PEACE

Well, now the holiday is officially over..

Spent Christmas Eve at Cheryl's and then went back today for
dinner. We had Pork Roast on Saturday night and Manicotti
and other Italian stuff today. I now have a few gift cards
to spend and a cd that GQS sent me to listen to Monday
night. Thank you, ladybug!

Hopefully I can get my Muse back in gear. No shortage
of ideas but work fatigue combined with a bit more rp
activity cut into the writing.

At any rate, all is calm.

Merry Christmas, folks.

WELL, THANK GOODNESS THAT'S OVER WITH!

It's Christmas Day and at last the holiday madness is over.

This means we get to take the Christmas music we played
since October 30th at work off the pa system and can listen
to something different.Yay!

I know it sounds Grinchlike of me but think of how crazy
it was for you Christmas shopping. Then imagine being
on the other side of the sales counter or register for nearly
two months dealing with a steadily increasing stream of
anxious or surly shoppers until you reach the frenzy of
last minute Christmas eve shoppers who are mad because
you are sold out of the item they've waited until the last minute
to come looking to buy...literally.

Ah..but tomorrow starts the lesser chaos that is post-Holiday
returns and the use of those gift cards, when people become
enraged because we haven't yet gotten in stock to replace the
items we were sold out of on Christmas Eve.

Pft!

Anyway, off to my sister's for dinner. More later.

A DISPATCH FROM THE LUNATIC ASYLUM

Numpty's Law of Retail
:
You have on a lanyard with your name and the store logo.
You are wearing an earpiece, a microphone and a walkie -
talkie unit.
And in your hands is a stack of books.
And still....STILL..you will be asked for the 9,999 time:

"Do you work here?"

Oddly enough, it also happens that when you are minus
the nametag and walkie talkie setup, and you are on your
break with a sandwich and drink in hand, the customer has
no problem at all at identifying you as an employee even if
you are on your lunch and will sometimes even follow you
right up to the breakroom door to ask if you can find them
a copy of the new Trans Siberian Railway Christmas album.

Or some such other drek.

I say again..."Bah Humbug!"

JINGLE THIS!

I am so tired of Christmas. The Store put up the decorations the
day after Halloween and we've played nothing but Christmas music
since Thanksgiving. I suppose I'd be more in a Yule mood if not
for being run ragged all day either trying to wait on eight customers
at once while fielding phone calls. or spending all eight hours at
the cash registers dealing with a Neverending Line of Customers.

We have perhaps a third less staff than we did last year for the
holiday. If business had remained slow as it had been on
Thanksgiving weekend we might have been able to cope. But it
has exploded over the past few weeks. We are averaging five to
ten thousand dollars OVER the daily sales plan this week and it
will only get busier. Instead of hiring help earlier in the season,
the management preferred to wait and see how many of the
former workers would come back to work on their college breaks.

Three have returned but two won't be actually working until next
week.

Meanwhile, we're losing another person tomorrow who found a
better paying job in his field of study.

And I'm told I'm once more going to be on the Christmas Eve
closing crew with TMWMBO.

On the plus side, that former coworker from Hellywood does not
appear to have been hired but he could be training at another store
before starting with us, so I'm still a bit wary.

Bah humbug.

IN A DEEP AND DARK DECEMBER

Damn, I hate Winter.

The temps were single digits over Tuesday night
and it's still in the teens with wind chill lower than
that. Cold enough on my day off today to start
wearing some extra layers of shirts inside. I made
spaghetti for dinner to get the kitchen warmed up
as well as my innards.

Did nothing today again besides cooking and
hanging out in Cams this afternoon. I took a
break after eating and read a bit. But I'm in a
mood where there seems to be more bad news than
good around me and if I had my druthers I'd crawl
into my bed under the comforter and stay there forever.

In fact, think I'll wrap things up and do a little of that
bed stuff now.

LOVERLY

Too tired to write much but need to put this in while I
still recall it.

New supervisor at work met one of my former coworkers
at the store today. After they talked for a bit,she told him
to "Leave now before you end up like poor Bill."

I've become legend, apparently.

RANDOM THOUGHT

The only good thing about it being so
quiet that you can hear yourself think is that
eventually you bore yourself to sleep.

NO NEWS IS..UMM..NO NEWS

Turns out the interview with my former co-worker in the video
biz is for today. Since I'm home on a day off, I won't have to
see the guy but now I hope the Boss paid attention to what I
said about Torry and doesn't hire him.

If they do, I might have to quit and there's not many bookstores
left out there to go to. I don't want a return to stress at work again.
I've had enough. And while I'm still rping, it's not the complete
release it was for me before the bastards sucked the fun out of it
for me over last winter and spring. It's better now but I'm not
quite as open as I was before.

Yeah, I said the B word. Meant it ,too.

Back to writing.

THIS COULD GET UGLY

I answered the phone at work this morning and the caller
asked to speak to The Boss. When I told him that the Boss
was unable to come to the phone at the moment, the caller
declined to leave a message.

Instead, he asked who he was speaking with,then said he'd
call back.

That seemed a bit odd to me.

A few hours later, I heard the Boss paged on my headset. It was
the guy I'd talked with earlier calling again, apparently for the
fourth time. He hadn't left a name before,but this time said it
was "Torry and that the Boss would know what it was about."

And now the alarm bells went off in my head.

Some of you might recall that when I briefly worked for a
certain video rental chain, I had a very ambitious
assistant manager who flat out told me he was taking
my job from me. He pulled a few fast ones on me
and at a time when I was still scrambling to deal
with massive changes in my life, I was an easy
target. His name was Torry and it's the same
guy on the phone today. He is interviewing
tomorrow for a management position that
will put him in charge of me,among other
things.

When that alarm bell went off in my head,
I went to the Boss and asked if this person
was who I thought it was and then filled
the Boss in on some of the incidents from
five and a half years ago.

So, now..what worries me is this.

If he doesn't get hired, will he put two and
two together and be as confrontational as
he was back then?

If he does get hired, will he make it his business
to get me fired because of past history?

I had to speak up. This guy is bad news.

And now I'm worried about whether it was
smart to do so.

LAZY BONES

Man, I am becoming incredibly lazy lately.

I slept till about 10 am and then woke up and
watched the talking heads on tv before I got up
around noon for brunch and football. Gotta love
the inventor of the remote control.

The Pats put me to sleep for the second straight week
and I woke up about 4 and got my butt in gear
enough to go do my laundry. I then came back home,
made dinner, and umm..promptly fell asleep again.

When I finally made it online, I spent most of three
hours fighting with Earthlink and Outlook, and ended
up with one of Earthlink's Live Chat Techs finally
straightening it all out. So rp was minimal and writing
was nil. Frustrating because I'm futzing around on
that Kil'Marren story and I got the idea for a story
at the laundromat as I watched clothes tumbling. That
one will involve Timmons, Marcus,and the Wasteland.

But that will have to wait until another night.

Because I'm..yes..sleepy.

Pookie..THREE in a row?? Triple Thid!!
Seriously,I'm glad life is good for you.
AND NO SICK!!

There..now..if you'll all excuse me, there's a bed
nearby and I aim to be in it in a few more minutes.

BLACK FRIDAY

Black Friday was more like Grey Friday at the store,
Most folks aren't getting up early on the day after
Thanksgiving to rush out to the bookstores. This happens
every year: the sales goal for the day is some impossible
figure we don't reach but we manage to pull the month
out by having good sales the rest of the way to Christmas.
Doesn't stop it from being a long exhausting day.

Outside of feeling tired, the heel feels better.It's not
completely pain free but hurts less and walking is
easier.

And Pookie has posted two straight days to her blog.

DOUBLE THID!!

TURKEY DAY

Short post. Been a long day and I have a headache
from all the noise.

Had a reasonably good day. The food was excellent,
the family cordial (despite the usual happy horsecrap
of dumping on Drew Bledsoe by my kid brother).

I spent most of the day there and left at 8pm when I
started to feel the post feast drowsys come on. My
place is about 10 minutes from my sister's so I made it
home and was able to doze off in the peace and quiet
of my own chair. Now if I could just get ride of this
headache. Bed will help, I hope.

Wait! What's this? A blog post from Pookie?

THID!!

SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN

Gah, I hate getting up early in the morning. Time was that
6am was my usual wake up time but those days are long
gone. So getting up at 5:30 a.m. for a meeting at work was
not my idea of a good day off.

I went..sat there for 2 hours..ate the food provided, and
then skeedaddled back home to doze off watching the
talking heads on tv. I woke up in time to turn on the Pats
game..dozed off again..turned to the Colts game..dozed
off again...

Get the picture?

Man,I'm really an old fart.

ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS

Slow night at the rp factory. I conked out after work and by the
time I got online after midnight,folks were gone to bed for the night,
or working,or at the HP movie,or had comp issues.

Speaking of comp issues, I spent most of the down time tonight
fiddling once again with Kramer. I dl the latest version of
Firefox and ever since installing it,even more weird things are
showing up.Missing icons on the Firefox toolbar, shortcuts to
mirc on the desktop not opening,etc. Fun fun fun. Feels like I'm
walking a tightrope with Kramer. One mistake and I'm offline for
a bit.

Anywho..off to bed..it's too dang cold!

ANOTHER DAY OFF DOWN THE TUBES

And about all that got done around here was my laundry.

I went over to my sister's place for dinner and we compared aches
and pains of approaching old cootdom. Cheryl weirdly enough has
the same pain in her foot that I do but hers is on the right foot.My
brother in law's knee is bad enough that he's considering surgery,
and my kid brother (the 40 year old kid) a bad foot as well.

Cheryl had the wedding pictures on a cd rom which required I go
upstairs tgo see them on gthe computer. The house is an old one and
the stairs are quite steep and narrow and my feet always seem to be
too big when I walk on the stairway. Tonight,when I started walking
back down for dinner, I looked down those stairs and found myself
imagining falling down that flight. Halfway down I had to stop and
get my head together. Another sign of old age,I guess...and that
will be the last time I climb those stairs,let me tell you!

Dinner was good though and the conversation was too,and we're
all looking forward to Thanksgiving.

STUFF

Got a bit worried last night. I'd been online for a bit when suddenly
the tstorm that had been off in the distance suddenly got a hell of a lot
closer and very very loud. I dove off line as fast as I could but it seemed
to take a long time. I had visions of Kramer here being zapped and that
would be a very bad thing indeed since George is already down.

I've been limping around a bit for the past week or so.This time it's
my left foot. Something sort of ..twanged..in my heel as I was putting
my shoe on and walking has been a bit interesting since then. Whatever
it is seems to be clearing up because it hurts less now except for the
morning when I get out of bed.

I'm in the midst of the first part of the Kil'marren story and the
next part of Undercurrents is already taking shape in my head. I'll
be incorporating some of the past events in Camelot's history into
it,both the myth and the rp. There's a lot of history there to draw on
and I intend to try and use it once some of the absent rps are free
to play more again. In the meantime, I'll lay some groundwork out
to help further the sl a bit.

While the rp is somewhat sporadic, I'm happy with what we do. It's
probably not entirely what some folks might expect but there's a
plot and w're moving forward,and without courtships,.instant babies
or overnight knights. What's really heartening is that we've got a few
newer folks who so far seem to be able to rp within the guidelines.

At this point,I'm totally befuddled by the apparent abandonment of
the old channel by those who supposedly were the true heirs of
Arthur and Camelot's dream. They claimed it had been taken over by
Evil and withdrew to another channel, yet now that the Evil (that
would be those of us from the former Ops list)) is gone, they still
stay away. So what's their excuse this time?

Not that it really matters now.I don't expect to ever rp again
with any of those who haven't already rp'd with us on Sorcery
and that "15 years later" bit makes it pretty certain I won't. How
can BT know someone who isn't even born yet.((and I'm still
shaking my head over how a character who was a grandmother
already can have a baby 15 years later.)) Other than those who
do rp with us,the only contact we've had with the rest were
two who seemed more intent on idling while scouting us
out.(and who have been banned.)

So the two camps are irretrievably seperated. The lands to
the North of Camelot those other chars held are now The
Wasteland and the rest of us will continue on.

Off to food shop.

OCTOBER

Weird month.

It rained with a vengeance and I lost phone service twice
as a result, once for nearly an entire week. With no access to
rp I had plenty of time on my hands to write and turned out
three installments of Undercurrent based on a rp in Cams and
a two part standalone about Jera, a rat king and a ghost cat.
There's still a Kil'marrin story to come that's mentioned in
passing in the one about Jera.

George the computer may be at the end of days.The modem
went south and I don't have the money to spare on repair or
replacement and most likely won't until sometime after the
first of the year..way after. So I'm using Kramer the touchy
laptop for my online actvities for now.

My niece Sarah got married and it was a nice wedding. I had
the chance to talk with my Dad's sister Dorothy and her two
daughters.I hadn't seen Aunt Dot since Dad died back in `86
but hopefully we can keep in better touch from here on in..


On the flip side,I didn't realize it at the time but it was also
most likely the last time I will have an easy conversation with
my sister in law and her parents.She dropped a bombshell on
my brother the day after the wedding.

Suffice it to say I won't be attending holiday dinners where
they will be present anymore.

Rp is a bit slow at the moment as school,vacation and health
affects various regulars but as I mentioned before we had a
good chunk just before all this hit and I've already planned the
next part.

And work ...well..the store put up the Christmas decorations
the night before Halloween..

Sheesh!

OBLIGATORY POST TO KEEP BLOG OPEN

Post.

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND

I'm sitting here in my bedroom watching the wind whip the trees
outside. There's been wind gust over 55 mph in the area and it's
very dark out.We'll see if a tree pays me a visit.

I'm contemplating closing this blog altogether. It's gotten to the point that
I don't post because I'm not certain I want to deal with how any comments
I make about rp are taken. So I may just shut this one down and start
another private one instead..shrug..we'll see..

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

Guess what the first item conservative Republicans say should be
set aside to help pay the expenses of recovery for Hurricane Katrina?

The much heralded Medicare prescription drug plan. God forbid
we cancel that million dollar heated bus stop in that city in Alaska
first or take money away from all the pork barrel projects they
pushed through for their home districts. Let's take the Medicare
money instead; those people are old and they'll eventually pass
away, anyway.

I've had a deep visceral disgust for Republican politicians ever since
my Dad's first heart attack some twenty years ago now. He applied
for disability benefits from Social Security and was told that under the
guidelines dictated by the Reagan Admisnistration he was considered
not qualified for the disability payments. We turned to Sen.Kennedy
and Rep.Gerry Studds, both Democrats, who intervened for Dad, a
lifetime Republican. But by the time the first check finally arrived, Dad
was dead two days from the second heart attack. We got the check
the day of his burial and Mom tore it up.

This was the same Reagan adminsitration that described ketchup
as a vegetable on the school lunch program.

So the more things change, the more they stay the same. Guess those
buses will keep rolling over the border to Canada to buy cheaper
prescription drugs.

A CLARIFICATION

Since commentary had been made elsewhere on the previous post
I think I best make the following points:

What I wrote is my opinion alone. No one else's. I am entitled
to that opinion. I am entitled to express that opinion here.

It might have been noticed that I haven't posted much over the
past few months. Mostly it was because I knew if I posted anything
on the Camelot situation it would be read and commented on not
just by those who normally might see this but by one other who I know
occasionally reads it. But you know, if I could comment in here back
when everything was falling apart, I can damn well comment in here when
.things are going well. It's my blog damn it!

As to Excalibur. No comment about that was made here. So I guess
someone saw it in the post to our list. I make those posts as a morale booster
and to keep those on the list who aren't in the channel as often as others
apprised on how we are doing and to remind them of how the split effects
their chars and sl. Since the present Founder of Starchat sees fit to mention
Excalibur in the chann topic I made light of it in the post.

I'm not the one making rules to ensure that the names of chars and events
from Camelot's history are not be mentioned. I'm not telling my rps they can't
mention what goes on here to anyone over there. I'm not the one censoring
my list to keep Starchat players off it.


At any rate, this is my blog, and I'll write what I want here.

Deal with it.

SEPTEMBER SONG

Yeah, sure is a long long way from May to September. But it
seems as though I'm finally at a place rl and rp wise where there's
some tranquility in both places. The car seems to have improved
after a change and balancing of both rear tires.(God..$150? When I
think of how little that used to cost when I was a kid....) Work..well..
it's the same as always. SWMBO is the same, the days are the same, and
the pay is actually slightly better as we all got a .25 cent raise. Wahoo! I'm
rich! Rich, I tell you!

The Sox are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. The Pats are off to the
good start their fans expected.

RP in the new location is still good. We're easing the Big Nasty sl into place
and I'm going to finally get at the Tower and the Hundredth Tear quest..
So we're doing well. I'm saddend a bit to see the old place becoming what
basically looks like a function hall for another channel, but there's nothing
I can do about that. Given the way the present policy is that we all just
vanished and that our names are unmentionable in rp, I doubt I'll ever really
want to try. There's folks there I still count as friends, but the others are those
whose presence undoes everything we'd done over the past 8 years. They've
torn up the history and tradition.They've sacrificed character integrity. For those
there who still believe in what we all once thought Camelot stood for, it can't
be easy to watch.

YET ANOTHER SUNDAY

Welp, another Sunday come and gone. Man, days off
just come and go too fast.

Spent a few futile hours looking for a tire dealer to get a
tire to replace the rear right which has a leak and a spare to
replace the one I used when the left rear went flat last week.

Apparently the only stores not open on Sundays
around here are liquor stores and auto repair shops.

Camelot/Sorcerynet is humming along. There's a total of five
new players now along with those who made the change and one
of the five is just 13. Two others are under 18. The next
generation? Only time will tell.

Off to bed.

ANOTHER DAY OLDER AND..(YOU KNOW THE REST)

Well, that day is over and done with. I don't know why I
find myself feeling down as my birthday approaches. Maybe
it's because I feel like I' m stationary, like somebody waiting
for a bus but not sure where it's going.

Of course the past year has not been all that much fun
but I've known much worse.

Must be a late middleaged bordering on ancient fart thing.

Ah well..back to sorting dirty laundry...

PFFFFFT!

That's all.

DAY IN THE LIFE

Another day off come and gone. Did some housecleaning
and the laundry, and a litte rpo as well.

My sister emailed me. She'd been trying to get in touch with
me since last Friday but I hadn't realized my answering machine
wasn't working correctly since the tstorm that knocked out the
power here for an hour Friday night.(it was down for 6 hours at
my sisters..and they live only one town over from here! go figure!)
If I hadn't responded to the e-mail she was going to come over and
check up on me.

Hmm...maybe I shoudl be worried too?

Seems our younger brother (he's 40) has been diagnosed
with sleep apnea and will try wearing some mask to bed, He always
was a loud snorer even as a kid, but his wife claims he stops breathing
sometimes as he snores. Benefits of having a family:someone lying
beside you who notices these things as your snoring keeps them awake.

I don't snore. I think. No one's ever arouind who'd know

ON WE GO

August is certainly going better so far than July did, although
I'm not so sure how long the car will hold together. Work is work,
TBWMBO is being the usual thing of beaity and joy forever and
now only one person remains there who's worked there as long as
I have.

Spooky.

As the channel settles into the new net I'm enjoying rp a bit more.And
I posted part 7 of AaA tonight. Earlier in the day I sent out a revised
version of the squire training course for comments and feedback but no
reaction as yet.I have hopes that we will attract more rps and that less of the
channel will focus on BT, because it should be about everyone, not just one
char. I'm looking for the next generation of Camelot to carry the dream
forward.

I won't be around forever, you know!

GOODBYE, JULY

It'll be August in a few more minutes. Can't come soon enough.

I won't write anymore about the details of rp life this past month
except for this one item.Since we left Starchat and moved to Sorcerynet
the channel is three times as active.We've picked up five new roleplayers
and while the daytime is still slow, the nights have seen more people.

jinxi said Camelot was dead, a stuffed cat propped up in the corner. But
it's Starchat that's dying.Unregistered newcomers cannot access the
channel list to see if there's a channel that might interest them.Channels that
don't follow jinxi's haphazardly applied rules have that +s slapped on them
as if they were porno channs and lose the chance to attract new players. Some
channels like the BD even bar unregistered nicks. Where is the chance to
grow , the chance to attract new blood?

Someone used an apt term to describe Starchat to me last night: stagnant.

So, something good has come out of this afterall. Camelot is alive and well
on Sorcerynet.

Thanks, jinxi!

WHY I HATE JULY

It started with a /msg on July 7th, which would have been my mom's 78th
birthday.

It ended with a klining on Sunday, July 17th, which would have been my dad's
81st birthday.

And for most of that time and after, I've had this headache.

And that's some more reasons why I hate July.

BLEH AGAIN.

Yeah, I know I haven't posted in a bit. So sue me. There hasn't been a heck of a lot
going on in my life worth blogging about. Seven people have left the store in the past
few months, six of them in the past five days. The effect on staffing won't be felt
too badly until perhaps today, and luckiliy I'm off today.

The latest car seems to be approaching a breakdown. Brakes are my guess. I'm
hoping it holds off a few more weeks until I have enough money in the bank to
pay for the repairs.

Writing is at a pause for a few days now. I still have the rest of AaA to finish if
I can get my self into a writing mood. The Dhugal story on the BD board is finished
as is my brief latest flirtation with rp there. If those who thought Camelot was strict
consider trying there, be warned that while they won't tell you how to act, they will
tell you how your character is supposed to think about certain other chars.

Luckily, those who I hold responsible for the winter's events in Camelot have
not been around with the usual /msgs for awhile

. Good thing, too. It's hard for me not to be angry about it at times.

THIS AND THAT

MICHAEL JACKSON:
Do I think he is a sick man?

Oh most definitely yes

Do I think he was guilty in this particular case?

Most definitely no.

I felt the thing was a setup from the start, being suspicious of the motives
of the mother.I'm sorry, but given past accusations against Jackson, there's
only two reasons to deliberately expose your child to a celebrity accused of
child molestation: stupidity or greed. Or in this case, both. She was greedy
and stupid enough to think she could get away with another scam.

I'm still not entirely convinced MJ is a molester. Yes, he paid off one kid, but
at the time, the charges were damaging hsi career.It would be cheaper to pay the
accuser to make the suit go away. It's an unfortunately common practice in
tort law today. And the three now adults called as supposed victims all denied the
allegations, even though accusing Jackson would have meant they could cash in
with tell all books and interviews. No, I think we have a very sick man here who is
trying to regress to childhood, who has issues of self-hate, considering his constant
attempts to change his face. I sincerely hope he gets help, or that his family(such as
it is) will force him to seek treatment. This guy is really, really mentally ill.

DEEP THROAT:
I find myself chuckling at the Watergate crew angrily denouncing the man who
brought them down. Just who was Felt supposed to go to with his information?
John Mitchell? Um..no..he was involved. The new FBI head? Hmm..Nixon man.
The President? Surely you jest! Congress and the Senate? They would have
alerted the White House of the allegations and evidence would have been long gone
before the first hearings.

Remember that 13 minute gap on the Oval Office tapes?

And let's not forget how after Mitchell was forced to resign, Nixon pressured
the next Attorney General of the U.S., Elliott Richardson, to dismiss Special
Prosecutor Archibald Cox because he was doing too good a job exposing the
corruption of the Watergate Incident. Richardson,.an honorable man and a
lifelong Republica,n refused to do so and resigned in protest as did his assistant
rather than to become part of a subversion of the Constitution. Robert Bork..,
yeah..THAT Bork who the Senate rejected for the Supreme Court years later...
did Nixon's dirty work for him.

Now these criminals have the gall to say what Felt did was morally wrong?

Hey, people! You were caught. You were tried. You were convicted. You
tried to screw with the Constitution. You have no high ground here to throw
mud from.

Perhaps Deep Throat did not act from totally altrusitic motives, but I'm damn
glad he did.

VACATION CHECKLIST UPDATE

So, as vacation comes to an end, here's where I stand:


ANNOY SOMEONE _/

ANNOY SEVERAL SOMEONES _/

GET HAIRCUT _/

FOOD SHOP _/

WRITE _/

WRITE SOME MORE _/

GENEALOGY TRIP

LAUNDRY _/

SLEEP MORE _/


Except for the genealogy trip (which was to be today but the runny eyes
and short funds put a hold on that for now) it's complete.I would have
added a trip to see the new SW movie but there's that money issue
again.

Ah well..back to Purgatory tomorrow!

MITT & MASSACHUSETTS

You might not have heard of this one yet, but it's causing quite a stir
up here in Mass. Our present governor is Mitt Romney whose father
George Romney was a Republican primary candidate for president
back in the `60's or `70's but never got the nomination. Well, Mitt's
a personable fellow, handsome, with a photgenic family and might
have some presidential aspirations of his own. The trouble is, like
his father before him, he's been sort of vague on his stands on issues
and tries to pass himself off as a moderate. For example, he says
while he doesn't agree personally with abortion, he supports a
woman's right to choose.

The story broke today that his top political advisor says in the
conservative National Review Magazine that Mitt pretended to be
Pro-Choice in order to get elected.The bovine excrement has hit
the fan and Mitt will make a statement tonight. But, interestingly
enough, he hasn't fired the political advisor. Yet.

Most folks outside of New England might not be aware that
despite its reputation as a citadel of the Democratic Party, Massachusetts
has had mainly Republican governors for the past half century. The
two Democrats who've held the office in my adulthood were Endicott
Chubb Peabody, a Yankee Brahmin, and Mike Dukakis who was a
much better governor than presidential candidate.

Mitt came in as a supposed political outsider and promised that there
was a new Sheriff in town to deal with the rascals of the Democratic
controlled House and Senate, and promply made the worst move he
could have made.

He pissed off Billy Bulger.

Billy Bulger was the Senate President for many years. A short man
with a very high i.q. and quick wit, he also happens to be the younger
brother of Whitey Bulger. You might recognize the name from when
John Walsh runs segments on Whitey who's been on the lam for
over 10 years and is on the FBI Top Ten Most Wanted List. If Whitey
knows where the mob bodies are buried (hell, he most like buried them
himself), then Billy knows where all the political skeletons in the closets
are. Even when he retired, he was still giving Mitt fits and the men now
running the State House are Billy's handpicked successors.

So, when the Legislature pased a bill authorizing stem cell research,
Mitt vetoed it and the veto was overidden the next day. And of course
he's the governor of the only state in the union to legalize gay marriage.
Poor Mitt. He's gotta do something to get the conservatives to even
consider him for a presidential run.

You might wonder why an overwhelmingly Democratic electorate keeps
electing Republican governors who can't really accomplish anything.

Simple.

We're sadists.

BIRDS, BEES AND UMMM...BUSH

ok..could someone tell Barbara Bush to have Father give G.W. another
talk about the birds and the bees?

The other day the President offered the opinion that the 400,000 eggs
discarded from articical procedures be adopted rather than used in stem
cell research.

Huh?

I believe the reason these eggs are expendable is because the mother has
already been successfully impregnated and these are surplus.I'm not sure
if these eggs are even viable or if they contain the father's sperm. But let's
say for argument's sake that they are.

Have you seen the huge lines of born agains lining up to adopt an egg?

Yeah, neither have I.

If Bush and the Christian Right, including the Pope , are going to claim that life begins
even before the sperm and egg have merged, then I suggest they think twice the
next time they urinate and flush.

Let's try adopting the millions of living breathing children we have first.

VACATION CHECKLIST

What to do on my vacation checklist:


ANNOY SOMEONE _/

ANNOY SEVERAL SOMEONES _/

GET HAIRCUT _/

FOOD SHOP _/

WRITE _/

WRITE SOME MORE

GENEALOGY TRIP

LAUNDRY _/

SLEEP MORE _/


and I'm off to a flying start.

NOAH, NO MOAH!

It's been raining for three days straight now with wind gusts of
up to 50 miles per hour and temps in the 40's.A full blown
nor'easter in May! A lot of flowers and vegetables are
getting drowned in all this and then there's root rot.
Somewhere, out there, is the Sun.
Get yer butt out here, will you?

AND NOW, THIS BRIEF MESSAGE:

I'm going to bed.
((runs away))

DEPT. OF WEIRD

Something must be going on down in my subconscious. I rarely recall my
dreams but I had a doozy last night. Must be this getting sleep thing.

I dreamt I was going to a movie and was checking the times in the paper.
while sitting in my car. For some reason I turned to get something in my
back seat and as I did a man tried to get in, claiming I was in his car. We
fought, he grabbed the keys out of the ignition, and ran off. I got out out the
car and as I did, he came out of a building with some friends and they started
shooting at me while I kept yellng at him it wasn't his car. The car got riddled
with bullet holes and I ran..chased all over the parking lot at work by these guys
with guns. Then for some reason the shooter yelled he'd found my money and
wanted to return it to me.And like a dummy, I came out to get it.

That's where it ended. No doubt I got my silly arse shot.

In another weird development, I got an invitation to attend an open house.

At a nearby funeral parlor.

No, this was not part of a dream.

I'll think I'll pass on that one.

TEMPUS IS FUGITING ME

Never fails...I spend most of Sunday afternoon in channel and it's pretty much dead.
I come on tonight with only a short window to play and there's people.

Not that it makes any difference since I have all day shifts this week
(Mon-Wed-10-7 and Fri-Sat 9-6) and I will need to get to bed earlier.
And lately I tend to get sleepier sooner. Might be Spring Fever

Or it might be, and most likely is, I am just starting to feel like the 57
year old I soon will be. Dad died at 62. Mom's mother died at 56.
Of course there were other factors (Dad smoked and drank..Nana had
a rheumatic heart..) but still, I have those moments when I wonder how
much time I have left.
.
Shrug.

Aren't I just the cheerfullest bastard?

Excuse me, I think my bed is calling and I really am tired.

MY WEST LINE

This is my line as far back as my brick wall, John Cutter West.
I'm the son of Floyd Earl West Jr and Anne M. White
Generations are color coded.

1. John Cutter WEST (b.8 Oct 1802-Plymouth,Ma.;d.24 Jul 1862-Upton,Me.)
sp: Arvilla S. AMES (b.25 Jan 1810-Livermore,Me.;m.23 Sep 1827;d
.25 Apr 1907-Hermon Me)

2. Ann Matilda WEST (b.4 Jun 1828-Letter "b" Township,Upton,Oxford,Me;
d.23 Mar 1913)

2. Asa Atwood WEST (b.11 Mar 1830-Canton,Oxford,Maine;d.Jan 1909)

2. Jonathan Phelps WEST (b.16 Jan 1834-Letter B Plantation (now Upton),Me.;
d.8 Jul 1917-Upton,Me.) sp: Louisa Almata RICHARDSON (b.1837-Wilton,Me.
;m.31 Jan 1865;d.4 Oct 1925-Upton,Oxford,Me)

3. John Cuvier WEST (b.10 Dec 1867-Letter "b" Township,Upton,Me;d.
5 Mar 1927-Upton,Oxford,Me)

3. Philip Jonathan WEST (b.23 Sep 1868-Upton,Me.;d.5 Nov 1954-
Wilsons Mills,Me.) sp: Clara Ford ELLINGWOOD (b.6 Mar 1865-
Dummer,N.H.;d.10 Apr 1901-Augusta,Me.)
4. Floyd Earl WEST Sr. (b.14 Apr 1893;d.28 Jan 1970-Dumaway Me.)
sp: Cora Bertha BARKER (b.27 Oct 1899-Bethel,Me.;m.24 Mar 1919
;d.Jun 1987)
5. Stanley Rayfield WEST (b.23 Feb 1920-Bethel,Oxford,Me.;d.26 Feb 1920
-Bethel,Oxford,Me.)
5. Hazel Linnie WEST (b.2 Jun 1921-Bethel,Oxford,Me.;d.4 Aug 1973)
5. Floyd Earl WEST Jr. (b.17 Jul 1924-Bethel,Oxford,Me.;d.22 Nov
1985-So.Weymouth,Plymouth,Ma.) sp: Anne M. WHITE
(b.7 Jul 1927;m.29 Jun 1947)
5. Dorothy Leona WEST
5. Florence Irma WEST

4. Clarence Philip WEST (b.17 Mar 1895-So.Paris,Oxford,Me.;d.5 Jun 1983)

3. Mark WEST (b.Abt 1878-Upton,Oxford,Me;d.1878)

3. Paul Leroy WEST (b.20 Jul 1880 Or 1876-Upton,Oxford,Me;d.26 Aug 1954
-Farmington,Oxford,Me.)

2. Vienna Ames WEST (b.14 Apr 1836-Letter "b" Township,Upton,Oxford,Me;
d.14 Oct 1913)
2. Hiram Ferdinand WEST (b.18 Nov 1838-Letter "b" Township,Upton,Oxford,Me
;d.Feb 1914)
2. Clarinda Britton WEST (b.29 Apr 1841-Letter "b" Township,Upton,Oxford,Me
;d.8 Nov 1900)
2. Arvilla Electa WEST (b.29 Jun 1844-Letter "b" Township,Upton,Oxford,Me;
d.6 Feb 1862)
2. Leonidas WEST (b.21 Jul 1847-Letter "b" Township,Upton,Oxford,Me;d.28 May
1932-Brewster,Okanogan,Wa.)
2. Ruth Ellen WEST (b.6 Mar 1851-Letter "b" Township,Upton, Me;d.26 Jan
1862-Upton,Oxford,Me)
2. David Pingree WEST (b.6 Oct 1853-Letter "b" Township,Upton,Me;
d.17 Jan 1862)

ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT...

Long day at work. Did the now usual old man routine. Shopped for food
on the way home and looked for bargains. Got home and had a couple of
sandwiches and chips for dinner and drowsed in and out until I slept for
three straight hours. Woke up around 1:30 am and came online to sit
here and fight to keep my eyes open staring at screen.

Part of the sleep thing is the knee bothers me in bed. When its really going
good the whole kneecap aches, including the joint at the back of the knee
and no matter which way I try to position it it still aches enough to make it
awhile before I finally drift off to sleep.

This is the knee that has always creaks and pops when I get out of a
chair or bed. So I expected it might be arthritic as I aged. Falling heavily
on it twice since last June no doubt hasn't helped either. But I can live with
it. I have to, I can't afford to baby it. As long as I remember to put some
Flex All or Ben Gay on it before bedtime, I'll survive.

Wish there was Flex All for everything.

TIRED

Hold onto your hats folks. This is going to be long and ugly.

The Manager Who Must Be Obeyed is back from vacation and
company business and the long calm period of grace is over. And
something happened last night that I'm still fuming over.

We have restrooms at the store and I'm about the only male
employeewho bothers to check the guys room to clean up the
paper towels, tp, magazines and newspapers that the customers
leave lying all over the floor in there. (It seems the American people
can program their cell phones in a breeze, but deciphering how to
step on a pedal to open the trash can lid is beyond their ken.
Ironically (and you'll see why in a moment) I had just returned to
the salesfloor after making a bathroom call and cleanup when one
of the AMs, (we'll call this one X) told me that TMWMBO
wanted to see me in the office.

Right away, I knew this didn't bode well, most likely.

I entered the office and TMWMBO had an email on the computer
screen.It seems that a customer had complained about the state of the
restroom to the home office. Said complaint was from March 2_th.
TMWBO asked if I recalled an incident from gee..only a month ago.
Customer said that the faucet he tried to use didn't work and that an
employee "whose nametag said Bill" told him it didn't work. Also that
the restroom was littered with paper towels that I kicked into a pile
and then left.

Now, the faucets in the restrooms are motion detector or heat detector
activated. I'm not sure which. No one ever fully explained them to me, and
frankly, I'm a bookseller, not a plumber. However, the left hand faucet has
always been erratic and I've mentioned it many times over the oh..two
freaking years..to those in management. Customers tend to get angry standing
there with liquid soap on their hands and it's quicker just to tell them
(If I am there when this happens) to just use the right hand faucet instead.

As for the paper towels, if it was one particular day I can recall a few weeks
back, there were paper towels all over the place. I moved them all into the empty
corner of the guys room with my foot so that no one would trip or slip on them
before I could return from getting the broom and long handle dustpan. (We only
have one set for use between the two bathrooms because one of the two we had
was stolen. I cannot figure out how they could have been snuck out of the store
other than in the trash bags dumped by the contracted janitorial crew in the early
morning. No doubt they needed equipment for another job and took ours.)

Also, I won't pick up stuff in the restroom barehanded. Call me silly, but it's a
cleanliness thing.

So, I tell this to TMWMBO.

TMWMBO: "Did you tell the customer you were going to get a dustpan?"

ME:"No, he hadn't commented about the paper towels. I normally don't
discuss them with customers. I just go get the broom and dustpan and
sweep them up."
TMW etc.: "Did you report the faucet to a manager?"

ME: "I've told people several times.

TMW: "Who?"

ME: "I don't keep a log in my head of who I tell about these things. And this was
over a month ago."

TMW: "Then you didn't tell anyone. (flat statement, in effect calling me a liar.)

Aside here..Look at the conversation above. The reason I never give her a
name is because then those people will be exposed to this, and then angry
with me for putting them into this position. For the record, it was another
manager, who we will call Y.

TMW: "Are you sure the faucet doesn't work?"

ME: "Yes"

TMWMBO: "Let's go look at it."

And so, dear reader, we walked to the guy's room and after checking to make
sure it was empty, I showed TMW that when I waved my hand under the
faucet, nothing came out.

Since I am obviously incompetent, TMWMBO then did it herself.

We then left the lavatory laboratory. More discussion ensued, during
which I might have become a little more heated and pointed out to her
that I was the only male staff member who ever checks the damn guys room
and that I do my best for the store only to get this sort of grief.

Discussion ended there. A little while later, TMWMBO approached me
again about two other points in the letter. Was one of the stall doors not able
to be locked? (No. The lock on it is a replacement for one broken nearly
three years ago. It's a bolt lock instead of the dial lock built into the door
and the door now opens in and out of the stall instead of just in, but it
does lock)

How bad is the grafitti in the room? (Not much grafitti. There had been some
small writing over the tp dispenser in the stall in question but someone had
covered it over with black marker)

So, I spent the final two hours of my shift fuming. Upshot of all this is that
TMWMBO hopes I see the importance of engaging customers in positive
comments in the restroom ("Hey,gosh, I AM going to clean that right up!")
and that more female staffmembers will check the guys room because after
all, they do outnumber us guys on the staff. I'm sure the male sustomers will
be surprised.

I'm tired. I'm tired of being the only person who pays attention to the rules
and getting shit on as a consequence. I'm tired of being the one to soldier
on and getting nothing but grief for it.

I'm tired.

CHECKING IN

check....
(((runs))

BLOG THIS!

Okay, after several occasions of going crazy trying to figure out
what was wrong with the blog (the posts were showing up in a small
column under the archive and links lists) I decided it must be a template
problem so I "changed" templates by rechoosing it and republishing it.
The upside is the setup looks normal now.
The downside is that my links list is gone.
I'll try to add them back later.
Damn you, Blogger! ((shakes fist at screen..ow..))

JOHN PRESCOTT

Another nut from the family tree:

"The name of Prescott deservedly holds a conspicuous place in the annals of Groton. John, the first of whom we have any precise and authentic account, was born in Lancashire, England, and married Mary Platts, of Yorkshire, by whom he had three sons and four daughters. On leaving England, he first went to Barbadoes, where he was a proprietor of lands, in 1638. About the year 1640, he came to Massachusetts, first stopped at Watertown, but soon settled at Nashua, afterwards incorporated and [p. 286] called Lancaster, probably from his native county in old England. He was a blacksmith by occupation, and was also a builder of mills. He had in his possession, brought from England, a coat of mail armour [a long footnote appearing here is reproduced below], and habiliments complete, such as were worn by field officers of that day; whence it had been supposed, that he or some of his ancestors were warriors, and some one of them might have received the order of knighthood.


"Of this armour and its owner the following anecdotes are told: --

"'John was a sturdy, strong man of a stern countenance, and whenever he had any difficulty with the Indians, he would clothe himself with his coat of mail, helmet, curiass, and gorget, which gave him a fierce and frightful appearance. They having once stolen from him a horse, he put on his armour and pursued them; and in a short time overtook the party. They were surprised to see him alone, and a chief approached him with uplifted tomahawk. John told him to strike, which he did, and finding the blow made no impression on his cap, he was much astonished, and asked John to let him put it on, and then strike his head, as he had done to John's. The helmet being too small for the chief's head, the stroke settled it down to his ears, scraping off the skin on both sides of his head. They gave him up his horse, thinking him to be a supernatural being.

"'At another time, the Indians set fire to his barn. Old John put on his armour, rushed out, drove them off, and let out his cattle and horses from the burning stable.' 'Again, the Indians set fire to his saw-mill. The old man, armed cap-a-pie, as before, drove them off and extinguished the fire.' 'Once more, they attacked John's house. He had several muskets in the house, which his wife loaded, and he discharged upon them with fatal effect. The contest continued nearly half an hour, John all the while giving orders, as if to soldiers, so loud the Indians could hear him, to load their muskets, though he had no soldiers but his wife. At length they withdrew, carrying off several of their dead or wounded.'"
- Caleb Butler, History of the Town of Groton, Including Pepperell and Shirley, from the First Grant of Groton Plantation in 1655, Boston: T. R. Marvin, 1848.

ONE MORE TIME!!!!!!!

They say third time's the charm...

The World is Too Much With Us (1806)

The world is too much with us: late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The sea that bares her bosom to the moon:
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.- Great God! I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
-William Wordsworth

TEST

Now is the time for all good men to er.....scream at blogger.

THE EARLY WHOSIS CATCHES THE WHATSIS

Thought I'd post earlier than usual because I have an early shift again in the
morning.

Not that I've much of any brilliance to post, mind you. Work goes on. Camelot
endures.. Not much joy there lately but there's not much that can be done at the
moment but wait. Most of those left after what I now mentally refer to as The
Great Schism are deeply involved either with work or school or even both.
We no longer have the ones who seem to spend their entire day glued to their
kb while rping in Camelot and 4 or 5 other channels at the same time. Hell,I've
spent some days off in front of the computer for 5 or 6 hours and have to take
a break at that point. Lord only knows how those certain other parties are able
to spend 8 hours and up at theirs.

So for the moment not much rp to report. I have a rant about work but I'm going
to save that for sometime this weekend when I am ..er... (cough) in front of the
comp monitoring a mostly empty channel for another 5 or 6 hours.

WHAT I DID TODAY

zero.

And with that dear reader, I go now to bed, too tired to strain my brain
after finagling a way to get into the blog to post. Early shift tomorrow.

MALDEN

I've been in one of those moods lately, thinking about the past. It's gotten so
out of hand that I found myself recalling an obscure 1970's tv Western
yesterday down to the cast and the names of their characters.It's useless
knowledge like that which gave rise to Trivial Pursuit.

Anyway, I found myself thinking of Malden this morning.That's a town north
of Boston where my folks bought a two family with my uncle and his family as
co owners. They had the first floor and we took the second and we lived there
from shortly after my 1st birthday until my 8th.It's weird sometimes but I have
more vivid memories of Malden and Dorchester as a kid then I do of Abington
as a teenager. Same thing with school. Go figure.....
...Aunt Emily(who I called Mimi and the name has stuck over the years) is
Italian and kept her living room furniture covered in those clear plastic things
for years. I am not sure what the occasions were, perhaps the birthdays of my
cousins but there were some family celebrations with her uncle Luigi who played
mandolin and would pause for an occasional glass of wine "for gas in the engine".
One party was mostly outside in the big back yard that had a huge lilacbush at the
back end.
.....the house was on Beach St , one house from the corner of Beach and Clapp.
That house belonged to the Coriellis (sp?) who had three sons, Vinnie, who was
a teenager and the twins, Ronnie and Richie who were my age. On the other side
were the Tedescos, Pat (who ran a cobbler's shop) and Rose and their two kids,
an older daughter whose name I forget(well, she was a girl! I wasn't old enough
yet to pay attention) and the boy Michael who was my age. We all played together
and attended the Linden School together up the street.
.....the twin's mother, Jo, and Mike's mother, Rose, had a tremendous argument
outside on the sidewalk one day and it got physical with slaps and hair pulling. My
grandmother (whose name was Agnes but will always be Nanny to me) came out
and broke it up, lecturing them on such behavior in front of the kids.
....Saddles our dog was out on the sidewalk with me one day and the boxer from
across the street charged over. My mom always claimed Saddles was defending me.
I don't recall the dogfight, I was only 5 or 6 at the time. I do recall the ride to the
Angell Memorial Animal Hospital wtih my uncle holding Saddles in the back seat
with a cloth over a bad rip in the dog's neck. There was nothing the vets could
do and they put Saddles to sleep.
....the house was across the street from a small grocery store and behind that
was the Linden Creek.(Linden is a section of Malden and Linden Square was
just up the street. Pat Tedesco's shop was there). During a hurricane in the
mid 1950's the creek overflowed and flooded the street, and a motorboat actually
came down the middle of Beach st. ...followed by my Dad in the 1954 Pontiac
that we had at the time. The engine block was up high enough to let him get
through and pull into our driveway.
...Linden Creek was also the site of a death. I can't recall if it was accidental or
homicide.
....the infamous Indian attack. I was Sgt Preston of the Mounties.Ronnie and
Richie were the Indians. One of them threw a lance (aka a tomato plant stake)
at me as we were running along and it hit me right on the bridge of my nose,
just missing my eyes. Much yelling between the moms over that one. I had
a small scar there for years but it's faded away.
...Mom feeding me tablespoons of something to improve my appetite because I
was such a scrawny kid back then. It must have been time release stuff.
..Davy Crockett...the white football I got for a birthday, the same one where
I got my first two wheeler, a Schwinn..the cool black campus jacket with
the collar that was bright red underneath when you turned it up like all the
tough kids did.

We moved to Dorchester shortly after my grandmother died in 1956.
I had a reunion of sorts with Mike Tedesco when we both entered
Cathedral High School in 1962 as freshmen. Then my folks bought
the house in Abington, and that was the last connection with Malden.

REALITY AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

First of all, I join the rest of the world in mourning the passing of John Paul II.
While I like many other American Catholics might have found his views on
modern issues a bit conservative, I admired his vitality and his humanity towards
the poor and frail. I also believe he did indeed play a larger part in the fall of
Communism in Eastern Europe than most Western Catholics realize. Just his
election itself sent events into motion that are still ongoing.
That being said, it's also true that like others in the Church, he failed in dealing
with the shameful secrets of recent American Catholicism.In this he followed the
old tradtional view of sweeping it under the rug and stonewalling in order to
preserve the image and reputation of the Church. That Cardinal Law, the former
Cardinal of Boston at the height of the scandals, should be interviewed about the
death of John Paul II on national tv this morning only serves to remind Boston
Catholics of the readiness of this Pope and his predecessors to engage in a
shameful cover-up.

As to a successor, I believe the next pope will be an Italian. There has been speculation
that it could be a third world nation cardinal, either from Nigeria or from Brazil, but I
have doubts that will happen. The majority of the cardianls eligible to vote are Italian
and over 70 or close to it, and Holy Spirit or not, they are only human. JPII was a
compromise choice, elected on the third ballot after a similiar group of cardinals back
in 1978 were deadlocked between more popular choices. Many of the present group
were either newly or not yet appointed cardinals. They have had 26 years to watch
that earlier generation's dreams of reaching the Papacy fail and might have learned a
lesson from that.

Also, the Vatican is more than just the papacy. It is a large bureaucracy. Popes come
and go but the Curia remains. A third world pope might mean an influx of officials from
outside the establishment and rather than see that happen, they would work to influence
the selection to preserve their power and position.

Finally, there is the money. The majority of funds that keeps the Church afloat comes
from America and Europe.Given the sad aspects of human nature, a black or hispanic
pope might prove popular in the Third World but it is the Old World that fills the papal
coffers and that might lessen without a white face in the Papal See. An Italian or
European pope won't discomfort that smaller percentage of Catholics who contribute
the larger amount of donations to the Church.

There's some talk of a young (62 is young in the ranks of the Cardinals) Italian candidate
but I'm not sure they will feel moved to select him and then wait another 20 years or so
for the next chance.

I suppose we'll find out if I'm right in two weeks or so. I'm sure if I am a lot of people
will be critical of the church, but hmmm..has there been a black Archbishop of
Canterbury yet?

WORDS AND DEEDS

Here in this firehall, squires were once heard
To take solemn oath and to give their word
To be ever true knights and by word and by hand
To serve Camelot and the folk of the land.

Not by your words but your deeds are you known
And by those same deeds are your true natures shown.

Here in this firehall, you knelt down and swore
To serve Camelot's people in peace and in war,
To serve Arthur's dream and from evil defend
Until the walls crumbled or `til the world's end.

Not by your words but your deeds are you known
And by those same deeds are your true natures shown

Now your words all seem hollow, and only a few
Faithful remain who are good knights and true.
I swore to reward loyalty back in kind
But loyalty in you I no more can find.

Not by your words but your deeds are you known
And by those same deeds are your true natures shown
©4/2005 Bill West

AND INTO APRIL

Another month comes and goes.

Work is work. It doesn't pay much, but it keeps the roof over my head
and food in the cupboard. Barely keeps the wolves from the door, though.
I think I am now part of the "working poor" masses. I lose my job and the
skids are greased, let me tell ya.
So I try to stay a happy peasant and bite my tongue when some new rule or
policy comes along that makes no sense. As Chico used to say on that old tv
show, "Is not my yob,man" anymore.

Writing is at a temporary standstill. Mostly, I think, because it's close to the
end of the Hundredth Tear series now and I think I am reluctant to close that
series off. I have a mix of emotions about it. It was never intended to go this long,
but instead was going to serve as the intro for a quest. When the circumstances
that triggered the idea changed, I had to change the reason to look for the Tear.
By this time, some of the people I wanted to run the quest for were away from the
channel and I certainly didn't want to run it without them and have a certain other
rp powergame their way through it. And as I became more and more frustrated
with events, HT became an escape for me.Nice eh? An escape from an escape?
And now of course, while some of the rps have returned, others haven't. The last time
I brought up the Tear and Merlin's Tower in rp was over two months ago, now.

I doubt I'll ever run it now. Doesn't matter really since it was most like not going
to be a major quest anyway.

And since then, it's been harder to write. HT has been effected by my mood and by
events and there's been little joy in working on thses last few segments. I think this
is the first time I've written something where I'll be relieved when I finish.
No doubt some of the readers will be too.
And yet, I will be a bit sad it's over.

Go figure.

And so another April arrives.

Rah.

HOPALONG

A rather quiet Easter. It's really lost any family feel to it since Mom's death
and we don't get together for Easter dinner like we did in the old days when
Dad would fire up the pressure cooker for the Boiled Cabbage to go with the
ham.Cheryl has been fighting a headcold and had an interview for today that she
wanted to rest up for, and her husband has finally gotten over the staph infection
in his side that he seems to have developed either at Walter Reed while visiting
Paul or at home from some germ Paul had. We think this because it was originally
a small scratch and the infection was especially tough to clear up. I wonder how
many other health problems have come back from Iraq with our troops?

Work Saturday was a madhouse. We were light on staff to begin with and then
one of the girls went home ill. So for three hours in the afternoon there were four
of us on the sales floor(not counting the cafe worker) and of the four, three of us
were on the registers. We had a non stop line, but luckily the customers were
good humored. But by the time I got out at 6 I was wiped out. I came home, ate,
napped in the parlor off and on for nearly 6 hours before checking in online at
Cams. I got to bed around 3:30 and ending up sleeping in until nearly 2. So, not
a heck of a lot got accomplished today .

And my shifts this week are all mid shifts...12-9pm for four days, 11-8 on Saturday

Fun fun fun.

ALL QUIET ON THE WEST-ERN FRONT

Nothing new to report tonight. A quiet day off. A mostly quiet day online
except for some conversation near the end of the night in the Keep.

I have fallen into the worrying habit of occasionally talking aloud to myself around
here and now worry I will start doing it in public. I'm not crazy, really, it's just that
there's no one else here to talk to. Occasionally I sing a little (badly) along with
some music but other than that, it's pretty quiet around here . So I will tell myself
what an idiot I am when I do something stupid or I'll comment about a news story.
I also made some insulting remarks to the radio weatherman today on his lousy
prediction of a major snowstorm that didn't happen.

Ah well..as long as I don't scare the hell out of some old lady someday muttering
to myself at the laundromat.

ANOTHER LAZY SUNDAY

..and I did nothing of interest..

But hey, I'm on a roll posting so I thought I'd keep it going especially
since I am working three 1pm to 10 pm shifts the next three nights
and I'm not sure I'll be awake before midnight tonight if I doze off.

So there, I've preserved my blog continuity...bloginuity?

At any rate, good night and good luck.

TERRY SHIAVO

I am astounded at what a circus this whole affair has become. A flatbed
truck drives around her hospital with a large replica of the two tablets of
the Ten Commandments and a working replica of the Liberty Bell. A man
walks around with an 8 ft foam spoon with a "Feed Terry" sign attached.
Bo Gritz tries to smuggle bread and water to her as a "symbolic gesture"
since she's incapable of eating or drinking on her own.

And Tom Delay in a cynical ploy to divert attention from his shady deals and
from Republican disarray over Social Security reconvenes Congrss to try to
step in and reverse the court decision to remove Terry's feeding tube. A memo
has been leaked that talks of how this will appeal to the Christian Conservatives
and Right to Life factions.

Is this an example of letting someone go to their Creator with dignity?

Do we want politicians stepping into these situations for their own purposes?

If this grandstand play succeeds can we expect more appeals for Congress to
overturn similiar court cases in the future? And if they decline to do for the next
case what they might do in this, will we be faced with the prospect of Congress
being sued for failing to intervene the next time?

It's wrong that Terry Schavo is brain dead. It's wrong that her husband's decision
to let her go in peace as she would have wished is being painted as murder. He
didn't walk in the day after her heart attack and asked to have all life support
removed. It was only after some time and when it became obvious that his wife
was never going to return to him that he arrived at the decision.

I feel for her parents, but they are unable to face the reality that their daughter
is reduced to this vegetative state and prolonging her life is only going to add to
her body's pain.

And it's wrong..horribly, disgustingly, wrong for Congress to use this issue as
a political football.

I hope there's enough members who will see that when they take the next vote
tonight.

ANOTHER SPOOKY COINCYDINK

As I've blogged before, I've been exploring the family tree for a
year or so now and there's been some eerie coincidences between
my presnt interests and my family's history. I found another a night
or two back.

I needed something to read at work one day and picked up a
magazine called "Scotland" that deals with Scottish history and there
was an article in it about "Scottish Slaves in New England". Seems that
after Cromwell defeated a Scottish army in support of the Stuart kings
there were a lot of Scottish prisoners to be taken care of. So many of
them were sent over to the Massachusetts Colony as indentured servants
to help with much of the heavy labor. Many of them helped to build and
run the Saugus Iron Mills, the first foundry in America. This was a chapter
of American history I hadn't known about before so I found the article
fascinating.

A few weeks passed and then the other night I was digging around in my
Dad's maternal Barker ancestors among whom are members of the Upton
family, in particular one John Upton. Who, I then discovered, worked at the
Saugus Iron Works and who some other genealogy researchers say was one
or may have been one of the Scottish prisoners.

Spooky, eh?

ADSUM DOMINE

This is the Healer's Oath from Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series.

"Adsum Domine" means "Here I am, Lord" in Latin

Here am I, Lord: Thou hast granted me the grace to heal men's bodies.

Here am I, Lord: Thou hast given me the might to bend the will of others.

O Lord, grant strength and wisdom to wield all these gifts only as Thy will

wouldst have me serve.

The Lord of Light siad unto me, Behold:
Thou art my chosen child, My gift to man.
Before the daystar, long before thou wast in mother-womb,
thy soul was sealed to Me for all time out of mind.
Thou art My Healing hand upon this world,
Mine instrument of life and Healing might.
To thee I give the breath of Healing power,
the awesome, darkling secrets of the wood and vale and earth.
I give thee all these gifts that thou mayst know my love:
Use all in service of the ease of man and beast.
Be cleansing fire to purify corruption,
a pool of sleep to bring surcease from pain.
Keep close within thy heart all secrets given,
as safe as said in shriving, and as sacred.
Nor shall thy Sight be used for revelation,
unless the other's mind be freely offered.
With consecrated hands, make whole the broken.
With consecrated soul, reach out and give my peace.

Here am I, Lord: All my talents at Thy feet I lay.

Here am I, Lord: Thou art the One Creator of all things.
Thou are the Omnipartite One Who ruleth Light and Shade,
Giver of Life and Gift of Life Thyself.

Here am I, Lord: All my being bound unto Thy will.

Here am I, Lord: Sealed unto Thy service, girt with strength to save or slay.
Guide and guard Thy servant, Lord, from all temptation,
that honor may be spotless and my Gift unstained.

Katherine Kurtz

ST PATRICK'S DAY

And a Happy St. Paddy's Day to one and all.

I have two vivid memories of past St. Patrick's Days

The first involves my mom and the revival of the parade in Abington. Now, while my
mom was Irish American (with a little German thrown in) we had never been really
rambunctious a family over celebrating the holiday. But one year she and some others
got to talking about how it was a shame that a town like Abington that had such a
large Irish American community didn't have a St. Patrick's Day Parade. One of the
group, Eddie Bailey, owned a car repair place and said that if they wanted to do it,
they could decorate his flatbed tow truck and he'd drive them around town.

Of course, you need music for a parade, so Mom asked me if they could borrow my
boombox and I bought them a cassette tape of the Irish tenor John McCormack singing
all the old ballads. I brought it down to them at the shop and so I guess I was the first
offical parade spectator because I hung around long enough to watch the decorated
"float" drive out onto the main road with Mom and the others singing "When Irish Eyes
Are Smiling" before I had go to work.

Within a few years, it had become a major event with four parade divisions and marching
bands. Every once and awhile the local paper will make mention of the parade's origins
and Eddie was Grand Marshal still up until a few years ago. And for years, Mom would
always take the day off from work if she had to so she could march in the parade with
her VFW Auxiliary group. She never missed a parade.

Which leads me to my second memory.
March 17th, 1999. It snowed that day, and when I went off to work Mom was still in
bed. She had already scheduled the day off for the parade and could sleep in for a bit.
I thought it unlikely that there would be any marching that day because of the snow.

I came home at 5pm and found the apartment dark.I turned on some lights and walked
for the bathroom. It was only after I left it that I glanced into my mom's room and
realized she was in bed. It turned out she'd never gotten up. I asked if she had the flu
but she said no, and I told her I would cook some dinner for her. By 7 when she still
hadn't gotten up to eat and was not answering me, I got worried and called my sister.
Cheryl came over and we decided that Mom needed to go see a doctor, so we got her
up and dressed and Cheryl took her over to the hospital while I waited for Joe, Mom's
boyfriend, at the apartment to fill him in.
And that was it. The beginning of the end. In four months she was dead from cancer.

I think of the two memories, I prefer the first.

A LITTLE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER

..over in the nightstand by the bed.
This concludes the books here in the same room as the computer.

The Hero With A Thousand Faces- Joseph Campbell
Primitive Mythology- Joseph Campbell
Oriental Mythology- Joseph Campbell
Occidental Mythology- Joseph Campbell
Creative Mythology- Joseph Campbell
The Development of Arthurian Romance- Roger Sherman Loomis
The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology-
The White Goddess-Robert Graves
Scandinavian Mythology- H.R. Ellis Davidson
Celtic Mythology- Proinsias MacCana
The Greeks and Their Gods- W.K.C. Guthrie
Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature- W.P.Ker
Celtic Myth and Legend- Charles Squire
Northern Mythology- Benjamin Thorpe
Bulfinch's Mythology- Thomas Bulfinch
An Encyclopedia of Fairies- Katharine Briggs
The Discovery of King Arthur- Geoffrey Ashe
A Field Guide to the Little People- Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse
The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little People- Thomas Keightley

SOME MORE BOOKS BY THE COMPUTER

ok..books actually on the desk's shelf or on the bottom shelf of the bookstand.
I've left off the books on Modern or U.S. History.

Bible-KJV
Bible-NIV
St.Joseph's Daily Catholic Missal
The Renaissance of the 12th Century- Charles Haskins
The Thirty Years War- C. V. Wedgewood
The Fall of the House of Habsburg- Edward Cruikshank
Imperial Spain 1469-1716- J. H. Elliott
Ancient Iraq- Georges Roux
The Vikings- Johannes Bronsted
The Celts- Nora Chadwick
The Medieval World- Friedrich Heer
Medieval Myths- Nora Goodrich
From Ritual to Romance- Jessie Weston
The Greatness That Was Bablyon- H.R. Saggs
The Heritage of Persia- Richard Frye
The Pelican History of Greece- A.R. Burn
The Romance of Tristan- Beroul
Tales From The Thousand and One Nights- Sir Richard Burton
The Waning of the Middle Ages- Jan Huizinga
The Nibelunglied- Anonymous
Le Morte d'Arthur (abr) -Sir Thomas Malory
Irish Sagas- Myles Dillon
The New Golden Bough-Sir James Frazier
The History of the Kings of Britain-Geoffrey of Monmouth
The Death of King Arthur- Anonymous (13th century)
Le Morte D'Arthur v1 (unabr.)- Sir Thomas Malory
Le Morte D'Arthur v2 (unabr.)- Sir Thomas Malory
Arthurian Chronicles- Wace and Layamon
Myths of the Greeks and Romans- Michael Grant
Idylls of The King- Alfred Lord Tennyson
The House of Habsburg- Adam Wandruszka
The Quest of the Holy Grail-Anonymous (13th century)
The First Book of Irish Myths and Legends- Eoin Neeson
A Celtic Miscellany- Kenneth Jackson
Ancient Myths- Norma Goodrich
Tristan -Gottfried von Strassburg
Mythology- Edith Hamilton
Gods, Graves, and Scholars- C. W. Ceram
Parsifal- Wolfram von Essenbach
The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles- Ronald Hutton
The Secret History of the Sword- J. Christopher Amberger
The Life and Death of a Druid Prince- Ann Ross
History of the Persian Empire- A.T. Olmsted
The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy -Oskar Jaszi
A History of the Crusades V.1 - Steven Runciman
A History of the Crusades V.2 - Steven Runciman
A History of the Crusades V.3 - Steven Runciman
The Knight in History- Frances Gies
Sword Fighting- Keith Ducklin
Celtic Sacred Landscapes- Nigel Pennick
The Rise and Fall of the Habsburg Monarchy- Victor Tapie
Encyclopedia of World History- William Langer
The Plantagenets- John Harvey
Dictionary of Ancient History- Graham Speake
The Ancient Near East- James Breasted
A History of the Vikings- Gwyn Jones
A History of the Later Roman Empire V.1- J.B. Bury
A History of the Later Roman Empire V.2- J.B. Bury
Lost Cities of China, Central Asia and India- David Childress

There!
That's all.
For Now.

SOME BOOKS NEAR THE COMPUTER

ok..I'm tired and not really feeling all that philosophical tonight.

So here are a few of the books in the bookstand next to my comp:
These are books I use for inspiration or for information in writing.

The Age of Arthur -John Morris
The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History V1
The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History V2
The History of the English People -Henry of Huntingdon
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes -Amin Maalouf
The Welsh Wars of Edward I -John Morris
The Quest for Arthur's Britain -Geoffrey Ashe
The Ottoman Centuries- Lord Kinross
The Empires of the Steppes -Grousset
Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance -Roger Loomis
Medieval Wordbook -Madeline Cosman
Merlin- Norma Goodrich
King Arthur-Norma Goodrich
The Holy Grail- Norma Goodrich
Sources of The Grail- John Matthews
King of the Celts- Jean Markale
The Year 1000- Robert Lacy
Life in a Medieval Village- Frances and Robert Gies
Life in a Medieval Castle- Frances and Robert Gies
Life in a Medieval Town -Frances and Robert Gies
Medieval Folklore- Carl Lindahl
The Heimskringla- Snorri Sturlason
Celtic Magic -D.J. Conway
Scottish Witchcraft- Raymond Buckland
William the Conqueror- David Douglas
A Distant Mirror- Barbara Tuchman
Medieval Panorama- G.G. Coulton
Kievan Russia- George Vernadsky
The Wars of the Roses- Anthony Goodman
The House of Medici - Christopher Hibbert
The Little Herb Encyclopedia- Jack Ritchason
Medieval Swordsmanship- John Clements
Renaissance Swordsmanship- John Clements
Swashbuckling- Richard Lane
Arthur's Britain- Leslie Alcock


That'll do for tonight. I'm finally sleepy enough that the achy knees might
not matter. Besides, I can't read the bottom shelf from here ((grin))

More to come another night.

NUMPTY MIDDLE-AGED BACHELOR TIPS#2 & 3

Tip #2 : Never apply Flex-all to an aching knee in the dark. This avoids getting too much
Flex-all in your hand.

Tip#3 Over application of Flex-all to the knee not only alleviates the ache in your knee
but also does wonders for your sinuses.

NUMPTY MIDDLE-AGED BACHELOR TIP#1

Note to self:

No matter how much I love spaghetti, next time don't cook the whole package. Even with
the home made sauce, three nights of spaghetti in a row is too much .
And there's still more left in the fridge.

.

FLAT

Well, it's still snowing out. Whiteout conditions and officially the second blizzard of
the winter, although more for the high wind and low visibility than for total snow fall.
I'll have to do a little shoveling again tomorrow before going to work at noon, it looks
like. Man, that wind is really howling, though!

I'm at that time of year again where I feel a bit of dissastisfaction with things.Lately the
books I buy turn out to be not worth the time or money spent on them.And of course
there's work and SWMBO, but that's a given. I can't afford to change jobs when in
all likelihood I'd have to take a cut in pay to start and I realistically cannot afford it. So
I soldier on and look for those parts and people I enjoy about the job and endure the rest.

It's not as bad in rp right now but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that all this silliness hasn't
had some effect. I cannot understand why someone who's chosen to leave the channel
cannot just move on with what has happened. One part of me tells myself to ignore it,
while the other part says to do so would be to validate what is being said. And it's hard
to kick a sl into gear when the chan population is low.

Even my writing seems bleh to me. I wrote HT33 today and one particular scene, the
walk up the side of the hill, had been in my imagination since the other night. I just re
read it and it seemed...flat.. to me.

Not to mention the two typoes I missed before posting to the list.

Flat seems the best description for it all right now;like ginger ale with the fizz
gone out of it.

But I' m mainly an optimist. I'll hang on and wait for a fresh glass and more
fizz.

..IN LIKE A LION

Only in New England. We had 46 degree temps this morning with rain.
It's now 33 with snow and sleet and going down into the teens by morning.with
wind gusts of 60 mph possible tonight. Ah well..the snow had melted enough
earlier so that you could see the grass for a few hours. It'll be covered up
again in another hour. 1 to 3 more inches (at least) of snow expected.

At least I had the day off and didn't have to drive in this mess.

FALL DOWN GO BOOM!

Which is what I did at work again today. This time it happened outside on the front walk.
I'd suddenly realized I'd left my wallet lying in plain view on the front seat of my car
so I went out to get it, not bothering with coat or hat because, after all, I was coming
back inside right away. I retrieved my wallet and started back inside, thinking about a
conversation I'd had with SWMBO just before this, and as I walked towards the door
I caught the tip of my shoe on the edge of the sidewalk. There's a tapering down of
the curb to allow handicap access and I hit the last actual edge of curbing.

I then did a fairly accurate impression of a dodo bird.

Nothing broken, but I cut the inside of my mouth a little and have a nice bruise on the
corner of my chin to match the scrape over my eye and the other bruises on my kneecaps.

Nothing injured except my pride.

Amazingly enough, my chino pants were not torn..not a mark on them.

Wish I could say the same.

Ah well...let's hope I don't fall out of bed.

UP TO HERE

Well, we got hit with yet another snowstorm. We got about a foot of it in this
area and that brings the total for the Winter so far in the region south of Boston to
77 inches. Normal snowfall in the Boston area for Winter is about 28 inches. Last
year we had 36. The record was set back in the winter of 1995-96 of 144 inches
or 12 ft.

Of course, at 77 inches that's nearly 6 1/2 ft which is above my height. My knees
have been bothering me a bit lately and I think part of it is due to the cold and part
to the frequent shoveling of snow.

I don't mind the shoveling so much as the driving. I left work at 8pm last night and
it was just starting to snow. By the time I'd gone three miles, the snow was coming
down heavily and covering the roads. I immediately slowed down to keep from
slipping and sliding all over the place. By the time I had gone another mile, it was
white out conditions. It was a classic nor'easter with high winds and "horizontal"
snow. Took 45 minutes on what's normal a 15 minute drive to get home.

And even as I typed this, the radio had a report that the National Weather Service is
already forecasting more storms this weekend.

Ah well..it's New England...Spring will eventually get here...some time in May, probably.
Further north where my father grew up there will be snow on the mountains until early
June. My grandad died up there one year in Feb. They kept the body in storage at
some funeral home until late April when the ground was softer and it was easier to dig
out a proper grave. ((This was back in the `60s. I'm sure by now they've all got
machinery up there to do the work instead of waiting for the thaw.))

We'll moan and complain but we're used to the snow. As long as the Red Sox home
opener isn't snowed out in April, we'll survive.

Now if you'll excuse me, my shovel is calling...

THE MAGIC

This might be a semi-coherent ramble, but it's very late.

As I've told a few folks lately, I believe that any act of creative art is a good thing.
It means you are using your imagination and exercising your brain. It doesn't have to
be great art or please me or anyone else. It has to please yourself.

I know, I know...there's a lot of weird stuff out there and in some cases the word art
might be too complimentary to describe it, but at least these people try. There are so
many people out there who think about doing something but never do it. I know that
there's other things I have thought I might like to do haven't and wish that I had. But
I do write, so at least I've done one thing I wanted to do.((grin))

To me, creating a story or a painting or playing music is magical. It's an extension of
whatever creative spark created the Universe.While I'm not a very religious man
and I am not a churchgoer, I do believe in God as Creator. Every religion believes
(as far as I know) in a Divine Creator. And I am of the belief that the ability to create
art, to make something out of one's own imagination and inspiration is a reflection of
the Power that created us all.

There's a bit more to this but I'm not sure I'm making any sense.
Umm..and I think I just said the same thing twice but with different words.
A sure sign I am incoherent, and so I go now to bed.

ONE OF THOSE DAYS

Been one of the less wonderful days off.
I pulled or strained something in my left leg pushing a store fixture
back in place following a musical group's appearance at the store last
night and then had trouble finding a comfortable position for sleeping all
night, so I kept waking up. It is still bothering me and as soon as I finish
this I'm going to go sit elsewhere and hope it feels better.

After I finally got up and dressed(getting a sock on that aching leg was
a laugh riot, let me tell ya, folks!) I went to the laundromat and used two
washers I dropped the coins into the slots(anyone else notice how much
the cost to use a laundromat washing machine has gone up lately?) and
then went about reading a book for 25 minutes. Since sitting down and
getting up hurts today I leaned against a table, but the angle was such
that I was facing away from the washers so I never saw one of the
washers stop working.

I did eventually find out when I opened the lid and saw it was still full
of water. So after failed attempts to get the machine to work I rolled
up my jacket sleeves and fished all the clothes out and transferred them,
dripping a lot of water,to the next washer and popped another $1.75
into the slots. I might add this was with an appreciative audience. I'm
not sure if they were "tsk tsk'ing" over the machine or over my wet
boxer shorts.

So, not one of the better days. But when I consider how much worse off
others are than a gimpy leg and a malfunctioning washing machine, I'm
pretty sure I can survive . ((grin))

WHY COMPUTERS WILL NEVER REPLACE BOOKSELLERS

Yesterday morning as I walked out onto the sales floor, J. called
me over and she asked me to help with a customer. This sweet
little old lady was looking for a cd that J. was coming up with nothing
on.

Me: :"Ok, ma'am. Who's the artist?"
SLOL: "Rod Serling."

I looked at her.

Me: "Rod Serling from the Twilight Zone?"
SLOL: "No, I mean Rod Sterling. I'm sorry!"
ME: "Hmm..I can't find that name in the computer. Are you sure you
don't mean Rod Stewart?"
SLOL: "YES! That's the one!"
ME: "Ok. Do you know which album you want?"
SLOL: "The one with the song `Stargate'.


I thought for a second. I was pretty sure old rod the Mod hadn't done
any song about the sf movie or series.

Me: "You mean `Stardust?'
SLOL: "Yes!!!! That's it!!!"

I took her over and found the album.

They can have all sorts of computers for customers to use, but if they don't
know what they are looking for, they can't find it.

And a computer can't smile back at you.

THE MORNING AFTER THE DAY BEFORE

The title comes from my realization that when I type "today" I am really referring
to the day before the date on each entry. This comes from staying up so late that
it's actually early in the morning of the next day when I am posting.

Hence also the brevity a lot of the time.

So, today (which was yesterday) I made spaghetti for lunch/dinner
and did the sauce the old way that my folks made it.Browned the ground
beef in a frying pan, then added two small cans of tomato paste and a can of
peeled tomatoes. Used regular spagehetti instead of rotini or ziti and I still
have enough leftover for another meal or two.

Read a bit of McKillip's "Alphabet of Thorns" as well...great stuff.

There's a story kicking around my head based on a remark BT made in the
firehall a few days back about a bard. I don't know yet if it will make it into words
yet.

anywho..that's my story for today...or yesterday...er..whatever..

YAWN

Finally got the next part of HT done. I'm not too certain the combat works but I
decided I had been putting it off too long, and better to write it and get it over than to
keep dawdling around on it.
So, HT is winding down...maybe 3 or 4 more parts.
I can't believe how long I've been writing it.
Nothing profound tonight.
And tomorrow I get to sleep in!
Yay me!

ARRRRGH...JUST...ARRRGH!

You would think by now that those who left #Camelot for the
#citadel would have moved on with their lives but such is not the
case. One in particular seems convincedthat Camelot is doomed
to fall, that BT is not its Guardian but merely a caretaker.

Frankly, I'm getting sick of it. The only thing it accomplishes is to
make me get my Irish up.

Hell will freeze over before I concede defeat.

DAY IN THE LIFE.....

Another day off down the tubes. Slept late, did laundry, did dishes, did very little else.

And I actually wanted to write something today, so I better get my Muse in gear and
make up for it tomorrow night.

Forecast is for another big snowstorm on Thursday. Rah...not...!

Off to bed.

This entry was nearly as boring as my day ! ((grin))

SUPERBOWL AND OTHER MATTERS

Well, the Pats won their third Superbowl, despite what a lot of the national
pundits like Shannon Sharpe and others thought of them. The Patriots don't
get the recognition or publicity that other teams or players do, perhaps because
they don't place themselves as individuals over the other members of the team.

Two camera shots today epitomize the Patriots to me. The first was one of
Tedy Bruschi taking the time to play with his two toddlers on the field sometime
Saturday. The other was freom tonight's game, where Coach Belichik was hugging
Romeo Crennell and Charlie Weiss in a group hug, their faces hidden. It would be the
last time together because his assistants were moving on to be head coaches themselves
after almost 15 years with him.
Both shots show that the Patriots put high value on family and friendship. I respect
that and I think that's why so many New Englanders are proud of how the Patriots
confound their critics to win yet again.

Such a strange time to be a sports fan here. Boston fans are so used to losing (at least
in baseball and football) that the success of the Red Sox and Patriots these past few
years confuzzles us at times.

********************************
Work seems strange these past few months. Although (as you folks who've read this
blog know)it is more stressful than any place I've ever worked, I stay on there. Despite
the oppressive management and the occasional bad customer days, there's the satisfaction
in helping a customer finding the book they need or in having one come back to the store
to tell me how much they enjoyed some book I recommended to them. I love that part
of the business. I love sharing my love of books.

But lately that satisfaction is rarer and rarer. The change in store procedures dictated by
the chain combines with the dictates of The Boss Who Must Be Obeyed and more and
more I wait for the Other Shoe to fall. At the moment, things are just tense all over the
store, so it might fall Real Soon Now. We'll see.
*********************************
I have to get my act in gear and get some writing done. More on that later.
Right now, bed.