Let’s get rid of 2010, and welcome twenty eleven
Perhaps the most disturbing thing I read last year was the message retired Air Force Major Rick Briggs delivered at the Veterans Memorial in Lake Orion on Memorial Day.
He said, ‘When more men and women (of the military) have committed suicide than have been killed in combat, something is wrong.?
Briggs is program director for a project dubbed ‘Invisible Wounds.? He added, ‘The divorce rate is going through the roof, our prisons are filled with veterans who are having difficulty coping with the stresses and the traumatic brain injuries of war.?
So sad.
But then there was this totally warming experience. Daughter Luan provided Christmas dinner for her husband’s family, the Offers.
That included nephew Tim, his wife Ann (Hubbard) Offer and their 7-month old Aliva. To watch them on the floor with their baby . . . tickling, cooing and snuggling . . . was heart warming to the nth degree. Pure love.
Ten years ago my Hazel would often leave our house at 8 each morning, go play with the baby twin grandchildren for an hour, then go to work. I remarked about their toying. She said to me, ‘You’re so big. You have to get down to their level.?
Tim and Ann obviously know that. Great joy.
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Now the stuff I want to be remembered for . . . nonsense.
? I got a belly ache between the holidays. I concluded I’d eaten some bad tuna salad. When I eat tuna salad, I put some on the end of a fork and eat it. Then I do the same for ma’dog Shayna. She loves tuna salad. This day Shayna sniffed it, and turned her head. Why do I sometimes call this lifesaving dog stupid?
? Five football players for Ohio State will not play for the Buckeyes the first five games of the 2011 season. They broke some rules. However, they were allowed play in this year’s bowl game.
‘They didn’t receive adequate rules during the time period,? NCAA said. As usual, it’s all about the money. Can’t have the Sugar Bowl without Terrell Pryor, etc.
Now, let’s see, what rule does this teach?
? Why do so many people cringe when I tell them I had a beef tongue sandwich for lunch? It may be the tenderest, sweetest meat on the hoof.
? Isn’t it great that old actors like Andy Griffith and Fred Thompson can still find employment doing commercials?
? Our Surgeon General says cigarettes can kill us. So, why, why aren’t they outlawed? Oh, yeah. The money (taxes) thing.
? Why does our government leave it up to us to quit smoking, but outlaws our nice, round light bulbs in favor of some twisty congressionally mandated bulbs? Detroit News columnist Nolan Finley will have nothing to do with these slow reacting emitters. He figures he’s got 30 years to live, so he’s hoarding 1,000 bulbs. I’m older and will settle for 100.
? I don’t know why this came to me recently. I guess I was watching an animal show. For a while in 1946 I was confined to the veterans hospital in Dearborn. Another veteran, a former circus clown, was in our ward. He told us he’d been involved with elephants in a circus, and what he did to ready them for a parade. He’d make them stand on their hind legs and until relief came. I liked it better when I saw the shovelers trailing the elephants.
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Return for more nonsense next week.