Yup, there I go again. At one time I promised myself that I wouldn’t complain about what other people were doing, I would concentrate on my life because that is the only thing I can control. Well, at least I think I can control things; at least I can control how I react to what happens even if I’m not the one in charge. (thanks Jo).
Overall I should say I’ve had it pretty good. Always had food, owned my own home for quite a while now (well, the bank and I), no long periods of no work, no major negative activities. I look at the rest of the world and am glad I live in the US, even if I do bitch about the politics and people running things. I can drive for thousands of miles, always find gas, and always find food and a place to sleep. That’s as long as I have money, which always seems to be available as there is usually somebody willing to pay me to work.
What’s that old expression, something about walking a mile in somebody’s shoes? Glad that I haven’t walked in a lot of other shoes. I’ll not go into what shoes, you all know where you would rather not be.
I have learned to keep my mouth shut during conversations. I have noticed that people usually want to talk about themselves rather than listen. When talking to somebody it is easy to tell if they are a talker – when I try to bring up something I did or how I feel if they just kind of ignore it and keep going in the direction they were headed then perhaps what I have to say is not really very important. So I just shut up. Or usually start asking more questions to prompt the other guy to keep talking. I find that I learn a lot more by asking questions that by talking about myself. But that is what this blog is for – you guys are stuck listening to me, I can ramble on and on and on and on and all you can do is either stop reading. Can’t reach out and slap me up side the head and say ‘Shut Up!’. Well, that is what the comment button is for, so that you can respond and tell me I’m full of it. Sometimes I listen, but I always stop talking and read what you have to say. (so keep saying it).
So, back to the direction I want to go. I’ll try not to complain about things I don’t know anything about. And I will not believe everything I read on the web. After looking at a bunch of Photoshoped images, and seeing my wife pull people out of pictures we take, I know that images can easily be manipulated. After seeing the editing that can be done on movies (seeing the blue screen movies Commander and recently Sin City) I know it is possible to make even movies different. See Lord of the Rings (with Buffy). But that does take a lot of work. Most web posted movies that I question are staged – there was one done on the strip where a raving guy started bashing a passing car, with the driver screaming and trying to get away. I have a friend on the police department, who said that they looked at the video, and tracked down who it was, and the car bashed was driven by the guy’s girlfriend. And unfortunately it is too easy for somebody to ‘create’ a story, and have dozens of people refer to it as if it was true. Well, some are, but some aren’t.
On to my mother – having services at her church in a few hours. She attended church regularly, and also hit the Wednesday morning bingo and Tuesday craft classes. I gave up on church a long time ago – back when I was in the Navy and started questioning things, no faith anymore here. Most of our relatives are back east. She was the oldest of any of her generation – my wife say’s it’s because we pulled her away from the cold country old style food and started feeding her California food: salads, fresh fruit, less meat. So the church thing is mostly for all the friends she made at the church activities. No funeral, we discussed things and she signed an organ donor card. But because of her age there were no individual organs healthy enough to use.
I’ve been spending time going through her room, sorting out things, looking for pictures and important papers and throwing out most of her collections. She just saved everything; guess it goes back to the depression when it was hard to find anything. Not much fun there. Several big bags of clothes went to the Salvation Army. Her new walker went to somebody at the church. Still building up glasses for the Lions. Lots of photos of people I don’t know. Since she was the oldest, there is nobody else that can identify these people. I can recognize her parents, and my uncles from long ago, but who the heck are the rest of these people? Probably cousins and such, but with nothing written on the back I have no idea. Note: be sure to use a nice soft pencil and write names and dates on the back of all of your photos. Your grandkids will wonder. With digital that’s hard, no back of the photo to write on. Funeral home hasn’t filled out the paperwork, so the county can’t issue death certificates, so I can’t start filling out all the social security and government and bank and insurance forms, as they all want a copy.
OK, as I said before, I’ll try to end with three things – can’t always come up with beautiful things (sorry Clare) but at least things I am thankful for.
1. My house, which is mine and wasn’t blown away and didn’t float away.
2. All the toys I have inside.
3. My wife that puts up with me.
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