Sarah Palin and Levi Johnston Please Go Away

John McCain and the Republican party need to atone for giving Sarah Palin and her English Speaking challenged Grandbaby Daddy their fifteen minutes of fame that has been parlayed into tedium and nausea over and over again.



Prior to the Republican party signing Palin on as McCain's running mate NONE of us had heard of the former Alaskan Governor...and personally I'd very much like to go back to the blissful ignorance of a Palin-free media horizon. I do not know who the publisher of Palin's book and the one threatned by her Grandbaby's Daddy are, but I can guarantee I will be boycotting both publishers.



Tripe is tripe and nothing is more filled with Tripe than Palin and anyone remotely attached to her ongoing sagas. PLEASE STOP THE INSANITY!

My Many Blessings Expand

On August 15th, 2009, my beloved son, Chris and his beautiful Elsie became husband and wife in an incredible theme wedding at the Pennsylvania Ren Faire.

My Son and New Daughter, the photos shared from those who were healthy enough to have attended have brought tears of pride and joy to this Mother's eyes.


Chris, you looked devastatingly handsome in your "Medieval Tuxedo" and seeing you close to your long lost uncle made me cry some more.


Elsie, no bride has ever looked more regal, or more stunningly beautiful. Chris must have beamed with pride and awe when he saw you approaching the Wedding Gazebo on the arm of your adult son.


Together, wrapped in the mists of your joined joy love radiates like tendrils of rich enchantment to all those nearby.


Elsie, your beautiful Granddaughter, garbed as an angel sent from Heaven to bless the union between you and her new Grampy and to witness such ethereal love between you, makes my own heart fill with peaceful joy for my beloved son and now equally beloved daughter.
Be happy My Children. Your love will see you through anything life throws at you because NOTHING but love is real.

I love you, My Son and Daughter and am eternally thankful you have allowed me see first hand the magic you have found together.

Love You For Always,
Mom

Never Too Busy

We should never be too busy to tell the people that matter most to us that we love them because the world as we know it can change in a moment.

So...

Kathy, I ADORE you Sweetie.

Chris, I am SO HONORED to be your Mom. Thanks for being my Son.

Elsie, you have found the smile that has long been missing upon Chris' face. For that alone I would cherish you, but you have also engraved happiness upon his heart. I love you daughter of mine by marriage.

Eric, words cannot begin to express how brave and caring you are. My children are truly blessed that YOU are their uncle and the brother of my heart.

Audrey, I ALWAYS wanted a sister. Thanks to your boundless heart and compassion, you are now that sister that has been so long denied me.

Sam, Kyla, Alicia, Parker, and Claire...bless you for being part of the family that has so generously opened their spirits, kindness, and amazing hearts to us.

Winnie, your halo is so bright and your grace so deep. I pray I am half the generous spirirt that you are.

Bette...these years have been among the richest I have ever known. When my wings have been ragged and tipped from life's pitfalls, you have shared words of wisdom and bolster me when the path gets treacherous.

Alice...your gentle voice, you endless smile, your twinkling eyes make me smile no matter how rough the world has treated me that day. You inspire me to be as glowing as you do.

Jade, I do not know you first hand, but your Grandmom and now your Grandpappy Elsie and Chris embrace you in every way on every day...and that my dear little Great Granddaughter is more than enough for me.

I love every single one of you and thank you for loving me too.

To the many people I have yet to share heart time with and those that I have but for one reason or another have moved along on your path's through life, thank you for the many levels of emotions you have instilled within the me that I am today. You have ALL blessed me and I will forever remember you.

So, Dear Reader, take the time to remember to tell the ones you care about that you love me. It'll only take a few moments, but the act will last well into the Good Night.

Love to ALL.

Angels In Passing

This has been a very sorrowful few weeks. several Angels have been called home, leaving the rest of us to look around in numbed confusion...expecting to see the faces of those Angels with every breath we take, but sadly disappointed because they are in a much HIGHER place than our mere mortal eyes can discern.



First was the daughter of a very dear friend. Michelle, my 75 year old friend's daughter, had been bravely battling the increasingly debilitating disease of MS. Michelle contracted the disease when she was 21...she died over thirty years later.

I was blessed to know her through the stories told to me by her 75 plus year old woman...a wonderful Mom who'd survived the London Blitzkrieg...complete with British accent, that I met after my own car accident eleven days (11) days after 9/11. Because of my accident and the injuries to my eyes from flying glass, two spinal cord injuries, nerve damage to my right leg, and tearing of my left hip that made using the gas and brake pedals "challenging"...I was forced to use Handicapped and Elderly transportation.

What I had thought of as the worst thing that had ever happened to me, turned into one of the most soul enriching events because through Winnie, I came to know her daughter, Michelle. As her body continued to ravage her mobility, Michelle left a legacy of beauty in words she created on her computer, programmed to allow her to use a pointer held in her mouth.

I cannot imagine what it had been like to be a vibrant woman then endure the slow, insidious degeneration of this disease while her brain remained as vital and alert as ever.

We all thought Michelle was going to die last Christmas, but even though she was now down to having only the ability to move her lips and blink her eyes, Michelle wanted to live. Her love was huge for all those of us who were lucky enough to know of her, and those who had been so blessed...saddened by the progressive horror of MS.

Again, I count myself blessed to have known this awe inspiring woman who accomplished AMAZING feats through the words of the creative beauty she leaves behind despite the inertia that kept her bound to her hospice bed...words that bring tears and humbling joy to those lucky enough to read Michelle's words.

Her legacy lives on as does her beauty of spirit. We may not see the physical shell that was Michelle, but we all carry a piece of the angel she always will be deep in the essence of who we are now. Love you, Michelle...Bless you Sweetheart.




Ed McMahon...we all grew up with Ed McMahon...even before he became the quintessential side-kick for Johnny Carson. His "HERE'S JOHNNY!!!!" echoes and reverberates inside ALL of us. He touched the entire world.

During his last year, he struggled with the ignominy of having his very security threatened because of too many bills. How he reached such a point, is not important. That others stepped forward to aid him in retaining the dignity he so continuously expressed is a testament to him being yet another angel sent here to make our lives a little bit better. Who among us did not feel happy after the Tonight Show with Johnny signed off each night? Who among us cannot remember favorite skits performed by Ed and Johnny that no matter how much time passes, still have the ability to bring smiles to our otherwise difficult lives?

He was not perfect...but then the best of God's angels here on Earth are angels because they bring joy to others despite their own difficult challenges...challenges that would reduce the rest of us to giving in to the sense of hopelessness that he continued to battle and rise above. Bless you Ed, and thank you for so many rich years of your talents.


Farrah Fawcett...Your story made me weep...your death, though not unexpected, was still heart wrenching. Your journey, fighting cancer, tore at me because you so richly described the battle against cancer that so many of us have silently, secretly, with shame, gone through. You showed the world the layers of extreme courage required to go one-on-one against the Big "C". You showed the tremendous amount of pain fighting it forces upon those battling this horrible disease. You showed the bottomless wellspring of love and compassion you felt for your family, friends, and all of the many anonymous fellow warriors in the battle against this relentless evil.

Your talents in the past showed you were more than just a gorgeous body with an incredible mane of hair. As a survivor of sexual abuse, your portrayal in the BURNING BED was so realistic, I could not watch it. That portrayal was enough to tell me I would also not be able to watch the one where you turn on your rapist...even though that would be empowering...I still could not watch what was, for all intents are purposes...too close to home.

Given that, I am amazed that I could watch FARRAH'S STORY...but I am eternally glad I did. You bravely showed what so many of us keep hidden...for whatever reasons...you showed the world that everyone who battles cancer is a soldier who deserves the BRONZE STAR, the PURPLE HEART, and every other medal given to warriors battling an evil foe.

An Angel...you played one of Charlie's...but Farrah, Charlie was a fictitious concept created by the late Aaron Spelling...you, dear lady, are a REAL ANGEL, and I for one, am humbly grateful for the halo you wore while you shared this Earth with us.

Bless you, Dear Farrah, and may you now be pain free and enraptured within the arms of Heaven's Glory.


I cannot ignore another passing...though I do not look upon this person with the same gratitude and respect that I feel towards Michelle, Ed, and Farrah. I am, of course, speaking of Michael Jackon.

Michael Jackon WAS a musical genius...but genius does not translate into majesty. Abused as a child...and I DO believe Michael's claims...but as with many abused, the cycle continues and the abused becomes the abuser. He claimed that there was nothing wrong with sharing his bed...lovingly...with children. No adult man should share his bed with children...and yes, the parents of the children were wrong too...but that does NOT mitigate Michael's own deeds.

I know the Jackson family wants to bury their heads, but Michael claimed the appropriateness of his actions in his own words and on film...hard to discount that.

Michael Jackson dangerously dangled his own child from a high window with a precarious hold upon the baby he called "Blanket". That cannot be disputed since the video of this act made world-wide news and is replayed over and over again. Anyone else would have lost their children and been forced into counseling for this one deed...but NOT Michael Jackson.

The Children: Prince Michael I, Paris Michael Katherine, and Prince Michael II (Blanket)...if a DNA test was done on these children DESPITE Michael's claim that he had Debbie Rowe for the first two and an anonymous surrogate for the third (Blanket) impregnated with his, Michael's sperm...would prove they are NOT Michael's.

Biology is exacting...Michael Jackson...despite his years of facial and skin tonal alterations, did NOT have Caucasian characteristics in his genes. Joe Jackson and Katherine Jackson are BOTH as dark skinned as Michael was up until he'd performed the video for THRILLER and many of his subsequent hits. A skin disease would not have altered his chromosomes to the point where the three children he claimed to be his biologically, show not a smidgen of the darkness that is at the very nuclei of his genetic makeup...

And no amount of buying off people alters the fact that Michael's endless fascination with being PETER PAN and surrounding himself with children, changes the basic profile of what he was...he was an abused child who grew up to become the abuser.

I know there are those who are going to argue and say...he was found NOT GUILTY...but the defense put the mother on trial...and yes, her acts were suspicious...but ultimately, Michael WAS guilty of corrupting minors by admitting, on tape, that he allowed children to sleep in his bed and saw nothing wrong with it. At the very minimum, that's contributing to the delinquency of minors...at the worst...it's pedophilia.

So while I honor the talents of the ARTIST that was Michael Jackson, the man whose Peter Pan Complex allowed him to admit and then challenge anyone who found it inappropriate that he shared his bed with children fits the profile of a pedophile. Pedophiles never think they are doing anything wrong.

Michael, I wish you healing now that you have crossed over. You were forced to face the images from your life...feeling the harm you caused from the point of view of your victim as part of your Orientation of Passing. No longer can you hide behind the "little boy voice" or the protestations of your loving innocence. One day, you will earn your halo, but that hasn't happened yet...and is going to require a LOT of Soul work...NOT SOUL TRAIN work...but work on the spiritual essence that we all take with us to God when we leave our Earthly bodies.

I truly wish you well, and Bless you for the work you have YET to accomplish.

Contemplating My Blessings

July 22 is the one year anniversary of my Mini-Stroke. Mini-strokes are strange things in that they do not show up in the same way as a full blown stroke does. The damage done by them is not as noticeable, which can be both a blessing in disguise and a curse. Because I did not have a droopy face beyond a couple of weeks, most people cannot understand why I have moments still where the memory does a disappearing act from time to time without warning...I am, after all ONLY 57.

That said...as I near the anniversary of the date my mind decided to become a kaleidoscope of rationalization skills...I want to thank the blessings...some I've had for years...some only SINCE the kaleidoscopic event.

First and foremost my children...Kathryn, the daughter any mother could and would be enormously proud to have borne...Sweetie, you are my best friend and my number one daughter...(O.K. I KNOW you are shaking your head and thinking "I'm Your ONLY daughter...but that STILL makes you my number one bestest daughter!)

Christopher...my number one bestest son...(and OK you are ALSO my ONLY son but the emotions expressed above are the same for you)...we have had a long and difficult road, but no matter how bad things got, you always ranked at the top within my heart. No Mother could be prouder of the man you have become than me.

Now to the newest family blessings...

Eric...words fail me in describing how richly you have added to my world. I am honored, humbled, and increasingly awed by the BROTHER you have given me. I Love you with my whole heart, and soul. Thank you for seeking out all that is truth. Not an easy journey, but one that has deeply enriched my life.

Audrey...again, words fail, but the generosity of heart and spirit that you have shown to all of us, and the warmth you've spread upon us since last year...I have said this to you in other venues but I will say it here where the world at large can see it...I have ALWAYS wanted a sister...biology chose not to bestow that gift upon me...but you in the bottomless wealth of your givingness have given me that and so much more.

The more...Cousins, nieces, nephews...family that has swollen the list of my favorite people far beyond any dreams I have held within my heart prior to my mini-stroke.

So to Kathy, Chris, Eric, Audrey, Kyla, Sam, Alicia, Claire, Parker, Brooklyn, Kyle, Gabe, Mariesa, and Abigail, I say thank you for the love and caring you have so enriched my life with both longtime and so newly offered.

Love You ALL...

And yep, there are two more....Our Cherished Cats, Kathy...Spatz and Pudge. Without them our day-to-day world would not be as rich and joy filled as it is.

Is it Any wonder Why it is LAST?

NBC again proves why it has tenaciously held onto the LAST place in the media ratings war. What genius decided to replace Jay Leno with Conan O'Brien? I mean does NBC seriously think Conan with his asinine bathroom humor and juvenile lip animatronics can replace Beyondo, or Jaywalking, or Pumpcasting, or Headlines? I mean SERIOUSLY...Conan is BORING...STUPID...AND NOT WORTHY OF WATCHING!

I have watched Conan's commercials and he comes across as SMARMY...and why would I want to watch someone right before I go to bed each night who makes my skin crawl?

NBC has guaranteed David Letterman's numbers will increase astronomically...AND I can already tell you that Craig Ferguson has earned my Late, Late Night loyalty...(Jimmy Fallon may be better than Conan, but because I was already watching Craig when Fallon replaced Conan, he was faced with a very steep uphill climb that was already hampered by the knowledge that he would not just be replacing Conan but FOLLOWING Conan.

Whoever is making the decisions at NBC, you are so far out of touch with what the fans want that you won't have to worry about fans much longer because we won't be watching NBC...which will allow you to continue your bragging rights to LAST place in the ratings war.

CONGRATS on a job BADLY DONE! YET AGAIN!!!!

When the Brain Turns to Mush

It has been a LOOONGGGG time since I posted my last blog spiel...but I have an EXCELLENT excuse....I am OOOOLLLLDDDD!!!

When you begin approaching the arduous pinnacle of ANCIENT-HOOD it is easy to put things like SOUNDING OFF on the back burner...and that is what I have done. In my defense I must claim my Ancient-Hood has had some extra help in keeping my increasing feebleness at the forefront. Kathy, I suggest you turn your eyes away while I explain my joyous trip into DENTAL HELL. Everyone else, hold on a sec while I make sure Kathy has turned away AND covered her "peek-prone" eyes with the blindfold I placed directly in front of her. One more minute...Come on Kathy, you know you'll only CRINGE again if you don't cover your eyes.

FINALLY...Well, here goes...I went to the dentist to get a filling refreshed in my lower left hand jaw...the same tooth that I had root canal work done on about 20 years ago and decided never to allow anyone to perform a root canal on me again.

My dentist claims to be the "Dental Anesthesia Champion"...so great is her prowess at numbing people, dentists in the entire tri-state-area send their patients to her to numb before THEY, the hapless anesthesia duds then perform delicate and otherwise excruciatingly horrific procedures upon them.

It's nice being with the CHAMP...right? At least one would think so...right?

Now I must admit here that I have been going to this dentist for over a year, and have had nary a complaint...so I was REALLY unprepared for what happened.

There I am, with the drool bib clipped around my neck, the chair stretched out like some kind of an elaborate barge lounger that Cleopatra might have reclined her regal stature upon...had her loungers had an up and down hydraulics feature...and was actively trying not to be blinded by the powerful 10,000 candlepower strong head beam light illuminating all things beneath it when she, my Champ dentist shoved the needle into my lower left jaw area. (Yes, she did dip the Q-tip in that pink surface numbing gel first...unfortunately, that didn't help.)

A needle hitting the nerve is like having your jaw and the left portion of your tongue suddenly turn into Lucifer's flame thrower. BURNING PAIN! It still amazes me that they didn't have to scrape me from the ceiling, for I wanted to catapult out of that chair and like a nuclear propelled rocket, explode upward.

To say I whimpered is the same as saying a baby "sighs" during teething. PAIN...INTENSE pain.

Dr. Champ massaged my jaw and told me to breathe...yeah...o.k....I can do this.

Do not eat for two hours, she tells me after finishing with me...and I am a good patient...so of course I wouldn't think of eating before...and yes, I AM telling the truth here...besides it's kinda difficult to eat with your mouth still numb...(I have not resorted to adult bibs yet, but if I were to try to eat before the anesthesia wore off, I would need one the size of my king sized top sheet.)

I will admit the anesthesia did not wear off for nearly three and a half hours...and when it did I knew my nightmare in the dentist chair was going to prove to be the PRELUDE to my own personal dirge-worthy-opera. )I could not open my jaw with out extreme agony.)

It seems that every muscle up to and including those surrounding my left ear went into over-compensate mode to protect my inexcusably assaulted nerve.

For the next three and a half weeks, I was reduced to pulverizing my food because I could just about open my mouth enough to let the tip of a spoon pour liquefied sustenance into my mouth. (Chewing, like opening my mouth, was OUT-OF-THE-QUESTION.)

It is now four weeks and one day since my nerve-scalding experience. I can open...under heavy applications of Percocet, my jaw enough to take teeny bites of regular food...minus emulsification...into my mouth and nibble-chew.

My jaw from the point of the actual tooth-work on back and up into the achy, throb inside my left ear, still is far from healed. (She told me last week on Wednesday that it would take one more week...well it is one more week and one more day and it still is far from back to normal.)

So...what I discovered is that when you are in excruciatingly embarrassing pain, your brain actually DOES turn to mush.

That does not mean that I have floated through the past four weeks totally oblivious to what has gone on around me.

(Kathy you can take the blindfold off now.)

Praise for President Obama and the kidnapped Captain of the Mersk Alabama. Great job foiling those pirates. How decidedly sick to take relief cargo donated by the world and meant to ease famine...talk about criminally lame people!

To the loud mouth Republicans (and I am an Independent) pooh-poohing President Obama's success rate over the economy...hey guys, it was YOUR guys that created the current situation. Had you guys been doing YOUR jobs when the tree-assaulter was still President, maybe we would not be in the current dire straits. Let us not forget that during the lame-duck period of his presidency...hell no...during the ENTIRETY of his presidency the former guy kept his head buried beneath Crawford, Texas cow pies...and would always respond with this when questioned about the crises that continually got out of hand...(9/11...Abu Ghraib, Katrina, Enron, Halliburton, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae)..."No one told me anything about it."

President Obama has not spent the last 100 days with his head up his a _ _. In 100 days he had managed to impress the World and return America to a place of favor and good will...something his predecessor was too arrogant to care about.

Swine Flu...Haven't met a pig that demonic in a log time...oops maybe not...Cheney shooting his friend in the face was pretty swine-like dontcha think?

But seriously...Swine Flu...from Mexico...becoming a pandemic...When I think of a pandemic, I think of the bubonic plague...I also think about the fact that the pharmaceutical companies have become UBER-rich and since it is US, the sick and average, and more often than not, hypnotically compliant, that buy their product, it is in there best interest to keep us all alive so we can continue to have restless leg syndrome, erectile dysfunction, ADHD,ADD, and the myriad of other diseases we never knew we had until they came up with a medicine to cure/control it. So the Swine Flu is something the pharmaceutical companies NEED to get on top of.

I'm trying to squish my way through the brain mush to see if there is anything I have forgotten to address...I'm sure there is...I seem to remember something about the oil industry claiming record profits but saying they do not dare risk lowering the cost of fuel or channeling that into research for alternative fuels because God knows when we will need the "modest" resources they still have in reserve. (Makes you wonder if the OIL company heads took lessons from Bernie Madeoff, or the other corporate rapists who ripped the world blind?)

There's a commercial that tells us we are fortunate that the oil industry has the capability to install a web work of pipes beneath the ocean that can be controlled with only ONE platform. Does anyone remember the Exxon Valdez disaster...and the Alaskan Pipeline leaks? If one of those octopussy pipes beneath the ocean burst do you think it will be better than when the Exxon Valdez dumped its fuel?...and there are now miles and miles and miles of pipes beneath the ocean spreading out like tentacles that are made by the same ecology loving companies that inspected the Exxon Valdez and produced the pipeline that burst in Alaska.

You know what...I think I should just give in to the brain mush...I'm sure I'd be happier than I am knowing with utmost clarity what corporate America has done to us...and with our pants on!!