I was watching something recently on the History Channel about those hours we all spend in darkness.  It was a pretty interesting program.  They have a scale for measuring darkness in various areas.   There is a big valley in Wales that gets very dark at night.   It gets a two or a three if I remember correctly on a scale of ten.  New York City is a nine.   This program spent a lot of time talking about the Middle Ages and the problems people had at night.  Many could not even afford candles and, of course, there were no city lights so it was very dark in the average home.

And people had different sleep habits.  They would go to bed early and wake up around midnight or one in the morning.  Then they would mess around or maybe go out and talk to their neighbors.  A few hours later they would return to bed and sleep until the light returned.  For some reason this really made an impression on me.  I found myself imagining the sounds in the night of people talking or laughing together in the dark hours with the sounds of crickets or small animals in the background and the amazing impressions of millions of stars in the skies.

You had to be careful of course because it was easy to fall in a ditch while you were walking down the path to see a friend.  And there was always the danger of running into a robber or actually being attacked in your home.

This program made me feel more comfortable about my sleep habits as I always  wake up after a few hours of sleep and spend time reading or going to Middle Earth with the hobbits and elves in Lord Of The Rings Online.   Then I become tired and am able to sleep a few more hours just as they did in the Middle Ages.

I used to think that there was something wrong with the way I sleep and maybe I should see a doctor or take a sleeping pill.  But after seeing this program I realize that it’s just part of my cellular makeup.  There are bits of people inside me who lived hundreds of years ago in small dwellings and looked forward to visiting their buddies under the stars with a drink or a smoke and the latest gossip.   The air was cooler at night and the music made by thousands of insects calmed their bodies while a canopy of light brightened their souls and made them smile.

The program on the History Channel had a more pessimistic theme.  It was about the terrors that awaited man in the darkness.  But that was just our modern spin put on something our ancestors would probably not even recognize.   We live in fear or a state of anxiety  more than they did perhaps.

Or at least that is the way it seems to me as I write these words to my friends on the other side of the world at four in the morning.

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Table of contents for 2/Family Photos

1. My Grandson Charlie Says Go Redskins Tonight!
2. More Of Charlie
3. Charlie and the Slide / A Short Adventure
4. Kathryn / My New Granddaughter
5. 104 Degrees In The Shade/ Richmond, Virginia Weather July 2010/ A Day At The Pool

This has been a very hot week here in Richmond, Virginia.   Every day that passes adds to the heat and humidity.  And just before dawn today “POW”.   A transformer went out as the temperature began its rise to 104 degrees later in the day.  What to do?  We have my three grandchildren (Jordan, Jillian and Joy) with us this weekend and they were in favor of the pool.  So away we went and it was a good decision.

Betsy sat next to the dive board as they practiced their dives and I tried to take photos.   But most of the time it was simply a matter of floating in the water with sunglasses and hat pointed at the searing sun in the sky.

Here are a couple of photos.  The kids are hanging in there. 

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• A Great Conversation With My Son/ Virginia Beach Rescue
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• Young Surfers Digg It!
• Back Home Again/ Blog Returns As Well
• My Poetry

                          

Does anyone care? No. Well actually a few may care. I have been blogging for three years now and during that time I have been very fortunate to meet several wonderful folks who have become friends from different places on this earth. This is one of the major rewards for blogging as far as I am concerned. The other is the opportunity to express oneself through words or photos to all the world. Hey! In the history of mankind have we ever had this opportunity? In the past a few majorly talented people have found publishers who shared their amazing work with everyone via the power of the printing press.  But here we are in 2010 and anyone with a fundamental notion of SEO can also reach thousands of readers.

That’s pretty cool. They may only come back once or twice but that may be a fundamental marketplace issue. If it’s 1935 and you have two books on the shelf  you may get to know John Steinbeck very well. I’m not saying that he doesn’t deserve to be known very well for his mesmerizing prose and his deep delving into the human psyche. I’m just saying that he had a captive audience in a sense while we are competing at every moment with the sensitivity of the mouse button and the hum of the refrigerator as it preys upon us with the  most primordial of messages “I have Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Chips waiting for You”.

Life has changed a great deal in less than one hundred years. In 1910 we still believed that large ships were the best way to take a vacation and wars did not involve the entire world. America was an island that had managed to separate itself from the history of mankind by instilling a remarkable notion that men were free to raise themselves to the level of kings if they had monster ambitions. America was different although it carried within itself a cancerous contradiction that allowed certain men to be less than free. Women too could be property. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in parts and also wooed his slave mistress while he scintillated with the notion that freedom was a profoundly human right.

Darling you are free to swoon  anytime in my arms while the tall grass  sings us a blessed melody.   Be free!!   But just for a moment.

It is a shame that we cannot move beyond all of this. I am sure we will eventually if we do not lose our way and our love for freedom and invention. Perhaps China has found a better way? Should we become more like them as they become the leading energy consumer in the world according to the Wall Street Journal?

I prefer my leaders  to be subject to the needs and wants of the people. So next month I plan to journey up to Washington DC to see what is happening! I will take photos and write about it here in this blog while the summer heat and humidity try to do me in.

There will be a lot going on up there as the election season rises to a fever pitch. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are going to invade Lincoln’s Memorial on a date cherished now because Martin Luther King once  gave his famous speech there.  My own view is that these two should have left this date alone and maybe waited until October when it’s a bit cooler and the blogger would be more comfortable.   Although  I understand the symbolism. Robert Byrd hated Martin Luther King and  Glenn Beck too.

But he’s gone to his resting place now and we should move forward into the 21st century. All men and women should be free and each of them should not  owe 147,000 dollars to the U.S. Treasury.

Someday we will all find common ground. If I find it next month in Washington DC there will definitely be photos. But my hunch is that it will come to us all at different times as we reach the end of our stories and are each taking a well earned rest and a  breather .

Even if we are in a place that has no air to breathe but  allows  us to fly and see each other as the billions of stars we  are becoming.

I hope this adventure  will be about art because an  artist who loses his way in the political woods is a sorry creature indeed.   Maybe I should stop now before I frighten myself  into staying home within the comfortable confines of my  man cave FOREVER!

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Click here to view the embedded video.

• It Is Time Once Again..
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****

I cannot fly today
Yet perhaps last night
We flew between the stars
Who can tell?

Tomorrow will no doubt
Be like today
But not always
Not everlastingly so.
I sew the scenes
Of our escape
While sitting here tonight
Sleepily concealed
In this weighted room
And happily involved
In inward visions
Of eventual flight.

Please pardon
My distraction.
I am so immersed
In a solitary search
For solar satisfaction.

MEQ262Similar Posts:

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Table of contents for 23/ Writing

1. Random Ruminations/ Famous People With ADHD/ Experiments With Time
2. Random Ruminations in Springtime
3. She Is Dressed In Sylvan Twilight/ The Blogger Goes Home/ All Things Must Pass/ George Harrison
4. Cardinals And Packers/ It’s Sunday Night And He’s Enjoying The Game/ Post Game Ruminations
5. World Cup Soccer 2010/ U.S.A. Wins/ U.S.A. Hockey Team 1980 Lake Placid Remembered
6. Kelloggs Recalls 28 Million Boxes Of Cereal

Next time you venture out and end up in the grocery store you may be surprised to see a space where tightly packed  commodities used to reside because Kelloggs is recalling millions of boxes of cereal.   Something doesn’t smell right.  What could this be exactly?

Could the Apple Jacks somehow have invaded the boxes of Honey Smacks?  Or did the Fruit Loops get into the Corn Pops?

Personally I feel like the Fruit Loops will be found one day at the bottom of this barrel.   For the last twenty years they have been maligned by the media in various forums.  Let me just state for the record “There is nothing wrong with being a Fruit Loop!”

But putting the Fruit Loops and the Corn Pops together in one box could cause problems!  And this is what apparently happened in this case when no one was looking.

One  night the grocery store  was  dark and quiet except for the sound of rolling  Fruit Loops  on their way to the Corn Pops boxes.

I cannot get the quiet screams out of my head.  And the smell!  It was a combination of  fruit, corn and fear.

Twenty-eight  million boxes!  What will happen to them?  Where will they go?  And what will the these rejected pieces of cereal do when they have been released?  Can any of them find jobs when they have been slammed lower than a McDonald’s fish sandwich?

Who wants a cereal killer?

Nobody this side of Michigan.
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Where Do We Go From Here?

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Today was hot although not as hot as yesterday which was 100 degree plus weather here in Virginia.  And this kind of heat is not Arizona heat for sure.  It’s humidity laden heat without the joy of warmed bodies feeling light and ready to fly.  How can you fly when you have 20 pounds of water squeezing your hide from every direction.

Virginia is not fun in the summer.

But we carry on.  I was minding my own business today staying cool and planning adventures in Middle Earth when my younger son called and said his car had died downtown.  It would not start.

Why is it so bright out here?  I found my way to the local Advanced Auto store and a young man who was willing to test our battery and replace it with a brand new one.  He wore latex gloves and talked to us about his truck as he dug out the old one like a mechanical surgeon who didn’t mind working in a parking lot under the sun.  I admired him a great deal.

He is the young, working American and he is making sure this country continues to move forward.  Zachary, my son, works in a restaurant downtown and does his part, too, by feeding folks who need to relax after their long days at work.

I do my part too.  What is that you might ask?  Well I mentor the younger people from my cave in Middle Earth.

And I venture out from time to time in order to have face to face contact with those who will rule the world in a few years!  That’s right.  These young people will be in charge in such a short time and I will be in a nursing home BEGGING someone to come get me for a weekend away from the naughty nursing assistant who believes I am her personal play toy.

So I am making inroads now while it still appears that I have something to offer.   And I do!

A new battery!  Now let’s retire to a shady spot and have a cool  drink.  Every day should include some time to relax and share a few thoughts and a little laughter.  We can learn a lot from each other.  And we should relax and reflect upon the goodness of life and our relationships.
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Table of contents for 23/ Writing

1. Random Ruminations/ Famous People With ADHD/ Experiments With Time
2. Random Ruminations in Springtime
3. She Is Dressed In Sylvan Twilight/ The Blogger Goes Home/ All Things Must Pass/ George Harrison
4. Cardinals And Packers/ It’s Sunday Night And He’s Enjoying The Game/ Post Game Ruminations
5. World Cup Soccer 2010/ U.S.A. Wins/ U.S.A. Hockey Team 1980 Lake Placid Remembered
6. Kelloggs Recalls 28 Million Boxes Of Cereal

The U.S. soccer team beat the Algerians in stoppage-time to win their group competition and go on to the round of sixteen. Their next game is Saturday when they will be playing Serbia, Ghana, Australia or Germany depending on how things turn out today.

This was a very exciting game as once again the U.S. was robbed of a goal earlier in the game. The refereeing seems to be very (how should I say?) arbitrary at times. But no matter now. As the game neared its end the Americans took the ball down the field and slammed it home. What followed was a joyous celebration as the team landed in a pile that would have crushed an ordinary person unfortunate enough to be at the bottom of it.

But Landon Donovan was on the bottom and he was not unfortunate or ordinary. He had just scored the goal of his life and the thousand pound gorilla on his back was just his teammates having a great time too.

It really felt like the US victory in hockey back in 1980 at Lake Placid the “Miracle On Ice”.  This team has that same determination to win. There is no quit in them and they have a knack for late game heroics that sends the crowd into a frenzy.

Is World Cup soccer any less important today than an Olympic hockey match was thirty years ago?

And then there is the mood of the country. The hostage crisis in Iran was dragging the American spirit down three decades ago. And the economy was in really bad shape then as well.   Today we have the Gulf oil crisis that some have compared to the hostage crisis.

There just seems to be no end in sight and only futile leadership in Washington where it is concerned.

So this match was a good sign.   And a win on Saturday would be an even better one.  Is there a “Miracle On Grass” in our future?

When and where will the American Spirit erupt?

When darkness descended on the Gulf  it became  only a matter of time.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• USA VS Canada Hockey Rematch/ Mr Ed Died Today/ The Man With The Blue Phone Must Die
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• USA VS Canada Hockey Rematch/ Mr Ed Died Today/ The Man With The Blue Phone Must Die
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My lovely wife does not answer my questions with a “yes” or a “no” answer.   Well actually that’s not always true.  She can say “no” once in awhile but as time moves us along our path it seems like I hear this less and less.  Why is this?

Because I know her well enough to not ask questions that will provoke this type of response.  Who wants to hear their loved one saying this short, dark and uninspiring word?  Certainly not I!  Unless of course I should need some reassurance.  “Are you off to see your boyfriend my most beloved pet?”

“No” works well here!  We joke around about boyfriends.   Because who would want a boyfriend when they have me in their life?

Another joke!  Ha ha ha.  We are so funny this morning.  In any case “no” is not the problem when I ask her a question.  “Yes”  is the problem because she doesn’t like to use this word.   Perhaps wives everywhere are a bit reluctant to use it.  I don’t know.  Let me give you an example.

Yesterday was Father’s Day and we were riding home from a nice lunch when I said to her  “Your family think I am crazy don’t they?”.

And she just laughed.  Because she is reluctant to say “Yes” !   I knew the answer to my  question right away!

And a lot of her theory about my craziness  is based on just one episode which I will share with you now.   Several years ago we went to a concert downtown and parked in a parking garage across the street from the event.  After the concert everyone descended upon their cars  and tried to drive out of the garage at the same time.   We were stuck and after awhile I got out of the car and started directing traffic in an attempt to speed up the process.

That’s it!  And until the day I leave our tar and concrete based planet  to join the crowd upstairs  (who hopefully will have figured out a better way to do traffic control) I will never live down this moment.

So I have to sit in the car when she is driving and under no circumstances get out of the car.  Ever.  And I was remembering this  yesterday when we were driving over to her parent’s  house and suddenly saw her father at a stop sign  going in the opposite direction with his friend.   She stopped the car right there in the road, put it in park, got out and went over to talk to them.  These are just our little neighborhood streets and there’s not a lot of traffic.   But  I sat in the car staring ahead and wondering what would happen if another car showed up while we were all  blocking the road.   Would I need  to direct traffic again?

I was concerned about something happening that would lend credence to the previous car-related episode.   But I also wanted to tell my father-in-law who is a great guy and beloved by many “Happy Father’s Day!”.   And then my wife yelled out my name as if I didn’t know her father was in the other car!   Why was I sitting in our  car?  What was I thinking?   Who knows what I think?  But she wanted me to stop acting like a patient on Thorazine and get out of the car and walk over to the other car and be sociable!   Say “Happy Father’s Day” to her father and his friend.

So I got out of our car which was still running but in park and now had both doors wide open like a giant bird that had crashed but was still breathing and walked over to them.   And they were all smiling.  It was a beautiful morning.   It was Father’s Day and love is more important to us than all our little notions about each other.

And as they looked up at me I realized that yes they all think I am crazy.   And there’s really not a thing in the world I can do about it except smile and enjoy this beautiful and sometimes complicated life with these  people who mean the world to me.

And I hope you all have the opportunity to do this as well.
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• Introvert Joke
• Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?
• One Voice/ Billy Gilman/ Let The Children Play/ Do The Best You Can
• Vote For Your Favorite Candidate In Virginia
• Dedicated To My Readers?