Been a busy day...

I've been filling boxes with things that Anthony left at my house when he passed away on June 6. I still have boxes of my mom's things from her house after she passed away in January. It really sets me thinking doing this twice in one year for people that I cared for. First with my mom, going through her clothes wasn't too tough although she had WAY too many. Going through boxes of things she kept, however, was hard. I don't envy my brother at all. He had to deal with so much more than I did. Some things were confusing. Who were these people in photographs or why did she keep this? We'll never know.

With Anthony, because his last few years were so difficult for him there wasn't a lot to go through. However, he'd just tried to consolidate all of this things at my place over his last few months to make it easier to rebuild his life. Sadly, that wasn't going to be an option for him but he was forever optimistic!

So, going through these things have really shed light on who he was and who my mom was, what each of them valued and who each of them cared for. Both them have had one thing in particular that have just stopped me in my tracks and given me a good cry.

Being a principal, I get school pictures taken every year. Every year since 1964 except for my college years, my mom would get a nice set of photos of unphotogenic me. When I was a little boy, I'd give them to her when I got home that day. I was slightly more photogenic then although that's debatable!

As I've gotten older, I've waited til I went home for the holidays to give them to her. It's always been the joke that I expected them to at least be displayed on par with my nephew Max's pictures. He's MUCH more photogenic.

A couple of years ago our school had cards made for the students that had their picture, some vital statistics and a "Missing or Exploited Children Hotline" phone number for parents to call should that nightmare happen to them. Well, I mailed mine to my mom and suggested in the accompanying note that before she called the hotline she might want to ask herself if I was missing voluntarily or if just maybe I was enjoying being exploited. She did mention that she got it and giggled along with the note along the bottom of the note blaming my sense of humor on her side of the family.

We found this note in her desk. She written the date she got it and put a smiley face next to the "your side of the family" notation. Yeah...I cried.

Anthony was different, of course. I have things to give to his family, to his close friends and other things I have no idea what to do with. The guy needed to clear his pockets out of change and clean (I hope) Kleenex once in a while! Every pair of pants, coat, and jacket had some of each. But in his box of papers, was a copy of a picture I had take of him in the snow. He'd written in his scrawl "First snow February 12 Thanks, Kevin!" Yeah...I cried.

Just a few random thoughts...

This is after watching CNN and MSNBC all day long...

Why are we, as a people, so belligerently uneducated? I watch the news and I wonder.

Health Care musings:

If you've ever spoken to an British Citizen or Canadian citizen and asked about their health care system, you will usually get a laugh and an eye rolling. Why? Because the American media and far right so ridiculously overstate the negatives of their system it is laughable. What is embarrassing is that most Americans (who never leave the good old USA to see the rest of the world) believe it!

I'm not saying single payer is the way to go. Nor am I saying that the current plan is the way to go. And I would never say that we have the BEST health care in the world here in the USA. All I am saying is that I think I would trust the government equally as much as I trust the insurance companies who currently make my health care decisions now. I have to fight with them, too! For some reason, I believe the insurance companies have profits as their first concern...not MY health. That's why I will say that I agree with a lot of the current proposed regulation of the current insurance run system.

Obesity:
Does anyone really need this?

MMMM Chocolate Covered Bacon!







Fires:
California is a big state. I understand that it's hard to realize just how large it is.

Just like when you get a snowstorm back east, it sounds like life has come to a standstill
OR
you've had bitter cold and the news makes it sound like old people are being frozen solid in mid-stride as they step out of the Piggly Wiggly with their Hamburger Helper
OR
a tornado rips through a block of Pisgah, Iowa and it sounds as if the entire Midwest has disappeared off the map!

When there is a fire in Santa Cruz, I no more notice it than when you're in Omaha and Casper has a hailstorm.

Oh...and the same goes for an earthquake! If it's under 5.0, we all look around to see if anyone else felt it. Then we stand there to see if anyone else will dive under a desk or run for the door. When they don't, we all go back to what we were doing and start making up stories to tell you when you call us!





Aliens
When I hear a proclamation about the illegals milking the system or not respecting the USA, I know that generally the speaker means anyone looking, speaking or acting Latin. They don't mean my Irish friend who was illegal and was bypassed by Immigration when he was at work so that they could arrest the Brooklyn born busboy.

As far as respecting our country, so many of our own citizens don't vote, don't understand our system of government, don't know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, think that their elected officials must vote as a reflection of the constituents views, etc. We, as Americans, show very little respect to other countries even when we visit them. We hate the French because they think they are SO great and expect us to speak French when we are there. Don't they know they owe their freedom to us? Well, are we so different? We don't learn a second language (they do), we expect visitors here to speak English, and we don't seem to remember that we owe OUR freedom to them just as much as they owe us!

Anyway, I do go on! Watch this for some neighborly respect


Mexico Builds Border Wall To Keep Out U.S. Assholes

Dear Faux News...

I was sick of seeing...

the Wanda Sykes title on ProjectChristopher and MaxDad blogs everytime I read them. It's been a HORRIBLE TERRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD last 2 months! However, things are looking better...

And with that proclamation I will celebrate with two video presentations of music and Maru to make you smile...or at least smirk! Start the first one and after a bit the audio of the first one goes quite nicely with the video of the second one...You'll see what I mean..



and then there's this...MY FAVORITE MARU VIDEO...at 0:56 you just know Maru's look is saying..."Put down the &%I%# camera and you can make this a LOT easier!"

With the power of positive thinking, perseverance and a real fetish...er...fascination for something you, too, can fly!