Tuesday Random 5, Part II

Topic: No Topic ... it's random.


1. I think the NL is due to win and All-Star game. Rooting for the AL but just have a hunch...

2. It has recently come to my attention that everything (well everything pre-processed) that you buy at the Grocery store is high in SODIUM. This has lead me on a quest for low sodium recipes. A good one I have found utilizes the Crock-pot.

3. Speaking of food: Tonight's supper was...not particularly low sodium

• From scratch Boneless Buffalo Wings & Barbecue Chicken Bites
• Mandarin Orange & Pineapple Fruit Salad
• Green Beans w/ bacon

4. The lunar landing of 40 years ago this month is probably the single greatest technological achievement. Thank you President Kennedy for our collective dream. For remembering how it all began. WE CHOOSE TO GO TO THE MOON.

5. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me." - John 14:1
I don't know why that verse exactly came to mind tonight, but good.

Tuesday Random 5

Tonight's theme: Questions on my mind with no immediate answers...

1. Why does the sun begin to shine right after the ballgame is called off?

2. How awesome is it that Spirit & Opportunity are still exploring Mars so 4 1/2 years past their expected mission plan? Mars Exploration Rover Mission

3. Why is it ok for certain groups to be bigots and speak hate against Christians?

4. Is there really any useful purpose for Twitter?

5. Is the New Yankee Stadium really a home run haven or were the first few games an aberration? ESPN's Take

Open Letter to Brian Cashman, et al -

Thank you for getting the Andy Pettite deal done. I don't think you will regret signing him, I think he will give you exactly what you need - innings and stability. I know that he had a rough second half last year and I don't care. I don't think he is done and am hoping that 2009 proves me out. And I was getting tired of the will-they-or-won't-they drama. So thanks and Lets Go Yank-ees!

OK, Random

So I was thinking that I would write something introspective, full of insight...nope not happening. Just shallowness and randomness, that is all I am feeling here. So with that full disclosure out of the way; three miscellaneous thoughts.

1. I love being in my house at night, in the semi-dark. I think I could like most of my life by candlelight levels. I am not saying I want to live by candle light because that would imply no electricity which would mean no computer and certainly no internet. THAT would be the end of WORLD. I just like the feeling of being safe with the dark hiding my secrets.

2. I am going to feed my Supernatural infatuation with some season two goodness before I go to sleep. If I dream about it, I hope it is the good stuff...the Smokin' Hot Boys...the Impala, not the scary bits.

3. I shouldn't commit to three thoughts when apparently my quota for the moment is two.

Today in History - January 20, 2009


It seems appropriate on this undeniably historic day to record some thoughts. While I was lying in bed last night not sleeping I narrowed it down to three things.

1. TODAY it matters very much that Barak Obama is a black man. He has become the first black man or any minority in this country to achieve the highest office in the land and arguably the most powerful single man in the world. It matters that he has attained that office in a country where many citizens of all races remember times where this could NOT have happened.
That said, TOMORROW, it matters not that he his black. It matters how he governs, the decsions he makes as president will matter.

2. While it would be foolish to assume that just because a minority man has become president all issues of race have resolved, it is time to rethink racial politics. Ideas like gerrymandering and quotas need to be examined in the light of this occasion.

3. This observation is far more specific to Barak Obama. It still remains to be seen that he is up to the job. As president of the United States the full weight of leadership desends on his shoulders. Can a man who has not stood for a position many times by voting "present" in the Senate square his shoulders and find his core to be the place where the buck stops? I hope so.

Bite Your Tongue

OR don't, this weekend I spent an unplanned Saturday afternoon and evening in the emergency room. And in a bit of WTF, I don't live in the state where the hospital was located AND the accident didn't occur in the state where the hospital was located. Go figure that one out...

Anyway, in a bout of pure stupidity I decided to wrestle an alligator get into bar fight with drunk cowboys play-fight with a 14 year old boy. In the end the 14 year old won, a nice sharp crack of his elbow to my chin led to teeth in tongue madness.

It hurt like *&%$. And led to a 5 hour wait in the ER. Apparently biting almost though your tongue doesn't get you any special treatment. I felt better about that after I learned that BB-embedded-in-your-lip gets to wait too!

Finally the other thing I learned is they didn't give me any anesthetic for the stiches!!!!! However, the fact that I a)held still and b)didn't freak out leads me to believe that I am a bad ass. Or not.

It hurt....

I am struck by the passage of time and how family stories can reach out across the generations. Wednesday night is the night where I take a turn spending the night at Grandma's. She is 92. For all of my life she and Granddad were constants, never changing, almost not aging. They lived on the farm in the house where Granddad was born.

They could always be found doing things that needed to be done. Making pies, cooking wonderful country meals, reading books, going to the barn or the shop. In hindsight, I can see a few changes over the thirty plus years of my perspective, but not many. With the sameness came a abiding sense of being cared for and taken care of.

And then in the short course of a year everything changed. Granddad is gone. And Grandma in only a matter of weeks became old, frail. No more sewing or cooking or making of pies but old and tired. So we stay with her now, each day and each night.

So now, instead of feeling unchanging there I always feel like I am racing time, to make sure I mentally record Grandma because now I know I won't always have her.

Last night as we talked, she looked back across the years and her eyes never focused on me. I was sure she was seeing things as they used to be from a world that I have never experienced.

We talked about being afraid.

About as a child being afraid of the dark.

But the dark then, like so many things was different. Electricity was reserved for use where it was necessary and thus the was no electricity in the second floor of many houses. There weren't neighbors with lights on and cars didn't drive past with headlights cutting the darkness. When bedtime came the children were sent upstairs to bed, a lantern was held at the foot of the stairs providing the only light. Then that meager source was gone too. Comfort then came from the sister snuggled in next to Grandma and, I was surprised to find, Grandmother who shared the big room over the living room with Grandma and her sister.

Grandmother would be to me my Great-Great-Grandma. My Great-Great-Grandma who died almost a full 70 years before my birth, who never lived to hold my father, who died when Grandma was only 15. I am a full two generations removed from any physical connection to her. And yet her story weaves it was across the generations and captivates me.

Her name was Sallie and in her I find exemplified courage. In May 1889, Sallie was struck by tragedy. On the 12th of May, her eight month old daughter succumbed to tuberculosis. The loss of a child strikes me a nearly unbearable. But her sorrow must go much deeper as her husband died a mere eight days later of the same insidious disease. So at a mere thirty year old Sallie was left a widow with a young daughter and young son. She was left on a farm that still carried debt with the responsibility of carrying on alone. And she did go on, she farmed by her own will, with the help of her young son, who at eight years old would plow the fields. She did all this in what certainly was in the context of the late 1800's remarkable independence. She paid off her farm, she raised her children and her grandchildren and she touched though the power of her story at least one of her Great-Great-Grandchildren.