It’s raining today. It feels good.
It has been very hot and humid lately, only threatening to rain during the day with an occasional shower at night. Sometimes, I just feel like I need a rainy day. It relieves me of my “responsibilities” to work in the yard and be productive. It gives me a day off to relax and think.
We’ve had a lot to think about lately. My Dad discovered he had all five major arteries to his heart blocked anywhere from 90 to 100%. This caused damage to his mitral valve.
All week, I felt like it should be raining.
At 79 it could have been the end. But Dad is tough. He survived the South Pacific in WWII. This wasn’t going to bring him down.
One full week of tests and waiting for surgery culminated with 5 hours of surgery. It’s been almost two full days since the surgery was completed. He had a minor bout with his blood pressure, but in general he is cruising to a renewed life of energy and life.
We go though life thinking that “things” will always be the same. Then one day, something dramatic happens and you realize that anyone of us could experience anything at anytime that could change our patterns of life forever. This was one of those experiences. The thought of losing my Dad had me terrified.
I took inventory of all the things he has meant to me. He taught me how to fix things around the house. He taught me how to work. He taught me how to have a sense of humor. He taught me how to be a husband, and how to be a father. As he ages and talks more about his WWII experiences, he has taught me about bravery, sacrifice, honor, and faith. I doubt that he realizes this because he is not a man of ego.
As I visited him in the hospital yesterday, I told him he was my hero. He just smiled through his pain and looked a little embarrassed at the possibility that he could be a hero. But as I watched him face this difficult surgery and begin his recovery, he demonstrates once again just how tough he is. No complaints, just determination to get through it and not inconvenience anyone while he does.
It’s raining today. The sky is dark and there is the ominous sound of thunder. At some moments it is so dark it seems like the Sun is gone forever. The thunder is deafening and sounds treacherous. Finding out that you or a loved one is seriously ill is kind of like that. Everything sounds scary and treacherous. The world becomes tenuous. At moments you feel like the Sun has disappeared forever. The rain comes, harder at some times than others. Then after a time, the rain stops, the thunder ends, and Sun returns. The effects on the Earth are immediately apparent. The grass has grown; the garden shows immediate signs of increased yield. The pond looks refreshed and clean. The air smells clean again, and we have all been refreshed and restored.
It’s raining today. It feels good.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Check out my zucchini
The weather here has been perfect for the garden. Hot, humid, periods of rain. Consequently we are being overun by zucchini. In two days, we have harvested over 2 dozen. There are at least that many to be picked tomorrow and more coming up. We have already had zucchini omelets. Tonight we are frying zucchini sticks. The bread will start later this week. We are thinking zucchini parmesan... If you have any zucchini recipes send them our way before we are buried in them.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Water World
If you are wondering where I have been...
Check out my new backyard pond shown above.
This also explains my sore back.
Check out my new backyard pond shown above.
This also explains my sore back.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Where did everybody go?
About a week ago, a name from my youth popped into my head, and I wondered "whatever happened to Russ?" I went online and put his name into the smartpages search and nothing came up. I got busy with something else and didn't do any further research. Then two nights ago my wife and I walked into a local ice cream shop. As we moved away from the counter, Russ was standing there with his family. It's probably been more than 20 years since we last saw each other. I live in Ohio, he lives in Florida. He just happened to be visiting the area, and there we were...Buddies from high school both amazed at the chance meeting, and both looking "exactly the same" as we did back in '73.
Time is a strange science. Our memories stand still for us so that we can call upon them anytime. But time marches on. We leave high school graduation vowing to stay in touch. Then a lifetime later we run into each other by chance and wonder...where did it go? Why didn't we stay in touch.
The strangest part of this occurance with Russ, is that it is second time this has happened. Back in 1984 I found myself wondering what he was up to, then ran into him working in a retail store in New Philidelphia, Ohio a few days later.
I really think we are supposed to stay in touch, so through the miracle of email, I will do my best. If however for some reason we don't, Russ will live on in my memory banks to visit anytime, just like Steve, Kathy, Marty, Lee, Janet, Jeff, Dean, Mona, Loretta, Jill, Dan, Glen, Bill, Mark,Laurice, Bob, Alex, Lucy,Denise........
Do something cool for yourself... Make contact with an old friend that you haven't seen in a long time. It will refresh your soul.
Time is a strange science. Our memories stand still for us so that we can call upon them anytime. But time marches on. We leave high school graduation vowing to stay in touch. Then a lifetime later we run into each other by chance and wonder...where did it go? Why didn't we stay in touch.
The strangest part of this occurance with Russ, is that it is second time this has happened. Back in 1984 I found myself wondering what he was up to, then ran into him working in a retail store in New Philidelphia, Ohio a few days later.
I really think we are supposed to stay in touch, so through the miracle of email, I will do my best. If however for some reason we don't, Russ will live on in my memory banks to visit anytime, just like Steve, Kathy, Marty, Lee, Janet, Jeff, Dean, Mona, Loretta, Jill, Dan, Glen, Bill, Mark,Laurice, Bob, Alex, Lucy,Denise........
Do something cool for yourself... Make contact with an old friend that you haven't seen in a long time. It will refresh your soul.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Lives, Fortunes, and Honor
I am posting the Declaration of Independence. You might think I am trite and uncreative. Go ahead. The document gives you the right. You might think I am opinionated and overzelous in my patriotism. It's ok. The document gives you the right. As you read my previous posts, you might think I am over critical of the media. That's ok, the document gives me the right. I could go on but I think you get the point.
The Declaration of Independence gives us the right to be humans. Free to be who we are and who we were meant to be. It gives us the right to write, to speak, to have voice in the government of our country. It gives us the right to work, to be educated, to marry who we choose, to live where we want, to create wealth, to keep our wealth, to bear arms, to worship our God, and to be happy. It gives us these rights as long as we don't trample on the rights of others.
The Declaration of Independence is a remarkable document the we don't read often enough. The men who crafted it and had the courage to sign it, risked everything they had to do so. Many suffered great loss because of their defense of this document.
It's way too easy for us to forget why we celebrate various holidays. In the hustle and bustle of each we get focused on the celebration and not the cause of the celebration.
It is fourth of July weekend. Before you eat your hot dogs and drink too much beer, take a moment and read the Declaration. Be sure to read the names of each man who signed it. Reflect upon their gift to you. Give thanks for those who died to preserve it, and pray for those who are still fighting to defend it.
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts
John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
The Declaration of Independence gives us the right to be humans. Free to be who we are and who we were meant to be. It gives us the right to write, to speak, to have voice in the government of our country. It gives us the right to work, to be educated, to marry who we choose, to live where we want, to create wealth, to keep our wealth, to bear arms, to worship our God, and to be happy. It gives us these rights as long as we don't trample on the rights of others.
The Declaration of Independence is a remarkable document the we don't read often enough. The men who crafted it and had the courage to sign it, risked everything they had to do so. Many suffered great loss because of their defense of this document.
It's way too easy for us to forget why we celebrate various holidays. In the hustle and bustle of each we get focused on the celebration and not the cause of the celebration.
It is fourth of July weekend. Before you eat your hot dogs and drink too much beer, take a moment and read the Declaration. Be sure to read the names of each man who signed it. Reflect upon their gift to you. Give thanks for those who died to preserve it, and pray for those who are still fighting to defend it.
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts
John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
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