What Happened??

I'm at a total loss - so much so that it took me a week to dare tap out this entry.  Something unheard of occurred, it might be a trick though, but either way, my siblings and I all had a wonderful, raucous, musical, VERY happy and grateful Thanksgiving!  A few mishaps (my sister Karen sat on the dog's head, he's a tiny thing poor guy) then she slipped in the dip and flopped on the floor (wine?).  We celebrate Thanksgiving at my brother Chris' house, he has the room and the fortitude.  He'd just finished repairing both bathrooms, they were stunning, but the flush was one of those super-sonic things.  My other brother Sean came running out screaming the toilet ate his shoe.  My sister Marianne said it tore the fuzz off her arse.  My other sister Linda thought it was magic (she lives in Maine) and by the way she has saline implants and was the victim of such ribbing about how silly it was, so after her 5th beer she flashed us all.  It was interesting and shut my brothers up real fast, but somewhere in my mind I kept hearing "fake, not healthy".  The oldest Marianne, who moved back here after almost 40 years in Canada (to preserve her sanity) attempted the usual "Let me give you my foolproof advice here" with that "alpha female" thing she has.  It can be annoying after you've already grown up and learned about life long ago, all done without her presence.  So when she started to lecture Linda (the boob girl from Maine) well, it was no-go.  Linda shot back with some great retorts, and Marianne realized something - she had an epiphany.  She could relax now!  No more "eldest child syndrome".  I really think our family is finally discovering their places in life.   

The table GROANED with food, courtesy of my SIL Penny, and as is tradition we digested by jamming out a few good tunes - me on piano, Chris on violin, my brother John on guitar, Sean on drums, Linda on maracas and her bluesy voice, Marianne with the tambourine, and poor Karen just spouting wine-induced nonsense, it was a riot and we had a blast.  We rocked, Karen rolled, did R & B stuff and of course all the oldies from the 50s my Dad taught me.  I can't remember a Thanksgiving this perfect.

There's just one catch:  We have no parents now, and I could sense those silent sighs of relief because we'd realized long before that we wouldn't be tearing out our few hairs trying to care for aging, prolongingly-ill parents.  No child is really up to it, besides you want your most loved ones to get their arses back to God asap, if it's their time. 

So with thoughts of Mom and Dad, we celebrated like nothing else, and there was no guilt whatsoever that they weren't there.  We know we'll never see them as they once were, but they're always with us and it's time to make a tradition of our own now.  Even with all that wine.  We allowed ourselves to let go, something we never could do together before (we hid on Holidays), and to our happy surprise, it was a memorable experience, a keepsake time.

I think I'm finally feelling grateful for Thanksgiving. 

      

A Very Happy Thanksgiving!!

To all the brave souls getting ready to overdose on tryptophane and cranberries, I salute as I join you, and personally express my gratitude to each and every one of the irreplaceable friends I've made here in this new Land.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

They Know Where You've Been

I always knew hackers had ways to "follow your online footprints" but this one is different:  Did you know the government has a contract with the largest search engines, Google and Yahoo, to KEEP and SAVE their records (records of where you've been on the net) for use in government concerns?  I can understand certain "concerns" i.e., an IP address that continually searches for bomb-making materials and instructions, or child-porn sites, but there's an air of "commerce" I sense.  This is for advertisement advancement, I'd say.  The large companies who lobby in Washington like Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, etc., all the giants who want even larger profits, are logging where we've been on the net and noting this information for use in sending us the spam that drives us nuts. 

As legal as it may be, there's something sinister lurking in all this to my mind.  It's not the excess adverts that bother me, it's the privacy we lose, the right to it which is yours the moment you're born in this country.  What a laugh haha.  The Fed has contracted to have your web prints catalogued and examined, all to better bombard you with spam?  It's got to be much more than that, and though I'm pro-security when it involves the excess of information available on the net, does anyone really think our government knows where to draw the line, when to pull in the reins?  I don't, I think they go way too far in "watching over our needs" huh it's more like just plain spying. 

Maybe they miss the cold war atmosphere - I don't.    

Perfectly Useful Bumper Stickers

By now you've heard of my friend Jerry.  He'd like me to laugh even more, so I thought I'd share the yuks.  These are great bumper stickers, take a read:

I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.

WANTED:  Meaningful overnight relationship.

You're just jealous because the voices only talk to MEEE!

Beer - not just for breakfast anymore.

And beauty is still in the eye of the beer-holder.

All men are idiots and I married the king.

The longer you complain, the longer God makes you live.

Hard work has future payoff.  Laziness pays off NOW.

Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs.

As long as there are tests, there'll be prayer in public schools.

Hang up and drive!

God must love stupid people - look at them all!

I said "no" to drugs, they didn't listen.

Smile, it's the 2nd best thing you can do with your lips.

I took an I.Q. test, the results were negative.  Whew!

Where there's a Will . . . . . .  I want to be in it.

Consciousness:  that annoying time between naps.

Always remember you're unique - just like everybody else.

I don't have a license to kill, only a learner's permit.

Alcohol and calculous don't mix:  never drink and derive.

If we are what we eat, I'm cheap, fast and easy.

My wife keeps complaining I never listen - or something.

Jack Kervorkian for White House physician!

If you can read this, I can hit my brakes and sue you.

EARTH FIRST!  We'll strip-mine the other planets later.

Madness takes its toll.  Please have exact change.

Who were the testers for Preparations A thru G?

Keep honking so I can re-load.

Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

         and the worst, most rude of all:

Have a nice day! 

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Reaping What You Sow

How truly nice of you who worried for my safety!  Thank you!   But of course as you may know, the tornado got "wind" of New Jersey and decided to fade out, never visiting my State, I should be more grateful somehow.  Speaking of things that go awry, the FDA has lifted the ban on silicone breast implants.  Remember the class action suit against Dow Chemical which bankrupted that particular chemical giant?  What's changed?  If anything it's the introduction of more research results showing the harmful effects on the auto-immune system not the mention cancer due to leaking implants. They leak.  My sister went ahead a few years ago and had saline implaints stuffed into her perfect body (which had already won awards for fitness in Maine).  She just felt under-"something", less than "something" I don't know.  If larger breasts would somehow instill more self-assurance well then, who am I to criticize?  She felt she was being safe, even though I explained how the bags they insert are constructed of silicone, even though they pump saline into them once placed.  (Is this turning off any male-type persons?  Beg pardon, but whatever affects women will eventually sit at your doorstep - and sometimes wallet).  

Why do we need these back?  After all that exhaustive research, double blind testing, and the victims themselves completely scarred - need anyone be reminded of Jenny Jones, the talk-show hostess?  She was brave enough to show the world what leakage has done to her body, how it was cut into horrifying edges.  A woman has curves of every sort, and is hopefully comfortable in her body, yet those curves are not what she sees in the media so her measure of what is beautiful becomes malleable, changeable - after all, remember Twiggy?  The opposite?  A woman couldn't get herself flat-chested fast enough, and so be it for that time - it was the rage and it was dutifully followed.  Anerexia nervosa was born.  Bulemia came into vogue.

So why do they do it - why do women insist on pumping their streched skin to its limits, now filled with dangerous silicone once again,and by the way, has any man reading this ever been fooled when he sees overly sized breasts?  None of my male friends even have.  Men always seem to know right away, and they're looking but not really caring - because they're false.  I could go into detail here but something on a woman's body which is supposed to move when she walks, but doesn't, to me looks as false as it is. 

How dare I talk this way?  I know better.  Woman scarred and diminished from having one or both breasts removed need the cosmetic surgery to help them reclaim their personage, their "womanliness" I understand and applaud that.  I AM PRO THAT.  I AM FOR THAT.  My own aunt HAD that procedure after a masectomy.  Those procedures aren't in sizes too far into the alphabet, they're natural-looking as were meant to be, and desired by the patient.  But when a healthy woman has implants pumped under her breast tissue in sizes like double H (with lips to match) isn't it a bit, well, what are we trying to tell woman anyway?  And when the pendulum swings as it inevitably does, it may be too late for those whose bodies had been ruined and scarred and sickened by leaking silicone into every inch of a once-healthy person.  Men are getting pectoral implants, penile implaints, cheeks, lips, foreheads, just every part of the human body is being carved and re-sculpted to look like ... what?  Women bring pictures of several media stars to the doctor.  "I want Angolina's lips, Demi's cheeckbones, Jennifer's nose ..." and they're being obliged.  There should be some kind of limit here, no?  Should it just be anyone's right and leave it be?  I don't know, I just feel conflicted for the health of these women.   

I'm confused, I really don't know.       

Tornado!

This is your on-the-spot reporter, "Not-So-Cowardly Cathy" coming to you from the east coast of New Jersey, here in the United Colonies.  There's a tornado under me.

It's raging up the coast and sadly, caused a dozen deaths in North Carolina.  At the moment there's a strict flood warning in effect, beeping into the TV news continually and advising people not to drive. 

Can you imagine this, a tornado in New Jersey?

My usual bent would be to cooly, scientifically discuss the genesis of tornadoes, what feeds and sustains them, ad nauseum, but I'm just too excited watching the water rise in our parking lot.  It's up to the white-walls on the tires.  Holy moley this is exciting! 

When I was growing up and trying to be seen amongst several others busy doing the same thing, my brother Chris and I used to love hurricanes and thunderstorms, running out in them in our Dr. Dentons sans everything else.  It was thrilling!  The teeming rain, God angrily bowling up in the great clouds, pounding our bare feet happily into the pools of rising water, the lake forming at the end of our street where our house sat because we lived on a downward incline, laughing like loons.  Fabulous!  More please!  We'd no idea about lightening and its dangers, nor did we care about the even greater danger of the neighbors who envariably threatened to call the police if we didn't get inside and where are your parents anyway you children?  LOL we really had a time - and where were our parents, well, God bless and forgive them, they couldn't have stopped us anyway.

So thank you Mom and Dad, for allowing me to stay out there against all better judgment giving me these wondrous, sweet memories of another time, another place, another life.

Tornado on the way!     

Lies and Truth: Hidden and Obvious (c/o Kate)

Thought I'd follow Kate's lead (bobandkate) and spout a few beliefs about truth.  Or rather, Lying, as I think the topic was.  As I said, I think we tend to lie more by omission than by actual provarication in the face of having to make a decision one way or the other.  Under the banner of "best interests" and "too young to know that" or "don't want to hurt feelings", we manage to twist, color, turn and contort the truth until it fits the situation at hand, which may be perfectly valid.  I truly don't see how humans could survive in a communal way without the ability to flavor the truth - but is this lying?  That's pretty much an opinion, and in mine if something is untrue it must be false.  But there is, as always, that happy, forgiving middle ground, the ever-present gray area, the inexorable "fence" we straddle, most times with all good intentions and feelings.

Isn't it odd how sincerely we strive to say something insincere? I'm thinking of false compliments (which serve their purpose and make our sister feel she looks  just great in those jeans lol).  The favor we may've done her, or the disservice we may've inflicted, is all related to the persons involved and what they're accustomed to, I'd say.  It's all quite different from listening to someone you expect to be less than truthful (read politicians)  Lying is almost their job. 

I don't expect and certainly hope my true friends don't lie to me, at least in important matters where I ask for their input in a discussion, for instance.  But tell me I don't look my age and I'll be happy, even if I look older, and know it - and know they know it lol.  I don't have to be aware that they're not being honest - I see their intent as sincerely friendly, loyal and an attempt at bringing a good feeling to the table.  In the main, I can't see a thing "dishonest" about it.  Their "truth" is to accomplish something of merit, and they've done that.  Call it what you will, words are only our interpretations of them, not their definition, I believe.