Blue Moon

Tonight we will experience the first Blue Moon since 1990. The next will occur in 2028.

Blue Moon

Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone,
Without a dream in my heart,
Without a love of my own.

Blue Moon, you knew just what I was there for,
You heard me saying a prayer for,
Someone I could care for

And then there suddenly appeared before me,
Someone my arms could really hold,
I heard you whisper, "Darling please adore me,"
And when I looked to the moon it had turned gold.

Blue Moon, now I'm no longer alone,
Without a dream in my heart,
Without a love of my own.

And then there suddenly appeared before me
The only one my arms will ever hold
Heard somebody whisper please adore me
and when I looked the moon had turned to gold.

Blue Moon
Now I'm no longer alone
Without a dream in my heart,
Without a love of my own.

-Rodgers and Hart, 1934

The new year

“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul”
- - G. K. Chesterton

“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. “
-- Benjamin Franklin

“New Year's Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot. Unless, of course, those tests come back positive.”
-- Jay Leno

New Year’s Eve

“Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
- -Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Christmass Blessing

The light of the Christmass Star on you,
The warmth of home and hearth to you,
The hope of a child like heart for you,
The joy of a thousand angels to you,
The love of the Son and God's peace to you.

-- ???

Dec 26th

Happy day after Christmass!

Get to church!

Look out for packages containing coal bits from Mikey!

Merry Christmas everyone!

DEC 25th

Merry Christmass!

Get to church!

Mikey's coal collection has yet increased again!

Dec 24th

Holy Chirstmass eve!

Get to church!

Was Mikey good this year?

Christmas In Killarney

The holly green, the ivy green
The prettiest picture you've ever seen
Is Christmas in Killarney
With all of the folks at home

It's nice, you know, to kiss your beau
While cuddling under the mistletoe
And Santa Claus you know, of course
Is one of the boys from home

The door is always open
The neighbors pay a call
And Father John before he's gone
Will bless the house and all

How grand it feels to click your heels
And join in the fun of the jigs and reels
I'm handing you no blarney
The likes you've never known
Is Christmas in Killarney
With all of the folks at home

Holiday jokes

Q. What does Father Christmas suffer from if he gets stuck in a chimney ?
A. Santa Claustrophobia !

Q. What do you give a reindeer with an upset tummy?
A. Elk-a-seltzer!

Q. What is the difference between the Christmas alphabet and the ordinary alphabet?
A. The Christmas alphabet has No _el.

Houdi

The dog is named, Houdi. The winner is Jessica, a sixth grader who lives across the street. It turns out that Jessica has a two year old female terrier, Abby that was adopted from the same shelter as Houdi a year earlier.

The two dogs have become playmates in the small park behind my home. Jessica chose the name upon hearing of the Houdini like escape ability of my canine.

Who might be more qualified to name a dog than an eleven year old child?

Angus

The boy's name Angus \a- ngus, an- gus\ is pronounced ANG-guss. It is of Celtic origin, and its meaning is 'one choice'. Scottish: Anglicised form of the Gaelic name Aonghus or Aonghas. Celtic mythology: Angus Og is a god of attractive traits such as humor and wisdom. Also the name of an eighth-century Pictish king known as Onnust or Hungus. In America, the name tends to be associated with breeds of cattle such as the Black Angus. Pet form Angie is pronounced 'AN-ghee' in Scottish, representing Gaelic Angaidh.

The dog's pic

This animal was rescued from a "Kill" shelter from which the photo was copied from their website! It turns out that when he was removed from a holding pen a chain was required as this guy is a canine Houdini in escaping.

He is free in the home but cannot be taken out without a leash. Further he likes to run and is a perfect mate on a short tether during our daily six mile jog! His arrival is a bit of a miracle for us both.

The reader is encouraged to "window shop" at his nearest animal shelter. There is two week home trial in most shelters before adoption is final.

Concern

Uncle Jay, I have no suggestions yet for the dog name, but I hope you are not going to keep him chained up in this manner. Dogs need attention, walks, and socializing. They are pack animals. They cannot be left outside alone for extended periods of time! Please reassure me that you are going to take good care of this beautiful animal.

Irish Jokes

The late Bishop Sheen stated that the reason the Irish fight among themselves, is because that way, they're always assured of having a worthy opponent.

Q. “Well, Mike,” said the doctor. “I can’t quite diagnose your case. I think it must be the drink.”
A. “Sure, that’s all right, doctor,” said Mike. “I know how you feel. I’ll come back when you’re sober.”

Q. Why does it take five Irishmen to change a lightbulb?
A. One to change the bulb. Four to remark about how grand the old bulb was.

some wisdom

See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little.
~Pope John XXIII

Don't look where you fall, but where you slipped.
~African Proverb

Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts.
~Charles Dickens

more dog facts

Like humans, dogs can be either left-handed or right-handed.

Like humans, dogs have a complete set of baby teeth that are replaced by a complete set of adult teeth as they get older.

Many owners list their dogs as a beneficiary in their will. About one million dogs have been the primary beneficiary in the will of their owner.

Acceptance

“Always fall in with what you're asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever's going. Not against: with.”
-- Robert Frost

“If you can’t accept losing, you can’t win.”
-- Vincent Thomas Lombardi

“Acceptance is the truest kinship with humanity.”
-- G. K. Chesterton

Note from Grandma

In a Mint Giffi

I "mint" to say Thank you,
but my time is in demand.

I "mint" to say I love you,
but I know you'll understand.

I "mint" to send you flowers
but they cost so much.

I "mint" to pray for you this morning
but I had some place to go.

I "mint" to say forgive me,
but that's so hard to do.

I heard my Lord say, "Bless you Child"
I hope that "mint" me too.

found this morning in a box of Christmas decorations

Dr. Scott Hahn

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
-- Rom 8:28


Whereupon signing my copy of his latest book, Scot Hahn inscribed the above citation of biblical book, chapter, and verse. Very purposeful I believe.

joke

It was the first day of school and a new student, the son of a Japanese businessman, entered the fourth grade. The teacher greeted the class and said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American history. Who said "Give me Liberty, or give me death?"
She saw only a sea of blank faces, except for that of Toshiba, who had his hand up. "Patrick Henry, 1775," said the boy.
"Now," said the teacher, "Who said 'Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth?"
Again, no response except from Toshiba: "Abraham Lincoln, 1863."
The teacher snapped at the class, "You should be ashamed. Toshiba, who is new to our country, knows more about it than you do."
As she turned to write something on the blackboard, she heard a loud whisper: "Damned Japanese."
"Who said that?" she demanded.
Toshiba put his hand up. "Lee Iacocca, 1982," he said.

expectation

"Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest."
-- Mark Twain

"You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."
--Yogi Berra

"Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises; and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits."
-- Shakespeare

joke

The National Transportation Safety Board recently divulged they had covertly funded a project with the US auto makers for the past five years, whereby the auto makers were installing black boxes in four-wheel drive pickup trucks in an effort to determine, in fatal accidents, the circumstances in the last 15 seconds before the crash. They were surprised to find in 47 of the 50 states the last words of drivers in 61.2 percent of fatal crashes were, "Oh, Shit!"
Only the states of South Carolina, West Virginia and Arkansas were different, where over 89.3 percent of the final words were: "Hold my beer and watch this!".

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.




"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."



VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.




see copy of original article http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/

Rainforests - West Coast?

If I'm not mistaken, haven't umbrella, like in "its raining and I need my unbrella", sales fallen sharply in recent years on the west coast of U.S.? (Ironically, the sales of umbrellas, like in "the sun is too hot on my head and I need a umbrella to make some shade, has increased in direct correlation.)

Perhaps its another in a growing number of signs of "global warming" ! Does this mean loss of rain forest? Or just less rain? Or can we continue to claim West Coast as rain forest if umbrella sales continue a downward spiral?

And does the snow in Western Canada dilute the concept of "rain" forest? Honestly, how often do you see squirrel monkeys, macaws, and pythons in British Columbia?

Just asking.

Facts about Rainforests

1. Covering less than 2 percent of the Earth's total surface area, the world's rainforests are home to 50 percent of the Earth's plants and animals.
2. Rainforests are found on every continent across the Earth, except Antarctica.
3. The largest temperate rainforests are found on North America's Pacific Coast and stretch from Northern California up into Canada.
4. A typical four square mile patch of rainforest contains as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.

Writing

Word added,
Word removed,
Words condensed,
Words new chose,
Words rearranged,
Words replaced.

Not first writing forms the finished work.
-- jpR

Whisky

Whisky makes pesky,
Liquor makes slicker,
Wine makes fine,
Scotch makes posh,
Rye makes sigh,
Vodka makes polka,
Bourbon makes stubborn,
Beer makes cheer,
Saki makes cocky,
Malt makes no halt,
Ale makes some tale,
Sherry makes purry,
Port makes court,
Sour mash makes hash,
Moonshine makes opine,
Stout makes pout,
Wives make temperate!
--jpR

Turkey’s reign

Turkey bake,
Turkey loaf,
Turkey pie,
Turkey gravy,
Turkey stew,
Turkey casserole,
Turkey toast,
Turkey surprise,
Turkey sandwich,
Turkey neck,
Turkey cards,
Turkey pattern,
Turkey lights,
Turkey parade,
Turkey Day!
-- jpR

One Wish

If one wish were free to last and stay,
If one vow never ruined it must be,
If one promise could entirely become made,
If one prayer to heaven only reached,
If one oath placed did soundly set,
If one plea could justly granted be,
If one entreaty should by all be heard,
It would be the same from each at the last,
Let the innocence of birth persist till life’s ending pass.
-- jpR

How to get a Miracle!

1. Start with the simplest necessity … ASK FOR IT!
2. Be persistent - Keep asking!
3. Miracles and Faith go hand in hand.
“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.”
-- St. Augustine

El Nino

Water early......Water now......Water late.
Water light......Water heavy....Water deluge,
Water puddle.....Water flow.....Water fall,
Moist............Damp............Wet.

More from the children

Q. What do smart birds like to study?
A. Owl-gebra


Q. What happened to the plant in math class?
A. It grew square roots

It actually happened

A man walked into a little corner shop with a shotgun and demanded all of the cash from the cash drawer. After the shopkeeper had put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of Scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the shopkeeper to put it in the bag as well, but the cashier refused and said, 'It's because I don't believe you are over 18. The robber said that he was, but the shop's owner still refused to give it to him because he didn't believe him.
At this point, the robber took his driving license out of his wallet and handed it to the shopkeeper who looked it over and agreed that the man was in fact over 18 and he put the Scotch in the bag. The robber then ran from the store with his swag. The shopkeeper immediately called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that he had seen on the license.
Police arrested the robber two hours later.

Kind Words

Words loosed with kindness meant,
Heal not harm by composed content.
Caring sounds awaited by injured heart,
Send sorrow collected to depart.

The young are forward led from speech.
Their ready visions our nouns beseech.
Fresh hope of future will obtain,
With acceptance of self, nice words sustain.

For those long of age our thanksgiving marks,
Past words of forgiveness from loving hearts.
The after life will deny them not from us,
But held closer by prayers of remembrance.

--jpR

jokes from kids

Knock, Knock
Who's there?
Yodel-lay-he.
Yodel-lay-he-who?
I didn't know you could yodel.


Q. What color is a burp?
A. Burple

joke

Barty was trapped in a bog and seemed a goner when Big Mick O'Reilly wandered by.

"Help!" Barty shouted, "Oi'm sinkin'!"

Don't worry," assured Mick. "Next to the Strong Muldoon, Oi'm the strongest man in Erin, and Oi'll pull ye right out o' there."

Mick leaned out and grabbed Barty's hand and pulled and pulled to no avail.

After two more unsuccessful attempts, Mick said to Barty, "Shure, an' Oi can't do it. The Strong Muldoon could do it alone, mebbe, but Oi'll have to get some help."

As Mick was leaving, Barty called "Mick! Mick!

D'ye think it will help if Oi pull me feet out of the stirrups?

I sure miss you

“If life could only bring again, the days I took for granted when
To hear your voice was just a call away
Oh what I'd give for just some time, to say the things that slipped my mind
There's so much now I'd really like to say
But I can never go back when we did the things we did back then
I'll store those precious memories in my mind
I'll take what you've instilled in me; I'll try to be all I can be
And walk the path that you have left behind.
……”
-- Crabb family

Which?

If the home be holy blest, then there heaven’s occasion be found.
Joy is there were goodness grows and
Innocence its essence shows.

But should the home be unholy cursed, then there heaven’s absence is bound.
The excellent heart will find misplace where here the unnatural thrive
And the spirit shall fail there where iniquity hide.

Upon an entrance the good soul soon discovers which.

-- jpR

Making peace

“Making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war”
-- Gerry Adams

Reconciliation

The good that is to be born will be counted by the number of scars resulting in the healing of the psyche.

hope

Hope is a waking dream.
-- Aristotle

Forgiveness

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi

Prayers

“We, ignorant of ourselves, beg often our own harms, which the wise powers deny us for our good; so find we profit by losing of our prayers.”
-- William Shakespeare

Petitions to St Jude

This holy man is known to intercede with hopeless causes. Place you requests in the comment section of this post for all who visit to offer their prayers in support.

My petition: For peace and reconciliation with those whom I have most offended.

November

November comes from the Latin word root “novem”, which means nine. It was originally the 9th month in the Roman Calendar.

World War I ended on the 11th day of the 11th month (November) at 11PM, in 1918.

November is National Beard Month.

The flower that represents November is the Chrysanthemum.

ancient roman superstitions

The Roman was by nature a very superstitious person. Emperors would tremble and even legions refuse to march if the omens were bad ones.

Didn’t eat at the dinner table in groups of 17 as this number is an unlucky.

One never mentioned fire at a banquet.

Morning’s Start

At first begin we it should seek,
For best passing through the day’s keep.

Through the prevent of bleakest dawn,
It may be got in heart to crown.

Its welcome holds us complete,
With foreign demands to greet.

Age’s advance yields to youth’s return,
While the own for it our soul does yearn.

Not happiness,
Not wealth,
Not beauty be want,
Once in joy the morning starts.

jpR

Superstitions

If the first butterfly you see in the year is white, you will have good luck all year. Three butterflies together mean good luck.

COUNTING CROWS
One's bad,
Two's luck,
Three's health,
Four's wealth,
Five's sickness,
Six is death


The number of Xs in the palm of your right hand is the number of children you will have.

Joy

Joy and happiness are not the same. The one does not place the other.

Happiness is had and dispelled by circumstance. It vacillates as does the weather’s foretell. The try to be happy may drive one to the extremity as with the collection of spouses in multiple marriages.

Joy transcends the material, the temporal. It cannot be purchased. It is immune to situation. Insult dims not joy’s presence in our core.

Joy is a gift! It is not purchasable but it may be found. The way to it is best shown with the view of another whose soul is joyous.

A yoke

A salesman is passing a farm house and sees a sign. ”Talking dog for sale.”
Stopping he asks “Can your dog really talk?”
The farmer answers “He’s tied out back …ask him yourself!”
The salesman walks behind the farmhouse finds a tethered black Labrador and asks,
“Can you speak?”
“Yes since I was a pup!” The dog answers.
The salesman, “Wow! How many people know you can hear and speak English?”
The dog, “Lots! I just retired from the CIA after serving years as a spy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, and China.”
The salesman to the farmer, “I want that dog how much?”
The farmer, “Ten dollars!”
The salesman, “$10…why so cheap?”
The farmer, “Because he’s a big liar!”

prayer to the guardian angel

Angel of God,
my guardian dear,
to whom God's love commits me here,
ever this day,
be at my side
to light and guard,
to rule and guide.
Amen!

Dad

“A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. “
~Author Unknown

“Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name.”
~William Wordsworth

“Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other. “
~Joseph Joubert

“The greatest gift I ever hadCame from God; I call him Dad!”
~Author Unknown

Children

“Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.”
--unknown

“My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.”
-- Clarence Budinton Kelland

“Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home.”
--Bill Cosby

“Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother.”
-- Arab proverb

It is well with my soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
-- Horatio G. Spafford

yoke

Two bachelors talking:

The first: “I want a smart woman, a beautiful woman, and a woman that will just be good to me!”

The second: “Choose one! Cause ya can't have all three.”

more Goblin facts

.

One fabled origin for goblins is in Brittain. They then began to spread all through the UK from there they sneaked aboard ships. They have no homes, being nomadic, dwelling temporarily in mossy cracks in rocks and tree roots.

Scots call them Bogie…Bogiemen.

Witch facts

Dame Alice Kyteler ~1300, an Irish noblewoman was a wealthy and also a beautiful woman. She was accused of using Witchcraft to kill her wealthy husbands and get their properties. She was tried along with ten of her servants and her son William, but later she escaped to England.

In 1650’s Ireland, Florence Newton is also known as “the Witch of Youghal”. She was accused of bewitching people and causing them to have fits which led to them dying from frightful contortions. She was eventually tried and convicted of being a Witch.

Most witch hunters know that salt will melt any witch.

In Europe 85% of those executed for witchcraft were women.

A Turkey Joke

A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store, but couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked the stock boy, 'Do these turkeys get any bigger?'

The stock boy answered, 'No ma'am, they're dead.'

Counting Beens

Been on time.........mostly,
Been prepared........routinely,
Been respectful......hopefully,
Been clean...........eventually,
Been foolish.........eternally,
Been hopeful.........initially,
Been honest..........faithfully,
Been joyful..........perpetually,
Been appreciative....properly,
Been loving..........appropriately,
Been generous........suitably,
Been faithful........truly,
Been industrious.....habitually,
Been forgiving.......slowly.


Been hurt...........deeply,
Been evicted........undeservedly,
Been deceived.......trustingly,
Been unimportant....spousally,
Been sued...........unexpectedly,
Been broke..........oftenly,
Been worn...........daily.


The sum indicates a life that has been busy!!!!


-- jpR

Halloween Facts

Jack o’ Lanterns originated in Ireland where people placed candles in hollowed-out turnips to keep away spirits and ghosts on the Samhain holiday.

The ancient Celts thought that spirits and ghosts roamed the countryside on Halloween night. They began wearing masks and costumes to avoid being recognized as human.

Bobbing for apples is thought to have originated from the roman harvest festival that honors Pamona, the goddess of fruit trees.

From Erma Bombeck

“Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.”

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me.”

“I haven't trusted polls since I read that 62% of women had affairs during their lunch hour. I've never met a woman in my life who would give up lunch for sex.”

Apple Facts

Some 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States, while 7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.

Apples are fat, sodium, and cholesterol free. A medium apple is about 80 calories. One apple has five grams of fiber.

The apple tree originated in an area between the Caspian and the Black Sea. Apples were the favorite fruit of ancient Greeks and Romans.

Archeologists have found evidence that humans have been enjoying apples since at least 6500 B.C

Art Linkletter

Linkletter recalls interviewing a little girl:

“I said, ‘What’s the most fun you have at your house?’ ‘I get to wake up my little brother; I take the cat down, open the door and throw the cat in.’

“I asked, ‘How is that funny?’

‘He sleeps with the dog.’”

Leafs

Man's life is like a drop of dew on a leaf.”
-- Socrates

“The fall of a leaf is a whisper to the living”
- - Russian proverb

Apple Cider

When the Romans arrived in England in 55BC, they were reported to have found the local Kentish villagers drinking a delicious cider-like beverage made from apples. It has been recorded that the Romans and in particular their leader, Julius Caesar, embraced the pleasant pursuit with enthusiasm

Facts about Wales

Technically, Wales is a principality. This means that it is ruled by a prince. Traditionally the Prince of Wales is the eldest son of the English monarch.

Wales is known for its great actors - Richard Burton, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta Jones.

Some traditional dishes include the world popular Welsh Rarebit

a joke

A young married couple is to soon celebrate their 12th year anniversary.
The wife asks him, "Take me some place I've never been.”
So he took her to the kitchen!

Facts about the Isle of Man

Land Area: 572 sq. km/ 221 square miles.

Location: The centre of the Irish Sea - 50 km (31 miles) from Ireland and 50 km (31 miles) from the U.K.

Languages: English and Manx Gaelic

Very popular setting for the British film industry.

Facts about Scotland

Edinburgh was the first city in the world which had its own fire-brigade.

Edinburgh – the capital of Scotland, like Rome, was built on seven hills.

The border between Scotland and England stretches for 108 miles (174 kilometres) between the Solway Firth along the Cheviot Hills and the river Tweed, to the North Sea. Hadrian's Wall, built by the Romans, ran further south than this, from Carlisle on the river Eden to the river Tyne in the east.

Leap Year
It is said that in the 11th century Queen Margaret of Scotland introduced the custom of allowing girls to ask the boy to marry her on 29 February in a leap year. It evolved later that if the boy refused, he had to buy her a dress and kid gloves instead!

October's Bright Blue Weather

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumblebee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And goldenrod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When gentians roll their fingers tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.

O sun and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.

-- Helen Hunt Jackson

Early Irish Law

Early Irish Law" was often, although not universally, referred to within the law texts as "Fenechas", the law of the Feni, or the freemen of Ireland. They are also referred to as "Brehon Law". The word "Brehon" is a derivation of breitheamh the Irish word for a judge.

The laws were a civil rather than a criminal code. These laws are of great antiquity.

Under Brehon Law women were equal to men with regard to education and property. Woman stood emancipated from the remotest time. Women in ancient Ireland were often eligible for the professions, and for rank and fame. They were druidesses, poets, physicians, sages, and lawgivers.

Bridget was not only the name of the ancient Irish goddess who represented poetry and wisdom, and of the later saint who helped to spread Christianity throughout Ireland, but was also the name of an Irish lawgiver, Brigid Brethra, or Brigid of the Judgments, who lived about the time of Christ. It is this Brigid who is responsible for granting the right to women to inherit the land from their fathers in the absence of sons.


Comment; This Briget was probably responsible for the marriage law applied in Teltown, County Meath

Important Irish Fairies

The name Lepracaunis from the Irish leith brog. The Lepracaun makes shoes continually, and has grown very rich.

The Cluricaun, (Clobhair-ceann, makes himself drunk in gentlemen's cellars.

The Far Darrig (fear dearg], which means the Red Man, for he wears a red cap and coat, busies himself with practical joking.

The Fear-Gorta (Man of Hunger) is an emaciated phantom that goes through the land in famine time, begging an alms and bringing good luck to the giver.

The Dallahan, or headless phanto...seen in the street on dark nights.

a joke

Three missionaries are set to be cooked in a stew by Cannibals.
The chief cannibal asks the first missionary, “Where is your home?"
The first missionary answers, "England!"
The chief orders, "Into the stew!"

The chief cannibal asks the second missionary, “Where is your home?"
The second missionary answers, "Scotland!"
The chief orders, "Into the stew!"


The chief cannibal asks the third missionary, “Where is your home?"
The third missionary answers, "Ireland!"
The chief orders, "Get out of here!"

The English missionary asks, "Why did you let the Irishman go?"
The chief answers, "The last Irishman to go into the stew ate all the potatoes."

Facts about Ireland

Couples in Ireland could marry legally on St. Brigid's Day (February 1st) in Teltown, County Meath, as recently as the 1920’s by simply walking towards each other. If the marriage failed, they could "divorce'" by walking away from each other at the same spot, on St. Brigid’s day the following year. The custom was a holdover from old Irish Brehon laws, which allowed temporary marriage contracts.

Medieval laws in Ireland allowed a man to divorce his wife if she damaged his honor through infidelity, thieving or “making a mess of everything.”

The original Guinness Brewery in Dublin has a 9,000 year lease on it's property, at a perpetual rate of 45 Irish pounds per year.

The longest place name in Ireland is Muckanaghederdauhaulia, in County Galway.

Pogue Mahone translates into "kiss my a**" in Gaelic.

The Newgrange passage tomb in County Meath was constructed around 3200 BC, making it more than 600 years older than the Giza Pyramids in Egypt, and 1,000 years older than Stonehenge.

Saint Brendan is said to have discovered America 1,000 years before Columbus.

Irish Goblins

They are war-goddesses or battle-furies. All are malignant beings, delighting in battle and slaughter. They are a class of phantoms that sometimes appear before battles bent on mischief. At any battle the war-furies would shriek and howl with delight both in the midst of the carnage and far off in a lonely haunt.

Little Orphan Annie

Little Orphan Annie's come to my house to stay.
To wash the cups and saucers up and brush the crumbs away.
To shoo the chickens from the porch and dust the hearth and sweep,
and make the fire and bake the bread to earn her board and keep.
While all us other children, when the supper things is done,
we sit around the kitchen fire and has the mostest fun,
a listening to the witch tales that Annie tells about
and the goblins will get ya if ya don't watch out!

Once there was a little boy who wouldn't say his prayers,
and when he went to bed at night away up stairs,
his mammy heard him holler and his daddy heard him bawl,
and when they turned the covers down,
he wasn't there at all!
They searched him in the attic room
and cubby hole and press
and even up the chimney flu and every wheres, I guess,
but all they ever found of him was just his pants and round-abouts
and the goblins will get ya if ya don't watch out!!


Once there was a little girl who always laughed and grinned
and made fun of everyone, of all her blood and kin,
and once when there was company and old folks was there,
she mocked them and she shocked them and said, she didn't care.
And just as she turned on her heels and to go and run and hide,
there was two great big black things a standing by her side.
They snatched her through the ceiling fore she knew what shes about,
and the goblins will get ya if ya don't watch out!!

-- James Whitcomb Riley


Comment: A bedtime poem for children?

More wedding facts

Bouquet....For ancient Greeks and Romans, the bouquet was a pungent mix of garlic and herbs or grains. The garlic was supposed to ward off evil spirits and the herbs or grains were to insure a fruitful union.

Cake… Ancient Romans broke a cake over the bride's head to symbolize fertility or abundance. Many other cultures dropped wheat, flour or cake on the bride's head, and then ate the crumbs for good luck. In medieval times, guests brought small cakes and piled them on a table. The bride and groom then attempted to kiss over the cakes. Eventually, a young baker decided to put all the cakes together and cover them with frosting, thus the tiered wedding cake was born.


Honeymoon….The first weddings comprised of a groom taking his bride by capture. He would take her somewhere hidden away so her relatives and villagers couldn't find them. There they stayed for one moon phase and drank mead, a wine make from honey, to make them more amorous. Thus, the word "honeymoon" was born.

post wedding blues

I miss you all. There are too many miles between us. Retired people with no big plans, students, those employed but with vacation time, those somewhat employed or not at all, should all come for a visit to Maine. We live 15 minutes from the Atlantic, 5 from the Piscataqua, 10 from scenic Portsmouth, and 60 minutes in either direction from the hopping metropolises (metropoli?) of Boston, MA and Portland, ME. Free room and board. Must love dogs.

Justice over the foe?

We hold justice over our enemy as a divine right.

Those who have transgressed will account for their wicked actions under righteousness…so we believe. Our settlement’s arrival is anticipated with swiftness and vigor. Suggestions are eagerly offered to its form and content. This is being human.

Experience has shown that the justice provided under mankind is massively lacking. No form of evenhandedness by human effort proceeds in a vision without prejudice. Hence it is best to leave adjudication to divine intervention. This option is not meant for enjoyment. It is chosen for fairness! Here in this process the offended is wholly excluded.

There is however good news! There is absolute assurance that a true punishment will be had to the evil doer. None of the wrongdoing will be passed over. We shall indeed have justice albeit it shall be later than sooner.

Divine retribution comes as aging! There is no sense of revenge in beating an old sinner.

The bad news is that we too shall account for our offenses in sameness. Those to whom we have done wrong shall be comforted. They shall be allowed to offer forgiveness when lateness comes to our life.

It’s not sweet but it is an inevitable reckoning.

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
admit impediments. Love is not love
which alters when it alteration finds,
or bends with the remover to remove:
Oh, no! It is an ever-fixed mark.
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
it is the star to every wandering bark,
whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
within his bending sickle's compass come;
love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
but bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

-- Wm Shakespeare

Tin Wedding Whistle

Though you know it anyhow
Listen to me, darling, now,
Proving what I need not prove
How I know I love you, love.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Far and wide, far and wide,
I can walk with you beside;
Furthermore, I tell you what,
I sit and sulk where you are not.
Visitors remark my frown
Where you're upstairs and I am down,
Yes, and I'm afraid I pout
When I'm indoors and you are out;
But how contentedly I view
Any room containing you.
In fact I care not where you be,
Just as long as it's with me.
In all your absences I glimpse
Fire and flood and trolls and imps.
Is your train a minute slothful?
I goad the stationmaster wrothful.
When with friends to bridge you drive
I never know if you're alive,
And when you linger late in shops
I long to telephone the cops.
Yet how worth the waiting for,
To see you coming through the door.
Somehow, I can be complacent
Never but with you adjacent.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Then grudge me not my fond endeavor,
To hold you in my sight forever;
Let none, not even you, disparage
Such a valid reason for a marriage.

-- Ogden Nash

Given In Marriage Unto Thee

Given in marriage unto thee,
Oh, thou celestial host!
Bride of the Father and the Son,
Bride of the Holy Ghost!
Other betrothal shall dissolve,
Wedlock of will decay;
Only the keeper of this seal
Conquers mortality.
-- Emily Dickinson

Some Wedding Facts

Wearing a wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand dates back to ancient Egypt, where it was believed that the vein of love ran from this finger directly to the heart.

The most married man in history, in the monogamous category, was Glynn Wolfe, a former Baptist minister from Blythe, California. He was married twenty-eight times.

The most married woman in history, in the monogamous category, was Linda Lou Essex from Anderson, Indiana, who was married twenty-two times.

Lazarus Rowe and Molly Weber were married in Greenland, New Hampshire in 1743 and remained married until 1829, when she dies after their having been married for 86 years.


Comment: The limits are dizzifying

Wedding Soons

Wedding dresses need wedding presses,
Wedding soups for wedding troops,
Wedding bakes raise wedding cakes,
Wedding fancies place wedding dances,
Wedding wines at wedding times,
Wedding hums bring wedding sums,
Wedding tunes fortell wedding soons.


Bride to groom,
In celebration,
Begin together,
A long life in good health, and with many beautiful children!

jpR

Animal facts

Approximately 200 trees can be cut down by an average beaver.
The average number of quills on a porcupine is 30,000.
Moose have very poor vision. Some have even tried to mate with cars.

Grandma's dogs

Pal
Sally,
Blackie,
Zero,
Puppy Boy
Lady



Comment: There are surely others of which I do not recall

one more

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to see."

-Groucho Marx

The O'Really Factor

Abraham Lincoln's mother Nancy died from "milk sickness" in 1818. Abraham Lincoln was only nine years old when his mother died. "Milk sickness" was caused by the consumption of milk contaminated by a toxin found in the White Snakeroot plant. Cows would often graze on the White Snakeroot plant passing the toxin to humans. "Milk sickness" killed thousands of settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries. In many cases over half the population of a community died.

Meredith and Abbey

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey.. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.
I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.
Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies..' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey &Meredith and this note:


Dear Meredith,
Abbey arrived safely in heaven.
Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.
Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog.. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by...
Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.
I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.
By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God

It is not known who replied, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.

Wedding Swoons

Wedding dresses need,
Wedding presses.

Wedding soup for,
Wedding troops.

Wedding fancies start,
Wedding dances.

Wedding wine at,
Wedding time.

Wedding hums bring,
Wedding sums.

Wedding bride to,
Wedding groom together,
In a long life with good health and beautiful children!

old Irish riddle

Washed my face in water
That was never rained or run
I dried it with a towel
That was neither wove nor spun


Comment: the answer to be posted tomorrow

a joke

St Peter's Quiz

A petty thief, a teacher and a lawyer die in a plane crash and go up to Heaven's gates together.
When they get there they are stopped by St. Peter, who says: "Sorry, it's crowded up here, you need to answer a question correctly, or else you can't get in."
He looks at the teacher, and asks her: "What was the name of the famous ocean-liner that sank after hitting an iceberg?"
"Oh, that's easy," the teacher replies, "the Titanic."
So St. Peter lets her into Heaven.
Next he turns to the petty thief.
"How many people died on that ship?" St. Peter asks.
"Oooh, that's tough, but I saw the movie, and I think it was 1,500."
St. Peter steps away and the thief walks into Heaven.
Finally, St. Peter turns to the lawyer and says: "Name them.”

True politicial story

Supposedly G.B. Shaw once sent Winston Churchill some tickets for the first night of one of his plays.

Churchill then sent Shaw a telegram to the effect: "Cannot come first night. Will come second night if you have one."

Shaw promptly replied: "Here are two tickets for the second night. Bring a friend if you have one."

a joke

3 Blind (drunk) Mice



Three macho mice are sitting at a bar discussing just how tough they were. The first mouse slams a shot and says: "I play with mouse traps for fun. I'll run into one on purpose and as it is closing on me, I grab the bar and bench press it 20 to 30 times." And, with that, he slams another shot.
The second mouse slams a shot and says: "That's nothing. I take those poison bait tablets, cut them up, and snort them, just for the fun of it." And, with that, he slams another shot.
The third mouse slams a shot, gets up, and turns to walk away.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" ask his friends.

The third mouse stops and replies: "I'm going home to shag the cat."

Turn of the century Gaelic grave inscription

gus aM bris an là agus an teiCh na sgailean

meaning "until day breaks and the shadows flee"


Comment: Place any favorite family grave inscrpition in the comment option

two topics at once

Irish Dream recipe


1/2 oz hazelnut liqueur
1/2 oz Irish cream
3/4 oz brown creme de cacao
4 oz vanilla ice cream
1 1/2 oz whipped cream

Combine the hazelnut liqueur, irish cream, brown creme de cacao and vanilla ice cream in a blender with one cup of crushed ice.
Top with whipped cream.
Garnish with chocolate.


comment: any topic is welcomed at anytime!

some interpetations of dreams

To dream of women, foreshadows intrigue. To argue with one, foretells that you will be outwitted and foiled.

To dream that a dog fondles you, indicates great gain and constant friends.

To dream of seeing many beautiful children is portentous of great prosperity and blessings

For a woman to dream of mother, signifies pleasant duties and connubial bliss.

-- Gustavus Hindman Miller • 1901

I found a dead one!

Yep! It was laying there spread eagle along a secluded forest trail. It didn’t move upon my approach. Resting flat and stiff, the remains had all the indications of a recent encounter with a dirk bicycle, or motorized quad.

I have read (on blogs ) about the fear of accumulating dead in a desolate parts of nature. This was serious …at least for the ground toad sacrificed by modernity. The sign foretold of more demise to come in the direction of my passage!

I have been a scout, a naturalist….yes an explorer for most of my unmarried, sober life. This seemed a pure amphibicide and no accident.

My first thoughts were of reckless youths indifferent to the environmental consequences of their leisure sport. However the examination of evidence quickly said other wise.

Fact # 1. To the worn eye a rock or large toad may be indistinguishable. To the failing eye, neither would have been viewed. This suggests a lead rider of advancing age or better aged advance.

Fact # 2. The size in width of the tire marks was relatively large for a pedacycle but too small for a motorized off the road vehicle. Typical tire requirements found for an over weight load.

Fact # 3. The nature of the toad’s body position indicates compaction at a rate too slow for a competitive bike rider. Thus is confirmed that tired heavy legs were providing a barely sustainable forward trust at the time of death

Fact # 4. The rider was alone! No other marks of human passage were to be found. The culprit was unsociable in disposition perhaps even violent.

The conclusion is inescapable. This death was dealt by a late middle aged overweight (pie eating) male sociopath probably bearded and wearing out of date prescription glasses.

Any one seeing a person of this description is asked to take caution!

Dreaming on the job

A new MICHEY poll of civil servants, security guards, and transportation workers has revealed that those who say they regularily dream on the job have experienced substantial work benefits over those who do not.

The poll reports dreamers in the workplace;
1. enjoy work more,
2. find work less stressfull,
3. experience better cooperation with fellow workers,
4. family life improves while they are at work,
5. they report less problems with ED,
6. consume less pie on the job,
7. have had more career advancement,
8. tend more to become bloggers.

The MacDonald's

THE M(a)cDonald Family is among the forty-nine "best families" selected by the American Historical-Genealogical Society for whom the Society has published family histories during the past few years. The M(a)cDonald family has been prominent in the British Empire and in the United States; its members having played important roles in war and in peace. Family pride is a commendable trait and should be cultivated. All M(a)cDonalds have just cause to be proud of their family history and traditions.

In reference No. 14 we find the following regarding the origin and meaning of the name MacDonald:

The surname, MacDonald, means the son or descendant of Donald. Donald is a well-known northern personal name. By some etymologists it is thought to be derived from the Gaelic "donhuil," which means "browneyed." Others say that it comes from two Gaelic words, "domhan"-the world-and "all"-mighty. In Scotch histories of the family the name is always written Macdonald or MacDonald, while those of the clan who have come to America usually use the abbreviation, McDonald.

The clan MacDonald is certainly one of the oldest and most important in Scotland. Its chiefs descended from Somerled, Thane of Argyle, but sometimes styled King of the Isles, who flourished in the twelfth century. [See Chapter (C)].

This clan has been known for centuries for its fearlessness and bravery, and also for its ancient and unbroken lineage. It is well represented today throughout Great Britain and the United States.

~from http://www.accessgenealogy.com/

on death

I am ready to meet my maker, but whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
--Winston Churchill

All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"--a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
--Mark Twain

Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.
--William Shakespeare

Death is one of two things. Either it is annihilation, and the dead have no consciousness of anything; or, as we are told, it is really a change: a migration of the soul from one place to another.
--Socrates

The Sky's Secret (the morning after)

The morn breaks clear
and the clouds are late.
I stare up until my neck
aches from wandering;
what else is in there?
the birds seem to know.
they're quite cheerful
at this time anyway,
the brisk air whispers,
it's chasing itself again,
someone seems delighted,
Well at least I have my health.

The vast scape requires
admiration, sweet jubilation.
Oh the cleverness of this "so-
called" cunning sea of clout,
it stands for something far
more than we want to admit,
we deny it the proper
label it has so undoubtedly
deserved.
we render it with obtuse minds
and folly.

We treat it as we treat ourselves,
each other, and those lost.
without a cause.
with each drink, with each smoke
we attempt to tarnish what we have.
mine's gone, mind's gone,
goodnight.

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the Serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And Wisdom to know the difference.



Comment: Amen, even unto our dreams!

Quote on dreams

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."

-- Shakespeare ...the Tempest

Searching for Topics

Quickly to a quiet pool he trout,
There at water’s edge to perch,
His mind below loosed to fish,
Seeking place as would the minnow.

Moving past the greasy newt,
Evading as the plunging frog,
Dreams and notions bury in algae,
Topics stay concealed among the cattail.

The next topic is Dreams.

jpR

The Clean Plater

...

Pheasant is pleasant, of course,
And terrapin, too, is tasty,
Lobster I freely endorse,
In pate or patty or pasty.
But there's nothing the matter with butter,
And nothing the matter with jam,
And the warmest greetings I utter
To the ham and the yam and the clam.
For they're food,
All food,
And I think very fondly of food.
Through I'm broody at times
When bothered by rhymes,
I brood
On food.

...


Go purloin a sirloin, my pet,
If you'd win a devotion incredible;
And asparagus tips vinaigrette,
Or anything else that is edible.
Bring salad or sausage or scrapple,
A berry or even a beet.
Bring an oyster, an egg, or an apple,
As long as it's something to eat.
If it's food,
It's food;
Never mind what kind of food.
When I ponder my mind
I consistently find
It is glued
On food.

-- Ogden Nash

Umh!

1. US onion consumption is annually about 25 lbs/person.
2. US garlic consumption is annually about 3 lbs/person.
3. US annual sales in mouthwash $67 million.

My favorite food

1). Wild Mushrooms on toast
While visiting my California family, in a rustic cabin in a Redwood forest, harvested from the mossy ground moments before, sauteed in an excess of butter and served on toast points. The ocean is close by but we are surrounded, enclosed, and encapsulated by a dense wet green mass of dripping wet with occasional dark tree trunks the size of a small house.
2). Yellow fin tuna salsa with fresh tortilla chips
An miraculous leftover creation made by the chef at the restaurant where I work, served once to the kitchen staff three years ago and never again. Sushi grade tuna, chopped with fresh cilantro, lime, cumin and salt, served on tortilla slices fresh from the fryolator. Must be eaten standing up and quickly as possible in order to get as much as you can before everyone else eats it all.
3). My wedding cake
Chocolate butter cream, lemon cake, lemon curd, and fresh dahlias. What can I say. It was so beautiful and so good and I was so happy.
4). Bob's roast chicken
The one thing he really likes to cook. Olive oil massaged into the skin before roasting. We have it once a week in the fall and winter. There is no dinner conversation. Perhaps the crack and pop of wood in the wood stove and the rustle of newspaper pages turning are the perfect accompaniment.
5). Indian Pig Out with Dad
A very dangerous mission involving eating as many and as much Indian dishes you can in one sitting, including various breads, speciality drinks, chutneys and sauces. Complemented by conversations involving your future, or lack there of, with the occasional splash of irony involving how much weight you've gained and the need to take it off.
6). Macaroni and Cheese
My version is the ultimate comfort food, warning: not for the faint of heart. People have been known to gain 3-7 lbs after one sitting. For cold and snowy nights in front of the fire when the sun goes down at 4:00 and you are wearing an entire wardrobe of fleece. You're really not thinking about anything other than the warm gooey mess you are ingesting.

Competitive Eating

http://www.ifoce.com/home.php


Although it renders me speechless, the International Federation of Competitive Eating does exist in a world where every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger. My apologies for the downer...it is understood that the importance of this blog is to make better the day.

So at this point I can only resort to taking aim at my own hypocrisy which seems to know no bounds. I once downed 3 Irish Car-Bombs in the time it took my opponent to finish 1. Proof in the puddin'....see image below.

Ingredients: Combine 1 oz Baileys & 1 oz Jameson Whiskey in a shot glass. Drop the shot glass into a 2/3 full glass of Guiness Stout. Drink Immediately.


Instructions in Competitive Drinking:

1. How to Shotgun a can of beer - hold aluminum can in your left hand, while you aim a well sharpened car key in your right. Using the key, draw an imaginary line from the closed mouth of the can to approximately 1/4" from the bottom. Make 2 perpendicular stabs at this central location of the can in to form a "+" shape. proceed to push back the 4 corners to create a diamond shape hole in the can. Put mouth up to hole and pop the tab on the top of the can. proceed to gulp gulp gulp gulp... Optional: crush can over your head in triumph or simply step on can in order to maximize space in the grocery bag tied to your car bumper. (yes, you are now tailgating.)
   
   
2. How to Shotgun anything else - Find a plastic/rubber tube (clear if possible), connect to a funnel. hold both the end of the tube and the base of the funnel in one hand and pour liquid in the funnel. IMPORTANT: to avoid spills or leaks, you must esure that the middle of the tube is pinched, hence why you hold both ends of the apparatus in one hand. Optional: Plugging end of the tube with your thumb while pouring may be optimal. Once capacity is met: put your mouth around the end of the tube while raising the funnel end to the sky. commece chugging chugging chuggin...
   
   
3. Study Drinking Games - Easily could justify a seperate entry to describe each: Crazy 8's, Around the World, Flip Cup, Beer Pong, Panama, Shut the box, Roxanne (this is when you take a drink everytime Sting sings "Roxanne" in the self titled song; much harder than one would imagine), Waterfall, Quarters, Das Boot, Beirut, Power Hour.

Keep in mind the words my assistant high school bball coach used to say, "Practice doesn't make perfect... perfect practice makes perfect."

call to all bloggers

The topic of this week will be food!

Baked goods must be submitted to this site prior to all submissions...no exclusions!

Liquid recepies are to be tasted by Mikey and will posted upon verification of his survival!


jpR

Call to writers

What if JP or Mikey selected a theme for the day and we all submitted posts on that theme?

Special request to God

If there is one type of killer whale that eats only fish,
And another type that eats only seals,
then how about one type that eats only sea gulls?

Pater Noster

Our father that art in heaven
Stay there
And we will stay on the earth
Which is sometimes so lovely
With her mysteries of New York
And her mysteries of Paris
Which well equal those of the Trinity

With her little canal of Ourcq
Her great wall of China
Her river of Morlaix
Her treasures of Cambrai
With her Pacific Ocean
And her two lakes at the Tuilleries

With her good children and her bad subjects
With all the world's marvels
There
Simply on the earth
Offered to everyone
Scattered
Marveling themselves to be such marvels
And who dare not avow it
Like a pretty girl who dares not show herself

With the world's horrifying miseries
Who are legion
With their legionnaires
With their tortureres
With the masters of this world
The masters with their priests and their traitors

With the seasons
With the years
With the pretty girls and the old bastards
With the straw of misery rotting in the steel of cannons.

~ Jacques Prevert

Believe It!

"Too much of anything is bad,
But too much whiskey is barely enough."

-- Mark Twain

Jimmy V's ESPY Speech

Thank you, Thank you very much. Thank you. That's the lowest I've ever seen Dick Vitale since the owner of the Detroit Pistons called him in and told him he should go into broadcasting.

The I can't tell you what an honor it is, to even be mentioned in the same breath with Arthur Ashe. This is something I certainly will treasure forever. But, as it was said on the tape, and I also don't have one of those things going with the cue cards, so I'm going to speak longer than anybody else has spoken tonight. That's the way it goes. Time is very precious to me. I don't know how much I have left and I have some things that I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I will have said something that will be important to other people too.

But, I can't help it. Now I'm fighting cancer, everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how's your day, and nothing is changed for me. As Dick said, I'm a very emotional and passionate man. I can't help it. That's being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we kiss, we love. When people say to me howdo you get through life or each day, it's the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.

I rode on the plane up today with Mike Krzyzewski, my good friend and wonderful coach. People don't realize he's ten times a better person than he is a coach, and we know he's a great coach. He's meant a lot to me in these last five or six months with my battle. But when I look at Mike, I think, we competed against each other as players. I coached against him for fifteen years, and I always have to think about what's important in life to me are these three things. Where you started, where you are and where you're going to be. Those are the three things that I try to do every day. When I think about getting up and giving a speech, I can't help it. I have to remember the first speech I ever gave.

I was coaching at Rutgers University, that was my first job, oh that's wonderful (reaction to applause), and I was the freshman coach. That's when freshmen played on freshman teams, and I was so fired up about my first job. I see Lou Holtz here. Coach Holtz, who doesn't like the very first job you had? The very first time you stood in the locker room to give a pep talk. That's a special place, the locker room, for a coach to give a talk. So my idol as a coach was Vince Lombardi, and I read this book called "Commitment To Excellence" by Vince Lombardi. And in the book, Lombardi talked about the fist time he spoke before his Green Bay Packers team in the locker room, and they were perennial losers. I'm reading this and Lombardi said he was thinking should it be a long talk, or a short talk? But he wanted it to be emotional, so it would be brief. So here's what I did. Normally you get in the locker room, I don't know, twenty-five minutes, a half hour before the team takes the field, you do your little x and o's, and then you give the great Knute Rockne talk. We all do. Speech number eight-four. You pull them right out, you get ready. You get your squad ready. Well, this is the first one I ever gave and I read this thing. Lombardi, what he said was he didn't go in, he waited. His team wondering, where is he? Where is this great coach? He's not there. Ten minutes he's still not there. Three minutes before they could take the field Lombardi comes in, bangs the door open, and I think you all remember what great presence he had, great presence. He walked in and he walked back and forth, like this, just walked, staring at the players. He said, "All eyes on me." I'm reading this in this book. I'm getting this picture of Lombardi before his first game and he said "Gentlemen, we will be successful this year, if you can focus on three things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers." They knocked the walls down and the rest was history. I said, that's beautiful. I'm going to do that. Your family, your religion and Rutgers basketball. That's it. I had it. Listen, I'm twenty-one years old. The kids I'm coaching are nineteen, and I'm going to be the greatest coach in the world, the next Lombardi. I'm practicing outside of the locker room and the managers tell me you got to go in. Not yet, not yet, family, religion, Rutgers Basketball. All eyes on me. I got it, I got it. Then finally he said, three minutes, I said fine. True story. I go to knock the doors open just like Lombardi. Boom! They don't open. I almost broke my arm. Now I was down, the players were looking. Help the coach out, help him out. Now I did like Lombardi, I walked back and forth, and I was going like that with my arm getting the feeling back in it. Finally I said, "Gentlemen, all eyes on me." These kids wanted to play, they're nineteen. "Let's go," I said. "Gentlemen, we'll be successful this year if you can focus on three things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers," I told them. I did that. I remember that. I remember where I came from.

It's so important to know where you are. I know where I am right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it.

I talked about my family, my family's so important. People think I have courage. The courage in my family are my wife Pam, my three daughters, here, Nicole, Jamie, LeeAnn, my mom, who's right here too..... That screen is flashing up there "thirty seconds" like I care about that screen right now, huh? I got tumors all over my body. I'm worried about some guy in the back going thirty seconds? You got a lot, hey va fa napoli, buddy. You got a lot.

I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm," to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality.

Now I look at where I am now and I know what I want to do. What I would like to be able to do is spend whatever time I have left and to give, and maybe, some hope to others. Arthur Ashe Foundation is a wonderful thing, and AIDS, the amount of money pouring in for AIDS is not enough, but is significant. But if I told you it's ten times the amount that goes in for cancer research. I also told you that five hundred thousand people will die this year of cancer. I also tell you that one in every four will be afflicted with this disease, and yet somehow, we seem to have put it in a little bit of the background. I want to bring it back on the front table. We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children's lives. It may save someone you love. And ESPN has been so kind to support me in this endeavor and allow me to announce tonight, that with ESPN's support, which means what? Their money and their dollars and they're helping me-we are starting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. And it's motto is "Don't give up, don't ever give up." That's what I'm going to try to do every minute that I have left. I will thank God for the day and the moment I have. If you see me, smile and give me a hug. That's important to me too. But try if you can to support, whether it's AIDS or the cancer foundation, so that someone else might survive, might prosper and might actually be cured of this dreaded disease. I can't thank ESPN enough for allowing this to happen. I'm going to work as hard as I can for cancer research and hopefully, maybe, we'll have some cures and some breakthroughs. I'd like to think, I'm going to fight my brains out to be back here again next year for the Arthur Ashe recipient. I want to give it next year!

I know, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and I said it before, and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.

I thank you and God bless you all.


~Jim Valvano died 2 months later.

Shall we have emotions in heaven?

Our deceased family members are in heaven…surely most are. The bible tells us, there “all share happiness, peace, and joy.” Indeed our hope is to participate in this eternal reward. This brings forth a more formal understanding of everlasting life.

1. Proposition:
Souls that have made the journey Home retain their emotions. That is to say, our feelings are not abandoned to the grave.

Proof:
Joy is an emotion, as are peace and happiness shown by all in heaven according to God’s own word.
Souls that have left this world shared such emotions while on earth
Thus all souls entering God’s Kingdom continue their emotions.
QED

2. Corollary:
Anger and sadness are emotions to be found in heaven.

Proof:
Anger and sadness are emotions to be found in people on earth.
People on earth retain their emotions.
Hence all souls in heaven share anger and sadness.
QED

By definition, heaven is the fount of ceaseless joy and therefore can never be the cause of distress or suffering. Hence the cause of anguish to those in heaven must be those souls who remain on Earth. Our prayers for those in heaven are not sufficient. Our goodness is required as well. Amen!


jpR

My first and last motorcycle ride

I was twenty
He was the guy all of my friends wanted to sleep with

He lived in an old house on the hill
With all the other members of a band called
“Strawberry Jam”

It was a simple matter of needing to get from one place to the next
There was no pretense of romance
And yet here I was,
The chosen one.

I can still feel the drumming beat of my heart
As we pulled out into the winding asphalt
And I lived, for once in my life,
Purely in the moment

Inhaling his smell of sweat and tobacco
Clinging desperately to his wiry frame
Watching ribbons of green trees fly by.

Later that night, when I stopped again to remember the ride
I also added it to my mental list
Of ways in which I had disobeyed my father.

a joke

"9W"
Answer to the question: Do you spell your name with a V, Mr. Vagner?
- Steve Allen

Palabras (for La Diosa)

Here it is almost ready to rain

It is as if the weather would begin
a long sentence

but keeps stalling over the first few words -

a drop here, three drops, a little wind

Then, a moment later, the manic stutter of cicadas
who are desperate to explain their thing for trees

but somehow stick on that one odd syllable.
It is this way at times.

A man keeps tapping the tip of his nose,
his brain tensed like a spider,
but what's the use? All sense runs away.

It's as if every word were a roach
and the need to speak
like turning on the kitchen light.

Let's say, for example, that I love you
and must tell you why.

Your eyes... see what I mean?

The taste of your mouth...

Do you see how I sweat?

Your fingers. The fields.
The fine, fine weave of your skin.
I want to say so much about so much.

It's as if my heart were crammed with grapes -

each of which I would slip inside you,
then savor lazily, lying under a willow
while the long shade wrapped its legs around me.

Of course I talk like this now - my heart
is swollen with grapes,

grapes I would steer carefully with my lips
up and over the Aztec-brown swerves de tus nalgas

grapes I would squeeze then sip
from the tiny chalice of your navel
while God held both of us in Her all-knowing mouth.

Now everyone wants to question my appropriateness.
I can even feel my parents, faraway, squinting
and crossing their arms.

But how can I not say that I'm saying?
Because of you and your witch's talk, woman

my heart is a grape - big as a man -
a grape full of gasoline, a grape so thoroughly grown

it would be a zeppelin
if it didn't walk around all day
writing its hands -

a grape that wears glasses, a grape
that breaks chairs, a grape that mumbles
with its mouth full of chips,
a frape so well hidden in itself
that it has disappeared entirely.

and then come these words

all at once, as if from nowhere

like a storm.

-Tim Seibels, from Hammerlock (1999)

No More Night

”No more night. No more pain.
No more tears. Never crying again.
And praises to the great I AM.
We will live in the light of the risen Lamb.”

-- Walt Harrah



Sung best by David Phelps

Dreaming about surfing

I am where
there is no air
and seaweed is my hair

feet over head
and head over feet
repeat

and then I see
ahead of me
the light of day

I rise from the froth of the salty stew
breathless and new

The Mad Ones

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”

~ Jack Kerouac

Do not fill all empty spaces!!!!!

Unfilled spaces make proper placing,
For vacant thoughts to be collecting,
These though dire upon a testing,
Be good to have for litigating.

More harm has come from a good thought misused by a malicious spouse.

jpR

Song of the Gardener's wife (or I am the canning Queen )

What is hotter than the beating sun on an August afternoon,

What is richer than the lush,heavy, green of the garden- full of life, buttereflies, birds,bunnies and the slugs... oh, the slugs

Who is prized more than the gardener- laboring, watching, coaxing the soil's gift,

What brings more memories than the bittersweet rhubarb- summers and pies of the past,

Can this all be captured in a glass jar, placed on a shelf where it waits for winter and then it's promise is released, savored, uncomparable to what other things we call "food",

How grateful am I for the chance to share this taste, this season, this bounty

to the thought of Mrs. Erin McDonald

Like all great things, we were an accident. We weren’t supposed to end up together, but like John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when your busy making other plans.” Despite being in front of each other’s face for so long, we finally found ourselves and continued to grow together in love through the hard times and the good.

I want to marry you because you completely erased any notion I had about what being in love means. Your love is completely unconditional. It doesn’t come with parameters. Your love makes me feel like I will never be alone in anything I do. More importantly, you let me be myself. You let me be a person that my friends and family love & understand.

I want to marry you because we think with 2 different sides of the brain. I get excited about what you have to say about any subject because I know it will differ from mine, right or wrong. I love the fact that I either love or hate the music you listen to and vice versa. There is no indifference with us. We are equally passionate about the way we feel about life and sometimes I can picture our thoughts waving to each other as they pass by in opposite directions. You are a thinker first and I am talker first, and that analogy can be related to almost anything we experience together.

I want to marry you because I know you are a good person. You work hard, you play hard and you never settle. You will be a great wife and a great mother. You come from a wonderful family whose love and generosity is unmatched. I know I will be a good husband and father because of the challenges met by mine. I know you will be a good wife and mother because of the strength of yours. You are a beautiful person, inside and out.

I want to marry you because like me you are totally and utterly mad.

I want to marry you because of all these reasons and more. Because being with you feels like home. Our relationship is stronger than any wickedness that life will throw at us, our trust more deeply rooted than anyone’s desire to break it.

I will love you, always.

God’s Pests

Spring’s creeper comes from the deeper,
Summer’s buzzes come from wraps of fuzzes,
Fall’s croonings come in gloomings,
Winter’s seekers head for heaters,
They by beaks to nests are welcomed.

Bugs out number us!


jpR

FULL MOON PRAYER

"We thank the Moon and the stars,
who give us their light when the Sun retires....
We thank the Great Spirit, incarnation of all kindness,
who directs all things for the good of Its children."

— - an Iroquois prayer

the dentist

"Some tortures are physical
And some are mental,
But the one that is both
Is dental."
~Ogden Nash

advice on a husband

“Get thee a good husband and use him as he uses thee”
-- William Shakespeare

More Art Linkletter

Art asked a little girl how she helped her mother.
She said, "I help her make toast for breakfast."
He said, "Tell us what you do."
She said, "Well, you take a piece of bread and you put it in a kind of machine there. Of course, I'm not big enough to flush it."

Quote

"Political correctness is tyranny with manners."
-- Charlton Heston

why hope

"Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises; and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits."
- - Shakespeare

Mikey

You are as welcome
as the rain to end the drought,
as the wind to lift the heat,
as the flowers that bring the spring,
as the toddler to a father's arms.


The rules are listed along with the blog's name.
You be doing real good!

jpR

marriage

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
-- Socrates

from a student

"87% of all statistics are made up."

-- Daniel Fiore

In response to an inquiry regarding copyright

Of course of course Michael, you can use it as you please, But there are a few legal stipulations. Please read the fine print:

*The above forewording may not be recreated, re-represented, and/or relicensed in a manner that does not directly institute one of the following motives of republication: Wooing and/or poetic impression upon susceptible female parties, being presented as evidence in a casual or formal debate upon whether one party has indeed been bestowed with the divine talent of literal expression, or insertion into a verse of one's own at a location where it would fit better than pair of fresh nikes on a gypsy's foot.*

Love

Briefly It Enters, and Briefly It Speaks

by Jane Kenyon


I am blossom pressed in a book,
found again after two hundred years...

I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper...

When the young girl who starves
sits down to a table
she will sit beside me...

I am the food on the prisoner's plate...

I am water rushing to the wellhead,
filling the pitcher until it spills...

I am the patient gardener
of the dry and weedy garden...

I am the stone step,
the latch, and the working hinge...

I am the heart contracted by joy...
the longest hair, white
before the rest...

I am there in the basket of fruit
presented to the widow...

I am the musk rose opening
unattended, the fern on the boggy summit...

I am the one whose love
overcomes you, already with you
when you think to call my name...

A story for and from any rambling boys abound

(from a windy mountaintop in Conemarra)


During my restful homebound days, I paint the road abroad
a green of grasses fences divide
some sheen of unattained...
let the tongue of travel unravel, let me crawl from this mouth of rest
eager to pave a road of love with bricks of lust I am sure
through dark desert, over mountains I will pace,
I will make it to the mirage, that novel glisten that miles could not distance.
but on arrival it seems that these hedonistic wings have fanned
flames to embers and drooled hot coals to cool.
So beware when feeding the rambling soul, rambling man beware
don't go digging graves and forgo gold for glistens in the distance
know that some mirages melt in hands, are only candy for the soul
learn to moderate a lustful binge, dont go dulling eyes familiar.
because that thirsty tickle
might turn to a numb rub
and at last a callous separates you from the touch that you once loved.



- Ev







Don't let the reflective verse give the wrong imdpression, I am having a great time!!

RELUCTANCE

....
Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?

__ Rober Frost

Novena to St Gerard Majella

Recite this prayer for nine days to the Patron of expecting mothers.


Almighty and Eternal God,
we thank you for the gift of St.Gerard
and the example of his life.
Because St. Gerard always had complete faith and trust in you,
you blessed him with great powers of help and healing.
Through him, you showed your loving concern
for all those who suffered or were in need.
You never failed to hear his prayer on their behalf.
Today, through St. Gerard's powerful intercession,
you continue to show your love
for all those who place their trust in you.
And so, Father, full of faith and confidence,
and in thanksgiving for all the wonderful things
you have done for us,
we place ourselves before you today.
Through the intercession of St. Gerard,
hear our prayers and petitions,
and if it is your holy will,
grant them.

Amen.

A letter home from an Irish son

"Mother, father, brother,
All is well with me
and I write to remind you if
ever your homebound hearts
envy my youthfully spontaneous
longitudinal disparity, Keep in mind
this path of mine has cut not across
a place so fine as the stead
where you now pass the time.
There's no place like home
Love-EV"


Posted for the family so that all may enjoy it's richness

a poem for today

i thank you God for this amazing day by e.e. cummings


i thank you God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Bilingual-Bible Study

Puedo hacer todo a través de él que me dé fuerza.
(I can do everything through Him who strengthens me.)
Philippians 4:13

Un hombre no vive en el pan solamente.
(Man doth not live on bread alone)
Deuteronomy 8:3

The worth of a spouse

Is not held in pounds Sterling,
Is not scaled in earthly stores,
Is not ledgered in labor saved.

Is a welcomed caress,
Is a healing word,
Is faithfulness that does not wane.


jpR

Disclaimer: The author is not responsible nor will he indemnify any and all liabilities for a reader's encounter with an angry "significant other" now or any time in the future.

Prayer During Pregnancy

"Through morning sickness,
Deliver this child in good health to me.

Through mood swings,
Deliver this child in good health to me.

Through added pounds,
Deliver this child in good health to me.

Through swelling ankles,
Deliver this child in good health to me.

Through heartburn,
Deliver this child in good health to me.

Through unknown fears,
Deliver this child in good health to me.

Through labor pains,
Deliver this child in good health to me."

Patricia Hauze

Anthem ~ Leonard Cohen

Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in...

A Thought for the future

"The good we gather today will provide a smile tomorrow."

jpR

The Blessings of July

Warm nights,
Sunny days,
Blue sky with patches of white,
The fawn loses it's spots,
Butterflies are endless in sight,
The garden and orchards bear fresh rewards,
The children's play is intense,
Pinics abound,
The campers are in the woods,
Families live outside,
Young love has a start.


jpR

Today's run

I am going to run out an old railroad spur for some eight (8) miles today. The line was placed there for use in the local coal digs. Those mines have not been used for fifty (50) years or more.

There had been a great many underground cuts created well before the turn of the century. Too many shaft locations were never reoorded or lost. There's coal left below the surface but it's too dangerous to mine!

Nature has over grown the land and uses the stilled path for her own needs. Lots of undisturbed wilderness is to be enjoyed by the adventurer.

One can't help reall the earliest time in the old coal fields. Just a small pile of coal dust may be found where once great steam locamotives and heavy shovels roared around the clock.

Maybe a ghost or two is about the place? No one has camped there as long as I can recall.

Our country was built on such labor. Coal from these fields was used in the production of weapons during the Civil War. It is a place of honor.

Great fun ahead!

jpR

Little boy with globes of play

Little boys of playing age will upon encountering a ball in any size begin to play. They will kick, hit, throw, and chase with delight any sphere presented.

Their enthusiasm for such sport is universal and needs no introduction or instruction save that for safety’s sake. Hence the call arises from the mother to “Take that thing outside!”

The intensity of play is increased exponentially by adding a second boy into the contest. Indeed, want neither of food nor drink will assuage the frantic pace of struggle to control the ball away from another contestant.

Passing time or failing sunlight will not affect the small boys’ intent. The ball dominates, possesses, and owns the children’s life.

Only the mother’s persistent concern over damage from dehydration and starvation will end the boy’s game with the ball. Excessive sweat, thirst, and exhaustion are part of the small boy’s reward. His early retirement to slumber is the mother’s gain.

jpR

Dedicated to my big sons who yet play with orbs of sport.

Three Fawns

Three fawns emerge from wooded lay,
On to open pasture to romp and play.

Stopping in seize heads lift to peek,
Source of fresh sound and image seek.

Newly born senses shorten the look,
Allows my check to be closer took.

With peace and joy the three behave,
Until beauteous mother enters to save.

Dashing full flight from off the floor,
Into the thicket all to be seen no more.

A part of such misadventures lend,
To old eyes delight of share in pretend.

jpR

Dedicated to those elderly woodsmen who may follow the deer no more.

A caution to those of us who pray

Prayers we send to God in suplication, e.g. "God send me XYZ to end this need" may actually be answered with a WTZ. Thus God offers us His covenant.

Take care least we offen God by refusing His choice as not the XYZ of our request.

If we pray then we believe,
we trust,
and we must accept.

Amen!


jpR

More Independence Day Stuff

There are only six (6) or so WWI vets alive around the world today.

My mother's uncle serve in the US Army in WWI as a medic in a hospital in France. He never saw a trench or any combat. He lived to be over 100 years old.

Thanks to all those who served!

jpR

The 4th of July

I hope everyone will celebrate this day in some way and say thanks to all who struggled and struggle for our Independence.

My father served with Patton's 3rd army in WWII. He was wounded. Dad is gone now but this day he is recalled as the young boy who lied about his age and went to war at age 15!


My son's favorite holiday..."because there are fire works and I don't have to buy anyone a present."


A best present may come in the form of a family visit!

jpR

Our Mother's Hold

Once tiny hands raised for mother's lift,
Two hearts would beat in one embrace.

Now hands open into heaven's closing reach,
Where mother's hold in waiting meets.

To share our mother's final days,
To console her in affection's wrap,
To comfort her moment's need,
To see her grave made full,
Is a blessing both beautiful and complete.

jpR


Dedicated to those who now attend their mother's end.

The basic REs

Re..member that you are a good person and have worth,
Re..call the best of moments with family and friends,
Re..assert your values now and tomorrow,
Re..affirm the traditions of your faith,
Re..spond with the same compassion we desire from others,
Re..place bad habits with better ones,
Re..store belief in your abilities as they are never lost,
Re..make a bad day into a fine one,
Re..fuse to let disappointment win,
Re..gain hope for tomorrow,
Re..visit old friends,
Re..pair strained relationships,
Re..live past success so as to invite more,
Re..start your enthusiasm for life,
Re..late to those who suffer,
Re..tract offense with apology,
Re..take living in a healthy way,
Re..peat prayers,
Re..turn insult with kindness,
Re..lease inhibitions.
These REs will bring you to a greater peace and joy.

jpR