Living In the World, Not on It

Now... how scary is that? When did it become December? How did the last eleven just zip by? I must say that while there were some really good points and accomplishments and positive things that happened this year, there were some really huge, life-altering, megative events that shattered the comfortable, happy, blessed life that I had. And sure, there are people who have had a much worse year than I; but this was a really bad one for me. At the end of the last few years, I hear myself saying it will be a new year and it will be great. Everything will be different. Yes, I was right about one thing. Everything was certainly different. And not really in a good, happy, the lights are shining, everyone's smiling kind of way. I don't want to say that this New Year's Eve. In fact, I think I will ride on New Years Eve just to not think about these things! Regardless, I can't believe the year is careening to a close. Did I miss it? How'd pass by so quickly? I don't know....

The sound is on the visions move The image dance starts once again They shuffle with a bovine grace And glide in syncopation Just living lines from books we've read With atmospheres of days gone by With paper smiles The screenplay calls a message for the nation And those who sneer will fade and die And those who laugh will surely fall And those who know will always Feel their backs against the thin wall The thin wall Thin wall Grey men who speak of victory Shed light upon their stolen life They drive by night and act As if they're moved by unheard music To step in time and play the part With velvet voices smooth and cold Their power games a game no more And long the chance to use it And those who dance will spin and turn And those who wait will wait no more And those talk will hear the word And those who sneer will fade and die And those who laugh will surely fall And those who know will always Feel their backs against the thin wall The thin wall Thin wall The thin wall And tho...

Someone posted this: "O, how complicated our heavenly bodies, how lovely their trysts, how ephemeral their passings! Forgive me my waxing poetical, but this is astronomy, and if the Moon can wax, so can I. But what I said is true, and you can see it for yourself: take a walk outside over the next few evenings. In the west, just after sunset, Venus and Jupiter grace our skies.Over the course of several nights, as Venus orbits the Sun it appears to be slowly moving eastward, approaching Jupiter. It’s very pretty, and on December 1 the thin crescent Moon will join them! Even better, for viewers in Europe and NW Africa , on December 1st at 15:50 GMT, the Moon will pass directly in front of Venus! This does not happen very often, so if you get a chance and have clear skies, you should take a look. Watching Venus disappear behind the Moon is something I’ve only seen once, and it’s very cool." I love that. And I have seen the tryst between Venus and Jupiter and it is a sight to beho...

When the outside temperature rises And the meaning is oh so clear One thousand and one yellow daffodils Begin to dance in front of you - oh dear Are they trying to tell you something You're missing that one final screw You're simply not in the pink my dear To be honest you haven't got a clue I'm going slightly mad, I'm going slightly mad It finally happened - happened It finally happened - oooh oh It finally happened... I'm slightly mad Oh dear I'm one card short of a full deck I'm not quite the shilling One wave short of a shipwreck I'm not my usual top billing I'm coming down with a fever I'm really out to sea This kettle is boiling over I think I'm a banana tree Oh dear I'm going slightly mad I'm going slightly mad It finally happened - happened It finally happened - uh huh It finally happened... I'm slightly mad Oh dear I'm knitting with only one needle Unravelling fast it's true I'm driving only three wheels t...

Like a shipwrecked mariner adrift on an unknown sea Clinging to the wreckage of the lost ship Fantasy I'm a castaway, stranded in a desolate land I can see the footprints in the virtual sand Net boy, net girl Send your signal 'round the world Let your fingers walk and talk And set you free Net boy, net girl Send your impulse 'round the world Put your message in a modem And throw it in the Cyber Sea Astronauts in the weightlessness of pixellated space Exchange graffiti with a disembodied race I can save the universe in a grain of sand I can hold the future in my virtual hand Let's dance tonight To a virtual song Press this key And you can play along Let's fly tonight On our virtual wings Press this key To see amazing things Like a pair of vagabonds Who wave between two passing trains Or the glimpse of a woman's smile Through a window in the rain I can smell her perfume I can taste her lips I can feel the voltage From her fingertips Net boy, net girl Send your hea...

Facts about NJ... (If you've ever lived in Jersey... you'll appreciate this!) New Jersey is a peninsula.Highlands,New Jersey has the highest elevation along the entire eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida. New Jersey is the only state where all of its counties are classified as metropolitan areas. New Jersey has more race horses than Kentucky. New Jersey has more Cubans in Union City (1 sq mi.) than Havana, Cuba. New Jersey has the densest system of highways and railroads in the US. New Jersey has the highest cost of living, the highest cost of auto insurance and also has the highest property taxes in the nation. New Jersey has the most diners in the world and is sometimes referred to as the "Diner Capital of the World." New Jersey is home to the original Mystery Pork Parts Club (no, not Spam): Taylor Ham or Pork Roll. Home to the less mysterious but the best Italian hot dogs and Italian sausage w/peppers and onions. North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one ...

Most of the words we feature here in AWAD are nouns, adjectives, and verbs. We have also discussed many adverbs. We have even featured a whole week of prepositions -- but not a single conjunction. It's as if we had unknowingly been committing asyndeton, the fancy word for for omission of conjunctions, as in "I came, I saw, I conquered." The word is from Greek an- (not) + syndetos (bound together). On the other hand, if one is extravagant with conjunctions, as in "Uncle Charlie gobbled cookies and bagels and pizza and pasta," it's called polysyndeton. It's time to redress the years of injustice and neglect of conjunctions in AWAD. We'll bring this overlooked part of speech into the limelight. This week let's look at five not-so-common conjunctions. argal PRONUNCIATION: (AHR-guhl) MEANING: conjunction, adverb: Therefore. ETYMOLOGY: By alteration of the Latin ergo (therefore). The word argal is usually used to indicate that the reasoning presented i...

In a dog's life A year is really more like seven And all too soon a canine Will be chasing cars in doggie heaven It seems to me As we make our own few circles 'round the sun We get it backwards And our seven years go by like one Dog years... It's the season of the itch Dog years... With every scratch it reappears In the dog days People look to Sirius Dogs cry for the moon But these connections are mysterious It seems to me While it's true that every dog will have his day When all the bones are buried There is barely time to go outside and play Dog years... It's the season of the itch Dog years... With every scratch it reappears Dog years... For every sad son of a bitch Dog years... With his tail between his ears I'd rather be a tortoise from Galapagos Or a span of geological time Than be living in these dog years In a dog's brain A constant buzz of low level static One sniff at the hydrant And the answer is automatic It seems to me As well make our own few c...

How many times do you hear it? It goes on all day long Everyone knows everything And no one's ever wrong Until later... Who can you believe? It's hard to play it safe But apart from a few good friends We don't take anything on faith Until later ...Show...don't tell... (Show me, don't tell me) You've figured out the score (Show me, don't tell me) I've heard it all before (Show me, don't tell me) I don't care what you say (Show me, don't tell me) You can twist perceptions Reality won't budge You can raise objections I will be the judge And the jury I'll give it due reflection Watching from the fence Give the jury direction Based on the evidence I, the jury (Show me, don't tell me) Hey, order in the court (Show me, don't tell me) Let's try to keep it short (Show me, don't tell me) Enough of your demands (Show me, don't tell me) Witness take the stand (Show me, don't tell me) (Show me, don't tell me) Hey, order...

Love is born with lightning bolts Electro-magnetic force Burning skin and fireworks A storm on a raging course Like a force of nature Love can fade with the stars at dawn Sometimes it takes all your strength Just to keep holding on At the speed of love A radiance that travels At the speed of love My heart goes out to you Love is born with solar flares From two magnetic poles It moves towards a higher plane Where two halves make two wholes Like a force of nature Love shines in many forms One night we are bathed in light One day carried away in the storms At the speed of love Nothing changes faster Than the speed of love My heart goes out to you We don't have to talk We don't even have to touch I can feel your presence In the silence that we share Got to keep moving At the speed of love Nothing changes faster Than the speed of love Got to keep on shining At the speed of love Nothing changes faster Than the speed of love At the speed of love A radiance that travels At the speed of...

Nothing can survive in a vacuum No one can exists all alone We pretend things only happen to strangers We've all got problems of our own It's enough to learn to share our pleasures We can't soothe pain with sympathy All that we can do is be reminded We shake our heads at the tragedy Every day we're standing in a time capsule Racing down a river from the past Every day we're standing in a wind tunnel Facing down the future coming fast Looking at the long range forecast Catching all the names in the news Checking out the state of the nation Learning the environmental blues Truth is after all a moving target Hairs to split, and pieces that don't fit How can anybody be enlightened? Truth is after all so poorly lit It's just the age It's just a stage We disengage We turn the page Every day we're standing in a time capsule (It's just a stage) We disengage, we turn the page Racing down the river running fast Every day we're standing in a wind tunnel...

So many things I think about When I look far away Things I know, things I wonder Things I'd like to say The more we think we know about The greater the unknown We suspend our disbelief And we are not alone... Mystic rhythms Capture my thoughts Carry them away Mysteries of night Escape the light of day Mystic rhythms Under northern lights Or the African sun Primitive things stir The hearts of everyone We sometimes catch a window A glimpse of what's beyond Was it just imagination Stringing us along? More things than are dreamed about Unseen and unexplained We suspend our disbelief And we are entertained Mystic rhythms Capture my thoughts Carry them away Nature seems to spin A supernatural way Mystic rhythms Under city lights Or a canopy of stars We feel the powers And wonder what they are Mystic rhythms Capture my thoughts Carry them away Nature seems to spin A supernatural way Mystic rhythms Under city lights Or a canopy of stars We feel the push and pull Of restless rhythms fro...

To live between a rock and a hard place In between time Cruising in prime time Soaking up the cathode rays To live between the wars in our time Living in real timeHolding the good time Holding on to yesterdays You know how that rabbit feels Going under your speeding wheels Bright images flashing by Like windshields towards a fly Frozen in the fatal climb But the wheels of time Just pass you by Wheels can take you around Wheels can cut you down We can go from boom to bust From dreams to a bowl of dust We can fall from rockets' red glare Down to "Brother can you spare..." Another warAnother wasteland And another lost generation It slips between your hands like water This living in real timeA dizzying lifetime Reeling by on celluloid Struck between the eyes By the big-time world Walking uneasy streets Hiding beneath the sheets Got to try and fill the void Wheels can take you around Wheels can cut you down We can go from boom to bust From dreams to a bowl of dust

My father (biological) wrote me this: I have to say your family day sounds like fun (if you’re totally into masochism. Once one realizes that for two millennia the Roman Catholic church has been the avowed enemy of progress, all progress, in all fields; religion, medicine, free will, freedom of thought (there’s a no-brainer, thinking thought could be controllable), name it. For twenty years I taught at College Misericordia, run by the Sisters of Mercy (the oxymoron of all time). The student body was 90-95% R.C., and totally ignorant of any and all tenets of their religion. I took great pleasure in horrifying (and occasionally, terrifying) them. They sat there in fear and trembling waiting for the lightening bolt from an outraged Deity to come through the window and reduce me to a pile of “cremains.” (Hate that word!) It, need I add, never happened. My favorite was when we got to the 14th century Great Schism when, at one point, there were three popes in Europe and I asked what Americ...

I'm still stewing over Luis' family, especially the remarks about God having had this all planned out since before the stars were formed. Oh... My... God... (no pun intended). I was thinking about this while driving home. Unfortunately, it seems to always be lurking in the back of my mind. I worked my ass off to get to where I am now. And even when I got it, it wasn't easy. Not that anything worth having should be, but honestly, when someone tells me that this was all preordained, I feel like they are taking credit from me and handing it to God. What happened to "God helps those who help themselves"? Apparently, Luis' family does not agree with me. Luis doesn't agree with them, thank the gods. Don't misunderstand me, in general I really found Stewart very sweet and likable. It was that comment that really made me crazy. I don't care if he is the most unbelievable right wing I-love-Bush guy. I don't care that he is pro-life. He is entitled to hi...

I love words. It's something I gave up my career in software for. Every morning when I wake up I can't wait to begin exploring words and writing about them. I've been doing that for 14 years and wouldn't want to be doing anything else. Having said that, there are times when I feel I have to be ready to feed this beast -- A.Word.A.Day -- week after week after week. It opens its hungry maw every Monday and I had better be ready with another serving of juicy, delicious words. I do my best to come up with new recipes, new arrangements, new flavors. There are times, however, when I just have to reach into my grab-bag of loose words and offer them while I think of a new topic. It's one of those weeks. Enjoy this medley of words while I get back to the word lab putting finishing touches to next week's material. logy PRONUNCIATION: (LO-gee) MEANING: adjective: Lethargic, groggy ETYMOLOGY: Perhaps from Dutch log (heavy) prolix PRONUNCIATION: (pro-LIKS, PRO-liks) MEANING...

Hi all- 9/22-9/29 Days hiked: 7 Days off: 1 Miles hiked this section: 120 Total PCT miles hiked: 1504 Total PCT miles left to hike: 1159 Pounds lost: 23 This next section, I'll cross over the halfway point in my hike! I have 450 miles left to go to get to Soda Springs, and then 709 miles of Southern California (the desert section) left to do next April and May. It amazes me when I realize that most thruhikers will have finished all 2663 miles of the trail by now, in one continuous hike. It makes me tired just thinking about it. I started out from Ashland, heading south. It feels different heading south -- feels like I'm going the wrong way. The sun is always in my face, since it's a little bit south in the sky at this time of the year. The only long distance hikers still on the trail this far south from Canada are, like me, making up sections that they decided to skip because of the smoke and wildfires. I've only met 3 others doing this, and a few section hikers...

Lit up with anticipation We arrive at the launching site The sky is still dark, nearing dawn On the Florida coastline Circling choppers slash the night With roving searchlight beams This magic day when super-science Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams Floodlit in the hazy distance The star of this unearthly show Venting vapours, like the breath Of a sleeping white dragon Crackling speakers, voices tense Resume the final count All systems check, T minus nine As the sun and the drama start to mount The air is charged A humid, motionless mass The crowds and the cameras The cars full of spectators pass Excitement so thick you could cut it with a knife Technology... high, on the leading edge of life The earth beneath us starts to tremble With the spreading of a low black cloud A thunderous roar shakes the air Like the whole world exploding Scorching blast of golden fire As it slowly leaves the ground Tears away with a mighty force The air is shattered by the awesome sound Like a pillar ...

My uncle has a country place That no one knows about He says it used to be a farm Before the Motor Law And on Sundays I elude the eyes And hop the Turbine Freight To far outside the Wire Where my white-haired uncle waits Jump to the ground As the Turbo slows to cross the borderline Run like the wind As excitement shivers up and down my spine Down in his barn My uncle preserved for me an old machine For fifty odd years To keep it as new has been his dearest dream I strip away the old debris That hides a shining car A brilliant red Barchetta From a better vanished time I fire up the willing engine Responding with a roar Tires spitting gravel I commit my weekly crime WindIn my hair Shifting and drifting Mechanical music Adrenaline surge... Well-weathered leather Hot metal and oil The scented country air Sunlight on chrome The blur of the landscape Every nerve aware Suddenly ahead of me Across the mountainside A gleaming alloy air car Shoots towards me, two lanes wide I spin around with sh...

A portmanteau is a blend -- a word formed by combining two (or more) words. Lewis Carroll gave this name to such a word in "Through the Looking-Glass". As Humpty Dumpty explained to Alice, "You see it's like a portmanteau -- there are two meanings packed up into one word." A portmanteau is a travel bag that opens into two hinged compartments. Carroll himself coined some fine portmanteaux such as chortle (chuckle + snort), and slithy (slimy + lithe). We have been using this fusion technique to coin names for countries: Tanzania (Tanganyika + Zanzibar), celebrities: Brangelina (Brad Pitt + Angelina Jolie), products: camcorder (camera + recorder), and beyond. This week we'll see five words, each of which is an amalgam of two other words. advertorial PRONUNCIATION: (ad-vuhr-TOR-ee-uhl) MEANING: noun: A newspaper or magazine ad resembling editorial content in style and layout. ETYMOLOGY: Blend of advertisement + editorial. The radio/television equivalent of an ad...

[1. Tide Pools] When the ebbing tide retreats Along the rocky shoreline It leaves a trail of tidal pools In a short-lived galaxy Each microcosmic planet A complete society A simple kind mirror To reflect upon our own All the busy little creatures Chasing out their destinies Living in their pools They soon forget about the sea... Wheels within wheels in a spiral array A pattern so grand and complex Time after time we lose sight of the way Our causes can't see their effects [2. Hyperspace] A quantum leap forward In time and in space The universe learned to expand The mess and the magic Triumphant and tragic A mechanized world out of hand Computerized clinic For superior cynics Who dance to a synthetic band In their own image Their world is fashioned No wonder they don't understand [3. Permanent Waves] Science, like nature Must also be tamed With a view towards its preservation Given the same State of integrity It will surely serve us well Art as expression Not as market campaigns...

There is unrest in the forest There is trouble with the trees For the maples want more sunlight And the oaks ignore their pleas The trouble with the maples (And they're quite convinced they're right) They say the oaks are just too lofty And they grab up all the light But the oaks can't help their feelings If they like the way they're made And they wonder why the maples Can't be happy in their shade There is trouble in the forest And the creatures all have fled As the maples scream 'Oppression!' And the oaks just shake their heads So the maples formed a union And demanded equal rights The oaks are just too greedy We will make them give us light' Now there's no more oak oppression For they passed a noble law And the trees are all kept equal By hatchet, axe and saw

There's no bread, let them eat cake There's no end to what they'll take Flaunt the fruits of noble birth Wash the salt into the earth But they're marching to Bastille Day La guillotine will claim her bloody prize Free the dungeons of the innocent The king will kneel and let his kingdom rise Bloodstained velvet, dirty lace Naked fear on every face See them bow their heads to die As we would bow as they rode by And we're marching to Bastille Day La guillotine will claim her bloody prize Sing, oh choirs of cacophony The king has kneeled, to let his kingdom rise Lessons taught but never learned All around us anger burns Guide the future by the past Long ago the mould was cast For they marched up to Bastille Day La guillotine claimed her bloody prize Hear the echoes of the centuries Power isn't all that money buys

I waited 'til I saw the sun I don't know why I didn't come I left you by the house of fun I don't know why I didn't come I don't know why I didn't come When I saw the break of day I wished that I could fly away Instead of kneeling in the sand Catching teardrops in my hand My heart is drenched in wine But you'll be on my mind Forever Out across the endless sea I would die in ecstacy But I'll be a bag of bones Driving down the road alone My heart is drenched in wine But you'll be on my mind Forever Something has to make you run I don't know why I didn't come I feel as empty as a drum I don't know why I didn't come I don't know why I didn't come I don't know why I didn't come

Where my mother's family made huge strides forward this weekend, I realised how lucky we are to have Luis as he is. His family is... well... I just don't know. Staggeringly religious. Enormously right-wing conservatives that make the conservative people I know raging liberals. It was an educational and scary evening. Anna and Kirk were the first to get here this afternoon and it is always a pleasure and treat to see them. We were chatting about different things when Luis' and Anna's father, Luis Augusto, came up... that must have been around 1630. He and his siblings, Lucia, Isabel and Iggy, had gone into NYC Friday night and yesterday and when he got in he took a nap. He was very late for his nap - he usually takes it around 1230 and gets up around 1400 but this time he got in later than his wake up time. When he came up we started a new conversation. We were rolling along with that when Iggy came with Lucia, Gustavo and Stewart. Lucia is Luis' and Anna's aunt,...

I ran along the highway and looked under all the trees I crawled through every hither and yon and blistered both me knees I even went to chapel and looked under every pew It's surely gone bejeezus and I don't know what to do Won't somebody help me look for it We'll search until the dawn For it seems I've lost me virtue And I don't know where it's gone Me father says it's precious and to guard it with me life To save it up and give it away to the man who calls me wife He says I daren't sell it, it's a mortal sin they say So now that I've lost it, surely there'll be hell to pay Won't somebody help me look for it We'll search until the dawn For it seems I've lost me virtue And I don't know where it's gone My mother says a good girl keeps it tight between her thighs But nevertheless, it has no colour, shape or even size! I looked and looked for hours there but nothing could be found So I guess I must have dropped it and it...

I'm reading a really great book entitled A Distant Mirror . It is a book about the 14th century written by Barbara Tuchman and highly recommended to me by my father. I'm into the second chapter and enjoying it thoroughly. Here is an interesting paragraph from it: "Money could buy any kind of dispensations to legitimize children, of which the majority were those of preists and prelates;* to divide a corpse for the favoured custom of burial in two or more places; to permit nuns to keep two maids; to permit a converted Jew to visit his unconverted parents; to marry within the permitted degree of consanguinity (with a sliding scale of fees with the second, third and fourth degrees); to trade with the infidel Moslem (with a fee required for each ship on a scale according to cargo); to received stolen goods up to a specific value. The collection and accounting of all these sums, largely handled through Italian bankers, made the physical counting of cash a common sight in the pap...

Come my fine gentles and listen to me I'll sing you a song that will fill you with glee About a young maiden who wed in the fall She married a man who had no jewels at all No jewels at all, no jewels at all She married a man who had no jewels at all The night of the wedding she leapt into bed Aware of the venture that may lay ahead She reached for her husband, he was so small She reached for his jewels, he had no jewels at all No jewels at all, no jewels at all She married a man who had no jewels at all "Oh, mother, oh, mother, oh, what shall I do? I've married a man who is unable to woo. For many long years I avoided the call Now I've married a man who has no jewels at all." No jewels at all, no jewels at all She married a man who had no jewels at all "Oh, daughter, oh, daughter, now don't feel so sad. I had the same trouble with your dear old dad. There's a fine young jeweler who will answer the call Of the wife of a man who has no jewels at all....

Singin' a balls to your partner Backs against the wall If you cannot score at Revel Grove You cannot score at all This laddy here Well, a ballin' he did go He couldn't find a partner Now his balls are indigo Singin' a balls to your partner Backs against the wall If you cannot score at Revel Grove You cannot score at all This guy went a ballin' And he impressed all the class When he showed off his equipment It was made of brass Singin' a balls to your partner Backs against the wall If you cannot score at Revel Grove You cannot score at all This guy went a ballin' And he was all the talk For when he was finished He could hardly walk Singin' a balls to your partner Backs against the wall If you cannot score at Revel Grove You cannot score at all They swing when he walks But he doesn't like to gloat Ask him to commit And they leap into his throat Singin' a balls to your partner Backs against the wall If you cannot score at Revel Grove You cannot scor...

Prepositions don't get much respect. Nouns, verbs, adjectives... those are the words we usually pay attention to. Who has ever looked up in a thesaurus to find a better preposition? Who has complimented an author on his choice of prepositions? They might as well be invisible. Yet prepositions are some of the most important parts of the sentence. They work to connect various parts. And if you have any doubt about the role or importance of these hard-working nuts and bolts of a language, ask anyone who has tried to learn a new language. Prepositions are among the hardest to master. Literally speaking, a preposition is something that is positioned before a noun. These are little words, such as in, to, of, up, for, etc., though they are not always a single syllable. There are some pretty long ones: amongst, concerning, notwithstanding. And there are some fancy prepositions (contra, cum, a la, and so on). This week we'll see some of the uncommon prepositions, words that tell the nou...

Well, it's all for a snog, A teeny, tiny snog Please put me flat on my back-O Before I begin, he is done and turning in So across my little village I do wander... I went to the mill, the jolly, jolly mill And begged my little favour of the miller He could not grind y corn, for his stone it was too worn And his wheel was lookin' out for better weather Well, it's all for a snog, A teeny, tiny snog Please put me flat on my back-O Before I begin, he is done and turning in So across my little village I do wander... I went to the church, the jolly, jolly church And begged my little favour of the preacher His sermon made me wilt, But his sacriment was spilt And his blessing was lookin' out for better weather And, it's all for a snog, A teeny, tiny snog Please put me flat on my back-O Before I begin, he is done and turning in So across my little village I do wander... I went to the barn, the jolly, jolly barn To beg a little favour of the potter His skill it made me sigh, B...

I've rarely had occasion to disagree with Boston Legal , but this time I definitely not okay with their opinions here. Wel, until the end. Then Alan Shore said a lot of good points to support Roe v. Wade . I was relieved. The episode opened up with a 15-year-old girl who hired Alan Shore to get her a judicial bypass to overrule her mother's not giving parental consent to have an abortion. Alan agreed to take it when Denny Crane said something about helping the girl to "burn in hell forever". Good for him! I can't believe anyone would say such a bizarre thing. Well, when Alan went to Shirley to have her on the case, she was not interested in doing it. She said that she is a parent and knows that once down this road, it haunts you forever. I almost launched myself off of the couch. I am one of many women who has been down this road, and it was the best thing I ever did for myself and for a kid, bar none. I am hugely prochoice for a reason. I hated the idea of having...

Yes, drug. What are you thinking when you read that word? Don't tell me, let me guess... marijuana. Cocaine. Meth amphitamines. Herione? How about pills? Hydrocodone? Oxycontin? Something in a the 'pams? Lorazipam, Clomidapam? Possibly lithium? I know what you weren't thinking. Drug - the past tense of drag. I bet you didn't know that. Neither did I until I worked at USII and it showed up in a disciplinary report. Ye gods. "So-and-so drug a pallet across the warehouse..." Say what? Yes, that's right. Apparently the past tense taught in school, dragged , is not actually correct. Whoops. How did I miss that? This was a supervisor. How does anyone learn such appalling language skills? How does this go on? Shouldn't someone hear this and say something? I managed to not say anything, biting holes in my tongue all the while. It was a physical effort. Not to mention the first time I read the report I had to close my office door so that someone wouldn't wa...

Something for Veterans - thank you! I was brought up in Dublin Town and when I was sixteen I ran away to seek me pay and a soldier I became With me fine cap and feathers, likewise me rattle and drum They learned me to play upon the ra-ba-da-ba-dum With a me gentle waist so slender, me finger long and small To play upon the ra-ba-dum the best of them all So boldly did I fight me boys, although I'm but a lass I fought so long, I fought so hard I liked them in the -- Buttoning up me trousers, twas often did I smile To think I lay with a tousand men and a maiden all the while With me fine cap and feathers, likewise me rattle and drum They learned me to play upon the ra-ba-da-ba-dum With a me gentle waist so slender, me finger long and small To play upon the ra-ba-dum the best of them all They never found me secret out until this very hour When they sent me off to London to be sentry o'er the Tower When a young girl fell in love with me and found out I was a maid She ran unto me cap...

A maid and her mother lived under the hill Nonny Nonny Nonny No They had good ale and beer for to sell Nonny No, Nonny No, Nonny Nonny Nonny No There was a trooper, came riding by Nonny Nonny Nonny No He called for ale so plentiful Nonny No, Nonny No, Nonny Nonny Nonny No When one pot was out he called for another Nonny Nonny Nonny No He kissed the daughter before the mother Nonny No, Nonny No, Nonny Nonny Nonny No When night time came, they went to bed Nonny Nonny Nonny No It was with the mother's own consent Nonny No, Nonny No, Nonny Nonny Nonny No What is this, quoth she, so stiff and warm? Nonny Nonny Nonny No 'Tis but my horse, he'll do you no harm Nonny No, Nonny No, Nonny Nonny Nonny No What is this, quoth he; quoth she "Tis a well Nonny Nonny Nonny No Where that your horse can drink his fill Nonny No, Nonny No, Nonny Nonny Nonny No But what if my horse should chance slip in? Nonny Nonny Nonny No Grab hold of the grass growing round the brim Nonny No, Nonny No, ...

Read this Web site with a post called "Grace". It will be worth it, believe me. http://lauriekendrick.wordpress.com/ I have said all the things that she did but at separate times. I've been unemployed and felt the loser logo hanging over my head. I have been at the lowest point especially when without employment, and I know that feeling all too well. I have said more than once that the strange political fervor that I see is so foriegn to me. She wonders what people think Obama will do for them; I wonder why my coworker had a total meltdown over the outcome of the presidential election. Did a Democrat run over his dog? I certainly agree that Obama has no chance of fixing all of the issues. No one can. And I don't know that he can fix anything. I don't know if his wife is the bigot that everyone says she is. I can't believe anyone when it comes to statements about McCain or Obama because there is much more misinformation than information floating around out ther...

Yesterday was some day! I got up around 0630, watched a bit of telly with the main man, then got up at 0905 and showered fast. I was just getting ready to get out the door when Greg called. I love him but I couldn't get him off the phone! I raced over to the chiropractor, was massaged, then twisted into a pretzel. I ran out of there and headed to my parents' house. We had breakfast and then went visit Ma in St. Joseph's Hospital. I'm not crazy about religious hospitals or any place run by one religious group and frightningly enough, there is a crucifix on the wall.. because that is what I want to look at when I am in a hospital room... a dead guy nailed to a cross. Uh-huh. There is faith and there is positive thinking and then... a crucifix . This doesn't seem weird, negative and just a little depressing? Well, anyway, despite the horror of seeing crucifixes on the walls in every room, it seems to be a pretty okay hospital. The rooms could use a paint job, but the f...

Ray and I are watching Boston Legal on his telly, with my third season set of DVDs. The episode was called "The Nutcrackers" and among all the other fun and games, such as Alan defending the parents of two singing daughters, all of whom are white supremecists... yikes. Or a woman suing God for the death of her husband. But this one... A woman who knows Denny Crane came up to him in a restaurant (she was a waitress there) and asked him to help her. Her teenage daughter is anorexic and she wants to have her go to therapy and get better. Makes sense - anorexia nervosa is a terrible disease. It is a psychological condition, not a physical one but the visible manifesation is one of a too-thin person (I say person because while much less prevalent, men do get anorexia nervosa. Crazy (no pun intended) but ture). Someone who looks like a corpse has anorexia or bulemia (related but with an added element of methodology for extreme weight loss). Well, that or they live in a country wit...