically have the IQ of a bruised banana? Here is one of my all time favorites and I will reproduce for you here, just the Subject line of the email I received: "You're right to be ashamed if your dick is tiny, but know this - YOU CAN CHANGE THAT" Okay, I will admit it, when I first read that subject line, the first thing I thought was: "HEY! Who the heck has Mel been talking to now?" Seriously though, does this person think that, after reading this email, I'm gonna yell: "Hey honey, our troubles are over. Bring me my dang credit card!" Yeah, right. Unless this guy is an expert in PAINLESS, Micro-surgery, he ain't getting close to my man-parts! Then there are the scams offering you millions of dollars for just a little bit of "help". The following is reproduced in its entirety. It is a little long, but read it because the fact that this guy THINKS I would fall for this is what is so damned funny. ? Dear Beloved My name is NASH MAHAR I am a Oil merchant of Oman nationality but presently residing in london.I have been diagnosed with Esophageal cancer .It has defied all forms of medical treatment, and right now I have only about a few months to live, according to medical experts. I have not particularly lived my life so well according to God's will Though I am very rich, I was never generous, I was always hostile to people and my business was the only thing I cared for. But now I regret all this as I now know that there is more to life than just wanting to have or make all the money in the world. Now that God has called me, I have willed and given most of my property and assets to my immediate and extended family members as well as a few close friends. I have decided to give alms to charity organizations, as I want this to be one of the last good deeds I do on earth. Now that my health has deteriorated so badly, I cannot do this myself anymore. I once asked members of my family to close one of my accounts and distribute the money which I have there to charity organization in Bulgaria and Pakistan, they refused and kept the money to themselves. Hence, I do not trust them anymore. I want you to help me claim a huge cash deposit of eighteen million dollars 18,000,000 deposited in a Finance Company before my illness and dispatche it to charity organizations. Get back to me through my private email: n_mahar@hotmail.co.uk I have set aside 20% for you and for your time. God be with you. Nash Mahar In this guy's fantasy world, I would read this letter and then turn to Mel and say: "Honey, our worries are over. My new bestest buddy, Nash has just set aside 20% of 18 million dollars just for helping him give his money away." Yeah, and after I picked myself up off the floor and applied a cold compress to the knot she would put on my head with her trusty frying pan, I would do what comes naturally....HIT THE DELETE BUTTON! |
| This is not a blog about Valentines day, not really, but it is about love. Now I know many will disagree with me, but to me this day is no different or no more important than any other day. I guess the reason I feel this way is because I am lucky enough to spend every day with the woman I love. More importantly, I feel that every day with her is a special day, so we rarely do anything special on Feb. 14th. Besides, how could candy and flowers mean more than the smiles and laughter we share every day. You see, this is how it is when someone finds real love at a late stage in his life, we are full blown believers in the emotion. I lived without love for more years than I care to think about, but now I can not imagine living one day without the love of this special lady who shares my life. Love is funny like that. It can find purchase and take root in the most barren of soil. It can grow steadily and flower fully and bring blessings to people just like me, who have never done anything to deserve it. It saves lives. It heals hearts. It changes people. Hate can not do this. Envy can not do this. No other emotion can fundamentally change people as can Love. I pity anyone who is unlucky enough not to have known true love. Even if you lost that love...at least you had it for awhile. Personally I would as soon do without air to breathe, or food to eat, than to have never known true love. So I hope you each had a good day today, I know I did, and I will have another "valentines" day tomorrow and all the days that follow as long as I have my wife. |
| You know you can learn a lot by watching dogs interact with one another. There are many life lessons that can be observed and learned by watching our furry children make their way in the world. Now you take for instance, the thing that is going on as I write this, between Sherman and Sassy.... As most of you know, who read this blog, Sherman is my big ole "guy" dog; a big, lovable galoot who loves everyone. Sassy is our young lady of the house and a very prim and proper young lady she is too. Well, the time came, as it always does with young females of the dog variety, for us to take her to the vet and get her "fixed". After all, we did not want any little Sherman/Sassy mixed puppies running around the house. We were told by the vet that we had almost waited too long and that Sassy was just beginning to come into season for the first time. Due to this fact, after having her fixed, we were told by the vet to keep her away from male dogs for a couple of weeks because if he tried to breed her, it could prove to be a health hazard for Sassy. Thus you have the ground work for a "learning experience" for both Sherman and myself. For the first couple of days after we brought Sassy home, keeping Sherman at bay was not really a problem since Sassy was sore and not really in any shape to play with her bestest buddy. But, that changed after the first two days. Suddenly Sassy was her old self and ready to romp and play with Sherman. Unfortunately, poor Sherman, still getting the odd wiff of her now non-existent, "Love Odor", had more on his mind than playing. So what would happen is that they would start to rough house and nip at each other and suddenly, without warning, Sherman would be on top of her and trying to hump. This brought an immediate and sure response from Momma Mel.....She would wop him on top of his big chuckle head with a stick and force him off of Sassy. Poor Sherman would stagger back, shake his head and sit and whine pitifully. He could not understand why he couldn't do what came naturally for him. He would turn his gaze to me in supplication for my intervention and all I could do was shake my head and tell him.... "Hell boy, I know just how you feel. I don't know how many times I've tried to get lucky, only to have my own head wopped." I would tell him this and Mel would growl at me and spit out that one-word curse: "MEN!" Well I went along with the program even though it went against all my "guy" instincts for of course I didn't want Sassy to have any health problems. But that all changed the other night. I was at my computer, reading blogs, Mel was watching TV. Sherman and Sassy were laying behind me and I could hear them playing. I turned around and I will be damned if Sassy wasn't sitting on poor Sherman's head....just rubbing herself all over him. He was laying still and whining softly cause he KNEW if he made a move, Momma was gonna wop him again. I yelled at Mel to look at what the little hussy was doing! I could not believe it, she was tempting poor Sherman and just putting him through heck. The "Guy" in me just rebelled. "You see that," I yelled at Mel. "She is sitting on his damn head and that just ain't right! It is written very plainly in the 'Guy Code Book' that anytime a dang female sits on a guy's head, she is just begging to be screwed!" All Mel did was roll her eyes, shake her head and got up to retrieve her big stick. "I'm sorry," I continued yelling at her retreating back, "But if that little hussy continues to sit on my boy's head, she deserves what she gets. I ain't gonna fuss at poor Sherman anymore." When I said that, Sherman gave me this big old sloppy grin and jumped up and went for Sassy in earnest. WOP! WOP! The next thing I know, Mel has reentered the room and had hit me and Sherman BOTH on top the head! After that, Sassy lay quietly at Mel's feet while me and Sherman retreated to the bedroom to nurse our wounds and commiserate with one another about the evil tendencies of all Females...dog and human! Yup, you can learn a lot about human nature by watching your dogs! |
| Snow, freezing rain, sleet and stomach flu...yeah, this vacation week is proving to be a real hoot for me. All of the above crap has combined in a devil's soup that has put me in a "mood", as my momma use to say. Yes, that's right sports fans, I am not my usual Pollyanna self today and watching the news networks from my sick bed has done nothing to lighten my slightly homicidal mood in the least. In the News GM has announced their plan to 'buy out' something like 75,000 employees in a downsizing move. Of course the majority of the employees who are being forced out are older workers nearing retirement age. They will be replaced by workers who will be paid half the salaries those old workers are getting. Oh and GM's reason for this? They announced that the company was faced with a 30 billion dollar loss. That's billion with a 'B'. When I first heard this, I had to admit that losing that kind of money is reason enough to downsize, cut payroll...I was buying their line. Then, right at the end of the piece, the commentator matter-of-factly told us that the "loss" was of the "Non-Cash, Accounting Issue" type. Yes, that's right...they did not actually LOSE that much money. It was merely an accounting trick...smoke and mirrors...to give them the excuse to rid themselves of a lot of payroll and thus enhance their bottom line. Why am I not surprised? In point of fact, Wal-Mart is doing much the same thing right now, just on a smaller, more circumspect scale. Right now there is a big move on to weed out full time employees and long term employees and to replace them with part-time workers whom they will not have to offer benefits. Their stated goal is that in the future, there will be NO full-time employees except for store management. The upshot of this is that if you have over seven years in the company, you have a bull's eye painted on your back. Now speaking of the Automotive industry, this latest move should have been expected. For years and years these companies have had to toe the line because of the unions and have had to pony up more and more money in the form of raises and benefits. Now they have learned a few tricks of their own and are attempting to get some of that money back....you gotta love America. It just occurred to me: Those workers who lose their jobs at GM can now come over to Wal-Mart and hire on as part-time clerks, cashiers, and door greeters! Damn, there goes MY job. Everyone better go and buy my dang book, that might be my "Golden Safety Net" and exit plan from Wal-Mart.....Damn, I am in big trouble!  |
| If I needed any more proof, any other milepost to show me, that I was indeed older than God by at least three years, I got it last night. I made the really bad choice to tune in to the Grammy Awards...just for something to do. As with most things that happen to me, this was Mel's fault because she was hogging the computer and reading a story. Anyway, I decided to see what all the hoopla was about, I had been seeing the commercials for the show for weeks....BAD MOVE. I lasted about thirty minutes. That was all I could take before my ears started to melt. They call that crap music? Good lord, there was little in the way of lyrics, almost no melody and those were the WINNERS! Not to mention a whole auditorium full of people who would have looked more at home on Police Blotters than at an award show....where do they get those guys? I'm sorry, but music, to me, has to have a melody and understandable lyrics....hopefully devoid of four letter words, in order for me to comfortably classify it as MUSIC. In his day, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a rock star. He was world famous for his music and that music is still popular today, over two hundred years later. I can't help but wonder how many of the artists of today will still have music that is enjoyed two hundred years from now. Now you people want Rock and Roll, well then take your butts back in the ole time machine and listen to some 60's music....ah, now there was some music. Now that was music that defined a generation. Of course the present music might define a generation as well. If that is the case, I am so very glad it isn't MY generation that is being defined by the garbage. See, now this proves it.....I am just too old! I am a dinosaur that time has passed. But that's okay with me.....at least I got GOOD MUSIC!!! |
| I read somewhere that dogs can grow to learn a human vocabulary of up to 150 to 200 words. Meaning they know these words and how they are used by us, their human keepers. Now to me this is amazing and while some may doubt the truth of the statement, I have seen the proof with my three furbabies first hand. Let me give you a couple of examples of my own dogs' intelligence and you can decide for yourself. First let's take the case of Sherman.... Now you have all heard my stories of Sherman, the big, overgrown, galoot...the happy-go-lucky giant of a dog who loves everyone. Well Sherman has this personality quirk, he has anointed himself as Mommy and Daddy's helper. Every time we let the three dogs out to run and exercise in our large backyard, we go through one ritual at the end of play-time. Sassy, our pup, loves it outside and she is always loathe to come back indoors when we call them. Mollie, on the other hand, sees going outside as a personal insult since exercise is something that portly ladies such as herself should not be expected to do. Sherman loves to play with Sassy but when we call them, he is the first to come bounding inside. Of course, when he arrives onto the back porch, Sassy is still out in the yard running and chasing the birds. So either Mel or myself will look down at Sherman and tell him. "Go get Sassy!" Sherman turns around and leaps off the porch, runs over to where Sassy is playing and raise up on his hind legs, then bring his front paws crashing down onto the ground. He does this once or twice, then turns around and runs back inside. Then and only then will Sassy quit playing and follow Sherman indoors...reluctantly. Now Sherman understands this phrase: "Go get Sassy." No matter if she is just in another room....we tell Sherman to go get her, and he does it, using the same body language to her of slamming his front feet down hard on the floor. It is almost like he is saying: "COME ON GIRL, DADDY WANTS YOU!" Mollie, for her part, has the uncanny ability to understand any sentence we may utter which has the word, FOOD in it, but that is the stuff of another entry. What about you, do you talk to your dogs and they can understand what you are saying? I bet a lot of you have had the same experience. |
| To those who left a comment to my blog entry of last night.....THANK YOU! To those who peeked in and read, but did not leave a comment....another big...THANK YOU! All of you, together, gave me one of the best birthdays I have ever had. I have spent most of the day calling and talking to my kids....telling them the news of my book and that was nice also. This evening, Mel's mom and sister took me out to eat for my birthday and that was very nice indeed. We went to this Buffet style place, you know, the all-you-can-eat type of place....I dang near killed myself with shrimp and steak! So now I am back home, my tummy stuffed and my whole being suffused with a feeling of well-being that has become truly rare of late. Something else that was nice to notice, was the fact that my blog entry yesterday garnered over a hundred views.....and that was without any drama, or fussing or fighting, and no name calling. I really does give me hope that maybe Blogs here can be fun again. So I think I shall sign off now and go sail the seas in my pirate ship before I trundle me off to my bed to dream of book signings and interviews and all the other fantasies that have tumbled around in my head since yesterday. Good night my friends and please know that you are all special to me. |
| Three years ago I came to WDC for one reason and one reason only. Today, thanks to the support and friendship, reviews and helpful suggestions offered by a dedicated group of reviewers and friends, My dream has come true. I want to especially single out Voxxylady who literally took me by the hand and drug my dumb butt through the publishing process...without her I would have been lost. To all of you who reviewed my stories and helped me to get them into shape to share with the world....THANK YOU. That is so weak when I consider what you have done for me but it is all I have. Here is what a dream-come-true looks like. http://www.lulu.com/davidmac73 |
| Last night tornadoes spawned by a huge storm cell ripped through parts of Missouri and then onward through Tennessee and into Ohio, I believe. The results was, at the latest count, 51 people dead. About five miles from my house, the little community of Oxly got blasted, with mobile homes scattered like cord wood. So what has this got to do with me? Well you see, when all this was happening I was standing on my front porch watching the storm. We were watching TV and heard the warning...a couple of twisters had been spotted and the cell was headed our way...So I made Mel load into the car and drive the two miles to her sister's house, she has a basement. As for me...I refused to go. I told her I would stay with the animals and the house, in case anything happened. So I settled down into my favorite chair on the front porch and waited....and watched the grand light show of the continuous lightening. Well of course, since I am writing this now, you all know that nothing happened to me. No, the mindless, powerful, storm moved right across us with the tornadoes lifting back into the clouds then setting down again beyond our home and then onward to Tennessee. I sat there in the aftermath of the storm....the lightning and crashing thunder, the rain and the tornadoes had all moved on...and I suddenly realized something very strange. I had actually been gripped, during the height of the storm, by a feeling of anticipation. Now, because of events that transpired some forty years ago, I have lost my fear of death, but I must say I have never looked forward to putting myself in a position where by this old friend might come for a final visit...until last night. I realized, after it was over, that I had actually been sitting on my porch and thinking..."Come on, God, let's see what you got. Hit me with your best shot!" Now I am left wondering why I reacted in such a manner. Maybe it was the culmination of all that has happened the past few months, all the bad things that have hit me over and over like hammer strokes. Maybe I had finally said..Enough is enough and figured that this time I would stand up and face whatever little joke God had in store for me. I would meet it face on and not flinch. Now is that egotistical or what! After it was all over and I thought about what I had done, it suddenly struck me as vastly funny. Let me share with you the mental image I suddenly got, upon reflection of my actions...... Imagine, for a moment if you will that you are standing out upon the great African Savanna. Off in the distance you spot this great, grand, bull Elephant. He is charging headlong, and at full speed across the open grassland, intent on one thing....catching up to his favorite female elephant and maybe, just maybe, getting lucky! This great behemoth is aware of nothing around him as he crashes forward at a dead run, stomping brush and knocking over small trees in his eagerness to reach the female do the deed before she changes her mind. Now if you look closely...and you can do this because your eyes are so good...you see, directly in the path of the charging, love-struck pachyderm, this tiny piss-ant. He is standing just a few yards ahead of the elephant, directly in his path. The ant is standing on his hind legs and shaking a fist at the charging elephant. "COME ON BIG BOY," he screams, "I WILL PUT SOMETHING ON YOU AJAX CAN'T GET OFF!" Onward the elephant charges, he never even sees the enraged piss-ant standing defiantly in his path. He bores down on the poor ant and, simply by the grace of God, or happenstance, or luck, the elephant strides right over the ant and never touches him. As the elephant disappears from the view of the dust covered, yet still angry ant, the ant yells after him. "Yeah, that's what I thought....and don't come back or you'll get worse!" As I thought of that scene, I realized that what I had done was just show the piss-ant in me. Now why did I do that? Maybe it was age, maybe it was just ignorance...I don't know. What I do know is, like that ant, I proved nothing....except that maybe I had some luck. Or maybe the old saying is true: "God takes care of fools and small children." Yeah...well I sure as hell ain't no kid. |
| http://davidmac73.blogspot.com/ For those interested, I gave Blog Spot a try. This is the link, if any of you are interested. This doesn't mean I am going to stop blogging here....just trying something new....for now. Thank you. |
| Well I gave all you people almost a whole week off from reading this blog and I hope you appreciate that fact, but now it's back to business as usual. My computer crashed last week and though I can not prove it, I really believe that it was Mel's fault because she was trying to download those vile snow pictures at the time of the crash....that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!! I finally got back online last night after work and was greeted with a bulging full inbox and some rather nice surprises. First of all I found an email from the good folks at RAOK and they had taken it upon themselves to gift me with a two month membership extension of my upgraded membership. This really surprised me and I must admit, I was touched by the kindness. My membership was due to expire on Feb. 15th and normally Mel renews my membership as my birthday present on the 8th. The positive side of this is that now she is going to have to come up with something NEW to get me. The second surprise came in the form of a cNote from Mr/Ms Anonymous. In the message attached to the cNote, this person said something that really did surprise me: "You may not know just how many lives you touch here at WDC with your blog, but I dare say it's quite a few." As I said, this surprised me because I have never actually thought of my blog as "touching" people....other than those who absolutely hate it and me...LOL. I really don't mind that either. A wise man once said that it is as important to be known by kind of people who hate you, as those who love you. Anonymous went on to point out that, though they had commented in my blog a few times, I had never responded. This pointed out to me a real weakness on my part. I rarely respond to each comment I get in my blog and the main reason I don't is because of the time factor. As it is now, between reading a large number of blogs and commenting on many of them, then doing my own blog and reading the comments there, I end up being on the computer two or three hours and NOT doing any other writing. So, when I started this second blog I made the decision to try and cut that time down so as to use it on my other writing. Now I can see how this might have made me seem rather cold and aloof and like someone who does not appreciate all the comments I get....nothing could be further from the truth. I am deeply grateful for each and every person who takes the time to leave a comment here and I consider each of you a friend. The thing is, after reading this cNote, I think maybe I should put a little more time into responding to comments and letting everyone know their efforts are appricated. So that was my inbox. What did I do during my "down time"? Well actually it was kind of nice. I spent more time snuggling with my sweetie, watching television, and sailing the ocean as a pirate! LOL.....yes, I said, a pirate. You see I have this Xbox game called Pirates that allows one to sail the Caribbean, looting and plundering, capturing helpless merchant ships, romancing beautiful women, finding buried treasure.....Yup, I been a terror of the seas the last four days and have even been ranked the top Pirate ever since I kicked Capt. Kidd's butt. Heck the Spanish even have a three thousand gold pieces bounty on my head! But now it is time to lay aside my cutlass and knock the stupid parrot off my shoulder, and get back in here and read some blogs and visit with my friends.....ah, life is indeed good, isn't it. |
| Well it was bound to happen. I have dodged the bullet for a couple of months now, but today my luck ran out. Today will henceforth be remembered....by me...as the date of the Great Blizzard of 08. Yes, this morning, about nine o'clock or so, the inclement weather struck in all its fury and when I peeked out the front door, I was greeted with white sheets of snow crashing to the earth. My car was covered, the ground was a white carpet, and drifts were already beginning to pile up. Okay, so Mel said it only snowed a couple of inches...BUT DAMN! And we are supposed to get more tonight! I know, also, that those of you from even colder climes are sitting there at your computer, chuckling at me for being such a Wus, but you got to remember; I have not been subjected to snowfall like this since I was seven years old. That instance molded me into the snow-hating person that I am today.... I remember it like it was yesterday. I was seven years old and Dad had taken a job in Manitou Springs, Colorado which is just a few miles from Colorado Springs and that is where my aunt and uncle lived. We moved there in August and during that time, I have to admit, it was a beautiful place...green and remote. We lived in an honest to goodness log cabin which was built in the middle of a deep forest, at the end of a one-lane dirt road. The place was remote and teeming with wildlife....perfect for an exploring little boy who loved to wander in the woods and playing his games of imagination alone. I loved that part of it. Then a funny thing happened....Winter came. Snow came. At first I loved watching the snow fall from the warm safety of the living room. I would sit at the front window, with my nose pressed against the window pane and watch the green forest slowly turn white with the falling snow. Then I made a big mistake. I asked my mom if I could go outside and play in the snow. BIG MISTAKE! I got all bundled up in my heavy coat, mittens, warm hat, and rubber boots, and I ventured out into this new winter wonderland. I have to admit...at first...I actually had a blast playing in the snow. Then, it happened, I decided to go exploring in the woods....BIG MISTAKE #2! Everything was going pretty good...I was starting to feel the cold so after an hour, I began to make my way back home. It was about then that I had the extreme misfortune to step into a rather deep gully or ditch, I don't remember, but what I do remember is that it was full of snow and looked just like all the other surrounding landscape...flat and white. One step and the snow gave way and I was suddenly foundering in a hole just a bit over my head and I couldn't get out. I did what any seven year old would do...I SCREAMED MY HEAD OFF! All I could think of was that I was going to be buried there until spring at which time my body would probably be found...I kept up the verbal S.O.S. Finally after what seemed hours, but was told years later that it was only about ten or fifteen minutes, my dad showed up, reached down, and hauled my sorry butt out of the hole. He was laughing so hard it was all he could do to brush me off and point me toward the house. I was crushed. It just was not cool for an adventurous seven year old to be rescued by his father. I trudged home crestfallen. My very first brush with a horrible death and I had to resort to screaming like a little girl to be rescued. I trudged home, head down and still sniffling back the tears. I made a vow right then and there. Never again would I ever put myself in a position to be at the mercy of that terrible, cruel, white crap and by God I kept that vow for fifty years...until today. Today Mel had me outside chucking snowballs and generally making a complete fool of myself in the front yard. She even had me make something called a Snow Angel, but I have to admit that mine looked more like a Snow Bubba having a seizure. Of course she took a ton of pictures but....THANK GOD...there was a glitch in the photo program and as of this writing, she has been unable to download them. I will accept that minor victory, thank you very much. |
| When did we start using the term, “illegal immigrant” rather than “illegal alien”? I think it began a couple of years ago with our porous border with Mexico became the “in” topic. Some knee-jerk, Politically Correct expert decided that it was demeaning to call these poor souls aliens, my God, someones feelings might be hurt, after all. As far as I am concerned an immigrant is a person who leaves their country of birth, comes to America in order to make a new life. To become a part of this country and to remain here AND to go through the LEGAL process to become a naturalized citizen. The alien, on the other hand slips into this country ILLEGALLY. Their purpose is to make as much money as they can, send it home and then to return there themselves at the first opportunity. They could care less about this country other than a means to enrich themselves and their families in Mexico. To those who want to LEGALLY immigrate to this country and who do so in a manner that follows all the laws concerning immigration, I welcome them. Illegal aliens, on the other hand, need to be shown the door. For those of you who will claim that we only have ourselves to blame because big business wants the cheap labor that this illegal alien pool affords, and we as consumers want cheap prices on things like produce, and you say they are doing jobs Americans don’t want to do, well let me throw some numbers in here for you to consider. Take, for example, an illegal alien with a large family who takes a job paying six dollars an hour or so. 1. He pays no income tax but if he files at the end of the year, he can get an earned income credit of up to $3,200. 2. He qualifies for Subsidized Housing and Rent. 3 He qualifies for Food Stamps 4. He qualifies for FREE health care (no co-pay no deductible) 5. His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school 6. He requires bilingual teachers and books. 7. If he or a member of his family become aged or disabled, they qualify for SSI and once they get that, they qualify for Medicare. All of this at taxpayer’s expense. So you see, he and his family receive the equivalent of $20 to $30 dollars an hour in benefits. So where is the CHEAP in this particular “cheap labor”? All of this is given to people who have absolutely no interest in becoming an actual citizen of this country. I purpose that if we were to clean out this old house we call our country and rid ourselves of the parasites who only want to take, take, take and have no interest in being a legal citizen, then maybe, just maybe we might be able to help our own citizens of all races, creeds, and color that desperately need help. Is that such a terrible thing...to think about our own citizens first? ON A PERSONAL NOTE For those of you who feel that I am overly harsh toward the plight of the illegal aliens, let me just give you some personal facts. I am fifty-eight years old and as of this writing, I am making more per hour than I have ever made in an hourly job at $10.60 an hour. Of course the company I work for will not allow me to work a full forty hours a week or any overtime because of the amount they pay me per hour. As a result I do not make enough money to support a mere family of TWO. Food never lasts from paycheck to paycheck, some bills must go unpaid and it is a constant struggle just to have enough gas to make it the thirty miles to work each day. But I qualify for nothing. My son faces what could be a life threatening medical problem but when he asks for aid he is told, flat out that since he has a job, there is nothing that can be done for him. Now my situation and that of my family members are not unique or even that bad....there are others in much worse shape than us. The thing is, we represent a growing underbelly of society in America who have been rebuffed by our own government. All we can do is stand by and watch much needed help go to illegal aliens. People, when any large class of a society is ignored by its government, then the seeds for revolution are sown. People in this nation have become polarized along economical lines for some time now and it only gets worse. Is it possible to love your country but hate its government? There was a time I would have said, No, but now I am not so sure. I did not set out, this morning, to climb upon a soapbox but I made the mistake of asking myself a question: “If this was the very last blog entry I was ever going to write, would I have the courage to write exactly what I feel and be truthful in my words”? Well, I thought I would try, just this once, to speak to each of you as I would if we were sitting face to face here in my living room. This is who I am and it is what I believe. For those of you who disagree, that is completely your right, but at least you can not fault me for being dishonest with my words. Thank you for your time and for reading. |
| This morning I am hunkered down in front of my computer, chipping ice off the monitor while trying to read blogs before I go to work. It is twenty-one degrees and that is going to be the HIGH for today, the temps are expected to plummet to about six degrees by the time I get off work at seven o'clock this evening. I just looked out the front window and saw a Wooly Mammoth trudging up the road, followed closely by a group of cave men hunters. Last night I swear I heard a Dire-Wolf howl in the distance. My poor goats are now furry little Popsicles and I am considering placing them in the front yard as Yard Art to replace the Pink Flamingos. Last night I tried to put the dogs out to do their business....the bites are healing nicely, thank you for asking. Just think how bad it would be if we weren't in the grips of "Global Warming". When a man has to wear TWO pair of pants to work INSIDE, then it is just too damn cold. Somehow it just is not right when you have to set fire to your shorts to stay warm. Okay....I feel much better now, and I think it's time to get ready for work. It takes me at least an hour to put all the clothes in my closet on. |
| It is now official...The damn Writer's Strike must end! Because of this strike, there has been a whole new glut of Reality shows being aired. I just watched a blurb for the latest offering on NBC and it actually made my blood run cold, but then again, my blood pretty much runs cold every day now, but that's another story. The new show is Baby Borrowers. The premise of the show is that they take some idiot, newly married and childless couple and GIVE THEM A BABY TO CARE FOR 24/7! Kinda like what the schools do with their parenting classes and the life-like dolls, only these fools hand out live babies and then follow the couple around with cameras to duly record the mayhem that follows. If that weren't bad enough, after the babies, they then give the couple a toddler, then a teenager and then even throw in a couple of old folks...all for the couple to care for. I swear, my gag reflex kicks in just thinking about this sorry scenario. Okay, enough of Hollywood, let's move onto a different subject shall we. Oh, I know....Have you ever wondered how it would go if famous people, maybe even some from history, were able to do a blog on WDC? I mean, think about it...who would be a hit on the blog page and who would bomb? Personally I think that if Britney Spears ever sobered up enough to sit at a desk, she would be a giant hit with her own blog, don't you. Can you imagine the riveting entries she would write explaining her side of the whole K-Fed and the kids thing and all her court problems. On the other hand Stephen Hawking would bomb. Who the hell would want to read about the true meaning of the Universe when they could read Britney's trials and tribulations? Who would you like to see do a blog on WDC? What famous person, living or dead, would make for interesting reading for you? Let me see if I can come up with a few and maybe the names of their blogs. 1. Jeffery Dahamer....."Food for Thought" 2. Tom Cruise....."The Power of Zen, and other Philosophies I know nothing about" 3. Bill Clinton..."I Did Not Have Sex With That Woman...a blog about my wife." 4. George Bush...."Uh?" 5. John Edwards....." I May Always Run Third, But My Hair Looks Good." |
| Today's blog is brought to you by the number: 5. At what point does the air temperature go from being a subject of mild interest, to one of obscene, off the charts, malevolence? The answer is, the number 5. That is what I have this morning, thank you very much. Today's subject: "Sell-by date" I had a blogger tell me, the other day that they believed that the "sell-by" date on their blog had been reached. So, what exactly a sale by date? Well that is the date that is stamped on most perishable food telling us that AFTER that date, the food might be bad. It is no longer fit to consume. The same dates are posted on medicine and tell us that after that date, the meds may no longer be capable of doing the job they were developed to do...they lose their potency. So what does the "Sell-by" date signify when used in reference to a blog? Well it could mean a couple of things. For example, it could mean that, after a time the general reading public has lost interest in reading that blog and the views and the comments have dropped dramatically. It could also mean that the blogger has, after so long a time, has just run out of steam and can no longer muster the energy or interest to churn out quality product. Maybe they want to do more or different types of writing. Over the past couple of years, I have seen both examples of this. Now, as most of you already know, we have two distinctly different kinds of blog. We have the informative and entertaining blog. These blogs are written in the manner of a newspaper or magazine column for the most part. Then we have the Social blog. This blog is more a journal telling of the writer's everyday life and with the writer closely interacting with other bloggers and com mentors. Both of these styles are valid and both have a legitimate place on the blog pages. By far, this second type is the most popular form here on WDC and that is understandable. Heck, most of us as children, enjoyed recess a lot more than we did the classroom, after all. Personally I try to do both types of blog. Granted, my essay type blogs are not as well read as the social, but that is part of the game. I write what I feel at the moment...right or wrong. So whether we write in-depth essays on history or current events, or we write on a personal level and bare our souls to the reading public and deal with our life's drama, we all....sooner or later....reach a point where we believe that the Sale-by date of our blog has been reached. Time to move on, to change venues, or just stop blogging. This usually happens when the writer is at a low ebb and needs their batteries recharged. They need to reach out to a wider audience. Does it mean that what they write has grown stale or out of date? No. It merely means they need to write what they write for an audience that is searching for what they write. We all feel, at one time or another, that our own personal "Sell-By" date has been reached. I have personally felt that way of late. I have also noticed that I have moved away from the essay type of blog and more to the personal style. This is not bad, but it is also not ME. It is not what I started a blog to accomplish. I need to change that. So does this mean my own Sale-By date has come? I don't know, only time will tell that. I do know one thing for sure though.... One of the best bloggers on this site has decided that it is time to move on and the loss of this blog diminishes us all. The loss of this blog makes me question what I am doing with my own time and effort. In short, the loss of "Invalid Item"  here on the WDC blog page is a loss that will be felt by many, many people for a long time to come. zwisis is one of the top five serious, essay style writers on this site and if you have never read her blog, you have missed an education and deep insight on things OTHER than what happens merely in America. She has consistently shown us what life is like in Africa, Turkey, and Greece. The education she has given me has been priceless. She is also one of the best reviewers on this site and has personally helped me to get many of my short stories in shape to be published. Sarah.....for all you have done, and for all you have helped....THANK YOU. If you do indeed move on to other places with your blog, you will be missed by many of us. We do NOT believe your Sale-By date shall ever come. |
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