A Happy 4th of July to all!
And a special prayer to all the men and women currently serving in Iraq.
May God keep them safe from harm.
Have a great day folks

I don’t make a point of posting email I receive but this one, well, this one was different.
It was from my friend, Lynn.
While reading it, I couldn’t get my sister out of my head because she’s a nurse and has probably been in a situation very similar.
Though my mother and father’s story reads a bit differently, the sentiment is very much the same and my thoughts were of the both of them as well.
Thanks, Lynn.
This was a beauty.

. . . It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80’s arrived to have
stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00am.
I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him.
I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.
On exam, it was well healed so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor’s appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.
The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.
I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a
victim of Alzheimer’s Disease. As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.
He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, ‘And you still go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?’

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, ‘She doesn’t know me, but I still know who she is.’

I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, ‘That is the kind of love I want in my life.’ True love is neither physical, nor romantic it is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be and will not be . . .

Sometimes email can surprise you, huh?

Rain falls,
in painful drops . . .
A perpetual river that cleanses the blackened earth
like penance supposedly cleanses the soul
looking the world in the eye,
you realize you’re no closer to heaven but further from home,
sweet home

Blankets of mist, persistent and tedious clouds of the mind,
erase any clarity, mimic false purity, like a vacant and unused sacrament
your soul goes on,
no closer to heaven but further away from the truth

Shadows of night, they come and they go
as you dream of a lifetime,
things forgotten, like people’s hearts, distant stars and . . .
the “once upon a time” sense of hope

Tears fall,
in painful drops . . .
The memories of days gone by, burning the deepest walls of the soul; a child lost to the night
but looking the world in the eye,
you realize you’re closer to heaven than you’ve ever been
and can hopefully find your way back home
a child no more . . .

~m

Lately, I’ve been listening to this acoustic blues musician named, Kelly Joe Phelps.
I first heard him after receiving his first solo CD last Christmas from my friend J0jo (who comments on the blog from time to time)
Phelps is an exceptional guitarist and my ears immediately perked up the first time I listened to him.
He has a way with his vocal as well. For some reason he sounds “familiar” to me, though I’m not quite sure why.
As I type this I’m listening to “Lead me on”, his first solo CD now residing peacefully in my Itunes.
Check out the video and give a listen to some new Kelly Joe with the assistance of the cool MP3 player at the bottom of the post.
If you like acoustic blues, Phelps is the man.

I’m all about the giving some days and today is one of those days.
Got a website for ya.
I just can’t keep this stuff to myself.
There is a specific reason I mention this but I’ll get to that in a few minutes.
If you want a real good laugh; do not pass go, do not collect $200 and go straight to hotchickswithdouchebags.com.
The site tagline is “Pictures of hot chicks with total and complete douchebags. With commentary.”
It is hysterical, imho.
The concept is fairly straightforward, find a guy that thinks he’s way too sexy and photograph him as he poses with some randy lass.
I thought of this website after seeing this narcissistic little prick get on the train.
He walks likes he’s on a freaking runway and I just want to stick my foot out into the aisle and watch this candyass fall flat on his face.
Yeah, he’s a gem. I have to laugh because I’ve actually seen him unsuccessfully try to pick up several women. (Dude, you’re on a train.)
He’s married as well, not that it really matters.
He is by all counts the quintessential HotchickswithDouchebags poster boy.
I’d love to see him hook up with Blondezilla.
Oh, wait a minute, that’s a different site altogether.
I think it’s NastyasschickswithDouchebags.com, but I could be wrong . . .
Right Said Fred knows all about it
btw- the guy in the picture won the highly coveted HCWD Choad of the year award.
And my, my, my wasn’t it richly deserved?

If you’ve ever wondered just what the hell Joe Cocker is saying, look no further.
Watch the video and learn.
Met Cocker years ago when I was playing in a band called “The Underground Balloon Corps”.
Interesting man, to say the very least.
As was the “Balloon Corps”
The sax player went on to a Tina Turner gig.
Haven’t heard from him since.
Damn, Joe sings great on this tune.
Shredded throat, ala carte
Nice.
Good call, Butch 

I want to live my next life backwards:

You start out dead and get that out of the way.

Then you wake up in a nursing home feeling better every day.

Then you get kicked out for being too healthy.

Enjoy your retirement and collect your pension.

Then when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day you work 40 years until you’re too young to work.

You get ready for High School: drink alcohol, party, and you’re generally promiscuous.

Then you go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, and you have no responsibilities.

Then you become a baby, and then… You spend your last 9 months floating peacefully in luxury, in Spa-like conditions - central heating, room service on tap, and then…

You finish off as an orgasm.

I rest my case.

this was attributed to Carlin.
Not sure if it’s entirely true but it sure sounds like something he would say.
I saw the man many years ago at a small venue in Rhode Island.
He was incredible.
I am deeply saddened by his death.
A true clown has died.
Rest in pieces, George.
You were an original.
Long live the Toledo Window Box

My interview with Moe is up an running at the Nook and though I’m not 100% satisfied with it (no fault of Moe’s, mind you) I think you’ll see a different side of me. I think.

The story of me and Moe is quite interesting; it’s serendipity of the highest order.
It began when I was at Blogger, my tadpole blogging stage.
I met some very interesting people back then: Evyl, Carnealian and Snotsucker; these are friends I am obviously still in touch with today.
But I wanted to drive more traffic to my blog so I signed up at BlogExplosion.
BE is very basic in the way that it works: you surf random blogs and get random visits in return.
Some people leave comments, most don’t.
I’m a bit fuzzy on how it happened but one day I found a comment on an insignificant post that said, ” very nice site, love the background and the totally irrelevant pic. With all the blogs I’ve seen I think a cat pic is mandatory at some point!! I’m not stealing your button, but I’m blogrolling you.”
I don’t think I even knew that the hell getting blogrolled was at that point but I liked the fact that someone was doing it to me.
She signed her name, “Debambam”.
Hmmm . . . I liked the Flintstones. A good sign.
I visited Debambam’s site and came to find out that her name was Kelly and she was from Australia.
Yeah, how cool is that? An Aussie blogrolling your fanny. Coolbeans.
In my mind, I heard an Aussie accent whenever I read one of her comments.
She was intelligent, witty, compassionate and a wonderful addition to my blogroll.
It was around that time that I noticed something strange in my Sitemeter stat page.
Someone was spending an inordinate amount of time reading everything on my blog.
And they were from Australia.
I had an incredible amount of info at my fingertips thanks to Sitemeter and it astounded me.
I emailed Kelly and asked if she was hitting my blog.
She knew nothing about it and said it definitely wasn’t her.
Hmm . . . Very mysterious.
It was on THIS POST
that I was first introduced to Maureen.
The comment was signed by “anonymum” with no URL.
(no URL, how frickin’ weird is that? An internet without Moe? I don’t frickin’ think so!)
I knew who she was because of the amount of time I used to spend at Kelly’s blog.
I’m thinking, “Kell’s Mum is visiting me. How cool is that?”
Long story short, I found out who my Australian “lurker” was (MOE!) ultimately making what has turned out to be a very sincere and honest friendship. (with not only Moe but her husband Mark, a new and absolutely bloody wonderful mate of mine)
Maureen and I are much like brother and sister (ironic that my twin sister’s name is Maureen).
In many ways, whether she knows it or not, she has inspired me in my writing and has become the kind of long distance friend that some people can only dream about.
I consider her (and Mark, and Kelly, Tony and Zoe!) to be close to family.

Maureen? My heart thanks you for the many smiles since we first met. (and the vegemite)
You know my heart. Maybe that’s enough.
As far as the above, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Now head over to the Nook and rip me a new one.
Lord knows, I probably deserve it.
Check out my day in the warm Australian sun . . .
maybe someday . . .