May

Well, look at this! Here it is May already! The first day of May to be exact. I guess that makes this May day. If I had a May pole, I might actually dance around it with flowers in my hair. Things have been going good for us Youngbloods living here in Virginia. My son is doing well at his job, and soon to have a brand new baby with his beautiful girlfriend. (I am already planning the wedding in my head, but they haven't said anything about such a thing happening.)

 I am almost finished with my hateful school work, which is very difficult. You think your doctor is hard to understand during a typical office visit? Just try to transcribe one of his surgical reports. While they are chewing gum or burping! It is one of those hair pulling scenarios.

My son's girlfriend has a little almost 5 year old girl, I have just fallen in love with this child. She is very smart, creative, protective, and has a wonderful sense of humor. She will come and tell me something one of her imaginary friends have done, and puts that hand on her hip and says, "Seriously, he (Cecil or Tada??) is being bad, and he hit Lily (her babydoll rabbit). So, he is in time out." When she gets mad she lets you know and does not tolerate rudeness. My cat Sasha has finally figured out she's staying for the long haul so has learned to accept the fact. She hides a lot in the closet. I do too.

She loves to draw pictures of her feelings, which of course, she doesn't know she is doing. She will draw a picture of me and her, and we will be smiling and holding hands. She draws Sasha, too. When she gets mad, she draws pictures of me with big funky teeth, which makes me think that trip to the dentist is long overdue. I laugh my head off, which of course, infuriates her, and here comes another funky tooth picture. She has not exactly bonded with EJ. In private moments she refers to him as "asshole". I have no idea where she heard that word. I tell her (while trying to hide the fact that I am laughing) she shouldn't say that, but then I do laugh and she does too, and it becomes our little secret laugh. God knows I do not believe my son is an asshole (though we all have a little asshole in us, you know??), but hearing it from a 5-year-old mouth is just funny to me. Seriously.

Well, look at this. Yesterday it was January, and here it is today already, and the middle of June, or thereabouts, and I have moved again. This time to a little town on the Potomac river. It is actually a summer community, meaning the rich folks from the city who can actually afford a summer place, come here to ride around the one lane in gulf carts and show off their Potomac tans. We have now been assimilated into the locals, which means, I guess, the poorer people who live here all year long! Wow, and it feels like I just got here!

There is no stoplight in the town here, but there is a post-office and a bank. There are 3 convenience stores that are not further than 6 or 7 miles away. Talk about convenience, whoo! There is 1 school that my little adopted grand-daughter will be going to next year, in kindergarten, and I already anticipate having a few verbal altercations with unsuspecting and probably in the right teachers there. How they do this work of teaching today, in this society, with cellphones and texting, and all the other methods of inattention, I have no idea. They must be made of stronger stuff than I.

I am awaiting the birth of my (we think, almost are sure) grandson. EJ is going to be a proud papa, and he guards his woman well. He is doing great at the moment, and perhaps some of the ghosts and demons of the past are finally losing their grip on him. He will also be a grandfather soon. I know that sounds strange, but its how he sees it, and how we all see it. His step-daughter will be having a boy, before he has his son, I think. I know, it sounds like we are from West Virginia, or Arkansas or somewhere deep in the hills of no-man's land, but we are here in what is called Cole's Point VA.

I do have two other grandchildren by Travis's widow, and one by the love of his life, Lorena. Lorena allows me access to my grandson, Tristan. Travis' widow does not. I figure they will come to me someday demanding answers, and I will welcome them with open arms. I just hope I am still above ground when that happens.

Well, here I am ending with a shoutout to the Holtons in Texas, and Roberts in California. You know who you are!!

Psalms, from The holy Bible, King James version

This psalm, more than any other, has always filled me with hope, comfort, and love. When you think about it, what could be greater than someone watching you as you leave every morning and come home every night, making sure you are safe and provided for? Is there anything else we really need? Just felt like sharing.

1: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 
2: My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 
3: He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 
4: Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 
5: The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 
6: The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 
7: The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 
8: The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. 

Wow, I guess I should stop by here more often. The whole shebang has changed. It's all so stream-lined. Hmm mm..... I'll have to give it a whirl and see what happens.

I haven't been consistently writing in this blog for about two years now. Things were at a point in my life where I couldn't really think about much else than survival, which is pretty much what the whole freaking country has been doing for the last two years when you think about it.

There are so many people who want to lay all of our country's problems at the feet of President Obama. Well, excuse me, but didn't Obama step into a shit-storm from the get-go, left behind by the previous administration? Hello? Have you all taken your heads out of the sand yet? The previous 8 years, though fun in some ways, kind of set the stage for a lot of crap that Obama is trying to sort through. It's kind of like having your 4-year-old grandchild take over your home office for a year. They write on your documents with crayons, take their round-point scissors and cut out certain parts of important documents, put others through your shredder, leave peanut butter stains on your most precious things, delete this, add this, all in such a way as would only make reasonable sense to a 4 year old. Now, you decide it's time to resume your responsibility for the office, and look what a mess you have to clean up!

If Newt Gingrich should become our next president I will leave the country and become a hermit on some small out of the way island, but first, I will try to take as many innocent people with me as I can. The thought makes my stomach churn. The other Republican candidates seem like a who's who of "Didn't he run a few times before already?" or "Who the hell's this guy?" At least they haven't regurgitated Sarah P......oh, let's not go there. I was actually starting to enjoy this again, so why spoil it now?

I started out by coming across a few blogs I used to read, seeing if the spin had changed, and no such luck.  These blogs are mostly comprised of what I would call the southern baptist stump preacher's way of preaching about the joys of atheism. And don't act like you don't know what I mean. They are full of their own fire and brimstone pointing the way to a hellish existence for everyone and everyone's crazy brother if you do not stop believing in this sinful beast called God, excuse me, "god"! The woes of belief are many, and the rewards are few, to hear these guys tell it. In their minds, nothing is more sinful than giving yourself over to a higher power, and you are committing an act of unbridled insanity and destroying our country's moral fiber by doing so.

Well, excuse me. They sound so much like your typical evangelist foaming at the mouth and passing the plate, that I am waiting for them to remind us that costs money, and if you truly believe that there isn't anything out there but black holes, then you must help support the cost, $1 at a time.

Here's what I think. I will believe what I want to believe, and nothing anyone else screams or shouts or stamps their foot and says "you are so wrong", is gonna change my mind. I believe in a higher power. I always will. I just don't think I evolved from a slug or other such weird looking creature. I am not saying that Darwin was wrong. I do believe the strongest adapt and change and perpetuate the species. I, however, reserve the right to say "under God" in the pledge of allegiance if I want to. And no one can tell me I can't. I can read the Bible and interpret it however I want to, for my own purposes, for my own life, and no one can say no you can't.... I can even say, "Gosh, I don't know." and no one can say I'm wrong. That is what freedom is.

I am so tired of hearing about this act of Marines urinating on dead bodies. Well, let's say for the sake of argument, it might be true. Let's say you have been in a country where these people or people who look like these people or people who try to look like these people have been constantly trying to shoot your ass, blow you up, blow up your friends, and they don't have to follow the same rules you do. They are not held accountable for whatever atrocities they may commit. Let's say this has been going on for about a year now. Let's say you are tired of not sleeping, you have sand in your hair, mouth, shoes, socks, and you are pretty sick of sand. Let's say you watched your best buddy get blown up, why was it yesterday or the day before, you don't remember because time seems to be something irrelevant now. You find that if someone so much as coughs, you jump nearly out of your sand-filled boots. Given these circumstances, and given the fact that after this particular fight, you am still alive and breathing, there's no telling what you might do, after realizing that you are, yes, going to live a few minutes longer. Shit happens in war. That's why they call it war. If it was fun and followed rules, well, hell, we would all be wanting to join up, now wouldn't we?

Well, I knew she had mentioned him, but I didn't know how thorough and wonderful her comments were.  It means so much to me that she would take the time to honor one of our fallen heroes.  It seems so many forget they are still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan and the devastation caused by their sacrifice affects so many lives in so many ways.  God bless you Nancy Grace.  You do a wonderful service to our country.

Below is the comments she made about Travis:

GRACE: Everyone, let`s stop and remember Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Travis Youngblood, 26, Surrency, Georgia, killed Iraq. Awarded the Purple Heart, Navy Commendation, National Defense Service medal, Iraq Campaign medal. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Volunteered to serve in place of his wife so she could take care of their little boy. Loved his family, his country, being a father. Leaves behind heartbroken parents Deborah and Elmer, a Navy vet, brother E.J., widow Laura also served the Navy, son Hunter, daughter Emma he never got to meet.

Travis Youngblood, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. I`ll see you tomorrow night. 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END