Celts cavort in the fire lit winter night

So I was awakened in the middle of the night,by the image of flames, dancing onto the wall from outside my window.
I threw the curtain open the rest of the way and what did I see?
The boys (BlanDrewNolanEmery)burning the old futon in the fire pit.
I watched them cavort around the fire, pouring gas onto it, and I secretly wondered if any of them were wearing nylon fabrics?
And then to my shock and horror, I watched one of them actually JUMP into the firepit, onto the burning mattress and off again, sending a tower of flames skyward.
It was at this point I realised that I would not be going to bed any time soon this evening.
Eventually around 2am-ish, they began to settle, and actually sit around the fire.
I thought to myself: "Well, there are enough of them now, so if one falls in the fire, the others can drag him free, roll him in the snow while the other one calls 911. There is precious little difference I can make now, by staying awake, other than yelling at them, "hey you boys quit swinging that gas can around over the fire!"
They're just going to say "ok ma."
And then laugh, and keep doing it
.
I was a little bit alarmed to wake in the morning and see the fire still burning, albeit low. Apparently it has been smoldering all day.
It WAS and old, waterlogged futon, after all.


Addendum: it is still burning.

What are you going to do when you get old...?

So my daughter asked me today: "Mom, what are yougoign to do when you get old?"
"Die," says I. "I think thats what most people do when they get old."
"No!" she says. before you die. While you are being old?"
"well", I replied, "that will depend somehwat upon what daddy wants to do, but, at some point,
I could see myself downsizing and living in an apartment. If I can afford it eventually, I will choose a nice assisted living facility, with nursing home options."
She says, "Oh no! Yo can't go into a nursing home, because then we couldnt have Christmas or holidays with you!"

"Well of course you could, you would jus tcome and pick me up at thye nursing home and
bring me to your place."

"Oh no!" she says."That would just be too weird! We are supposed to come to your house for Christmas and stuff!"


(*sigh*)
I can see that my work here on earth, is not yet done - at least from a teaching persepctive.
And is this even a thing you can teach?

To be honest, when I become demented and old, I really do NOT want to go and live wiht my kids - much as I love then - - and much because of how MUCH I love them...I would prefer to crawl out into the woods, into the snow and die like a cat who goes off at "dying time."
What is life that we should cling so hard to it when the elderly day of departure might arrive to take us home? No.
]I know my God. I know my Saviour and more importantly, He knows me.
He knows my vileness, and foibles(aka "sin") And He has provided his own remedy for
blotting out my imperfections. To leave this world - in HIS appropriate time - will be like a "Graduation" to bigger and better things.

Today...when I think of cancer (and these are hypothetical and transitory thoughts - which I retain the right to change at a moments notice with no warning - when I think of cancer, I think:
"will I choose to take a treatment? After all, this could be my only ticket at escaping livign too long." I don't want to miss it and be stuck here, dwindling in ill health. Maybe that is arrogant. Now that I see it in print, it is quite possibly a self centered and arrogant attitude. I will have to think more on this. After all, my life is not about me, or my wants, goals or desires. that is one thing that struck me about observing Jesus. The way He lived was not about himself, but it was about other people. People can say what they want about me. I care less and less each day. Screw 'em, What I really want, is to live like Jesus, but to do so is a heart wrenching, gut breaking excersize in agony every day. And it makes me appreciate who He is, and what He came to do, even more.

You know its cold when...

...when the woodstove can't even heat the entire house without a little help from the electric heat. Which I normally do not use -its too expensive. If I were to use electricity to heat this house in a normal January/February, it would take about $400 a month. There is No way I am paying that. But I hear a warming trend is on the way. We may be up to 32 by Saturday. Awesome! Time to break out the sprinkler and flipflops! Time to set up the slip-n-slide!

:o)

Certificate errors and dark thots

Well this new net-book has managed to annoy me in one way:
I cannot figure out how to make it stop alerting on all these certificate errors! Every freakin site I go to (inlcuding my own?) gets me a certificate error-navigation blocked alert. I know I should know how to turn these off, but for the life of me, I can't figure it out. Input please?

On a seperate note, sometimes, some posts will be purely for my own personal edification.
Sometimes, I just need to vent.
If I write, and then delete, well...it's not the same as writing and publishing.
And so, some posts will be contained here, in this format:

Where there's smoke, there's popcorn

I like popcorn.
It's lowfat, and its crunchy and filling.
I especially like Orville Redenbachers 94% fat free pop corn.

Odds are good that by now, you have already guessed a major part of the plot in today's blogpost, but I will go on anyway...as only I can do.
;o)

The way I pop popcorn is always the same:
Set the time for 5min, and stand there the entire time waiting for the popping noises to slow down to "1 pop" every 2 seconds. This is when its time to stop.
This is how I always do this.

Except for today I got distracted.

The phone rang.
A vendor needed to know what her blackfriday weekend sales had been, and she asked, "could I go run her numbers?" I went to the front of the store, and plugged in the info for her booth, told her the details and hung up. I began to putter around the front counter area, catching up on vendor notes andwhat not, until I smelled the smoke.

The smoke could be seen at the back of the store as a light greyish ground fog.Fortunately the microwave itself was not melted.
Not entirely.
I turned off the building heaters and threw open both the front and back doors.
I spent the day "febreezing" the back corner of the store, stockroom, and bathroom.
I am afraid that it is now the microwave itself that is perpetuating the ongoing stink in the stockroom. I may have to buy my boss a new microwave for Christmas.
I will continue to run the fans and febreeze the crap out of the room tomorrow as well, and then see how things are by tomorrow night.

Also, I am now banned from ever popping popcorn at work again.
This is a self-imposed ban.

Today and stuff

So I may be getting some studio space OF MY OWN!!! In a great quiet location
within walking distance of downtown!!! IT will be great because if the kids need
a space to walk to after school, they can. When I need some quiet time to get some work done, I can.

It will be a haven!

Now all I need to find is a small microwave for cheap. Maybe I can get one at the thrift store?

:o)

What goes around, comes around...

...and goes back around and around and comes home to roost again, no matter how many times it goes out and back and around.

What does it mean?
What does any of that mean?
What does it all mean?

Who cares.
I know I don't.

What really matters, at this moment, is that while I HATE all Google products with a dire and
fiery passion that has few other equals, I find that my need to blog is greater.

Facebook Notes is insufficient to my way of thinking, because anyone who has ever added you as a friend is forced to recieve these updates about your "Notes."
I don't want to do that to people and also, the only people I want reading my kind of posts, are the people who actually come seeking them. Which does not happen necessarily via Facebook.
I don't want to make ANYBODY a captive audience.
But I also need to blog.

So I am back with this vile Google Product aka Blogger.

Yes Google retains all material forever, as well as attempts to claim the rights to intellectual material. I will combat this by utilizing ye olde watermarks with regards to art, and my friend the Creative Commons License for all literary what evers.

Google Schmoogle can piss off for all I care.

Its a free country and in America it is apparently 'ok' to bite a feeding hand, so blog on!

Alliance Highschool Speaks About the Idea of Compromise.

History Quiz Question #10, based upon the quote of Author Shelby Foote as he appeared in the video series, "The Civil War" by Ken Burns.

Quote by author Shelby Foote,
regarding involvements in the Civil War:
"We (Americans) should have stuck to
what we were best at: compromise."


Essay Question #10:
When is it alright to compromise, and when is it not?



Answers:



"Slavery was an evil in America, that needed to be abolished, but I think there should have been compromise so that so many people could have lived. In situations with evils such as Hitler, we can't compromise, but we must fight to take away that evil! The bible really isn't clear on whether we should compromise or wage war, but I think the best thing to do is compromise so that lives aren't lost."

-Jessica, Freshman



"Compromising is fine until people stop standing by what their beliefs for the sake of peace.
If the Union had continued compromising on the issue of slavery, blacks would be toiling in every part of the United States. Certain things must be defended. Included among these are human lives, freedom from tyranny of the whip and the child's right to a loving parent or guardian. In these things, compromise is selfish, wrong and cruel. Yes, war should be avoided, but if millions of lives are lost or tortured in the name of peace, then compromise is wrong."

-Alexis, Sophomore



" We had possibilities for compromise, if the North gave a little more power to the South and the South gave up a bit of their slavery - we would still have slavery at that point though, so compromise was not the best answer. Sometimes we want to compromise to keep a war from starting, or to end a war, but its not always an ok thing. If your compromise corrupts your morals, then the compromise should not happen. You should never compromise to sin, and God has justified some wars, so I think you leave it up to Him to decide whether your fight is a sin. To compromise on God's commands though? NEVER!!! "

-Student 'K', Junior



"If they would have compromised on the fact of slavery, America would have been a much different place. I don't think they should have compromised. It would have just been tension ready to explode. If we did not get this Civil War out of our system when we did, it could have been ten-fold worse if it happened today or some other time. In general I think we should compromise on our views and NOT on our beliefs."

-Jared, Freshman



"You should not compromise with wrong. If you know you are living in truth and someone is living in wrongs, then you should not accept their lies with your truth. However, there is always the possibility that war would be the greatest wrong and too costly to engage in. Then compromise would have been the lesser of two evils. If ones morals are threatened, one should not compromise."

-Bailey, Sophomore



"There are a lot of situations where it is appropriate to compromise, such as when you can save lives, or prevent harm or potential hurt, it is better to compromise. However, it is not good to compromise when you have to let go of your core values to do so. Never compromise if it has to do with something you truly believe to be wrong, because you will just be failing yourself. If an agreement can be reached by reasonable means, then absolutely compromise. I think what he said about America Compromising is true on the level of domestic issues, but not with foreign countries."

-Cavan, Junior



"I think compromising is the best thing to do, but I think that the Civil War was a hard one to compromise. I say that because each side had so many strong feelings for what they believed in, making it tough to compromise. Slavery is a huge subject. I think it is possible that if they tried to come up with a compromise about it where both sides get something there would still be lots of anger between the two sides. So I don't think the war could have been compromised. Maybe prolonged, but not compromised. "

-Trevor, Freshman



"I think compromise is so...CONFUSING!!! I think compromise is the only way you can postpone the inevitable. It's so easy to think if you compromise, then everything will be alright, but eventually you will regret that compromise, demand your full rights, and the whole problem will start anew. Compromise postponed the Civil War, but it couldn't keep the Civil War from happening. I wish compromise could be a solution, but it isn't. It's like if you accidentally rip a piece of paper in half. It's important that you keep the paper, so you tape it. The tape is the compromise. It will hold just fine for a while, but when the tape stops sticking, you've got the same problem all over again.

-Scout, Freshman



"In my opinion I think we should try to compromise all the time. The reason behind that is because "violence is not a means for conflict resolution", and I agree. During the Civil War, I don't think there could have been a reasonable compromise, because both sides wanted what they wanted and they were not willing to change their ways or views. Yes, I do think compromising is good, but in this case, it couldn't have happened."

-Max, Freshman



"I think it depends upon the compromise. If it were a compromise in the Civil War, I think that it would be bad because the Civil War changed the world - even the world we live in today. If we had "compromised" we probably wouldn't have the knowledge and scientific advancements that we have today, including medical and technology."

-Sam, Junior

Hospital, car wreck, job cuts and stuff

Man I am so wiped, I can't even write this!
So I am just going to blabber.

It has been a fascinating 72 hours!

Friday Scouts Bladder infection became more than that.
We spend the day in the ER. They sent her home with hightened antibiotics and some Vicodin.
When we got home from the hospital, Stu dropped a bomb in that his hours at work were cut from FT to 35 hours per week. Not just his, but all of the FT staff where he works.
It is likely true that, despite the economy, his employers were actually attempting to save some jobs by cutting back rather than firing 2 or 3 people completely.
But there is one thing that I found MOST telling and that stuck oddly in my craw...
...the person who let him go, (and who he has worked under at a different company in the past) asked him a very odd question after telling him the news; his supervisor asked, "So, when I called you in here, what did you think it was going to be about?"

Ok.
THAT is such a really strange thing to say.
I mean what kind of a cat-n-mouse, control freak, self seeking kind of a question is that?

That is just too weird for me.


As far as Scouts healing, all seemed well by Saturday AM.
And then Satruday night, she missed a middle-of-the-night dose of her viciodin and I noticed that her pain level was waaaayyy beyond what it had been originally.
So we kept up the medications all through Sunday.

Blake and My Nissan:
So Saturday, Blake and Emery and Andrew are all coming home for the weekend.
Blake drops off the other boys at their houses and on his way home, he decides to take the scenic route, since it has been a while. A totally random thing.
It was on this road that a deer came shooting out of the brush seconds ahead of the Nissan.
It his the car and rolled up on the windshield and flew off into the ditch, leaving Blake shaken and my Nissan drivable but totalled.

Blake was remarkably unharmed!
He suffered a little from the deployment of the airbags (which stink to high heaven let me tell you) and he was a little bit shocky abotu 30-45 min after the fact, but is mercifully unharmed.

Scout on the other hand, steadily growing worse on Sunday and by Monday morning, had run out of vicodin with no relief in sight afterward. I dosed her the final pill and then loaded her back up to go to the ER.

It turns out she has a 6mm kidney stone!

She goes in tomorrow AM to see the kidney doc and get it taken care of.

So I get home on Monday night, and Stu has taken the boys all back to Portland which was hugely helpful, and I am not in the door 10 minutes an dmy dad is here banging on the back door saying he cooked some chili this afternoon and puttled out some hotdogs and wanted to eat dinner.

He is a fairly unhyegenic individual, and we typically do not eat foods that he brings unless theya re still seaked in the package or unless we have personally witnessed the hiygenic preparation beforehand. So my dad wants us to eat his food. I have to grill him about when he cooked it, and after he cooked it, where he stored it until the evening. He says "well, on the counter of course! I am not going to put a warm pan in the refrigerator!" I said, "dad, you can't leave food out for more than an hour after you've cooked it. If you don't eat it in that time period you have to put it in the fridge!" He said, "No! he woudln't do that." So it was at that point I messaged scout on Facebook and said, "you should probably not eat what gramps is bringing." I mean, like I don't have enough to worry, I have to worry aout hurting his manly ego pride feelings when he brings over ecoli tainted foods, from poor prep and the fact that he doesn't wash his hands and he sneezes and coughs into his hands and then lays the on the food!

I swear....there are DAYs, old man!....

Anyway, there it is.

For today.

But tomorrow is a whole new day.
:o)

Happy day

I managed to find work today! Yay!
Also, I managed to find a replacement disk for my missing Uru Complete Chronicles Disk 1.
Now..all I have to do is replace my Monkey Island Games which all got scratched up to bejeebers,
and then the rest of my winter weekends will shape up to be pretty danged good!
:o)

stuff and what not

So today I got a chanc eto work in the morning at Pony processing freight with Rick.
Since the store (Heritage) is closed weekdays until spring break, I find myself looking for other work again...that and Stu got shorted half his pay this month - which was such a lovely surprise. It was 1/3 short last month so you can imagine the glee with which I recieved this news. But is is ok because it inspires me to look avidly for new jobs that I haven't pursued before and causes me to cook in new ways. Really, this is a good thing. It is amazing what you can pass off as dinner to people who aren't paying too much attention, and to the ones who are, its all in the presentation. So far so good. :oD

So I worked at Pony this morning and may get anther chance to on Thurs or Friday. I may get a chance to volunteer teach History next week, up the the Alliance Highschool. our history teacher had a family injury and needs to take some time off so she compiled the lessons and since the curriculum for the segment relies largely on Ken Burns' Civil War, I think I will show that for the first part of class time and then move on to the other portions of the curriculum. I am kinda exctited by the chance to do this. I will just have to figure out how to juggle working with filling in this gap.

Blake, Andrew and Emery (friends since 5th grade) all moved in to an apt in Portland together and are attending school up there for this term. I miss them but I am glad they are within driving distance! :o) They have been busily furnishing their apt with thrift store finds and artwork. It is really coming together. I am so glad the boys are together. Once they get their internet hooked up Ihoep they will post some pics of the apt on FB.

That is all the boring poop for the day.
Figured I ought to at least write something.

Maybe more to come tomorrow.

O here, it's a clip from a show that I watched growing up in the 70's.

Suddenly the things I do and the ways I do them all make sense now, seeing what was being pumped into my young mind every saturday morning.