Blessings and Profanities!

It's amazing how these two things can go so closely together...

Readers will know that The Emmer got her driver's license last week after many years of trying. Back in the recesses of my mind, I was preparing myself for the inevitable "learning experience" that every new driver has. In other words, I was prepared to suffer the loss of a vehicle somewhere along the line. For that reason I have been babying a 1995 Ford Contour for the last 11 years. My older daughter took that car to college and had her own "learning experience" on it which resulted in an unrepaired dent on the front hood. It was great basic transportation and was beloved by the family.

You will note the past tense verb "was". My loss was not exactly the way I pictured it.

Yesterday afternoon The Emmer and The Bride were headed to a hair appointment. The Emmer was driving and made a legal left turn...with a green turn arrow...and got broadsided on the passenger side by a young seventeen year old who ran a red light.

Blessings are that no one was hurt. This is truly a blessing because the Contour appears to be a total loss. The passenger side was pushed in over 12", windows broken, frame bent. The Bride was in the passenger seat and the impact shoved her into the center console. The emergency crew had to take her out the driver's door. She was sent to the emergency room of the local hospital as a precaution and fortunately all scans were negative for internal injuries. The Emmer was also unharmed. She walked away with a couple of bruises on her left side from being jammed against the driver's door.

Profanities are that in any U.S. metropolitan area now driving is DANGEROUS. It's the I attitude of people when they get behind the wheel. I..I should be first in line. I should not have to wait on anyone. I don't care about the other guy.

If you can believe this....As I was watching the tow truck winch my car out of the intersection a young woman in an SUV was clearly agitated at being delayed at getting around the accident. She glared at us, honked her horn, and as soon as she was by the broken glass...floored the accelerator and squealed by! Unfortunately by this time the police had already left the scene.

Profanities are, that even though I have good insurance, nothing can make me whole. I have to replace that vehicle with something and even if I replace it with a similar make and model the difference between insurance value and retail value will be several thousand dollars...And then I'll have to pay sales and licensing taxes too.

When I really stop and think however, blessings always trump profanities and in the game of life, this time, I had the winning hand. My family is safe.

Thanks for visiting.

Driving Miss Emily

Dawn broke cloudy and cool. A pleasant change from the oppressing heat of the past few days...but was this a sign? If so, what did the sign mean....cloudy is maybe not a good sign....not oppressively hot could be a good sign?????

Today was the day that The Emmer was going to attempt her driving test for the third time. Signs could be an important thing on this important day! Was it a sign? What did it mean?

The Emmer has the skills to drive. She understands the rules of the road. She is however, terrible at tests. Once her confidence is shaken, she crumbles. She knows this and understands this but hasn't been able to shake this trait. Can she hold it together enough today to pass the driving test? If she can't she has to start all over again and do both the written and the driving test. We...The Emmer, The Bride and myself, "his-self", have been working at this for almost eight years now.

Dang it, I want it to be a good sign. I want The Emmer to have her driving license. I want her to have the freedom that having a driver's license gives.

We leave the house at about 9am with The Emmer driving, towards the licensing office. The Emmer is asking a few road rules questions just to be sure everything is clear. She is nervous. Anyone can tell she is nervous. The closer we get to the licensing office the more erratic her driving becomes.

I'm doing everything in my power to calm her down. She can do this thing I say. They are not out to trick you or make it hard for you. All you have to do is stay calm. When the tester tells you to do something, repeat it in your mind first. If you don't understand ask her to repeat it. It will take 20 minutes...max...You've done a lot harder things for a lot longer. You can do this thing!

State Driver's Licensing Offices are not pleasant places. They are not designed to calm anyone down. I must not understand the system. There must be an office where the "regular" people go because this one seems to be reserved for the dregs of society. I don't see one normal person here......Calm down I tell myself, you'll spook The Emmer.

After an interminable wait, it's The Emmer's turn. I walk away. I have no more influence. It's out of my hands now.....Hang in there Emmer...You can do this thing!

I have been in very serious situations where time seemed to slow to a crawl. Strangely, this was not one of those times. It seemed like The Emmer had just pulled out of the parking lot and was back immediately! The sinking feeling in my gut............oh, that's not good at all.....I couldn't see into the car from where I stood but I imagined The Emmer was crying after all why was it taking so long for them to get out of the car?

Finally, I saw the doors of the car open slowly, The Emmer looked around to find me and when she finally saw me standing half a block away.....smiled and screamed "DAD, I PASSED!". She continued screaming "DAD, I PASSED!" as she ran across the parking lot, past all the retards, low lifes and dregs waiting their turn. She got to me and hugged me tight.....I'm a father and life is good!!!

Congratulations, Emmer!

Thanks for visiting.

Wild Life---NOT

Saturday night and I'm sittin' here thinking about the wild life...well, maybe not "wild life", that stuff is behind me now, but wildlife. Not only wildlife but just being back out in "The World".

When I was in VietNam, everything outside of that place was referred to as "The World". I kinda have that feeling about my career now. I realize that one phase of my life is rapidly winding down and things in my career that once seemed really important....don't anymore. I'm really looking forward to getting back to "The World". The World is filled with things I have rushed by for 35 years. Things that I wanted to know about and to do. Things that had to be relegated to a very low priority because of the "career" thing. It won't be all that long now, before that ole priority list gets turned upside down!

"What's got into his-self" you say? Ah, I don't know? I think I read too many full-timing RV blogs today. Some of my favorites are "Tioga & George", "Our Odyssey", "Nick's Blog", "Len's Travels", and "RV Boondocking the Good Life". There are tons of others as well but all of them get me to thinkin' and dreamin'.

I doubt if The Bride and I will ever do full-timing, but I can certainly see myself taking extended trips several times a year. Seeing as how The Bride still has that "career" thing she kind of expects me to explore some....as long as it's "wildlife" and not "wild life".....if you catch my drift.

Dang, if this didn't turn into a stream of consciousness thing. I originally intended to post some "fauna" kind of stuff that #4 and I saw on our trip. Well, here they are.















And.....



































And my favorite from this trip.....................

Thanks for visiting.

Mom's Hail Marys

This week business once again takes me to the Providence RI area. The trip here and the trip back takes a whole day traveling, each way, because there are no direct flights and I have to connect in Chicago. So it’s a whole day sitting on an airplane or waiting for an airplane. I normally use this time to do “recreational” reading….non-business related reading that is.

I’m currently reading “If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name” by Heather Lende. The author is a social columnist and obituary writer for a small local newspaper in Haines, Alaska. I got it because I was looking for a good…but easy read as a counterpoint to my normal western history readings.

It is a good read and easy as well, but it had an unexpected consequence for me. Some of the chapters describe the obituaries, no not the obituaries, the people the author wrote the obituaries about. Haines, Alaska is a very small town and the author knew most of the people she wrote the obituaries for. It’s soulful content. Reading it I couldn’t help thinking of the people I knew who have died.

One chapter is not about an obituary but about the Catholic Rosary. The author is not a Catholic but an Episcopalian. She somehow became interested in the Catholic Rosary and as she said, “a prayer is a prayer”. Anyhow, she describes what she learned about the Rosary and the different prayers associated with it. The Hail Mary is the most prominent of the prayers contained in the Rosary. She concluded that the Rosary is more like a “mantra” than praying to God. The simple repetition provides a meditative calmness.

I consider myself a “cultural” Catholic. I was raised in a strict Catholic household. So strict that when I struck out on my own, I ceased active participation in Catholicism….or any organized religion for that matter. My mother was a devout Catholic. She died about eight months ago. It wasn’t an easy death and I sat with her several days before she died knowing the end was near. On several occasions as I sat alone with her she would become lucid and pray the Hail Mary out loud. Even though I hadn’t said that prayer in years, I prayed out loud with her. I think it helped her in the “mantra” sort of way the author described. I thought of her as I read the book and wept a little.

I don’t want this post to be a sad thing however, remembering is a good thing. Someone said that you live as long as you are remembered. So to balance things off here’s a good remembrance. The picture below shows my mother and her four boys in St. Marks Plaza in Venice, Italy in about 1958. I was about 11 years old at the time. I’m the one on the right with the camera bag. My older brother stands to the left of my mother and my next younger brother squats to the left of him.

You will note this brother (referred to by the whole family as “The Rotten One” even today) is staring intently at my mother and older brother who have pigeons eating from their hands. Either my older brother or I had just bet him twenty-five cents that he couldn’t catch a pigeon. “The Rotten One” is kinda like “Mikey” of commercial fame. When you wanted to get someone to try something you always asked/told/bet “Mikey” because “Mikey will eat ANYTHING!” So too with “The Rotten One”.

Shortly after this picture was taken, “The Rotten One” figured out that if you put the feed in your hand and got the pigeon to perch on your hand and were quick enough with your hand, you could grab the pigeon by the feet.

Pigeons thusly grabbed…with wings and head free can make a tremendous racket while spreading a lot of feathers and pigeon poop. We know this first hand (pun intended).

In 1958 Americans were still the heroes of the free world. We were loved and respected especially in Italy. The ugly American had not yet matured….but he was right there with a pigeon in his hand. I’m sure my mother said a Hail Mary for “The Rotten One” that day.

Thanks for visiting.

Cid69 Philosophy 101

I was reading the blog “Backroad Chronicles” last night and Joy was describing their visit to the Strong Hearts Native Society Pow Wow. She said that she could now “mark off another item on “life’s list of things to do””.

Someone told me long ago that “crossing off something on life’s list” was a very negative way to think about things. Crossing things off a list implies that the list is finite and at some point there would be nothing left on the list. What happens to life then? Is it over?

A much more positive approach would be to add something new to our list of life experiences. Think about it. This way the number of experiences can be infinite. I certainly realize that my time on earth is not infinite but I prefer that the opportunity to experience new things is.

Muffler Man and philosophy…this guy is DEEP!

Thanks for visiting.