"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me."
Walt Whitman (1819-92)
"When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break."
Akhenaton (d. c.1354 BC)
And now, the current weather, from some random person we pulled off the street:
Friday, May 16, 2003
Life Crawls Along Even When You Don't Pay Attention
event Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin eventus, from evenire to happen, from e- + venire to come
Date: 1573
1 : the fundamental entity of observed physical reality represented by a point designated by three coordinates of place and one of time in the space-time continuum postulated by the theory of relativity
2 : Stuff that happens.
Its almost like I can sit there and watch her grow back together.
Every day my wife is stronger and more like her former self, more active and able to do more things. There is still a lot she can't do, and her goals at this point are pretty small ones like bringing me a cup of coffee in the morning (she hit that one today) but every day she is better.
This weekend is gonna be a hard one though. Tonight they have the annual Lebanese Festival, which we have never missed, and I am not sure she is up to walking into it. If she can make it I'll get her food for her, but I am not sure she can make the walk. We'll see.
But that's not the hard part of the weekend.
On Saturday my dad and his wife arrive from out of town. My wife is really not up to company yet at all, but we have agreed to go to dinner with them. We'll visit in the hotel also, I imagine, and I know that even if she is in pain my wife won't say anything and will try to hang in there.
My dad's got some issues, so that makes it harder than it should be. He is an alchoholic, and my sister and I know not to call him after about seven or so in the evening, sometimes earlier, because he will find it hard to carry on a sober conversation. When he comes to visit he will usually have many drinks before we ever go to a restaurant, and then he wants someone else to drive so he can drink several more while he is there.
What a shame, I enjoy being with my dad, but I really detest being with my dad when he has been drinking, something he is doing more and more of.
When he does that, its not him at all.
So, its gonna be a hard weekend.
The happiest is the person who suffers the least pain; the most miserable who enjoys the least pleasure.
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778), Emile, 1762
Spreading the News Jack W. Pacheco, 35, of Chowchilla, Calif., was upset when his small-town newspaper reported he had been arrested on drug charges. He insists the drugs weren’t his, but when the newspaper wouldn’t pull the story he tried to buy every one of the 700 copies of The Chowchilla News that were printed, and estimates he got as many as 600 of them. “I have a whole garage full of newspapers,” he says. There were only three things wrong with his plan: first, the paper also prints 550 copies for subscribers, which weren’t intercepted; second, after Pacheco bought up the remaining newsstand copies the newspaper had 500 more printed, and third, Pacheco’s tactic was reported on by other area papers — and the report was picked up and spread internationally by newswire services. (Merced Sun-Star) ...“Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” —attributed to Mark Twain (1835–1910), American writer and social commentator. Available in This is True: Book Collection Vol. 11
